The cawthorn thing is stupid, but hope it doesn't go entirely unnoticed that R's trying to remove him use the strategy "look he seems a bit gay" rather than any of the billion and seven reasons why he's just a shitty person or terrible at his job
— Pwn All The Things (@pwnallthethings) May 4, 2022
… According to my lesbian Irish-American informant: Gays go to the bar to get drunk; drunks go to the pub to get gay.
I grew up with a brother 18 months younger than I, and a second 14 months younger than him. All through middle and high school, those two ran in packs with a motley crew of fellow knuckleheads, and when they weren’t ‘playfully’ humping at each other in full primate-dominance mode, they were throwing homophobic slurs back and forth. The way of my people.
During my early-1970s stint at a large midwestern state university, the fraternities ran a big recruiting campaign in the dining hall with the slogan Go Greek! A gay friend sashayed up to the main table, asked the broad-shouldered, mullet-headed guy with the clipboard ‘active or passive?’… and walked away before dude could work out whether, or how, he’d been insulted. Those were pre-internet pr0n days, of course.
So, yeah, I can believe that Madison Cawthorn and his best bud / chief of staff / cousin were Jus’ Having A Laff — primate dominance stuff from a couple of homeschooled Southrun fellas. I’d bet half the Repubs now denouncing Cawthorn for this ‘revolting display’ have equally incriminating stories from their youth (and the ones that don’t are either extremely closeted or so obviously defective — lookin’ at you, Ted Cruz — that even other Repubs didn’t want to stand too close).
What’s more interesting, as far as I’m concerned, are the embarrassing financial stories starting to leak out:
NEW: Madison Cawthorn appears to have smashed some House ethics rules last year, overpaying his top staffer by nearly $44,000 with campaign funds—and going to extraordinary lengths to try to hide it. Me @thedailybeast https://t.co/rRhv6KY2Pb
— Roger Sollenberger found true love, suckers (@SollenbergerRC) May 5, 2022
Go read the whole thing for an explanation of the accounting details, but AFAICT, Cawthorn’s Chief of Staff, who is also his best friend / DC roommate, may have been thimblerigging his financial reports…
… Congressional pay data shows that North Carolina Republican paid his chief of staff, Blake Harp, $131,278 in 2021. That actually ranks Harp at the low end of compensation for chiefs of staff in Congress.
But why he was paid that specific amount could be highly relevant.
House ethics rules stipulate that senior congressional staff can only earn $29,595 in outside income each year. According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Cawthorn’s campaign paid Harp a combined $73,237 in direct payments and payments to his LLC, EMP Strategies…
“On the one hand, the twentysomething Harp does not appear to have relevant work experience, so it is questionable whether he merits a six-figure taxpayer-funded salary at all,” Fischer told The Daily Beast. “But on the other hand, by keeping his income just below $132,552 for most of 2021, Harp was freed from the outside earned income limits, allowing him to earn tens of thousands of dollars more from Cawthorn’s campaign.”
The team also appears to have gone out of its way to try and blur the recipient of some payments, creating a shell LLC to obscure that Harp was the one getting the money. That company has also received tens of thousands of dollars from a PAC belonging to Harp’s mom…
If only Cawthorn had had the good sense to stay in North Carolina, working at his old man’s car dealerships or some other country-club sinecure, instead of grabbing what looked like a golden ticket to national notoriety… folks back home understand how these things happen, I’m told…{shakes head}.
banger https://t.co/ZOTbNHY6WE
— ??? ?? (@Theophite) May 4, 2022
chopper
i gotta say, “it’s not gay if it’s your cousin” was not on my GOP bingo card this year
Anne Laurie
Am I the only one here old enough to remember Scarlett O’Hara berating Ashley Wilkes that he should know better than to marry his cousin? Because it might be tradition, but said cousin was Not The Right Girl for him?
TonyG
“Blake Harp”??? The writers on this miniseries aren’t even trying anymore. What’s next, “Dick Hertz” and “IP Freely”?
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@TonyG:
“Az Whole”
NotMax
Can’t help but evoke the classic punch line.
“The sheep lies.”
:)
danielx
@Anne Laurie:
There were so many times Scarlett berated Ashley, it’s difficult to remember one particular episode…
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Many, many people are saying Cawthorn was either paying for sex or more likely he was paying the guy extra which he then kicked back to Cawthorn, I can tell you that.
Sister Golden Bear
Us queer folks have definitely noticed the queer-baiting. Thing is we definitely don’t want him to be family.
NotMax
Lord Caw-Caw?
//
laura
That excess compensation makes sense considering the high cost of “key bumps” these days.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
southern districts feel they have to go the dead girl or live boy route to sink a target (figuratively speaking)
delk
The horrible shrieking is the worst part of the video.
sdhays
Rooting for injuries.
Peale
@Sister Golden Bear: Pretty much. Like sometimes I’ll step in and defend Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan when swipes get taken at their sexuality, even though both are abhorrent to me at this point. But as my friends and I were discussing tonight, Madison is on his own.
Raoul Paste
This video clip was just presented on the Daily Show, so it’s a fair bet that the party is over for Cawthorn
danielx
@Sister Golden Bear:
I am tolerably certain you are far from alone in that sentiment.
Peale
@danielx: his wife came to that conclusion too. Although it took her 8 months.
danielx
@Peale:
These things will happen when two people find out they have totally separate ideas about getting your freak on.
VeniceRiley
He’s home schooled so they can’t blame it on teachers!
Matt McIrvin
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Does “dead girl” work any more, really?
eversor
@Peale:
Cawthorns wife is a Russian he met on a trip to Russia and shotgun wedding’s. There’s a good chance she was a honey pot.
Major Major Major Major
Yeah, this didn’t really strike me as particularly gay.
ian
@laura:
Food for thought-link
SFAW
While the Cawthorn thing — whatever it may be — is a shiny object, I want to know whether Josh Hawley is being investigated for pedophilia. Is Josh Hawley a pedophile? It would be irresponsible NOT to speculate that Josh Hawley is a pedophile.
NB: Not really that interested, I’m just trying to do my part to “Santorumize” Hawley vis-a-vis his (potential) pedophilia.
SFAW
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
Or, alternately, LGM commenter “Harry R. Sohl.”
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: I don’t know whether he is a pedo, but he definitely gives of the vibe of someone whose basement should be the subject of a federal search warrant. A lot of ick going on.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus:
Seems to be a lot of that with elected Rethugs.
Patricia Kayden
Patricia Kayden
sab
@Anne Laurie: My Ohio/Pennsylvania mom whose grandmother lost her oldest brother in the Civil War never let us see Gone With the Wind. I first saw it in college (during an internship) in Jackson Mississippi. I was pretty horrified by the audience. Next week I saw Battle of Algiers at Tougaloo (an HBCU in Mississippi.) Gotta admit I was a whole lot more sympathetic to Tougaloo students than Jackson audience
ETA Thank you for reminding me of the term ” knucklehead.” Wish I had remembered it when dealing with my addled stepson in his teens and twenties who has grown up to be a very decent man.
ant
hell of a drug.
fancycwabs
Cawthorn’s sex life wouldn’t really be any of our business, except he’s been credibly accused of frequent sexual assault while he was in college. One presume’s his behavior hasn’t changed, considering he’s pretty much ignored every rule he’s been subject to across the board.