Tea Makers Marks
by digby
If they weren’t so nasty most of the time I’d start to feel sorry for the Tea Party. They are getting taken for such a ride by hucksters, snake oil salesmen and billionaire puppeteers that it’s getting sort of pathetic.
You might think I’m talking about Michelle Bachman last night. But no. It’s this:
The story rocketed around New York City when streets went uncleared after the Dec. 26 blizzard: Sanitation workers, angry about job reductions, had deliberately staged a work slowdown…
And it occurred because one man, Councilman Daniel J. Halloran, Republican of Queens, said five city workers had come to his office during the storm and told him they had been explicitly ordered to take part in a slowdown to embarrass Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. But the more that investigators look into Mr. Halloran’s story, the more mystifying it becomes. Mr. Halloran said he had been visited by two supervisors in the Transportation Department and three workers in the Sanitation Department. But the two transportation supervisors did not back up his story in interviews with investigators, according to two people briefed on the inquiries. And Mr. Halloran has steadfastly refused to reveal the names of the sanitation workers. Mr. Halloran expects to testify this week before a federal grand jury looking into the question of a slowdown, according to a person familiar with his intentions, and it is not clear whether prosecutors will try to compel him, under oath, to divulge the workers’ names. Meanwhile, investigators had hoped that extensive publicity would bring out others with knowledge of the purported plot. That has not happened, according to the people briefed on the investigations, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are continuing. This leaves prosecutors with no proof that anything occurred.
Guess what?
He campaigned as a conservative Republican with the support of Tea Party organizers, advocating personal responsibility and limited government. As a councilman, he has taken on the usual local causes, like pushing to keep a community pool open, but he has also pursued issues with a more personal dimension.
Read on to find out all about his bizarre fixations, personal vendettas, money problems, lies and schemes. He’s obviously some sort of political nut/con man.
I’m sure there are plenty of sincere Tea Partiers out there who are getting fleeced all the time by these types. And while it’s tempting to say they deserve it, it still isn’t right. They are just trying to exercise their democratic right to organize and they are being manipulated and conned by a bunch of billionaire media moguls and small time hustlers. I guess that’s part of the bargain too, but it’s distasteful to see it happening anyway.
Still, conservatives were all too willing to believe that union workers — their own neighbors — were deliberately endangering the safety of the people, so I’m not going to waste any more breath worrying about them. Maybe if they has just a little bit more empathy and common sense, guys like this wouldn’t be able to take them to the cleaners — along with the rest of their city. Look how much this stupid lie is costing the taxpayers.
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