Editor's Note:

Will Obama Be Defeated? Vote Here!

Editor's Note:

Will Obama Be Defeated? Vote Here!

Editor's Note:

Will Obama Be Defeated? Vote Here!

Casino magnate and Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson says the Obama administration launched a smear campaign against him after he began contributing heavily to Republican candidates.He charged that the administration leaked information about federal inquiries into old events involving him and his Las Vegas Sands Corp.The aim, he told Politico, is “making me toxic so that they can make the argument to the Republicans, ‘This guy is toxic. Don’t do business with him. Don’t take his money.’ Not all government employees are leakers, but most of the leakers are government employees.“When I see what’s happening to me and this company, about accusations that are unfounded, that kind of behavior has to stop.”The Las Vegas Sands Corp. is being probed by federal investigators looking into possible money-laundering in Vegas, and possible violations of bribery laws by the company’s ventures in China, including four casinos in the gambling mecca of Macau.Some of the actions probed date back to the mid-2000s.Articles about the investigations appeared last month on the front pages of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The Journal did state that there were no indications the probe included actions by Adelson himself.Adelson and his family gave more than $15 million during the primary season to support Newt Gingrich’s presidential bid. He is the first person to spend $70 million to sway a presidential election, and is on track to spend as much as $100 million by Election Day.The record amount he has already donated is about three times as much as the previous record-holder, George Soros, who spent $24 million in an effort to defeat President George W. Bush in 2004.Adelson told Politico he will continue to contribute “whatever it takes” to defeat President Barack Obama.He went on, “I suppose you could say that I live on Vince Lombardi’s belief: ‘Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.’ So, I do whatever it takes, as long as it’s moral, ethical, principled, legal.”One Republican official who has spoken with Adelson many times told Politico, “He’s the man of the hour. Everyone’s trying to get in to see him – every candidate, every PAC director, every campaign committee, every super PAC guy. When you’re giving out money the way he is, everyone wants a piece of the pie.”Adelson also told Politico he loathes Obama. He said he recently read “The Amateur,” the anti-Obama bestseller by Edward Klein, and complained about Obama’s “czars," who were set up early in the administration to supervise regulatory efforts.Adelson said he worries about “any man that sets up a shadow government, not accountable to anybody.“What are the czars, if they’re not a substitute for the secretaries of Commerce, of State, of Interior? They’re not under any rules, they’re just consultants to him in his office. And then he’ll come along and say, ‘Well, Bush did it.’ But that’s not the way the government is supposed to be run.”He said a second Obama term would bring government “vilification of people that were against him,” citing the scrutiny of his company’s ventures by federal investigators.Adelson wasn’t always a supporter of solely Republicans. He told Politico he attended the 1988 Democratic convention in Atlanta.“It wasn’t really a lot of fun because everywhere I went — in the coffee shop, walking down the hallway, going into an elevator — everybody was talking about what kind of job they’re going to get when Michael Dukakis became president,” he said. “It disgusted me.”Then he attended the 1992 Republican convention in Houston.“I didn’t hear a single word about what people were going to get,” he told Politico. “They were dignified, well-behaved. I said to myself, ‘I don’t belong in that rowdy crowd down in Atlanta, the Democrats.’ I said, ‘That’s not really me.’ So, I guess I converted.“After I had given the Democrats $100,000, to fix the error of my ways I gave the Republicans $100,000.”