Liberal Repercussion

I am hoping those tax-scam scuzzbunnies go down. They fucking prey on the stupid, and use their appearance of authority to exercise influence over weak minded greedy hicks.

SOME PATRIOTS!! *snort*


http://www.americanpolitics.com/111197GOPCrimesUPD.html



Senator Levin subpoenaed and got bank records and other data which show, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Norquist used his tax-exempt corporation to launder money for the Republican National Committee.

The conspiracy, set up between Norquist, several RNC operatives and former Republican National Committee Chairman Haley Barbour, worked like this:

Norquist and Barbour arranged for Norquist's "Americans for Tax Reform" -- in a highly detailed scheme -- to launder $4.6 million of RNC money through "Americans for Tax Reform" accounts in order to cloak the expenditure as an independent advocacy mailing.

Now, federal law prohibits coordination of such political activity between politics parties and so-called independent organizations like "Americans for Tax Reform." But Republicans have abused this law for years. I should know. I was trained at the presidential level by the Republican National Committee myself in 1980.

Norquist and the RNC claim there was absolutely no coordination between them -- but extremely detailed evidence show them to be liars.

In October 1996 the RNC gave "Americans for Tax Reform" a $4.6 million "donation." Keep that in mind -- nearly $5 million dollars. The "donation" itself would be questionable at any time, since Norquist seems to be universally loathed by a plethora of right-wing conservatives and liberals alike who see him as a nightmare in human form and an embarrassment to the Republican Party as well as the nation. But Norquists's closest allies, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Haley Barbour share this mantle.

But wait. It gets better.

RNC officials, including Barbour, claim that the $5 million had no strings attached! They just popped what amounts to the a week of school lunches for a million poor kids over to Norquist's private anti-tax group -- because he was "like-minded." Boy, would I like to get in the heads of the jury that hears that one.

Norquist and Barbour, so arrogant that they didn't even cover their crime well, held onto enough documents to commit suicide. Among those documents are bank records that show an immediate transfer, after receiving RNC cash, from Norquist's accounts to pay for a campaign mailing to 150 congressional districts only days before the 1996 election. Shades of Batman.

In one case, more than $500,000 spent only an hour or two in Norquist's accounts before it was spent for pro-Republican advertising.

And where did the money go? Well, nearly $3.5 million went to something called the "John Grotta Company" - a direct mail house that works primarily for Republicans. Grotta mailed a piece targeted at seniors who knew Republicans were trying to gut Medicare. The Norquist piece told them this wasn't true and after it was mailed, polls showed Republicans recovering from a big decline in senior support.

What was Norquist doing mailing campaign pieces about Medicare? "Americans for Tax Reform" is registered as an anti-tax group, not a health care protectorate. What he was doing was attempting to "play ball" with the powers-that-be at the RNC.

The mail went out under the name of "Americans for Tax Reform" -- another crime inasmuch as the mail never revealed that the piece was from the Republican National Committee, nor were the donors who supplied the money to the RNC that was transferred to "Americans for Tax Reform" revealed as required by law. You can bet that some of them had already reached the legal limit for political contributions.

Haley Barbour, like Al Capone, is no dummy -- although he poses as one. He knew it was illegal for the Republican Party to run this mail and other ads on behalf of Republican candidates for Congress, so he transferred the $5 million to "Americans for Tax Reform" and Norquist ran the mail and ads for them, covering their tracks in the process.

Close to my heart and on Norquist's and Barbour's hit list was Bob Torricelli, my favorite home-state US Senator. Norquist targeted him last fall, using the RNC laundered money to specifically attack Torricelli during his election race in a series of negative ads. The only luck was that Norquist's ads were so impotent -- and so poorly produced -- that they had no impact. Torricelli won, and Norquist will pay the price if I know the New Jersey Senator.

Not only did Norquist and Barbour cook up this coin-op laundry, but Barbour also directed Carl Lindner - Chiquita Banana head poobah and often beneficiary of targeted Republican pro-Lindner legislation - to give at least $100,000 to Norquist.

And there's more.

An RNC memo appropriately titled "A Memorandum for Field Dogs" specifically outlines the conspiratorial nature of the deal between Barbour and Norquist and alerts RNC field operatives about the "Americans for Tax Reform" mail piece to "warn seniors on the Medicare issue."

Norquist's audacity doesn't stop there. Remember, he runs "Americans for Tax Reform" as a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation -- making him a guy who is "against taxes", yet uses taxpayer money to run his private fiefdom! Now his tax exempt status is only a dream, for his use of RNC money to make direct political mailings and attack ads against Democrats is a violation of IRS statutes and other laws which will result in his organization being stripped of non-profit protection forever.

Senator Levin has spent a long time tying this into a neat little bundle for Janet Reno.

posted by Rei Toei @ 9:00 p.m.