Las Vegas casino mogul, billionaire Sheldon Adelson (owner of the Venetian, Las Vegas Sands Corp.), is hosting Romney at a fundraiser in Jerusalem. Adelson has vowed to spend upwards of $100 million to try and elect Mitt. Romney is now banning media from the fundraiser, breaking pre-established protocol. Romney, however, did do an interview, ripping Obama in Sheldon Adelson-owned Israeli newspaper, Hayom. Mitt's smiling face is on the cover. Here's Mitt banning the media:
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who touched down here Saturday night for a day of meetings with top Israeli and Palestinian leaders, plans to wrap up his visit to Israel by collecting money from some of his biggest benefactors behind closed doors.During Mitt's trip to Israel, he's expected to threaten war against Iran as a way to boost his foreign policy cred. He's already done as much in the US.
Some of Romney’s Jewish donors are flying here from the United States to attend the Jerusalem fundraiser, including Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who has pledged to personally give tens of millions of dollars to a pro-Romney super PAC.
But Romney’s campaign announced Saturday that it would block the news media from covering the event, which will be held at the King David Hotel. The campaign’s decision to close the fundraiser to the press violates the ground rules it negotiated with news organizations in April, when Romney wrapped up the Republican nomination and began opening some of his finance events to the news media. Read more at WaPo
Romney means a return to the Bush foreign policy. Romney means more war. Sheldon Adelson, who will have helped Romney to buy the White House, would see to that. No man can spend as much money as Adelson is spending and expect nothing in return.
Adelson needs to start paying attention to his business, not Mitt Romney. His profits are waning significantly.
Furthermore, Romney is aligning himself with a possible criminal. Sheldon Adelson is under investigation for possibly breaking this law:
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1, et seq. ("FCPA"), was enacted for the purpose of making it unlawful for certain classes of persons and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business. Specifically, the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA prohibit the willful use of the mails or any means of instrumentality of interstate commerce corruptly in furtherance of any offer, payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of money or anything of value to any person, while knowing that all or a portion of such money or thing of value will be offered, given or promised, directly or indirectly, to a foreign official to influence the foreign official in his or her official capacity, induce the foreign official to do or omit to do an act in violation of his or her lawful duty, or to secure any improper advantage in order to assist in obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person. DoJAdelson is stalling, trying to get Romney elected first:
In the second installment of their series on a federal investigation into Casino magnate and Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, ProPublica and Frontline focus on how difficult his company has made it for investigators to get their hands on information about its Macau operation. The subject matter here is dense, but it could have big consequences: Adelson and Sands are under investigation for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. If the feds prove their case before November's election, the biggest single donor on the Republican side could turn out to be in violation of federal law, an embarrassing blow to the Romney campaign. (There were reports two days ago that Adelson might join Romney for his visit to Israel next week.) Frontline and ProPublica's reporting paints a picture of a company doing everything it can to slow an investigation down. the AtlanticAn argument could be made that Adelson needs Mitt to win to make the investigation go away. You won't find anyone in the media asking about Adelson's influence over Romney, or even if Mitt has investments in Adelson's businesses. Mitt has the media exactly where he wants it -- in the dark.
Fascinating story on how Israel isn't really our bestest ally.
Meanwhile, Ann Romney is in pursuit of Gold:
Is it possible to get too much of this video of "Mitt the Twit" in London?
