To the left you'll see Florida's Governor and top Veep possibility Charlie Crist meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II in June of 2007. In the middle you have Harry Sargeant III. He's Crist's fraternity brother and is allegedly in business with (and facing a civil suit from) the King's brother-in-law. Mr. Sargeant's businesses include providing fuel to our military in Iraq. A tip of the tam is due the St. Pete Times' Steve Bousquet for the above information.I mentioned oddities in some of regular folks donating some big chunks of money to Huggy and the RNC just yesterday. It's not just Hess Oil pulling these stunts as it surely seems that "straw donors" are being used by Harry Sargeant III in his bundling.
Harry first bet on Rudy G, then on Hillary, yet he's saddling up with St. John. The way he's clearly trying to buy access is perhaps just smart business given his line of work yet worthy of a post on that issue alone.
Another issue worth exploring is that Harry got the contract with DOD only due to his being the only potential contractor that had permission from Jordan to cross their borders. Oh wait, California's Henry Waxman is on the case.
Money driven politics is all too common yet surely frustrating. I appreciate the many resources on the internets that make it somewhat manageable to do the research to run down the money but how much time do citizens, or cash strapped news organizations for that matter, to do the running. I applaud the many reporters that did just that in both the Hess and Sargeant matters.
I do wonder what Joe and Jill Sixpack would think if they knew of the money flowing into the coffers of the party of family values, America First, wean us away from Middle Eastern Dictators, support the troops, work hard, reduce regualtion, ... John Gunn
UPDATE ~ Evening of August 7, 2008 - It appears Huggy is returning a good chunk of these donations.
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