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Bachmann Playing With House Money
Rollcall ^ | June 20, 2011, Midnight | By Paul Singer

Posted on 06/20/2011 10:58:33 PM PDT by jennychase

On Nov. 5, 2009, at the behest of Rep. Michele Bachmann, thousands of tea party activists descended on the Capitol to vent their rage over the health care overhaul bill pending before Congress. The assembled activists chanted, "Kill the bill! Kill the bill!" and waved signs opposing a government takeover of health care — but they may not have known that the same government was paying for the event. According to House expense reports, Bachmann and three conservative GOP colleagues — Reps. Tom Price (Ga.), Steve King (Iowa) and Todd Akin (Mo.) — each paid $3,407.50 that day, a total of $13,630, to a sound and stage company called National Events, apparently for the sound system used at the rally. The money came from the Members' taxpayer-funded office accounts, despite House rules prohibiting the use of these funds for political activities. Bachmann's office insists the expense was a proper use of official funds. Bachmann billed the event as a "press conference," which can be funded from official accounts. But no questions were taken from the press and, unlike most press conferences, it opened with a prayer, the national anthem and a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. .............

Bachmann gave her own response, calling it the tea party response, making many of the same points as Ryan. The speech was streamed online by the Tea Party Express. The following day, Bachmann's campaign paid Oval Office Writers — an Arlington, Va., firm — a $5,000 fee for "speechwriting." Bachmann has occasionally spent money out of her office account for things closely tied to her political activities. But as with the rally, it is not clear whether she has violated any rules. For instance, in June 2010, Bachmann added to her Congressional payroll a "senior advisor" named Guy Short, whose last Congressional job had been chief of staff to ex-Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.), who lost her re-election bid in 2008. According to Congressional pay records, Bachmann paid Short $5,000 for the month. On June 3, 2010, Short established C&M Strategies in Colorado. Records on file with the Colorado secretary of state list Short as the "registered agent" of the firm; the incorporator was Colorado certified public accountant Barry Arrington. In July, Short dropped off Bachmann's payroll, but Bachmann's campaign began paying C&M Strategies for fundraising consulting services. That month, Arrington filed papers with the Federal Election Commission creating Bachmann's leadership PAC, called Many Individual Conservatives Helping Elect Leaders Everywhere, which by September was also paying C&M Strategies for fundraising consulting services. Since then, MICHELEPAC and the campaign committee have paid C&M Strategies about $150,000 for fundraising consulting, and Short has never again appeared on Bachmann's Congressional payroll. Asked about Short's duties in the Congressional office, Bachmann spokesman Doug Sachtleben said in an email, "With six years of hill experience as a Chief of Staff, Guy Short worked with every member of the Congresswoman's staff to ensure that they worked as effectively as possible to serve the constituents of Minnesota's sixth district." Several other Bachmann staffers, including Communications Director David Dziok, former Chief of Staff Ron Carey, former "constituent service officer" Jack Tomczak and former Chief of Staff Andy Parrish all received regular checks from her campaign while serving on her Congressional payroll as well — which is permissible as long as the employees make a clear separation between the time they spend working on the campaign and the hours they are working for the Congressional office. Bachmann also appears to have used her Congressional office account to cover travel costs for television appearances — again, an unusual expense but not one barred by House rules.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: akin; bachmann; bachmann4romney; cmstrategies; elections2012; fraud; guyshort; king; michelepac; obama; ovalofficewriters; palin; price; romney; teapartyexpress
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To: dirtboy

Good you aren’t a lawyer, you miss all the facts.

Not my fault that some of you are like gnats at a picnic.

Even when they get smacked, they keep coming back.

Good day to you. I am going to eat my sammich.


101 posted on 06/21/2011 9:12:51 AM PDT by dforest
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To: unseen1
Palin created a multi-million dollar debacle as Mayor of Wasilla specifically because she lacked executive skills. Her absolute botching of the ice-rink to nowhere cost the town over $2 million more than the deal would have been if she knew her stuff.

That's the fact, Jack, so LOL all you want - it won't change a thing.

102 posted on 06/21/2011 9:13:54 AM PDT by wtc911 ("How you gonna get down that hill?")
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To: Lazlo in PA; indylindy
And the first Palin-related reply from the Bachmann camp was to post 5:

She isn’t Palin so we get fed whatever BS from lib journos and you are ready to railroad her outta here.

So the Bachmann camp on their own attacked the Palin supporters - in response to a post WELL ABOVE the one you cited. Yeah, indylindy, FACT. YOU started the attacks on Palin supporters on this thread. The other post was theorizing why Rollins attacked Palin and was NOT about Bachmann supporters.

The more the Bachmann camp posts on FR, the more slimy they get.

103 posted on 06/21/2011 9:14:39 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: jennychase
Read full article, she is misusing funds.

Roll Call could write hundreds of articles on this. When all these groups show up in Washington, the left in Congress has been funding them for years.

104 posted on 06/21/2011 9:15:40 AM PDT by 11th Commandment (http://www.thirty-thousand.org/)
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To: indylindy

Go ahead, run off without addressing the topic of the article. Without addressing the other issues by way of declaring them to be old news. Instead, attack the Palin supporters. Just like the slimeball Dem hacks you are emulating here.


105 posted on 06/21/2011 9:16:39 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: wtc911
ROFL....sure. Washilla fastest growing city in AK under Palin. while Palin was making Washilla the fastest growing city in AK, Bachmann was trying to get Alladin banned from public schools.

Let's do this record thing. Shall we? do you really truly want to stack Bachmann’s record up against GOv Palin’s? let me warn you Bachmann will not come out well in the end. Next you will be telling me Palin raised taxes in Washilla instead of the voters.

106 posted on 06/21/2011 9:19:04 AM PDT by unseen1
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To: unseen1

Gee...all that spinning smoke and not a word to refute what I wrote about palin’s disastrous ice-rink deal...no surprise there.


107 posted on 06/21/2011 9:21:15 AM PDT by wtc911 ("How you gonna get down that hill?")
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To: wtc911

A Sarah Palin who was one of the greatest state governors—as described by Stephen K. Bannon—can’t be the same Sarah Palin who “lacked executive skills.”

You might recall the little problem you’ve had in the past with getting confused between Sarah Palin and Tina Fey. Do yourself a favor and look into this.


108 posted on 06/21/2011 9:23:17 AM PDT by reasonisfaith (Pray for Israel.)
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To: wtc911

I could refute it. But it has become a he said/she said thing so what’s the point. the palinhaters have their version Palin supporters have their version. why waste the time. i think the concept that you are still stuck on the lame leftwing talking points from 2008 is more of a tell tthen your “point”


109 posted on 06/21/2011 9:25:26 AM PDT by unseen1
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To: unseen1

Mail...


110 posted on 06/21/2011 9:26:15 AM PDT by gov_bean_ counter (JMO but I reserve the right to be wrong...)
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To: wtc911

Tina Fey is an actress from Saturday Night Live who did a few skits attempting to make fun of Palin. (This caricature was not the real Palin.)


111 posted on 06/21/2011 9:26:22 AM PDT by reasonisfaith (Pray for Israel.)
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To: unseen1

You guys are living in a dream world the left is going to pick your candidate if you don’t watch out. Michelle is as good as they come.


112 posted on 06/21/2011 9:55:59 AM PDT by tallyhoe
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To: unseen1
I could refute it...

______________________________

No you couldn't, not truthfully or factually.

113 posted on 06/21/2011 10:03:42 AM PDT by wtc911 ("How you gonna get down that hill?")
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To: reasonisfaith

You can’t refute the facts of Palin’s screw-up in Wasilla with the ice-rink so you trot out Tina Fey? Even you must realize how utterly pathetic that is.


114 posted on 06/21/2011 10:05:50 AM PDT by wtc911 ("How you gonna get down that hill?")
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To: wtc911

The point is that the images of Tina Fey in your head render your belief system highly susceptible to accepting false notions of Palin.

Such as the claims that Palin “lacked exective ability,” or that anything from her past mischaracterized by political psychopaths as a “screwup” can modify in any way her status as one of our greatest governors.

Look, if we give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you’re a well-meaning conservative poster, the best you can hope for, given your posting history, is that you have somehow been unconsciously influenced by the hardest of the hardcore Marxists to a point where you are able to do nothing other than repeat their talking points.

Marxism is a hideous ideology which fools not only the useful idiots but also the tyrannical masterminds pulling their strings. Both have in the real world defined themselves as mentally weak by the very mechanism with which they celebrate the myth of their intellectualism—that ability to avoid a true understanding of Marxism itself.


115 posted on 06/21/2011 11:07:00 AM PDT by reasonisfaith (Pray for Israel.)
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To: reasonisfaith
The point is that the images of Tina Fey in your head render your belief system highly susceptible to accepting false notions of Palin.

_____________________________________

No, the point is that you cannot truthfully dispute the facts of the Palin screw-up that cost Wasilla millions and left them having to employ emminent domain to take the property in question from its legal owner, so you create some fantasy about Tina Fey and attribute it to me.

That is childish, transparent and well, just stupid.

116 posted on 06/21/2011 11:20:00 AM PDT by wtc911 ("How you gonna get down that hill?")
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To: wtc911
sure I can. The complex came in on-time and under-budget, the sales tax used to pay for it brought more rev than first thought. The building was paid off before time, the sales tax suspended. The legal fight over the property was due to the seller of the land reneging on their sale to the city when a higher bid came along. the seller and new bidder tied it up in the courts for years resulting in higher legal costs and a higher purchase price for the land. Critics like you say that was a result of the city not filing the proper paperwork. Supporters say it was due to others breaking their word. The judge ruled in favor of the city then later reversed his own order (after the roads and sewage etc were built) requiring the city to use eminent domain (after Palin was no longer Mayor) to take the land in question something they would not have done if the judge did not rule in favor of the city at first.

It was a he said/she said legal battle with underhanded operators trying to milk the taxpayers for all they could once it was known the city was interested in the land. Classic legal action to get the highest price for a piece of land and screw the taxpayer.

and around and around it goes he said/she said. She should have did this, they should have done that.

The long and short of it is that the complex was finished ahead of schedule and below cost. You will come back with it could have been even cheaper and I will say that it was completed ahead of schedule and below cost.

We all can play armchair quarterback. Doesn't mean you know what happened nor does it mean you are right.

Like I said it is a waste of time to debate it. and it has nothing to do with Bachmann using taxpayer funds to pay for her career advancment. Obama is using taxpayer funds to campaign and conservatives are knocking him for it. Unless people want to be hypocrites the should also knock Bachmann for doing the same thing Obama is doing.

117 posted on 06/21/2011 1:40:07 PM PDT by unseen1
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To: tallyhoe

bachmann may be a good candidate. the results are not in yet. But the fact that she is a pale minnime to Palin is in.


118 posted on 06/21/2011 1:43:03 PM PDT by unseen1
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To: unseen1
Like I said it is a waste of time to debate it.

And when we have Palin's record as governor to examine, that is much more relevant. I imagine Palin learned from the skating rink experience and used those lessons at a higher level. Which is why prior executive experience is vital - look at how out of place Obama has been without it.

119 posted on 06/21/2011 1:51:13 PM PDT by dirtboy
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To: wtc911

Let’s await further evidence. Let’s see if she drops out when it becomes obvious after the first few primaries that she won’t be the nominee. If she stays in the race, she is in only to split the conservative vote. Let’s see who she endorses when she drops out. Romney maybe?


120 posted on 06/21/2011 1:52:32 PM PDT by excopconservative
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