Moderate Republicans team up with labor unions to defeat the tea party in 2014

dailycaller.com ^ | 2/7/14 | Patrick Howley

[cotton1706]

A Republican super PAC committed to defeating the tea party in 2014 congressional primaries is mostly funded by labor unions.

The super PAC Defending Main Street, formed by moderate Republican and former congressman Steve LaTourette, has committed itself to destroying tea party challenges to establishment GOP candidates in the 2014 midterm elections.

“Hopefully we’ll go into eight to 10 races and beat the snot out of them,” LaTourette said. His PAC has already committed itself to defending Republican Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson from tea party opponent Bryan Smith, who is backed by the conservative Club for Growth due to Simpson’s support for the Wall Street bailout. Defending Main Street also aims to defend incumbent House Republicans Aaron Schock and Adam Kinzinger and West Virginia Senate candidate Shelley Moore Capito.

The PAC hopes to raise $8 million this election cycle to wage war with the tea party. So far, the PAC has raised only $845,000, and most of it came from labor unions, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) receipts.

The PAC hopes to raise $8 million this election cycle to wage war with the tea party. So far, the PAC has raised only $845,000, and most of it came from labor unions, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) receipts.

The PAC picked up only seven donors in late 2013 and five of them were unions or union-affiliated PAC’s.

The Laborers’ Political League Education Fund donated $100,000 to Defending Main Street.

The International Union of Operating Engineers gave $250,000.

The Laborers’ International Union of North America gave $150,000.

[Psalm 144]

Indeed. It never ends.

[Amendment10]

Does the present federal Chief Executive acknowledge that any governmental purposes are the exclusive province of the States.

No. But the only reason that he gets away with ignoring exclusive state issues is the following imo. As I've mentioned elsewhere, for the last 100+ years parents have not been making sure that their children are being taught the federal government's constitutionally limited powers as the Founding States had intended for those powers to be understood.

[lu shissler]

Mr. LaTourette should have pronounced himself a Democrat a long time ago.

[cripplecreek]

Its also true that children no longer learn any kind of ethics or morality.

A lot of people know that Obama is lying and breaking every law in the book but they just don’t care.

[kcvl]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stevelatourette.jpg

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Deborah Setliff, a longtime communications director for former U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette and earlier a Plain Dealer reporter and columnist, died Wednesday at home after a six-year battle with cancer.

The former Deborah Winston was 51.

Setliff, who covered LaTourette when he was a Lake County prosecutor, was one of the first staffers he hired after being elected to Congress in 1994. She remained with the congressman until he retired from office in 2012.

*********

Thursday, March 17, 2011 LaTourette became one of only seven Republicans who voted “NO” on a measure introduced in the US House of Representatives to strip all government funding from NPR.

In a meeting with transit advocates, LaTourette disparaged fellow legislators, referring to them as “knuckledraggers that came in in the last election that hate taxes,” due to their reluctance to even consider revenue as part of a compromise to extend the debt ceiling.

On June 28, 2012, LaTourette was one of only two Republicans (along with Scott Rigell of Virginia) who voted against a motion to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt of Congress, though he did vote to bring civil charges against Holder, for his handling of the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal.

[kcvl]

Rep. Steve LaTourette, a key ally of House Speaker John A. Boehner

But he denied that his unexpected retirement came from being denied an opportunity to chair the Transportation and Infrastructure committee, calling reports that he was disappointed in his inability to get a chairmanship a “red herring.”

Despite his criticism of House operations, LaTourette offered no critique of Boehner, the fellow Ohioan who has led the House since Republicans took control in 2011. He noted that Boehner was among many who called Monday after news of his decision emerged to encourage him to rethink the decision.

And Boehner issued an effusive statement praising his long-time friend Tuesday, calling him “a close friend and an effective legislator who has served the people of Ohio with passion and unrivaled wit for nearly 20 years.”

[kcvl]

NYTimes Exposes Former Rep Steve LaTourette Effort to Profit from GOP Tea Party Battle

LaTourette created an elaborate infrastructure including a nonprofit and lobbying firm to profit from special interests including labor unions and big businesses that want to end the Tea Party’s uprising.

“This is not about some high-minded political ideas,” said Tom Borelli, a senior fellow at Freedom Works. “This is a sophisticated get-rich-quick scheme.”

a National Journal story, “Guess Who’s Funding the Republican Civil War,” that revealed labor unions were funding LaTourette’s Defending Main Street PAC.

The Republican Main Street Partnership has emerged as an outspoken, deep-pocketed player in pro-business GOP plans to beat back tea-party challengers next year. But the group’s new super PAC has an unexpected source for its seed money: labor unions.

[kcvl]

Former Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH), now the head of the GOP establishment outfit The Main Street Partnership (MSP), may be engaged in illegal activity, the New York Times’ Eric Lipton reported on Saturday. LaTourette is, as Lipton wrote, “one of the top generals in the establishment Republicans’ war against the Tea Party.”

MSP, Lipton wrote, is a “corporate-backed advocacy group,” and LaTourette has helped it “raise millions of dollars to protect centrist Republicans from Tea Party challengers.”

LaTourette and his wife have also established another lobbying firm across the street from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.; a firm that Lipton reports has benefited from LaTourette’s role atop MSP. LaTourette has been extremely active in Washington political circles and the world of lobbying since leaving Congress to take the gig at MSP. He has regularly interacted with leaders and lawmakers in what Lipton claimed is potentially illegal activity. Technically, LaTourette is not a registered lobbyist, but his wife, Jennifer, and his former legislative aide, Hillary Fulp, have registered as lobbyists for LaTourette’s new firm.

Lipton wrote that the “blitz of activity” from the former Ohio Republican congressman “has led to complaints from Mr. LaTourette’s political opponents that under the guise of defending the Republican Party from extremists, he is profiting from his continued presence in the Washington spotlight.”

LaTourette denies accusations that he may have broken the lobbying ban law for former members of Congress or that he is motivated by enriching himself, telling the Times that each of those notions “is just nonsense.” He also said that “any encounter he has had with lawmakers has not had the ‘intent to influence official action,’ which is specifically banned,” Lipton wrote.

“In addition, Mr. LaTourette’s activities have raised questions about whether, in his dual roles, the former congressman violated the federal statute that prohibits lawmakers from lobbying on Capitol Hill for a year after leaving office,” Lipton wrote.

His work for the Main Street Partnership, he said, is focused solely on helping lawmakers who believe in the government’s ability to solve problems to fight back against extremist groups like the Club for Growth, which he has likened to a ‘cancer that has attached itself’ to the Republican Party for its role in challenging incumbent Republicans with more conservative candidates.

Lipton quoted LaTourette as saying establishment Republicans want to retake control of the GOP from conservatives. “We want our party back,” LaTourette said.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/01/04/NYT-GOP-establishment-s-LaTourette-s-lobbying-like-activities-may-be-illegal

[kcvl]

LaTourette aggressively attacked the Tea Party movement, both while he was in Congress and since he resigned to take the position at MSP about a year ago. During an appearance on CNN’s Crossfire opposite conservative Larry Elder, for instance, LaTourette said Republicans should be open to increasing Americans’ taxes. “Republicans can win the game if they act like Republicans,” LaTourette said while arguing for higher taxes, which he first tried to spin as “revenue” increases before admitting under pressure from Elder that they were, in fact, tax increases.

[kcvl]

“I wish I could say yes — but I don’t,’’ LaTourette said. “Speaker Boehner . . . would love to strike the big deal that actually begins the process of healing America and balancing the budget and stop having us borrow so much money from China and other places.

The former representative, who served Ohio’s 14th district for 18 years, said he was outraged by attempts by colleagues to boot John Boehner as House Speaker.

“There is a core group in this class that was elected in 2010, that, in my opinion, is really not interested in governing. They are interested in just saying no to everything . . . By walking away from Plan B, they basically sent John Boehner into a knife fight when the other guys have guns.’’

The nine-term congressman recently joined his wife Jennifer to help an Ohio-based law firm begin a Washington lobbying arm to be called McDonald Hopkins Government Strategies.

It’s a field under heavy criticism for having too much power, but LaTourette said he believes that as long as lobbyists follow the rules and act ethically “I don’t understand what the problem is.

“I’m a lawyer by training and there’s no difference between my going in front of a government entity today advocating on behalf of a client before a judge or before an agency,’’ he said.

“So I get it, but I will tell you that I don’t think anybody’s going to cut me any special favors because I’m a former member.’’

http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/ohio-latourette-congress-washington/2013/01/09/id/470711

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

LIUNA: Labores International Union of North America.

Once totally Mob controlled (Arthur Coia Jr, later jailed, and his son). Gave millions of dollars to Bill and Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in the mid-1990’s. Byron York had an article in the April or May 1997 issue of “American Spectator” exposing the whole stinking deal, and how Janet Reno quashed a major series of criminal indictments against them during the Assets Seizure phase of the Organized Crime Task Force investigating LIUNA and the Clintons.

Nothing changes among crooks.

[ConradofMontferrat]

La Tourettes Syndrome is known for his barking moonbattery.

So that just goes to show. After all, he is a RATZ, as in demoKaRATZ. He JUST CAN'T HELP HIMSELF. He has brain damage and cannot be fixed.

OTH, if its true and gelding pubbies have run to this clown for help, God help the gelding pubbies, because NO ONE else will.

They have done gone the way of the Whig.

BUT, the brand CAN be saved, if TEA partiers put their nose to the stone and do what needs to be done.

But this means you have to WORK HARD, AND POUND THE PAVEMENT, NOT SIT AND GRANDSTAND!

FORGET THE PRIMARIES, FORGET THE RAZZLE DAZZLE HIGH PROFILE ELECTIONS!

Its an OFF YEAR ELECTION for Governor. And OH, GUESS WHAT? Its when each municipality ELECTS its committee people!! Oh, golly, gee, shux!!

Every TEA party man and woman should be KNOCKING OFF pubbie COMMITTEEMEN AND WOMEN!

It on takes 10, count em, TEN signatures to get you there. And the good news is that they can all be family and friends!

Get a hold of the committee at the BOTTOM of the totempole, and you OWN the Corbets, Ashers, Shacklets, Herrs, Ridges, at the TOP of the pole.

SHEESH, I've been preaching this stuff for over 20 years, it ain't rocket science.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Conservatives need to remember that Republicans are not “Conservatives”

Now hold on just a second. Many of them are. Name any Congressional TEApartiers who are not Republicans.

RINOs are never conservatives.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Who's going to vote for them in the general?

Those precious undecided voters? ROFL

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Mr. LaTourette should have pronounced himself a Democrat a long time ago.

Well, isn't that exactly what a "RINO" is?

[Dr.Deth]

$&%# you, LaTourette’s, &$*#sucking &^#% &^#$%

[Elsiejay]

” . . .for the last 100+ years parents have not been making sure that their children are being taught . . ..”

Yea, verily. And our gov’t schools have been of little use in this regard, partly due to influence of Dewey.
Home schooling and private/charter schools are in part a reaction to the lack of teaching of actual American history. May these “reactionaries” prosper.

[Graewoulf]

BRING IT !

[ExCTCitizen]

His Pac’s name should be called ‘DEFENDING RINOs for Anti-Americans’

[dfwgator]

There is no difference between Republicans and Democrats, they are just two wings of the only Party, “The Government Party.”

Third Party? Heck, we need a Second Party, first.