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Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

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Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

I really should read my own blog.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

No one could have predicted…

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

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The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

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Grifters

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Apparently the reason teabaggers are so opposed to the stimulus is that they’ve come up with their own financial recovery plan- running for office:

TUCHMAN: We have documents right here that show Christine O’Donnell spent a lot of money on what appears to be personal effects, and it was not during a campaign, and it was campaign money. The spending of this money occurred three months after she lost to Joe Biden in 2008, a year before she announced she was going to run as a candidate in 2010.

Now, the FEC, the Federal Election Commission, allows you to spend money after a campaign to retire debt, but not to add to the debt. And she has lots of debt from 2008, which troubles a lot of people. They think it’s hypocritical, because — because she wants America to spend what it has. But let us show you some of these checks. You can decide for yourself if she should have written these checks from her campaign money. For example, a check for 475 bucks, she labeled it as mileage reimbursement. Remember, this is three months after the campaign is over. This means she drove hundreds of miles and she submitted this with campaign funding.

Also, $157 on a phone bill from Verizon Wireless; by all indications, this is her personal phone. Also, $28 at a gas station — the gas station in the town where she’s originally from — Moorestown, New Jersey. She still has family there. This is campaign money. There’s no campaign going on.

Six hundred dollars for her utility bill paid to Delmarva Power. Also, there are little piddly expenses, but increasing her debt. And these are very telltale. You wouldn’t need to spend this for any campaign, let alone a campaign that is not going on anymore.

$19 at a place called the Pike Lanes. The Pike Lanes is a bowling alley. That would pay for about eight games of bowling.

Also $26 for a meal at Ruby Tuesday’s restaurant — campaign money once again.

And then she even used campaign money for a $2.84 charge at Staples. In addition, she paid rent money with her campaign funding.

And if that fails, you can always try the old Republican stand-by: marry a beer heiress! That’s worked out ok for McCain, even if she plasters on the make-up like a trollop.

Reader Interactions

29Comments

  1. 1.

    Brian S (formerly Incertus)

    IOKIYAR, right? If we had a real media, they’d point out the different ways the parties have treated the loonies who’ve won primaries but have precious little chance of winning the general. There’s not a lot of difference between Alvin Greene (that’s his name, right? SC guy?) and Christine O’Donnell, when you get right down to it.

  2. 2.

    El Cid

    Your printing this is more evidence of the secularist jihad against the Christian, witch-fighting faithful. If O’Donnell had to use campaign monies for personal expenses, it is entirely worth it to keep this Elvish warrior against Satan going strong and fighting for the Rapture.

  3. 3.

    Midnight Marauder

    This is campaign money. There’s no campaign going on.

    I don’t know if there has ever been a two sentence combo that so aptly nailed the modern Republican Party.

    Wow, I am fired up to beat these motherfuckers.

  4. 4.

    Dave

    Never mind the bigger issue further down in that story. She never had a campaign manager to manage the money, which you have to have. So O’Donnell was acting as her own manager…which is as crooked as it gets.

  5. 5.

    Face

    Is she married? If not, how does one spend $26 on a meal at the Rube? Please note that I did not use the obvious fat joke that is just screaming to be used.

  7. 7.

    Joe Buck

    I wish people wouldn’t make this argument. Running for state-wide or national office is a full-time job, and she was flat broke. Yes, she’s a complete loon, but should politics be exclusively the turf of the well-off?

  8. 8.

    Nimm

    @Brian S (formerly Incertus):
    Greene and O’Donnell may not be that different themselves, but Republican primary voters knowingly and intentionally selected her, whereas Democratic primary voters picked Greene almost certainly as an accident of ballot position.

    Scary difference.

  9. 9.

    Catsy

    This is campaign money. There’s no campaign going on.

    If these numbers and their context are accurate, this seems like a pretty egregious violation of campaign finance law.

    Any lawyers on the thread want to chime in? I have a hard time imagining how she gets past public exposure of this without legal accountability.

  11. 11.

    General Stuck

    And if that fails, you can always try the old Republican stand-by: marry a beer heiress! That’s worked out ok for McCain, even if she plasters on the make-up like a trollop.

    Well, if all fails, they will always have the Halperin’s of the world to shine their pitch into the next American Idol, Grifter Wingnut edition.

    “She is like Obama: the camera loves her and both sides of the political spectrum hang on her every word. She is like Bush: able to communicate with religious conservatives and Middle Americans. Most of all, she is like Bill Clinton: what doesn’t kill Sarah Palin makes her stronger. So as the world gets ready for the midterm elections and for the start of the epic contest in which Republicans will pick their champion to go into battle against Barack Obama, be advised: Palin is very much alive and, despite what you think, extraordinarily strong.”

    Yup, just like Obama, but even more like Bill Clinton, cept for the fact she has not an ounce of knowledge about anything of value, except riding her personal wave of lucrative bullshit.

    I can’t think of anything more diagnostic of our fucked up media than drek like this.

    Luckily, her most recent polling is around 38 percent approval and 58 disapproval. The only thing “extraordinarily strong” is the hard on she gives Halperin and his vacuous amigos.

  12. 12.

    BGinCHI

    If this gets your tits in a bunch, go to the Act Blue page John set up and contribute!

    Lots of Koch Bros money to counter in this election….

  13. 13.

    jayjaybear

    @Joe Buck:
    Wait…are you seriously offering a defense of illegal use of campaign funds because the candidate isn’t personally wealthy? Or am I being whooshed?

  14. 14.

    Nimm

    @Joe Buck:
    I think that’s a false dichotomy.
    While I’m sympathetic to what you’re saying, we still have campaign finance laws, and donors have expectations that their money will be used in accordance with those laws.

    Maybe it truly is impossible to run a campaign for any national office unless you’re independently wealthy or have a spouse that can support you, but if that’s true, we should consider whether or not to revise the campaign laws….not just look the other way when a candidate takes leftover donations and uses them to pay for post-campaign bowling and electricity bills.

  16. 16.

    Corner Stone

    Nobody cares about this. Nobody will care about this.
    The people who were going to vote for her do not care about 20 year old videos, her personal debt problems or her vague relationship with telling the truth.
    They wave their hand, snort derisively and tell you they’d rather have her than Pelosi!!11.

  18. 18.

    Catsy

    @Joe Buck:

    I wish people wouldn’t make this argument. Running for state-wide or national office is a full-time job, and she was flat broke. Yes, she’s a complete loon, but should politics be exclusively the turf of the well-off?

    You know, you’ve got a point. When I’m broke and short on rent or bills, I should feel absolutely free to steal from the till, right?

    That wasn’t her money to take. That money belonged to her campaign and there are laws concerning how it can be used. She stole that money from her campaign and her supporters just as surely as if she’d stolen it from the cash register.

    Please tell me that you just didn’t think this through completely.

  19. 19.

    kay

    @Joe Buck:

    I wish people wouldn’t make this argument. Running for state-wide or national office is a full-time job, and she was flat broke. Yes, she’s a complete loon, but should politics be exclusively the turf of the well-off?

    That really isn’t the issue. The issue is Tea Party candidates have to comply with the same campaign finance and transparency/accountability rules as everyone else.

    One of the reasons a treasurer is designated is so one person is responsible for the validity and accuracy of the information submitted on the form. That person can be called to account.

    This is a great question:

    COOPER: And who, during all this time, was the treasurer of her campaign?

    When you donate to a candidate, do you believe you’re paying the candidate’s personal bills? Where does that begin and end? Can she buy a boat? Pay for her honeymoon? If she’s permitted to pay her gas bill, is she permitted to pay her student loan from donor funds?

    How are donors supposed to monitor that? Give her an allowance? An actual salary?

  20. 20.

    Ash Can

    @RandomChick: That thread is a hoot (besides being informative, thanks to the people posting on it who actually know what they’re talking about). As someone there mentions, I too wonder if this increased publicity won’t encourage someone to file a complaint with the FEC. Of course, any finding to come out of it could very well come way too late to affect the election campaign. And, of course, it would just have O’Donnell’s starry-eyed supporters — who have every right to spend their money supporting a professional freeloader and her lifestyle if they so choose — screaming about dirty campaign tactics. But if it forces said freeloader to go out and get a real job for once in her life — against the backdrop of 40/50-something hiring as described in the previous thread — it may be worth it.

  21. 21.

    Nimm

    @Brian S (formerly Incertus):
    Well, there have been a FEW Republican naysayers, who deserve some credit.

    The rest, though…you’re right. But coming from the party of “Love it or leave it,” “My country, right or wrong,” etc….it’s no surprise. Tribalism is deeply ingrained. As long as she’s part of the tribe, she’s to be defended (and that’s if you give the benefit of the doubt, and assume there are actual misgivings about her lunacy).

  22. 22.

    catclub

    @Joe Buck:
    Exactly! So, yes, politics should be the field of the well-off only. The well off can pay those bills and then hold them
    and get reimbursed by the campaign when it IS campaign season. Slightly time-delayed grifting.

  25. 25.

    Beauzeaux

    She hasn’t had a job in five years.

    How’s a girl supposed to keep herself in make-up and bowling shoes?

  27. 27.

    Cris

    And if that fails, you can always try the old Republican stand-by: marry a beer heiress!

    Or a ketchup heiress, just sayin’.

    Brian: you’ll always be Incertus to me, no “former” about it.

  29. 29.

    ed cline

    Or marry an old hag with ketchup running down her chin. Or be born into it and doing nothing in your entire life but live off the taxpayers. Or. Be a marxist in muslim clothing!! Or be a pathological liar like a certain bat-eared marxist moron who can’t say a thing that isn’t printed before his stupid, idiotic eyes, and even then, blows it like a cheap whore on his knees in a truck stop bathroom…

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