Sunday, January 29, 2006
Let The Games Begin
It looked to me that Roy Blunt had managed to get the upper hand over John Boehner in the race to replace Tom DeLay as Republican (and therefore House) Majority Leader. (It looks that way to some other folk, too.) But I'm guessing that Boehner's people haven't given up just yet -- which would explain the sudden appearance of this little tidbit: The Raw Story and Roll Call reveal that a major contributor to Blunt -- a man who prides himself on his ties to the religio-racist Anti-Sex League right -- is a "world-class phone sex operator". And of course Blunt has no intention of returning the money. Let that be a lesson to those silly Democrats who now act as if Indian tribes, and not Jack Abramoff, are the providers of dirty money: The REALLY guilty ones almost never give it back. Speaking of Jack Abramoff: Blunt's enemies aren't the only ones who've been beating Blunt up. He's shot himself in the foot at least once, when he went on FOX News and was caught lying about his Abramoff connections:
This morning on Fox, Blunt was asked about the fact that his political action committees have paid $485,000 to the Alexander Strategy Group, the lobbying firm at the heart of the DeLay-Abramoff corruption scandals. Blunt responded, “I’m pretty sure that…figure is absolutely not accurate.” Actually, it’s precisely accurate. From a Public Citizen report released Friday:And of course Blunt's people aren't letting the oppo grass grow under their feet. A WaPo article out today is entitled "Controversial Industries Have Backed Boehner". Watching Republican infighting is such fun. Pass the popcorn!Ten of Blunt’s biggest contributors have hired ASG as their lobbying firm. Blunt’s committees paid ASG $485,485 since 1999 for fundraising and consulting services. ASG’s clients, meanwhile, have funneled $581,866 into Blunt’s committees.Blunt spokeswoman Burson Taylor was asked to respond to the report by the Washington Post. She dismissed the findings as “a rehash of old charges," but apparently did not challenge their accuracy.
I would be totally unsurprised if Boehner is involved in Coingate but, if so, it's not clear exactly how.
If the Blunt-Boehner competition helps answer that question, well... it would be a fitting outcome.
Of course, they could wind up, in classic scorpion fashion, stinging each other to death and leaving the field to a dark horse.
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