Posted on 05/25/2016 4:53:42 AM PDT by randita
Michael Corleone’s words in the make-believe New York mob story “The Godfather: Part III” could’ve been Terry McAuliffe’s in real-life Virginia political drama “Governor II”: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
In his first campaign for governor in 2009 — he was badly defeated in a three-way Democratic primary — McAuliffe had to answer for his image as a Bill-and-Hillary confidant who amassed a fortune at the intersection of campaigns and commerce.
There were eyebrow-raising investments: a shaky bank in Washington; an insider deal for shares in a telecom that went spectacularly bust; financing through labor unions; and the job-killing collapse of an Internet startup in his hometown in New York state.
In his second campaign for governor in 2013 — he barely was elected in a three-way general election — McAuliffe had to answer for his stake in a Chinese electric-car company for which he and Hillary’s brother Tony lured wealthy immigrant backers through a federal program that trades favored consideration for U.S. residency for big-dollar, job-creating investments. Voters weren’t as alarmed that a Monty Hall might run Virginia as they were a Tomas de Torquemada, Ken Cuccinelli.
But Cuccinelli also was hobbled by allegations that fellow Republican Bob McDonnell had sold the governorship to a favor-seeking rich guy who was hoping to become richer.
Here was a chance for McAuliffe to change the subject — from his conduct to official conduct. Little did McAuliffe know that less than three years later, after establishing ethics as the marquee theme of his administration, the subject would change again — from official conduct to his conduct. It is resurrecting a discomfiting caricature of McAuliffe.
McAuliffe now is the second consecutive Virginia governor to be investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice; specifically, the same Alexandria-based prosecutor who, in 2014, won a corruption conviction of McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, that could be overturned next month by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Initial reports are that the FBI is focusing on $120,000 in donations to McAuliffe’s 2013 campaign and to his inaugural fund from a Chinese billionaire, Wang Wenliang, through his American holdings.
The parameters of the investigation reportedly are wide and apparently touch on McAuliffe’s personal finances — he is a multimillionaire — as well as his ties to the Clintons’ charitable ventures, which have harvested millions from foreign countries and businesses, including $2 million from a Wang-controlled construction conglomerate.
That kind of money to those kinds of people suggests that China, among other nations, considers American politicians to be promising investments. No wonder the Justice Department has kept a close eye on China, the giant cash trove.
According to Forbes magazine, Virginia — next-door neighbor to D.C. — is in the top 10 American states for Chinese investment, with nearly $9 billion pouring in during the past 14 years. About 100 Chinese businesses have a presence here.
That plays to McAuliffe’s preferred role, one that’s supposed to have bipartisan appeal: cheerleader-in-chief for the state’s economy. McAuliffe announced a $2 billion Chinese paper mill in Chesterfield County, a Richmond suburb. The factory is expected to employ about 2,000 people by 2020. And Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, was purchased in 2013 by a Chinese company for almost $5 billion in a takeover financed by a government-controlled bank.
For Republicans humiliated by the McDonnell scandal, the McAuliffe embarrassment is, at minimum, turnabout. It could become the dominant tile in Republicans’ mosaic of him as a public official given to a go-it-alone approach — largely because of their truculence — that manifests itself in alleged lawlessness, most recently a blanket order by McAuliffe restoring voting and civil rights to about 206,000 violent and nonviolent felons. GOP lawmakers are challenging it in the Virginia Supreme Court.
Republicans painfully recall the drip, drip, drip of disclosures about the McDonnells and their haul of sweetheart loans, jewelry, clothing, sports equipment and travel from Jonnie R. Williams Sr., who angled for state backing of his disputed tobacco-derived dietary supplement.
Republicans remain defiant on a significant tightening of Virginia’s porous conflict-of-interest statutes, anticipating that a reversal of the McDonnell convictions will demonstrate that the problem isn’t the ethics laws but law enforcement.
There is little Republicans must do as McAuliffe and his handlers nervously struggle to manage a story over which they will have little control. Certainly that was McDonnell’s experience. And though McDonnell always attempted to wear a brave face, the longer the controversy continued, the more somber he became.
On Monday — just hours before news of the FBI investigation broke on CNN — McAuliffe attended the formal swearing-in of the Virginia Supreme Court justice installed by Republicans after they dumped his interim pick only to assert their partisan primacy.
The usually ebullient governor seemed subdued. Perhaps the occasion was a painful reminder of his nasty fight with Republicans? Perhaps McAuliffe was preoccupied with the nastier headlines ahead?
Beyond McAuliffe, there is collateral damage to consider.
Levar Stoney’s close ties to McAuliffe were expected to be a plus for his Richmond mayoral ambitions — a vast source of fundraising and organizational contacts. Could they fall fallow if McAuliffe does, too?
And what about the Democrats’ all-but-official nominee for governor in 2017, Ralph Northam? Maybe he’ll start reminding voters that during his undergraduate years at the Virginia Military Institute, he was the school’s equivalent of the pope: president of the honor court.
That McAuliffe is under federal scrutiny could augur closer attention, by partisans and the press, to the activities of another federal fixer — a Republican running for governor, Ed Gillespie.
Like McAuliffe, Gillespie embodies the cozy, insider culture of Washington and has prospered handsomely because of it. The former chairman of the Republican National Committee and briefly head of the Virginia GOP advised President George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee for president.
Gillespie built a muscular bipartisan lobbying firm that was sold in 2004, reportedly for $40 million. Gillespie, who hasn’t been a lobbyist for years, supplies blue-chip corporate clients with strategic communications advice. Such a distinction prompted The New York Times to describe Gillespie as one of Washington’s “unlobbyists.”
Gillespie, facing a congressman and a county supervisor for the nomination, wants to talk about other things: principally, what he contends is not going on with the Virginia economy under McAuliffe.
Better that than being pulled back in.
I PRAY that the PUNK gets what he deserves.
Sadly, it’s starting to look like that. The stench of D.C. is spreading rapidly.
The unfortunate part of it is that the stench of McDonnell probably tossed the governorship in the Punk’s lap.
But this might be turn about. I’m just not that enthused about Ed Gillespie. I need to examine the other candidates. We need an outsider - no one formerly or currently affiliated with the corrupt D.C. power structure.
He's now under investigation by the FBI and the Department of Justice for fundraising improprieties, including his time at the Clinton Global Initiative.
McAuliffe personally guaranteed the Clintons' loan for their pricey Chappaqua home.....when they were "dead broke" after exiting the WH.
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McAuliffe asserted the investigation of him has "nothing to do with" the Clinton Foundation. McAuliffe previously served as a board member of the Clinton Global Initiative, a program of the Clinton Foundation. Several donors to McAuliffe's campaign, including Wang, have also donated to the Clintons' charitable groups. "I think we travel in the same circles," McAuliffe said. "I've traveled the world with President Clinton and we have a lot of the same friends."
Wall Street financial analyst, Charles Ortel, asserts he's discovered new evidence that the Clinton Foundation mismanaged, “perhaps intentionally,” financial and regulatory reporting required by US federal and state governments for charities under tax-exempt status.
FYI---At the Foundation's lavish Morocco meeting hosted by a king, held early April, Bill Clinton was asked by a billionaire donor what Clinton was doing w/ the Foundations' donations.
The Foundation donor referred to the blizzard of adverse publicity that monies sent to the Foundation were not used as intended.
"What is this money for? What have you done with it?," he asked Clinton. The billionaire donor also told Clinton his daughter (a Foundation Board member) felt useless.....b/c apparently Board Members were not advised of some of Clinton's "charitable" activities.
"I just work here," Clinton responded. "I don't know."
So if Foundation founder Bill Clinton and keeper of the foundation books, did not know---and the Board did not know---who knew?
CONCLUSION If Foundation Board members were not advised of, and did not sign off on, expenditures of tax-exenpt Foundation donations, the Clintons have a legal problem that could involve violation of tax laws. Board members of Foundations are fiduciaries and are required to oversee the distribution of tax-exempt donations.
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NOTE TO ORTEL Several state and federal agencies the Clintons listed as donors told news outlets they did not contribute to the Clinton Foundation.
<><> EPA said there's no record of donations to the Clinton Foundation.
<><> The “Office of Minority Health and Human Services,” is listed but it's not clear what this donation referred to, or even which federal or state office it came from.
<><> The Arkansas Dept of Human Services received a donor "gift receipt" but said they never expended tax dollars to the Foundation.
Wall Street investor and financial analyst Charles Ortel, says The Clinton Foundation's financial statements over the past six years have been fraudulent. They've been compelled to refile years of falsified tax returns.
Ortel surely knows that the reason ANY offical documents are falsified is to cover-up even bigger crimes.
People who are involved with the Clinton crime organization have a habit of committing suicide and having accidents. He should be worried....VERY worried.
I wonder if there is any relationship to the sudden revelation of an ongoing investigation into McAuliffe by the regime’s Just-us Dept. has anything to do with Trump’s slow, steady, methodical rise in the polls. After all, McAuliffe’s blatant disregard of the traffic signals at the “intersection of campaigns and commerce” (damn, I like that) has been public knowledge for at least two decades.
I would not be surprised if this is maybe the quiet murmur of the addition of the Biden/Warren ticket into the mix.
Maryland had that title for many years.
Further the timing of this announcement seems a little too coincidental. It would sure take some of the direct light of Hillary.
The effort is a preemptive strike to end forever the McAwful presidential ambitions.
Gillespie?
Bingo
The American Press is that naive...
“Is there anyone naive enough to believe for a second that a Clinton confidant is not corrupt?
Further the timing of this announcement seems a little too coincidental. It would sure take some of the direct light of[f] Hillary.”
Since McAuliffe was essentially the bagman for the Clinton political machine, I think these corruption allegations will further tarnish Hillary along these lines (if that’s possible).
There is a given percentage that will not be voting for her no matter what. The press will do everything they can to cover the DOJ probe into her.
By throwing attention on McAuliffe and ignoring his connection to her the LIV's will be distracted.
LOL! Using the McAuliffe investigation to... attack Republicans!
Shapiro hates Republicans.
He hasn’t been worth reading since the Governor Allen years.
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