Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

The lights are all blinking red.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

This fight is for everything.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

The words do not have to be perfect.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Monday Morning Open Thread: Making Bank on Benghazi

Monday Morning Open Thread: Making Bank on Benghazi

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benghazi physics auth
(Tony Auth via GoComics.com)

Interesting numbers from The New Republic:

House Republicans’ newly created Benghazi Select Committee has attracted attention to their penchant for using investigations of the Obama administration as a fundraising tool. Most of the criticism, thus far, has concerned the National Republican Campaign Committee’s effort to collect email addresses from those who want to “become a Benghazi watchdog” despite committee chairman Trey Gowdy’s plea that they not do so.

It is no surprise, though, that the NRCC would use Benghazi to the Republican Party’s financial advantage. To understand just how lucrative these scandals can be, look no further than Rep. Darrell Issa. He has offered Republicans a clinic in the science of converting phony scandal into political cash.

For most of his career, Issa was a lackluster fundraiser. But through the first five quarters of the 2014 election cycle, his campaign committee has raised $2,573,258. This is an impressive haul, considering he has not faced significant opposition in more than a decade. The two Democrats vying to challenge him this year together have raised less than $50,000 combined. If Issa’s fundraising continues at its current pace, he will raise more this cycle than in his first four terms in Congress combined….

…[T]he Republican grassroots have padded Issa’s coffers: The key ingredient to his miraculous fundraising turnaround has not been high-dollar gifts from PACs and lobbyists, but ordinary Republican voters thanking him, through their contributions, for being the president’s number one antagonist. Issa has nurtured this relationship with the GOP base by cultivating an enormous direct-marketing operation. Four of his top six campaign expenditures so far this year were to direct mail firms and his third largest expense was $70,684 paid to the Post Office…

***********
Apart from Following the Money, what’s on the agenda for the start of the week?

Reader Interactions

54Comments

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    what’s on the agenda for the start of the week?

    Keeping dry. And keeping my maters (and peppers and eggplants) warm. Supposed to rain now thru Thursday with highs in the low 60s (Wed 56) and lows around 40. Should be fun.

  3. 3.

    geg6

    Classes are over for spring and commencement was Friday night, so I spend this week wrapping up the last bits of student aid for the spring semester and checking grades for scholarship renewals for fall. Our first summer orientation isn’t until late June, so I hope to spend the next month on a bunch of projects that need completed but weren’t urgent. I want to redesign our student aid web pages and hope to get that done and put to bed before things get crazy in June.

  4. 4.

    raven

    @geg6: UGA finished Friday as well and the public schools end this week. This town is great when all the lemmings leave!

  6. 6.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @raven: Having been on the quarter system as an undergrad and grad student; I’ve always find school getting out this early odd.

  9. 9.

    raven

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Yea, when I moved here 30 years ago we were on quarters. I ran the university-wide intramural basketball program for 27,000 students. We had 6 courts in the entire university. Try to get in a season and playoff in a quarter with those numbers.

  10. 10.

    amk

    his third largest expense was $70,684 paid to the Post Office

    which he and his fellow thugs are intent are destroying.

  11. 11.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @raven: My interest in basketball is exclusively as a spectator, being 5’4″ has a great deal to do with that.

  13. 13.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    The kid had fun playing with my new toy(Galaxy Camera 2) and took us out for Korean BBQ. Expensive but yummy.

  15. 15.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: It sounds trite but we got one a good bit bigger right up to the boat and the captain missed with the gaff. It rolled, dove and spit the hook. I’ve very happy with what I got but it would have been nice to get them both. I also kept about a dozen black seabass, the fish tacos were killer.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Here in the hills and hollers, the cricks don’t make our fish quite so big of course ;-) A couple years ago a buddy of mine and I spent a weekend on an island in the Mississippi and I did catch a blue cat that was almost as big (2/3s?) as the one in the pic. I put him back as they are a pain to clean at that size and besides, I really prefer bass and goggle-eye. And walleye. Oh yeah, love them walleye.

    Fish tacos… I got a recipe I’ve been wanting to try, you got a good one?

  21. 21.

    Central Planning

    I added this to my list of things to read: What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?

    Liberals in the United States have been losing political debates to conservatives for a quarter century. In order to start winning again, liberals must answer two simple questions: what is conservatism, and what is wrong with it? As it happens, the answers to these questions are also simple:

    Q: What is conservatism?
    A: Conservatism is the domination of society by an aristocracy.
    Q: What is wrong with conservatism?
    A: Conservatism is incompatible with democracy, prosperity, and civilization in general. It is a destructive system of inequality and prejudice that is founded on deception and has no place in the modern world.

    These ideas are not new. Indeed they were common sense until recently. Nowadays, though, most of the people who call themselves “conservatives” have little notion of what conservatism even is. They have been deceived by one of the great public relations campaigns of human history. Only by analyzing this deception will it become possible to revive democracy in the United States.

    Should be interesting.

  23. 23.

    The Thin Black Duke

    It always comes back to “follow the money”, doesn’t it? People who vote for Republicans are a herd of obedient sheep, and they’re going to be the ruin of this country. Yeah, it must be Monday.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    @Central Planning:

    Liberals in the United States have been losing political debates to conservatives for a quarter century. In order to start winning again, liberals must answer two simple questions: what is conservatism, and what is wrong with it? vote in the midterms and encourage everyone else to do the same.

    Even simpler.

  25. 25.

    Ash Can

    Am I the only person who thinks Trey Gowdy is full of shit with his “pleas” that Republicans not fundraise off of Benghazi, and in fact plans to do so himself? It sounds more to me like he’s attempting to put a figleaf of legitimacy on his circus by saying this, and knows full well that the GOP, and he, will be shaking the rubes down for all they’re worth over it.

  26. 26.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: You nail the big catfish to a tree, cut around the head and peel it with pliers (cut the spike off). I do simple fish tacos. For small filets saute in olive oil, season with cajun spices and squeeze lime in. For big chunks I smoke them on a cajun water smoker. Soften corn torts, two per taco, and add shredded cabbage mixed with mayo and tabasco chioptle sauce.

  27. 27.

    JPL

    @raven: You lost me at You nail the big catfish to a tree. ugh

    How’s Joe this morning. No morning updates?

  29. 29.

    danielx

    Mmm…finishing a consulting gig by Wednesday evening and then scraping paint, always a favorite activity. Except that it’s supposed to rain for the next four days so the paint scraping bit may be right out.

  30. 30.

    Elmo

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Want a soooper simple recipe?
    Make the frozen Gortons blackened filets. Cube.
    Line steamed flour soft taco tortillas with baby spinach, and put cubed fish on the spinach. Top with mixed mayo and dill relish (not sweet), and garnish with cilantro and a bit of lime squeeze.
    Instagood.

  31. 31.

    Hal

    Trey Gowdy, the answer to the question; just what type of work did Draco Malfoy pursue after Hogwarts?

  33. 33.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Baud: True. We know quite well who conservatives are and what they want for this country and the world. We just survived 8 years of Bush/Cheney.

  37. 37.

    WereBear

    I am stuck on the conundrum in the ad up top. What rhymes with Mitch? And also makes sense?

    That last part must be where I’m puzzled. Knowing who the ad is aimed at.

  39. 39.

    Paul in KY

    @The Thin Black Duke: We have to find a way to reach the ‘single issue voter’ that the Repubs use.

    Why is it better to vote Democratic (a party that doesn’t agree with your pet issue) than to vote for the Repubs, based only on their lip service to your pet issue.

    If we can pull away their ‘poor folks who are anti-abortion’ voters (for example), they are doomed.

  40. 40.

    big ole hound

    Issa was arrested for fraud and theft as part of his car alarm business and somehow got off, then the big law firms in LA liked his style and “voila” he’s a congressman. This mobster investigating others is beyond the norm.
    What’s up with Gowdy’s hair. It is a very spooky color, oily and worn in a 70s lady style.

  42. 42.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @WereBear: The ads often confuse me. There’s one that says someone supports concealed carry. I had to squint at the teeny print to realize I was supposed to see that as a good thing.

  44. 44.

    rikyrah

    Rachel Maddow 05/09/14

    Green energy opposition traced to Kochs

    Kansas State Representative Steven Becker talks with Rachel Maddow about groups funded by the Koch brothers trying to influence energy policy and the energy market in Kansas by opposing laws that encourage the development of renewable energy.

    http://on.msnbc.com/SK5MXB

  45. 45.

    Jay in Oregon

    So I assume that all of these investigations are supposed to get to the bottom of the Administration’s response to the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

    Remind me what Bush and Cheney were doing on their 9/11? Bush read a book to grade schoolers and Cheney tucked tail and ran off to Undisclosed Location. But Obama was supposed to be awake, wide-eyed and leading the charge?

    And what’s the over/under on the Select Committee of Benghazi investigating who was responsible for cutting the funding for our embassies?

  46. 46.

    C.V. Danes

    [T]he Republican grassroots have padded Issa’s coffers: The key ingredient to his miraculous fundraising turnaround has not been high-dollar gifts from PACs and lobbyists, but ordinary Republican voters thanking him, through their contributions, for being the president’s number one antagonist.

    Apparently, racism pays. Who coulda known.

  47. 47.

    balconesfault

    Glad to see Issa getting all those contributions … among GOPers with leadership positions, he’s probably the most likely to be spending most of his time figuring out how to channel most of that money back into his own pockets, instead of spreading around for other wingnut campaigns.

  50. 50.

    ruemara

    Another busy day. New product launch, half the team will be off to shoot in Europe next week and we’re still editing the second new product launch. But, so far, we’ve kept things together. Today is also a short day for me, I have a second interview at a gov agency. Way less to do outside of filming and running filming but far better (98%) pay. But I’d give up walkable commute and working with a friend for a still not bad commute and strangers. I don’t think I’ll be offered the position, since I’ve gotten to this stage many times, but if I do, I’d have to choose. Not that my bruised ego wouldn’t mind having to pick and choose opportunities.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    @Paul in KY: @ruemara: Or if you are offered the new position, see if the current position could meet the salary of the new place. :-)

    Also, just like guys who are interested in dating you when you’re with someone else, potential employees also seem more apt to offer a job if you aren’t out of work, or soon to be out of work. So don’t be shocked if you get offered this one, too. :-)

  54. 54.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    The one thing I’d say is, money is important, but it’s not the only thing. If you get a bad vibe from the better-paying one, don’t take it just because there’s more money, because people who don’t respect your skills won’t mind screwing you over.

    (What can I say? Those government offices in your town have screwed you over so many times that I just don’t trust them not to do it again and leave you back at square one. Your sanity matters, too.)

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