Harold Simmons, America's Biggest-- and Most Crooked-- Financier Of Hate Politics And Smears

Crooked GOP Sen. Susan Collins Refuses To Return The Tainted Money From Mr & Mrs Satan

Since posting about reactionary billionaire, swift boat funder, and hate-monger Harold Simmons yesterday, we've had more than a dozen e-mails from people in Texas claiming inside knowledge of not just activities that will keep Simmons out of Heaven, but activities that, if they were provable in court, would have him spending the little bit left of his wretched life in a prison cell. I'll pass on publishing the ones that I can't verify and the personal stuff and just stick to the political dirt.

It's well known that the twice-divorced ne'er-do-well was sued by his two daughters. What I didn't know is that some of what came out in the process is that he'd been funneling vast amounts of money to Republican candidates by forging documents making it look like the donations were coming from other people (like the two daughters). Under questioning, and threatened with perjury charges, he admitted in court that he forged his two daughters' signatures to make political contributions from family trusts to various Republican candidates. Simmons has said that from 1991 to 1995 he made $110,000 in contributions to political action committees (PACs) in his daughters' names without their knowledge or permission. He later settled a lawsuit with them for $50 million.

So why aren't slimy Republican crooks who routinely look after his business interests in the Senate, like Susan Collins (R-ME), Gordon Smith (R-OR), Norm Coleman (R-MN), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), John Sununu (R-NH), James Inhofe (R-OK), Pat Roberts (R-KS), and others upon whom he has lavished thousands and thousands of tainted dollars, returning the money? And while we're on the subject, so far this year Simmons' shady Dalen PAC has made efforts to buy the loyalty of the following senators and Senate candidates (all Republicans):

Lamar Alexander (R-TN, $2,000)
Norm Coleman (R-MN, $5,000)
John Cornyn (R-TX, $10,000)
Elizabeth Dole (R-NC, $5,000)
Michael Johanns (R-NE, $5,000)
James Risch (R-ID, $5,000)
Bob Schaffer (R-CO, $5000)
John McCain (R-AZ, $5,000)

The same suspicious PAC handed out $130,000 in 2006 to some of the most extreme right members of (and candidates for) Congress. Although almost all of his Senate patsies lost-- like Michael Steele (R-MD, $10,000), Mark Kennedy (R-MN, $7,000), James Talent (R-MO, $6,000), Conrad Burns (R-MT, $6,000), George "Macacawitz" Allen (R-VA, $5,000), Mike DeWine (R-OH, $5,000), Rick Santorum (R-PA, $5,000), Stephen Laffey (R-RI, $5,000), Michael McGavick (R-WA, $5,000), and Pete Ricketts (R-NE, $5,000)-- he still has his hooks into dozens of Republican House members he and his PAC have financed, especially Kay Grangers (R-TX), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Michael McCaul (R-TX), and Chris Shays (R-CT).

According to the Dallas Morning News, "The two daughters, Andrea Swanson, 33, and Scheryle Patigian, 44, contend in a lawsuit over control of the family trust that Mr. Simmons made hundreds of thousands of dollars of contributions in their names without their permission in violation of federal campaign law."

He also funnels money to Republicans through his Contran Industries PAC. So in addition to what he's given personally, given fraudulently from his daughters, and given through Dalen PAC, he's also given hundreds of thousands more-- mostly to the same far right candidates like McCain, McConnell, Cornyn, Dole, Inhofe, etc.-- through Contran, $100,000 this year alone.

Who Is Reactionary Billionaire Harold Simmons-- And Why Is He Financing Millions of Dollars in TV Ads To Smear Barack Obama?

Evil incarnate

There isn't a more sleazy and disreputable political operator in America than 77 year old Harold Clark Simmons. Credited as one of the fathers of predatory capitalism, the far right Texas billionaire developed the concept of the leveraged buyout. One of McCain's primary financial backers, Simmons, worth over $7 billion, has a long and sordid history in extremist political sleaze. He's probably best known for having donated $4 million dollars to finance the Swift Boat campaign of lies against John Kerry in 2004, allowing the most ruinous administration in American history to capture the presidency. He is determined to spend whatever it takes to smear Obama with any lie anyone wants to make up about him. Even Fox has refused to show his ads (sort of).

Today's NY Times ran a piece on Simmons' attempt to subvert democracy with his billions. Simmons is spending millions of dollars on trying to tie Barack Obama to a radical who bombed the Capitol when Obama was 8 years old. It is just a small beginning for what Simmons intends to do to make sure McCain-- and his policies-- wind up in control of America.

Simmons is one of the very worst examples of a social criminal in America and his companies make money by poisoning the earth. Without corrupt political hacks like John McCain and George Bush, creatures like Harold Simmons, one of the 50 richest men in America, could not exist. Besides financing more smear campaigns than anyone else in American history, Simmons has donated hundreds of thouands of dollars to extremist Republicans (as well as to a small handful of recationary Democrats, particularly Nancy Pelosi's candidate for the vice presidency, Chet Edwards). When Jesus talked about camels getting through the eyes of a needle he had Harold Simmons in mind. In South Africa Satan gave them Mark Scott-Crossley; in Texas, the Angel of Darkness cursed us with Harold Clark Simmons.

In the traditional media it'll be open season on Dems (especially progressives) till we say we're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it anymore

This insane CNN "poll" has John Aravosis seeing red.

"The media never dares to question the integrity, the sanity, the patriotism of Republicans. God forbid. Hell, if you're the NYT, you literally pull stories that might make voters not like Republicans as much. But if you're a Democrat, the NYT, CNN, and the AP have no such problem sliming our politicians and our party. . . .

[referring to an AP story by reporter Nina Pickler headlined "Conservatives say Obama lacks patriotism"] "How fucking dare you? Lack patriotism? What is this, the McCarthy era? AP is now willing to write any crap, so long as it's a Republican saying it about a Democrat? AP knows damn well that Obama doesn't hate America. This isn't a he-said-she-said. It's a case where AP is genuflecting to the Republicans and regurgitating their crap in a way Pickler and her fellow reporters wouldn't dare do if the victim were Republican. Has Pickler ever written a story about John McCain being insane? Being senile? Somehow I doubt it. . . .

"It's high time we declared war on the media and made it clear that this year if they decide to give coverage to the Republicans' swift-boating lies, then they are going to pay a huge price."

--John Aravosis on AMERICAblog


I hadn't heard the news Howie passed on earlier about CBS affiliate WHNT in Huntsville, Alabama, which services the northern part of the state, pulling the plug on last night's 60 Minutes report on the Republican frame job that, incredibly, put former Gov. Don Siegelman in prison (a story Noah wrote about for DWT in December).

Of course CBS itself had pretty much pulled the plug on the story, literally pulling the story at the last minute when it was originally scheduled to run some weeks ago and then dumping it into the ratings black hole of last night's Oscar show. Let's play another round of that old favorite game, If the Shoe Was on the Other Foot. Let's say there was strong evidence to indicate that a Republican former--and likely future--governor had been similarly railroaded by a cabal of Democrats, reaching into the highest reaches of government. Would that story be blacked out by the traditional media?

(My goodness, when one thinks of the rampant criminal behavior that has been standard operating pracice--"all in a day's work"--these seven years of the Bush regime . . . )

Which brings me to my subject of the moment: the media. As you may have noticed above, over at AMERICAblog, John Aravosis is venting a storm of righteous outrage over fresh reminders that the traditional media operate by a political double standard as a matter of policy: You can say anything about a Democrat, especially a progressive one, whereas you don't dare say anything hurtful about a Republican, especially an extremely conservative one--the more conservative, the more daintily the delicate soul must be handled.

This isn't news, of course. It's an all-too-familiar story. But with election season underway, we can't just stand by. Read the whole of John's rant, and see if it doesn't work you up into your own Network moment. I think John's conclusion is worth repeating:

"It's high time we declared war on the media and made it clear that this year if they decide to give coverage to the Republicans' swift-boating lies, then they are going to pay a huge price."

Now it will be interesting to see, for example, what kind of price WHNT pays for censoring the 60 Minutes report on the Siegelman frame-up, for which the station was at the very least an enthusiastic cheerleader. I'll bet the FCC has already scheduled hearings. (Ha ha.)

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UPDATE: DO SOMETHING

Jane's got an automated tool you can use over at FDL to write to local newspapers that serve your zip code about smearing Democratic candidates the way AP and CNN did.

FAR RIGHT REPUBLICAN SWIFTBOATERS GO ON A VICIOUS RAMPAGE AGAINST McCAIN-- THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

The Swiftboat liars who Rove deployed in 2000 to destroy McCain in South Carolina-- and they wreck Kerry's campaign in 2004-- are at it again. Buoyed by the Bush Regime appointing one of their leaders, Sam Fox to be ceremonial ambassador to Belgium, the right-wing goon squad is at it again. The McCain campaign slammed back at his fellow Republicans today:

“Today, a shadowy political organization calling itself ‘Vietnam Veterans Against McCain’ launched a vicious attack on John McCain in an attempt to impugn his character in the closing days of the South Carolina Republican Primary,” Orson Swindle, who was a fellow prisoner of war in Vietnam with Mr. McCain, said in a statement put out by the campaign. “The group claims that John McCain turned his back on his fellow POWs in order to save his own skin.”

The head of the Rovian attack group, Jerry Kiley, insists he's not smearing McCain, just telling the truth in the face of McCain's gigantic p.r. effort to portray himself as a hero. "John McCain has created this myth that he is a hero and he is not," according to Kiley.

Kiley's group cites as evidence a May 1973 U.S. News and World Report article written by McCain in which he said on his third or fourth day of captivity after his plane was shot down in 1967 that he realized his knee was so swollen the blood might pool in it and kill him. So he offered to give military information to his captors in exchange for medical treatment.

In the article, McCain said he told the story to make the point the North Vietnamese only gave medical treatment to POWs if they thought they were going to get something in return. He never writes in the article that he went through with his end of the deal.

Kiley claims McCain told the North Vietnamese about American flight routes and that led to an increase in U.S. planes shot down in the following six months.

McCain is one of the least truthful men in American politics. He lies the way other people breath-- and he is very successful at getting away with it. The national media has consistently given him a free ride over the decades. They like him because he's "accessible." After he was caught taking bribes (as part of the Keating 5 scandal) he rescued his political career, with the help of the corporate media, by re-styling himself as an anti-corruption maverick. And yet, he's a darling of K Street and well-known as someone with the ethics of a mobster. Are the claims of Kiley's group credible? I have no idea. Are the claims of McCain's "Truth Squad" credible? Not a chance.

Yes, it's another installment of "Know Your U.S. Public Servants": "Ambassador" Sam Fox shares the spirit of Christmas with 1,700 of his best buds

As you sort through your Christmas loot, perhaps coming to grips with the wreck of a life you’ve led, to be filled with such a sad lot of cheap, thoughtless gift-givers, this little item from our pal Al Kamen’s last Washington Post column before taking off on vacation last week may bring a tear to your eye.

You remember "Ambassador" Sam Fox, right? You know, the Swiftboaters’ sugar daddy, who was rewarded with the ambassadorship to Belgium (and if financing a band of sociopathic liars to help steal an election doesn’t earn a fellow an ambassadorship, what does?), only his nomination couldn't get out of Senate committee and so had to be end-arounded with a recess appointment? In case you missed it, here’s how the "ambassador" sent greetings from Belgium to his 1,700 nearest-and-dearest:

Merry Xmas From Belgium

GOP mega-contributor Sam Fox, the Swift boat backer who received a controversial recess appointment to be ambassador to Belgium, has arranged for special, one-kilo (2.2-pound) bars of superb, dark Belgian chocolate, stamped with the State Department seal, to be given as Christmas presents.

The Belgians are speculating that President Bush, a renowned chocophile who shopped for chocolates on trips to Belgium in 2001 and 2005, will most surely find one of these under the tree Christmas morning.

That bar would be part of a 1,700-bar order that Fox placed with famed Antwerp chocolatier Erik Goossens, whose company specializes in high-end chocolates. Most likely, several other White House aides and administration officials will be getting the prized chocolates.

"It was quite difficult to do," Goossens told us, requiring "special molds and special boxes." It was all "very fancy. We did our best." That should be more than delicious.

How much would all this cost? Goossens wouldn't touch that one, though he noted that his 52-year-old family company considered it a "prestige project." That probably means Fox got something of a break on the price. And this is a nearly two-ton purchase.

Let's do some cogitating. Goossens's chocolates sell for a little more than $50 a pound in this country. So each bar would cost about $110.

Perhaps Fox could make such a bulk purchase for $150,000. Maybe he will send some chocolate to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democrats, who are still furious at the White House for pulling back his nomination at the last minute and giving him the ambassadorship?

AND IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO ENTER AL'S
"WHAT WAS IN THAT OFFICE, ANYWAY?" CONTEST

Did you hear about the fire in Vice President "Big Dick" Cheney's Eisenhower Executive Office Building lair a week ago Wednesday? "Naturally," says Al, it "has everyone in Washington speculating about its origin. Arson might seem a bit far-fetched to folks outside the Beltway, but it would not be the first time a small conflagration was planned by a White House official."

Which sends Al strolling down Memory Lane, to the crackpot plot hatched by G. Gordon Liddy to firebomb the Brookings Institution--

"as a diversion," he writes in his memoirs--to get into the security vault and steal Daniel Ellsberg's Vietnam War papers.

"We devised a plan that entailed buying a used but late-model fire engine of the kind used by the District of Columbia fire department," Liddy wrote, "and marking it appropriately." The plot included "uniforms for a squad of Cubans" and adequate "training so their performance would be believable."

The firebomb would go off at night "so as not to endanger lives needlessly," Liddy wrote. "The Cubans in the authentic-looking fire engine would 'respond' minutes [later] . . . hit the vault, and get themselves out in the confusion" as real fire equipment arrived. "The bogus engine would be abandoned at the scene."

The decision from higher-ups, Liddy wrote, "was swift. 'No.' Too expensive. The White House wouldn't spring for a fire engine." (Pikers!)

"And now," writes Al, "we have this curious, possibly successful fire Wednesday. So the obvious question is: What did they try to burn? [Emphasis added.] (We'll let the appropriate authorities find the perps.)"

Yes, it's the final In the Loop Contest for 2007. Simply guess what documents or other materials the arsonists were trying to destroy. Could it have been a secret legal opinion from Cheney Chief of Staff David Addington, giving the vice president the inherent authority to set the fire?

Send your entries to hitthevault@washpost.com. Winners will receive an In the Loop T-shirt. You must include your name and telephone number (home, work or cell) to be eligible. And of course, administration officials and Hill folks may opt to enter "on background." Deadline is Jan. 9. Don't delay.

Man, we'd love one of them T-shirts. If you've got any ideas that you'd like to have ripped off--I mean, that you'd like to share--just fire away.

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HOW DO YOU KNOW WHICH REPUBLICAN IS THE WORST? WELL... GIULIANI SIGNED UP MOST OF THE SWIFTBOAT FINANCIERS

Although Bush is a physical coward and a draft dodger and Patraeus is an actual fighting general, there are some things the two have in common: they're both dangerous anti-democratic, authoritarian partisan hacks and they each forsee a U.S. occupation of Iraq that stretches into the foreseeable future. Whether we're talking about permanent bases or unending war, Bush and his pet general have plans that go way beyond Bush's term in office. And that of course, brings us to the question of who, exactly among the 11 dwarves is the most Bush-like.

The headline in the new Rolling Stone is quite catchy: Giuliani: Worse Than Bush. Hard to imagine worse than Bush, but Matt Taibbi makes a damn good case. He points out, for example, that even with John McCain still-- albeit barely-- in the race, by far the biggest whore running for the GOP nomination is Rudy Giuliani.

In his years as mayor-- and his subsequent career as a lobbyist-- Rudy jumped into bed with anyone who could afford a rubber. Saudi Arabia, Rupert Murdoch, tobacco interests, pharmaceutical companies, private prisons, Bechtel, ChevronTexaco-- Giuliani took money from them all. You could change Rudy's mind literally in the time it took to write a check. A former prosecutor, Giuliani used to call drug dealers "murderers." But as a lobbyist he agreed to represent Seisint, a security firm run by former cocaine smuggler Hank Asher. "I have a great admiration for what he's doing," Rudy gushed after taking $2 million of Asher's money.

Clearly, the always astute Mr. Taibbi feels Giuliani is the best suited of all 11 of the creepy little old white men running for Bush's mantle to wear it. A Bush-Republican to the core, Giuliani sees absolutely nothing wrong with asking "financially interested parties to help shape important government policies."

Taibbi paints a very ugly picture: "virtually neckless, all shoulders and forehead and overbite, with a hunched-over, Draculoid posture that recalls, oddly enough, George W. Bush, the vestigial stoop of a once-chubby kid who grew up hiding tittie pictures from nuns. " But Taibbi thinks Rudy's character is far uglier than his appearance. And his record is even uglier than that. What has Giuliani done that was so bad? Taibbi has a long list-- "like make $16 million a year, and lobby for Hugo Chávez and Rupert Murdoch, and promote wars without ever having served in the military, and hire a lawyer to call his second wife a 'stuck pig,' and organize absurd, grandstanding pogroms against minor foreign artists, and generally drift through life being a shameless opportunist with an outsize ego who doesn't even bother to conceal the fact that he's had a hard-on for the presidency since he was in diapers. In the media age, we can't have a hero humble enough to actually be one; what is needed is a tireless scoundrel, a cad willing to pose all day long for photos, who'll accept $100,000 to talk about heroism for an hour, who has the balls to take a $2.7 million advance to write a book about himself called Leadership. That's Rudy Giuliani. Our hero. And a perfect choice to uphold the legacy of George W. Bush."

And there's Mafia-connected Bernie Kerik, one of Giuliani's closest business associates and confidants. And, of course, there's 9/11, because, afterall, without 9/11 Rudy, like Bush, was just some pol with his career circling the toilet.

For starters, Rudy tried to use the tragedy to shred election rules, pushing to postpone the inauguration of his successor so he could hog the limelight for a few more months. Then, with the dust from the World Trade Center barely settled, he went on the road as the Man With the Bullhorn, pocketing as much as $200,000 for a single speaking engagement. In 2002 he reported $8 million in speaking income; this past year it was more than $11 million. He's traveled in style, at one stop last year requesting a $47,000 flight on a private jet, five hotel rooms and a private suite with a balcony view and a king-size bed.

While the mayor himself flew out of New York on a magic carpet, thousands of cash-strapped cops, firemen and city workers involved with the cleanup at the World Trade Center were developing cancers and infections and mysterious respiratory ailments like the "WTC cough." This is the dirty little secret lurking underneath Rudy's 9/11 hero image-- the most egregious example of his willingness to shape public policy to suit his donors. While the cleanup effort at the Pentagon was turned over to federal agencies like OSHA, which quickly sealed off the site and required relief workers to wear hazmat suits, the World Trade Center cleanup was handed over to Giuliani. The city's Department of Design and Construction (DDC) promptly farmed out the waste-clearing effort to a smattering of politically connected companies, including Bechtel, Bovis and AMEC construction.

...Although respiratory-mask use was mandatory, the city allowed a macho culture to develop on the site: Even the mayor himself showed up without a mask. By October, it was estimated, masks were being worn on site as little as twenty-nine percent of the time. Rudy proclaimed that there were "no significant problems" with the air at the World Trade Center. But there was something wrong with the air: It was one of the most dangerous toxic-waste sites in human history, full of everything from benzene to asbestos and PCBs to dioxin (the active ingredient in Agent Orange). Since the cleanup ended, police and firefighters have reported a host of serious illnesses-- respiratory ailments like sarcoidosis; leukemia and lymphoma and other cancers; and immune-system problems.

"The likelihood is that more people will eventually die from the cleanup than from the original accident," says David Worby, an attorney representing thousands of cleanup workers in a class-action lawsuit against the city. "Giuliani wears 9/11 like a badge of honor, but he screwed up so badly."

When I first spoke to Worby, he was on his way home from the funeral of a cop. "One thing about Giuliani," he told me. "He's never been to a funeral of a cleanup worker."

Yesterday's American Lawyer published a story by Susan Beck that isn't quite as fesity as Taibbi's but is no less damning. Two years ago Giuliani became a partner in a Texas law firm, Bracewell & Patterson, very close to Bush and Rove... very close. The managing partner, Patrick Oxford, has been one of Bush's top fundraisers and a major behind-the-scenes force in Texas politics. He's now Giuliani's campaign chairman and "in the first three months of the year, Giuliani has received more money from Texas-- $2.2 million-- than any other Republican or Democratic candidate. The list of Texas donors includes former Bush supporter and billionaire T. Boone Pickens, Jr. (who has helped raise $500,000, according to the Wall Street Journal), Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks, and Richard Kinder, the chairman and chief executive officer of Bracewell client Kinder Morgan, Inc."

In fact, Taibbi points out that in his rush "to emulate the Bush-Rove model, Giuliani has recruited some thirty Bush 'Pioneers,' the key fund-raisers who served as the president's $100,000 bagmen. In addition, he hired the woman who spearheaded the Pioneer program to be his chief fund-raiser. 'Rudy definitely got some of Bush's heavier hitters, including all the Swift Boater types,' says Alex Cohen, a senior researcher at Public Citizen, who tracks the president's top donors."

According to Beck, Giuliani has had to step back from Bracewell recently, after some uncomfortable revelations. "Recent articles have scrutinized the firm's work for energy companies like Venezuela-owned Citgo Petroleum Corporation, forcing Giuiliani to explain his firm's connections to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. The firm has also had to defend its work for companies accused of fighting environmental regulation. In addition, Bracewell has had to concern itself with Federal Election Commission rules that would penalize Giuliani and the firm if his compensation is considered a campaign contribution."

I can't believe I got through a whole post on Giuliani without once mentioning how refreshing it would be to have a president into drag. I mean, Republicans complain that John Edwards spent a lot on a haircut? What do you think this hair and makeup cost Rudy?




UPDATE: WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT SEEING GIULIANI'S SLEAZY MACHINATIONS GET HIM HOIST ON HIS OWN PETARD?

Giuliani's high-powered New Jersey supporters having been busy as little beavers for their boy. Bob Novak reports that they've managed to change "New Jersey's longtime proportional representation rules for allocating national convention delegates to winner-take-all, seeking a coup to give the former New York City mayor the lion's share of the state's 52 votes." And who put this together for Rudy? Well, look no further than far right extremist loon David Von Savage, GOP Chair of Cape May County and a big Rudy booster, even though Giuliani refuses to sign the No New Taxes Pledge. Of course, which Bush splintering and smashing the Republican base to smithereens, what difference does it make who wins the toxic nomination?

HOW DO YOU GET TO BE NOT BE AN AMBASSADOR?

It has nothing to do with your knowledge of the country you're being assigned to and more often than not-- especially with the 85% of small countries"-- nothing to do with any kind of objective qualifications. Instead it has to do with the political contributions you've made to the political party of the president doing the nominating. It's just the way it is and both parties play the game and routinely confirm each other's nominees. But hold the presses.

A few weeks ago we brought up the case of Swift Boat financier Sam Fox, beloved of Rove, Bush, Cheney and Lieberman. Lieberman took him under his wing and strutted into the Senate Judiciary Committee for Bush and pretty much said, "If you like me, you'll love my boy Sam." Today the Bush Regime, under mounting criticism for such an egregiously partisan nomination-- of someone who is known for one thing and one thing only: being a smear merchant-- withdrew the nomination. Chris Dodd led the way on the battle although, no doubt, the senators who talked Bush into withdrawing the nomination had John Kerry, the victim of the vicious and deceitful Fox-financed attacks, in mind. I'm sure the Belgians are mighty relieved that their country isn't being used as a dumping group for Neocon garbage.

Fox, no doubt, is confused and probably having trouble comprehending the difference between making a legitimate campaign contribution to a political candidate and financing a political smear machine. At least he'll have something to think about-- back in Missouri. Isn't this clown also financing the Irving Libby (AKA- "Scooter") Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free campaign-- along with Republicrooks Ed Meese, Marty Peretz, Fred Malek, and Bill Bennett?


UPDATE: BUSH IS PISSED OFF THAT HE COULDN'T ROUND UP THE VOTES TO SHOVE FOX DOWN THE SENATE'S THROAT

Think Progress has the C-Span video that shows, again, how pathetic the whole Bush operation is these days.