K
Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names
Guest
High Crimes and Misdemeanors on the Republican Campaign Trail
By John Gorenfeld, AlterNet
Posted on August 24, 2007, Printed on August 24, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/60573/
November 2008 is a long way off, and there's been widespread concern
that the presidential campaign season has already drawn on so long
that it will exhaust public attention. Fortunately, the McCain,
Giuliani and Romney campaigns have generously sustained our interest
this summer with one corrupt campaign official after another stepping
down after doing more than the law will allow. Here's a rundown on the
GOP campaign scoundrels of 2008.
1. McCain campaign's outhouse outreach efforts in Florida
On July 11, Sen. John McCain's Florida campaign co-chair Bob Allen, a
state assemblyman with an unrelentingly anti-gay record, knocked on a
park bathroom stall in Titusville, Fla., and offered the man within a
$20 bill to give him a blow job. The man was an undercover officer.
At first it seemed to be a familiar kind of tale -- the secret
passions of a conservative who had taken a strong moral stand against
gay adoption, and even presented to his state's Committee on Homeland
Security & Public Safety a bill that would have tightened the
loopholes against public masturbators.
Recently, however, the story has taken on new dimensions with various
accounts from Allen. To see the big picture, he explains, you must
take into account that there was a lightning storm (from which he took
refuge in the bathroom, he says), the park's "stocky" black people
(i.e., their presence scared Allen into paying), and his panic that he
might "become a statistic" if he didn't act fast.
Fearful of being mugged, the awfully jumpy Bob Allen told the police
that he cut the blow job deal so that he could reach a guarded
security area, the nearest of which was several miles away from him --
a plan which resists easy understanding. Maybe Allen hoped the oral
sex could somehow stun his adversary?
Rather than quit his duties as assemblyman, Allen has apologized to
the local NAACP for his "stocky" comment, explaining that in the
course of being "accused of being a bathroom cruising pervert, and
then a racist," he has come to understand the black (not gay) civil
rights struggle better.
He plans to run for the state senate in 2010.
2. Romney's Secret Service wannabe
In 2004, law enforcement officers, having towed an illegally parked
car, were surprised to find within it, according to the Boston Herald,
"a set of red-and-blue flashing lights hidden in the grill [...] a
siren and public address system, multiple police radios, strobe lights
on the wheels, a police baton and a metal plate with a photo of a
state police patch that said "official business."
The car belonged to Gov. Mitt Romney's "director of operations," Jay
Garrity, who quit the candidate's presidential campaign in July after
it emerged that he was now in trouble in two states for pretending to
be a cop during the course of his duties in Romney's "logistics"
department. He had handed out fake State of Massachusetts badges for
use by colleagues and was said to have used his cop status to blaze
through turnpikes without paying.
"I have resigned from the Mitt Romney for President campaign so that
the media attention on me will not become a distraction to the
campaign's efforts," he said.
Just two days after Garrity's resignation, the Herald reported that
Romney's event planner, Will Ritter, had uploaded a MySpace page
painting himself as a "Jason Bourne-esque" figure in the description
of the newspaper whose duties include "very secretive work" in
"special ops."
3. Romney's fraudmeister
More Romney. One of 35 co-chairs of candidate Mitt Romney's national
war chest, a businessman named Alan Fabian, was in trouble this August
for an alleged $32 million swindle -- one of the largest cases of its
kind ever prosecuted in his home state of Maryland.
The way it supposedly worked was this: As head of his Virginia-based
consulting company, Maximus, Inc., he'd first put in fake orders for
computers. Instead of getting a Dell, the outfit was secretly paying
for Fabian's beach houses and private jet travel. So he's facing 23
charges, including money laundering, mail and bankruptcy fraud,
perjury and obstruction of justice.
Fabian was what's known in campaign finance terms as a "bundler." The
bundler has emerged as clever rich people have sought to bypass newer
campaign finance laws that cap off how much a single person can give.
Instead, the bundler promises to bring in an entire network of moneyed
friends.
He'd also been a bundler for the president. The Romney campaign has
said it will be giving back the $2,300 that Fabian gave directly (the
maximum) but not necessarily the heap of cash that he brought in, all
bundled up. According to a representative of the governor's 2008
campaign, "The money he helped raise was donated by people who have
not been accused of any wrongdoing, and so there is no reason for
returning it."
4. Giuliani's coke connection in South Carolina
Three men have now been indicted in a federal narcotics investigation
that led in June to the arrest of Thomas Ravenel, the state treasurer
of South Carolina -- as well as Rudy Giuliani's state campaign chair.
The son of powerful former U.S. Rep. Arthur Ravenel, R-S.C., Ravenel
has been described by one journalist as "breezy", by some as arrogant
and by a federal grand jury as one of a small group who bore a "tacit
understanding" that they planned to distribute among themselves less
than 500 grams of cocaine.
Prosecutors have not alleged that Ravenel, the real estate developer,
actually sold the cocaine. But he could be in prison for up to 20
years and face a $1 million fine if convicted. In response, Giuliani's
campaign issued a statement explaining that Rudy's man in the Palmetto
State "has stepped down from his volunteer responsibilities with the
campaign."
Ravenel, a defender of flying the Confederate flag and speaking to
white supremacist groups, has courted controversy in the past by
making a defiant speech against the NAACP, to which he referred --
possibly while dusted to the gills -- as the "National Association of
Retarded People."
5. Sen. David Vitter -- A familiar face to the House of the Rising Sun
Also coordinating Giuliani's march through the South is his regional
chair, Sen. David Vitter, R-La. Cut from the same uncompromising moral
cloth as Bob Allen, Vitter is on record as having said he doesn't
"believe there's any issue that's more important" than gay marriage.
In July, his telephone number surfaced amid the records of "D.C.
Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Of the several times he rung up her
brothel, two of his calls were during House roll call votes, according
to the Associated Press.
"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course,
completely responsible," the senator explained. He is still with the
campaign, though a report in New Orleans City Business asserted that
he has been "quietly marginalized" in Rudy's army and can probably
forget about longstanding hopes to be a veep nominee.
6. Fred Thompson: FEC flouter
This month, liberal activist Lane Hudson made trouble for actor
Thompson, filing a complaint that Thompson's "test-the-waters" fund-
raising is, on top of being a major disappointment so far to GOP
supporters, a pathetic sham that is allowing him to hire, poll and
fund-raise, all while escaping the oversight required for real
candidates. Now Thompson has two weeks to respond and faces a possible
fine of $1 million.
Like singer Axl Rose, who has delayed his comeback album Chinese
Democracy for 15 years on the premise that long waits build public
anticipation, Thompson has held out months for the moment when, it is
believed, he will throw his hat into the ring and be welcomed as the
Gipper's second coming. But according to Hudson, Thompson's testing-
and-retesting-the-waters promotes him to a scofflaw on the order of
such scoundrels as Tom DeLay and Mark Foley. Maybe not: Long-time
admirers of high GOP scandal may be disappointed by the shortage here
of dirty AOL chats, far-flung webs of bribery, casino yachts whose
owners turn up murdered, etc.
Bipartisan bonus: Bill Richardson's bookkeeper to the pimps
Crime isn't a GOP-only sport. Recently this August, Kristian Forland,
who ran Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson's presidential efforts in
rural Nevada, got in trouble when it was revealed that he was wanted
for passing fake checks. He had also been "manager" of Mona's Ranch, a
legal house of prostitution in Elko, Nev. The Mona Ranch website
extends a folksy invitation: "Y'all cum now, ya hear!" In his defense,
Forland -- disliked by the girls for shorting them on their wages --
explained that he'd merely managed the books and "not the girls per
se." He has since left the Richardson campaign.
By John Gorenfeld, AlterNet
Posted on August 24, 2007, Printed on August 24, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/60573/
November 2008 is a long way off, and there's been widespread concern
that the presidential campaign season has already drawn on so long
that it will exhaust public attention. Fortunately, the McCain,
Giuliani and Romney campaigns have generously sustained our interest
this summer with one corrupt campaign official after another stepping
down after doing more than the law will allow. Here's a rundown on the
GOP campaign scoundrels of 2008.
1. McCain campaign's outhouse outreach efforts in Florida
On July 11, Sen. John McCain's Florida campaign co-chair Bob Allen, a
state assemblyman with an unrelentingly anti-gay record, knocked on a
park bathroom stall in Titusville, Fla., and offered the man within a
$20 bill to give him a blow job. The man was an undercover officer.
At first it seemed to be a familiar kind of tale -- the secret
passions of a conservative who had taken a strong moral stand against
gay adoption, and even presented to his state's Committee on Homeland
Security & Public Safety a bill that would have tightened the
loopholes against public masturbators.
Recently, however, the story has taken on new dimensions with various
accounts from Allen. To see the big picture, he explains, you must
take into account that there was a lightning storm (from which he took
refuge in the bathroom, he says), the park's "stocky" black people
(i.e., their presence scared Allen into paying), and his panic that he
might "become a statistic" if he didn't act fast.
Fearful of being mugged, the awfully jumpy Bob Allen told the police
that he cut the blow job deal so that he could reach a guarded
security area, the nearest of which was several miles away from him --
a plan which resists easy understanding. Maybe Allen hoped the oral
sex could somehow stun his adversary?
Rather than quit his duties as assemblyman, Allen has apologized to
the local NAACP for his "stocky" comment, explaining that in the
course of being "accused of being a bathroom cruising pervert, and
then a racist," he has come to understand the black (not gay) civil
rights struggle better.
He plans to run for the state senate in 2010.
2. Romney's Secret Service wannabe
In 2004, law enforcement officers, having towed an illegally parked
car, were surprised to find within it, according to the Boston Herald,
"a set of red-and-blue flashing lights hidden in the grill [...] a
siren and public address system, multiple police radios, strobe lights
on the wheels, a police baton and a metal plate with a photo of a
state police patch that said "official business."
The car belonged to Gov. Mitt Romney's "director of operations," Jay
Garrity, who quit the candidate's presidential campaign in July after
it emerged that he was now in trouble in two states for pretending to
be a cop during the course of his duties in Romney's "logistics"
department. He had handed out fake State of Massachusetts badges for
use by colleagues and was said to have used his cop status to blaze
through turnpikes without paying.
"I have resigned from the Mitt Romney for President campaign so that
the media attention on me will not become a distraction to the
campaign's efforts," he said.
Just two days after Garrity's resignation, the Herald reported that
Romney's event planner, Will Ritter, had uploaded a MySpace page
painting himself as a "Jason Bourne-esque" figure in the description
of the newspaper whose duties include "very secretive work" in
"special ops."
3. Romney's fraudmeister
More Romney. One of 35 co-chairs of candidate Mitt Romney's national
war chest, a businessman named Alan Fabian, was in trouble this August
for an alleged $32 million swindle -- one of the largest cases of its
kind ever prosecuted in his home state of Maryland.
The way it supposedly worked was this: As head of his Virginia-based
consulting company, Maximus, Inc., he'd first put in fake orders for
computers. Instead of getting a Dell, the outfit was secretly paying
for Fabian's beach houses and private jet travel. So he's facing 23
charges, including money laundering, mail and bankruptcy fraud,
perjury and obstruction of justice.
Fabian was what's known in campaign finance terms as a "bundler." The
bundler has emerged as clever rich people have sought to bypass newer
campaign finance laws that cap off how much a single person can give.
Instead, the bundler promises to bring in an entire network of moneyed
friends.
He'd also been a bundler for the president. The Romney campaign has
said it will be giving back the $2,300 that Fabian gave directly (the
maximum) but not necessarily the heap of cash that he brought in, all
bundled up. According to a representative of the governor's 2008
campaign, "The money he helped raise was donated by people who have
not been accused of any wrongdoing, and so there is no reason for
returning it."
4. Giuliani's coke connection in South Carolina
Three men have now been indicted in a federal narcotics investigation
that led in June to the arrest of Thomas Ravenel, the state treasurer
of South Carolina -- as well as Rudy Giuliani's state campaign chair.
The son of powerful former U.S. Rep. Arthur Ravenel, R-S.C., Ravenel
has been described by one journalist as "breezy", by some as arrogant
and by a federal grand jury as one of a small group who bore a "tacit
understanding" that they planned to distribute among themselves less
than 500 grams of cocaine.
Prosecutors have not alleged that Ravenel, the real estate developer,
actually sold the cocaine. But he could be in prison for up to 20
years and face a $1 million fine if convicted. In response, Giuliani's
campaign issued a statement explaining that Rudy's man in the Palmetto
State "has stepped down from his volunteer responsibilities with the
campaign."
Ravenel, a defender of flying the Confederate flag and speaking to
white supremacist groups, has courted controversy in the past by
making a defiant speech against the NAACP, to which he referred --
possibly while dusted to the gills -- as the "National Association of
Retarded People."
5. Sen. David Vitter -- A familiar face to the House of the Rising Sun
Also coordinating Giuliani's march through the South is his regional
chair, Sen. David Vitter, R-La. Cut from the same uncompromising moral
cloth as Bob Allen, Vitter is on record as having said he doesn't
"believe there's any issue that's more important" than gay marriage.
In July, his telephone number surfaced amid the records of "D.C.
Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey. Of the several times he rung up her
brothel, two of his calls were during House roll call votes, according
to the Associated Press.
"This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course,
completely responsible," the senator explained. He is still with the
campaign, though a report in New Orleans City Business asserted that
he has been "quietly marginalized" in Rudy's army and can probably
forget about longstanding hopes to be a veep nominee.
6. Fred Thompson: FEC flouter
This month, liberal activist Lane Hudson made trouble for actor
Thompson, filing a complaint that Thompson's "test-the-waters" fund-
raising is, on top of being a major disappointment so far to GOP
supporters, a pathetic sham that is allowing him to hire, poll and
fund-raise, all while escaping the oversight required for real
candidates. Now Thompson has two weeks to respond and faces a possible
fine of $1 million.
Like singer Axl Rose, who has delayed his comeback album Chinese
Democracy for 15 years on the premise that long waits build public
anticipation, Thompson has held out months for the moment when, it is
believed, he will throw his hat into the ring and be welcomed as the
Gipper's second coming. But according to Hudson, Thompson's testing-
and-retesting-the-waters promotes him to a scofflaw on the order of
such scoundrels as Tom DeLay and Mark Foley. Maybe not: Long-time
admirers of high GOP scandal may be disappointed by the shortage here
of dirty AOL chats, far-flung webs of bribery, casino yachts whose
owners turn up murdered, etc.
Bipartisan bonus: Bill Richardson's bookkeeper to the pimps
Crime isn't a GOP-only sport. Recently this August, Kristian Forland,
who ran Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson's presidential efforts in
rural Nevada, got in trouble when it was revealed that he was wanted
for passing fake checks. He had also been "manager" of Mona's Ranch, a
legal house of prostitution in Elko, Nev. The Mona Ranch website
extends a folksy invitation: "Y'all cum now, ya hear!" In his defense,
Forland -- disliked by the girls for shorting them on their wages --
explained that he'd merely managed the books and "not the girls per
se." He has since left the Richardson campaign.
