by Mark Silva

While everyone works at counting people in on the list of clients for Emperors Club VIP -- Client No. 9 reportedly Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York, Client No. 6 reportedly the Duke of Westminster -- our friends over at the Sun-Times have counted one out: Michael Jordan.

Columnist Michael Sneed: "Just who is Client No. 10?

"Who is the procurer of prostitutes from Chicago who is mentioned anonymously in an unsealed FBI affidavit filed by the feds detailing operations of the Emperors Club, a sex-for-hire shop that allegedly ensnared embattled New York. Gov. Eliot Spitzer?

"Answer: It's not basketball legend Michael Jordan, according to Jordan's attorney Frederick Sperling...In order to end rumors that unnamed Client No. 10, who requested an Emperors Club prostitute for March 4 in Chicago, may have been Jordan, Sperling tells Sneed: "I have just received confirmation from Assistant U.S. Attorney Rita Glavin in New York that our client Michael Jordan is neither a subject nor a target of this investigation."

Case closed.''

by Mark Silva

The governor of New York had some royal company in the Emperors Club, according to reports from the British press: The Duke of Westminster, worth some 6.6 billion pounds.

The British tabloid, The Sun, seems to revel in "the mega-rich Duke of Westminster allegedly (using) the same escort agency as Eliot Spitzer to arrange romps with tarts.'' The headline? "Duke Booked VIP Tarts.''

"Lithuanian Zana Brazdek said he paid her £2,000 after booking her by email through the London office of Emperors Club VIP,'' the Sun reports. "She was told what to wear for the two-hour visit to his posh pad in central London.

"The aristocrat – Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, 56 – is one of Britain’s wealthiest men.''

"Zana, 27, said: “He asked how long I’d been with the agency. I told him he was my first job and he seemed pleased... He was quite happy with the way I looked as he hadn’t seen a picture of me when he ordered me. He told me he had used the agency before. It had been recommended.”

The ever-observant folks at The Huffington Post have noted, however, that references to the duke by name had been removed from other more august British papers' accounts of "Client No. 6."

As the Times reports it: "Emperors Club VIP has many clients around the world but one British-based customer is attracting more attention than most. Named in documents filed with a US court as “Client 6”, he paid £500 to a prostitute known as Astrid in London on January 12.

"The pair met at about 9 am at an undisclosed location for about an hour. After the appointment Astrid said that “everything was fine” but Client 6 called the company to say that, while she 'was very nice' -- 'next time he wanted to see someone else,' the documents show.''

(Photo of Duke of Westminster: The Sun)

by Andrew Malcolm

Turns out, some Obama PAC money came from PACs.

Before he ostentatiously stopped taking money from political action committees to run for president, Sen. Barack Obama quietly took money from political action committees.

As a presidential candidate, Obama claims to be an outsider eager to shake up the Washington establishment by refusing to accept donations from political action committees and Washington lobbyists. This year, they're the bad guys.

But this wasn’t always the case.

Back in 2005 and 2006, Obama raised $123,283 from other political action committees and put them into a political action committee of his own. He called it Hopefund.

by Mike Dorning

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama released an updated list of his top fundraisers today that dislcoses new information on their activities and shows heavy backing from hedge-fund managers, financial industry executives and private investors.

The list of "bundlers"--so called because they gather up contributions into large bundles--provides slightly more detailed disclosure for amounts of money each fundraiser has produced than his opponents offer.

The updated list, posted on his campaign web site, covers fundraising through the third quarter of the year and lists the amount of money each has raised in broad ranges. Other identifying information such as their cities of residence and employers are not listed but in many cases can be determined by independently searching Federal Election Commission donor records for the campaign.

by Mark Silva

The National Journal is reporting today that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson is under investigation by the agency's inspector general, the FBI and the Justice Department over his involvement in the awarding of contracts.

The report is posted online today and published in the Oct. 6 issue. The reporter is Ed Pound.

See the report here in the Swamp as well:

HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson with President Bush at a Rose Garden announcement of proposed relief for homeowners facing mortgage foreclosure. HUD photo.

by Mike Dorning

In a preview of Barack Obama's fundraising performance and a last-minute effort to rev up contributions during the final week of the third-quarter fundraising period, the Illinois senator is claiming his presidential campaign has added some 75,000 donors since the end of the last financial reporting period for candidates on June 30.

In an e-mail to supporters today, Obama claims 333,851 people have now donated to his campaign since its inception, for a total of 472,613 donations. The campaign is trying to motivate supporters to break a goal of 350,000 donors providing more than 500,000 contributions by Sept. 30.

"We're facing a hard deadline in less than a week," Obama writes. "The financial reports filed after September 30th will set the tone for the last 100 days before people start voting and caucusing. The numbers will be a signal to voters in the crucial early states that our movement has the support it takes to win."

The campaign is also trying to motivate new donors with a promotional program in which established donors are offering to match contributions from new donors.

When Jon Stewart had Barack Obama on his show in November 2005, Stewart asked about Obama's colleagues in the Senate: "Is there somebody who you just thinkk 'Man, that guy, he can't even read.'" Obama replied: "There are a couple guys where you do sort of think: How did you get here exactly?" Comedy Central photo.

by Mike Dorning

Barack Obama isn't waiting for his appearance on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" next Wednesday to use the invitation as a chance to expand his following.

Campaign manager David Plouffe sent out an e-mail to Obama supporters just a few minutes ago offering an all-expenses-paid trip to the popular comedy show's taping as a prize in a contest to recruit new donors to the campaign.

In a twist on the kind of recruiting promotions regularly empoyed by health clubs, anyone who recruits a new donor by the end of the week will be entered in a drawing for a pair of tickets to the shows taping: one for the supporter who recruits the new donor and one for the donor he or she recruits.

It's the latest example of the kind of mass-marketing fundraising incentives in the current presidential campaign that has candidates' appeals for donations sometimes reading like they might have come from Ed McMahon of Publishers Clearinghouse.

by Mike Dorning

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has raised more than $9 million during the past three months, a fundraising pace that has slowed since the first quarter of the year but is likely to sustain his place among the three Democratic candidates with the greatest financial strength.

About an hour before the midnight deadline that ends the second-quarter reporting period for campaign contirbutions, the Edwards campaign sent out an e-mail to supporters announcing the candidate had achieved the $9 million goal he set for himself earlier during the week.

Still, the total was well short of the $14 million he raised during the first three months of the year.

by Mike Dorning

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged Friday to limit lobbyist influence and secrecy in regulatory policy-making that he said has fostered a “second Gilded Age” of political dominance by powerful business interests.

Obama argued in a speech delivered in the early primary state of New Hampshire that undue influence of wealthy corporations has contributed to the income gap between rich and poor and frustrated attempts to address issues such as high prescription drug costs and global warming.

“The people I’ve met across this country don’t just want reform for reform’s sake,” the Illinois senator said. “They want reform that will help pay their doctor’s bills, or ensure that their tax dollars are spent wisely, or put us on the path to energy independence. They want real reform and they’re tired of the lobbyists standing in the way.”

Posted by Frank James at 9:10 am CDT

Another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad news day for Sen. Hillary Clinton. Yesterday it was the Washington Post report that two new books about her by respected investigative journalists portrayed her in unflattering ways.

Today, both the New York Times and Washington Post have front-page stories about Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton jetting around the world on a private jet belonging to infoUSA.

That company finds itself embroiled in controversy, partly because of a shareholder lawsuit that alleges that the company's founder and chief executive, Vinod Gupta, a friend and contributor to the Clintons who slept in the White House Lincoln Bedroom during the Clinton presidency, has wasted corporate assets with such flights and other luxuries of questionable business value. Like a yacht named "American Princess" docked in the Virgin Islands with an all-female crew.

Incidentally, one of the best parts of the Times story is a quote from a hedge fund executive who said:

“When the C.E.O. of a publicly traded company can say with a straight face that the shareholders benefit from having a yacht with an all-female crew stationed in the Virgin Islands, then you’ve got a problem.”

Then there's the shareholders' unhappiness with the more than $2 million the company paid the former president between July 2003 to April 2005, and more millions of dollars after that, for what the hedge funds suing the company claim are very nebulous consulting services.

But that's not all. This is the very same infoUSA that has come under the scrutiny of Iowa's attorney general and other authorities for selling personal information to criminals who used it to bilk seniors like a 92-year old World War II widower whose was wiped out by the criminals.

That's Iowa, as in the Iowa caucuses, the traditionally important contests for those trying to win their party's presidential nominations. The state that effectively ended Howard Dean's 2004 presidential aspirations. You get the drift.

To get back-to-back bad news days like this is obviously the stuff of campaign nightmares. The only good news for the New York senator in this is it's May and not December of 2007. There's time to recover.

Posted by William Neikirk at 1 p.m. CDT

Bill Thomas has found a job.

You remember him? Once he was a household name in this town. California Republican big-wig, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, a suffer-no-fools-gladly, take-no-prisoners kind of guy who helped get Bush's tax cuts passed.

He wasn't the most liked member of Congress, but he got things done. Now he's going to have to make nice to the members as a lobbyist.

Posted by Mike Dorning and John McCormick at 6:30 am CDT.

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama took in more money in contributions for the presidential primary than any other candidate during the first three months of the year. But front-runner Hillary Clinton still has the financial advantage, with a bigger bank balance, thanks to a transfer from funds left over after her Senate re-election campaign last year.

Though late in preparing for a presidential bid compared to his rivals, the $24.8 million in contributions that Obama raised for the primary comfortably exceeded $19.1 million that Clinton raised, despite the former first lady's well-established network of donors and supporters.

Still, Clinton has the bigger war chest. The New York senator reported $24.1 million available for her primary campaign, bolstered by $10 million from her Senate re-election campaign. She also raised an additional $6.9 million that only can be used in a general election campaign.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 12:10 pm CST

Several former Clinton Administration officials were among the contributors who attended a Barack Obama fundraiser on Thursday night at the Bethesda, Md., home of Reed Hundt, who was Federal Communications Commission Chairman during the Clinton Administration.

William Kennard, who also chaired the FCC during the Clinton Administration, was an official "host" for the evening. A campaign spokesman declined to provide an estimate of money was raised at the event.

Richard Clarke, author and counter-terrorism coordinator for the Clinton Administration and early Bush Administration was among those who contributed at the fundraiser, said an Obama insider.

Amb. Charlene Barshefsky, who was U.S. Trade Representative during the Clinton Administration, was among the Obama donors at the event. Miriam Sapiro, a counselor to Clinton on Balkans policy who helped negotiate the 1995 Dayton Accords, was an official "co-host."

Posted by Mike Dorning at 11:34 am CST.

The explanation and supporting documentation that Barack Obama has provided so far for a $100,000 investment he made in two companies backed by major campaign contributors leave open lingering issues about the selection of the stocks and the timing of their purchase.

An article in today's Tribune outlines some of the unresolved questions about Obama 's investments in two speculative stocks with business interests influenced by the government: AVI BioPharma, a biotech company, and SkyTerra Communications, a satellite communications company.

Obama said he was not involved in choosing the stocks and that they were held in a "quasi-blind trust." But his campaign so far has declined to identify the broker who chose the stocks and the sole document the campaign has released concering the investments is the trust governing the investments.

However, the stocks selected are peculiar given the investment strategy set out by the legal document governing the trust.

Posted by David Lightman of the Hartford Courant at 8:27 a.m. CST

WASHINGTON -- Sgt. Richard Ford's sister wasn't home, so John Larson left a message.

The congressman sat alone in his second-floor Main Street office in downtown Hartford on Thursday and talked to Vanessa Migliore's message machine.

It was a difficult call. It had to be. The 1st District Democrat tried to express his sorrow, anger and discomfort over the death of Ford, the Connecticut National Guard soldier who died Feb. 20 of combat injuries in Baghdad.

"You and your family are in my prayers," he told her. "Thank you so much for all the sacrifice." He talked about the importance of "duty and service," and said Sgt. Ford had served in a "patriotic and honorable" way.

And he assured the family that a flag would fly over the U.S. Capitol in Sgt. Ford's honor, and that the flag would be delivered to their East Hartford home. Ford is to be buried today at Arlington National Cemetery.

Posted by William Neikirk at 6:20 a.m. CST

Do you remember the Watergate scene when Deep Throat advised Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward how to crack the scandal? "Follow the money," he said.

We should all take heed to that advice if we are to understand this past week's political events. The spat between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was not merely about Hollywood mogul David Geffen's sharp criticism of Hillary; it was about the fact that former Clinton supporter Geffen had hosted a big fund-raiser for Obama.

It was partly a territorial thing dealing with greenbacks. If you were General Motors, how would you feel about Toyota grabbing your market share, especially if Toyota dealers started bad-mouthing your product and your company?

Posted by Mike Dorning at 1:50 pm CST.

Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is already tapping its well-established network of small-dollar donors with an Internet-based campaign to raise $1 million in one week.

An e-mail sent out about an hour ago under the name of political strategist James Carville showed that the campaign had already raised $285,332 for its "One Week, One Million" fundraising campaign.

"Our 'One Week, One Million' campaign will send a clear message: Hillary won't back down, and we've got her back," Carville write in the e-mail.

Expect many more of such Internet fundraising campaigns in the year ahead. With this year's campaign expected to be the most expensive ever and the cost of an e-mail fundraising plea virtually free, candidates and their surrogates will be frequent visitors to the in-box of anyone who gives their e-mail address to a political campaign.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 12:19 pm CST

You never know who you'll run into in a bar. Particularly, the sleek, glamorous bar at the Beverly Hilton, a landmark show-biz hotel that served as the Western White House when President John F. Kennedy was in town and now annually hosts the star-studded Golden Globe awards.

Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the celebrity-politician of the moment, held a fundraiser at the hotel Tuesday evening that had the Hollywood elite passing through the hotel's elegant marble lobby. Flashes popped as tourists spotted Jennifer Anniston walking through in a black leather jacket and black slacks. Eddie Murphy, Ron Howard, the Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines, Ben Stiller and Stephen Spielberg were just a few of the others who attended.

Well, after several hours of standing outside the fundraiser and celebrity- spotting, a group of reporters retreated to the hotel bar, as reporters on the road generally do after stories are filed and the day's work is done.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:30 am CST.

Barack Obama the presidential candidate made his Hollywood debut Tuesday night.

At the Beverly Hilton, site of the Golden Globe Awards, the stars of the entertainment world came out for a $2,300-per-ticket campaign fundraiser with the political celebrity of the moment.

There was no red carpet. But flashes popped in the hotel lobby as tourists spotted Jennifer Aniston entering.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 6:05 am CST.

Here's one way to boost book sales: Barack Obama's Senate re-election campaign spent more than $24,000 on copies of the Democratic senator's best-selling new memoir, "The Audacity of Hope."

The campaign listed the purpose of the expense as "books for supporters" in a campaign finance disclosure report filed on Wednesday covering activities during the final three months of last year.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the campaign purchased the books from Random House under a special arrangement in which the senator did not receive royalties for the sales.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 7:20 pm CST.

Hotel and real estate heiress and prominent Chicago liberal fundraiser Penny Pritzker will lead the national fundraising campaign for Barack Obama's presidential bid.

Pritzker, whose personal fortune last year was estimated at $2.1 billion by Forbes magazine, will be national finance chairman for the Barack Obama Presidential Exploratory Committee, the campaign announced on Wednesday evening.

She joins a campaign whose backers include such other prominent billionaire investors as Warren Buffett and George Soros.

Penny Pritzker is among a trio of cousins who manage the family businesses of the Pritzker family, Chicago's richest family. Their corporate empire, estimated to be worth $15 billion, includes the Hyatt hotel chain and the Marmon Group of manufacturing companies

Posted by Christi Parsons at 4:02 pm CST

More than a dozen former members of Congress have felony convictions on their records but are still receiving taxpayer-funded pensions, and House members think that’s a crime.

On Tuesday, they voted unanimously to strip officials of their public retirement benefits upon conviction of official wrongdoing, including bribery and conspiring with foreign interests.

At present, only a conviction of a crime like treason or espionage requires forfeiture of a congressional pension, which means that lawmakers with other serious offenses on their rap sheets continue to draw benefits.