How Not To Conduct An Affair If You Are A Politician

Do not talk about your two mistresses and your new spanking fetish into an open mike, especially if one of the women is involved in lobbying the committee that you are on.

Media Matters: Even We Don't Believe Our Own Press Releases

There was an amusing mini-scandal in the Washington blogosphere today. The left-wing self-styled watchdog group Media Matters put out a press release trying to slap down Republican Senator Jeff Sessions for his questioning of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. It claimed major media outlets were ignoring 23 year-old allegations that Sessions had been involved in a racially-motivated prosecution.

It was pretty thin stuff as even one of Media Matters' own people pointed out in a draft of the memo. And, as if to prove what a bunch of hacks they are, they accidentally blast emailed the draft version to reporters. National Review's Mark Hemingway had some fun with it:

Media Matters for America just sent out the following press release:

Greetings,

I wanted to make sure you had seen Media Matters’ latest research on the media ignoring allegations that surfaced during Sen. Jeff Sessions’ 1986 nomination to the U.S. district court. As reported by the Associated Press, Sessions’ "nomination originally drew fire from civil rights groups because of his [1985] prosecution ... of three west Alabama civil rights activists on vote fraud charges. The three were acquitted by a federal court jury, prompting civil rights leaders to charge that the prosecution was an attempt to intimidate black voters." Doesn’t the fact that we quote the AP undermine the idea that the media is ignoring the story? Could we say, “research on much of the media ignoring…”

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or if you would like additional information.

Jessica Levin
Press Secretary
Media Matters for America

[Hemingway] My emphasis added — I guess somebody forgot to delete that parenthetical edit. I'd always thought that Media Matters tried in vain to prove conservative media bias, but I didn't expect that the organization itself would confirm my suspicion.

Hemingway went on to make the case that allegations against Sessions were scurrilous. Reason's Michael Moynihan jumped on board, noting the charge that media outlets weren't reporting the allegations was itself bogus, a point also raised by Salon. Media Matters posted a wonderfully pissy response in which they furiously try to spin this as proof of how thorough they are in their reports:

[T]he oversight simply highlights the extent to which Media Matters goes to make factually and logically sound arguments.

Oh, bullshit.

Hopefully He's More Careful When It's Other People's Money

Meet Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida. He's a member of the House Financial Services Committee, which is busy rewriting all of the rules covering banking, investing and such. So he's on top of those issues right? Hmm, maybe not according to the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call:

Freshman Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) lost $3 million in a stock swindle between 2000 and 2005, a Florida television station reported this week.

According to Orlando’s Local 6, Grayson was an investor in a Ponzi scheme run by the company Derivium Capital. The scheme allowed Grayson and other investors to turn over stock to Derivium in exchange for cash loans and redeem the value later if the stock prices increased.

The station cited court filings indicating that Grayson transferred about $29 million in stock to the fund, taking out about $26 million in cash. A South Carolina court ruled earlier this year that Derivium shareholders were owed about $270 million in lost profits and that Grayson’s share of that would be about $34 million.

Read the rest of the story here.

Of course, when it comes to the federal government, only losing a few million is an accomplishment.

Mark Sanford, Digging That Hole Just A Little Deeper

I don't have much else to add to the saga of Mark Sanford except to say that Argentina is a hell of a long way to go for a booty call. Well, that and it is yet another defeat for the small government movement since Sanford was one of the few governors to voice any opposition to Obama's runaway deficit spending.

The news did spur me to read a March profile of Sanford that had run in the American Conservative. The issue had been lying around my office and I had never bothered to pick it up before. It's a decent piece and fairly flattering towards Sanford, though the author obviously had no inkling of Sanford's indiscretions.

Amusingly the magazine is now trying to distance themselves from the governor. In the print edition the profile is titled "Plain Right: Can South Carolina's Governor Save the GOP?" The online version has been retitled "The Strange Case of Mark Sanford."

Anyhow, the one bit from the article that really does fascinate is this nugget about a different scandal involving Sanford:

During Sanford’s first gubernatorial campaign in 2002, an 8-year-old African-American girl wandered onto a Sanford family property on Lady’s Island and drowned. A source close to the governor said she fell into a “retaining pond.” Her family’s lawyer, Manning Smith, called it a “pit.” Other sources claim that Sanford, who owned a hydraulic excavator at the time, digs holes on his property to unwind. According to a source involved in the settlement, the governor’s insurance company paid the girl’s family “around $300,000.”

He digs enormous holes in the backyard to unwind? Umm, okay ...

He Keeps His Brain In An Undisclosed Location Too

This has already been all over the blogosphere, but TtP might as well acknowledge it too. You that super-duper secret "secure location" that Dick Cheney used? Well it's a bunker to house the vice president in case of some massive terrorist attack. Except that now that we have Joe Biden as veep, it ain't so secret anymore:

Vice President Joe Biden, well-known for his verbal gaffes, may have finally outdone himself, divulging potentially classified information meant to save the life of a sitting vice president.

According to a report, while recently attending the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, an annual event where powerful politicians and media elite get a chance to cozy up to one another, Biden told his dinnermates about the existence of a secret bunker under the old U.S. Naval Observatory, which is now the home of the vice president.

Way to go, Joe. While you're at it why not tell a table full of journalists what places in the US are totally unprotected from a terrorist attack while you're at it?

Breaking News: Nigerians Involved In E-mail Scams

Meet John Rempel. One day he got an e-mail from a stranger in Nigeria, telling him about a multi-million dollar inheritance that he could claim if he would just help the e-mailer, a lawyer handling the estate, with some financial arrangements. Next thing you know, Rempel had advanced a cool $150,000 to his new friend:

The lawyer said his client had no family but wanted to leave the money to a Rempel. It was his lucky day.

“It sounded all good so I called him,” said Rempel. “He sounded very happy and said God bless you.”

The man then told him he had to pay $2,500 to transfer the money into his name. Then there were several more documents. Some cost $5,000.

He was told to open an account at a bank in London. That required a $5,000 minimum deposit. The crooks later sent him an e-mail with a link to what he was told were details of his new account. Some money had been transferred there for “safe keeping.”

“Everything was good,” said Rempel.

It goes on from there. Astonishingly, he never got his hands on the inheritance.

Hey, Rempel, are you reading this? Because I know a lawyer who can totally get all of your money back. I'd be happy to put you in touch with him for a nominal fee.

Alcohol Definitely Involved

Starting a fight in bar - Stupid. Starting the fight over karaoke singing - Really Stupid. Getting yourself thrown in jail defending the musical integrity of Ronnie James Dio? - That's breaking through to a whole new level of dumbass.

Via the Smokinggun.com.

The People Have Spoken

... They just don't know what the fuck they said. Via The New Republic comes this fascinating factoid:

The Wisdom of the American People

From that LAT poll of Florida of Ohio (here is the PDF with all the numbers):

Already Voted:

Florida: McCain 49%, Obama 45%, Don't Know 6%

Ohio: Obama 57%, McCain 35%, Don't Know 3%

That's right: Almost 5% of Florida and Ohio voters that have already voted don't know who they voted for.

(Maybe these folks were just unwilling to answer the question, but that isn't how the poll reads).

This is one of those things you wish was wrong, but you know in your heart that it is true.

US Representative Wins Triple Crown

What else do you call it when a politician gets arrested for a DUI, gets bailed out of jail by his mistress, and admits to fathering her child?

Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.), wracked by controversy since his drunken-driving arrest last week, has just issued a statement in which he confessed that he has had an extramarital relationship with the woman who bailed him out of jail following the arrest — and that he is the father of her young daughter.

I would have never guessed that a guy named Vito would drive drunk, cheat on his wife and father a bastard child. Vito also announced at the press conference that he enjoyed pasta, wine, and betting on the ponies. Totally unexpected all of it.

Story here. [sub required]

Thanks to Sean I've-Fathered-Very-Few-Children-Out-of-Wedlock Higgins for the link.

The State of the Education System in South Carolina

It is difficult to comment on this. First of all, I find it hard to comprehend how someone can live in United States and not have the ability to find it on a map, so I have some empathy for receiving such a question. But this incoherent ramble Miss Teen USA of South Carolina went on attempting to answer this question gives meaning to each one of those horrible dumb blonde jokes I’ve heard.