Now for some eye candy:  visualizations of the tabular data I shared in my last post on the US Chamber of Commerce board’s political networks and giving patterns.

I’m going to start with the strongest ties — the edges on the below graph mean that the donors they link have 14 or more recipients in common.*  The shorter the edge, the more ties in common.  The nodes are colored red for donors who give more than 80% of their contributions to Republicans, and pink for donors who give 60-80% of their contributions to Republicans.

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The data is in — as promised, we’ve compiled comprehensive political giving info for every US Chamber of Commerce board member using OpenSecrets campaign contribution data.

Current Chamber board members have given over $6 million in campaign contributions since 1992, an average of over $50,000 per director. Roughly 85% of these funds went to Republicans.*

The biggest political donor on the Chamber’s board is George Argyros, the billionaire former ambassador to Spain and much-maligned past owner of the Seattle Mariners. Argyros has given close to $1 million to politicians over the years, with about 99% of it going to Republicans.

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Senator Dodd chose an interesting time to release his financial reform bill. Ten years ago this week, Republicans and Democrats joined hands to gut the Depression-era banking reforms known as “Glass-Steagall.” This helped pave the way for the Wall Street-induced economic disaster we are currently experiencing.

At the time, the reformers were quite pleased with themselves, and celebrated by eating a cake bearing the epitaph of Glass Steagall (!!!) and joking about how average Americans knew nothing about financial reform.

Not kidding. From the November 8, 1999 American Banker:

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In the hopes of predicting the next defector from the Chamber of Commerce (following the high-profile lead of Apple), we’ve compiled comprehensive political giving info on the business lobby’s 100+ board members.  By analyzing the political ties among the directors, we figured we’d be able to get an idea of who really rules the Chamber — and who is next to leave.

Priscilla and sundin pitched in to assemble the data, drawn from Open Secrets’ stash.  Some interesting patterns emerged, and we built a fascinating data set.  But I don’t think we’re ready to make any predictions, just yet.

In order to get a better sense of how the Chamber works, we need more eyes and better data.  So I’ve started a new research group focused on the Chamber  – join up if you’re interested in figuring out who really rules the Chamber of Commerce.  It’s also linked from the front page.

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President Obama snatched up endorsements of the health bill by AARP and AMA and will visit the Capitol today to make one last push to lawmakers. (WSJ)

Fourteen people are now charged with insider trading in conjunction with the Galleon Group case. (NYT)

AIG posts its second straight profit, but there is still no word on when the company will repay its bailout funds. (Reuters)

Banks are changing their bonus formulas to stall efforts by Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg to rein in corporate pay. (Bloomberg)

The climate change bill — which was pushed through the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee by Sen. Barbara Boxer without Republican input — is raising flags about whether it will pass through the full Senate next year. (NYT)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing for a vote on the health bill Saturday. (NYT)

Fourteen more arrests have been made in the Galleon insider trading case. (Bloomberg)

The Senate unanimously passed legislation yesterday to give tax breaks to big companies hit by the recession, but Rep. Charles Rangel, chair of the Ways and Means Committee, says comprehensive overhaul of corporate taxation is on the way. (WSJ)

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has passed the Democrat-penned bill to cut carbon emissions, but it may not be voted on in the full Senate until 2010. (Reuters)

Google CEO Eric Schmidt gets pensive about what makes a good tech hire. (WSJ)

Sen. Harry Reid said the health reform debate may carry on into 2010. (WSJ)

House Republicans have drafted their own health bill with no public option that doesn’t require people to have insurance or employers to provide it. (NYT)

The GOP wins two key gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia and Republican Michael Bloomberg is reelected as mayor of New York. (NYT)

Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg met with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon prior to capping executive pay at bailed-out financial firms. (Bloomberg)

Warren Buffett has joined Goldman Sachs in a bid to buy stakes in Fannie Mae. (WSJ)

Sen. Barbara Boxer has charged the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee with completing a climate change bill before the international summit in Copenhagen in December. (Reuters)

Three key races will play out today in New York, New Jersey and Virginia and Republicans are poised to claim victory. (WSJ)

A study released by Sen. Jay Rockefeller shows insurance companies are paying less on the dollar for premiums than they’re advertising. (NYT)

Chairman Walter Massey may move Bank of America’s headquarters to New York to entice more CEO candidates. (Bloomberg)

The Federal Open Market Committee, the policy-setting arm of the Federal Reserve, will meet this week to discuss the economic future. (Reuters)

Rep. John Boehner says House Republicans will release their own health bill this week. (WSJ)

White House economic adviser Larry Summers will hold a meeting today to discuss the economy. Among the attendees are Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. (Reuters)

CEO of Bank of New York Mellon Robert Kelly was approached to be Bank of America’s next CEO, but he declined. (WSJ)

After months of scrambling to stay afloat, CIT Group files for bankruptcy. (Reuters)

Ford had its first profitable quarter in four years, posting gains of $997 million. (NYT)