Trump Is A Roll Model For Republican Politicians Who Lie About Everything To Everyone All The Time Now

Trumpist Melissa Howard with her fake diploma and a woman she says is her mother

Florida House District 73 is very red-- and very white. The eastern Sarasota and eastern Manatee counties district is 90% white. It elects Republicans. In 2016, Republican Joe Gruters, co-chairman of Trumpanzee’s Florida campaign, beat Democrat Jim Golden 68,343 (65%) to 36,678 (35%). But follow this: Tom Rooney decided to retire from Congress when a far right extremist, state Senator Greg Steube, announced he would primary Rooney, declaring "as a pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment, anti-illegal immigration fighter for our constitutional rights, I will proudly support Trump and his agenda in Washington." Joe Gruters, also on the very far right of the GOP and who had been in the state House for less than 2 years, then announced for Steube's state Senate seat, leaving his House seat open.

Two Republicans jumped into the primary-- Lakewood Ranch business owner Melissa Howard and Sarasota attorney Tommy Gregory. Zac Anderson, political editor of the Herald Tribune reported last month that "there may be no better example of the recent rifts within the Florida GOP than" this contest. The differences involved guns and money.

Melissa Howard came out as a supporter of using tax money to lure businesses to the state and help them expand. The Florida Chamber of Commerce endorsed her. Tommy Gregory is skeptical of incentives. "Meanwhile," reported Anderson, "Gregory says he would have voted against the big school safety package approved by the Legislature this year because he opposes the gun control measures in the bill, including raising the age to purchase a long gun from 18 to 21. He has received the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, which sharply criticized the bill. Howard also opposes raising the purchase age for long guns but would have supported the bill because of the $400 million in it for school safety. The Chamber vs the NRA is the equivalent of the Florida GOP clash of the titans."

The race has been pretty even although Gregory raised more money-- a feat that was obliterated when Howard wrote herself a $100,000 check. Everything changed, though, last week when Howard was exposed as a serial liar. On Tuesda, FLANews.com reported that Howard didn’t have the college degree from Miami University in Ohio that she claimed. She then flew to Ohio Friday to prove their report wrong. She then posed on Facebook with that diploma and her mom. Case closed? Nope. Remember, we're dealing with Republican politicians here, so expect lies and more lies and, after that... more lies. First off all, the diploma is a forgery.

Not only were Howard’s friends and supporters looking at the picture she posted on Facebook, so were officials at Miami University. Sometime during the afternoon Friday, Howard removed the diploma pictures from Facebook as her story of earning a Bachelor of Science in Marketing began to unravel.

According to Miami University, Howard did attend but there is no record of her earning a degree either in 1994, which she initially claimed, or in 1996, which she later claimed.

The degree Howard was holding in the picture contains inconsistencies, according to the university’s general counsel.

Miami University does not offer a Bachelor of Science in Marketing, instead it offers a Bachelor of Science in Business. Howard’s major while attending Miami University was Retailing and if she had graduated would have received a Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Sciences.

The diploma Howard is holding contains the signatures of James C. Garland, President and Robert C. Johnson, Dean. Mr. Garland was President of Miami University in 1996, but Mr. Johnson was dean of the graduate school not the dean for either the School of Business nor the School of Education and Allied Professions. Johnson would not have signed Howard’s diploma.

FLA News first reported that a non-profit clearinghouse that partners with Miami University maintains Howard did not have a degree. After Mrs. Howard pushed back on our reporting-- calling it a lie, we asked the National Student Clearinghouse to re-confirm with the university.

The organization sent a certificate stating – no degree earned. FLA News asked Howard for a copy of her diploma, which she promised to send last Saturday. Then it was Monday and finally Tuesday. FLA News published its story Tuesday afternoon and it contained a statement from the Howard campaign calling the assertion a dirty trick from her GOP opponent, Tommy Gregory in House District 73 which includes Manatee and Sarasota counties.

This is Howard's side of the story, blaming it all on her opponent, Trump-style. She called everything she was caught lying about-- oh, yes, there's more, like claiming an NRA "A" instead of the "B" they really gave her--part of Gregory's Gish Gallop strategy: tossing out "a large enough volume of lies that an opponent can’t respond to each one individually and presto-- the galloper wins without making a positive case for himself."

She demanded that Gregory stop slandering her reputation and accused him of negative campaigning. Over the weekend it become a station story (AP) but she still hadn't withdrawn from the race. The top paper in the district, the Herald Tribune recapped it for their readers:

Facing accusations that she lied about having a degree from Miami University in Ohio, state House District 73 candidate Melissa Howard sprang into action.

The Lakewood Ranch businesswoman said she flew back to Ohio and obtained transcripts and a diploma proving she graduated. She distributed pictures Friday to media outlets-- including the Herald-Tribune-- of what she claimed was her diploma. She took to Facebook and posted what appeared to be her transcript.

In the Facebook post, Howard declared “The truth shall set you free!”

“It only took a night of flying back to my old stomping grounds to catch my opponent in yet another lie!” Howard wrote.

But a bombshell email sent to the Herald-Tribune from Miami University general counsel Robin Parker declares unequivocally that Howard never graduated. And Parker also takes aim at the diploma seen in the pictures, laying out a series of reasons why it does not appear to be authentic.

The episode is a strange and sensational twist in a race that has been heated for weeks and has only grown more acrimonious as the Aug. 28 primary approaches.

...Allies of Gregory have been blasting Howard in mailers, saying she “isn’t telling the truth” about her rating from the National Rifle Association and that “her claims just don’t add up.” Howard said on Facebook she received an A grade from the NRA but the organization’s Florida lobbyist, Marion Hammer, said that’s not true.

“She has a B,” Hammer said in an interview. “She has never been given an A.”

The mailer also questioned Howard’s claim that she is a lifelong Republican. Howard’s truthfulness had become a central line of attack for Gregory’s allies when the questions about her degree began to come up.

...Howard claimed in an interview with the Herald-Tribune that she discovered the framed diploma during her trip back to Ohio, saying her mom had stashed the document in a storage unit.

“I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t deal with this,” Howard told the Herald-Tribune Friday, saying she felt compelled to obtain proof that would dispel the accusations.

But after Howard spoke with the Herald-Tribune Friday and shared the diploma and transcript images, Miami University’s general counsel, Robin Parker, declared in an email that Howard had not graduated from the university.

“Melissa Marie Fox, DOB 12/25/71, does not have a degree from Miami University,” Parker wrote, citing Howard’s maiden name and date of birth.

Parker’s email goes on to state that the “the picture of the diploma that was posted on the HowardforHouse73 Facebook page does not appear to be an accurate Miami University diploma.”

“The picture of the diploma shows that Melissa Marie Fox received a Bachelor of Science in Marketing degree from Miami University on December 20, 1996,” Parker wrote. “We have no such record of a degree.”

Parker notes in her email that Miami University doesn’t even offer a degree in marketing.

“Miami University’s degree for Marketing majors then, as it is now, was a Bachelor of Science in Business,” Parker wrote.

Parker goes on to point out that Howard’s actual major-- according to university records-- was retail, and “the degree for that program of study was a Bachelor of Science in Family and Consumer Sciences.”

The implication is that the diploma is a fake.

...Howard could not be reached for comment Saturday about Parker’s email. Her campaign consultant, Anthony Pedicini, said in a text message that Howard’s husband had a “cardiac event” Friday evening and is in the hospital.

“Melissa is focused on her family-- not fake news this morning,” Pedicini wrote.

Gregory said in a text that “voters deserve nothing less than truth and integrity from their elected officials.”

“Unfortunately, it seems that Melissa Howard has failed that test,” he added.

Am I saying that every Republican candidate and every Republican elected official lies about everything all the time? Pretty much. Look at Trump. He has consistently claimed that he graduated first in his class at Wharton, but in reality he was a very mediocre student and the 1968 commencement program doesn’t list him as graduating with any sort of honors at all, let alone as first in his class. Meanwhile, Howard or Gregory will face off against Bradenton progressive Democrat Liv Coleman, a political science professor, in November.