Steve Sebelius

Adelson speaks -- but what is he talking about?

Up until now, Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson has been quiet about his donations to a super PAC supporting former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for president.

But in an interview for a Forbes magazine cover story running in the March 12 edition, Adelson opens up to Steven Bertoni, whose job description is covering "the world's billionaires, plus entrepreneurs and disruptors."

In Adelson, Bertoni has all three.

In the interview, Adelson dismisses criticism of his donations to Gingrich, which came at a critical time for that campaign. But Adelson says he's not entirely sanguine about his giving.

"I'm against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections," Adelson said. "But as long as it's doable I'm going to do it. Because I know that guys like [liberal philanthropist George] Soros have been doing it for years, if not decades."

Hypocrisy? Hardly. It makes sense that conservative billionaires would not want to disarm unilaterally if liberal billionaires are going to continue to try to influence politics.

And let's get something else out of the way: Soros and Adelson have every right to spend big bucks in politics under the First Amendment. We can lament the fact that a single Sheldon Adelson writing a $10 million PAC check has the same impact as 2,000 regular people each donating the maximum $5,000 currently allowed under federal law to a candidate. That doesn't make it illegal.

But it's when Adelson discusses his motives for giving that things get strange.

"What scares me is the continuation of the socialist-style economy we've been experiencing for almost four years," he said. "That scares me because the redistribution of wealth is the path to more socialism, and to more of the government controlling people's lives."

Please. America is no more "socialist" today than it was back in 1933, when Adelson and the New Deal were born, unless he's using a private definition of the word. About the closest you can come to socialism -- government owning the means of production and distribution -- is the federal government's investments in car companies, otherwise known as the auto bailout.

Is President Barack Obama seeking to set wages and prices? Is he trying to increase the income tax rate to 70 or 80 percent? Did his health-care reform bill make doctors and nurses government employees, working in state-owned hospitals?

Of course not. Obama is asking for a meager increase in income taxes for people who earn more than $250,000, and his health-care plan is more crony capitalism than socialism.

Meanwhile, under this allegedly socialist president, Adelson saw his net worth -- now estimated at $21.6 billion -- jump more than any other American's, according to Forbes. That's due in no small part to Adelson's Macau casino operations, allowed by the leaders of a real socialist country, China. (Adelson has praised China's leadership at the same time he's seen fit to run down the president of his own country. But when's the last time Obama put somebody in jail for going to church, or ordered a column of tanks to disrupt a tea party rally?)

Adelson does have one caveat: He doesn't want to pay for negative campaigning. "I don't believe in negative campaigning," he says. "Money is fungible, but you can't take my money out of the total money you have and use it for negative campaigning." Too late. According to the Washington Post, Adelson supplied two of every three dollars the pro-Gingrich super PAC spent in January. That money paid for a brutal movie ahead of the South Carolina primary depicting ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as a callous vulture capitalist.

A billionaire underwriting an attack on a millionaire, for practicing capitalism? Oh, the horror.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 387-5276 or SSebelius@reviewjournal.com.

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Comments

Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

1. Moist & Meaty Feb. 22, 2012 | 3:50 p.m. Report Abuse

   WELCOME TO REPUBLICAN PLUTOCRACY FANTASYLAND Super PAC Contributions Overwhelmingly Concentrated Among Few Donors 02/22/2012 Super PACs, the political groups flexing their muscles in a presidential race for the first time, are disproportionately funded by a handful of donors. USA Today analyzed super PAC donations since Jan. 1, 2011, and found that one out of every four dollars came from just five spectacularly wealthy donors -- Harold Simmons, owner of Contran; Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam; Houston home builder Bob Perry and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. All of the donors donated to Republican-leaning groups. In a similar vein, the Associated Press found that of the $60 million collected by candidate-aligned super PACs, $33 million came from just 24 individuals. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/22/super-pac-contributions-donors_n_1294598.html

2. TheShadow Feb. 22, 2012 | 10:17 a.m. Report Abuse

   Maybe Newt Gingrich got to the heart of Adelson's interest at the end of his not so gracious concession speech following the Republican caucus. Gingrich explained Adelson's sizable contribution by saying that Adelson was very concerned about the future of Israel and wanted to ensure that we have favorable policy toward Israel.

3. husky Feb. 22, 2012 | 9:57 a.m. Report Abuse

   Here's the reality! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suJCvkazrTc&feature=player_embedded#

4. mrs ed Feb. 22, 2012 | 9:53 a.m. Report Abuse

   He does business in China,, that has all kinds of government involvement in the economy, they control who can go into Macao. Sheldon Adelson is a nothing if not for his money, and the fact he likes to sue people. Romney's Sports Authority and Staples sell mostly Chinese products, too.

5. xfmrhsd Feb. 22, 2012 | 9:06 a.m. Report Abuse

   Steve is right, currently the USA does not have a socialist government. What the USA is doing via the Democrats and to a lesser extent the Republicans, is incrementally working towards the Socialist/Communist Paradise so many of the countries in the rest of the world are and have been moving away from. Somehow leadership in the USA believes the USA can do it better and make it work. The reason it has to be incremental is visible in the comments on this opinion piece, the people in the USA will not accept it unless it is slid under the door little bits at a time. No we do not have Socialism we are now experiencing (new word alert, get ready for it) Incrementalism.

6. Dave.Mogstad Feb. 22, 2012 | 8:17 a.m. Report Abuse

   Really Steve?! What do you call Obama's redistribute the wealth mantra, asking those that make over $250,000 to pay additional taxes, even though the top tier pay 93% of taxes collected in this country? You're asking those that create wealth to fund more of Obama's wild and wreckless spending? And then there's his government-run healthcare plan which clearly violates the Commerce Clause, by mandating all Americans pay into the plan. How much will the quality of healthcare suffer, when patients will be put on a list to see the doctor? How about the (death) panels that will decide if you are worthy of surgery, or not? This is socialism in spades! Yeah, I think Soros and Adelson have way too much money. But if you're going to mandate them to do something noble with their money, how about supplementing healthcare, instead of giving politicians carte blanche to broker legislation that has to be passed to see what's in it?

7. Minden63 Feb. 22, 2012 | 8:06 a.m. Report Abuse

   ObamaCare, Government Motors, Chrysler wrapped up by government goons and given to an Italian carmaker, its American bondholders stripped. Republican auto dealers shut down. New "consumer" regulations that are strangling banks and businesses. Don't listen to Comrade Steve.Socialism is on jug-eared steroids in America.

8. k.b Feb. 22, 2012 | 7:53 a.m. Report Abuse

   "Is President Barack Obama seeking to set wages and prices?" Isn't that what health care was about? How about hundreds of billions to foreign solar companies and long term purchase agreements. Our auto industry is now manufacturing solar charging canopies.

9. Reality Bites Feb. 22, 2012 | 7:39 a.m. Report Abuse

   "...ordered a column of tanks to disrupt a tea party rally?)" That's slang for the free media twist assault against Palin. As far as the "health-care reform bill" that nobody read before signing into law, what mandate is next?

10. David Feb. 22, 2012 | 7:02 a.m. Report Abuse

    Yes, Steve, America is a strange form of socialism with a lot of fascism thrown in. Adelson is dead wrong if he believes Newt would some how change this destructive road the feds are taking us down.

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