RNC

FEC Asked To Investigate Crossroads GPS for Campaign Finance Law Violations, Watchdogs Say in Complaint to FEC

Submitted by luaptifer on October 14, 2010 - 20:10

Rove Group Appears to Operate As a Political Committee But Is Not Registered As One, Says Public Citizen and Protect Our Elections

Contact: Angela Bradbery, Public Citizen, (202) 588-7741
Kevin Zeese, Protect Our Elections, (301) 996-6582

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Crossroads Grassroots Political Strategies, an organization created by Republican strategists Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie to influence the midterm elections with huge expenditures of money, appears to be violating federal campaign law, Public Citizen and Protect Our Elections told the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in a complaint filed Wednesday.

The complaint explains that there is ample reason to believe that Crossroads GPS, which is registered as a nonprofit 501c(4) organization, is in fact a political committee and should be subject to the restrictions and disclosure rules for political committees, the groups say.

FEC, Karl Rove, RNC, American Crossroads, Ed Gillespie, noncompliance, election law violation, financial disclosure, unlimited corporate spending, Crossroads GPS

Watchdog Groups Launch New Campaign To Stop Karl Rove's Dirty Tricks And Dirty Money In This Year's Elections

Submitted by luaptifer on September 14, 2010 - 13:05

AmericanCrossroadsWatch.org Files Criminal Complaints, Offers Reward, Creates Ads, And Launches Boycotts

Today, www.AmericanCrossroadsWatch.org, a group of national watchdog organizations dedicated to clean elections and corporate accountability launched a new campaign to stop Karl Rove from using dirty tricks and dirty money to manipulate the mid-term elections by buying candidates who will support Big Business and deregulation. Rove created American Crossroads ("AC") several months ago in a hostile takeover of the Republican National Committee, and funded it by joining forces with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a cabal of billionaire corporate barons opposed to any common sense regulation, health care, environmental protection, or financial accountability. The Chamber's Chief Counsel, Steven Law, was named AC's CEO. AC plans to amass more than $50 million from companies making secret donations, and spend that money to influence elections and buy candidates.

dirty tricks, Karl Rove, Chamber of Commerce, RNC, boycott, American Crossroads, Steven Law, AmericanCrossroadsWatch.org, Carly Fiorina, Gold's Gym, Omni Hotels, Public Storage

Meet me at the corner of RNC and Grassroots Fail

Submitted by Connecticut Man1 on June 23, 2010 - 11:08

Chris Cilliza, at The Fix, reported on one of the most recent right wing attack PACs formed by some of the former RNC failed leaders to help get around the current RNC failed leaders:

Karl Rove, Michael Steele, RNC, Tea Party, Koch Industries, Koch Brothers, American Crossroads, PAC, Freedoms Watch, Ed Gillespie

Open Thread - Whipping up a Frenzy About Puppies and Horses

Submitted by Connecticut Man1 on April 12, 2010 - 16:39

Should we infer from Mike Huckabee's bizarre statement and his family history that gays should (or do) experiment with the mistreatment of puppies before we give them kids and that his son is gay?

Hey, you know, he's right. Children aren't puppies. And thank God for that! I wouldn't even want to contemplate what Huckabee and his brood might do if they thought they were.

You're going to want to be more careful than that next time, Mike. If you think hard enough, I'm sure you can come up with something none of your kids have yet been caught torturing and murdering as the subject of your next attempt to make your political point. That way, you can stick to the merely crazy, rather than inadvertently straying into the psychopathic.

Are we to understand that the Tea Party has more than just crazy candidates in their stables and that the campaign ads they trot out could end up being pure political porn?

An online news outlet in New York state has obtained dozens of emails, many of them racist and sexually graphic, which it reports were sent by Carl Paladino, the Tea-Party-backed Republican candidate for governor of New York, to a long list of political and business associates. One email shows a video of an African tribal dance, entitled "Obama Inauguration Rehearsal," while another depicts hardcore bestiality.

Paladino's campaign manager, Michael Caputo, would not comment on specific emails, but acknowledged to TPMmuckraker that Paladino had sent emails that were "off-color" and "politically incorrect," saying that few such emails represented the candidate's own opinion. Caputo accused Democrats of wanting to change the subject from substantive issues to "having sex with horses."

Is a crack about Michael Steele whipping the RNC and his party boys into shape really that tasteless given the other material we have to work with?

"The honest answer is yes," Steele said. "It just is. Barack Obama has a slimmer margin. We -- a lot of folks do. It's a different role for me to play and others to play, and that's just the reality of it."

Well, it's obvious that race is not the reason why Steele is in such trouble with the pooh-bahs of his party. They're angry at him for being such an indefatigable self-promoter, for seeming to care more about his own career as an author, lecturer and television talking head than about the party's fortunes, for spending the party's money lavishly at a time when many Americans are suffering economic hardship, and for handling the party's money so carelessly that $1,946.25 was spent at Voyeur West Hollywood, a topless club with a sadomasochistic theme. I will make no tasteless crack about Steele having promised to whip the party into shape.

Should chronicling what is supposed to be a serious political party or even a fringe political movement really be this bizarre? And Republicans and the right wing were indignant about having to explain about a BJ to their kids. Where is their outrage about having to explain their own behavior to their kids? Or does the right wing think these things will just remain their dirty little secrets?

Hopefully anything posted in comment in this Open Thread will be less offensive to the average person than the material that preceded it...

Mike Huckabee, Porn, Michael Steele, RNC, Tea Party, Carl Paladino, Sex Club, Horses, Puppies

Recruiting Young Republicans and Off to the Sex Club...

Submitted by Connecticut Man1 on March 30, 2010 - 17:04

There was quite a bit of talk yesterday concerning the RNC's interesting expense account... Obviously spending the money people donate to the Republican National Committee on a night out at an expensive Hollywood bondage and lesbian themed sex club was not exactly what the donors would hope for, never mind the $17,000 on private jets and the other booze as well...

But relax folks! It is just the good old fashioned way that Republican leadership wants to help raise your kids:

One California blog, Red County, reports that Brown isn't the staffer. Instead, they say, Brown paid the bill (and submitted it to the RNC as an expense) after a staffer's credit card was declined, according to anonymous sources.

The blog also reports that the excursion took place after a recruiting event for the RNC Young Eagles at the Beverly Hills hotel.

This makes it all OK, right? Right...

Sex, Donations, Michael Steele, RNC, Bondage, Club, Lesbians, Young Republicans

Michael Steele's Big Night Out

Submitted by Connecticut Man1 on March 29, 2010 - 17:50

And you, dear Republican donors, get stuck with the bill!

"GOP Chairman Michael Steele spends $1,946.25 of RNC money at sex-themed Hollywood nightclub"

Not just any sex club but a bondage club that specializes in lesbian sex shows... That is where your hard earned dollars go to when you donate to Republicans. That or paying for limousines and gambling:

gambling, Chris Shays, Sex, Donations, Michael Steele, RNC, Bondage, Club, DUI, Chris Healy

Idaho's Blake Hall, "Second-most-senior member of the RNC" & "Stalker"

Submitted by Connecticut Man1 on November 10, 2009 - 10:37

Via Idahostatesman.com:

Blake Hall, a leading figure in Idaho and national politics for 25 years, was fired Monday as a deputy prosecuting attorney in eastern Idaho and has resigned from the Republican National Committee.

Hall, a former member of the state Board of Education, pleaded guilty Friday to stalking a former girlfriend and is serving a 15-day jail sentence. He also was sentenced to a year of supervised probation. A six-month jail sentence was suspended

...snip...

Idaho Falls police reported that witnesses said Hall disposed of used condoms on the lawn of the woman's house. Nineteen condoms were turned over to police, collected on 10 different dates, according to a police report. Both Hall and his lawyer acknowledged the condoms belonged to him, according to a police report.

...snip...

Hall's tenure with the Republican National Committee also dates to the 1980s. Until his resignation, he was the second-most-senior member of the RNC.

Not even gonna make a joke here about this one because stalking is always a serious issue.

GOP, Republican, Abuse, RNC, Idaho, Stalking, Blake Hall, Republican National Committee

Republicans: "Look Y'all–We Got Us One Too!"

Submitted by Wattree on February 2, 2009 - 05:18

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Republicans: "Look Y'all–We Got Us One Too!"

I hate to be cynical, and I certainly hate to drag the issue of race back into the public debate while President Obama and literally millions of Americans of good will are working so hard to put this ugly issue behind us, but where I come from we believe in calling a hat a hat. And the fact is, the Republican Party's selection of Michael Steele as the very first Black chairman of the Republican National Committee in its 153 year history, just reeks of political manipulation.

But I'm virtually certain that my Republican friends are going to say, "We just can't win–first you criticize us for not being inclusive enough, now you're criticize us for electing a Black man as head of the party. Exactly what do we have to do to make you happy?"

Republicans, Conservative, Michael Steele, RNC, Chairman, Black