California Conservative

Alright, I admit that not all Democrats think that data-mining, which is an integral part of the NSA intercept program, should be outlawed but alot of them screamed to high heavens when they first heard about it. It seems, though, that they’re more than comfortable using data mining techniques to identify Democratic voters. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at their data-mining program:

A group of well-connected Democrats led by a former top aide to Bill Clinton is raising millions of dollars to start a private firm that plans to compile huge amounts of data on Americans to identify Democratic voters and blunt what has been a clear Republican lead in using technology for political advantage.
The effort by Harold Ickes, a deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House and an adviser to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), is prompting intense behind-the-scenes debate in Democratic circles. Officials at the Democratic National Committee think that creating a modern database is their job, and they say that a competing for-profit entity could divert energy and money that should instead be invested with the national party.
Ickes and others involved in the effort acknowledge that their activities are in part a vote of no confidence that the DNC under Chairman Howard Dean is ready to compete with Republicans on the technological front. “The Republicans have developed a cadre of people who appreciate databases and know how to use them, and we are way behind the march,” said Ickes, whose political technology venture is being backed by financier George Soros. “It’s unclear what the DNC is doing. Is it going to be kept up to date?” Ickes asked, adding that out-of-date voter information is “worse than having no database at all.”

This type of operation will cause a split in the Democratic Party. Not because of the data-mining but because the DNC won’t have access to the names on this database. I wonder what the FEC will say to the fact that this private company is built to help Hillary. Would this firm sell names to Hillary? Would they just develop the list for Hillary? It seems to me that if they just gave the names to Hillary that that would constitute a campaign contribution. It seems to me that ’selling’ Hillary those names below cost would similarly constitute a campaign contribution.

Let’s also note this for what it is: an in-your-face Clinton manuever to say ‘It’s all about Hillary in 08.’ Yes, it’s a no-confidence vote on Dr. Dean but it’s much more than that. This projects tells one and all that Hillary’s getting elected is the only thing that matters to the Clintonistas. This action will hurt Democratic candidates because they can’t access the information on this database. Anyone want to bet that this won’t be a source of friction between Hillary’s campaign and legislative candidates?

Now that it’s official that Soros is funding a ‘For Clinton’ data-mining operation, I wonder if there will be calls for congressional hearings into whether (a) she has the Constitutional authority to benefit from this type of operation or (b) if this invades people’s privacy. Sorry for the sarcasm but it just struck me as hypocritical since the Democrats railed endlessly about the data-mining involved in the NSA intercept program.

Finally, I agree with Captain Ed when he said “This puts Democratic candidates in a real bind; normally they would work with their elected leadership to coordinate voter strategy and outreach. However, now they will have to choose between that official leadership and this shadow elite that wants to use Soros’ money to bypass the party’s official management.”

The truth is that the Clintonistas have hated Dr. Dean from the beginning. This is just the latest stick in Dean’s eye from the Clintonistas.

Cross-post at LetFreedomRing

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 8th, 2006 at 9:45 am and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, DNC, Election 2008, Hillary, Homeland Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.