People, wake up! you are being kept occupied with non issues while the government is robbing you blind. As long as there is loot in Washington, there will be people trying to get that loot. Someone will! No amount of reforms will help. We have to stop the GOV from looting us and we have to stop ourselves from wanting to get the loot. We can spend our money much better if we just keep it in our pocket to begin with. Only Ron Paul is dead serious about ending the looting.

Boy, you guys are really trying to dig deep. First of all, you must be referring to the Chicago Public Relations firm Res Publica, of which Michael Bauer is an employee, as well as a volunteer member of Barack Obama's all volunteer LGBT Leadership Council, and just so happen's to be registered with the State of Ill. as a lobbyist, which of course is necessary in order to represent his clients in the state legislature. As to the Australian owned, but Illinois based manufacturing co. that produces chemicals used by farmers in the state, I suspect the couple of farmers left in the state may have had something to do with asking their representative if he might do something to lower costs of goods that they have to purchase. Example Senate Bill 3250IS, temporarily suspending tariffs on imported chemicals. As to PAC money raised, bloggers get it right. His 2003 SENATE Campaign did accept PAC money. His 2008 PRESIDENTIAL bid as of June 27, 2008, as reported by the Federal Election Commission as well as opensecrets.org, which one blogger mentioned, list $58,605,160 from individuals, $4,975 from PAC which is his own Hopefund Leadership PAC used to donate to other candidates, and $302,385 other, mainly from interest paid on deposits. I would suggest that you take a look at Giuliani, Brownback, McCain, Romney, and Paul before trying to use PAC contributions as a slur tactic. Instead of wasting your time trying to DIG up usless drivel, why don't you spend your time to TRY TO DIG UP A VIABLE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE !

What a HOOT this non-news article is. Just as ridiculous as the overblown, misrepresented "story" about the Rezko "land deal" so called "scandal" (puh-leez--it involved an entire residential city lot adjacent to the Obamas' house AND the FRONT PAGE Boston Globe "news" that received national coverage that Obama amassed 17 unpaid parking tickets in Cambridge while he was in Law School. Good God...THAT's NEWS? (full disclosure--I probably have that many unpaid Chicago Parking tickets on the floor of MY car, even as I write this. Anyone at ABC want that scoop?)

And, for the people who don't seem to get it--the Center For Responsive Politics link in that Boston Globe Article about Obama taking Lobbyist money is OLD. It gives figures up until December of 2006 -- BEFORE he announced for president and before he returned lobbyist money for the PRESIDENTIAL campaiign.

He never claimed NOT to have taken lobbyist money in previous campaigns. There's No way he would have made it to ANY office without lobbyist money before he became a national phenomenon--his IL General Assembly District was largely poor and he was outside the usual "Daley-Cook County Democratic Machine."

He also raised TONS of lobbyist money in his Hope Fund--which was distributed to boost the campaigns of other Dems in the Midterms. After Bill Clinton, he was the biggest Democratic fundraiser working the money circuit for the midterms.

Politics take money. Lots of money. For the confused here:

Fundraising-- Necessary to the operation of a political campaign.

Quid pro Quo- NOT necessary to the operation of a political campaign--and MUCH harder for 260,000 individual donors to exact than it is for a corporation or a PAC.

There are some arenas where the APPEARANCE of being beyond reproach is JUST as important as actually being beyond reproach.

Yawn. Boring. They actually pay somebody to report news like this? No wonder the economy is crashing more and more.