Ellison and Bachmann: compare and contrast

by: The Big E

Fri Dec 11, 2009 at 15:13:31 PM CST

While Bachmann's racism has been ignored by Minnesota's media so has Ellison's efforts to bridge the gaps between African-Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, recent immigrants and those us of European descent.  

While Ellison is so calm and level-headed, Bachmann regularly makes the most fantastically insane statements that get her in trouble and embarrass MN.

So while Minnesota media like the Star Tribune and MinnPost can't stop fawning over Bachmann despite her documented dishonesty, bigotry and insanity,  the latest news about a National Journal poll of DC insiders is a refreshing splash of reality that likes of the Strib and MinnPost cannot ignore:

DC insiders like Ellison and dislike Bachmann.

What The Jack Abramoff Scandal Is All About

by: TwoPuttTommy

Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 16:25:36 PM CDT

Here, in a short segment, Bill Moyers explains in general terms what the Abramoff Scandal is all about, and why - IMNSHO  - GOP today stands for GreedOverPrinciples.  Let's look!!!

This is NOT an "11th Hour" Story

by: TwoPuttTommy

Fri Oct 31, 2008 at 08:40:16 AM CDT

From that story:

Earlier this month, after National Journal questioned Coleman and Larson about the living arrangement, the senator said he discovered that his rent for last November and January had not been paid. In mid-June, Coleman covered the back rent with a personal check for $1,200 made out to Larson and signed by the senator's wife. Last year, Coleman sold furniture to Larson to cover one month's rent, according to Larson. And Larson held on to yet another month's rent check for three months, cashing it a few days after NJ's inquiries.(National Journal)

After this story broke, Senator Coleman produced a "lease" for the rental premises, dated after details of the "between friends" - Norm Coleman and Jeff Larson of FLS fame - agreement became known.

Sill unanswered after these revelations are the arrangements concerning utilities for the Senator's rental unit.  What is known is the unit Coleman rents is a legally licensed separate rental unit, with separated utility meters.  On August 4th, at a press conference, Coleman spokesperson Mark Drake promised to check with the campaign about allowing members of the media to see an actual utility bill, so members of the media could verify Senator Coleman was paying what he should be and not violating the Gift Ban - let alone having a corporation picking up his tab.

To date, said utility bills have not been produced.  Indeed, just yesterday, with Mark Drake at the podium, Team Coleman stonewalled reporters again.  Here's the transcript, beginning at the 15:24  mark:

REPORTER:  Mark we know that Senator Coleman pays $600 a month in rent, right?

Mark Drake: (right.)

REPORTER:  We still don't haven't had an  answer on utility bills, and we asked a few months ago if you could produce those to see how much he's really paying - do you have an answer for us now?

Mark Drake:  You know, this has all been dealt with months ago.

REPORTER:  No, it hasn't been.  We haven't seen a utility bill yet and it would be good to see those.

Mark Drake:  OK,  I'll see what I can do.

REPORTER:  We should have seen them by now.

Mark Drake:  OK. (The Uptake)

Keep that in mind, regarding the utility bill issue.  Now, let's look at a press conference from October 8th, where both the utility bill and Lori Coleman's employment were brought up:  

REPORTER: On a different subject is there a reason that the Senator won't say whether or not someone else bought some suits for him.

CULLEN SHEEHAN: Rachel, the Senator has reported every gift he has ever received.

REPORTER: That wasn't my question, Cullen.

CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has reported every gift he has ever received. We are not going to respond to unnamed sources on a blog.

REPORTER: So Senator Coleman's friend has not bought these suits for him? Is that correct?

CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has reported every gift he has ever received.

REPORTER: Why would say that? Why wouldn't you give us an answer yes or no on that?

CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has recorded every gift he has ever received.

REPORTER: We haven't asked whether he has recorded every gift he has ever received and I will take his word that he has recorded every gift he has received. Has he ever received a gift of suits?

CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has reported every gift he has ever received.

REPORTER: If the answer is no, then why don't you say no.

CULLEN SHEEHAN: He has reported every gift he has ever received, Rachel.

TwoPuttTommy:  Cullen, who's name is on Senator Coleman's utility bill in D.C.?"

CULLEN SHEEHAN:  Are there any more questions from the Capital Press Corps?

REPORTER: What about Laurie, Mrs. Coleman's job at Hays Company? Do you know what she did there?

CULLEN SHEEHAN: Again they have disclosed everything they need to disclose on the Senate ethics forms.

REPORTER: So the Senator will only go according to the Senate ethics laws or rules rather than answer questions?

CULLEN SHEEHAN: He has done everything that he is required to do, Rachel.

REPORTER: That is not my question, Cullen.

CULLEN SHEEHAN: But that is my response.

REPORTER: Senator Coleman has talked a lot about campaign finance and transparency. He'll repeat that transparency - transparency - that's what you need to have. If there are questions about whether he was a recipient of some very expensive suits and whether those they were gifted to him in an appropriate way - why not just clear it all up because it is very unclear to us?

CULLEN SHEEHAN: He does that every year as a United States Senator on his Senate disclosure forms.

REPORTER: And will we find information about clothing on those forms?

CULLEN SHEEHAN: If it exceeds a gift limit, yes.

REPORTER: So is it possible that he received these suits and it was below gift level.

CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has reported every gift he has ever received.

REPORTER: It is a little puzzling Cullen why you won't say whether or not he received these gifts and I understand that you don't have respond to everything on the blogs but you are getting questions from reporters and I don't see why you aren't answering them. Can you explain that a little to me?

CULLEN SHEEHAN: Rachel, we are not going to respond to unnamed sources on blogs. That is what we are going to do from now until election is over. The Senator has disclosed everything that he is required to disclose and recorded everything that he is required to record.

REPORTER: But Cullen if the Senator did nothing wrong here and that is what you are saying then just tell us that and the issue will go away.

CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has reported every gift he has ever received.

REPORTER: Did the Senator done something wrong here?

CULLEN SHEEHAN: The Senator has done nothing wrong and reported every gift he has ever received.

REPORTER: And you don't know what Mrs. Coleman did for Hays Companies?

CULLEN SHEEHAN: And again whatever has been required to be disclosed about her income and what she does has been disclosed.

Apparently, by the recent cour filings, everything that has been required to be disclosed about 'her"  - Lori Coleman - has NOT been disclosed.

And clearly, the revelations alleged in the Texas court filings are NOT "a vicious 11th hour attack"; they are issues the Coleman campaign could have/should have gotten in front of, if the allegations were baseless, months ago.  But they didn't.   Where there's smoke, there's often fire.  Especially when left smoldering.

This story is not "an 11th hour attack" - this is a story that, after 4 months is coming to a boil; it very well could be embers combusting into fire.  If it's "11th hour", that's only because allegations have gone unsatisfactorily addressed - for months if not more.

And still unanswered is who's name is on the utility bill for the apartment Norm Coleman rents, from a well-connected campaign operative.  This is another story that Team Coleman has left unexplained - and after many months, those paying attention are connecting the dots.

Coleman's connections to disgraced lobbyists highlighted...again

by: Joe Bodell

Thu Jun 26, 2008 at 21:32:14 PM CDT

Those lobbyists are the ones that run his campaign and are tight with the brutal military regime in Myanmar.

Good stuff - check it out:

Most curiously, Larson provides Coleman with a place to live in Washington. In July 2007, Coleman began paying Larson $600 a month in rent for a portion of a one-bedroom basement apartment in a Capitol Hill town house that Larson owns. The way Coleman explained the arrangement, the apartment serves as a crash pad. The 58-year-old senator sleeps in a bed shoehorned into a 10-by-10 bedroom, and he said he spends perhaps only "three waking hours a night" in the place.

Earlier this month, after National Journal questioned Coleman and Larson about the living arrangement, the senator said he discovered that his rent for last November and January had not been paid. In mid-June, Coleman covered the back rent with a personal check for $1,200 made out to Larson and signed by the senator's wife. Last year, Coleman sold furniture to Larson to cover one month's rent, according to Larson. And Larson held on to yet another month's rent check for three months, cashing it a few days after NJ's inquiries.

Larson's St. Paul-based company, FLS Connect, is a critical component of Coleman's political operation. The firm, which has raised money and hustled up voters for Coleman, has been paid about $1.6 million since mid-2001 by Coleman's Northstar Leadership political action committee and two Senate campaigns, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. Larson serves as the PAC's treasurer and provides it with office space in St. Paul; Coleman's Senate campaign stopped renting space from Larson last year.

But this is more than just the same old culture of corruption we've come to expect from the modern Republican Party -- Norm Coleman is paying rent with furniture, his wife is writing his checks (since Coleman himself doesn't appear to have listed a checking account on his personal financial disclosure), and the 10x10 D.C. bachelor pad he's renting is owned by the same lobbyist who he pays for political consulting and whose colleagues donate to Coleman's campaign....it's a dizzying array of disingenuous conduct.

Is it a campaign issue, per se? Only if you believe that Washington lobbyists have a bit too much influence already with our elected leaders. One need only look as far as the debacle of a FISA bill that's making its way through the Senate to understand how powerful the lobbyists who control the easy money in Washington really are.

Add Larson and the rest of his FLS/DCI buddies to the list of people Norm Coleman would do well to remove from his company.