One of the most powerful House Republicans — Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ), the new chair of the House Appropriations Committee — got a constituent in trouble by writing a letter to her employer that called out her progressive activism.
The employee — Saily Avelenda of West Caldwell, who’s active in the progressive NJ 11th for Change group — ended up resigning from her job as senior vice president and assistant general counsel at Lakeland Bank, according to a report from WNYC.
Frelinghuysen’s letter, sent on campaign letterhead to bank board member and Frelinghuysen donor Joseph O’Dowd, appears to be correspondence he sent to other contributors as well.
Fuck Frelinghuysen, fuck O’Dowd, and fuck Lakeland Bank.
Let’s raise money to get this jackass out of office. You can give money here to the eventual Democratic nominee from NJ-11 — it’s a swing district, just +3 R.
Это курам на смех
The purge will continue until morale improves.
ruemara
I saw that first thing this morning. It amazes me how fast the Republicans have devolved into the Duma with requisite mandatory retaliation of any checks by the people who fucking elected them
Haroldo
You do loves you some Richard Thompson, to be sure. Thanks for the Act Blues link; I am always poorer, but feel somewhat useful afterwards.
Mnemosyne
Christ, what an asshole.
gbear
Can she take him to court and sue his butt for libel?
jl
Some of the GOPers are getting desperate. Don’t have time to look to get the links now, but massive majorities of US population oppose the recent corruption stunts of Donnie and his gang. Getting down to the 27% level for support. Approval of Trump himself still in high 30s, but looks a big gap between what some of the Trump supporters think about him versus what he’s done over the last week.
We can’t and won’t get all of them to jump off the rotten Trump ship. But we can and I hope will peel off enough to make a big difference in the midterms.
piratedan
that seems like a straight out abuse of office and by all rights, the gentlemen from NJ should be brought up on ethics charges by the August body that he’s supposed to represent.
Then again, this is the GOP, so fuckit….
burnspbesq
I somehow doubt there were any tear stains on Frelinghuysen’s letter.
trollhattan
@Haroldo:
There’s a great live recording of the song where he leads an audience singalong of the chorus.
RT is The Guy who must be seen live to gain an appreciation of the breadth of his talents.
TKinNC
And if you have an account at Lakeland Bank, call and ask about closing it – just for giggles. That kind of thing gets their attention pretty quickly.
Mary Jo
Thank you! This is my district and NJ-11th for Change are my people. We are truly rockin’ the 11th, but we need all the help with can get. Rodney Frelinghuysen is a very small, cowardly, and undeserving man who somehow manages to carry the “moderate” label without having voted as a “moderate” for >10 years. (This is a political dynasty – his father was a moderate. Rodney, not so much)
SFAW
I seem to remember that Frelinghuysen has been a longstanding member of the “What a dickhead” Club. Perhaps I’m confusing him with someone else — like, any/every other Rethug.
hovercraft
We are a really blue state, how is it that we are infested with all of these RWNJ’s? Between this asshole, and the asshole who wrote the pre-existing condition loophole MacArthur, who lost a daughter back in the nineties, and so we’re not allowed to be mean to.
If You Talk Back To A Congressman, You’re A Terrorist By Steve M.
We need to clean house, lets get rid of this vermin.
Betty Cracker
Saw this earlier — it really is outrageous. The woman who was forced to resign merely criticized the rep for not holding town halls and questioned his pose as a “moderate.” It’s not like she was tossing bombs at his office. I hope this blows up in the rep’s face hugely. What a dick!
rikyrah
This is absolutely RIDICULOUS!!!
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: She should have refused to resign. I’m not blaming the victim here, I’m talking as a matter of both principles and of strategy.
SFAW
@hovercraft:
In MA, there is a redneck streak a mile wide, and has been for years. It’s how an asshole like Barbara Anderson (may she RIH) could get Prop 2 1/2 passed, among other things. She wasn’t as bad as Howard Jarvis (may he also RIH) I guess, but not a whole lot better.
Haroldo
@trollhattan: And that’s a fact – I particularly like him with an electric band (or any setting with Danny Thompson, really). Long been enamored of him – tho’ both by ex- and current wife think he’s much, much too cynical.
Percysowner
@gbear:
It’s not libel if it’s true and she is a progressive and active, so there is no way she can sue for libel. Also, she resigned, she wasn’t fired, so she doesn’t have a cause of action there. He’s a creep and a terrible person, but what he did isn’t actionable. I’m not an attorney mind you, so maybe one can weigh in.
Florida Frog
This is insane. We are losing our grip on democracy faster that I believed possible. I tossed some money at Act Blue. Thanks for putting up the link.
Adria McDowell (formerly LurkerExtraordinaire)
I’m sorry, did she identify herself as an employee of the bank when she was interviewed? Not that that would make this any better, but if she didn’t, how did the rep even know?
Petty at its finest.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: Yeah, I’m curious about the circumstances around that. Maybe she works for a firm that would have been ousted if she didn’t resign, so she’s protecting the larger investment? I have no idea. Hope this story blows up in a big way; then we’ll know more about why she resigned, plus the tattle-tale rep will be exposed on a larger stage as the vindictive crybaby he is and hopefully lose his seat.
trollhattan
@Haroldo:
RT cynical? Jeez, where does that come from?
Actual question from my daughter:
“Daddy, why is that man singing ‘Dad’s gonna kill me’?”
Had to dadsplain that “dad” in this instance is shorthand for Baghdad and it’s an antiwar song from the soldier’s perspective.
lurker dean
i have family who have been protesting at frelinghuysen’s office. he’s a rich asshole in a rich district who basically inherited his seat from his dad. he needs to go but a lot of his district is upperclass white racist trumpers – banker and wall street types. there seem to be a couple of potentially decent dem candidates at least.
the bank put out a mealy-mouthed corporate BS statement:
We recently received communications from members of our communities and customers concerning a news report involving an individual who identified herself as a former employee and noted her outside civic involvements. Lakeland Bank does not comment publicly on the status of our current or former employees.
However, as for civic and political engagement of our employees, Lakeland Bank’s Code of Ethics specifically provides that it is philosophy of Lakeland Bank to promote our employees’ full awareness and interest in civic and political responsibility such that each employee has the opportunity to support community activities or the political process in the manner that she or he desires.
https://www.facebook.com/LakelandBank/
MCA1
@Percysowner: Correct. If the facts are simply that Frelinghuysen just whined to a donor who then walked into her office and chewed her out until she resigned, there’s nothing close to libel. Maybe some of the facts fit intentional infliction of emotional distress, if that’s still an actionable tort in New Jersey, but probably not enough there, either.
She should not have resigned, but rather forced the bank to fire her and then stand ready for a lawsuit. She’s probably at will so a wrongful termination claim may not go anywhere, either, but it lays a better foundation for a harassment claim than whatever fact pattern emerges that ends with her voluntarily quitting. If the bank were wise, they’d react to “No, I will not resign over a board member’s unease with my political stances” very, very carefully. It’s possible that as ass’t gc for the bank, she laid all that out and fast forwarded to the part about “How much are you willing to pay for me to resign voluntarily?” but it doesn’t look that way.
trollhattan
@Percysowner:
Gender-bias discrimination, forced to resign due to hostile work environment? Suspect more than a few attorneys might could take the case.
Roger Moore
@gbear:
Not as long as it’s true that she’s an activist; truth is an absolute defense against defamation claims. She might be able to sue for something else- interfering with her job, intimidation, or whatever- but not for defamation.
sharl
@Mary Jo: Do you have a feel for how much the business community in CD-11 likes Frelinghuysen? He just became chair of the Appropriations Committee this year, which traditionally has been a very powerful position, given that the committee is responsible for actually doling out Federal funding. I think there is at least one big military base in or near CD-11, but I don’t know how many businesses, or constituents’ jobs, are dependent on Federal funding. (I’m guessing – maybe incorrectly – that it would probably help this cause if a lot of his constituents commute into NYC for work, rather than working at jobs located within the District.)
He’s worth going after anyway IMO, no matter how formidable he seems to be. Knocking down his numbers significantly would send a significant message I think. I’m basically asking if there is any benefit to considering a campaign that is targeted to specific demographics that might be receptive to replacing him, as opposed to a more general campaign to raise awareness.
MCA1
@Betty Cracker: “Maybe she works for a firm that would have been ousted if she didn’t resign, so she’s protecting the larger investment?”
If I’m reading the article correctly, she was VP and Assistant General Counsel, meaning a lawyer but an employee of the bank. In other words, in-house counsel, not external counsel, so there’s no law firm connection or relationship involved here (unless she’d been seconded there by a firm of some sort – that would be extremely unlikely, though, and she probably wouldn’t carry the VP title with her in such an arrangement).
Ocotillo
That is why I am such a coward about my politics. I live an a blood red world, selling to a blood red industry working with and for a bunch of blood red people. I worry about my job security if I get to visible in activism.
LAO
I wish I had an account at Leland Bank, just so I could close it. The rep is reprehensible but the bank is also a POS.
Betty Cracker
@MCA1: Okay. The article I read this morning (which was pretty vague) left me with impression she was employed by a firm to do work for the bank. Maybe she was just fed up with working with wingnut assholes!
BigRed
Generally a lurker here, but I’m also in the 11th (just moved here last year), been going to NJ 11th for change events when I can. This story is horrifying. Hopefully I’ll meet you one of these days, Mary Jo, I’m trying to get a group of parents I know to bring our kids to the 4 pm Friday gatherings after picking up from school.
billcoop4
Rodney’s always been a gutless turd. He couldn’t stand the woman I worked for when she was in the NJ General Assembly and then ran for State Senate (and won!)–Leanna Brown. He’s wealthy scion of a political dynasty–as Loomis pointed out at LGM, his family is probably the only pre-Revolutionary family still prominent in politics. He will never buck the GOP powers-that-be. He’s a mediocrity at best, and has been a drone on the Hill, just like his father.
It’s a wealthy, white district, though, and even the liberal folks there still like holding to their cash.
BC
? Martin
@Betty Cracker: It’s almost impossible for executives to win a bias case because unlike most employees they are public faces of the enterprise and are unique in their role. Plus, suing a former employer is virtually a guarantee you’ll not get hired again and at that level, everyone in the industry is going to know it.
One reason executives get paid what they do (why they should be paid more, not necessarily why they paid the exorbitant sums they do) is that they are the most disposable employees in the sense that at any point, any failing can be hung on them and lead to their termination. There aren’t the usual metrics of productivity to fall back on. Wrong vision for your division? You’re gone. It comes with the territory.
The Moar You Know
@Ocotillo: I work for a defense contractor. Fed jobs. Issa’s district. Doesn’t get more dangerous than that, but I don’t identify ANYWHERE on line where I work, or even to my friends. My wife knows, that’s it.
You gotta take risks in life if you want to make a difference. Just don’t take stupid risks. And get off of social media, at least if you’re using your real name!
Timurid
CNN.com’s lead story is now…. a fraternity hazing death.
So is the Comey news cycle officially over?
trollhattan
@sharl:
Appropriations Chair might be the best job in the House so yeah, strong incentive for the local wealthy to keep him in power. But as Eric Cantor discovered, no House seat is completely safe.
rikyrah
A president cannot ‘hire and fire whoever he wants’
05/15/17 12:52 PM
By Steve Benen
With the White House gripped by scandal, the various Sunday shows were eager to have members of Donald Trump’s team on the air to address a variety of questions. That didn’t happen.
On Fox News, Chris Wallace told viewers yesterday he extended an invitation to the White House, which said it’d offer guests to discuss the president’s foreign travel, but not Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. When the host balked, the White House “put those officials on other shows,” Wallace said.
And one of those guests was Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, who had a line at the ready when ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos brought up the president’s scandals and Comey’s firing.
……………………………
Moreover, while the president has broad personnel powers, they’re not unlimited. Yes, on paper, Trump had the legal authority to fire the director of the FBI, but a president can’t simply “hire and fire whoever he wants.” Nearly every top position requires Senate confirmation – including the leadership post at the FBI – and a wide variety of other executive-branch positions have civil-service protections that require a good reason before an official is dismissed.
But more to the point, a president can’t obstruct justice, either.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know: Considerable CA state employee data are open public records, including salaries and party registration, which is strong incentive to register as Decline to State.
rikyrah
White House staff learns how to manipulate Trump
05/15/17 04:14 PM
By Steve Benen
Barack Obama sat down with the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation recently, as part of the former president receiving the foundation’s Profile in Courage Award, and he was asked about media, echo chambers, and media consumption.
“The challenge is that the curation, the sorting, the filters that might have helped us distinguish between what’s true and what’s false, have all broken down,” Obama said, “and it puts a greater responsibility on each of us I think to be able to be good consumers of information.”
And with this in mind, Politico has an amazing report today on the degree to which Donald Trump is not a good consumer of information.
That’s quite an anecdote. On one of the most pressing, if not the single most critical, issues in the world, an unqualified deputy national security adviser directly provided the sitting president of the United States with bogus information, apparently intended to persuade Trump not to trust (a) climate science; and (b) major news organizations.
Chet
I got Gerrymandered from NJ-7 to NJ-12 in the last census, but I’ve been calling Lance and Frelinghuysen both a lot lately. I may want to get involved in turfing out Rodney. Lance voted against AHCA so he is spared my wrath—for now.
I am currently represented by Donald Payne Jr, who is solid Dem.
SatanicPanic
@rikyrah:
WTF, no way, I am not OK with this line of thinking.
Raven
Linda and Richard, A Heart Needs a Home
Mnemosyne
Other people who have worked the same type of job I have will feel my pain when I say Never Send A Manager To Do An Assistant’s Job.
I now have to spend my afternoon straightening out a lunch meeting that a manager from another department tried to “help” with. Ugh.
Ol'Froth
That’s a lawsuit.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: I feel your pain. My managers decided my machine needed to be cleaned up while I was at our conference. I’ve been reinstalling the programs I need since 8:30 am. After I had my video drivers reinstalled. And now it’s my fonts. Each needing our overbooked IT guy to use his admin credentials. We’re on desk call 6 now. I want to go home.
SFAW
@rikyrah:
“If the Shitgibbon does it, then it’s not illegal”
– Said by exactly no one. Ever.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Oh, yeah, I’ve had that happen, too, with my old boss. “I had the temp clean up your desk while you were on vacation” are some of the scariest words in my job.
At least my current boss knows better than to meddle with my stuff. This is someone from a different department trying to be “helpful” in the absence of his assistant, who is on medical leave. Ugh.
Anonymous At Work
I think it’s worth pointing out that it wasn’t Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ) that did this. There could be multiple Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ)’s in the world. Can you provide his home address, his wife’s contact information and the school that his children attend? If that rude, doxxing, crossing some lines, etc.? Absolutely, which is why you shouldn’t do it. But you should remind him that that’s exactly what he did.
Libby's Person
I just kicked a little into the pot. This was utterly repulsive, and we can’t let it be a precedent.
ruemara
@Mnemosyne: Why does help feel so much like targeted destruction?
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
Because all of the employers in your neck of the woods suck.
dedc79
Ex-Navy helicopter pilot plans to challenge Rep. Frelinghuysen
burnspbesq
@hovercraft:
It’s not as blue as you think. Josh Gottheimer is the first Dem to represent my hometown since 1978.
MattF
WaPo says Trump revealed highly classified information to his recent Russian visitors.
Adria McDowell (formerly Lurker Extraordinaire
@The Moar You Know: Welp, I’m fucked! Not that anyone was gonna hire me for anything but drive thru anyway.
Besides, I save my vitriol for social media where I am unidentifiable. On FaceBook, I mostly just link to articles (although I do sometimes throw in the Catholic guilt trip for the hypocrites, even if they’re family).
Kay
Sad. People worry about this where I live. When we canvassed for Kerry the women who work at the medical group here parked across the street from my office because they were afraid they’d get fired for activism.
I joked about “secret handshakes” but it really just sucks and I felt bad for them and angry at the atmosphere their employers have created where they’re so paranoid. I mean, Jesus Christ. Your boss doesn’t own every second of your life.
Gin & Tonic
@MattF: Just part of his first-quarter report to management.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
As I said in a previous post, it’s hard to know which possibility is worse: trump is being misinformed by his staff in an attempt to manipulate him or he is being misinformed by his staff because they’re incapable of spotting internet hoaxes. Though I suppose I’m giving in to the fallacy of the excluded middle.
Kay
@MattF:
There’s a shocker. The blowhard who never shuts up and has the discipline and restraint of a 3 year old blurted something out?
No one can trust him. He tweets out threats based on private conversations he had. I would never tell him anything.
sixthdoctor
@MattF: But did he do it with EMAILZ????
[crawls under desk, weeps]
ReformedPantySniffer
NJ is largely remaining blue because of the city areas and the Bergen/Essex/Hudson region surrounding them. The further out you go, the redder it is. Morris County is largely white, overfed, and mostly republican, with large suburbs surrounded by overused highways with a mix of failing old strip malls for one class of people and successful newer high income strip malls for another class of people. A lot of colonial history and some great parks (good place to be a dog), but the populace is largely anti-intellectual (except for Morristown and a few other spots). I’m in Leonard Lance’s district and at least he had town halls. Frelinghuysen has largely done nothing except vote the party line consistently. The democrat who announced against him may have a shot, but the odds are against her given the voters out here (white, old, pro-trump, obsessed with taxes and “others”). I have neighbors who still like Christie.
Nethead Jay
This just popped up on my FB from a friend in NJ. What a fuckin’ asshole. Anyway, here’s a link to Mikie Sherrill, the challenger that @dedc79‘s link above is about.
burnspbesq
@ReformedPantySniffer:
And just so we’re clear: Kellyanne Conway is from South Jersey, not New Jersey.
#201falife
ReformedPantySniffer
@burnspbesq:
Understood. This is true. I’m from Monmouth County originally (Springsteen land). My parents moved here from from Queens, NY in 1960. People fail to understand that NJ is like 3 different states of mind. But South, South Jersey is like … out there.
sharl
@trollhattan:
That’s a point worth keeping in mind, but it sounds like NJ-11 is a world different from VA-7, so success by Dems in the former – difficult though it will probably be – will require a different approach than what was used by Tea Party types when they tossed out Eric Cantor in VA-7. There was a pretty good segment on This American Life on the VA-7 Tea Party insurrection (transcript – scroll down to “Act_1”; audio). Immigration/amnesty was a HUGE issue in VA-7, as the TAL story shows. I don’t know what would work best in NJ-11 – hopefully something for Dems rather than loony Republicans – but the folks who live there are in the best position to work on those details.
sharl
@sharl: I just re-listened to the TAL segment I linked. The actual reason why Cantor lost to Brat was probably far more complex than the amnesty/immigration issue, though that is what gets credit because Breitbart and other wingnut media supporters made the most noise about the topic.
Cantor was notorious for never answering his constituents’ calls and messages, and was just aloof in general. For people within his District, this was apparently a major reason for dissatisfaction, though hardly ever brought up by the big national conservative media people; they had their own agenda.
That issue – ignoring constituents – may be a useful topic for NJ-11 Dems, since it sounds like Frelinghuysen is cut from the same cloth as Cantor, at least on that score.
JAFD
Note that Caldwell, New Jersey, is the birthplace of Pres. Grover Cleveland, and his natal abode is an attractive little museum staffed by some really nice ‘senior citizen women’. If you have an hour or so to kill in that neighborhood, you won’t regret going there.
(This has, admittedly, absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand – but methinks the little old ladies would appreciate more visitors :-))
manfrommadras
Amen to that. This assmuncher needs to be kicked out asap…
wenchacha
@Haroldo: I have great regard for Richard Thompson; Doug has good taste. Waiting for the post with the headline “and I can’t wake up to save my life.”