Tricky Joe
by digby
So Joe Lieberman is now an anti-war candidate. Isn’t that something? Just like the rest of the Republican pack he’s been running away from his previous support for the war in order to get elected. Sadly, because he used to be a Democrat, he’s getting the benefit of Democratic credibility on that issue when he really isn’t entitled to it.
It’s a lot like the 60’s when Nixon created a faux anti-war message. In fact, Joe sounds remarkably like Tricky Dick on the subject these days:
“I want peace as much as you do.” – Richard Nixon, 11/3/69
“No one wants to end the war in Iraq more than I do.” – Joe Lieberman,
10/18/06“Many others — I among them — have been strongly critical of the way
the war has been conducted.” – Richard Nixon, 11/3/69“I have been very critical of a lot of the mistakes the Bush
administration has made in Iraq.” – Joe Lieberman, 10/18/06“Many believe that President Johnson’s decision to send American
combat forces to South Vietnam was wrong. But the question facing us
today is: Now that we are in the war, what is the best way to end it?”
– Richard Nixon, 11/3/69“The question is what do we do now. We are there, no matter what you
think of how we got there.” – Joe Lieberman, 10/8/06“I want to end the war.” – Richard Nixon, 11/3/69
“I want to help end the war in Iraq.” – Joe Lieberman, 8/11/06
“A fixed timetable for our withdrawal would completely remove any
incentive for the enemy to negotiate an agreement. They would simply
wait until our forces had withdrawn and then move in.” – Richard Nixon,
11/3/69“If you tell your enemy when you’re going to leave, they’ll wait and
create disaster.” – Joe Lieberman, 7/6/06“I understand why they are concerned, about this war. I respect your
idealism. I share your concern for peace.” – Richard Nixon, 1969“I already know that some of you feel passionately against my position
on Iraq. I respect your views.” – Joe Lieberman, 8/7/06
You know, now that I think of it there is a lot about Joe’s smarmy, self-righteousness that reminds me of Dick Nixon.
But what really reminds of Dick Nixon is the fact that Joe Lieberman apparently keeps a slush fund in his campaign:
After President Richard Nixon abused campaign finance law through his Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP), laws were passed to force candidates to disclose how they spend campaign funds. But over the weekend, it became clear Senator Joe Lieberman may be ignoring those laws, as the Senator’s FEC reports uncovered $387,000 “petty cash” slush fund that could be called the Committee to Reelect Lieberman (CREEL).
During the 14 days around the August 8th primary, Lieberman’s campaign spent over $387,000 on un-itemized, un-identified, and un-disclosed disbursements. By contrast, Ned Lamont’s campaign spent just $500 on petty cash in the entire reporting period. This slush fund requires answers to questions like: what was this spent on? Who was it spent on? And why weren’t the expenses itemized, as the FEC requires?
Today, the Lamont campaign will be filing a formal complaint with the Federal Election Commission, demanding an investigation into possible wrongdoing.
LIEBERMAN REPORT SHOWS UNPRECEDENTED $387,000 SLUSH FUND: Lieberman’s most recent FEC report shows $387,561 spent on “petty cash” – unaccounted for cash that was not itemized at all. To understand what an abuse this is, consider that FEC rules dictate that all expenditures over $100 must be itemized.
LIEBERMAN SLUSH FUND COMPRISED ONE OUT OF EVERY 12 DOLLARS SPENT: Lieberman’s massive slush fund comprised almost 8 percent of all of his expenditures in the reporting period. That’s almost one out of every $12 that Lieberman is effectively hiding.
LIEBERMAN FUNNELED OUT $32,000 A DAY IN UNACCOUNTED CASH: Lieberman’s campaign disbursed $387,000 in unmarked “petty cash” in just 12 days. That’s $32,000 every single day, with no accounting at all for how it was spent.
OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS WERE ACCOUNTED FOR: Most mundane expenditures from Lieberman’s campaign such as salaries, printing, food, and other “petty” expenditures were already itemized on Lieberman’s FEC report, begging the question: What did Lieberman do with almost $400,000 in unaccounted for cash in 12 days?
THESE EXPENDITURES APPEAR TO VIOLATE FEC STATUTE: Title 11 C.F.R. §102.11 (2 U.S.C. 432(h)(2)) (Petty Cash Fund) provides: A political committee may maintain a petty cash fund out of which it may make expenditures not in excess of $100 to any person per purchase or transaction. If a petty cash fund is maintained, it shall be the duty of the treasurer of the political committee to keep and maintain a written journal of all disbursements. This written journal shall include the name and address of every person to whom any disbursement is made, as well as the date, amount, and purpose of such disbursement. In addition, if any disbursement is made for a candidate, the journal shall include the name of that candidate and the office (including State and Congressional district) sought by such candidate.
Tricky Joe’s campaign is saying he legitimately spent $387,000 on petty cash in less than two weeks? Come on.
I can hear Joe’s speech now:
Not one cent of the $387,000 or any other money of that type ever went to me for my personal use. Every penny of it was used to pay for political expenses.
It was not a secret fund. As a matter of fact, when I was on “Meet the Press,” some of you may have seen it last Sunday—Tim Russert came up to me after the program and he said, “Joe, what about this fund we hear about?” And I said, “Well, there’s no secret about it. Go out and see Dana Smith, who was the administrator of the fund.”
And I gave him his address, and I said that you will find that the purpose of the fund simply was to defray political expenses.
One other thing I probably should tell you because if we don’t they’ll probably be saying this about me too, we did get something-a gift-after the election. A man down in Texas heard Hadassah on the radio mention the fact that our kids would like to have a dog. And, believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Fed-ex saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was.
It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he’d sent all the way from Texas. Black and white spotted. And our little girl, the 26-year old, named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it.
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