Day: June 21, 2010

Job Offer Might Be Ethical Problem for Nevada’s Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Sandoval

Buck Banks

Brian Sandoval
Brian Sandoval
All the big kids know it — both political parties engage in back-room deals for everything from dogcatcher to cabinet posts to influence the outcome of elections. It’s called politics, people.

Much political hay has been made by the GOP over the Obama administration’s alleged offer of a White House position to U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Penn.) in exchange for his dropping out of a close Senate primary race to boost his opponent’s chances of winning, which supposedly were better than Sestak’s. The job, if indeed offered, was not accepted, and Sestak went on to win the primary.

The GOP, of course, howled for Rahm Emanuel’s and President Obama’s heads, drawing parallels with disgraced Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attempts to sell Obama’s empty Senate seat to the highest bidder.

But the Republican Party apparently has been holding its own version of a political job fair, though its ethical problems might be worse than your typical smoke-filled-room wheeling and dealing, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

A short paragraph buried deep in an article published last weekend by Politico caught the attention of sharp-eyed critics of Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval.

It was an article about the Republican Party’s efforts to field a more diverse slate of candidates and mentioned that “leaders of the Republican Governors Association, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and executive director Nick Ayers, met and called” Sandoval in an effort to recruit him to challenge incumbent Gov. Jim Gibbons.

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Verbatim

Buck Banks

The only thing worse than a torrid affair with sweet, sweet Nancy would be a torrid affair with Helen Thomas. If those were my only options, I’d probably be FOR same-sex marriage!

— Mike Huckabee, in an email to the New Yorker, joking about having an affair with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, proving that when it comes to comedy, he’s no George Will, and when it comes to tact, he’s no Joe Barton.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

There is a choice that Joe Barton has offered the American people, a philosophy for the Republican Party, which is that BP is the aggrieved party. That’s a governing philosophy. In the coming weeks you’ll see the president speak to the country about these competing different philosophies. That is, do you have only the energy executives in the room, or do you have energy executives, environmentalists and other people from the venture capital community to come to a consensus on energy policy? Do you think that BP is the aggrieved party here? Do you think that Wall Street should be left alone and not have any reforms? Elections are about choices.

— White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, on ABC, making it clear that Democrats would use GOP Rep. Joe Barton’s apology to BP, as well as his criticism of the oil company’s $20 billion escrow account, against the Republicans in the fall.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

No, it’s not the end of this. We heard what his statement was right at the outset. That was heartfelt; that’s what he believes.

— Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), quoted by the Washington Post, saying Rep. Joe Barton’s (R-TX) apology for apologizing to oil giant BP will continue to haunt Republicans through the midterm elections.

KY Sen: Rand Paul, Medicare Millionaire, Opposes Extending Benefits of Longterm Unemployed

Jon Ponder

Rand Paul
Rand Paul
Doctors who are sons of doctors, as is Dr. Rand Paul, the gaffe-prone tea bagger Republican Senate candidate, are the elite of the middle class. In an interview last Friday, Dr. Paul showed how the privileged view people facing hard times when he voiced his support for Senate Republicans who are fillibustering an extension of benefits for the longterm unemployed.

But first, a little context:

[Paul has] said approximately 50 percent of his income is Medicare and 5 percent is Medicaid. According to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Paul has been paid $130,461 over the last five years through Medicaid. If that represents 5 percent of his income, then Paul’s Medicare payments over the same period would be more than $1.3 million or about $260,000 a year.

A self-proclaimed tea bagger who is also a libertarian and a Medicare millionaire? Imagine that.

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