Day: August 27, 2006

Bankrollers of Swiftboat Vets and McCain Smear in Trouble With the Feds

Trish

The Wyly brothers (as in Wiley Coyote) are finally being investigated for their byzantine finances. The guys who funded the smear campaign on John McCain that led to Bush’s primary victory in 2000, and more recently, the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, are in trouble for evading taxes.

The Wylys represent the ultra-rich of Dallas.

They started, bought and built several successful businesses including Earth Resources, Sterling Software, Michaels Stores, the Bonanza restaurant chain and electricity supplier Green Mountain Energy…

Sam [Wyly] says they decided to pay for the attack ads because, ultimately, they back their friends.

A report released this month by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations alleged that the Wylys established the offshore trusts in the Irish Sea’s Isle of Man, a commonly used tax haven, to get around their U.S. tax obligations…

Senate investigators allege that the Wylys used the offshore trusts to buy $30 million worth of artwork, jewelry, furniture and other items for their personal use. Among the purchases: a $937,500 portrait of Ben Franklin; a $13,000 French bronze chandelier; $721,000 in official documents from Abraham Lincoln’s presidency; and a $759,000 emerald necklace.

Sen. Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who launched the investigation, said the Wylys “participated in a 13-year scam and scheme to circumvent U.S. tax, securities and anti-money laundering requirements.”

With the brothers in so many powerful back pockets, it’s surprising they needed to resort to all this.

Staunch Republicans, the Wylys have been big party donors since the Nixon presidency, personally giving about $10 million to Republican causes and candidates since the early 1970s, they say…

They’re invited to the most elite Christmas parties at the White House. They’ve spent time at Camp David. Sam [Wyly] used to motorboat on the Potomac with former President George Bush.

“George the younger kind of inherited us,” Sam said…

[…]

Nonpartisan Rothenberg Report: Dems Poised to Take House

Jon Ponder

Stuart Rothenberg:

Our latest race-by-race review of Congressional districts around the country convinces us that a Democratic wave is building and that the party is poised to take control of the House of Representatives in the fall. The only question now is the size of the November wave.

The national mood remains bleak for Republicans. President George W. Bush’s job performance ratings are terrible, and the public still gives Congress low marks. A majority of Americans continue to tell pollsters that the country is headed in the wrong direction.

That’s a recipe for a GOP disaster, and there is no reason to believe that things will change dramatically between now and Election Day to improve Republican prospects…

Therefore, we are raising our estimate of likely Democratic gains from 8-12 seats to 15-20 seats, which would translate to between 218 and 223 seats – and a majority – in the next House.

Rumsfeld to Troop Families: We Own You

Trish

According to Donald Rumsfeld, if you didn’t want to hand your whole life over to ruthless megalomanics to be chewed on and tossed out like the straw in your chocolate McShake, then you shouldn’t have signed up for the military. What did you think you’d be doing anyway, serving your country? Puh-lese.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Saturday praised the work of an Army brigade whose one-year tour in Iraq was extended just as they prepared to return home, and said he saw no reason for the soldiers or their families to be angry at him.

“These people are all volunteers. They all signed up. They all are there doing what they’re doing because they want to do it.”

“I don’t put it in that context,” he said. “These people are all volunteers. They all signed up. They all are there doing what they’re doing because they want to do it.”

And don’t start whining about coming home by 2007, either.

Rumsfeld said he would make no promises that the full brigade would be back home by the holidays.

“I’d love to be Santa Claus. I’m not,” he said in an interview with reporters during a flight to Fairbanks.

If it turned out that by December, U.S. commanders in Iraq felt they needed an unscheduled infusion of troops, “our first choice obviously would be to have them be someone other than the people we just extended,” Rumsfeld said. “But I’m not going to get into the promises business. That isn’t my style.”

What is your style, exactly, Rummy? Besides dunderheaded incompetence and cold-blooded apathy, I mean.