Here are some of the big DNC donors from the Pelosi letter. I should have edited out the Wiki citation numbers and cleaned it up a bit, but I think it's more important just to get this posted. I'm not posting this as a slam or hit-list, I was just interested in seeing who these people are, they are, after all Democrats who contribute a lot to the party, and that's better than having them give it to the GOP. For example, JB Prtizker is #143 on Forbes 2007 list of the 400 wealthiest people - worth $2.7 billion. And while he is behind Hillary, his sister is a big Obama supporter. And in no particular order, here are some of Hillary's friends:

From Wikipedia:

Haim Saban (Hebrew: חיים סבן; born 15 October 1944 in Alexandria, Egypt) is a television and media proprietor. With an estimated current net worth of around $3.4 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 102nd richest person in America.

Saban summarized his politics in a 2004 New York Times interview with the statement, "I'm a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel."

Saban has donated to the US Democratic Party and the Israeli Labor Party, he has also donated to Republicans including George W. Bush, and has business affiliations with Rupert Murdoch. In the 2001-2002 election cycle, his Saban Capital group donated over $10 million to the Democratic National Committee[3], the largest donation from a single source up to that time.

From Wikipedia:

Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Lady de Rothschild (born July 2, 1954 in Oradell, New Jersey) is an England-based American entrepreneur. She heads the Luxembourg-based wireless broadband company FirstMark Communications Europe, launched in 1998 which raised $1 billion in funding, and has board members including former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Washington power-broker Vernon Jordan as board members.

Aged 16, Forester went on holiday to Israel and stuffed her suitcase with jeans, which she sold when she returned home. In 1984, she realised that communications was the next big industry and quit her corporate law firm for a job in mobile phones. Five years later, she persuaded Motorola to buy her a stake in a small Puerto Rican company, which she later sold back for £50m. She then used this seed money to secure licenses for broadband radio in the US in the 1980s.

From Wikipedia:

Susie Tompkins Buell is a United States former entrepreneur and a liberal political donor associated with the Democracy Alliance.

Buell is often described as Hillary Clinton's best friend.[Buell is leading Clinton's fundraising efforts for 2008 in the San Francisco Bay area.[

Buell has been described as "one of the most successful women entrepreneurs of all time."[6]

[edit] From "Plain Jane" to Esprit
In 1967, Tompkins Buell and Jane Tise co-founded the Plain Jane clothing label. Plain Jane was making $2 million/year by 1970. Tompkin Buell's new husband Douglas Tompkins recommended changing the name to Esprit. Clashes with the existing partners of Esprit led to a buyout in 1975. By 1986, the global clothing brand had reached $800 million in sales. The Tompkinses divorced in 1988.[7],[8]

The early sensibility of Esprit was seen as flowing from the personalities and interests of its founders. They were once described as "a pair of San Francisco hippie merchants who sold clothing over a North Beach massage parlor"

[edit] National Labor Relations Board
Esprit de Corp. was found by the National Labor Relations Board to have illegally interrogated and intimidated $2-an-hour Chinese workers, and then to have shut down a factory to keep them from unionizing.[9] The Department of Labor found that an Esprit contractor doctored payroll records and refused to pay overtime.[10]

[edit] Leveraged buyout benefits Buell
After the 1989 divorce, Tompkins Buell led a 1990 leveraged buyout that allowed her to gain control of Esprit, and also earned her a profit of about $150 million. The buyout left Esprit deeply in debt. In two years it went into technical default on its outstanding loans and in 1997, Tompkins Buell relinguished all ownership of and involvement in the company to a consortium of investors.

In March 1997, Tompkins Buell sued the new owners of Esprit for $3 million she said they owed her in reimbursement for tax payments. Her ex-husband declined to file a similar lawsuit, saying he thought the legal basis for such a suit was thin. In response to the lawsuit, Jay Margolis, the new CEO of Esprit, barred Buell and all members of her family from entering Esprit headquarters

From Wikipedia:

Hassan Nemazee is a multimillionaire Iranian-American investment banker. Nemazee was born in Washington, D.C. on January 27, 1950 and attended Landon School, graduating in 1968. He received his AB degree with Honors from Harvard University in 1972.[1]

Nemazee has not returned to Iran since the Iranian revolution. Most of his family's property was seized by the new Iranian government

Nemazee was highly successful in business, and has become one of the top political donors in New York. During the 2004 US Presidential Elections, Nemazee was a supporter of John Kerry and a major contributor to his campaign. He was the New York Finance Chair for the Kerry campaign and has been named the "top fundraiser and donor to the Democratic National Committee for the past 10 years." Nemazee is the national finance chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.[2] With Nemazee as the national finance chair, Chuck Schumer's DSCC in 2006 raised $115 million, outpacing the NRSC by substantial sums and thus helping Dems take control of the Senate.[3]

During his presidency, Bill Clinton attempted to name Nemazee U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. Attempts to block Mr. Nemazee's nomination were led by a former business partner calling for an investigation of Mr. Nemazee's business record. Forbes magazine published an article based on the former business partners complaint. Two years prior, Mr. Nemazee had won a $4.5 million settlement in the New York Supreme Court against the same former business partner.[4] Mr. Nemazee would eventually withdraw his nomination.[5]

Mr. Nemazee is also associated with the Iranian American Political Action Committee (IAPAC). According to the organization, he is listed on the Board of Directors

In 2004 Nemazee filed a ten-million-dollar damage claim against the Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran (SMCCDI) and its coordinator, Aryo B. Pirouznia for accusations by the group that Nemazee is an agent of the Islamic Republic of Iran.[8] Under oath he testified that he raised more than $500,000 for the Kerry campaign, but that he also disagreed with Kerry pursuing nuclear negotiations with Iran were he to become president. He also stated that he welcomed regime change in Iran. After the 2004 elections, Pirouznia ceded to Nemazee's demands and the lawsuit was subsequently settled.[citation needed]

Nemazee believes that he was targeted by some Republicans because of his association with the Democratic Party. "If I hadn't been Kerry's finance chair, I wouldn't have been a target. I left Iran in 1978 and haven't been back. Everything my family had was taken by the mullahs. To take someone who's suffered at the hands of that regime and turn it on its head and say that he's in bed with that regime is absolutely fucking incredible," said Nemazee in an interview with New York Magazine

From Wikipedia:

Bernard Leon Schwartz (born December 12, 1926, Brooklyn, New York) was the Chairman of the Board and CEO of Loral Space & Communications, Chairman and CEO of K&F Industries, Inc., Chairman and CEO of Loral Corp., and president and CEO of Globalstar. During his time at Loral, he was instrumental in helping the Chinese military to acquire weapons techonology[citation needed]. He retired from Loral and his positions at its various subsidiaries and affiliates as of March 1, 2006. He is currently the Chairman and CEO of BLS Investments, his own investment firm located in Manhattan.

Schwartz grew up in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. He is a World War II veteran and life-long Democrat. According to NBC News, from 1992 to 1996 he was the single largest contributor to the Democratic Party. In 1997 he celebrated his 71st birthday with Bill and Hillary Clinton at the White House. Schwartz became embroiled in a controversial transfer of missile technology to the People's Republic of China.

From Wikipedia:

The Pritzker family is one of America's wealthiest, and has been near the top of Forbes magazine's "America's Richest Families" list since the magazine began in 1982.

The family is most famous for owning the Hyatt hotel chain, but also controls the TransUnion Credit Bureau and the Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. (so they're going to be for corporate tax breaks, and against consumer privacy.)

Members of the Pritzker Family:

* Abram Nicholas Pritzker, Jewish-Ukrainian American immigrant and father of the family of Pritzker
* Jay Pritzker, founder of Hyatt & philanthropist
* J.B. Pritzker, member of New World Ventures
* Penny Pritzker, member of The Real Estate Roundtable
* Nicholas J. Pritzker, Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Hyatt Development Corporation

From Wikipedia:

Robert L. Johnson (born April 8, 1946) is an American businessman and the founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), and is its former chairman and chief executive officer. Johnson is currently the chairman of RLJ Development which he is also founder. He is also the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, a National Basketball Association franchise.

He became the first black billionaire in America in 2001.[1][2] As of the end of 2007, he is one of two African American billionaires (The other being Oprah Winfrey) in The US, according to Forbes magazine. Forbes in 2007 estimated his wealth at $1.1 billion, not enough to make the Forbes 400 that year. (The minimum amount to be on the list in 2007 is $1.3 billion.).[

Controversy
In January, 2008, Johnson became the target of criticism for remarks he made to supporters of Hillary Clinton about Barack Obama. Johnson taunted Obama about his self-confessed past cocaine use. The Clinton campaign denied this, submitting that the comments were referring to Obama's work as a community organizer.[1] In subsequent days, Johnson was roundly criticized for his comments as hypocritical given the prodigious glorification of drug use and sale by artists prominently featured on BET[2].

On January 17, 2008, Johnson sent Obama the following apology: "I'm writing to apologize to you and your family personally for the un-called-for comments I made at a recent Clinton event. In my zeal to support Senator Clinton, I made some very inappropriate remarks for which I am truly sorry. I hope that you will accept this apology. Good luck on the campaign trail."

Nice article from HuffPo:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/taylor-marsh/dnc-paging-steve-rattner_b_27484.html

"Steve Rattner is a big money guy. When I use "big money" for White and Rattner, I'm talking about huge piles of it. Here's what Rattner's bio says: Steven Rattner is a Managing Principal of Quadrangle Group LLC focused on the firm's $2.9 billion media and communications private equity business. Prior to the formation of Quadrangle Group in March 2000, Mr. Rattner was Deputy Chairman and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Lazard Frères & Co. LLC. Mr. Rattner founded Lazard's Media and Communications Group and has been involved in many of the largest and most important transactions in these industries."

Rattner was one of the many last minute primary donors Lieberman had at the end of the primary campaign. Check out this post from Matt Stoller on August 7th, which outlines the last minute money that came in from Mark Ratner (one t) for Joe Lieberman. The New York Times article below came out on August 10th, clearly stating that Steve Rattner (2 ts) was giving money to Lieberman, a significant sum, in the final days of the campaign.

"Indeed, several prominent Democratic donors said Wednesday that regardless of their party allegiances, they would support Mr. Lieberman this fall.

"Part of the political process includes being willing to evaluate candidates on the merits," said Steven Rattner, a prominent party donor who gave Mr. Lieberman $4,000 in the final days of the primary. "I don't agree with Joe about everything, but on balance he's been a terrific senator and he has stood up for the kind of principles that we Democrats stand for."


Yup, them's some deep pockets....