Oily Slime in Arkansas
by digby
So now that Joe Barton is secure in his position as ranking member on the House energy panel, he’s out there setting up allies in his quest to be Chairman if the GOP wins back the House and then cover the entire world in crude oil. Seems he’s starting by funneling money to one of the most heinous Republican candidates in the country, Karl Rove boytoy and professional Republican hitman, Tim Griffin.
Our friends at Blue Arkansas have started looking closely at who’s been financing Karl Rove protégé, Tim Griffin, in his bid to take over Vic Snyder’s congressional seat in central Arkansas. And they found something very interesting, a shady outfit called the Texas Freedom Fund has contributed a grand towards Griffin’s campaign. It didn’t take much digging for Blue Arkansas to figure out who and what the Texas Freedom Fund is.
If you’ve been following the news lately, you couldn’t possibly have missed the dustup over Congress’ most oily member, Joe Barton (R-TX). Turns out he’s the sole owner of the Texas Freedom Fund and he uses it to funnel vast sums of cash from Big Oil executives and lobbyists into competitive campaigns around the country, particularly into campaigns where filthy oil money might prove embarrassing to the recipients. Now, keep in mind that Barton has taken more money from Big Oil than any other member of the House– by far: $1,447,880, so far. And after his performance last week, apologizing to B.P. for being made to clean up their mess in the Gulf, there’s every reason to believe that his own personal gusher will keep flowing strongly. As the Ranking Member of the House Energy Committee he is in a position to make sure the Oil Industry’s agenda becomes official policy.
So who’s this Griffin character Barton is so dead set on getting into Congress? Many of us first became familiar with Griffin around the time of the 2000 election when he worked as an opposition research director for Bush. His job, to smear Al Gore, was covered in Peter Marshall’s BBC documentary Digging the Dirt, and viewers got the impression, which over the years has proven correct, that he is one of the slimiest and least trustworthy rogues to mount the political stage in our lifetime. After serving on the Florida Recount Commission that helped steal the election for Bush, he was appointed a Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General, Michael Chertoff, then when back into opposition research for Bush’s reelection bid– two years before the election– and then became an aide to Karl Rove in the White House. Eventually Rove was able to force Arkansas US Attorney Bud Cummins to resign and to replace him with Griffin. Griffin, considered the sleaziest appointment in the entire Bush Regime, was never confirmed by the Senate, served on an interim basis and was eventually pushed aside when he became too embarrassing even for the Bush people.
There are many races in the fall that feature horrible Republicans. In fact, it’s pretty much all of them. But there are a few which are important beyond just the candidates’ conservative philosophy and Tim Griffin is one of them. He is the slimiest of political operatives, from the black-ops school of GOP dirty tricks. You might as well put this guy on the Supreme Court:
Like I said, you might as well put Roger Stone on the Supreme Court.
Howie’s running a contest to raise money for Joyce Elliott in her race against Joe Barton’s bff:
The folks and Blue Arkansas are hoping to raise the money to match Barton’s $1,000 for the progressive challenger running for the seat, Joyce Elliott. Joyce was endorsed by Blue America even before she won her tough primary race against a conservative Democrat and we would be eager to help her win this seat regardless of who the Republican opposition was. The fact that it’s someone as disreputable and as utterly unfit to hold public office as Tim Griffin only makes us even more determined. So… we’d like to encourage anyone who wants to help to toss a donation into the pot. At this ActBlue page you’ll find a slot for Joyce– as well as for other Blue America-backed candidates who are being targeted by Joe Barton and his oily corporate polluters with big bucks for Republicans. Barton wrote a check from the Texas Freedom Fund for $4,000 for Ken Calvert, $2,000 for Dennis Ross, and for $5,000 for Charlie Bass, conservatives running against Bill Hedrick in California, Doug Tudor in Florida and Ann Kuster in New Hampshire. Today everyone who makes a contribution to all three candidates– Joyce Elliott, Bill Hedrick, Doug Tudor, and Ann Kuster, will get a Blue America thank you CD and one winner will be drawn randomly to win an autographed book– This Moment on Earth by John and Teresa Kerry. (The hardcover book was signed for us by both of them.) Again, here’s the page to make your contribution.
(Read the whole post to find out about the smart candidates who are attacking Barton over this as well.)
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