Saturday, March 11, 2006

"I'm a fool to do your dirty work...."

Colorado Pols on Fox & Co. backfired hit on Angie Paccione:

Fox is apparently a big donor to the Musgrave campaign, which is no doubt one reason this complaint didn't go too far. Next time, you may consider getting somebody else to sign the complaint besides blatant Musgrave backers.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Late regrets for wasting everyone's time?

Isn't it interesting how the 11 "constituents" are backing off now that the House leadership unanimously blew them off?

From the Longmont paper, even the Sheriff sounds like he wasn't even sure what the hell he was complaining about in the first place:

"Someone needed to look at and make that determination," Alderden said. "An ethics committee was an appropriate venue to look at it."

Alderden said he is not clear how many people received the initial Paccione e-mail. But he said if it was a large number, "someone needs to be held accountable for that action, be it Angie or her campaign manager. Obviously, someone wasn’t on top of the situation and should’ve been on top of the situation."


Uhhhh, doesn't that kind of admit Angie's original point? That someone screwed up and they fixed it within half an hour? Ol' Chuckie Fox is sounding a little less sure of himself:
"If they have some good reasons why it shouldn’t go forward, I’m fine with that," he said.
Where'd that outrage go, "constituent"?
"I didn’t really like the answer she gave," Fox said. "If she had been forthcoming and straightforward, I would have been saying 'Hey, this happens to all of us.'"
What a dork. You old hypocrite. Like you weren't slobbering over yourself to do Marilyn a favor. You just made yourself look stupid's all. Here's Angie right after it happened:
"We’re a campaign of second chances. This was an honest, innocent mistake, and that’s how you learn," Paccione said. "We want to focus on the issues, not a mistake that a young person made in their first political campaign."
Here's another one of them blabbling away in the Coloradoan:

Faith Atwood, a Republican from Fort Collins who signed the complaint, said she was satisfied with the ruling but disappointed with Paccione and didn't believe her explanation that a staffer sent out the letter without her permission.

"She didn't have that many employees. I thought it was crummy of her to blame it on a staffer," she said.

Uhh, since when did Angie's "volunteer" get turned into Faith Atwood's "staffer"? Can't she read? She can't even keep from contradicting herself.

Seems like folks are sounding like they got sold a bad carton of milk by Marilyn, and are regretting looking stupid, opportunistic, and vicious in public. Marilyn doesn't mind bringing you down to her level, I bet.

Enough said about the credibility of this crowd.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Musgrave's smear on Angie backfires

The Marilyn-orchestrated smear on Angie Paccione has backfired, as even Republican Minority Leader Mike May rejected their attempt to keep blown-over issue alive. It's all looking like a case of bumbled media manipulation from an incumbent scrambling to cope with a challenge. Or media bullying, really, since bullying people is Marilyn's standard operating procedure. See the Rocky Mountain News climb down from the high horse. Turns out these "constituents" were really just "party hack ring kissers" trying get dirty. Should have dug a little deeper, huh?

It was kind of funny hearin' Marilyn crowing from the treetops about ethics.

Muskrat Hunter takes aim at the 11 Republicans who tried to press the complaint.
Here's the folks that were just so darned eager to jump on Angie that they done forgot to send their letter to the House Leader first, but rather, sent it to the newspapers quick-like-a-bunny. And of course we know how 'fair and balanced' the big Colorado Newspapers are.
Angie and her campaign sure aren't holding back!
A few days before the ethics complaint against congressional candidate Angie Paccione was filed, Charlie and Sally Fox were recognized at a Larimer Republican Party event where Sally Fox was honored into the "Hall of Fame." Photos on the party web site show Marilyn Musgrave cavorting with the Foxes. (www.larimergop.org). The Rocky Mountain News reported that "Chuck Fox, his wife, Sally, and his mother, Virginia Davis, all signed the complaint." The article said Fox "said he doesn't know who wrote the letter, but when he was asked to sign it, he did."
You mean, he just did what he was told? That takes pride. That takes ownership. So who asked, Chuck? Not that you haven't left it perfectly clear to the world who asked you:


Musgrave likes having people in her pocket, you know. Just gotta make 'em feel important.
Paccione noted that Musgrave’s record of questionable ethics and links to influence peddling are widespread. She said, "The heart of this matter is an accidental email versus influence peddling. Marilyn Musgrave accepted tens of thousands of dollars from Tom DeLay, and then she voted to change the rules in Congress to help him hang on to power."

Two questions remain: "Was there a quid pro quo with DeLay trading contributions for votes? Was there a quid pro quo with the Fox’s trading an award to help with a "dirty trick?"" Paccione added.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

More Marine mess blogging

And the beat goes on . . . .

Josh Marshall writes another Musgrave Event followup, and he's not buying the Marines' spin:
I've spoken to a number of vets and active duty military who say that the training they got always made very clear that this sort of activity was prohibited. What's more, look at the regs yourself. They seem pretty clear on their face. And, if you read them, the whole point of the regs, as they're structured, is that having active duty military appearing in uniform as participants at partisan political events is tantamount to an endorsement.
Jeralyn Meritt has an easy-on-the-eyes overview of where we're at.
I think the issue involves more than whether there was a technical violation of the military regulations. It concerns whether there is a concerted attempt by Republicans to use those in military service for political gain.
Red vs. Blue weighs in:

At the event, uniformed members of the military were passed around like expensive china, with everyone taking a gander.

You have to give high regard to Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) and whomever chaired this event for encouraging this vile misconduct and putting these soldiers' careers on the line.

The Newsrack Blog has a great post up. The whole thing is needs reading, but here's an excerpt:

American politics has not yet quite descended to the level of a Field Marshal Hindenburg standing for office in his uniform,* but Musgrave's and her Coloradan allies' impulse would be different only in degree. Using uniforms as decoration and justification for partisan purposes equates the institution of the armed services with the institution of a particular party rather than service to the whole country -- it's one more little push farther out onto the slippery slope down the Weimar ski jump.

Elsewhere, Josh Marshall implies that the Coloradoan's first followup piece lacked - shall we say - balls:

The piece treats it as an open question whether what happened violates the rules. Every JAG officer I've spoken to, however, says it's open and shut.

In any case, check out the piece and see what you think. I'm curious to see this reported out from the JAG/DOD side to see their interpretation of the rules and also from the White House to get their response on their apparent violation of the same.

Hello . . . White House press corps?

(Last of all, Colorado Lib plugs Musgrave Must Go. Thanks, bro.)

Musgrave supporters call for ethics probe, forget to mail it


I was just "honoring" them . . . .

Farcical attempt by Musgrave and supporters to distract from ARMPAC, Tom DeLay, and Marilyn Musgrave's wretched cronyism by attacking Angie Paccione. In this, you'll see Musgrave talking to "Mrs. Fox" at the now controversial Republican dinner, seemingly leaving her fingerprints on her own smear operation.

(Photo available here, courtesy of the Larimer County GOP. Love ya! You've been great through this whole thing!)

The Rocky Mountain News is there to help Musgrave and the Foxes pull a "fast one" (from Colorado Pols):

Eleven Republicans in Democrat Angie Paccione's legislative district in Fort Collins have asked for an ethics investigation into her campaign's offer to introduce top fund-raisers on the state House floor.

These folks managed to get their "complaint" mailed to the Rocky Mountain News, but forgot to include House Speaker Andrew Romanoff.

Speaker Andrew Romanoff said he has not received a copy of the complaint, which was mailed last week. The Rocky Mountain News received a copy Monday.
Sounds like someone needs to be investigating whether this is another press manipulation. Maybe even the manipulated press itself could get a clue.

So who are these stalwart citizens that Musgrave put up to this?


Retired accountant Chuck Fox, his wife, Sally, and his mother, Virginia Davis, all signed the complaint.
Who? What? Oh, howdy there, Muskrat Hunter . . .
. . . talkin about two rather clumsy Muskrat Camperz, Chuck and Sally Fox.

Why, here ya gots this upright, decent (heck they's married!) pair o' concerned citizens just wantin to see that Angie gets a whuppin for bein 'unethical'. They're good, decent folk who are impartial as eight plus Benjamins can be.
So some longtime Musgrave contributors who Marilyn want to get their names in the paper? But who else is on the list?

I hope none of them have ever been introduced on the state house floor, including the rest of the signatories. I hope none of them ever contributed to a state house candidate, either. 'Cause I'm sure a GOP donor has never been introduced on the state house floor.

This is much ado about the draft flyer that got sent out by mistake, and was almost immediately rescinded by Angie's campaign. Kind of a non-issue, really, since the "reward" wasn't anything of value, which was the point.

Yet Musgrave somehow managed to take the opportunity to make an ass of herself as she scrambled to seize the advantage:
The last thing we need in Washington, D.C., are the bankrupt ethics and dishonest actions of Ms. Paccione.
Fort Collins proceeded to erupt in laughter.

And so now Marilyn Musgrave's got herself caught in a shabby conspiracy to smear Angie Paccione.

Larimer County GOP huffs and puffs

Okay, so they scrub their site of any existence of Marines at their party building dinner. They replace it with photos of county deputies at their party building dinner. This is damage control?

The Coloradoan headlines this this morning:

A picture of a Marine dressed in uniform at Larimer County's Republican Lincoln Day Dinner has touched off a firestorm from national political writers and Web bloggers who say the party is using the military as public relations props.

The Fort Collins Coloradoan ran the photograph on Saturday of U.S. Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave introducing Marine Sgt. Brandon Forsyth, dressed in uniform, at the organization's Lincoln Day Dinner on Friday night.

A Department of Defense directive, however, prohibits active military personnel from participating in partisan political meetings while in uniform.

This is how Musgrave's people are trying to spin this:

The Larimer County Republican organization said that because it merely honored the soldiers instead of requiring their participation, they did not violate the code.
Calling critics "low," the party chair is appalled. The water must be hot. Musgrave's resident henchman intones:

"The best info the congresswoman received is there is no violation in honoring Iraqi veterans, and that's what happened," said Guy Short, Musgrave's chief of staff. "It's unfortunate people are trying to make political hay out of an attempt to honor veterans of the Iraq war."

That sounds like an "Oops!" to me.

The law, Mr. Short. The law.

You can't make this stuff up



Alright, so not only did the Larimer County GOP basically concede the point when they scrubbed their website of any evidence of US Marines appearing in uniform to burnish Marilyn Musgrave's "security" look . . . they put up a bunch of new photos showing their bigwigs enjoying themselves, minus any Marine. Sorry, they exactly don't flatter Marilyn any better than the other ones did.

Instead, we were wowed to see at least eight Larimer County Sheriffs deputies providing eye candy for the local GOPers. Thanks Sheriff Jim Alderen.

Bill Winter Blog blogs Musgrave travesty

You know, in this day and age it really means something when a candidate for office takes time out of their own life-consuming battle to stand up for what's right somewhere else. That's quality. That's class. That's what we're seeing right now, as Bill Winter -- all-American badass -- gives Tom Tancredo a quick breather so he can give Marilyn Musgrave a piece of his mind.

Aaron blogs at Winter For Congress:
At the GOP Lincoln Day Dinner, it appears that two Marines dishonored their uniforms by speaking in those uniforms at a clearly partisan event. They then allowed those uniforms to be used as props for the campaign of Marilyn Musgrave, and their photographs appeared in the Ft. Collins Coloradoan and on the Larimer County GOP website.

After enough outrage was raised, the Republicans removed this photo from their site, that I was still able to find at the local blog MusgraveMustGo.
Hell yeah, you were.

Monday, March 06, 2006

Housecleaning at Larimer County GOP


If only the horse hadn't bolted the barn already . . . . Josh Marshall is on the case, my friends.

Yesterday, we linked to this picture from the Larimer County (CO) Republican party website, which shows Rep. Maryilyn Musgrave introducing two Marines at a GOP fundraiser, an apparent violation of standing military regs. The photos in question have now been scrubbed from the Larimer County GOP website.

Keep digging that hole, people!

More from Colorado Lib:

Last night, I sat between two Fighting Dems. HD38 candidate Joe Rice and CD6 candidate Bill Winter. Neither was in uniform. Which means I didn't break the law. Unlike Republican Marilyn Musgrave.

The Muskrat Hunter toys with Musgrave's staff. They are apparently either out to lunch, or scrambling to deal with this.

There's is a huge swell of voices in this dKos post comment thread. "Banana Republicans" indeed!

And Colorado Pols takes notice. Metro Denver Greens has a good overview too.

Musgrave's staff gives ethics lecture!

This is in the Coloradoan. Marilyn thinks she's found her bandwagon to re-election.

To be a leader in Congress, it takes more than just jumping on the bandwagon when the right media wave hits. You have to see troubles ahead and begin seeking solutions long before it is politically convenient. For these reasons, I am pleased to see the debate in Washington finally turn to ethics reform.

So are a lot of people. You'll see.

Does anyone else wonder what planet she's on? Are we supposed to believe she can "see troubles ahead and begin seeking solutions"? The Jack Abramoff is a smoking crater in the ground and Marilyn tells us, 'Hey, I'm pretty sharp because I've got ideas about airplane safety.' Not "politically convenient"?!?!?!

She's had two terms in Congress, has been one of Tom DeLay's most Faithful, has introduced nothing to change the system, and has fed hungrily from Tom DeLay's campaign money trough, and now - when she's trying to keep her job - she tells us it's not politically convenient to start shouting about ethics?

Talk about out of touch.

In January, the Wall Street Journal quoted the self-professed criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff. He called the congressional appropriation committees "earmark favor factories."

Before President Bush called for ethical and spending reforms in his recent State of the Union Address, and before the Democrat political strategists chose to make this a campaign issue, I worked with my colleagues in both parties last year to find ethical solutions to end the abuses in the earmark process in Washington, D.C.

Get a load of this, Marilyn is pandering about ethics reform, but she still has to whine that Democrats are being unfair for telling people about Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay. Sad. Sad. Sad.


It's Monday, a good day for fighting Musgrave's extremism

So who at the White House is coordinating the political appearances of uniformed Marines at Republican hugfests? Who at the Department of Defense is authorizing it? Inquiring minds want to know.

Josh Marshall has dug up another photo from the event. There were actually two Marines there.

From AMERICAblog:

Then again, Musgrave has already had her share of ethics violations, and has been ranked as one of the 13 most corrupt members of Congress. So it's perhaps no surprise she's breaking the rules again.

More bloggings: The People's Republic of Seabrook, Majority Report, Mojo Wire, David Austin, David Wilford . . . .

With more to come, I am sure . . . .

Draft Zinni!, Truthdig and Toilet Paper weigh in.

Bill Winter comes out swinging

Bill Winter takes a break from fighting Tom Tancredo to stick up for Angie Paccione, saying, "Ms. Musgrave should feel shame for using a Marine in such a self-serving and cynical way." From a dKos post:

For those of you who are unaware, I am a veteran of the U.S. Navy and the Marine Corps reserve, and I am running for Congress as a Democrat in Colorado against Tom Tancredo. You can find out more about me at our website: Winter for Congress. My friend, Angie Paccione, is running for Congress in Colorado against Marilyn Musgrave.

I've been following a local story on Marilyn Musgrave using a Marine Corps Sergeant in a dress blue uniform to essentially endorse the Republican Party at a Republican Dinner here in Colorado and I have a few thoughts about this whole thing.

First, I believe it is absolutely inappropriate to use any military uniform to endorse a political party, particularly a Marine Dress Blue uniform. That Marine sergeant should NOT have worn his uniform to that event. Period. The Marine Corps takes great pride in it's professional image and to use the uniform to endorse a political party is completely off the reservation. He should have known that, and he risks bringing the uniform into disrepute because of it. That's one Marine to another and that's regulations. He has every right to go there--as a civilian--and do anything he sees fit. He does not have the right to use the uniform in this way.

Second, Marilyn Musgrave needs to figure out the difference between acting tough and actually being tough when it comes to questions of national security. She has been nothing more than a rubber stamp for the Bush Administration in this regard for the last five years. Our national security has suffered in so many ways from the corruption and cronyism that currently controls Washington, and Ms. Musgrave is hip deep in it. The people who are part of our volunteer military are putting their lives on the line for Bush administration policies, and are paying the only price being asked of anyone in the so called war on terror.

It is wrong and hypocritical for Musgrave, or any other supporter of the corruption in Washington, to use the military for their political benefit--particularly when they sent them to war without the proper equipment, without enough troops, and without a plan for victory. Add to that the fact that this Congress has continually cut veteran and military benefits, and Ms. Musgrave should feel shame for using a Marine in such a self-serving and cynical way. Not only is she playing with someone's career, she is exploiting the very people she has let down so badly.

It's no accident that 72 veterans are running for Congress as Democrats this year. The current corrupt crew in Washington has sold us out badly and we know it!

Sincerely,

Bill Winter
WinterForCongress

Right on.