Most folks have little idea what a “stored value credit card” really is — but most Democratic fundraising operatives do.
In fact, Barack Obama benefited personally from such donations online… to the tune of $100 million dollars.
Don’t worry. It gets worse.
Most folks familiar with online fundraising have known about the Obama mashup for quite some time… $174,800 in donations coming from one Mary T. Biskup in Manchester, Missouri for instance.
That’s way beyond the FEC’s $2,300 cap, and yet the MSM allowed the cancer to fester.
So what is a “stored value credit card” anyway? Simply put, any pre-paid VISA qualifies.
So here’s the scam: Let’s say an overseas client wants to give a domestic payer some cash? Take out 50 pre-paid VISAs, put $2,300 each on them, and then make 50 independent donations. Hugh Hewitt has more on the scam that takes Obama and the MSM (the WaPo buried the story on A02) to task.
Now obviously, if you were a domestic client barred by law from receiving such gifts, you could filter them out. Provided — that is — you actually had your filters on:
The Obama campaign confirmed Tuesday that it is allowing supporters to make contributions using prepaid, and therefore untraceable, donations to the Illinois senator’s presidential bid, which could potentially be used to evade campaign contribution limits, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.The paper said the technique could also be used to mask a contributor’s identity, a problem if non-qualified or foreign contributors illegally give money to the Democrat’s campaign.
“Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited,” the Post reported.
The response from the Obama camp? “Did I Do Thaaat?”
Currently, the only recourse so far is to turn to the lawbooks and fix it from outside. Delegate Bob Marshall’s HB 1658 offers the prescription for this new cancer in the body politic by banning all “stored value” credit card transactions.
That helps for Virginia, but doesn’t do much for the national scene.
Obviously, a bunch of people deserve to go to jail for this. $100 million of overseas money used to influence American elections is an absurdity not seen since the Jefferson-Adams races in 1796 and 1800. In Obama’s zeal to win the presidency, there was and remains an alarming tendency to bend or simply ignore rules.
The problem may be fixed in Virginia politics. Let’s hope a national spotlight can be shined on this dirty trick as well.
