Libby Watson Smacks Shelly Adelson Upside The Head

There’s a lovely article over on Splinter at the moment. In Crumbling Old Man Gives $30 Million to Save Crumbling Old Party, Libby Watson gives us a depressing portrait of a depressing man, Sheldon Adelson, who has spent most of his life and many millions of dollars in an attempt to remake America in his own rather terrifying image.

She notes that Adelson has just given “ $30 million to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the House Republican super PAC, in an effort to save the party’s majority.” This enormous sum, while still quite small in terms of Adelson’s fortune, will double “the CLF’s cash on hand.”

The article makes interesting reading not only because of the subject matter, but because Watson pulls no punches. She makes sure you understand exactly what she feels about Adelson, and doesn’t care who knows it.

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Quick personal aside: When I was a trade press journalist in the computer field, Mr. Adelson’s name loomed large over my profession—not because he had anything to do with computers, but because as a casino and hotel magnate, he had enormous influence over where and when our most important conferences and trade shows could be held. The rumor was that he, or at least some of his people, didn’t much care for computer people or those who wrote about them. We didn’t spend enough, or gamble enough, or drink enough…

We were such a disappointment. Sad, really.