You Remember Miami's Ex-Rep David Rivera, Right?

Florida GOP crooks Alliegro and Rivera

We've been on his case for a long time but this isn't about him beating up a woman or even his crooked fundraising or even about the free-flowing-drugs-and-shady-cash party house he and Marco Rubio maintained in Tallahassee-- or even about how he managed to finance his extravagant and expensive lifestyle. All the evidence of Rivera, who was defeated in a reelection bid last cycle by Joe Garcia, immersing himself in gangsterism is leading to a trial and yesterday intrepid Miami Herald reporter Marc Caputo had the latest scoop on Rivera.

A fake Democrat who Rivera recruited to run, Justin Sternad, finally admitted for the record that "Rivera was a part of the conspiracy to funnel illegal contributions to his campaign." Rivera and one of his associates, Ana Alliegro (who's been on the lam in Central America), gave Sternad $81,486.15 in illegal campaign contributions. Sternad has been cooperating with federal investigators who are trying to bring charges against Rivera and Alliegro.

“To those who think this case has gone away: You’re wrong,” said Enrique “Rick” Yabor, an attorney for Sternad, who last month amended three of his FEC reports to note the involvement of Alliegro and Rivera in his 2012 Democratic primary race for Congressional District 26, which stretches from from Key West to Calle Ocho in Miami-Dade County.

Neither Alliegro nor Rivera-- both of whom have denied involvement in the scheme-- could be reached for comment.

Sternad has never publicly mentioned Rivera or Alliegro, but he has privately discussed them at length with federal investigators.

Sternad was busted by the FBI after the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald raised questions about his campaign finances and reports.

During the campaign, Sternad-- a political unknown with no experience and little money-- was producing and mailing slick flyers that sophisticatedly targeted specific segments of the electorate in the district.

One mailer savaged fellow Democrat Joe Garcia over his divorce, echoing a line of attack espoused by Rivera, who was then the Republican incumbent. Sternad also admitted to using Alliegro as a de facto campaign manager-- a strange choice for a Democrat considering her Republican background and close association with Rivera.

As the feds closed in, Alliegro fled to Nicaragua at one point, returned to Miami to talk to investigators last year, and then apparently left again, according to her Facebook page.

If Rivera was involved in the conspiracy, it indicates he wanted to use Sternad as a straw candidate to defeat Garcia in the primary or at least wound him before the 2012 election. It didn’t work. Amid the scandal, Garcia walloped Rivera in the general election.

This kind of thing is pretty standard operating procedure for Florida Republicans and although Rivera will probably end up in prison for it, it could just as well be Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the Miami-Dade district next door. Last year we looked at how she managed-- probably with help from her allies Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Steve Israel-- to pick her own un-funded Democratic "opponent," Manny Yevancey.

One of the easiest districts for a Democrat to win would be FL-27, the seat now held by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. But there is no recruitment; there is anti-recruitment. DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz has made it abundantly clear to Florida Democrats that she will not tolerate anyone credible running against Ileana, who, like her, is owned by the sugar baron Fanjul brothers. Last year Obama's 7 point margin in FL-27 was one of the highest margins of victory in any district held by a Republican Member of Congress. But Wasserman Schultz had the DCCC make sure there would be no viable candidate. The "Democrat" who ran, Manny Yevancey, still hasn't filed an FEC financial disclosure report, which means he raised and spent less than $5,000. His petitions-- which were commercially collected by a firm in Tampa that was paid by "someone else"-- is almost totally signed by folks in Tampa, not in Miami, Coral Gables, Hialeah, Miami Springs, South Miami, Westchester or anywhere else in Ros-Lehtinen's district. The total signatures on his petitions from Miami-Dade- 12. The total from Tampa- 1,147. And the other counties with significant petition numbers were also on the other side of the state, Hillsborough with 656 and Pasco with 502. Very convenient for Wasserman Schultz and Ros-Lehtinen to have a candidate with no income, no roots and no chance-- and old dirty trick that anti-democracy hacks employee.

The DCCC has moved to make sure there would be no plausible opponent for Ros-Lehtinen again this year-- despite polling that shows a Democrat would beat her and despite FL-27 being one of only two districts in the country with Republican congressmen where Obama increased his winning margin in 2012. So, by all means… throw Rivera in prison, but take Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Debbie Wassserman Schultz and Steve Israel as well. And throw away the key.


UPDATE: Alliegro Arrested, Deported To U.S.

The noose is tightening around Republican criminal and former Miami-Dade congressman, David Rivera. His coconspirator, Ana Alliegro, was arrested Friday in Nicaragua where she was hiding and is now in federal custody in a Miami jail. She's facing a quarter million dollars in fines and 5 years in prison. The expectation is that she'll rat out Rivera and that, eventually, Rivera will rat out Marco Rubio on unrelated criminal enterprises the two of them were involved in when they were running the Florida legislature.

Will David Rivera (R-FL) Wind Up In Prison Even BEFORE The Election?

When a CBS news anchor introduces a crime segment about the local congressman, uses the phrase "involves a congressman who is already immersed in alleged corrupt behavior," you have to wonder which one of the criminal sociopaths John Boehner is protecting is about to be exposed. Is it Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm from Staten Island? Buck McKeon from Santa Clarita? Joe Walsh, the Illinois deadbeat dad? Sarasota's serial tax evader/multimillionaire Vern Buchanan? Well, in this case, as you can see in the video above, we're talking about a contender for Congress' Most Corrupt, Marco Rubio's little gangster buddy David Rivera.

Friday, the family of Ana Alliegro-- sleazy conservative bad girl who was managing the stealth congressional campaign of Democrat Justin Lamar Sternad-- told Miami's El Nuevo Herald they were worried about her safety after she had "disappeared." By Saturday, the distraught mother was claiming that she hadn't talked with her daughter but that she knows she's fine. “Everything is fine,” said Alliegro’s mother, Agueda “Guedy” Alliegro. “I haven’t spoken to her, but she is OK.”

Alliegro has been active in local Republican and municipal politics for years, but came to prominence after Justin Lamar Sternad told the Miami Herald that she was his campaign manager. Sternad, a political unknown who works at a hotel, ran in the District 26th Democrat primary to take on Rivera in November. However, he mostly attacked fellow Democrat Joe Garcia, who went on to win the primary. Allegations have surfaced that Rivera may have helped funnel money and other services to Sternad's campaign. Rivera has previously described Alliegro as a friend, and several pictures of the two together were posted on Alliegro's Facebook and Instagram accounts.

The latest twist in Rep. Rivera's twisted telenovela on Miami-Dade criminality was when Anna Alliegro didn't show up for a scheduled FBI interview a day after agents raided her apartment and seized her computer and cell phone. Her attorney says he doesn't know where she is. And Rivera, who as usual denies everything, is blaming the media.

Prosecutors believe Alliegro played a key role as a go-between for Rivera and a former Democratic congressional candidate who might have broken campaign finance laws in his failed bid against a rival of the Republican congressman in the Aug. 14 primary.

Alliegro had been scheduled to testify Thursday before a federal grand jury in Fort Lauderdale, but Padilla worked out a deal to speak directly to lead prosecutor Thomas J. Mulvihill and two FBI agents. Padilla and Alliegro met Wednesday to prepare for the meeting, but later that day Alliegro said Rivera met with her.

According to Alliegro’s family, Padilla was scheduled to pick her up at her apartment since she had no car and a suspended driver’s license. But she called her lawyer to say she would drive instead with her father. That’s the last her attorney heard from her.

...At issue: $46,000 in once-secret payments-- many made with cash-stuffed envelopes-- that candidate Justin Lamar Sternad used for mailers in his unsuccessful primary race against Joe Garcia, who now faces Rivera in the general election.

Sternad’s campaign finance disclosure reports initially gave no indication that he had paid for the mailers. But he later amended the reports amid the FBI investigation.

Investigators have focused on Alliegro because she acted as Sternad’s campaign manager. She may have first-hand knowledge of the source of the funds and whether Rivera was involved in funding the campaign of the political unknown, a part-time night-time hotel worker.

The federal probe of Sternad and Rivera began last month after El Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald reported that Sternad may have violated federal campaign-finance laws by failing to disclose the expenditures or the source of the funds on his Federal Election Commission reports.

The investigation-- which involves a federal grand jury-- picked up speed in recent weeks, with Rivera on the offensive, saying Herald reporters are in cahoots with Joe Garcia’s campaign and that no one from law enforcement has bothered to talk to him. Agents have been collecting documents, interviewing witnesses across the region.

Sternad’s pre-primary campaign report for the period ending July 25 showed he spent $11,262 for the entire campaign, of which $10,440 was for the state fee to qualify for the ballot in the newly drawn congressional District 26 primary race, which stretches from Kendall to Key West.

Yet Sternad sent out at least 11 professionally designed and printed mailers that targeted specific types of voters, according to campaign vendors.

When asked by the Herald, Sternad refused to say how he paid for the mailers. His attorney Enrique “Rick” Yabor declined comment.

Amid the newspaper reports and the launch of a federal probe, Sternad abruptly amended his financial disclosures after the primary to show he had loaned himself nearly $64,000. Before the primary, he reported lending himself about $11,000.

Still, the amended campaign finance reports raised more questions because they didn’t indicate how he paid to print the mailers.

Sternad’s financial disclosures give little indication he can afford the loans or the expenditures. He listed an income of just $30,000 last year and a one-third ownership of an estate trust fund that provided him no income. He reported the trust fund’s maximum value as $100,000.

The incomplete campaign reports, financial documents and the fact that Sternad used a mail house-- Rapid Mail & Computer Services-- frequently employed by Rivera led Garcia’s campaign to accuse Rivera of colluding in the Democratic campaign.

Rivera and Sternad denied the allegation.

Rivera, however, told a Miami blogger that he referred Alliegro to a mail-targeting specialist. Initially, Rivera said he had no involvement in Sternad’s campaign.

The owner of Rapid Mail, John Borrero, told The Herald and investigators that Sternad and Alliegro paid cash for the mailers except in one instance, when the campaign had a company called Expert Printing send him a $9,000 check.

In another instance, sources said, Rivera telephoned a secretary at Rapid Mail and while on the line directed her to walk outside to the company’s mailbox and retrieve an envelope. He then told her to deliver it to Borrero. The envelope contained $7,800 to pay for a mailing.

Sternad’s amended reports show he paid Expert Printing only $6,000. That’s hardly enough money to pay for the printing costs of the roughly 135,000 mailers in his race. One of the mailers bashed Garcia over his divorce.

The sophisticated mailing operation garnered a surprisingly high vote for the political novice, 11 percent. Sternad came in third behind first-place Garcia and challenger Gloria Romero Roses.

Sternad’s amended reports didn’t list the specialist his campaign used to target voters-- Campaign Data. The company’s owner, Hugh Cochran, said Rivera was involved.

Cochran, a retired FBI agent, showed The Herald an email he sent to Rapid Mail and Rivera concerning the voter-targeting he performed at Rivera’s request.

Rivera said it was “mistakenly” sent to him-- which Cochran said was false.

Rivera has vehemently denied working with Sternad, referring the Herald to a previous written statement he issued on the matter.

“Congressman Rivera has never met or spoken to Mr. Sternad and knows absolutely nothing about him or his campaign,” the statement said.

These kinds of dirty tricks-- interfering to defeat the strongest potential competitor in the other party's primary-- has been standard operating procedure for decades among Republicans-- Jerry Lewis (R-CA) has built a whole political career based on it-- and everyone saw Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill play a very aggressive role in making sure her weakest and most insane Republican opponent, Todd Akin, would win the Missouri Republican primary. Rivera, over the top as usual, took it to new heights with illegal money laundering and financial fraud.

The other day we mentioned what a downer Debbie Wasserman Schultz is in general. But she's even involved in this case specifically. Never a supporter of Joe Garcia-- he was one of the 3 Democratic candidates she torpedoed in 2008-- Wasserman Schultz has been charged by her patrons, sugar barons Alfonso and Andres Fanjul, with making sure Rivera keeps his seat. If Rivera is still a Member of Congress in January, it will be because of Wasserman Schultz's behind the scenes manipulations. She called her pal Steve Israel and told him to pull his punches. We'll be watching to see what the DCCC does in this race.

God Answers Democratic Prayers In Miami-Dade-- David Rivera Is Back!

NRCC and Marco Rubio are not embracing their old pal Rivera this time around

Florida New Dem Joe Garcia has turned out to be a pretty big disappointment. A guy who certainly knows better, he quickly adopted the DCCC strategy of amassing a Republican-lite voting record in Congress. According to ProgressivePunch his abysmal 42.76 crucial vote score is, by far, the worst of any Florida Democrat (including Patrick Murphy), and one of the dozen worst among all House Democrats. Garcia votes against progressives even more frequently than reactionary Blue Dogs Jim Costa (CA), Dan Lipinksi (IL) and Jim Cooper (TN) and is exactly tied with West Virginia's Nick Rahall. And, remember, Garcia's district has a PVI of R+1 where Obama won both times; Rahall's district's PVI is R+14 and Obama barely scored a third of the votes against Romney and also lost big to McCain. Even Murphy has a "better" excuse for voting with the GOP so much-- a PVI of R+3. Garcia is just one big inauthentic mess who compromised away so much promise!

Yesterday, though, he may have had a lucky break-- a last minute entry into the Republican primary: the crook he defeated last time, David Rivera. Rivera's nemesis at the Miami Herald, Marc Caputo, reported that Rivera announced Thursday night that he would run for his old seat. In 2012, Garcia beat him 135,551 (54%) to 108,737 (43%), outperfoming Obama by 4%. But that was before Garcia had run up such a disappointing, defensive, Big Business-oriented voting record.

Rivera's thesis is that he didn't do anything wrong and all his troubles were manufactured out of thin air by the media, especially the Miami Herald. No one believed it in 2012 and there's been a lot more to prove it wrong since then.

“I will not answer to the lies of the Miami Herald,” Rivera said on the political talk show Ahora con Oscar Haza.

“I will not deviate from the issues and [will] defeat Joe Garcia. “Rivera said he’s running due to a “leadership crisis,” calling Garcia “incompetent.”

...Rivera’s announcement stunned Florida’s tough-to-surprise political world.

One of his fellow Republicans running against Garcia, Miami-Dade School Board Member Carlos Curbelo, issued a statement that blasted Rivera as well as Garcia, whose former campaign manager was recently jailed in an unrelated absentee ballot-request fraud scheme exposed by The Herald.

“Now more than ever our campaign is about putting an end to the scandals and the corruption that have plagued our community for far too long,” Curbelo said in a statement.

“The unethical conduct of public officials in both parties-- including incumbent Joe Garcia-- has landed people in jail and embarrassed the residents of Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties,” Curbelo said. “We will run a clean campaign focused on reestablishing the public trust and putting an end to this sad chapter in our community’s history.”

Curbelo is the Republican establishment favorite in the race and earned the endorsement of former Gov. Jeb Bush, an early Republican presidential frontrunner.

Rivera is a friend of another potential Republican candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, though the two haven’t been as close as in past years amid Rivera’s mounting political and legal troubles.

The two still jointly own a Tallahassee rental home, but associates of the two say Rubio would like to sell it and that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea for him to run for Congress against Curbelo.

Rivera, who said he’d officially file for the office on Friday, didn’t address Curbelo. The two had a tense race against each other for Miami-Dade Republican chairman in 2008 when Rivera, then a state representative, won the post by just a single vote.



Rivera, then a state representative, went on to win his congressional seat in 2010 when he defeated Garcia and a phony tea party candidate who had links to Garcia’s former campaign manager, Jeffrey Garcia.

The FBI began investigating that incident last year after the Miami Herald uncovered new evidence in the case.

By then, the FBI and U.S. Attorneys Office were farther along in the investigation of Rivera and his friend, Ana Alliegro, who helped manage the campaign of a little-known Democratic candidate named Justin Lamar Sternad.

Sternad admitted to the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office that his Democratic primary campaign was funded with about $82,000 in illegal campaign contributions, which were used, in part, to bash Garcia to the benefit of Rivera.

Sternad identified Alliegro as a source of the money. A March indictment against her says she was aided by at least one unnamed “co-conspirator.”

Alliegro is in a federal lockup awaiting trial on charges of breaking campaign-finance laws and lying about it.

Sternad, who is cooperating against her, has yet to be sentenced after pleading guilty last year to charges of breaking federal campaign-finance laws and lying about it.

Alliegro was arrested in March in Nicaragua, to which she twice fled to avoid investigators and prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas J. Mulvihill argued last month in court as part of a successful effort to keep her locked up.

Mulvihill said that, after she surrendered her passport last fall, Alliegro and “another individual” left Miami by flying to Texas, boarding a Greyhound bus to Mexico-- where a U.S. passport isn’t needed for entry-- and then flying to her hideout in Nicaragua.

While in Nicaragua, Alliegro was frequently visited by Rivera, neighbors told the Miami Herald.

When the Sternad case broke in theHerald/El Nuevo Herald, Mulvihill had already been leading an unrelated federal tax investigation into Rivera stemming from a secretive $500,000 payment from a dog track.

Rivera also narrowly escaped a state indictment on 52 counts of theft, money laundering and racketeering revolving around his use of campaign money. State prosecutors said the alleged crimes were too old or too tough to prosecute.

Rivera has long denied wrongdoing in those cases and on Thursday night he downplayed close ties to Alliegro. “I know her family; everyone knows her family,” he said.

He also dismissed the Sternad case.

“Nobody cares about a fake campaign from two years ago.”

Rivera said “no” when asked if federal investigators have come knocking on his door.

“It’s ridiculous,” he said of the allegations.

The DCCC has relvamped and updated their old House of Scandal website-- still no mention of Joe Crowley-- but I bet they can hardly wait to tackle Rivera again. It remains to be seen if they can ever get anything as good as John Steward's Grimm Shady piece though!

Days Before The Florida Primary, A Judge Forced Prosecutor To Name "Co-conspirator A"-- No One Batted An Eye When It Turned Out To Be David Rivera

Conservative Culture of Corruption (congressional chapter)

A wonderful new word for conservative parasites popped into the colloquial dictionary last year: affluenza. I can't think of a better term to describe the self-entitlement that defines garden variety American conservativism/white supremacy. According to yesterday's New York Daily News, Frederick Couch, "father of the infamous affluenza-afflicted teen, who ducked jail time for a deadly drunken driving accident because his family said he was too rich to tell right from wrong, was busted Tuesday for pretending to be a cop."

People like this are attracted to power almost as much as they are to money. And we find more and more of them turning up in politics. We have, for example 4 conservative governor who have either been indicted or are under serious investigation and likely to be indicted-- all of whom harbor pretensions to be president: Chris Christie (R-NJ), Scott Walker (R-WI), Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) and Rick Perry (R-TX). Florida Governor Rick Scott isn't running for president but his criminality is in a league of its own. Crooked congressmen are even more common!

Many people have their fingers crossed that Staten Island Mafioso, Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm, will win reelection in November from the inside of a prison cell. His has a long criminal career but is currently under indictment on the first 20 charges. He's still serving in the John Boehner's House of Representatives.

Now we're hearing the the hammer is finally coming down on crooked Miami Republican David Rivera, a former congressman who was defeated in 2012 and claims to be running again this cycle-- although his only FEC disclosure shows $139,873 in debt and a loan to himself of $11,000. According to the bane of Rivera's existence, Miami Herald ace investigative reporter Marc Caputo, one of the gangsters in Rivera's mob, Ana Allliegro had finally pleased guilty-- and ratted out Rivera, who was officially named as a target of a federal investigation on Tuesday. At the court appearance, he "was identified by a prosecutor who confirmed the Republican politician was 'Co-conspirator A' in an $81,000 campaign-finance scheme to prop up a little-known candidate who used the illegal cash to trash a rival of Rivera’s."

“Why do we keep not naming the co-conspirator?” U.S. District Judge Robert Scola asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Mulvihill. “We’re past that time.” Mulvihill pointed out that U.S. Justic Department policy forbids prosecutors from naming unindicted co-conspirators.

Rivera’s ties to the case have been reported by the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald for years, but he had denied wrongdoing. Heading into the Tuesday GOP primary for Congressional District 26, Rivera had also denied being the target of any investigation.

But Judge Scola wanted Mulvihill to leave no doubt and directed him to name names.

About three minutes later, Mulvihill made the first of six direct mentions of Rivera, who is suspected of also helping Alliegro leave the United States for Nicaragua when she was supposed to be cooperating with prosecutors.

…The extraordinary scene that played out in federal court-- and the steady drip of information showing the prosecution’s arsenal of evidence-- underscores the strength of the case the government is trying to build against Rivera. At least five people, including Alliegro, could testify about Rivera’s alleged involvement.

…In the Sternad-Alliegro case, the prosecution indicated that Rivera was the mastermind. Mulvihill said that, after Alliegro met with Rivera, she then approached Sternad, an unknown Democrat running against Joe Garcia in the Democratic primary for the seat extending from Kendall to Key West.

Sternad, a hotel night-desk clerk, was raising five kids and was so financially strapped that he was on food stamps and took the bus to work.

Alliegro “told him that she had connections to provide the financing for his campaign. Since, as I told you, he was an extremely poor man, he agreed to accept it, took it as a lifesaver,” Mulvihill said.

Sternad used the money to rent a car, pay his cellphone bill, phone voters with pre-recorded calls and produce mailers, at least one of which attacked Garcia, who went on to beat Sternad and then Rivera.

During the primary campaign, the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald noted Sternad’s suspicious campaign activities and pointed out his incomplete campaign-finance reports. Campaign vendors, three of whom had been used by Rivera in previous campaigns, told the Herald that Rivera was behind Sternad’s candidacy.

Alliegro helped Sternad fill out his campaign finance reports, where he lied about the source of the illegal campaign cash, claiming the expenditures were from personal loans from his own account.

Sternad was later indicted for his role in the conspiracy and was recently given a seven-month prison sentence.

Alliegro faced similar charges. She pleaded guilty to four counts of making a false statement, conspiring and making illegal campaign contributions.

“She always said she would not invoke the Fifth Amendment, and that she would tell the truth,” said one of Alliegro’s defense attorneys, Richard Klugh. “And she intends to do that if called upon.”

She faces a maximum five years in prison, though that penalty would likely be lower if she cooperates in the case against Rivera. Her sentencing has been scheduled for Sept. 10. The informal plea deal announced in court indicates Alliegro, who has been incarcerated for nearly six months, could spend as little as six more months under house arrest.

Had Alliegro fought the case, she could have faced far more time behind bars.

Rivera spent his entire political career as Marco Rubio's consiglieri and the two of them own a notorious Tallahassee party house together. The Florida Republican Party will do anything to make this go away as soon as possible in such a way that Rubio is kept out of it.

Why Hasn't David Rivera Been Arrested Yet? What About Buck McKeon?

Don't be deceived by the innocuous makeup; these are 2 dangerous felons

In his spectacular new book, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy, Chris Hayes observes that, "[a]long with the other rising inequalities we've become so familiar with-- in income, in wealth, in access to politicians-- we confront now a fundamental inequality of accountability. We can have a just society whose guiding ethos is accountability and punishment, where both black kids dealing weed in Harlem and investment banksters peddling fraudulent securities on Wall Street are forced to pay for their crimes, or we can have a just society whose guiding ethos is forgiveness and second chances, one in which both Wall Street banks and foreclosed households are bailed out, in which both inside traders and street felons are allowed to rejoin polite society with the full privileges of citizenship intact. But we cannot have a just society that applies the principle of accountability to the powerless and the principles of forgiveness to the powerful. This is the America in which we currently reside."

How has that come to pass? It seems so... so... unAmerican and so at odds with our ideals. Look no further than the political elites we chose to write our rules and laws, men like Buck McKeon and David Rivera, two especially heinous crooks currently serving in Congress, each of whom should be serving in the penitentiary but neither of whom is likely to ever spend any time behind bars for his crime spree. We've talked a lot her about Buck McKeon's Countrywide bribe scandal and how he sold out to Angelo Mozilo to avoid personal bankruptcy-- and we'll get more into that tomorrow-- but when his political opponent, Lee Rogers, pointed it out to Santa Clarita, Simi Valley and Antelope Valley constituents, McKeon got another unindicted felon, serial car thief Darrell Issa, who first officially exposed him and termed his behavior as taking bribes, to vouch for him in a phony "press release" that only went out to the media in McKeon's district and nowhere else.

Rogers' mailers and ads are completely accurate, quote Issa’s report directly and show him on Fox News (September, 26, 2009) saying, "I call them bribes," about the Friends of Angelo program McKeon availed himself of. McKeon is the only remaining Member of Congress who took bribes from Mozilo; the rest have all been either defeated for reelection of pushed into retirement. Rogers has pointed out that "Issa says in his press release that the ‘allegation that Buck’s vote was somehow bought by Countrywide is at odds with the facts and certainly not something I found in my investigation.’ While only McKeon will know whether his vote was actually bought or not, the proximity of his vote to his loan is extremely suspect. On October 5, 1998, McKeon called the Countrywide VIP desk and according to records he was ‘difficult to deal with’ and ‘edgy’ and wanted to close ‘ASAP.’  On October 6, 1998, McKeon voted to raise the FHA loan limits, something Issa’s report stated that the Mortgage Bankers Association lobbyist, who referred McKeon to the VIP program, wanted lawmakers to do. The very next day, on October 7, 1998, McKeon’s loan was approved. Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo personally intervened, instructing the loan officer to ‘take off one point, no garbage fees, approve the loan and make it a no doc.’ But it’s what Issa’s press release didn’t say that’s most telling. He didn’t deny that Buck McKeon received a favorable rate on his loan. He didn’t deny that Buck McKeon knew he received special treatment. He didn’t deny that Buck McKeon received a gift worth thousands of dollars which is not only banned under House rules, but also by law. It’s really sad that Darrell Issa has spent all this time and taxpayer money uncovering the corruption that led to the mortgage meltdown, but he hasn’t acted to bring anyone to justice or even to enact the recommendations in his own report to prevent this from happening again. But as far as Buck McKeon’s involvement is concerned, voters can read the report for themselves and make their own determinations.”

  

Earlier this month we reported that the FBI is looking for a missing witness, a right-wing crony of Rivera's and Republican Party operative who he paid to run a fake Democratic primary campaign. The FBI is still looking for her but, in the process, they found envelopes stuffed with shady Rivera cash. Rivera's campaign has been disintegrating and the latest polls show him down by 9% in his re-match with Democrat Joe Garcia, while the Romney campaign has asked him to stay away from their Miami area events. But it's getting even worse than that. Ace Miami Herald reporters, Marc Caputo and Manny Garcia reported on Friday that "a key witness in a federal grand jury case involving U.S. Rep. David Rivera is still missing, but she left important evidence behind for investigators: at least four envelopes that had been stuffed with unreported campaign cash." 

Ana Alliegro, a Republican political operative, delivered the cash-stuffed envelopes to a Hialeah mail house that sent out fliers in a congressional race against a Rivera political rival, the mail house owner told the FBI.

The FBI has the envelopes to check for fingerprints and handwriting comparisons.

Also in the hands of FBI agents: at least six invoices initially made out to the attention of David Rivera-- all marked paid “cash”-- to cover the mailings for Democratic primary challenger Justin Lamar Sternad, a suspected Rivera straw-man candidate. The congressman demanded that his name be removed from the invoices with Wite-Out, documents and interviews show.

Alliegro went missing two weeks ago, shortly after her computer was seized by FBI agents and just hours before she was scheduled to talk to a federal prosecutor about her involvement in the Rivera-Sternad operation. She also had been jailed by Miami cops on an old suspended driver-license warrant.

“Am I worried? Yes,” Mauricio Padilla, her lawyer, said Friday. “I have not heard or seen her. This has never happened to me before.”

Enrique “Rick” Yabor, who represents Sternad, said he and his client would not comment.

Sternad initially failed to report the cash receipts or expenditures-- totaling at least $47,000-- which could violate federal campaign laws concerning financial disclosures for congressional candidates. It’s also illegal to conspire to break federal laws and launder money.

Rivera, already under a separate federal criminal investigation into his personal and campaign finances, denied any association with Sternad, who often attacked candidate Joe Garcia in the Aug. 14 Democratic primary.

In all, Sternad sent 12 mailers in the race-- one of which savaged Garcia over his divorce by using a line of attack that originated with Rivera.

The owner of Rapid Mail, John Borrero, first told The Herald in early August that he had been paid in cash-- a rarity in campaigns, which usually rely on checks so that a candidate can clearly show the source and amounts of his receipts and expenses. Borrero said that Alliegro paid for the mailers multiple times. All but $9,000 of the nearly $47,000 in work was paid in cash.

In August, Borrero said that he turned over two of the envelopes that were in his trash can to Miami-Dade public corruption investigators. They turned the documents over to the FBI, when it opened an inquiry. Agents now have two more envelopes.

Sternad’s primary reports initially gave no indication that he could afford a dozen mailers.

The invoices were initially printed to the attention of Rivera for six Sternad mailers, ranging from fliers titled “Obamacare/Trayvon” to “Lamar for Congress,” records and interviews show. But Rivera demanded that his name be removed, so the invoices only read: “Lamar Sternad for Congress.”

Sternad’s initial reports showed he had loaned himself $11,262, most of which was spent on the state fee to qualify for the Democratic primary ballot. After repeated questions from The Herald, Sternad amended his financial disclosures to show he had loaned himself nearly $53,000 more than originally reported. Still, his reports never showed how he paid for the actual printing of the dozen mailers, which would cost tens of thousands of dollars more.

Sternad’s personal financial disclosures show he is a part-time South Beach hotel worker who earned just $30,000 last year; he listed a one-third interest in a mutual fund valued at a maximum of $100,000. He derived no income from it last year, his disclosures show.

Sternad’s finances weren’t the only mystery-- so was the level of sophistication of his mailers, which targeted slices of the electorate with specialized messages. They were good enough to earn him 11 percent of the vote.

Alliegro took credit for much of the work. FBI agents want to know exactly what she knew and when.

Alliegro’s mother, Agueda “Guedy” Alliegro, said Friday afternoon that she has not heard from her daughter in two weeks and neither have other family members.

“I am worried,” she said. “I know she is resting. We are praying for her.”

Guedy Alliegro said that law enforcement has not contacted her family, which hasn’t filed a missing-person’s report. She said she has no reason to think that her daughter would be cooperating with the FBI.

“Ana has done nothing wrong,” the mother said.

Buck McKeon and David Rivera, this years two worst congressional posterboys for what Chris Hayes refers to as "a fundamental inequality of accountability." Even if both lose their seats, justice will not have been served until each of them has been indicted, tried and, if convicted, punished.

Who Remembers When Boehner And Cantor Said They Would Crack Down On Corruption Inside Their Caucus?

When they took over Congress, Boehner and Cantor publicly crowed about how they would have a zero tolerance policy towards corruption among Republican Members of the House. Republican Members of the House have, by and large, ignored them-- some with a passion. Staten Island mobster Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm has been on a crime spree since before he took office and California's most prominent crooked Mormon, John Boehner crony Buck McKeon, is drowning in so many corruption scandals that no one can keep track of them all. 

But it looks likely that the first of the batch Boehner and Cantor have protected rather than cracked down on to head off to a federal penitentiary the way Bob Ney and Duke Cunningham did will be David Rivera, aka- "The Gangster." Justin Sternad has finally cracked and admitted to the FBI that Rivera financed and ran his whole phony campaign against Joe Garcia. Again, intrepid investigative journalists Manny Garcia and Marc Caputo broke the story:

Justin Lamar Sternad, whose failed congressional campaign became the subject of a federal grand-jury investigation, has told the FBI that U.S. Rep. David Rivera was secretly behind his run for office, the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald have learned.

Sternad, 35, also told authorities that his campaign manager, Ana Sol Alliegro, acted as the conduit between the campaign and Rivera, who allegedly steered unreported cash to the Democrat’s campaign, according to sources familiar with the investigation and records shared with The Herald.

Sternad said Alliegro referred to the congressman by his initials, “D.R.,” and called him by the nickname, “The Gangster.”

...Sternad’s account to federal authorities supports what two campaign vendors told the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald: that the congressman was the driver behind a botched attempt to plant a candidate in the District 26 congressional primary.

Sternad has acknowledged to the feds that he never met Rivera, the sources said, a point that the Republican congressman has long claimed.

But Sternad-- using Facebook and Twitter-- found pictures of Alliegro and Rivera together and determined that Rivera was the mystery “investor” so enthralled with his candidacy. The political newcomer-- a night-time hotel worker-- said he continued with the scheme because Alliegro told him that “D.R.” would get him a better job to support his wife and five kids if he lost.

Now, instead of a better job, Sternad is facing a possible indictment.

Alliegro is still in hiding from the FBI (or "missing"). Some wonder if Rivera, who has strong connections to organized crime had her silenced permanently. Sternad will either go to prison or cop a plea and testify against Rivera, who, all the polls show, is about to be an "ex-congressman." The real disgrace here is that Boehner and Cantor have broken their word to the American people about keeping their members in check. Although Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have demanded that Rivera (as well as Grimm) keep away from their campaign events, Boehner and Cantor are still backing Rivera (and Grimm and McKeon) and have helped cover up their criminal behavior.

UPDATE: Boehner Pressuring Rivera To Quit

Boehner is finally getting the message. There are reports that he's telling Rivera to drop his reelection bid. Boehner fears Rivera will drag down the whole already-sinking party. Boehner should have thought of hat 6 months ago when it because clear that Rivera had earned his widespread nickname, "The Gangster," many years ago. And if Boehner were serious, he'd be putting the same pressure of Michael Grimm and Buck McKeon now and not be waiting for indictments.

Both political parties consider the race over. The Democratic Party has cancelled their plans to buy several hundred thousand dollars worth of ads for Joe Garcia and the GOP isn't spending a cent to try to turn things around for Rivera.

Boehner & Cantor know just who they work for now

Trump Has All The Dirt On Sweaty Little Rubio He Needs To Neutralize Him

Wednesday right-wing loon and religious nut Rick Santorum ended his presidential campaign, as expected, after finishing with basically no votes in Iowa. (Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee and Martin O'Malley also dropped out after failing dismally in Iowa. Chris Christie will likely wait until he's humiliated in New Hampshire before joining them, although not before doing his best to destroy the hated boy in the bubble.) What was interesting, at least marginally, about Santorum leaving the race was his endorsement of "a tremendously gifted young man," Marco Rubio. That came just in time for the hard-hitting expose of Rubio in the New York Observer, which is owned by Herr Trumpf's son-in-law, Jared Kushner (husband of Ivanka, son of Trumpf criminal crony Charles Kushner.

OK, so here's the haps. Like we saw Wednesday, the Kochs told Rubio he could be president if he'd show them he could effectively attack Herr. And since policy attacks-- "he's not a real conservative" and "he wants single payer"-- haven't proven to not work, it's got to be personal stuff. OK, like Coulter says, Rubio's a sweaty-- she means greasy-- little liar and he may be nervous about going mano-a-mano against Trumpf but his team has an opposition book of personal slimery to use against Trumpf. So Trumpf unleashed the son-in-law on Marco to give him a taste of what he can expect if he dares. "Marco Rubio: Poor Little Rich Boy Runs Into Real Estate Trouble" may sound innocuous enough... but the story isn't. Ken Silverstein's sub-headline is more to the point: "The Senator's three houses, various lady friends, assorted con artist pals and piles of unexplained income."

When it comes to sheer brazen corruption, chicanery and dishonesty there is one candidate who stands head and shoulders above everyone else and that is the right-wing Cuban-American and Tea Party darling Senator Marco Rubio of-- naturally-- the great State of Florida.

Mr. Rubio’s entire public image-- the child of poor Cuban immigrants fleeing the repression of Castro’s Cuba who pulled himself up by his bootstraps and even now is a simple José Sixpack and family man-- is less tethered to reality than The Wizard of Oz. For example, in his autobiography, An American Son: A Memoir, Mr. Rubio describes how he allegedly grew up poor and mowed the grass and walked dogs to make a bit of spare change. Technically this may be correct, but most poor kids don’t get paid by relatives heavily involved in narcotics trafficking and whose pets double as guard dogs for a drug cartel, as was the case with young Marco, a federal indictment shows. (See these articles for more on young Marco’s upbringing.)

But it was only after getting into politics that Mr. Rubio really started making big money-- and he made it very quickly, with the help of a few intimate companions-- especially after taking over as Florida House majority leader and whip in early 2003. In fact, his income nearly tripled during the two years-- from $122,000 to $330,000, based on financial disclosure forms-- and spiked again in 2008, which may be tied to the fact that he became Florida House speaker in November 2006.

Mr. Rubio was able to cash in in spectacular fashion because Florida’s preposterously flaccid political rules allow politicians to simultaneously hold public office and work as “consultants” to major law and lobbying firms-- much like the arrangement that recently landed Sheldon Silver in prison in New York. That means that they technically can’t “lobby” but do it anyway and call it “consulting.” So, for example, when Mr. Rubio became House majority leader in 2003 he went to work for the powerhouse lobbying firm of Broad and Cassell, which is precisely the point where disclosure forms reveal a giant spike in his income.

Then, when Mr. Rubio stepped down from the House in 2008 (two years before he ran and won a U.S. Senate seat) he became partner in another law/lobbying firm-- Florida Strategic Consultants-- with the wife of a notoriously corrupt Florida politician and lobbyist named Esteban Bovo, sometimes known as “El Bobo.” (El Bobo’s wife, Vivian Bovo, had been Mr. Rubio’s top aide in the House.) While working at the firm, Mr. Rubio scored fat contracts from Miami Children’s Hospital and Jackson Memorial Hospital. Meanwhile, El Bobo was in position to appropriate money for the hospitals as chairman of a subcommittee of the Florida House Budget Committee. It was a win-win for Mr. Rubio and the Bovo clan.

Meanwhile, Mr. Rubio was making more money on two highly suspicious real estate deals. In the first, Mr. Rubio had a little help from Mark Cereceda, a chiropractor with a lengthy rap sheet. I should note here that after Dr. Cereceda lent a financial hand, Mr. Rubio flipped his position on a key issue of great import to the chiropractor.

Here are the key details: In 2003, Mr. Rubio bought his first house (at 6247 14th Street SW in West Miami) for $175,000, putting zero money down. He put it up for sale in 2005 but had difficulty selling it because of a weak local real estate market. But gracias a Dios, Dr. Cereceda’s mama, Nora Cereceda (now deceased), bought Mr. Rubio’s house in 2007 for $380,000 cash, netting Mr. Rubio a profit of about $205,000. Que suerte!

Shortly after Mr. Rubio sold the house, he did a 180-degree rotation on a key insurance bill for which Dr. Cereceda had been lobbying. Whereas he had previously been an outspoken opponent of the measure-- indeed, he was described in one local press item at the time as “the main holdout”-- he ended up voting for the legislation, which required Florida drivers to purchase $10,000 worth of personal injury Insurance.

Many of Dr. Cereceda’s clients were injured drivers who paid him with insurance money. And by the way, reported cases of personal injury fraud immediately soared in Florida after the measure passed.

Dr. Cereceda has a lengthy arrest record both prior to and after his mama bought Mr. Rubio’s house. In 2003, he was arrested on charges of Aggravated Assault With A Deadly Weapon. Two years later, he was arrested for Felony Battery and also for Disorderly Conduct, and then in 2013 he was busted for running an illegal political contribution scheme by which he ordered his employees to contribute to political campaigns in their names and then he and his relatives reimbursed them. The doctor got off light. He was sentenced to house arrest and given probation.

Dr. Cereceda has been a big donor to Ana Maria Pando, a disgraced former Hialeah branch county court judge, who wrote a letter to state authorities-- on official letterhead-- asking that Dr. Cereceda’s company be reinstated after it got into some legal trouble. Pando was later convicted for taking a bribe from Dr. Cereceda, who ratted her out.

Now let’s turn to Mr. Rubio’s second surprisingly profitable real estate deal. It involves his current Miami-area residence, which he bought in December 2005 for $550,000. He put only 10 percent down on the house, and took out a $495,000 mortgage. Then, just 37 days later, he took out a $135,000 home equity loan (which he initially failed to disclose on his financial disclosure form) on the property.

Mr. Rubio bought the house from a shell company called Sanval Boats LLC and no one knows who controlled that entity and hence who he in fact bought it from. But we do know that Mr. Rubio got very generous terms to finance the house from Miami’s U.S. Century Bank, whose CEO was a former head of the Florida Republican Party named Jim Greer, who later went to jail for money laundering.

A book about Greer called The Chairman: The Rise and Betrayal of Jim Greer has some juicy anecdotes about Mr. Rubio and David Rivera, Mr. Rubio’s one-time best friend and roommate as well as a noted womanizer and former Florida State House member and federal congressman. (A number of other top officials at the U.S. Century Bank were major political supporters of Mr. Rubio’s.)

A passage from the book reads:

“There was an indication that Rubio had an affair,” said Greer. A woman who had worked in his legislative office when he was Speaker of the House abruptly left and got a job at Florida International University as a part-time professor. Emails she had sent him through her college account had become public record. Our opposition research specialist said the emails included things like, “I have to talk to you right now. I can’t take this anymore. Why aren’t you returning my calls?” To an oppositional researcher the Crist campaign had hired, it appeared there had been a close relationship between the two and that Rubio had broken it off.”

In any event, Mr. Rubio’s $135,000 home equity loan was granted only because U.S. Century Bank mysteriously reappraised its worth upwards by about one-third, to $735,000, little more than a month after he purchased the property. “It looks a lot like somebody’s currying favor with an important political person,” one real estate analyst said of Mr. Rubio’s real estate dealings in a 2008 story that ran in a Miami newspaper. “People off the street don’t get this deal.”

It’s worth pointing out here that Miami-Dade County assessors put the market value of the house at $503,000 in 2006, some 50 percent less than US Century Bank’s appraisal at the same time. The house’s assessed value topped out the following year at $540,401 and last year county assessors estimated its worth at a mere $400,492, an increase from $391,443 in 2013.

David Rivera’s former girlfriend, Ana Alliegro, is currently under house arrest for her role in a complicated campaign finance/bribery scheme allegedly masterminded by Mr. Rivera, who helped her flee to Nicaragua before she was apprehended and turned over to U.S. authorities. Mr. Rivera is under investigation in the scheme, but the case has been stalled for months, infuriating Ms. Alliegro, who has publicly denounced Mr. Rivera and said she wants him to go to prison. I’m told by a few well-placed sources that Ms. Alliegro knows everything about Mr. Rubio, including the names of a number of his lady friends-- more coming on that-- but I was unable to reach her.

Mr. Rubio and David Rivera met in 1992, when both worked for the campaign of Florida Congressman Lincoln Díaz-Balart, and have been bosom buddies ever since. According to a Politico story, Mr. Rivera advised and stumped for Mr. Rubio in his first campaign for the state House in 2000. Mr. Rubio repaid the favor and helped Mr. Rivera win a House seat two years later. In 2006, Mr. Rivera played a key role in getting Mr. Rubio selected as the first Cuban-American speaker of the Florida House.

Anyway, Mr. Rivera is just a generally shady guy. (In 2012, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington named him one of the most corrupt members of the House.) He was investigated by Florida law enforcement authorities in 2004 over a $1 million contract he received to promote a ballot initiative pushed by a Florida gambling magnate named Alex Havenick. Mr. Havenick’s family has long thrived in Florida’s notoriously crooked dog track betting industry, whose roots trace back to Meyer Lanksy, Al Capone’s CFO. Mr. Rivera was not charged in the case.

There’s a lot more about all of this below and I should probably get on to the topic of Mr. Rubio’s lady friends, but first (and relatedly) I need to discuss a third house that Mr. Rubio owned, or co-owned anyway, with Mr. Rivera, the former House member and skirt chaser. This house is located in Tallahassee, the state capitol, where a lot of lobbyists work, including a few who are close friends of Mr. Rubio’s.

There is, for example, Bridget Nocco of Smith & Ballard (now known as Ballard Partners), a former top staffer in the Florida House who raised oodles of cash for Mr. Rubio when he served in the state congress and who is now “known nationally as a top-tier Republican fundraiser,” and who over the years has traveled with Mr. Rubio and gotten paid quite well from several of his dubious political action committees. (She did not return a phone call seeking comment.)

Mr. Rubio is also extraordinarily close to another lobbyist, but this one-- Dana Hudson-- is a vegetarian, according to her Twitter feed, lives in the Washington, D.C., area, and advocates on behalf of Homeland Security. Note here that Mr. Rubio does not serve on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, but the subject is dear to him, as one can immediately discern from his official website. Based on her tweets, the perky blonde Ms. Hudson is mad for Mr. Rubio, who she talks about obsessively, and is clearly a passionate supporter of his presidential campaign. For example, on January 6, when campaign consultant and “Jesus-follower” Gary Marx signed on with Mr. Rubio, Ms. Hudson tweeted, “@Garymarx very excited u joined #TeamMarco! Let’s do this! and elect @marcorubio #POTUS.” (Ms. Hudson did not return a message left at her office, nor did she reply to messages left via Twitter and Facebook. I should also note here that Ms. Alliegro, the former girlfriend of David Rivera, has suggested that Ms. Hudson traveled with her former boyfriend and knew him well.)

Anyway, let’s return now to the house in Tallahassee-- at 1484 Bent Willow Drive in an area called Timber Lakes-- that Mr. Rubio and Mr. Rivera co-owned and that Politico dubbed their “house of horrors.” When they bought it in 2005 for $135,000, they were repeatedly behind on the mortgage payments, it was almost foreclosed on at various points and they sold it last year for less than they paid for it. Also, I’m not sure exactly who officially hosted or attended but there were reportedly wild parties thrown at the house. The house sold in July for just $117,000.

Public records show that a woman named Tamara Hardy moved into the house in 2010 and lived there during the time Mr. Rubio and Mr. Rivera were trying to sell it. I have heard conflicting accounts about whether Ms. Hardy paid rent at the house or lived there because she was a friend of either Mr. Rubio or Mr. Rivera. I tried to reach Ms. Hardy for comment but was unsuccessful.

(I should also note that I sought comment from Mr. Rubio’s Senate office for this story and it directed me to his presidential campaign office. It failed to reply to a long list of questions for this story.)

I mentioned above a PAC and a bribe so let me turn to that story now, which actually involved a few of Mr. Rubio’s PACs and assorted businesses. Pay particular attention here to three key figures who were all intimate, longtime friends of Mr. Rubio’s:

• Alexander Heckler, an attorney who in 2011 was found to have set up PACs that shuffled illegal straw donations to political candidates for his clients. Heckler, a lawyer and leading Florida lobbyist as well as a “Hillraiser,” the term for then-Senator Hillary Clinton’s top fundraisers, performed legal and accounting services for the treasurer of a Rubio-affiliated PAC, but only disclosed that several years afterwards, apparently to obscure his role. Heckler is also the stepson of Franklin Sands, who for many years-- including the period when the story below took place-- was the most powerful Democrat in the Florida House.

• Joaquin Urquiola, the treasurer for the two Rubio-affiliated PACs who Heckler did work for, who at the same time was being questioned by federal regulators about his role at an Ecuadorian bank with Miami offices that was suspected of violating anti-money laundering laws by taking in cash from several South American drug cartels. Urquiola was an accountant and director of the bank, Pacific National Bank, and he and Pacific were in fact subsequently hit with fines for violating anti-money laundering laws and the Bank Secrecy Act. According to a 2011 story about the case in the South Florida Business Journal, the bank and its directors had previously been sanctioned for similar crimes and allowed “the violations to continue for years.”

• Bridget Nocco, the lobbyist friend of Mr. Rubio’s whom I mentioned above.

The story begins in late 2002 when Jeanette Dousdebes, Mr. Rubio’s wife, incorporated a nonprofit PAC called Floridians for Conservative Leadership Committee (FCLC). She was the registered agent and only director for this short-lived entity, which the State of Florida dissolved three years later because it had failed to file an annual report. Urquiola, the executive at the bank that allowed a drug cartel to launder money, was the group’s treasurer, and Heckler quietly helped him out, according to information provided to me by the National Legal and Policy Center, a Virginia-based watchdog group that provided key research for this section of the story.

During its brief existence, FCLC raised $228,350, of which roughly $35,000 disappeared into thin air, according to the entity’s own tax returns. Its largest donor by far was a scandal-plagued PAC called OPH ($50,000) but Democratic super-lobbyist Ron Book also gave generously. Bridget Nocco, Mr. Rubio’s lobbyist pal, was paid nearly $26,000 by the PAC for salary and consulting services, according to its nonprofit tax filings with the IRS.

Shortly before its demise FCLC made two payments to a super PAC (which are known as 527s, based on the IRS rule that allows them) with a similar name, Floridians for Conservative Leadership in Government (FCLG). The latter was formed in 2004 with Marco Rubio as its president and registered agent, his wife as the VP and Urquiola as its treasurer.

In any event, the State of Florida dissolved Mr. Rubio’s 527 in 2006 because-- you guessed it-- it failed to file an annual report.

Many of the companies and individuals that donated to the two groups had major business interests before the Florida Legislature and the two entities had overlapping donors, such as super-lobbyist Mr. Book, and payees, such as Bridget Nocco, who netted $90,062 from the 527 for salary and consulting services.

Another notable recipient of cash from Mr. Rubio’s 527 was a company called Servicarga, which in 2004 received $3,500, which it billed for “courier services.” What’s curious here is that Mr. Rubio’s wife owned Servicarga and that, according to IRS returns and other documents, the company stopped operating in 1997.



Mr. Rubio, Urquiola and Heckler were all players in another shady deal, this one involving a nonprofit PAC called Floridians for Real Family Values Inc. It was set up by Heckler in 2006-- the year Mr. Rubio was sworn in as speaker of the Florida House.

For some reason Heckler failed to disclose to Florida election authorities that Urquiola was the PAC’s treasurer, but he was listed as filling that role in the group’s federal tax returns, which Heckler filed. What’s also odd is that the federal tax identification number Urquiola used for Floridians for Real Family Values’ tax return was actually the same used by the FCLG, the 527 that Mr. Rubio created and was president of, which suggests that the two entities were essentially identical.

Between October 24 and November 2 of 2006, Floridians for Real Family Values raised $244,000. Also in 2006, Urquiola incorporated a company called Florida Media Productions Group Inc., which operated out of the same address as the FCLG.

Florida Media Productions Group was established to work on behalf of political campaigns, but there’s not much evidence that the company did any work at all. It never bothered to set up a website nor did it ever create a single TV, print or online campaign ad. The only income it ever received-- about $150,000-- came from two Heckler’s controlled PACs, one being Floridians for Real Family Values.

All that money was paid for “consulting” services, though the payments were made long after the election year was over. Most of the money raised by Floridians for Real Family Values that didn’t go to Florida Media Productions Group-- about $33,000-- simply disappeared when the former was shut down.

Mr.Rubio would appear to be a terrible money manager. He’s made a ton of cash in politics (and spent piles of political money on what appear to be personal items, such as a family reunion he later claimed was charged to his campaign by mistake), as a “consultant,” and on two real estate deals, but records show he has serious cash flow problems.

All of this raises a lot of questions-- to take an obvious one: Where does all of his money go? Whatever the answers, one thing is clear. Marco Rubio has some very, very curious and disturbing political bedfellows.

Something tells me sweaty little Rubio is going to be too scared of the megaphone Herr Trumpf commands to attack him personally, at least not in strong enough terms to satisfy the Kochs, who detest Trumpf and who are threatening to make Cruz their candidate if the boy with the high heeled booties doesn't do his part in bringing down Trumpf.

Pot, Aliens And Politicians... And The Unending Saga Of Florida GOP Gangster David Rivera

The self-described "bad girl" of Florida Republican politics, Ana Sol Alliegro, says she just wants "to cut hair like Paul Mitchell and make people feel good." So he's on the lam, hiding out from the FBI in the picturesque town of Granada on the shore of Lake Nicaragua, under the name Ana Solá and running a beauty parlour, Salon La Libertad, next to the Roman Catholic bishop's house. From a prominent Cuban fascist family under Batista, the violent, drug addicted Alliegro brags that "All my life, I have fought for the GOP." Her bungled dirty tricks on behalf of then-Congressman David Rivera helped cost him his House seat last November and is likely to land both of them in prison eventually.

She's said to be using much stronger drugs than the marijuana Republican Congressmen Dana Rohrabacher is trying to get legalized back in the U.S.-- well kind of legalized. With right-wing fanatics Andrew Harris (R-MD), Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Jo Bonner (R-AL) demanding Obama crack down on states whose citizens have passed pro-pot laws-- as Colorado and Washington just did, following 16 other states-- the more libertarian-leaning Rohrabacher (R-CA) introduced H.R. 1523, a bill that would immunize from federal prosecution "individual marijuana consumers [as well as] medical and non-medical marijuana businesses operating in states in which they are legal." His co-sponsors are Justin Amash (R-MI), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Jared Polis, (D-CO) and Don Young (R-AK).

“This bipartisan bill represents a common-sense approach that establishes federal government respect for all states’ marijuana laws,” says Rohrabacher. “ It does so by keeping the federal government out of the business of criminalizing marijuana activities in states that don’t want it to be criminal.”

The bill’s approach to marijuana policy is seemingly consistent with the views of a solid majority of voters. A recent Pew Research poll found 60% of Americans believe, “the federal government should not enforce federal laws prohibiting the use of marijuana in states where it is legal.”

So where do the aliens come in? If you watch History Channel, you know they're out there-- and that they've visited earth and interacted with man for centuries-- and so do former Members of Congress Mike Gravel (D-AK), Darlene Hooley, (D-OR), Merrill Cook (R-UT), Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI), and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). They're holding a mock hearing in later April-- since Congress won't-- about the conspiracy within the U.S. government to cover up the existence of extraterrestrials. The 5 day meeting will be available in English, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese and Mandarin.