From the Telegraph UK:
The Irish rock star, Bono, has been angered by Senator Hillary Clinton’s use of a U2 concert this week to raise funds for her political campaign coffers—even though he is a good friend of her husband, Bill.
“U2 concerts are categorically not fund-raisers for any politician. They are rock concerts for U2 fans,” said his close associate, Jamie Drummond, who runs Data, the Third World advocacy group set up by Bono with Sir Bob Geldof.
“If any political fund-raising events take place at a U2 concert, it is without the involvement or knowledge of Data, U2 or Bono.”
Mrs Clinton, the frontrunner to be the Democrat candidate for the White House in 2008, is charging 18 guests $2,500 (£1,400) a head to join her in a luxury box for the sold out show in Washington on Wednesday. Despite U2’s public criticism, she is pressing on with the fund-raiser, which will bring in $45,000 for an outlay of about $7,000 on the box, and her staff are unapologetic.
“We do a meet-and-greet with the senator and then go in and listen to the music,” said her spokesman, Ann Lewis.
Rick Santorum, a conservative Republican senator and critic of Mrs Clinton, is also taking advantage of a U2 concert, tomorrow night in Philadelphia, to raise funds.
He has block-booked 66 tickets which he is selling for $1,000 each and his aides said that he too would go ahead with the fund-raiser. Although Bono decided to make no direct comment of his own, he saw Mr Drummond’s critical statement before it was issued.
The complaint was an unusually public criticism of the growing trend in American political fund-raising of using access to sold-out concerts and sports events to woo wealthy contributors. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California and former Terminator star, charged donors $100,000 each to share a private box with him for a Rolling Stones concert.
The rebuke for Mrs Clinton is all the more striking as Bono has worked closely with her husband, the former president, on issues such as increasing aid to Africa, relieving the debt of the world’s poorest countries and HIV/Aids projects. He has also co-operated closely with President George W Bush and Tony Blair.
So wait, the story is that politicians tend to act like glorified ticket scalpers?
Sorry. But the only surprise here is that someone like Bono, who’s spent years now interacting with politicians in pursuit of his own policy agendas, is surprised that politicians as a breed would prove to be politically opportunistic.
The way I see it? Anybody willing to pay 600% above face just to sit near Hillary while she holds up a cigarette lighter and butchers “A Sort of Homecoming,” more power to ‘em, bless their rich, pathetic, needy li’l hearts.
(h/t Tom Pechinski)
Why did they describe Schwarzenegger as ‘former’ Terminator star? It’s not like he stopped being the star after he made the film. He’ll always have starred in the films, and therefore will forever be the star.
Anyway, Bono sucks dry monkey rectum to maintain his virility.
Or so I’m told.
It speaks well of you that you chose A Sort of Homecoming for your example, young Skywalker.
It’s highly illegal in DC to resell tickets for more than the face value.
I hereby call for an Indepedent Prosecutor.
I’m waiting.
One upside of this is that instead of a badly catered meal (the normal payback of a fundraising donation) one gets an excellent concert and Skybox chow. ‘A Sort of Homecoming’ beats rubber chicken any day
The mental image of Hillary mumbling “oh come away oh come away, oh come, oh come away say I” is too much.
I expect the distinction Bono would draw is that he’s never exploited someone else’s political event to sell his albums. And much as I disagree with his politics, Bono gets credit from me for one thing: where other entertainers simply pontificate, he actually does things.
Honestly, this is like a pimp acting shocked that whores screw for money. The guy’s second career is hounding politicians with his views, and suddenly he’s shocked that they might hold a fundraiser at his concert?
I think you meant “their.”
Wow, I guess rock and roll has sort of lost its edge when Hillary and Santorum are throwing fundraisers at a U2 concert!
While the article begins by saying that Bono has been “angered” by Clinton’s action, there are no quotes that directly support that claim. Rather, the quotes indicate
Now that sounds to me like they are simply saying that U2 is not sponsering nor condoning the effort. I did a brief search on the web (google: bono u2 clinton), and found nothing more damning that that quote. In fact, as I read the quote on U2’s web site, it sounds like they are not preemptively saying “Badguys are using U2 for political gain”, rather they are responding to media reports that they are supporting this effort. The response is “No, we are not supporting any politician’s fund raiser”. Beat the hell out of Bono if you want, but I don’t see what the problem is with Bono saying that he is not involved in the Clinton or Santorum campains, and doesn’t want to be.
Even if he were bashing Clinton, I am surprised to hear so much bashing from conservatives. Hey, he trashed Clinton, not Santorum. Aren’t you happy about that?
Finally, the complaint that Bono gets involved in politics, but doesn’t want politics involved in his work sounds EXACTLY like what we all want, isn’t it? Don’t we all want to have our influence in the political process, but want the government to stay out of our business?
I’m really confused as to why people are so upset about this.
He’s offended that Hillary does her pitch, but has had no problem with that anti-Semitic sack of shit Noam Chomsky opening shows for him? What a confused person.
Since you seem to regard anything a “conservative” says as bashing, I am surprised at your surprise. Did you think all “conservatives” were mute?
Who’s upset? Not me.
Compared to the other celebrity activists, I find Bono to be somewhat less risible than the vast majority of preening rich hypocrites. Though I don’t really follow him that closely, from what I recall, he seems to be more realistic, practical and actually committed. He seems more apolitical – and even if he’s closer to the Left, he’s admirably restrained about bashing conservatives or America in general or even Bush. When he takes sides like on the subject of Debt Relief, he takes a positive approach, hosting economic discussions and does not publicly demonize the other side. I think he’s toned down the cloying self-righteousness he used to indulge in.
As for letting Chomsky open his concerts, I think this is a mistake. I could be wrong but I think you are confusing Bono with Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam. If I’m wrong, then I take back what I said above.
I’ve heard it about both of them, John. I would love to be wrong on this one about U2, though. On the other hand, I think Eddie Vedder deserves Chomsky.
Incensed?! After a day on the slopes, Bono had the most eye-wateringly horrendous BO of any alleged celebrity I’ve had the misfortune to be near. Trust me on this one.
And much as I disagree with his
politics, Bono gets credit from me
for one thing: where others simply
pontificate, he actually does things.
I can’t argue with that, but he should drop the attitude. Although he seems to think his farts don’t stink, I can smell them through my computer. Just look at any picture of him, and it’s pretty obvious that he even out-Stings Sting. We’ve been throwing money at those two bit African dictators for decades(to absolutely no effect), so what does he think throwing even more money into their pockets is going to change?
I like Bono.
If Hillary was really smart, she’d start doing fundraisers at Kanye West concerts. Or maybe 50 Cent.
I would pay to go to a concert with her just to see if she gets drunk and hits on some chick.
When I saw Bill at the Rolling Stones concert, I couldn’t even pay attention to Mick anymore. I was so dying to see if Bill had a date– or was looking for one.
So wait, the story is that politicians tend to act like glorified ticket scalpers?
And that brings up a worthwhile topic of its own (and probably a good one for restarting my comatose blog): If tickets are fetching 6+ times the normal face value on the open market, doesn’t that indicate that the tickets were underpriced to begin with?
The one thing I’m still waiting to see is for TicketMaster or one of the other ticket vendors to announce the creation of a Internet auction system for event tickets (or, at the very least, the “high-value” tickets for an event). This way, rather than the true market value going to the scalper/broker, it would instead go to the promoter, where it really belongs…
When I read that I imagined Sting and Bono as the African dictators. Try it with me.
“The Righteous and Glorious King of the Savannah and Jungle, May He Ride His Antelope For One Thousand Years, King Bono of Eritrea. It is a capital offence to point at his hut.”
What has been alluded to, but not specifically stated, is the obvious deterioration of Bono as an entertainer. You can always spot that they are on their way down when they start hanging out with some really seedy characters.
Holy Leaping Pelagics, Batsman!
Did y’all see the cover story on Bono in The New York Times Magazine a couple of weeks back?
The thing I have against his humanitarian agitation is that he seems oblivious to all the shipwrecked aid programs that have gone before him. He is a sincere Christian and is displaying a sincere spirit of Christian charity. I just wish he’d be a little more mindful of the likely fate of those aid dollars: deposited by the local staff sergeant turned President for Life into a European bank.
Plus, if things go horribly awry, he pays no price for being wrong. For instance, if we let the Voices of Compassion buffalo us into sending troops into some viper pit of a failed nation, like in Somalia, and trouble starts and our dead soldiers get dragged through the streets on international television, it’s no skin off Bono’s nose. He can just go on to the next crisis.
Turing = systems, as in He’s being worked by the political systems, this election season.
Wait, wait.
You’re telling me people willingly pay to see U2 perform?
What mixed-up bizarro-world is this?
Well, there you go. The rich really are different from you and me.
Well, from me, anyway. If I tried to turn over those tickets publically – let alone for many times their value – I’d be waiting for someone to come post my bail.
Jeff could probably get away with it under the heading of some educational foray or something.