Yesterday, TheBlaze.com reported that Organizing for Action, a group "closely affiliated" with the White House, was offering donors access to the President in exchange for large donations upwards of $500k. The reaction to the group's auctioning off of face-time with President Obama hasn't been very positive, to say the least.
There's a good reason for the negative reaction. The allegedly "independent" group is headed by Barack Obama's former campaign manager, Jim Messina. If OFA sounded familiar, but you had never heard of "Organizing for Action", it's because the DNC's community organizing project was "Organizing for America". Organizing for America was transformed into Organizing for Action in January of this year.
"Closely affiliated" seems like a bit of an understatement.
Yesterday, in an unprecedented moment of journalism, White House Spokesman Jay Carney struggled to explain the administrations position on the issue.
Jay Carney: "There are a variety of rules governing interaction between administration officials and outside groups, and the administration officials follow those rules. White House and administration officials will not be raising money for Organizing For Action and while they may appear at appropriate OFA events in their official capacities, they will not be raising money."
"That's exactly what they're doing," Glenn responded upon hearing the clip.
He compared face-time with the president to what Glenn does to raise money for charity by exclusive events for more expensive ticket packages.
"You can buy these tickets that are like $1200. through Mercury One. They're some of the same tickets are packaged like…you know, $5,000 or $10,000 or $25,000. Well, all of that money goes to charity, so I'm attending a special dinner and you have time with me," Glenn explained. "If you did like $50,000 or whatever, you and I have time together — "face-time" — one-on-one time together. So that is exactly what they're doing."
Glenn went on to explain that he's not just showing up to talk to people. He's raising money, which is exactly what the President is doing for these groups. He's using the White House and the presidency to help them raise money.
"It's obscene," Glenn said.
MSNBC's Chuck Todd, oddly enough, was the reporter giving Carney such a hard time on the issue.
"Even MSNBC is becoming disgusted with these guys," Glenn noted.
You can watch the full exchange here: