Are Conservative Evangelicals An Actual Hate Group? What Would Jesus Say?

These days, the Senate doesn't pass anything remotely controversial, let alone pass it unanimously. But last month they did-- a bill by Tim Scott (R-SC), Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) to make lynching a federal hate crime. Their bill, the Justice for Victims of Lynching Act (S.3178), had 39 co-sponsors, including conservative Republicans Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Chuck Grassley, Thom Tillis and John Cornyn. The bill defines lynching as the "willful act of murder by a collection of people assembled with the intention of committing an act of violence upon any person" and mandates life imprisonment for those found guilty.

NPR's report included an interesting tangent:

"This is an historic piece of legislation that would criminalize lynching, attempts to lynch and conspiracy to lynch for the first time in America's history," Harris said on the Senate floor Wednesday. "We finally have a chance to speak the truth about our past and make clear that these hateful acts should never happen again without serious, severe and swift consequence and accountability."

While Harris spoke, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) presided. During Mississippi's runoff election last month, Hyde-Smith was caught on camera complimenting a supporter by saying, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row."

Hyde-Smith, who is white, was defending her seat against Democratic challenger Mike Espy, a former congressman who is African-American. She was widely criticized for her comments, but won reelection.

While this is the first time the Senate has passed anti-lynching legislation, Congress has been trying for over a century. According to the measure passed Wednesday, almost 200 bills were introduced in Congress during the first half of the 20th century in an effort to end lynching.

But it still hasn't been signed into law. Why not? Simple: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) refused to schedule it for debate so the process has to start all over again in the Senate, where the craven Miss McConnell has vowed to not permit any votes unless he's given the OK from Trump. And there's a problem. Reactionary white evangelicals-- Trump's base-- are now opposed to the bill. The corporate media doesn't talk much about it but celebrated author Marianne Williamson is running for president right along the politicians and billionaires. This kind of religious bigotry is something she has confronted before. Today she told me that "This argument goes back to Eleanor Roosevelt trying to convince her husband to support a federal anti-lynching bill, which he refused to do; he said Americans weren’t ready for it. But now we are. The Cindy Hyde-Smiths of the world still win some elections, but they don’t speak for the American heart and the heart is where we are going. We simply must persist."

Another presidential aspirant, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, is very sensitive to religious bigotry intruding into politics. And in the distant past, coming from a very conservative family, she wasn't always on the same page as Hawaii's LGBT community. After her military service in Iraq her views have been much more gay-friendly and she wasn't happy about extremists' attempts to target the LGBT community with this legislation. Yesterday, in the midst of her presidential campaign rollout, she told me that "We must learn from the dark stains of our country’s history, from slavery, to the Jim Crow era of lynching, to the failed War on Drugs, and more. The passage of this landmark legislation in the Senate to establish lynching as a hate crime is a critical step forward, which is why it is unconscionable to attempt to block these protections from applying to the LGBT community. All Americans-- no matter their sexual orientation, race, gender, religion, disability, zip code, national origin, or anything else-- must receive equal protection and treatment under the law."

Suppose Miss McConnell were out in Pickle Park or Louisville's Fruit Loop, cruising late one night and instead of a young man, he ran into a dozen red necks with Louisviille slugger baseball bats and suppose they clobbered him into hamburger. Under the legislation he and McCarthy (who is not gay) are blocking, the perpetrators would be guilty under the federal lynching bill.

The hate-filled evangelical fanatics are demanding that victims who are targeted for their sexual orientation or gender identity be excluded from the bill's protections. The Trump-supporting Liberty Counsel-- an off-shoot of Falwell's Liberty "University"-- and led by deranged and obsessive homophobes, Mathew and Anita Staver-- is at the forefront of the demands. Mathew Staver: "The old saying is once that camel gets the nose in the tent, you can’t stop them from coming the rest of the way in. And this would be the first time that you would have in federal law mentioning gender identity and sexual orientation, as part of this anti-lynching bill... So far they've been unsuccessful over the many years in the past, but this is a way to slip it in under a so-called anti-lynching bill, and to then to sort of circle the wagon and then go for the juggler at some time in the future."

Staver tolds OneNewsNow that his fanatical organization, Liberty Counsel, is talking to lawmakers in the House in an effort to convince them to strip the bill of the amendment before taking a vote. Instead he seems to have persuaded McCarthy just to not take a vote at all.

Matt Cartwright (D-PA) is a member of two very powerful committees, House Appropriations and the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee. Before being elected to Congress, he was one of Pennsylvania's top attorneys. And, like Tulsi Gabbard, he's not happy about this kind of thing. "People," he told me, "who think it’s okay to commit murder because of the victim’s sexual orientation have no business commenting on American law, let alone holding themselves out as followers of Jesus Christ."

Yesterday, Doug Pagitt, a progressive evangelical pastor in Minnesota and executive director of VoteCommonGood, suggested I use the term "conservative Evangelicals" instead of "white evangelicals" because it's more accurate and helps make the distinction and because it "calls people to the progressive ideas and actions Jesus teaches... The people who support these measures are by far more committed to their conservatism, and even white nationalism, than they are to any sense of evangelicalism. This is born out in the fact that the primary question that should be put to any Jesus following Evangelical group is not the well deserved question, 'are they a hate group?' but, 'how do they find no end to the love they show all people?'"

Jamie Raskin (D-MD), one of the most distinguished members of the House Judiciary Committee, told me that "It’s hard to believe that, while the Congress is already up in arms over the dangerous white nationalism voiced by Rep. Steve King, the GOP is indulging the bigotry of right-wing religious forces. Conservative Evangelicals apparently cannot abide the inclusion of gay and lesbian Americans in our federal anti-lynching legislation. What do they think the social message is of removing the LGBT community from the protection of a law against lynching? Here’s another simple moral test for the GOP."

Expanding on a theme he's been developing for a decade, evangelical expert and best-selling author Frank Schaeffer asked "Where did Trump’s evangelicals come from?: Children born into households that isolate them in homeschooling and church schools then send them to institutions like Bob Jones or Liberty U or Wheaton so identity is cemented and they carry forward the fundamentalist religious supremacy crusade. The Bible Trump’s evangelicals quote sanctifies humanity’s moral infancy idolizing the worldview of the Iron Age, leaving believers susceptible to justifying all manner of Trump’s evil in the name of God.

Face it: American Evangelicals are the Number 1 threat to democracy. Of course lynching gay people would be fine with them. As Trump joked about Mike Pence "He'd like to hang gay people."

When one treats the Bible as the literally perfect word of God it isn’t hard to find support for the ugly list racist, Christian-Zionist, xenophobic magical thinking that now darkens the Trumped evangelical brand. It’s time to say it: Evangelicals are a threat to the USA.

Evangelical religion has made evangelical leaders and ordinary Bible-believers susceptible to courtship by Trump’s authoritarian, bigoted, sexist, tribal, anti-intellectual greed-mongers who dangle the carrot of theocracy. It is time to define evangelical voters as a hate group.

Mark Foley, a personal friend of Trump's and a gay former Republican congressman who represented Mar-A-Lago, told me this morning that "the fact that  they are working to exclude any group from this legislation is appalling and shows a total lack of true Christian beliefs." He then warned his former colleagues that "If the Republican Party wants to continue to placate a vocal, yet distinct minority of individuals who cloak their bias by using the church as their shield, they will be justly rewarded on Judgment Day and those legislators that aid and abet this calculated hateful political stunt will pay dearly at the ballot box if their conscience doesn’t get them first..."

The Names "Chris Collins," "Duncan Hunter" And "Mark Foley" And Wave Election Years

This is what the Republican Culture of Corruption Looks Like In 2018

With future Speaker Nancy Pelosi's connivance, Denny Hastert-- then Speaker, currently in prison for raping underage boys-- protected alcoholic Florida Congressman Mark Foley (a "nice guy") from ever having to face charges from dozens of young men-- congressional pages-- that he had sex or tried to have sex with them. Congress made sure that he was just chastised for sending naughty e-mails. He still tells people that's all he ever did. No one cared what the boys said. It was before #MeToo.

In fact, it was just before the 2006 election. Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer, aware Foley was about to be outed and forced to resign from Congress in disgrace, chased the progressive candidate campaigning for the seat out of the race and inserted their own candidate, wealthy conservative Republican Tim Mahoney, who quickly re-registered as a Democrat. (Mahoney, a corrupt Blue Dog, was even worse than Folkey in many ways and had his own sex scandal and lost the seat, but that's another story.) How did a creep like Mahoney even win? Easy-- thanks to Rahm and Hoyer, no primary. Then... here's the timeline of what happened:

• Sept. 28- Rahm leaked the information that Foley was fiddling with the pages and ABC News ran the story-- BIG. It spread like wildfire.
• Sept. 29- Foley resigned from Congress to check into a program in Arizona to deal with his alcoholism.
• Oct. 2- The Florida GOP Executive Board selected state Rep Joe Negron as Foley's replacement. As Rahm knew, it was too late to take Foley's name off the ballot-- thus the timing of the leak.

The following month, on election day, Negron was awarded the votes cast for Foley but his name wasn't on the ballot and he lost-- albeit narrowly-- to Rahm's hand-picked corrupt conservative sex predator, Tim Mahoney. Mahoney lost in 2008 in the middle of a second Democratic wave election. (And, no, the DCCC did not learn anything from this episode; they never learn anything from any episodes.)

Ten years later and yesterday's Buffalo News reported that Congressman Chris Collins-- not a child molester (as far as I know), an indicted crook-- "will stay on the congressional ballot in November even though he remains under indictment on insider trading charges, according to four sources familiar with the situation. The sources, who asked not to be identified, say Collins has heeded the advice of his criminal attorneys who fear the potential complications of protracted election law challenges almost sure to be initiated by Democrats if he removed his name from the congressional ballot."

“It’s very fair to say there’s been a drastic shift,” said one of the sources, referring to the congressman’s earlier commitment to cooperate with local GOP officials and step aside for a substitute candidate. One GOP source noted the decision has always remained an option for Collins and that Republican strategists were prepared for his continuing presence on the ballot; but other sources remain unhappy that the move derails efforts to find a substitute candidate.

After the Buffalo News uncovered the story, a Collins lawyer confirmed the congressman's plans.

“Because of the protracted and uncertain nature of any legal effort to replace Congressman Collins we do not see a path allowing Congressman Collins to be replaced on the ballot,” attorney Mark Braden said in a prepared statement.

Collins' decision brought cheers Monday when it was announced at a rally for his Democratic opponent, Grand Island Supervisor Nate McMurray.

In any event, the move signals an end to more than a month of legal wrangling as  top election lawyers retained by the GOP attempted to find some legal loophole to substitute Collins as a candidate for another office, thus removing him from the congressional ballot at this late date on the political calendar. But even some of the potential solutions, such as substituting Collins onto a Town Board slot in his home town of Clarence, were expected to be challenged in court.

Republican leaders appeared ready to have Collins substitute for another candidate in Clarence this week, according to the sources. Now the sources say the party officials were blindsided by the congressman's decision, though one source close to Collins indicated they have been aware all along that continuing the congressional campaign was an option. At this point however, it is clear that local party officials are surprised and unhappy over the move.

They point out that Collins had pledged his cooperation all along and that he would follow whatever path party leaders recommended. Now they say Collins has reneged on that agreement, after lawyers pointed out a host of complications. One source said revocation of his bail on federal charges could result.

Now Democratic challenger McMurray is expected to wage a campaign against an opponent under federal indictment. It opens an almost unprecedented campaign strategy, exactly what GOP officials had hoped to avoid.

Democrats wasted little time trying to capitalize.

"The choices couldn't be more stark. As much as anything, integrity is on the ballot," Tom Perez, Democratic National Committee chairman, said Monday as he helped open McMurray's Hamburg campaign office.

Still, Republican officials realized they would face a host of other legal complications had they found a way to substitute another candidate for Collins.

Collins' decision Monday also means that several Republicans vying to become the replacement candidate will sit on the sidelines-- at least for now. They include Erie County Comptroller Stefan I. Mychajliw Jr., 2010 gubernatorial candidate Carl P. Paladino, Assemblyman Raymond W. Walter, County Legislator Edward A. Rath III, State Sen. Robert G. Ortt and others.

Each could re-enter the political calculus, however, should Collins win the November election and leave office either through resignation or conviction on the criminal charges he faces and subsequent expulsion from the House. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo would then have the option of calling a special election.

Collins faces charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and lying to a federal agent in connection with his involvement with Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotech firm where he served as a director and the largest investor. His son, Cameron, faces similar charges, as does Stephen Zarsky of New Jersey, the father of Cameron Collins' fiancee.

Prosecutors accused the congressman of hatching an insider stock trading scheme from his cellphone while attending a White House picnic in late June 2017. They say he received an email that night from Innate's chief executive officer, telling him the firm's experimental multiple sclerosis drug had failed in clinical trials. He's accused of then relaying that information to his son, who then told others, allowing them to sell their stock before the news became public and thereby avoid huge losses.

Good news: because the case against Collins was in the hands of the FBI and not something someone like Rahm Emanuel could manipulate, the DCCC didn't pick one of their own god-awful candidates-- they made a half-assed attempt to get a wretched Blue Dog, Kathy Hochul but failed-- to run. Everything I hear about Nate McMurray is good and his campaign's issues page is excellent and far from what the DCCC wants in their candidates. Example:

Healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Everyone should be able to access needed health care regardless of income, and the only affordable long-term solution to America’s healthcare crisis is a “Medicare for All” national health care program.

Every other major industrialized nation has this type of system. The U.S. spends more on healthcare per person than these countries, but we are no more healthy, in fact, we spend more and end up with less. I support the Medicare-for-All bills that have been introduced in the House and Senate (H.R. 676/ S.1804 as well as the New York State Healthcare Bill.

It’s time politicians stop putting Social Security and Medicare at risk.

In a statement yesterday, Nate, after the GOP's anncoument that they would be keeping Collins on the ballot, said that "it’s nice to finally know who I’m running against. But, in truth, we always knew we were running against Chris Collins. There are laws for a reason. There is accountability in our society for a reason. And in the greatest democracy in the world, voters weren’t going to take this kind of sham switching around names on a ballot at the whims of local party bosses. I credit the people of Western New York for standing up in town after town saying 'don’t force him on the ballot in my town.' They saw through this fraud. They weren’t going to fall for the bait and switch strategy by the same team that endorsed, celebrated, took pictures with and defended Chris Collins. There is an incredible grassroots movement in NY-27. Like me, the voters want to Fight Like Hell against the political machine that has let them down for so long. They like that I’m an underdog. Every day when I’m out meeting voters, we talk about affordable, accessible healthcare for all, defending social security, investing in our infrastructure, protecting our farms. But in this region, we’re still always talking about corruption. Voters have a chance to end that once and for all in NY-27 and I’m excited for the next 50 days."

Nate's progressive positions and political independence may explain why the DCCC still hasn't added him to their Red-to-Blue page. So that means the GOP is stuck with 2 indicted criminals on the ballot in November-- Collins and Duncan Hunter in California. Both districts have a PVI of R+11 and both candidates, McMurray in NY and Ammar Campa-Najjar in CA, are progressives, not GOP-lite DCCC types. (In Ammar's case, he's been endorsed by Elizabeth Warren, President Obama, DCCC vice chairs Ted Lieu and Joe Kennedy and the DCCC still refuses to back him and, in fact, goes out of it's way to undermine his campaign. They suck so bad.)

Denny Hastert Was Screwing 10 Year Old Boys & House Republicans Protected Him The Same Way They Protect Trump Today

Most of the pages and other boys Mark Foley was having sex with were in their late teens. He was careful to bring them to states where whatever age they were was the legal age of consent. Mark's smart. And, exerting some kind of power over a 17 year old doesn't seem nearly as big a deal as what the guy who was protecting Foley was doing. The guy who was protecting Foley was then-Speaker Denny Hastert (R-IL) and what Mr. Republican was doing that was so much worse was screwing 9 or 10 year olds. Over the weekend, the Chicago Tribune painted quite a picture, just as former Hastert aide, Randy Hultgren, who now represents a chunk of Hastert's old district, is about to get into a fight for his political life.

Less than three months before Dennis Hastert's scheduled release from prison, a new accuser has come forward with allegations saying he was sodomized by Hastert decades ago, according to a lawsuit filed in Kendall County on Friday.

The lawsuit comes nearly two years after an explosive indictment into secret hush-money payments brought down Hastert, a local coaching legend who became one of the country's most powerful politicians. Federal prosecutors said the former U.S. House speaker touched at least five male students when he was a Yorkville High School coach from 1965 to 1981.

Hastert, 75, did not face sex-related charges because prosecutors said the statute of limitations had long expired. He instead admitted to committing a financial crime-- withdrawing more than $950,000 from banks in a way that would avoid detection, in an effort to keep the victim quiet.

That victim, known as Individual A, is now a middle-age married man whom Hastert coached decades ago at Yorkville High School. He said Hastert agreed in 2010 to pay him $3.5 million if he didn't speak out about Hastert molesting him in the 1970s, when he was 14, while the two stayed overnight in a hotel room as part of a wrestling trip. The boy was not yet in high school at the time, but Hastert was close friends with his parents.

The new accuser, referred to in the lawsuit as Illinois resident "Richard Doe," is seeking $50,000 in damages from Hastert and Yorkville Community Unit School District 115 for charges including battery, negligent infliction of emotional distress and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The accuser said that during the spring or summer of 1973 or 1974, he stopped by the Game Farm Building, now the Yorkville High School parking lot, to use the bathroom after riding his bike along Game Farm Road. He was 9 or 10 at the time, in fourth grade, the lawsuit alleges.

The accuser entered the bathroom and, while sitting on the toilet in a stall, heard a male voice mutter something outside the stall door, according to the lawsuit. The stall door opened, and he alleges he was sodomized.

When the assault was over, the attacker left. The accuser said he saw the man's face, but didn't recognize him.

Several weeks later, when the boy was in gym class at Yorkville Grade School, he saw a large man enter and walk diagonally across the gym toward the teacher. The boy recognized the man and, upon seeing him, began to shake and cry, according to the lawsuit.

The man spoke with the gym teacher and then approached the boy, taking him by the neck into the hallway, according to the lawsuit. The man dropped to his knees and asked the boy if he told anyone about the sexual assault. The boy, crying, said he hadn't. The man warned the accuser against reporting the attack and threatened that since his father was the sheriff, he could put the boy's parents in jail if he said anything.

The incident caused the accuser severe mental and emotional distress, which was only exacerbated by his fear of talking to someone about the attack, according to the lawsuit.

In 1984 or 1985, about a decade after the attack, the accuser visited the Kendall County State's Attorney's office to report the crime. He was 20 or 21 at the time, according to the lawsuit. He spoke with a longtime friend and political mentor to Hastert.

Upon hearing the accuser's story, a man there allegedly threatened to charge the accuser with a crime and accused him of slandering Hastert's name, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit argues that the threats were intended to benefit Hastert, whose political career was just taking off.

As Hastert rose to political prominence, the accuser attempted to suppress memories of the assault. But when Hastert was indicted in 2015, and as news stories began to circulate about Hastert's abuse of male students, the accuser realized he may have a claim against Hastert for his injuries, according to the lawsuit.

Most House Republicans knew about Foley and Hastert molesting underage boys and closed ranks to protect them-- just like they've closed ranks today to protect Patrick McHenry (R-NC) from similar adventures and just like they've closed ranks today to protect Señor Trumpanzee from far more serious and existentially threatening charges. The law and order party indeed!

NBC Planned to Use Trump Audio to Influence Debate & Election

 Billy Bush, Donald Trump and Days of our Lives actress Arianne Zucker. Zucker was apparently the subject of all the crude remarks. That bus Bush is standing next to? He's now under it (source; click to enlarge).

by Gaius Publius

Not long ago, Howie alluded to the timing of the release of the Mark Foley pageboy information as engineered to influence that election. His discussion of Foley is here, in the first few paragraphs. Howie didn't exactly make a parallel to the Trump Tape release, but the implication was there, as I read it.

More recently, Chris Hayes, in a side comment after one of his Trump Tape segments, also brought up the timing of the Mark Foley scandal, but without connecting the dots to the current Trump scandal. Nevertheless, he may well have been very covertly alluding to this coming revelation — that NBC in fact did engineer the timing to alter an electoral outcome. After all, MSNBC's parent is NBC, NBC is at the heart of the story, and Hayes is in position to hear things. If that was Hayes' intention, we'll likely never know, but I was struck by the lack of any explicit connection to the content of that segment, and the presence of this implicit connection.

Now, it seems, TMZ has a source that does connects the dots between the Trump videotape release and its electoral timing. Bottom line: NBC knew about the Trump "pussy" tape (the audio version) as early as last August — learned about it, in fact, from Billy Bush himself — and had intended to time its release for maximum influence on both the election and the Second Presidential Debate.

Here's their story:

NBC Planned to Use Trump Audio to Influence Debate, Election

NBC execs had a plan to time the release of the Donald Trump audio to have maximum impact on both the 2nd presidential debate and the general election ... sources connected with the network tell TMZ.

Multiple sources connected with NBC tell us ... top network execs knew about the video long before they publicly said they did, but wanted to hold it because it was too early in the election. The sources say many NBC execs have open disdain for Trump and their plan was to roll out the tape 48 hours before the debate so it would dominate the news cycle leading up to the face-off.

As we reported, Billy Bush was bragging about the tape -- in front of NBC execs at the Rio Olympics -- in early August. NBC says it's only known about the tape for a little more than a week.

We're told the plan was to edit the tape to keep the focus on Trump and not Billy. "Access Hollywood"[,] we're told[,] was not going to air the portion where Trump and Billy got off the bus and Billy goaded Trump and the soap star to hug. Our sources say the tape was going to be "sanitized" to protect Billy as much as possible.

The article goes on to describe how Hurricane Matthew threw off the NBC plan to release the tape, audio only, before the debate — that is, before Sunday. People at the network who wanted to see it out earlier than that, according to this report, leaked it then to the Washington Post, which went with the story. After the Post story came out, Access Hollywood released their version, unsanitized audio and video, and the rest is history.

(That's why, by the way, the Access Hollywood version looked "wrong," with audio recorded onboard the bus overlaid on shots of the bus from the outside, arriving at its destination. Access Hollywood appears to have combined their video footage with NBC's leaked audio footage, the audio that was recorded on the bus only.)

Clearly, if any or all of this is true, the press has laid a very heavy thumb indeed on the scales of this election. Is this a democracy yet? I'm having trouble figuring that out.

Billy Bush Caught in the Crosshairs

One casualty of this affair, other than Trump, is Billy Bush, who's recently been suspended. Of course, that makes NBC look good, suspending the co-miscreant, but, again according to the report, that wasn't the plan at the start. Recall above that Bush is reportedly the one who revealed the tape's existence to NBC execs in the first place, and the plan was to "sanitize" it to harm only Trump and protect Billy Bush.

Didn't work out that way. Once the Post and then Access Hollywood got the story, the die was cast for Bush. He ended up under the bus he rode in on:

As one source put it, "NBC really screwed Billy. They had no problem with him on the tape 'till it got leaked." The source goes on to say there was never a peep about disciplining Billy until the full tape got leaked.

Let me help you read that correctly. NBC was fine with every slimy thing Billy Bush did and said on that tape, until it became known. Then they had to pretend they weren't, and Bush paid the price.

The Billy Bush that NBC is perfectly OK with

This has all the shape of the Wells Fargo scandal writ small. In the bank's case, thousands of employees were driven by executives to commit fraud, then fired to protect those who gave the orders to do it. Here, a daytime TV beta male sucks up to an alpha male in the unseemliest of ways, offers to let his execs use the tape of him doing it to trash the alpha male, then loses his own job when execs blow the timing of the release.

Nevertheless, writ small, Bush made a far bigger splash with his downfall than any of the Wells Fargo employees did with theirs.

Unseemly sells, I guess. Your national "news" media at work.

GP
 

Is The Republican Party Going To Jump Off The Cliff With Trump?

By the early 2000s pretty much everyone on Capitol Hill had a good idea that flamboyant Florida Republican Mark Foley was spending a lot more time with teenagers than men his age normally did. Not everyone knew he was screwing underage male congressional pages. But Rahm Emanuel did. Emanuel knew for certain for as long as the GOP leadership knew, at least year. But Rahm didn't call the police and put a stop to it and Foley kept seducing the under-age sons of wealthy GOP donors-- that's who the pages tended to be. Instead Rahm (and Hoyer) relentlessly attacked the progressive candidate running against Foley, Dave Lutrin, forcing him out of the primary and inserting a corrupt, wealthy Republican who agreed to switch his party registration and "become" a Democrat, Tim Mahoney. With Mahoney in place Rahm... waited. He waited until September 24 before making sure the news would fall like a ton of bricks. Even the people who broke the story didn't know Rahm was pulling their strings. Why did he wait 'til the 24th? The 23rd would have been the last day the Florida GOP could have replaced Foley on the ballot.

Once the news broke, Foley-- who never copped to anything more than sending naughty instant messages on AOL, despite overwhelming evidence that he was using the congressional page system as a personal harem-- he announced he was checking in to a rich-peoples' substance abuse rehab center in Arizona and that he wouldn't be running for Congress. Too late to get him off the ballot, the poor schlubb the GOP ran (even with Foley's name on the ballot instead of his own) lost Mahoney. Mahoney joined the Blue Dogs, voted with the GOP on virtually everything, was busted for molesting women or hiring hookers or something and was defeated at the next election. Go Rahm!

Why relive that now? Many Republicans-- many, many, many Republicans-- are clamoring for Trump to resign from Republican ticket and let Pence (or Cruz) run for president instead. Others, understanding that it's too late-- that absentee and early ballots have already been sent out in some states and printed in others and that voters in North Carolina, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin have already cast their ballots-- are just withdrawing their endorsements and telling voters they won't be voting for Trump. By noon yesterday, McCain finally did something he's probably wanted to do for a year:

Utah's not the only state with lots and lots of Republican Mormons. Utah has 2,040,178 Mormons but Idaho has 437,106, Arizona has 418,959, Nevada has 182,125, Colorado has 151,580... and it was from those states that the bailing on Trump Friday night and Saturday morning began. Republicans in Arizona don't win without Mormon support. Saturday morning the Deseret News, which is owned by the Mormon Church and is largely seen as an LDS mouthpiece, called on Trump "to step down from his pursuit of the American presidency."

In democratic elections, ideas have consequences, leadership matters and character counts.

The idea that women secretly welcome the unbridled and aggressive sexual advances of powerful men has led to the mistreatment, sorrow and subjugation of countless women for far too much of human history.

The notion that strength emanates from harsh, divisive and unbending rhetorical flourish mistakenly equates leadership with craven intimidation.

The belief that the party and the platform matter more than the character of the candidate ignores the wisdom of the ages that, “when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” (Proverbs 29:2)

We understand that politicians and presidential candidates are human and that everyone makes mistakes. We do not believe that what is expressed in an unguarded moment of conversation should be the full measure of an individual. And we unquestionably support the principle that people deserve forgiveness, compassion and a second chance.

But history affirms that leaders' examples either elevate or demean the lives of those being led. When choosing the ostensible leader of the free world, the American electorate requires the clear assurance that their chosen candidate will consistently put the well-being of others ahead of his or her own personal gratification. The most recent revelations of Trump’s lewdness disturb us not only because of his vulgar objectification of women, but also because they poignantly confirm Trump’s inability to self-govern.

What oozes from this audio is evil. We hear a married man give smooth, smug and self-congratulatory permission to his intense impulses, allowing them to outweigh the most modest sense of decency, fidelity and commitment. And although it speaks volumes about sexual morality, it goes to the heart of all ethical behavior. Trump’s banter belies a willingness to use and discard other human beings at will. That characteristic is the essence of a despot.

Nor is this an isolated incident. His reprehensible sexual speech confirms troubling reports and outrageous outbursts that have dogged his campaign from the beginning. Another example appeared earlier this week detailing Trump’s language and behavior on his reality television show, The Apprentice.

...When Donald Trump’s running mate Indiana Gov. Mike Pence visited Utah and met with members of the Deseret News Editorial Board, he assured us that Mr. Trump was a "good man" who held "the ideals and values” of Utahns. Likewise, while visiting the Beehive State, Donald Trump Jr. told us that his father was running because of the “values held dear in this community.”

Considering his conduct and comportment, we do not believe Trump holds the ideals and values of this community or this paper.

...As the next few consequential weeks unfold, we trust the American people, as they vote their conscience, will provide a clarion call for sound ideas, true leadership and proven character from our next administration and Congress.

Trump cannot answer that call. We ask him to step aside.

At the same time, Trump was telling the Wall Street Journal that there was nothing amiss at Trump Tower and that there is Zero Chance I'll Quit. Of course, with Trump, every utterance on every topic is merely a negotiating position but he told the reporter Monica Langley that "I never, ever give up. The support I’m getting is unbelievable, because Hillary Clinton is a horribly flawed candidate."

He said his campaign isn't in crisis (it is) and that "the commotion over his remarks will blow over as did others, such as his attacks on Sen. John McCain and his proposed ban on Muslims.

Unlike in a video he taped and released last night, Mr. Trump, who spoke on Saturday from his Manhattan home in Trump Tower, offered no apologies in the Journal interview, but rather went on the offensive. “Go behind closed doors of the holier-than-thou politicians and pundits and see what they’re saying. I look like a baby.”

...Former GOP presidential contender Carly Fiorina on Saturday called on him to quit the campaign, as did Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho and Mike Lee of Utah. New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, in a tight race to save her seat, withdrew her endorsement.

Responding to that wave of defections, Mr. Trump said such a reaction from Republicans “is why they don’t win presidential elections.” Meanwhile, he said, “my phone hasn’t stopped ringing, emails are coming in and even people outside Trump Tower are supporting me.”

The GOP doesn't have the balls-- nor, in all likelihood, the legal authority-- to remove Trump from the top of the ticket. Rule 9 would allow them to replace him if he is certified too ill to serve and I suppose they could find a panel of distinguished psychiatrists and psychologists to declare him mentally unfit. That would piss off the deplorables in a really big way. Who in the GOP has the stomach for that?

But imagine for a moment they managed to do it, perhaps by getting crooked hedge fund billionaire-- and the man behind the curtain at Trump Tower, Robert Mercer-- to not just withdraw his support but to offer Trump $100 million to call it quits. In TrumpUniverse everything has a price, everything. But then what? Who would be the nominee? Most elected officials bailing on Trump so far this weekend have been saying he should be replaced by far right extremist Mike Pence. But Pence was picked by Trump and didn't have the cajones to even compete in the primaries. Cruz fans would rather see their own man in the top slot; after all he came in second among Republican voters and won several states outright, including big red ones. I guess they could toss a coin. Then what?



Thousands of people have voted-- some for Trump-- and they would have a case that they've been disenfranchised. And some Republicans who voted for Hillary as the lesser of two evils could make the same argument if Trump is replaced by a more conventional Republican. In the next few days early voting will have started in 10 more states, including the two biggest ones, New York and California, as well as Vermont, New Mexico, Montana, Ohio, Virginia, Arizona, Indiana and Maine. Keep in mind that Trump has been talking about a system rigged against him-- and to an angry and largely ignorant, paranoid and overly armed audience. No... Republicans are just going to have to get ready for what's--deservedly-- headed their way: another month of increasing anguish and then a devastating thumping they won't have to hire expensive consultants to explain to them. The question isn't whether Trump will lose or not, but how many congressional seats he'll take down with him, how many state legislative chambers will be won by the Democrats, how severe the Senate losses are... Give the Republican Party what it deserves, here:

How about MISTER Piggy? How Trump Uses Expensive Doctors To Make Himself Look Less Porcine

By now, everyone knows the story of former Miss Universe Alicia Machado-- first explained at this blog in last June-- but the way Trump treated her was not unique to his attitude-- and actions-- towards women he did business with. He has a long, ugly history of discriminating against women who he didn't judge as attractive enough. This morning the L.A. Times reported that when Trump visited his golf course in Rancho Palos Verdes "the club’s managers went on alert. They scheduled the young, thin, pretty women on staff to work the clubhouse restaurant-- because when Trump saw less-attractive women working at his club, according to court records, he wanted them fired... Employees said several women quit or were fired because they were perceived as unattractive." Employees and ex-employees are still afraid to speak on the record about their experiences in fear of being sued by the suit-happy Trump, whose lawyers routinely terrorize anyone and everyone who tells the truth about him.

In their sworn declarations, some employees described how Trump, during his stays in Southern California, made inappropriate and patronizing statements to the women working for him.

On one visit, Trump saw “a young, attractive hostess working named Nicole ... and directed that she be brought to a place where he was meeting with a group of men,” former Trump restaurant manager Charles West said in his declaration.

“After this woman had been presented to him, Mr. Trump said to his guests something like, 'See, you don't have to go to Hollywood to find beautiful women,'” West said. “He also turned to Nicole and asked her, ‘Do you like Jewish men?’"

...Female employees said they faced additional pressures.

Strozier, the former catering director, said Vincent Stellio-- a former Trump bodyguard who had risen to become a Trump Organization vice president-- approached her in 2003 about an employee that Strozier thought was talented.

Stellio wanted the employee fired because she was overweight, Strozier said in her legal filing.

"Mr. Stellio told me to do this because 'Mr. Trump doesn't like fat people' and that he would not like seeing [the employee] when he was on the premises,” wrote Strozier, who said she refused the request. (Stellio died in 2010.)

A year later, Mike van der Goes-- a golf pro who had been promoted to be Trump National’s general manager-- made a similar request to fire the same overweight employee, Strozier said.

“Mr. van der Goes told me that he wanted me to do this because of [the employee's] appearance and the fact that Mr. Trump didn't like people that looked like her,” Strozier wrote.

When Strozier protested, Van der Goes returned a week later “and announced he had a plan of hiding [the employee] whenever Mr. Trump was on the premises,” Strozier wrote.

West, who worked as a restaurant manager at the club until 2008, wrote that Van der Goes ordered him “to hire young, attractive women to be hostesses.” West also said Van der Goes insisted that he “would need to meet all such job applicants first to determine if they were sufficiently pretty."

Even Trump supporters find his behavior towards women repulsive

Conservative Democrat Claire McCaskill (MO) tried turning the tables on Trump Wednesday with some reverse fat shaming, jokingly asking for "a public daily weigh-in" for the obese Trump. At the debate Monday he may have made fun of some unnamed 400 pound hacker on a bed he knows-- a governor?-- but when Trump was barking about how the extremely beautiful and dignified Alicia Mercado was too fat and ate too much, he was getting cosmetic surgery done regularly to make himself appear younger and less of a fat slob on a Chris Christie level of rotundity.



Remember the big commotion when child molester Mark Foley went to some Trumpist hate rally in Ft Lauderdale, Florida in August and sat right behind Trump? The two of them told the media afterwards that they are dear old friends. Wonder how that happened? Aside from the two both being involved with Palm Beach real estate, Trump's cosmetic surgeon was celebrated dermatologist-to-the-rich-and-famous Layne Nisenbaum of Island Dermatology and Laser in Palm Beach, Foley's long time lover. A top executive at the firm told us that Trump used Nisenbaum for a procedure called the Venus Freeze, which he described as a non-invasive anti-aging treatment that is meant to "reduce circumference," while improving cellulite, controlling weight, tightening skin and reducing wrinkles. "He was also getting botox injections every 6 to 8 months, as well as laser resurfacing and he had artificial fat filler under his lips to make his mouth droop less and make his multiple chins less apparent," the petrified-of-being-sued former executive at the now shuttered company told us under condition of strict anonymity.

UPDATE: It's Ted Lieu's District

At the very end of Ted Lieu's district, which starts up north in Agoura Hills and Malibu, is Rancho Palos Verdes and at the end of Rancho Palos Verdes is the Trump National Golf Club (formerly Ocean Trails Golf Club). There's a great view of Catalina Island and there should be-- it was the most expensive golf course ever constructed. As with every property Trump ever got involved with, he was quickly suing everyone in sight, including the very Republican city of Rancho Palos Verdes (for $100 million). One city official, speaking anonymously-- and in fear of being sued by... guess who-- told me that the "worst thing to have ever happened to this city was Donald Trump. We were due to get the PGA Grand Slam until he started spouting all his racist crap."

Ted Lieu isn't a fan of Trump either. A few minutes ago, he told us that "Trump's fat shaming, racist comments about Ms. Alicia Machado are categorically deplorable. Trump's latest attack of a private citizen sadly joins a laundry list of venal verbal assaults that he has made during his campaign for the highest office in the land. By attacking an Indiana judge, a Gold Star family, and now Ms. Machado, Trump has clearly demonstrated that the content of his character is severely lacking and that he has no business running for President, let alone actually serving in the Oval Office. This is further evidence that, in his heart, Donald Trump is a cruel person." Congressman Lieu is voting for Hillary Clinton.

The Pathology Of Conservatism Goes To The Bathroom With Denny Hastert And Mark Foley

When Florida Republican Mark Foley was caught molesting underage male pages, the establishment circled the wagons around their likable colleague and made sure he wasn't charged with years of raping underage boys but just with sending naughty electronic messages. For their own reasons, Rahm Emanuel, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, John Shimkus and Denny Hastert, all conspired to make sure Foley would never be tried for rape-- and, please keep in mind, that these weren't ancient cases beyond the statute of limitations, but cases in which young boys were still complaining about pain when they sat down.

If there was one part of the Foley sex scandal I found funny, it was that most of the boys he was banging were the sons of wealthy Republican campaign contributors who were honored by having their young sons given places in the congressional page program where GOP perverts like Jim Kolbe (AZ) and Mark Foley had easy sexual access to them. Although the rumors about Republicans using the page program as a dating service had been circulating around Capitol Hill for years-- at least since 1997-- and everyone knew about Foley's lust for boy-men, it wasn't until a 16 year old in Monroe, Louisiana complained to his wealthy father in 2005 about a pain in his ass that the Foley scandal started to publicly unravel. The father went to Rodney Alexander, a Louisiana congressman who got the young son into the page program in return for a steady flow of contributions.

Kolbe (AZ) was best known for years for paying underage Latino boys to perform oral sex on them. I'm betting most of these Tucson boys were from Democratic families. I thought it more appropriate-- a poor choice of words-- that Foley was thrusting himself on rich Republican white boys. And so was Denny Hastert. Yesterday Hastert was given 15 months in prison for... well, for a financial fraud scandal that flowed out of decades and decades of sexually molesting young Republican boys, including at least one brother of a GOP colleague of his.

Although U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin called Hastert a "serial child molester," he said he was giving Hastert a much lighter sentence that he deserved because of Hastert's age and physical infirmities. The Republican establishment had united to get Hastert off the hook with a fine-- as they do with any rich, powerful person caught breaking any law-- but at least Hastert got some punishment for his unspeakable criminal behavior. Child molesters usually fare poorly in prisons, but Foley isn't going to an actual prison but to supervised hospital lockup.

He showed no outward reaction to the sentence. As the dozens of spectators filed from the courtroom, Hastert remained motionless with his mouth downturned, not speaking to anyone.

Shortly before learning his sentence, Hastert had admitted for the first time that he sexually abused boys decades ago when he was the wrestling coach for Yorkville High School.

Hastert approached the microphone in court and apologized to those he victimized, saying he "mistreated athletes." Durkin then pressed for details, asking directly if Hastert sexually abused the victims.

"Yes," Hastert finally said.

Hastert said he did not recall molesting Scott Cross, who had previously been identified as Individual D, one of Hastert's victims, before he took the witness stand Wednesday and testified about the abuse. "But I accept his statement," Hastert said.

Asked by the judge about another alleged victim, Stephen Reinboldt, Hastert called it "a different situation" before finally acknowledging it.

"What I did was wrong and I regret it," Hastert said. "They looked to me, and I took advantage of them."

An emotional Cross, 53, a younger brother of former Illinois House Republican leader Tom Cross, said he decided to go public so that his children and others would know there's an alternative to staying silent. As painful as his decision was, he said, "staying silent was worse."

Cross' brother, a former Kendall County lawmaker who considered Hastert a political mentor, accompanied his brother to the sentencing.

Hastert, 74, is expected to surrender to a medical facility in the federal penitentiary system at an undetermined date.

Hastert's defense had sought a sentence of probation, a punishment Durkin said would not be appropriate in a case of this magnitude.

In lengthy remarks, the judge made much of the fact that when the FBI confronted Hastert about hundreds of thousands of cash withdrawals from banks, he tried to blame another sex abuse victim, identified only as Individual A, claiming he was blackmailing him.

... [T]he judge noted, "I can't sentence you for being a child molester," pointing out that the statue of limitations had long passed.

While Durkin said he was taking Hastert's age and health into account, he noted that much of the former speaker's lying had taken place after he turned 70. More than 4,600 inmates in federal prisons are older than 65, the judge noted.

Still, he said he did not intend for Hastert's punishment to be "a death sentence."

...Cross said the alleged abuse took place on one occasion when Cross was alone with Hastert in a wrestling room.

"He told me he could help me lose weight by giving me a massage," he testified. "I trusted what he was saying and took him at his word."

His voice shaking, Cross said Hastert told him to lie face down. The massage started, but after a few minutes, Hastert asked him to roll over.

Hastert then grabbed his penis and began rubbing it, Cross said.

"I was stunned by what he was doing-- I jumped up," he said.

Cross also told the courtroom about the reclining chair Hastert allegedly put up near the boys' shower, saying he came to accept it because he trusted Hastert. Years later he felt pain and guilt and sought professional help. He just told his parents last year of the abuse, Cross said.

On Wednesday, Cross' brother, a longtime former state legislator, released a statement on behalf of the family.

"We are very proud of Scott for having the courage to relive this very painful part of his life in order to ensure that justice is done today," the statement said. "We hope his testimony will provide courage and strength to other victims of other cases of abuse to speak out and advocate for themselves. With his testimony concluded, we ask now that you respect Scott's privacy and that of our family."

Hastert continued having sex with underage boys and young men for decades while he served in Congress, often paying male prostitutes for sex at night and then waddling into the office the next day to vote against equality and even humanity for LGBT families who refused to live the gay life in the Republican style-- a life of shame, filled with self-loathing and in the closet, conditions which almost inevitably lead to the kind of perversion that gay Republicans always get involved with. Now they don't want to let trasngender women use women's bathrooms, but it's always Republican closet cases who prey on people in bathrooms, not transgender women. There are no cases in history of transgender women bothering anyone in a ladies room but there are few gay Republicans in Congress who don't eventually wind up on their hands and knees in a public toilet annoying innocent men who just want to pee in peace. It's part of the pathology of being a conservative.

Why Does Steve Israel And The DCCC Keep Recruiting Conservative Republicans To Run For Congress As Democrats?

Almost a decade ago, Blue America was toiling away on behalf of school teacher and union member Dave Lutrin, running for Congress in the Palm Beach area of Florida, pretty red district then represented by hypocritical Republican closet case Mark Foley. We knew that sooner or later Foley would slip up-- they always do-- and expose himself and become very defeatable. But suddenly Lutrin was getting all this pressure from Rahm Emanuel, then head of the DCCC, and Steny Hoyer to withdraw from the race. It made no sense. Florida's 16th congressional district was pretty red and not a district that the DCCC paid any attention to. It turns out though that my hunch about Foley was more than a hunch for Emanuel. Foley's alcoholism and closeted homosexuality were widely known Inside-the-Beltway but it was not widely known that those two factors had combined to create a very sick yen for being caught molesting underage boys. And he was. But congressional leadership, primarily Republican congressional leadership, covered up for him. Rahm Emanuel saw Mark Foley's crumbling world as an opportunity to pick up a House seat they weren't counting on. So he kept his mouth shut too-- complicit in allowing Foley to have his way with young congressional pages (primarily the sons of big GOP donors). Long story, short: Emanuel with Steny Hoyer, froze Lutrin, the legitimate Democratic candidate, out of the race and enticed a wealthy lifelong, conservative Republican, Tim Mahoney, into the race (delivering on their promise of an uncontested primary and a "special circumstance" for the general). The special circumstance was how the media exploded into an orgy of Mark Foley Caught With His Pants Down (in a boys dorm).

Although Foley resigned and checked into a posh clinic for naughty Republicans, it was conveniently too late to get his toxic name off the ballot and Mahoney was elected-- though just barely (49-48%). Mahoney immediately joined the Blue Dogs and reverted to voting with his fellow-Republicans... and to chase women all over town. His one term ended in scandal, amid sexual escapades, payoffs, hush money and all sorts of things normally associated with Republicans (which, of course, he was, despite the deceptive blue jersey). He lost his seat to a Republican. The district was soon redrawn and re-numbered and came to be represented by war criminal and right-wing extremist Allen West who was eventually beaten by yet another DCCC-recruited Republican, Patrick Murphy.

Now, to placate Wall Street banksters angry about Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders disrespecting them, Chuck Schumer promised to put their boy Murphy in the Senate to balance out the "radicals" he (and they) detest. So Schumer is trying to deep-six Alan Grayson's Senate campaign, not unlike the way Hoyer and Emanuel deep-sixed Lutin 9 years ago. And Wall Street is footing the bill. But Grayson is not Dave Lutrin and he may actually beat the DC/NY Axis of Evil. (You can help him do that here.)

It used to surprise me when conservative Democratic leaders like Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer, Chris Van Hollen, Jon Tester and, worst of all, Chuck Schumer, recruited Republicans to run as Democrats. Now it's practically standard operating procedure for the DCCC and DSCC. The worst congressional candidate the DCCC has this cycle is Iowa Republican Monica Vernon, who is running in a blue district against Iowa progressive icon and former state House Speaker Pat Murphy-- nothing like Florida's horrendous Patrick Murphy. But Vernon is far from the only Republican who the DCCC is trying to pass off as a real Democrat. Despite the fact that Obama beat Romney in NY-21 52-46%, Steve Israel has persuaded everyone around him that only corrupt right-wing Democrats like himself can win that district. Bill Owens, the last Democrat to represent it, was, like Israel a wretched and hated Blue Dog. Now Israel has recruited a Republican, Mike Derrick who won't win-- Republicans already have their own real Republican candidate so why vote for a fake Republican/fake Democrat like Derrick? No one will but Steve Israel insists he's the nominee. Period. Israel prowls the country looking for these kinds of Republicans willing to switch parties for DCCC backing, the same way Emanuel did. It never works out because even if they do manage to win in a presidential election year, they immediatelyy start voting with the Republicans and then get defeated in a midterm because grassroots Democrats don't come out to vote for them. It;'s the story of Steve Israel's catastrophic history at the now destroyed and useless DCCC.

That said, let's wander back to the Palm Beach area and to the district Murphy is giving up in the hopes of serving Wall Street in the Senate, FL-18. Like Murphy, Randy Perkins doesn't live in the district and like Murphy he's a wealthy spoiled Republican donor. He personally wrote Mitt Romney a $2,500 check on June 21, 2011 and the company he owns, AshBritt has spent nearly a million dollars on boosting Republican campaigns, although AshBritt has also given some money to conservative Democrats like Joe Lieberman ($46,700) and to Hillary Clinton ($16,100). But generally it's lots of moolah to right wing Republicans like McCain ($18,400), Mel Martinez ($28,000), Tom Rooney ($13,800), Susan Collins ($20,900), Ruddy Guiliani ($11,500), Mark Foley ($11,500), etc.

In the crowded race to replace Murphy in Congress, there are 5 Democrats and as many as a dozen Republicans in or talking about getting in! Among them Perkins decided to try it as a Democrat, where the primary competition won't be as tough. According to Isadora Rangel at TCPalm, Perkins "is expected to spend more than $1 million to win U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy's open seat as a Democrat, but his past as a prolific Republican donor could serve as ammunition for his opponents."

Perkins of Delray Beach, the founder and CEO of disaster-recovery company AshBritt Inc. in Deerfield Beach, was registered to vote with no party affiliation for 21 years and became a Democrat days before he filed to run for District 18 this month.

Although he has also contributed to Democrats, his closeness to the GOP could be used against him in the highly-contested race much like Democrat Murphy has been criticized for being once a Republican and for giving money to the GOP... It is difficult to determine exactly how much Perkins has given in races across country and to groups that don't disclose their donors. An analysis of $925,300 donated by him and AshBritt since 2002 to federal and Florida candidates, as well as political committees, show 70 percent went to Republicans.

...Perkins' candidacy sent shock waves in the Democratic Party. Potential front-runner Melissa McKinlay dropped out less than a week later, saying having a well-funded opponent would force her to forego some of her duties as a Palm Beach County commissioner to dedicate herself more to campaigning.

Candidate Jonathan Chane, of Palm Beach Gardens, went on the offense, sending out a news release the day after Perkins entered the race questioning whether he would protect Democratic values in Congress.

Another Democratic candidate, Palm Beach County Commissioner Priscilla Taylor, said Perkins' money doesn't guarantee he's going to win. She doesn't plan to leave the race as McKinlay did, despite having raised less money than McKinlay and Chane.

...Murphy has faced similar scrutiny for being wealthy and from switching his party registration to Democrat just before he filed to run for Congress in 2011. Murphy's Senate opponent, U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, has gone after him for giving to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign in 2007. Murphy's father, the owner of a construction company, also has donated to several Republicans and Democrats.

Perkins and Murphy also share another similarity: neither lived in District 18-- Martin, St. Lucie and northern Palm Beach counties-- until they filed to represent it. Murphy moved from South Florida to Jupiter and Perkins is moving from Delray Beach soon, probably to Martin County, his campaign said. The race to replace Murphy has attracted other outsiders from both parties.

Everyone knows Murphy never really moved into to his Jupiter condo and actually lives in South Beach and on his daddy's yacht, Cocktails, on Fisher Island.