Althouse: "President Obama headlined a $25,000 a head Seattle fundraiser in July hosted by former Costco CEO Jim Sinegal for the liberal Senate Majority SuperPac.... The horror, the horror!"

August 25, 2014

"President Obama headlined a $25,000 a head Seattle fundraiser in July hosted by former Costco CEO Jim Sinegal for the liberal Senate Majority SuperPac.... The horror, the horror!"

"Perhaps you didn't notice the lack of media outrage. That's the context in which to understand the breathless reporting about court documents showing that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker encouraged donations to the Wisconsin Club for Growth."

First paragraph of "Hyperventilating in Wisconsin/Documents expose the false legal theory used against Scott Walker." (The link works only for subscribers. The alternative is to Google some of the text and get a "free pass.")

62 comments:

Original Mike said...: "The court's clerk also bungled and released, for a brief period, some documents that weren't supposed to be unsealed, including donor names and references to bank records. Unless you're a political Bambi, the only news in the documents is further evidence that the prosecutors are operating on an unconstitutional interpretation of campaign-finance law."

You have to be Bambi to believe the clerk "bungled".; 8/25/14, 2:51 PM
garage mahal said...: Haha. Sooooo predictable.; 8/25/14, 2:55 PM
SteveR said...: Haha. Sooooo predictable.

My reaction to every garage comment; 8/25/14, 2:59 PM
Jaq said...: So when is the frog march Garage?

This is just political lawfare. No different that Obama's use of the IRS against his enemies.; 8/25/14, 3:01 PM
Matt Sablan said...: Bungling that sort of information anywhere but working for the government would get you fired -- at best.; 8/25/14, 3:04 PM
jr565 said...: The progressives are all frauds, as are most of their moral and legal causes.; 8/25/14, 3:06 PM
Unknown said...: No, Original Mike, you only have be Bambi to think it's "news". I am glad to see this linked (to the extent it's linkable) because it's presented in WSJ as a very cleardouble standard… one for Democrats and one for Governor Walker as well as other Republicans. Is it really that simple? campaign finance laws have become so complex that I can't figure it out.; 8/25/14, 3:07 PM
garage mahal said...: The 7th Circuit are progressives. More hilariousness.; 8/25/14, 3:12 PM
Original Mike said...: Garage, what is the difference between Walker and Democrat fund raising?; 8/25/14, 3:12 PM
Curious George said...: That piece of shit John Chisholm is now oh for three, twice against Walker and failed to get David Clarke out as Milwaukee County Sheriff. Clarke makes it a practice to point out how weaksauce Chisholm is on criminals when they become repeat offenders. Chisholm cries "more funding:" but he has multi-millions to piss away on John Doe crap.; 8/25/14, 3:18 PM
garage mahal said...: Garage, what is the difference between Walker and Democrat fund raising?

Start here. (I'm surprised you weren't aware of this)

The $700,000 quid pro quo from GTac is the damaging one. Anyone can understand it.; 8/25/14, 3:23 PM
Original Mike said...: "[Chisholm] failed to get David Clarke out as Milwaukee County Sheriff."

Really?; 8/25/14, 3:23 PM
Whitey Sepulchre said...: I just show up here to post something moronic for attention.; 8/25/14, 3:24 PM
Original Mike said...: You didn't read the WSJ editorial, did you, garage?; 8/25/14, 3:25 PM
garage mahal said...: You didn't read the WSJ editorial, did you, garage?

I'm not a subscriber.; 8/25/14, 3:27 PM
Original Mike said...: I want to know if the clerk will be prosecuted. (Just call me "Bambi"); 8/25/14, 3:29 PM
Birkel said...: Shorter "garage mahal":

What the fuck don't you people get about SECRET GOD DAMNED ROUTERS?; 8/25/14, 3:39 PM
Mark said...: Garage, that Ashley deal for donation may be the one that sticks. $6 mil of economic development grants to a company that plans to lay off half their workforce off is nuts.

Ashley has a long string of questionable donations and grant awards on both sides of the aisle ... This might be the final straw. Esp when paired with Gogebic, etc.

WEDC will kill his career. From their startup when every employee was going work solely using iPads it's been one epic fail after another,; 8/25/14, 3:43 PM
Michael said...: The secret routers began in garage world as secret servers. Higher comedy still.; 8/25/14, 3:45 PM
Michael said...: You don't have to be a subscriber to the Wall Street Journal to buy a copy. They do have the paper version up there in hicksville do they not?; 8/25/14, 3:46 PM
Mark said...: WSJ does not go into how RJ Johnson among others were hired by both WI CfG and Friends of Scott Walker yet there is no coordination between the groups.

In fact, it doesn't address any of the coordination it just goes straight to the false (partial) comparisons about how people raise money for organizations without noting how Walker employed some of the same people as Club for Growth and the emails which suggest Walkers campaign directed Club for Growth radio campaign.

A look at the Journal Sentinel reporting shows that the WSJ really cherry picks what part of this story they want to cover and willfully ignores facts that don't fit their story.

More documents should be coming out. This will be an interesting couple of weeks as Walker bleeds from daily stories.; 8/25/14, 3:51 PM
Birkel said...: Longer Mark:

Of course it was an illegal intrusion into the lives of Americans that broke several laws itself, but that's alright because BAMN! bitches. I mean, while it's true that there have been abuses of individual rights, due process and all those things I hold dear... It's completely copacetic.

The fact those Democrat prosecutors will be bankrupted for their subversion of civil rights is a small price for them to pay. They'll get book deals after they file Chapter 7. Am I right, meaning Left?

It's ok to break the law in pursuit of political goals. Mark has defined the rules. My hope is that people show Mark exactly what that will mean.; 8/25/14, 3:57 PM
garage mahal said...: This will be an interesting couple of weeks as Walker bleeds from daily stories.

Drip drip drip.....on a drip. I'm actually starting to think we may be free of Walker soon. Seen some grumblings on social media from conservatives that they are sick of defending Walker.; 8/25/14, 3:58 PM
Birkel said...: NOTE WELL:

The actions of the Democrat prosecutors have been deemed -- by multiple courts -- to violate the law. That malfeasance will lead to personal liability on the part of the Democrats. It is those prosecutors who broke the law.

After all is said and done, the best bet on an over/under for the number of criminal convictions out of all this is to take the under of zero. The one conviction gets tossed and it'll be Page C31 news.

Neither Mark nor "garage mahal" cares.; 8/25/14, 4:00 PM
Birkel said...: Everything Mark and "garage mahal" say is a lie in furtherance of a lie.; 8/25/14, 4:00 PM
garage mahal said...: The fact those Democrat prosecutors will be bankrupted for their subversion of civil rights is a small price for them to pay

You're forgetting the Republican prosecutors, "birkel". The lead prosecutor is a Republican who voted for Walker.; 8/25/14, 4:07 PM
Mark said...: Birkel, we have yet to see if the 7th circuit tosses it out. They felt the need to hear the appeal and even gave them extended time for oral arguments coming up in a few weeks.

You are betting the farm on their ruling. If they throw it out, the pay to play Gogebic and Ashley donations will make the stories about how WEDC gives their grants to only Walker donors will only gain credence.

Enjoy November dude. Politics ain't fair.; 8/25/14, 4:23 PM
Curious George said...: "garage mahal said...

You're forgetting the Republican prosecutors, "birkel". The lead prosecutor is a Republican who voted for Walker."

LOL The lawsuit was started by John Chisolm. He is a Democrat and DA of Milwaukee County. You constant insistence that Francis Schmitz is a a republican is laughable, but predictable.

What office if any did he run as a Republican?

What position if any did he hold in the republican party?

Has he ever donated money to a republican?

Let me help, the answer is none, none, none.

Francis Schmitz has a decades old tie to the GOP because Bush I had him up for a federal position. Didn't pick him.

That's it.; 8/25/14, 4:33 PM
garage mahal said...: You constant insistence that Francis Schmitz is a a republican is laughable, but predictable.

I suppose Schmitz could be lying about voting for Walker. I would trust his word over yours or Walker all day long though.; 8/25/14, 4:43 PM
Birkel said...: Mark:
The courts are going to allow federal civil rights claims against the Democrat prosecutors. Abrogations of civil rights cannot be forgiven by civil immunity statutes. The Democrat prosecutors will be bankrupted.

You are gambling those Democrat prosecutors' financial lives away because you believe you are playing with house money. You, sir, are a scoundrel of the lowest merit.; 8/25/14, 4:50 PM
Birkel said...: Let's see, "garage mahal". In whom should we trust? Should we trust the guy who knowingly violated the civil rights of Americans in an effort to discredit a sitting Republican governor but pinkie swears he's a Republican? Or should we trust an anonymous poster on Althouse's blog?

I'm voting for the anonymous poster because at least that person hasn't been proven to be a liar willing to violate civil rights. But you are a scoundrel. BAMN!; 8/25/14, 4:52 PM
Drago said...: What you have to realize is that the FACT that what these prosecutors did was illegal is precisely what the left LOVES about this.

The left relishes this abuse of the system to attack their political opponents.

They will go thru the motions of denying at some superficial level that this wasn't on the up and up, but just below the surface is the JOY with which they observe these illegal actions.

This is what the left inevitably engages in wherever and whenever they can accrue sufficient power.

But only everywhere the left reaches critical political mass.; 8/25/14, 5:13 PM
madAsHell said...: Before the 2012 election, that same dinner party was collected $34,000 per head.; 8/25/14, 5:25 PM
madAsHell said...: Before the 2012 election, that same dinner party was collecting $34,000 per head.

aarrrggghhh!!; 8/25/14, 5:26 PM
cubanbob said...: If one goes by the Garage standard there isn't a democrat in Congress plus Obama, Slow Joe and the Clinton's that wouldn't get twenty to life. And then there are the big city democrat machine politicos. If Congress goes republican in November there is going to be a shitload of work for special prosecutors.; 8/25/14, 6:12 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Mark said...Enjoy November dude. Politics ain't fair.

Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!

How do you fellas on the Left really see all this extra-legal stuff working out, long term? Do you think about it at all? I mean, sure, screw Perry, screw Walker, screw the Senate rules (filibuster), screw the (now weaponized, politicized) impartial bureaucracy...then what?; 8/25/14, 6:31 PM
Mark said...: The joke of all this is that it compares the collecting money, which isn't what these prosecutors are saying is illegal.

No one wants to address the coordination issue because whether or not it's illegal, it doesn't pass the smell test. Senior campaign advisors telling you to collect cash for their other employer, employees going from campaign to secret 'issue' group doesn't jive with your average citizen.

Threatening the prosecutors for pursuing a case is not a high point for Wisconsin Republicans. Such the high road they claim to ride on, such a low road they truly walk.; 8/25/14, 6:36 PM
Anonymous said...: Like at a large Thanksgiving family gathering could Althouse have a separate table for children, like garage, crack, betamax, and a few others to free up time and space for the grownups to discuss issues rationally?; 8/25/14, 6:47 PM
Original Mike said...: "No one wants to address the coordination issue because whether or not it's illegal, it doesn't pass the smell test."

What doesn't pass the smell test are campaign finance laws.; 8/25/14, 6:52 PM
richard mcenroe said...: poker1one -- Feed them and they'll never leave.; 8/25/14, 6:54 PM
traditionalguy said...: Servers Walker right for always going under the name John Doe. What's he trying to hide?; 8/25/14, 7:18 PM
ken in tx said...: Ok, suppose everything Walker's opponents claim is true. Why is that against the law? We are suppose to live in a free country and have freedom of speech. How can one person talking to another person about getting a third person elected to political office be against the law. That is the whole point of freedom of speech--political speech--not porno. That said, I don't think they did it anyway. Nobody saw it. You can't prove it. Naah.; 8/25/14, 7:27 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: The biggest money-raising campaign of all time was Obama's. Twice.

The President didn't think public financing was a good idea, at least when it came to his own campaign.

I'm sure it was completely honest.; 8/25/14, 8:06 PM
Anonymous said...: This must be the same team that prosecuted Monty Python's Erik Njorl, who was charged "that you did conspire to do things not normally considered illegal".; 8/25/14, 8:27 PM
Birkel said...: Mark:

I have put you down in the "ambivalent about civil rights violations so long as Republicans are the victims" column. Noted.

I am firmly in the camp of "protect the civil rights of all Americans" so we must agree to disagree.

Tosser.; 8/25/14, 8:54 PM
Chef Mojo said...: "Servers Walker right for always going under the name John Doe. What's he trying to hide?"

Damn near perfect garage mahal parody, tradguy.

Well played, sir. Well played.; 8/25/14, 10:15 PM
Matt Sablan said...: "The President didn't think public financing was a good idea, at least when it came to his own campaign."

-- Hey, that's not true. He promised he'd use it. It was a good idea, but it wasn't so good at actual execution. You can't blame him for that. It was, probably, Bush's fault.; 8/26/14, 7:53 AM
garage mahal said...: Bu bu but Obundler!!!!!!; 8/26/14, 8:13 AM
Anonymous said...: RE: "Like at a large Thanksgiving family gathering could Althouse have a separate table for children, like garage, crack, betamax, and a few others to free up time and space for the grownups to discuss issues rationally?"

I didn't make a comment in this thread, specifically to give room for poker1one to have space to make big adult thoughts. I didn't see them, though.; 8/26/14, 8:15 AM
damikesc said...: Like at a large Thanksgiving family gathering could Althouse have a separate table for children, like garage, crack, betamax, and a few others to free up time and space for the grownups to discuss issues rationally?

Beta is awesome. We need more of beta.; 8/26/14, 8:25 AM
Anonymous said...: Thank you, damikesc, I appreciate it.; 8/26/14, 8:33 AM
Rusty said...: Beta is awesome. We need more of beta.

Yes. Beta makes crack bearable.; 8/26/14, 9:36 AM
Rusty said...: garage mahal said...
Bu bu but Obundler!!!!!!

You mean like Dinesh deSousa?
didn't he get cracked for that?; 8/26/14, 9:38 AM
garage mahal said...: You mean like Dinesh deSousa?
didn't he get cracked for that?

No.; 8/26/14, 10:20 AM
Achilles said...: Jon Corzine was unavailable for comment.; 8/26/14, 11:11 AM
Drago said...: Rusty: "didn't he get cracked for that?"

Rusty, why would you bother asking that question of some backwoods WI rube with no education?; 8/26/14, 1:01 PM
Achilles said...: Harry Reid, multi-millionare land investor, was unavailable for comment.

Nancy Pelosi, IPO and stocked option queen, was unavailable for comment.

Barrack Obama and real estate "advisor" tony rezko were unavailable for comment.

Hypocritical douche bag lefties though are full of comments.; 8/26/14, 1:12 PM
Achilles said...: The Solyndra board of directors and Obama bundlers were unavailable for comment.
You don't even need an illegal investigation to find out about them.; 8/26/14, 1:15 PM
Original Mike said...: The whole system is corrupt. There is no way it can be otherwise when partisan (i.e. human) actors are given the power to jail their opponents. The only way this problem can be solved is to remove the ability of the peckerwoods on both side to hand out favors in the first place. IOW, much smaller government.

I'm guessing you'd not be for that, Mark. That's your smell test right there.; 8/26/14, 2:11 PM
Achilles said...: Mike,

We are against corruption. The only way to reduce corruption is smaller government.

The lefties aren't against corruption. They are against their political opponents. In fact they are all about using these institutions corruptly while increasing their reach and power. They want more of this.; 8/27/14, 12:11 AM
K in Texas said...: Instead of complaining about the trolls, if people would quit replying to them (feeding the trolls) - I bet they would soon go away.; 8/27/14, 9:40 AM
Mark said...: We have tried, but Birkel and Original Mike and others keep coming back.; 8/27/14, 1:50 PM