***The Official Right Wing Double Standards Thread***

[thoughtone]

This is one arrogant bitch!

source: cbs

Watchdog: Christine O'Donnell "Clearly a Criminal"


Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, today filed a pair of complaints concerning Delaware Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's use of more than $20,000 in campaign funds for personal expenses.

"Christine O'Donnell is clearly a criminal, and like any crook she should be prosecuted," CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said in a release. "Ms. O'Donnell has spent years embezzling money from her campaign to cover her personal expenses. Republicans and Democrats don't agree on much these days, but both sides should agree on one point: thieves belong in jail not the United States Senate."

CREW is requesting that the U.S. Attorney's office in Delaware open a criminal investigation and asking the Federal Election Commission to audit O'Donnell's campaign expenses.

The group said its allegations are tied to former O'Donnell aide David Keegan's affidavit stating O'Donnell, who has run for Senate three times, paid her rent for two months out of campaign funds in 2009 and also used campaign funds for meals and gas. In addition to misappropriation of campaign funds, CREW argues that O'Donnell is guilty of lying about the expenditures and committed tax evasion by not reporting the money as income.

Representatives for O'Donnell, whose financial disclosure form said her earned income between March 2009 and June 2010 was just $5,800, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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At the Values Voter Summit Friday, O'Donnell said it was worth running for office despite the fact that people "smear our background and distort our record" and "lie about us, harass our families, name call and try to intimidate us."

O'Donnell has faced a variety of criticisms over her personal finances, some of which she responded to on her website. (The alleged campaign finance violations are not among the issues addressed.)

On CBS' "The Early Show" last week, she said, "of course in this economy I've fallen on hard times. But I worked hard. I sacrificed. I made the decision that I needed to make things right."

CREW's Sloan said on CNN in advance of the release of the complaint that it's decision to target O'Donnell was not grounded in partisan politics, noting that her organization had called for Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel to resign over ethics violations. (She also discussed the complaint on CBS News, at left.)

"We're about right and wrong and not about black or white, Republican or Democrat," she said. "And it is flat-out wrong for a candidate for the U.S. Senate to be stealing her campaign funds and be using them for personal use."

In an Election Day robocall on behalf of O'Donnell primary opponent Rep. Mike Castle, O'Donnell's 2008 Senate campaign manager Kristin Murray said, "As O'Donnell's manager, I found out that she was living on campaign donations -- using them for rent and personal expenses, while leaving her workers unpaid and piling up thousands in debt."


"She wasn't concerned about conservative causes. O'Donnell just wanted to make a buck," Murray added.

 

[thoughtone]

source: New York Daily News

New York State GOP gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino has 10-year-old love child

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ALBANY - A controversial conservative businessman who will announce his run for governor Monday fathered a child during an extramarital affair a decade ago.

Buffalo developer Carl Paladino, 63, has been married nearly 40 years to his wife, Cathy.

The two had three grown children together - one of whom died in a car crash last year. It was only after that tragedy that Paladino confessed to his wife he had a secret love child, a now-10-year-old girl. A Buffalo-area source identified the child's mother as Sue Brady, an ex-staffer of Paladino's Ellicott Development company.

"The Paladinos consider this a private family matter and ask all media to respect their privacy," said campaign manager Michael Caputo, who would not confirm the woman's name.

At the same time, Paladino won't run away from the issue - or his young daughter - on the campaign trail, Caputo said. The little girl, his older children and his wife are all set to be at his campaign kickoff in Buffalo tonight.

Caputo said Paladino had told his children, but not his wife, about his secret daughter, slowly "integrating" her into the family.

The girl was particularly close to younger son Patrick, who died one year ago last week in a car accident, Caputo said. The other kids - William, 39, and Danielle Jacobs, 35 - also had met her.

It was only after the death of Patrick that Paladino revealed all to his wife. Caputo didn't say why he waited until then.

Patrick's death "kind of brought everything to a head and changed everything," he said.
The young girl lives with her mother but has appeared at public events with her father. She recently sat between Paladino and his wife at a Mass commemorating the one-year anniversary of Patrick's death, Caputo said.

"Carl and Cathy Paladino strongly believe that every child is a blessing, and the family has embraced his young daughter - even more so in the wake of their son Patrick's untimely passing," he told the Daily News.

Danielle Jacobs said the entire family has forgiven her dad: "We'll have a nice showing [at tonight's event] of how supportive we are as a family. We are a very close family, and we've been dealing with a lot this past year."

GOP consultant Ed Rollins said the issue could hurt Paladino's chances with Republican and Conservative Party voters.

"It's not the way you want to be introduced to the political process," Rollins said.

Paladino has said he expects to spend as much as $10 million of his own money to win a spot on Republican and Conservative ballot lines this fall.

He will face off against former Rep. Rick Lazio and Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, a Democrat-turned-Republican.

Paladino is also looking to tap into the activism of the Tea Party. He angered some families of the victims of 9/11 by saying the health care reform bill would kill more people than the terror attacks.

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[thoughtone]

source: Media Matters


Anti-Government Crusader Sharron Angle Receives Government Health Care

Sharron Angle (R-NV) is running for the U.S. Senate with a far-right agenda that can be adequately summed up as "drown the government in the bathtub." Angle's views on health care are no exception, as she supports repealing the Affordable Care Act and opposes the regulation of insurance companies. Recently, Angle has come under fire for mocking the idea that insurers should be required to cover treatment for autism.
However, despite her anti-government rhetoric, it turns out that Angle actually benefits from government health care. As Politico's "Morning Score" reports:

Angle's campaign acknowledged to Nevada journalist Jon Ralston Monday that both the candidate and her husband receive health care from the federal government. Spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said in a statement: "Mr. Ted Angle receives his pension through the (federal) Civil Service Retirement System. While it is not supplemented by the federal government, current civil servants pay into the program to pay the schedule of those already retired - much like how the Social Security Program works today. Mr. Angle does not qualify - nor does he receive Social Security benefits. His health insurance plan (the Federal Employee Health Program), which also covers Sharron, is a continuation of what he was receiving while he worked for the federal government."
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Angle isn't the only right-wing Republican to bash government involvement in health care while benefiting from it. Back in May, the Minnesota Independent reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a frequent critic of "socialized medicine," was profiting from a government-run health program in Minnesota through her husband's Christian mental health clinic.

 

[thoughtone]

source: Huffington Post

Megyn Kelly: Fox News Pundits Don't Make Nazi References

Megyn Kelly pushed back against a guest's assertion that Fox News commentators make regular references to Nazis on the air, telling him it was "just not true."

Kelly and her guest, former Clinton adviser Richard Socarides, were discussing Rep. Steve Cohen's comparison of the GOP to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels during a debate on health care. Socarides said he disagreed with Cohen's comparison, but that Fox News had things to answer for as well.

"Every night on the very network that we're on right now, the leading commentators on this network use this very language," he said.

"That's just not true, Richard," Kelly said. "...I don't if you sit and watch our programming every night, but I watch it every day and you're wrong."

WATCH:
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript src="http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4504074&w=466&h=263"></SCRIPT><IFRAME height=263 marginHeight=0 src="http://video.foxnews.com/v/video-embed.html?video_id=4504074&w=466&h=263" frameBorder=0 width=466 marginWidth=0 scrolling=no></IFRAME><NOSCRIPT></NOSCRIPT>

Hopefully Kelly wasn't watching Glenn Beck's program later on Thursday. Beck used Cohen's remarks to make a slew of Nazi references and comparisons.

"I'm glad to know he thinks Republicans learned their tactics from Goebbels," Beck said of Cohen, "but does he know that Goebbels learned his tactics from the progressives?"

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>(function(){var a = YAHOO.util.Dom.getElementsByClassName('contin_below');YAHOO.util.Dom.setStyle(a, 'display', 'none');}())</SCRIPT>Later, Beck compared Obama aide Cass Sunstein's so-called "Nudge" theory to the so-called "progressive" tactics that he said formed the basis of Goebbel's thinking. "Progressive tactics are Nazi tactics," Beck said. "Nazi tactics are progressive tactics."

WATCH:
<EMBED height=260 type=application/x-shockwave-flash width=320 src=http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/flash/player.swf flashvars="config=http://mediamatters.org/embed/cfg2?id=201101200041" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></EMBED>

 

[QueEx]

source: Media Matters


Anti-Government Crusader Sharron Angle Receives Government Health Care

Sharron Angle (R-NV) is running for the U.S. Senate with a far-right agenda that can be adequately summed up as "drown the government in the bathtub." Angle's views on health care are no exception, as she supports repealing the Affordable Care Act and opposes the regulation of insurance companies. Recently, Angle has come under fire for mocking the idea that insurers should be required to cover treatment for autism.
However, despite her anti-government rhetoric, it turns out that Angle actually benefits from government health care. As Politico's "Morning Score" reports:

Angle's campaign acknowledged to Nevada journalist Jon Ralston Monday that both the candidate and her husband receive health care from the federal government. Spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said in a statement: "Mr. Ted Angle receives his pension through the (federal) Civil Service Retirement System. While it is not supplemented by the federal government, current civil servants pay into the program to pay the schedule of those already retired - much like how the Social Security Program works today. Mr. Angle does not qualify - nor does he receive Social Security benefits. His health insurance plan (the Federal Employee Health Program), which also covers Sharron, is a continuation of what he was receiving while he worked for the federal government."

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Angle isn't the only right-wing Republican to bash government involvement in health care while benefiting from it. Back in May, the Minnesota Independent reported that <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a frequent critic of "socialized medicine," was profiting from a government-run health program in Minnesota through her husband's Christian mental health clinic.</span>

Double Standard

Bachmann has long sought to distance herself from those who benefit from public money. "I don't need government to be successful," she proudly told Fox News host Bill O'Reilly in fall 2009 when he asked why she inspired such ire among liberal critics.

Yet despite her broadsides against "socialized medicine," Bachmann's husband, Marcus, applied for public funds for his counseling clinic, <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">Bachmann & Associates</span>. Since 2006, he <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">has received nearly $30,000, according to Minnesota state records. The bulk of the money — $24,041 — came in the form of grants from the state Department of Human Services to train staff how to deal with clients suffering from chemical dependency and mental illness</span>. That program was <SPAN style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00">financed in part by the federal government</span>​