: Fenix Investors

Tom Daschle backed the patron who paid him a million-dollar salary and supplied him with a free car and driver for a job inside the Obama administration, two Democrats said Monday.
Democratic senators on Monday opened up a new line of defense for Daschle, saying his back-tax problems stemmed from Hindery’s failure to process the proper IRS paperwork on the limo rides.
“Leo’s last major forays into politics with John Edwards and Freddy Ferrer were singularly ill-considered,” said Steve Rattner, another media mogul and top Democratic fundraiser who clashed with Hindery during the 2005 mayoral race. “He has a habit of backing people who shouldn’t to be in the office they’re running for.”
Hindery, though, was also in the top rung of donors: He personally contributed more than $1 million to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee under Daschle’s leadership.
He also backed Edwards far beyond almost any other donor. Campaign finance records show that he underwrote private jet travel for Edwards’ 2008 campaign, a campaign finance loophole that has been since closed. A former aide said Hindery paid the bulk of Elizabeth Edwards’ travel expenses.
He also did a stint as CEO of the telecommunications firm Global Crossing, and in 2002 sued the then-bankrupt company for $822,000 in back salary and rent for his apartment in the Waldorf-Astoria.