"Republican Kingmakers" and "Power Lobbyist" To Host "Intimate" DC Fundraiser For Blunt
Republican kingmakers Fred Malek, an ally of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R), and power lobbyist Charlie Black are co-hosting a fundraising dinner for GOP Rep. Roy Blunt’s (Mo.) bid for Senate in 2010.
Malek, a businessman who served as a top adviser to several former GOP presidents, hosted a dinner for Palin earlier this year on one of her rare trips to Washington, D.C. Malek has defended Palin and even served as an intermediary between her another Senate candidate, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who was seeking the former vice presidential nominee’s endorsement.
According to a copy of the invitation, Malek, Black and their spouses “invite you to an intimate dinner in honor of” Blunt. The Dec. 10 event, for which tickets cost from $1,000 to $2,400, will be held at Malek’s McLean, Va., home.
Black -- described as "The Republican Party’s quintessential company" -- was a top advisor to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, and the focus of some controversy in that role.
From an April 2008 profile in the New York Times:
lack has worked for some of the city’s most controversial clients (Jonas Savimbi, Philip Morris, Blackwater) and with the baddest boys of Republican politics (he cut his teeth on Jesse Helms’s campaigns, and was a mentor to Lee Atwater). But he has managed to stay ahead of controversy himself...
Blackwater, he says over steak salad at the Morton’s off the K Street lobbying corridor, “is a fine company that’s provided a great service to the people of the United States and Iraq.” Saudi Arabia, another client: “a great ally.” Mr. Savimbi, the brutal Angolan leader whom President Ronald Reagan promoted as a freedom fighter but many Democrats derided as an ally of apartheid South Africa: “a great pleasure to work with.”
He describes Mr. McCain, elected to Congress a quarter-century ago and running against two potential “firsts” in the White House [Obama and Clinton], as “the only candidate of change.”
Sounds like an awesome guy to host an "intimate dinner" in your honor.
Image credit: New York Times
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So What?
Who else is going to hold a fundraiser for Blunt, a Democratic fundraiser?
The price tag doesn't sound all that much for a Republic money bag function. Land sakes, there are even some Democrats who could afford that price tag.