Republican Bad Deeds for 10-16-06

Tom Delay says vote for Republican on “Dancing with the Stars”; then she withdraws; files for divorce; husband involved with George Bush, Christian Right, and pornography?
A while back, Tom Delay sent a letter out to Republicans asking then to vote for Sara Evans on “Dancing with the Stars” because she “represents good American values.”  Tom doesn’t think you should vote for the best dancer; everything is political with him.  Tom also said, “We need to send a message to Hollywood and the media that smut has no place on television by supporting good people like Sara Evans,” the letter read. “Sara will be a great representative of the values that we want to see in the media.” 

Well look what Sara Evans has brought to the media.  Sara Evans has now done just like Tom by withdrawing (from “Dancing with the Stars”) and filed for divorce from her husband, Craig Schelske, alleging that he had committed adultery, verbally abused her and frequently watched pornography at home.  Both Evans and Schelske are vocal, toe-the-line conservatives and supporters of the Christian Right.  Schelske has met with President Bush at least four times, according Schelske campaign press materials quoted in the Free Republic.  This total has likely increased as Evans campaigned for Bush in the 2004 election and Schelske.  He was the Republican candidate for Congress in Oregon’s 5th District in 2002 and served as a steering committee member for Bush’s 2004 run.  Schelske also has close connections with the Christian Right.  He has appeared on the 700 Club and is the executive director of AmericanDestiny.com, a put-more-God-in-the-schools organization that attempts to use advantageously religious statements made by the Founding Fathers to justify trashing the First Amendment.  In a June 16, 2006, interview, Sean Hannity describes Schelske as a “good friend.”

We don’t know if it’s Sara or Craig (or both) telling lies here, but at least one of those “family values” Republicans is a hypocrite.  Maybe the real moral of this story is don’t accept help from Tom DeLay.

Clear Lake area politician under investigation
Republican state Rep. John Davis is under investigation for possible campaign finance violations about what happened to nearly $100,000 in campaign donations.  Rep. Davis is unusually vague about what happens to much of that money.  There were entries such as, $5,490 for “miscellaneous expenses,” paying of an American Express bill.  In fact, credit card charges that contained no explanation as to what the card actually purchased total $48,734 in the last six years.  More entries included John Davis paying John Davis with campaign donations.  He lists them as reimbursements for “out of pocket expenses,” but the ethics commission rules are clear on that: Politicians need to specifically say what they’re purchasing, and why they need to be reimbursed with campaign donations.  And Rep. Davis never does.  In six years, those out of pocket reimbursements add up to $50,135.

FBI Reportedly Investigating (Another) GOP Congressman
The FBI is investigating whether Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) used his influence to secure lobbying and consulting contracts  worth at least $1 million for his daughter, two people familiar with the inquiry told the AP over the weekend. Federal agents are apparently focusing on Weldon’s work between 2002 and 2004 to help two Russian companies and two Serbian brothers connected to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who were also clients of the firm operated by Weldon’s daughter.

Under Oath, Fordham Once Again Contradicts Hastert
The House ethics committee heard its first sworn testimony yesterday, and already, House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s version of when his staff first learned of former Rep. Mark Foley’s conduct has been contradicted. Former Foley aide Kirk Fordham testified before the panel for five hours, and repeated under oath his contention that he first alerted Hastert’s office at least three years ago.

The Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), has recently held meetings in Paris with a front man working for Iranian arms dealer and Iran-Contra figure Manucher Ghorbani
Also, in July 2005, it was reported  that Congressmen Hoekstra had traveled to Paris along with Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA), the No. 2 Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, to meet with Ghorbanifar front man Fereidoun Mahdavi.Two former senior intelligence officers and current intelligence sources abroad have now described a more recent meeting between Hoekstra and Mahdavi that took place in Paris sometime between the spring and summer of this year. What is by far of greatest concern to the sources is that accompanying Hoekstra on the trip was Vaughn Forrest, a mysterious character who, like Ghorbanifar, has ties to the Iran-Contra scandal.

David Kuo, former #2 in the Bush administrations Office of Faith-Based Initiatives says “the name of god is being destroyed in the name of politics”
Kuo was interviewed on 60 Minutes.  As correspondent Lesley Stahl reports, he also says the White House was a place that cynically used religion for political ends and that White House aides ridiculed the very Christian leaders who helped bring Mr. Bush to office.  In his book, Kuo wrote that White House staffers would roll their eyes at evangelicals, calling them “nuts” and “goofy.”

NBC News forced Phil Donahue to book more conservatives than liberals and wanted him to imitate Bill O’Reilly
So says Jeff Cohen, who was a producer for Phil Donahue’s talk show.  Less than four years ago Donahue’s show imploded primarily because MSNBC and its corporate owners were afraid to have a show seen as liberal or anti-Bush at a time those opinions were less popular, he said.

Paramount Hires Path to 9/11 Writer For Movie On ‘The Hunt For Osama Bin Laden’
Cyrus Nowresteh wrote ABC’s docudrama “The Path to 9/11.”  Norwresteh maintained the movie was “an objective telling of the events of 9/11.”  But his script contained several glaring inaccuracies, all of which shifted blame to the Clinton administration.  Nearly 100,000 people contacted ABC to protest the film.  Now Paramount Pictures and Oliver Stone have signed up Norwresteh to write another movie about 9/11.  The movie is to be based on a book, also called “Jawbreaker,” that blames the Clinton administration for failing to capture Bin Laden and praises President Bush

Investigation shows Republican U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell pushes the government to help cigarette makers, Las Vegas casinos, the pharmaceutical industry, credit card lenders, coal mine owners and others
McConnell has come to represent his affluent donors at the expense of Kentucky, the relatively poor state he is supposed to represent. They point, for example, to his support last year for a tough bankruptcy law, backed by New York banks that support him.

And now for something light-hearted:
How I sold one copy of Bill O’Reilly’s new book
By: John Amato
I stopped off at the Barnes & Noble in Marina Del Rey to buy the new Michael Connelly book, “Echo Park”.  The store was quite empty and I asked a cashier where they had a copy.  She walked me over to the front of the store that has new arrivals on a big dark brown table and I picked one up.  On the same table, there were several copies of Bill O’Reilly’s new polemic “Culture Warrior.”  His head had a shiny glare from the florescent lights up above.
I asked her how the book was selling and she told me that Woodward’s book (State of Denial) knocked all of them off of the B&N’s charts.  I told her how Billy was bad mouthing Nancy Pelosi last night because the polls were favoring the Democrats when suddenly, a man probably in his late seventies or early eighties dressed in small yellow shorts and a red cap grabbed O’Reilly’s book off the table and yelled at me,
• “Damn Liberal! Now I’m buying this book, you goddamn liberal,” and he stormed away.
I turned to the cashier and started laughing as she was trying to restrain herself. I mean, that came out of nowhere.
• “Now there’s an O’Reilly fan for you, ” she said.
I felt really bad because he did get quite excited.
• I said, “Wow, he became unglued just because I said Billy dissed Pelosi.  I’d like to talk to him for a few minutes and calm him down.”
We were both kind of surprised because it seemed like he popped out of the ground right below our feet.  It also seems to support the NY Times article about his age demographic but I digress. I asked her if she liked hard-boiled detective fiction when suddenly, the man scurried past us with Billy’s new book in a plastic bag tucked under his arm, head tilting to the ground and yelled at the cashier.
• “Don’t talk to him. He’s a liberal!”
And he stormed through the doors and out into the parking lot.
• I looked at her and said, “I guess a nice little chat is out of the question.”

Regards,
Jim