Why does corporate America hate us?

Early primary voters are choosing the candidates with populist messages - Obama, Edwards and Huckabee. Corporate America took notice and they're not too happy.

Commerce vows to punish anti-business candidates

Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business.

"We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed," chamber President Tom Donohue said.

Nice. Voters are concerned about an economy that borders on recession, a weak record of job creation, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, declining home values and growing health care crisis, but the chamber isn't worried about our concerns - they're only worried about protecting their shareholders and CEO's.

Reacting to what it sees as a potentially hostile political climate, Donohue said, the chamber will seek to punish candidates who target business interests with their rhetoric or policy proposals, including congressional and state-level candidates.

Although Donohue shied away from precise figures, he indicated that his organization would spend in excess of the approximately $60 million it spent in the last presidential cycle.

No words of sympathy for workers. No promise from corporate America that they'll work to improve workers' living standards. No thank you for the record high productivity levels. Nothing. Just derision and a promise to bite the butts of the candidates we support until they bleed.

Thanks, Mr. Donohue. You just helped push more voters toward the populist candidates.