Curt's Cash Connections
If you've been tracking the quotes from Weldon's camp lately, it's clear that lacking any ground to stand on, they're hoping that voters will be scared to vote for a (GASP!) Democrat! (Just like they trembled as they cast their ballots for four consecutive Democratic Presidential candidates.)
When Joe Sestak was tapped by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to give the Democrat's weekly radio address, Weldon Campaign Manager Mike Puppio's quote in the local paper was that Sestak is "owned lock, stock, and barrel by the national Democrat committee."
And when Senator Dodd made an appearance to a packed hall of 7th district voters, Puppio griped about Sestak associating with Pelosi and Dodd. After all--they aren't from the PA-7.
So, just to be clear... Weldon will not associate himself with any of the members of his party? And he's refusing all help and attention from colleagues who live outside the district? So he's returning the money from the fundraiser Dick Cheney had for him a few months ago? Or the one with Newt Gingrich as the featured speaker?
Will he be returning the $10,000 deposited in his campaign account by Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert's PAC? Or the other $10,000 from Republican Majority Leader John Boehnor? Or...wait for it... the $10,000 from Republican House Whip Roy Blunt? All in all, the receipts from Republican PAC's adds up to $208,000 through June 30, 2006. That's just this election cycle. (Source: http://www.tray.com/)
This says nothing of the $600,000 from special interest groups and corporations. We could only wish that Weldon was owned lock, stock, and barrel by the voters of the Pennsylvania 7th.
Contrast that with Joe Sestak, who raised more than 82% of his total funds from 6,000 individuals.
Weldon and Puppio seem unusually concerned that Joe Sestak gave a frank talk on the open airwaves or talked with voters and the press about real issues facing middle class families at a free event in the heart of the district.
When Joe Sestak was tapped by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to give the Democrat's weekly radio address, Weldon Campaign Manager Mike Puppio's quote in the local paper was that Sestak is "owned lock, stock, and barrel by the national Democrat committee."
And when Senator Dodd made an appearance to a packed hall of 7th district voters, Puppio griped about Sestak associating with Pelosi and Dodd. After all--they aren't from the PA-7.
So, just to be clear... Weldon will not associate himself with any of the members of his party? And he's refusing all help and attention from colleagues who live outside the district? So he's returning the money from the fundraiser Dick Cheney had for him a few months ago? Or the one with Newt Gingrich as the featured speaker?
Will he be returning the $10,000 deposited in his campaign account by Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert's PAC? Or the other $10,000 from Republican Majority Leader John Boehnor? Or...wait for it... the $10,000 from Republican House Whip Roy Blunt? All in all, the receipts from Republican PAC's adds up to $208,000 through June 30, 2006. That's just this election cycle. (Source: http://www.tray.com/)
This says nothing of the $600,000 from special interest groups and corporations. We could only wish that Weldon was owned lock, stock, and barrel by the voters of the Pennsylvania 7th.
Contrast that with Joe Sestak, who raised more than 82% of his total funds from 6,000 individuals.
Weldon and Puppio seem unusually concerned that Joe Sestak gave a frank talk on the open airwaves or talked with voters and the press about real issues facing middle class families at a free event in the heart of the district.
posted by EB at 11:17 PM
22 Comments:
Attacks like this are to be expected from Weldon... what to watch for, though, is reporters who start making references to that as a "weakness." It usually starts as tangential statements in the passive voice, "...though Sestak's candidacy has been hurt by his perceived closeness to national democratic leaders..." without anything to back it up.
People who support Joe should keep a watch on the press and see if any of this sort of language starts creeping in.
Cut Weldon a break. He doesn't have a record to run on, only one to run away from (just like he's running away from his pal, George Bush).
If he didn't attack Sestak, he wouldn't even have a campaign.
If you don't have something nice to say, hire a spokesman like Puppio to say it for you.
Voters are still waiting to here from Joe Sestak on whether he supports Pelosi's stance opposing these votes in Congress. Not surprising since Sestak won't disclose where he stands on certain issues:
* Classifying terrorist detentions and interrogations as fundamental to the successful prosecution of the War on Terror (Vote 298, 6/23/04)
* Reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act in 2005 twice (Vote 414, 7/21/05;
Vote 627, 12/14/05)
* Funding to carry out the PATRIOT Act - this vote came on the very day we learned of new threats against American interests. (Vote 339, 7/8/04)
* $21 billion in funding for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Vote 373,
7/14/04)
* The formation of a Joint Interagency Taskforce to promote =
communications between intelligence agencies -- the lack of information =
sharing was identified as one of the intelligence failings discovered =
following the September 11 attacks. (Vote 355, 7/26/02)
* Additional funds to fight the war on terrorism, bulk up homeland
security and aid September 11 recovery efforts (Vote 206, 5/24/02)
* Legislation establishing a Department of Homeland Security (Vote 367 7/26/02), putting politics above our national security.
Interesting that Joe Sestak had a fundraiser today at the home of Richard Schiffrin.
In case you don't know who he is, he was the dismissed as lead counsel in a lawsuit against Halliburton for trying to settle for too small a sum after having a private meeting with Dick Cheney's lawyer.
As "The Nation" notes in a recent article:
"Another oddity is how quickly the original plaintiff lawyers, Schiffrin & Barroway, rushed to settle the case for a meager sum. They negotiated a settlement of $6 million when the victimized investors, including many pension funds, had lost an estimated $3.1 billion. For no obvious reason, Richard Schiffrin also met privately with Cheney's personal lawyer, even though Cheney was not part of the case."
Schiffrin is also in some ethical trouble in Michigan for giving camapign contributions to the Governor in exchange for help in setting up meetings to do business with the state. Nice friends Sestak has...
Dude... Abromoff.
Dude, again...Tom Delay.
Dude, Weldon gave Abramoff's money back. And he's not out soliciting it from him now like Sestak is with Schiffrin.
Sestak's acting like a hypocrite, railing against Halliburton while taking money from someone who seems to have cut a sweetheart deal with the company, settling what some say was a $6 BILLION lawsuit for $6 million.
Anonymous Weldon Staff "Dude"-
Weldon did not really give back the Abramoff money. Abramoff money was given in 2003 to buy Weldon's vote. Weldon spent that money getting re-elected in 2004. The $2000 that Weldon donated to charity in Jan 2006 was "replaced" the very next day by a $2000 donation from the only individual contributor Weldon listed for January. Can you spell money-laundering?
As for Schiffrin, it sounds like like he got convinced by Cheney's lawyers that he might lose the case and settling might be a good idea. You failed to mention that 3 of the 4 plaintiffs agreed to Schiffrin's settlement offer. He very well might just be a piss-poor and unskillful attorney. But, Bush has Gonzales as Attorney General, so clearly quality legal opinion is not a GOP priority.
As for the votes, I can't speak for Joe's positions on the votes you cited, but I hope he does not endorse most of them. Specifically...
* The terrorism detentions, as implemented by Bush adminstration, are beyond legal the authority of the Constitution and violate the Geneva Conventions. Arresting the wrong people and torturing them illegally is NOT fundamental to our success and is causing us more harm than good.
* The Patriot Act should be re-labeled as the Un-Patriot Act. It violates civil liberties and provides a foundation for steering America into becoming a police-state. The Patriot Act fails to provide sufficient judicial over-sight of the executive branch. It has been used and abused by the FBI infiltrating peace organizations and political opponents of the Bush administration, just like the FBI violated the rights of Martin Luther King and other activists in the 60's.
* The Patriot Act suffers from more problems than funding. It should be gutted an re-written. Illegally spying on American citizens should not be funded.
* Border and Customs funding. How effective has that been? What about inspecting shipping containers? Sestak has clearly stated that he wants more funding to protect our ports and inspect shipping containers.
* I'm pretty sure that Sestak supports most, if not all, of the 9/11 Commission recommendations. So, I'm pretty sure he'd be for inter-agency communications, though I'm not sure if the specifics in the Joint Interagency Taskforce bill you voted for contains all the best ideas on the subject.
* A vote Weldon made 4 years ago to provided additional funds to fight against terrorism? I'm sure would be happy if the Bush adminstration spend funds actually fighting terrorism instead of a diversion like Iraq or undercutting the budget with tax-cuts for the top 1%.
* The Deparment of Homeland security was conceived by the Clinton adminstration and Bush implemented the plans (but poorly, by appointing incompentent adminstration and using terror alerts as a political tool during 2004 election).
If you guys want to highlight the Bush-adminstration positions and failed policies that Bush and Weldon have jointly supported, keep up the good work.
With you guys helping Weldon, blogging is like shooting fish in a barrel.
I know you're a shill and all, but how about asking your pal Joe for his position than spouting out what you think his positions would or should be? Don't voters deserve to know his positions ratehr than having to guess what they are?
Then again, that might require him to take some tough positions, which it seems Joe is scared to do -- either for fear of allienating nut-jobs like you or allienating people who actually want the country to be more secure form terrorism...
Money laundering? What kind of conspiracy nut are you? Weldon gave the money to the Delaware County Community Action Agency, a program that helps the poor in the region and receives federal funding through the Community Services Block Grant.
Weldon, by the way, has repeatedly battled both the Bush and Clinton Administrations for more money for this important program, which allows local communities to come up with tailored solutions to address poverty and other social problems within their local community.
Anonymous said:
"Then again, that might require him to take some tough positions, which it seems Joe is scared to do -- either for fear of allienating nut-jobs like you or allienating people who actually want the country to be more secure form terrorism..."
I think Joe knows how to take a tough position.
And we can always tell when a Republican is in trouble when they play the 9/11 card and try to scare us over national security. There are lots of ways to keep our country safe without invading other countries for no good reason and illegal wiretapping.
Dave, EB et al. --
Keep up the good work, guys. While the Weldon staff is busy making up BS to write here, Joe is out campaigning and earning national headlines.
Way to go, pa7watch! And nice priorities Weldon campaign staff...
Anonymous-
I think you have the wrong definition of shill. I don't work for the Sestak campaign. I'm not a member of the campaign staff (paid or volunteer) answering phones, stuffing envelopes, handing out campaign literature, etc.
I post under my own name and my opinions are my own. The Sestak campaign finds out what I think, just like everybody else, be reading what I write.
You, Mr. Anonymous, be contrast have all the earmarkings of a Weldon campaign staff member or GOP political appointee posting on blogs while being paid by the county for a job you aren't doing (or both). Strap on a pair of balls and post under your real name(s). (BTW, same goes for Sestak supporters regarding posting under real names.)
I can't quote Joe's specific positions because I don't consult with him. However, I do disagree with Weldon's positions. For me, this election is about removing Weldon, who has doesn't not represent my positions or beliefs and has been a Bush cheerleader the past 6 years. I'd have a better chance picking a better congressman by closing my eyes and pointing to a name in a phone book. Fortunately, I have the opportunity to vote for Sestak, who is a far better candidate than I could have hoped for.
Weldon is more than entitled to bring up all the Bush adminstration legislation he supported when he debates with Sestak. Though, in a district where Clinton, Gore, Kerry and Rendell won by huge margins, I can't see how this will help Curt.
Conspiracy nut? Abramoff guilty on Jan 3rd. Weldon "donates" money on Jan 4th. Weldon gets exactly $2000 donation on Jan 5th. Do the math.
* If Weldon did not sell out the voters for the $2000 and vote with Abramoff in the first place, why would he feel the need to pretend to give it up?
* The Abramoff donation was for 2004 election. How does giving away money in the 2006 race solve anything? He already used the money in 2004 campaign.
* It would have been more effective for the donor to give the $2000 directly to the charity (and gotten a tax deduction to put towards other charities) than to launder in through Weldon campaign.
If congress had a functioning ethics committee, Weldon would be sharing the fates of Randall "Duke" Cunningham and Tom Delay. He will be sharing one fate very soon: being out of office.
As far as real names, when is Seventh Watch going to come out of the closet? Is it true he's a Democrat Party leader in Delco and doesn't want to be associated with his comments on this blog?
Weldon had a good deal of money left in his campaign account at the end of 2004. You don't seem that dumb as to not realize that it rolls over to 2006, which is when the money was donated to a local poverty organization.
So, does this mean that Sestak is goign to donate all of the money raised at this Schiffner event to charity?
Yo David. Look up the word shill in the dictionary, you may learn something real for a change rather than all this untrue garbage you parrot day in day out.
Actually, I think that David gives your ad hominem attacks far more thoughtful and well-articulated responses than you deserve, anonymous of somewhere, USA.
Shill-
from Dictionary.com
1. a person who poses as a customer in order to decoy others into participating, as at a gambling house, auction, confidence game, etc.
2. a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty.
From American Heritage Dictionary-
One who poses as a satisfied customer or an enthusiastic gambler to dupe bystanders into participating in a swindle.
Okay, let's see how the anonymous Weldon staffers do under these definitions:
They are posing as random/interested voters rather than employees or interns of the candidate (or County employees posting during work).
Posers? Check.
Self-interest? Check.
Personal profit? Check.
Posing as satified constituent? Check.
Participating in a swindle? Check.
I challenge the anonymous Weldon posters to state their relationship to the Weldon campaign or their County job title. Seems to me that the Weldon supporters and Sestak critics are either cowering, violating county rules or hiding their own agendas.
I have already stated quite clearly that I am not a worker at Sestak offices or paid operative, etc. I'm not parroting anything (though you guys really got caught with your pants down parroting (plagiarizing) Weldon's Congressional site onto the campaign site and having to take it down for ethics violations. I read the new articles and comment on Weldon's hypocrisy and general foolish behavior. Lot's of material. Thanks.
I'm an active Democrat that thinks Weldon, Santorum and Bush have taken this country in the wrong direction and do not represent me. This year, the people of the 7th district have the hope to replace two of them and by doing so send a clear message to the third.
As for Seventh Watch being a Delco "party leader", you guys have me puzzled (once I stopped laughing). He's a pretty much one of the lowest-ranking guys in the party pecking order. However, for guy that spent a few hours setting up a blog, he certainly has become a leading gadfly by exposing the Weldon campaign to more scrutiny. Thanks for revealing that you guys are so completely clueless about what levels of our party are doing what. As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a marooon!"
Ahh, so you did learn the definition of shill. Good for you David. You should be proud of yourself. Good to see you now realize why it applies for you.
As to your assertions that anyone posting to this blog that contradicts your bogus rhertoric must be a Weldon campaign staffer, I guess that just shows the kind of rock you live under.
Believe it or not, there are a number of Weldon supporters in the county who see through Sestak's and your BS and are willing to call you on it. Why? Because we see you you for what you are -- shills for the left wing political ideology of tax and spend Democrats. People who are afraid to take on those who oppose freedom. Misguided individuals who naively believe that those who threaten our freedom and our way of life are simply misunderstood. You seem to think the enemies of our nation would just leave us alone if we sat down and talked with them or allowed them to take control and dominate other countries such as Iraq or Afganistan. Sacrifice a few thousands lives and freedom in the Middle East to these terrosists and they will leave us alone. That's just not the way it works in the real world. They hate America and they hate freedom and will stop at nothing too destroy our country.
Anonymous-
You really have no idea what the definition of shill is or why it applies yourself as you seem to be projecting your own shilling upon me.
As for the political ideology, you don't even state the Democrats case correctly. No wonder guys like Weldon don't understand the Mid-East conflicts when they can't even understand politics in their own country.
-- Democrats are not "tax and spend", which is pretty funny considering how Weldon has "tax-cut and spent" driving us into debt. Demcrats, like myself, are for responsible pay-as-you-go spending. If you want to spend 300-billion fighting a war, you should remove tax revenue by giving a break to the top 1% and making the rest of us foot the bill.
-- The terrorist are no threat to our freedom. The government enacting police-state tactics like warrantless searches, civil-rights violations, over-reaching constitional powers, torturing prisoner, etc. are threats to freedom.
-- We do not misunderstand the terrorists. However, Bush, Cheney, Santorum and Weldon DO MISUNDERSTAND the situation in the Mid-East and failed comprehend the sophisticated approach required. Rather, they are still scrathing their heads (or asses) wondering why we weren't greeted with flowers as liberators.
-- If we sat down and engaged these countries we could gain traction with the moderate elements that do support us. Now that Bush has alienated our allies and lost our moral authority, the moderates abilities to institute democratic reforms have been destroyed. Now, these countries are democratically electing leaders that speak out against the US policies. Bush and his supporters have giving aid-and comfort to our enemies by providing the catalyst for more extremism and damaging our reputation throughout the world.
-- Sacrifice a few thousands lives and freedom in the Middle East to these terrosists and they will leave us alone. Um.. That has been the Bush strategy. Bush sacrificed over 2500 American lives, tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed, over 10,000 American soldiers maimed. Of course it doesn't work. The Democrats were telling YOU guys that before this war even started.
-- They hate America and they hate freedom and will stop at nothing too destroy our country. This is pure rhetoric and nonsense. It really shows the complete lack of understanding you (and Weldon) have about what motivates the terrorists and how the world works:
1) Terrorism and extremism are fueled by large numbers of young people in countries suffering from high unemployment and economic distress and looking for someone to blame.
2) Charismatic leaders, seeking power, rally them against a convenient enemy that is supposedly to blame for all their trouble. (Hitler did this too)
3) Botched foreign policies by Bush adminstration and failure to engage with leaders to quell the economic hardships lead to the collapse of social order and allow small numbers of radicals to dominate the political and/or military landscape. (Look how those crazy right-wing Fallwell types ruined our country by getting Bush elected.) Hating our policies is not the same as hating our freedoms.
4) The terrorists cannot destroy our freedoms (only we can do that to ourselves giving into fear and dismantling our freedoms to create a police-state).
5) The terrorists cannot destroy our country. Blowing up a few buildings and killing a few thousand people is horrible, but hardly topples our government. It's not like the terrorists can invade us with a fleets of thousands of ships, storm our beaches and take over. They can kill some of us, but not all of us.
6) Nothing can stop every small group bent upon from infiltrating our country. However, better foreign policy reduces the pool of terrorist recruits.
7) This week I read a report that 43,000 Americans are killed every year in traffic accidents. That is nearly fifteen 9/11's every year. Where is the national outcry?
8) Hundreds of thousands die each year from tobacco-related causes? Where is the outcry?
9) Over 40 million Americans live in poverty. They are more worried about (and at more risk from) dying from lack of food or medical attention than from terrorists. What could the 300 billion dollars wasted in Iraq have done to help them? Where was the national outcry for them?
10) How about the poor souls that suffered during Katrina. Where was the National Guard whose job it is to protect them? Oh, yeah. Some idiots voted for a war and sent them over to Iraq.
The American citizens are finally seeing through the false arguments and swaggering bravado of people that think democracy can be imposed at the barrel of a gun.
You guys don't even understand the poor and underprivileged citizens in our country as you try to label them with terms like "welfare queens" or "lazy" or "unwilling to work". You certainly have no idea (or desire) to help poor people in foreign countries before they become radicalized.
The failed and short-sighted, simplistic, black-and-white ideology that has set our country back decades needs to be turned back. A GOP congress and president created this problem. It's time for us to exercise the freedoms (we still have) and vote rubber-stampers like Weldon out of office and take back our country.
Wow, David. That last comment pretty much summed it all up for me. That should have been a post, not buried down at comment #18.
Even though their numbers are dwindling, I'm still always surprised at how man people you come across who think that Dodge City diplomacy works.
When is councilman puppio going to start earing that big full time salary we Delaware County tax payers give him? Doesnt he have a real job to do instead of campaigning on the public dime? I mean other than spending 15 minutes each week in a county council photo op (i mean meeting) what does this shill do to earn his full time taxpayer funded salary?
Well, I can name three people who aren't paying Puppio's salary. Joe Sestak, his campaign manager, and his spokesperson. All from out of state and never paid a dime of county or school taxes in Delco.
Fitting that a former Virginia governor would come in and campaign for Sestak. Its like Virginia gaining another Congressman.
I guess Sestak doesn't have the luxury of a corrupt GOP county political machine to provide workers. Weldon's band of merry minions has squandered, mishandled, mismanaged and pocketed enough Delco taxes to run two counties.
Considering the matches between Weldon's and Tom Delay's voting records, when Sestak wins, Texas will be losing a Congressman.
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