Toomey Weighing Elimination of Carried Interest

Senator Pat Toomey, Kris Toomey, Sandy Marshall and David Marshall at the  PIFA gala

Senator Pat Toomey and his wife, Kris, were the guests of real estate developer David Marshall and his wife Sandy at the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts (PIFA) gala. Mrs. Marshall was the chairman of last night's gala. Marshall, CEO of Amerimar Realty, is perhaps best known locally for developing the Rittenhouse Hotel.

Toomey said, "When David Marshall invited me, he promised me a spectacular evening. So far, he has delivered."

Not one to shy away from stirring up trouble or forgo an opportunity to score political points, I suggested in the middle of the mayhem of the party to the senator and Marshall that the one tax break for the rich that could be eliminated was carried interest. Carried interest tax benefit allows investment managers to pay the lower capital gains rate on their share of the fund's profits in excess of their personal investment even though they did not have any capital risk for those profits.

To my surprise, Marshall, who manages real estate funds, agreed that this was one tax benefit that should be closed. At the end of the evening, he recounted his conversation with Toomey.

"I told him that I am developer so it would cost me money if it was eliminated. But carried interest does not really incentivize investment," said Marshall, who is a fiscal conservative.

"The senator was surprised at my response," he continued. "He would consider eliminating it, but said that he is concerned that it would be a slippery slope. The Democrats would have to give something in return to get it."

Democrats, if you are listening, there is a chance to end the most desisted tax benefit in the country that benefits the rich. I also wrote this post because it is a fascinating window into how things get done in Washington.

The ninjas that greeted us at the start of the gals

Marshall, who served as chairman of the board of Fox Chase Cancer Center for three and half years, also pushed Toomey on funding for the NIH. It will be interesting to see if deficit hawk Toomey will agree to an increase in NIH funding.

Marshall has long championed NIH funding. He would only agree to hold fundraisers for the late Senator Arlen Specter if he would agree to push Obama on NIH funding.

"After Obama and Specter went to the Super Bowl, Specter called me and said that he did not get the $2 or $3 billion I asked for, but $10 billion," said Marshall.

Marshall is also in favor of means testing for social security. But it would been too much to expect Toomey to talk about two tax increases in one night.

A look inside the PIFA time machine

Mrs. Toomey still lives in Allentown with the couple's three children.

She said, "The oldest is excited about his dad in Washington, but he has only been there a few times. He can only go on the weekends and Pat wants to come home."

Comcast's Cohen Saved Corbett's Struggling Reelection

When I had a chance to ask Governor Corbett a question last year at a rare press conference in Philadelphia, I said, "It looks like your policies are shafting Philadelphia." The Philadelphia Inquirer lead with my observation the next day.

That is why I was surprised that Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen, former chief of staff to Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell, recently held a fundraiser for Republican Governor Tom Corbett at his home in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia. The fundraiser was mostly attended by Comcast employees and prominent Republican Bob Asher.

Cohen, who has been a longtime supporter of the Democratic party, had hosted President Obama there for a fundraiser that netted $1.2 million for his reelection campaign.

Under his breath, former Governor Rendell must be muttering e tu David? Corbett is basically the anti-Rendell. He has slashed programs for the poor, suggested women "close their eyes" while having a vaginal ultrasound, outsourced the state's lottery to the British, and possibly bundled his investigation into convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky when he was the state's attorney general.

Cohen's move is also surprising because Pennsylvanians have roundly rejected Corbett gubernatorial tenure. A recent Franklin and Marshall poll has only 26% of Pennsylvanians approving of the job that he has doing.

Terry Madonna, the state's preeminent political pollster said, "Corbett has vacillated between 25-35% since taking office. These are the worst poll numbers ever for a sitting governor at this point in his administration.  Corbett's predecessors, Rendell and Ridge, were polling at 50% and 40% respectively at the same time in their administration."

He continued, "We'll see if Corbett can come back from this. Every incumbent governor, since Pennsylvania has permitted governors to run for a second term, has won. Usually, they don't face tough competition. In this case, first tier Democrats are chafing at the bit to run."

In some ways, voters have already spoken on Corbett. They elected Kathleen Kane, who made an investigation into Corbett's bumbling of the Sandusky prosecution a central part of her election platform, as the state's Attorney General in 2012. She is the first Democratic to win that office since the office became an elected one. She is the rare women to win a Pennsylvania election. Allyson Schwartz is the lone woman to represent Pennsylvania in Congress.

The support of Cohen, considered the most astute political player in the state, and Comcast for Corbett is significant. Without it, the Corbett campaign would have remained on life support. Madonna, who expects Corbett to raise $20 million for the race, did not see any dissonance in Cohen's donation to Corbett.

"David has always been a businessman in politics. He has never been overly concerned with social issues."

I sent an email to Cohen's public relations people asking routine questions like such as why Cohen supports Corbett, has he been good for business, and name one policy of his that you like. He refused to comment. I am wondering if he would defend Corbett's anti-choice views to the female employees of Comcast or defend   his abandoning of Philadelphia, whose renaissance he spearheaded.

A source close to Comcast, who attended the fundraiser, explained that "If someone is surprised at Cohen's support of Corbett, they don't know David Cohen. The fundraiser was held before Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz announced that she was running. Comcast always supports incumbents and doesn't support challengers. The electoral history of Pennsylvania suggests that an incumbent will win."

He continued, "Comcast is a business in the state of Pennsylvania. They need to be able to talk to both sides."

This is technically true. While the cable industry is heavily regulated, most of the regulation comes from the federal level not the state level.

This person did not rule out the possibility that Cohen will donate to the campaign of  Corbett's "formidable" challenger Allyson Schwartz.She appears to have declared her intentions before the other Democratic candidates.

Not waiting for Cohen's check, Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz supporters are dismissing Cohen abandoning the Democrats. One said, "Corbett saw his poll numbers and terrorized a leading businessman to support him."

Rachel Magnuson, the chief of staff for the Congresswomen, was not concerned about Cohen's donation.

"Allyson Schwartz does not care about a political insider. She is hearing from Pennsylvanians from all four corners of the state and they are urging her to run," said Magnuson.

Madonna names Pennsylvania State Treasurer Bob McCord, who has won two statewide campaigns and has personal wealth that he put in the campaign, and former Congressman Joe Sestak, who only lost the 2010 Senate race against Toomey  by 2 points, as two other possible Democratic challengers to Corbett. He noted that Allyson Schwartz understood what it took to run statewide since she had previously run for the Senate and lost.

While it is too early to handicap the race, he thinks that a winnable race for the Democrats could be lost if there is a nasty primary battle. It was not all good news for the Democrats.

"Rendell was a liberal and won. But he won on the strength of his mayoralty in Philadelphia," said Madonna.

SALT Conference: Rove and Gibbs Almost Come to Blows

Being a little hung over from last night's terrific Maroon 5 concert, you can forgive me for thinking that I walked into the Roman Coliseum instead of a discussion between Republican mastermind Karl Rove and long time Obama advisor Robert Gibbs at the SkyBridge Capital's SALT Conference. Rove kept hitting Gibbs over the head with the demand that President Obama make a public statement that attacks on Romney's Mormon religion are off limits. Obama has already made a similar statement about the families of candidates.

He said, "The president should tell his followers to stop talking about his weird beliefs and underwear."

Gibbs weakly insisted, "The President never talks about Romney religion."

As a seasoned political observer, the amount of time that Rove spent on the weird Mormonism theme tells me two things. Their polling indicates that Romney is losing lost of votes due to his religion. Even though everyone says the election is about the economy and the room was filled with financial experts, the Republicans really do not have an economic message, except the tired old one of tax cuts.

Rove also wanted to know why the President has not returned the $1 million check of Bill Maher, who has been accused of misogynistic comments.

Gibbs, trying to skirt the issue, answered, "The President condemns those comments." He further asserted that a candidate can not be responsible for all the comments of his supporters.

At the beginning of the session, the two political pros discussed Obama's decision this week to openly support gay marriage.

Gibbs said, "The President has been thinking about this for a long time."

Rove immediately shot down that theory. "The President came out earlier on this issue than he wanted because Biden screwed up, like he always does. He wanted to drag this out for another 18 months for political advantage. This could hurt him among the Catholics, whom are a large part of the swing vote. If he was going to come out, why did he come out the day after the North Carolina vote against gay marriage. The gay marriage advocates there must be asking where was he yesterday."

Both political strategists agree that it will be close election. 7-8% of the voters in 11 swing states will decide the election. Putting it other way,  hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on advertising to change the minds of a few voters.

Rove surprised me by asking why the American taxpayer should pay for the healthcare of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. If a Democratic had asked the same question, it would have been called class warfare. His comment indicates the Republicans might be open to having the rich pay their fair share, the four letter word of this campaign.

Gibbs also acknowledged that entitlements will have to be cut.

This round of the "Hunger Games" went to the feisty Karl Rove. The Democrats have to learn to fight with their elbows. Although he had been Obama's press secretary, Gibbs was not effective at delivering the president's message.

Sex Is Not Why Cain's Sexual Harassment Settlements are Important

As a victim of sexual harassment and sexual assault, many might feel that it is a knee jerk response, on my part, to attach importance to the sexual harassment settlements made on behalf of Republican Presidential candidate Herman Cain. They would be wrong.

I am paying attention to these allegations and settlements because it gives you a window into Herman Cain's character. Since he has only recently arrived on the national scene, we do not know much about him. The national media has not properly vetted him.

The subsequent history of the men that harassed me might be illustrative. One  was my regional sales manager of the brokerage firm that I employed me. Since I filed my charges in the 90's during the Wild West period of Wall Street, nothing happened to the perpetrator after the firm settled with me. 18 months later, he was fired after black brokers named him in a class action discrimination suit. The suit alleged that he poked fun of blacks by performing "in white face during a minstrel type show at the firm's Christmas party". The settlement in that case was in seven figures. The lesson drawn from this case could be that sexual harassers are usually equal opportunity bigots.The firm should have drawn the right conclusion from my lawsuit - they had a problem employee. If they had, they might have insisted that he undergo sensitivity training and avoided the second lawsuit and its multi-million payout.

The second man was a tycoon of finance held in the highest esteem when I leveled my charges. By the way he behaved during the attack and handled my accusations, it was clear that he took too many risks, played fast and loose with the facts, wanted to win at all costs, and did not know how to deal with people.The public discovered this afterwards. His firm shortly thereafter took a company public that went bankrupt six weeks later. Accusations were leveled that his firm knew the company was failing and rushed taking it public so that they could cash in before the bankruptcy. Later, his partners pushed him out the door of the firm that he singlehandly founded in a bitter dispute.

Since Herman Cain has not handled the fallout from the revelation of the sexual harassment charges particularly well, many in the media, who do not like to talk about sex, have decided the pr debacle is the issue. They are wrong. The issue is his character. His lack of knowledge about the settlements indicates arrogance. He did not ask about the settlements because that would have been admitting that he made a mistake. Then, he might been forced to alter his behavior.  Even if he thought that his actions were funny or non -offensive, he needed to change them because it was costing the organizations that he worked for money.

This also says something about our corporate culture.Except in the case of serial harassers, businesses do not tolerate employees, even star ones, that keep costing the company money.

The Daily Show Asks if 2 Parties are Enough

In a hilarious web exclusive, the Daily Show team compares our current political party offerings to the empty shelves of an East German grocery store. Do you want to eat the state branded food or nothing?

Colin Quinn made the same point in "Long Story Short". He noted that "America has one more candidate running for President than the Fascists did under Mussolini.

Maybe, it is time for a third party that can give the other parties a run for their money.

The Daily Show - The Correspondents Explain - Political Parties - The Two-Party System
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook