GOP Senate candidate Rich Tarrant got under rival Bernie Sanders' skin a bit when he zinged Sanders this week for taking money from the sugar lobby in general and, in particular, a corporate farm entity accused of paying workers in the Dominican 16 cents an hour to cut sugar cane.
The shot over the bow even got a grudging acknowledgement from Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver. "If those allegations are true, that’s deplorable conduct," he told the Associated Press. "Bernie has been a leader in fighting child labor abuses in the Third World, and to prevent U.S. employers shipping jobs to Third World countries where people make substandard wages.”
Tarrant's troops were chortling. "Congressman Sanders has repeatedly pledged throughout his career in politics not to accept corporate PAC money," said a Tarrant campaign press release announcing the formation of “Hypocrisy Watch.” This new addtion to the Tarrant web site will keep track of how many more days that Sanders keeps the contribution, Team Tarrant promised.
One thing's for sure: As the annointed preference of national Democrats in the Vermont Senate contest, Sanders is getting money for his inaugural Senate race that he never got in his nine House races -- and more scrutiny about the sources of that money. Sanders may call himself an independent, but for the first time he's taking dough from big-time, mainstream Dems. Tom Daschle's leadership PAC has sent some green Sanders way, and so have PACs controlled by Sens. Barak Obama, Barbara Boxer and our own Pat Leahy.
Still, Tarrant might want to be careful about that "Hypocrisy Watch" stuff, though. Tarrant is self-funding his run for the Senate, but that doesn't exempt him from questions about where he's invested fortune -- besides his own campaign.
Thursday, the Sanders campaign released a press release, noting Tarrant owns stock in China Mobile Hong Kong, a company the Sanders folks described as a "Communist China state-contolled company. Tarrent also owns a bunch of stock in several major pharmaceutical companies and in CitiGroup, a firm which owns an Indian outsourcing company.
Hey, it's only money. Or is it?
sh
