An Open Letter To Buck McKeon-- From One Pissed Off Wife!

Scott and Vanessa Wilk and their two children

Today Vanessa Wilk, a prominent Santa Clarita Republican and wife of GOP Assembly candidate and college board trustee Scott Wilk, himself a former top staffer for hyper-corrupt Congressman Buck McKeon, sent McKeon an open letter we thought all the Buck fans at DWT would enjoy reading:

February 7, 2012

Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon
26650 The Old Road, #203
Santa Clarita, CA 91381

Dear Congressman McKeon:

I can't begin to express my shock, disappointment and outrage over today's Roll Call article "Covering all the bases."

The piece opens with, "When House Armed Services Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) became ensnared by the Countrywide mortgage scandal last month, his senior staff came together for a strategy session to decide how to throw colleagues, potential challengers and former employees under the bus."

During the course of this campaign for the California State Assembly, you, your campaign and your government staff have systematically slandered and attacked my husband because he has the audacity to run for an Assembly seat that you would like your wife, Patricia McKeon, to have.

Many people have been bullied and have been afraid to speak out. The actions of you and your staff have been in violation of the House Ethics Rules and probably Federal Election law. And we have held our tongues.

We now have independent corroboration of your tactics as outlined in the newspaper. The Roll Call article mentions an internal memo that states, "According to the memo, McKeon's strategy should include 'thorough background checks into the relationships between Wilk, [Wilk's political consultant, Jason Cable] Roe, and their recent shady political connections." The only shady political actions are coming from the McKeon camp.

You and your surrogates, that include Bob Haueter, have continued to lie about Scott with absolutely no proof. So let me set the record straight.

My husband does not nor has ever had any affiliation with the website Really Patricia?

As late as yesterday, Bob Haueter told people that Scott is being investigated by Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley. This campaign tactic is sleazy! The fact is your wife filed a spurious charge against him on January 18, 2012, and the DA's office rejected it on January 25, 2012. Mr. Haueter knows this, yet continues to mislead people in our community.

Our family has been supporters of yours. At your request in 2008, I co-chaired the volunteer effort for your fundraiser with Governor Mitt Romney at the home of Steve and Diane Arklin. We have contributed thousands of dollars to your re-elect committee, as well as your Leadership PAC. Last summer Scott, a local elected official, endorsed you for re-election to Congress.

However, sir, you have crossed a very bold line. I insist that you offer an apology to Scott and our entire family for the actions of you and your staff. Furthermore, you ought to consider returning the money we have contributed to your committees. It doesn't seem right to me that you would use our hard earned dollars against us to pay for opposition research on Scott and to funnel to Patricia McKeon's Assembly campaign to attack him. If you had a shred of integrity, and any sense of fair play, you will do the right thing and return our contributions.

Sincerely,

Vanessa S. Wilk

This has been a bad day for McKeon. He spent large amounts of money-- both his own and his campaign's-- pushing the bigoted Prop 8 that was struck down by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals as unconstitutional. And meanwhile he has been officially informed that he's the subject of a House Ethics Committee investigation. He's also mired in several related scandals, all involving taking money for himself and his wife from lobbyists from the student lending companies and the defense contractors whose toxic agendas he has been promoting in his congressional committees. Thursday we'll be demonstrating-- right here at DWT-- that McKeon is helping to block the STOCK Act because he's one of Congress' sleaziest and most pernicious insider traders. I'm trying to make this graph that is driving me crazy, but I'll have it done by Thursday.

Even right-wing Republicans are sickened by McKeon's antics already. This from a right-wing Santa Clarita hate talk radio host:

Many may recall an incident back in 2008 where Buck McKeon's office delivered a letter to my then former employer ABC indicating that I had disrespected the Congressman for having shared a different opinion of Buck's vote in favor of the T.A.R.P. bank bailout. In that letter, McKeon blasted me for revealing my now-vindicated disdain over that vote but he didn't stop there. I might have suffered greater immediate backlash if he hadn't also taken the opportunity to defame ABC by indicating that the organization put on insufficiently attended fundraisers. I'll be writing on that incident in greater detail in the near future.

I have often commented that the political tactics supported and employed by Buck McKeon, namely by his Deputy District Director Bob Haueter we're going to one day come back and bite Buck McKeon in the butt. We may very well be seeing that beginning of that biting.

Regardless of all this GOP cannibalism, Blue America is very excited to be endorsing the progressive Democrat in this race, Dr. Lee Rogers.