Tag Archives: Iowa

Quote of the Day — And Maybe the Month

“Between you and me, I’m sort of holding my nose for two years cause what we’re doing here is gonna be a big benefit to Rand in ’16.”

Jesse Benton, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager (probably not for long) for his 2014 re-election, in a recorded telephone conversation with Republican activist Dennis Fusaro.

Fusaro leaked the conversation to the Economic Policy Journal as part of the scandal about Ron Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign paying Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson to jump ship from Michele Bachmann to Paul.  Under Iowa law, Sorenson couldn’t be paid by a presidential campaign, but he was. We’re talking a couple of hundred thousand dollars here.

Jesse Benton, who married into the Paul family, was Ron Paul’s national campaign chairman in 2012 and Rand Paul’s campaign manager in 2010.

McConnell needs Rand Paul’s support in his fight against Tea Party primary challengers, and then of course McConnell would be heavily in Rand Paul’s debt come 2016.

This is getting nasty, and it isn’t just about Kentucky, it has national implications for the next presidential election.

FBI Joins Bachmann Investigation

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) is already under investigation by the Federal Elections Commission, the Office of Congressional Ethics, and the Iowa State Senate ethics committee for possible campaign finance violations in her 2012 presidential campaign.

Now the FBI is joining the party, which means possible criminal charges and penalties.

I want to see her gone from the House as much as, well, as much as she wants to see the Kenyan Muslim Communist gone from the White House.

I don’t care if she goes to jail, I just want her out of politics forever, replaced by someone a little brighter and a lot less crazy.  That would be just about anyone who lives in her district.

 

This Brightened My Day

From “Former chief of staff to break silence on Michele Bachmann,” Kevin Diaz, Minneapolis Star Tribune:

“GOP operative Andy Parrish, a former chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, is expected to tell an Iowa Senate ­ethics panel that her 2012 presidential campaign made improper payments to its state chairman.

“…Parrish referred questions Wednesday to his attorney, John Gil­more, who said his client will corroborate allegations from another former Bachmann aide, Peter Waldron.

“Waldron, a Florida pastor, claims that the campaign hid payments to Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson, in violation of Iowa Senate ethics rules that bar members from receiving pay from presidential campaigns. …

“Waldron’s accusations are also the subject of inquiries by the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the independent Office of Congressional Ethics. The investigations are part of a growing web of legal problems facing Bachmann, including a lawsuit by former staffer Barbara Heki alleging that Sorenson stole a proprietary e-mail list of Iowa home-school families from her personal computer. Those allegations also are the subject of an ongoing police investigation in Urbandale, Iowa.

“Gilmore said Parrish can provide the ethics panel documentary evidence that Sorenson was paid $7,500 a month to work on Bachmann’s campaign, money that was funneled to him indirectly through C&M Strategies, a Colorado-based company controlled by Bachmann fundraiser Guy Short.

“Among the sources of the funding, Waldron contends, was Bachmann’s independent political organization, Michele­PAC, also headed by Short.”

It would be fantastic to see Bachmann go to the Big House, but I’ll be thrilled just to get her out of the people’s House.

How Gerrymandering Hurts GOP

Much has been made of all the safe GOP House Seats, of how their occupants don’t have to fear a general election, just a primary challenge.  Much has been made of how the gerrymandered seats let the GOP keep control of the House even though Dems got 1 million more House votes in 2012.

But there is an enormous downside to the GOP’s failure/inability to develop a strong bench for higher office by electing nut jobs to the House.

You get people in Congress like Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin who don’t just make fools of themselves when they run for Senate, they hurt the party nationally.  Akin didn’t just kill the GOP’s chances of picking up a Senate seat in Missouri, he hurt other Senate races and he hurt Mitt Romney because of his damage to the overall GOP brand.

In the 2014 races, we may see the same thing play out with Steve King in Iowa and with Paul Broun in Georgia.  Their inflammatory and bizarre beliefs will make news all across the country.

All politics may be local, but the politics of crazy has national consequences.

Complaint Against Bachmann at Federal Election Commission

Peter Waldron, who was national field coordinator for Michele Bachmann’s failed 2012 presidential campaign, has filed a complaint against her at the FEC.*

He claims that she improperly used money from MichelePAC to pay fundraiser Guy Short for work on the presidential campaign.

He also claims that she hid payments to Kent Sorenson, her Iowa chairman.  As an Iowa state senator, Sorenson couldn’t legally be paid for work on a presidential campaign.

* “Ex-Bachmann aide alleges campaign finance violations,” Kevin Diaz, StarTribune

Picture Bachmann In An Orange Jumpsuit

Salon has an interesting story up*, that Michele Bachmann hasn’t paid five Iowa staffers from her failed presidential campaign because they have refused to sign an agreement prohibiting them from discussing with police or the press “unethical, immoral, or criminal activity” they saw.

There is an ongoing criminal investigation pertaining to a home schooling group’s accusations that Bachmann’s campaign stole their email list.  The group has also filed a civil law suit.  As Dick Morris will be the first to tell you (check out the self-dealing between his PAC and Newsmax to make Morris rich from selling his email list, whereby poor fools donate to Morris’ PAC, the PAC then pays Newsmax for Morris’ list and calls it “fundraising,” and Newsmax pays Morris), you can’t just steal someone’s list, you have to pay for it.

I love the image of Bachmann in an orange jumpsuit, picking up trash by the side of the road.

* “Bachmann still hasn’t paid presidential campaign staffers,” Alex Seitz-Wald