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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Crazy Grayson Accused of Campaign Finance Violation (Isn't Karma Wonderful ?)

Sometimes bad things do happen to bad people, karma is a wonderful thing isn't it? Alan Grayson, the Human embarrassment from Florida may be in for a spot of trouble.  The Congressman who gives a good name to a bull in a china shop, made himself famous with really nasty comments about people, he said of former Vice President Dick Cheney: “I have trouble listening to what he says sometimes because of the blood that drips from his teeth while he’s talking,” he also called Fox News the enemy of America, a female adviser to the Federal Reserve chairman “a K Street whore," and he speculated that gasoline would only cost a dollar per gallon if former President George W. Bush had let Saudi Prince Abdullah "get to second base"  All that is just a small sample of his putrid venom.

The congressman, who is often confused with Shamu the whale, may have some nastiness thrown his own way. According to CQ Politics, election regulators are investigating Grayson for botching the disclosure language on a recent fund raising appeal.
Grayson is accused in a complaint filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission of breaking federal campaign finance laws earlier this week when his campaign solicited prohibited corporate campaign contributions on behalf of a Florida political candidate, Scott Maddox.
In an e-mail sent by re-election committee, Grayson asked his donors to attend a Thursday fundraiser and give the maximum “$500 per person or corporate” contribution to Maddox, who is seeking the Democratic nomination to be the Sunshine State’s commissioner of agriculture and consumer services. If he wins the August primary, Maddox is expected to face retiring Rep. Adam H. Putnam(R-Fla.) in November’s general election.

The problem with Grayson’s plea? Campaign finance law bars federal officeholders and candidates from soliciting contributions for state candidates — who often raise money under more liberal restrictions — from corporations, foreign nationals and other prohibited sources. A Florida real estate company filed a complaint with the FEC about the fundraising appeal — and a Republican operative accused Grayson of hypocrisy.

“No member of Congress has railed as vociferously as Alan Grayson has against the supposedly pernicious influence corporations have on our political process, but now he’s getting busted for illegally soliciting corporate donations himself,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Andy Sere said in a statement. “Like too many loud-mouthed Washington politicians, Grayson’s motto appears to be, ‘Do as I scream, not as I do.’”
Hypocrisy is right. Immediately after the recent SCOTUS decision about corporate participation in political campaigns, Grayson released the following:
“This is the worst Supreme Court decision since the Dred Scott case,” the Florida freshman says. “It leads us all down the road to serfdom.”

The pugnacious former lawyer, who faces a tough re-election battle this year, predicts that “If we do nothing, then before long, there won’t be senators from Oklahoma or Virginia, there will be senators from Citibank and Wal-Mart.” And he muses, “Maybe they will wear insignias on their $500 suits, like NASCAR drivers do.”

Grayson has already introduced five bills to curb the court’s ruling and “save our democracy.”

And yes, the congressman whose children are named Skye, Star, Sage, Storm and Stone had some fun with the bills’ titles.

There’s the Businesses Should Mind Their Own Business Act, the Public Company Responsibility Act and the End Political Kickbacks Act.

Grayson also would have publicly traded companies disclose their campaign spending in SEC filings (The Corporate Propaganda Sunshine Act) and ban cooperation between industry PACs (The Ending Corporate Collusion Act).
I agree with the SCOTUS decision, but even if I didn't--the worse since Dred Scott? Is he really saying that there are no SCOTUS decisions after Dred Scott that were worse than this?  How about Plessy vs. Ferguson, that was the one where the court said that "separate but equal" was OK, that was pretty bad. Many Democrats would say that Bush vs. Gore was worse than this. How about Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock.  a 1903 case in which the Court basically said that Congress can do anything it wants to with an Indian tribe, including steal its land.

Grayson forgets all the special interests that helped him get elected. Lets take a look at some of the places where his 2008 campaign money came from.

Is it me or does it seem like this advocate for congressional independence take an awful lot of cash from labor unions?

IDT Corp$18,200
Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers$11,000
American Federation of Teachers$10,000
Service Employees International Union$10,000
Teamsters Union$10,000
Flo-Sun Inc$9,200
Human Rights Campaign$7,025
Poet & Designer$6,900
American Assn for Justice$5,000
American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees$5,000
AmeriPAC: The Fund for a Greater America$5,000
AT&T Inc$5,000
BRIDGE PAC$5,000
Carpenters & Joiners Union$5,000
Communications Workers of America$5,000
Democratic Party of Florida$5,000
International Assn of Fire Fighters$5,000
Ironworkers Union$5,000
Laborers Union$5,000
Machinists/Aerospace Workers Union$5,000
NARAL Pro-Choice America$5,000
National Air Traffic Controllers Assn$5,000
National Assn of Letter Carriers$5,000
National Assn of Realtors$5,000
National Education Assn$5,000
New Democrat Coalition$5,000
Operating Engineers Union$5,000
Painters &; Allied Trades Union$5,000
Planned Parenthood$5,000
Plumbers/Pipefitters Union$5,000
Sheet Metal Workers Union$5,000
United Auto Workers$5,000




In the disclosure language case, Grayson’s campaign denied any wrongdoing in sending out the appeal being investigated.
“We checked with our federal election attorney, and he told us that the complaint is entirely without merit,” spokesman Todd Jurkowski said in a statement.


But the matter may not be that stark, campaign finance lawyers say. Legal experts say Grayson’s campaign undoubtedly muffed the wording on the solicitation, but they differ as to whether FEC commissioners would be heavy-handed in punishing the central Florida Democrat.


“He made a rookie mistake. You are allowed to be listed on a state candidate fundraising invitation. It needs to have a disclaimer, and you cannot request money that doesn’t comply with federal law,” one lawyer said. “This law’s been in effect for how many years? And some of these guys keep making this mistake.”
In all probability, this is probably a very tiny unintentional violation.  But it is entertaining   to see this congressional hypocrite and all-around nasty person being harassed for breaking the rules.

1 comment:

Mike aka Proof said...

"the worst Supreme Court decision since the Dred Scott case"
Grayson is in all likelihood historically illiterate, and heard somewhere, sometime that Dred Scott was a bad thing, whatever that was!