Who’s Larry Pressler? An Old, Broken Clock

Ryan Casey is a 2001 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, and a 2010 graduate of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute at Georgetown University. He is Chairman of the Lincoln County Democratic Party in Sioux Falls, SD, and served as Chairman of South Dakota's delegation to the 2012 Democratic National Convention. You can follow him on Twitter @RyanCaseySD.

-by Ryan Casey

Sure, he endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, but that was only because he was sniffing around for a presidential appointment, after flirting with a run for DC Mayor and losing a Republican primary for U.S. House in 2002. Even now, Pressler won’t say whether he’d caucus with the Republicans or the Democrats; apparently he’s been reduced to auctioning his core values to the highest bidder.

His other claim to liberal fame these days is his (tepid) support for marriage equality, which puts him just to the right of that all-time patron saint of South Dakota progressives, Dick Cheney.

Pressler’s decades-long record as a Republican Congressman and Senator, however, tells a different story. There’s a reason South Dakota voters sent him out to pasture in 1996 and hired Tim Johnson instead. We decided it made a lot more sense to choose a trustworthy, genuine public servant like Tim as our senator than a phony, Beltway opportunist.

In fact, it was only last year that Larry Pressler supposedly searched his heart and quit the Republican Party. That’s right, as the national GOP careened off the rails after 2008 and ventured completely into crazytown—highlighted by the rise of the Tea Party, Birtherism, the War on Women, debt ceiling brinksmanship and the demonization of families on food stamps… after all that, Larry Pressler was still a Republican. Only in 2013, once it was clear that Mike Rounds would be the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate— despite his glaring liabilities as a back-bencher governor and a glass-jawed Senate candidate— did Pressler experience his epiphany on the ugly side of partisanship. How convenient.

But just for old time’s sake, let’s review Pressler’s actual record on Capitol Hill:

Buddies with MLK, Er…What?!

Pressler has laughably said he marched with Dr. King in the 1960s.

But if Larry was such a stalwart champion of Civil Rights, why was he one of just 22 senators to vote against the establishment of Martin Luther King Day in 1983? Did he truly oppose honoring the slain Civil Rights leader, or was he just trying to curry favor with the right wing ahead of his 1984 reelection campaign? With Larry, we just never know!

Then again, as he positioned himself for a run for DC mayor, Pressler actually told the Weekly Standard, “I have a lot of African American friends.”

The Original PAC-man

Larry Pressler shook down Big Money lobbyists and special interests before it was even cool. Back when he first got to Washington, lobbyists weren’t completely running the show. But Pressler held the dubious honor of having taken more PAC contributions than anyone else in the Senate or the House. That’s right— out of 535 Members of Congress, no one had a bigger hand out to Big Money than Larry Lee Pressler. To absolve himself, Pressler figured he could wipe away the stink by forbidding his staff from talking to lobbyists. But he was busted by the Associated Press: “At the same time Sen. Larry Pressler was barring his staff from talking to lobbyists for the telecommunications industry, he was soliciting the same lobbyists for thousands of dollars in campaign contributions."

Not only was Pressler raking in telecom lobbyist money at the very same time he was writing their laws for them, he had a penchant for spending these campaign funds… on himself. The Argus Leader pointed out in 1994: "The [finance] reports dating to 1991 offer few clues to explain how or why Pressler and his wife incurred so many expenses that required reimbursement, or how any of the $500,000 spent related to campaign activities."

And even with a Washington culture awash in Big Money, the Argus notes how Pressler’s big spending on himself stood out. "Pressler's total was significantly more than any other senator...."  Along with the gaudy campaign expense tabs for things like luxury hotels, maid services and the opera, Pressler drew a salary of more than $125,000 from his campaign for reelection, in addition to his Senate salary and generous benefit package.

At the End of the Day, a Phony

Larry Pressler has made not getting busted in the Abscam sting the crown jewel highlighting his civic virtue. But putting aside the fact that the hidden camera footage portrays Pressler more as a confused and paranoid huckster than an honorable public servant, how much credit should we give him for doing what he’s supposed to do? Even back in 1980, the Washington Post called out Pressler for embellishing his supposed heroism. "Pressler did a pretty classy job of conning the American public about his supposed Sir Galahad role. The videotapes show he chatted amicably with the FBI undercover agent both before and after the vague offer of money. The meeting lasted about half an hour… Nothing very heroic, perhaps, but nothing Pressler had to lie about. Apparently he couldn't resist the temptation to work his personal political Abscam on the public.”

It’s tough to know whether Harry Reid really thinks he can ride an “Independent” Larry Pressler to another two years as Majority Leader. But South Dakota Democrats have a far better choice in our own nominee, Rick Weiland. Rick is a Democrat in the grassroots, populist mold of George McGovern, Tom Daschle and Tim Johnson, busting his hump as he visits all 311 towns across South Dakota— twice— to Take Back our government from Big Money corporate interests and their lobbyists. In addition to offering up a Constitutional Amendment to limit corporate political spending, Rick wants to protect Medicare as seniors currently know and love it, strengthen Social Security, and raise the minimum wage. Rick Weiland is our clear choice.

We don’t need to settle for the broken clock. No thanks, Larry. You can contribute to Rick’s campaign here.




UPDATE: DSCC Won’t But GOP Is Going After Pressler

The Beltway has finally discovered there’s a big race in South Dakota. Lawrence Lessig’s PAC and the DSCC both put in a million dollars, Lessig for Weiland and the DSCC against Rounds. As Greg Sargent put it in his Washington Post column this morning, this race tests whether or not “Democrats can win even on difficult political terrain by unabashedly campaigning on an economically populist platform excoriating big money’s influence in politics and its role in rigging the economy against working and middle class Americans.” The Washington Examiner emphasized that the GOP is ready to go on the attack against Pressler.

Insiders say there is a very simple solution and it’s a reason they remain encouraged that this problem will be mitigated: Run television ads that target Pressler for supporting Obama and administration policies. That could be more imperative now that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and other liberal groups have seized on the new polls and announced plans to attack Rounds.

A loud, ugly Republican civil war pitting Rounds against Pressler— with teabagger Gordon Howie howling in the background— would certainly help lock up the race for Weiland.