Romney's 'Iowa Farmer’ Also Millionaire Real Estate Mogul W/Spaceship House And Personal Car Wash

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Last edited Fri Aug 10, 2012, 12:18 PM - Edit history (3)

from Think Progress: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/10/667431/romney-visits-iowa-farmer-who-is-also-a-millionaire-real-estate-mogul-with-a-personal-car-wash/?mobile=nc




____ In an attempt to show his concern for farmers hit by the devastating drought that has swept 78 percent of the country, Romney had a photo-op with Iowa “farmer” Lemar Koethe. However, Koethe isn’t exactly the rugged down-home farmer struggling to keep his operation going that you might expect.

Or should I say operations — 54 of them. Yes, according to the Des Moines Register, Koethe owns 54 soy and corn farms. And that’s just one of his jobs.

In previous reports on his activity over the years from the Des Moines Register, Koethe is also a described as a millionaire, a real estate mogul, and a former concert promoter who booked acts like Slipknot at his 24,000 square foot event center . . . according to figures from the EWG Farm Subsidies database, Koethe has received $130,575 in conservation payments from the federal government . . .

Making this farmer’s life that much different from the average person, Koethe lives in the spaceship house pictured below. It might not have a car elevator like Romney’s planned home, but it’s got its own car wash bay and recreation center:



Here’s how the home was described by the Environmental Design Group:

Arguably one of the most distinctive homes in Iowa-if not the nation-this personal residence takes unique architecture to a new level. It contains an underground garage equipped for multiple vehicles, as well as a car wash bay. The lower level also contains a large recreation center with an art display area. Grade-level entry provides access to the elevator and a spiral staircase rising 35 feet to the main living area. The main level provides an amazing panoramic view of the area.

. . . really, Romney? Out of the hundreds of thousands of farmers being impacted by the drought — many of them family farmers struggling to keep their heads above water — you had to meet the millionaire real estate mogul who lives in a spaceship house with an underground car wash and recreation center?


read more: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/10/667431/romney-visits-iowa-farmer-who-is-also-a-millionaire-real-estate-mogul-with-a-personal-car-wash/?mobile=nc



more cornfield pics: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021094288

[uponit7771]

1. wow...wow, damn...wow...this guy is so 1%, he can't even fake be next to normal people

[Brickbat]

2. I'm not one to judge from appearances, but one can tell by looking that that man is not a

"farmer" in the way people expect.

Cool house, though.

[DoBotherMe]

33. That is not Koethe

It's Northey, our Agriculture Secretary. Dana ; )

[bigtree]

34. changed that

lol

[Brickbat]

54. Toldja I'm not one for judging from appearances!

[JoePhilly]

3. Wow ... does the guy own a NASCAR car too?

[maddezmom]

4. No Elevator?!?!

not even sure why the Mittens would hang with this guy.

[uponit7771]

5. Yes, there's an elevator on the "Grade Leve"....

[Fumesucker]

8. Yes, it has an elevator..

Grade-level entry provides access to the elevator

[Motown_Johnny]

9. Only for humans (aka corporations), not for cars.

[JohnnyLib2]

6. My homesteading grandpa (in heaven) is shaking his head and saying naughty Gaelic words.

Mitt, Mitt, Mitt. Stay home.

[Laurian]

7. What a hoot! Can't they get some "regular guy" for these promos?

It's almost like Mitt is afraid to meet regular people for any purpose.

[Motown_Johnny]

11. To Mitt, this is a "regular guy".

[TwilightGardener]

14. He met some regular people earlier on in the campaign, and told them

their cookies were terrible. So now I think his handlers are making sure to keep him with his own kind.

[LongTomH]

61. "Almost like Mitt is afraid to meet regular people for any purpose?" Almost like? Almost like?

His handlers know better than to let him near any 'regular people.' They'll know him for a phony right off the bat.

[Rambis]

10. Everything MittWitt does is fake

Faux farmer- Faux bus tour (he flies in then bus picks him up)- Used that one guys cafe then fucked off without even meeting him- Mitt is a sociopath

[Berlum]

12. Stubby and Tubby

Wow - Socialism for Rich Republican twits.

How massively does that suck?

[Scuba]

13. Cool looking house until you consider the view.

[SirRevolutionary]

15. Maybe he was showing RMoney

some "farm stuff" for his photo op. Here. Here's an ear of corn. Show that to the camera buddy, it's a farm stuff.

[klook]

16. "What, you're not supposed to eat this?"

Heck, it's corn, isn't it??

[smirkymonkey]

67. Mitt or Cornholio?

It's hard to tell.

[47of74]

70. What do you mean by do a Michele Bachmann with this?

[BlueToTheBone]

17. "So this is what's been up my ass in my magic underwear?"

That man is a robot.

[sad sally]

63. "and where did those missing kernels go?"

[BlueToTheBone]

64. oh my

[yellowcanine]

18. Heh. Koethe is a "farmer" like Ted Turner is a "rancher."

[yellowcanine]

19. "Aw shucks, it is jest a little old farm house...."

[slackmaster]

20. That's not a spaceship house.

THIS is a spaceship house.

[opiate69]

26. Is that the house that was used in "Body Double"?

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0086984/

[WinstonSmith4740]

28. Could be.

But it was definitely the one in "Sleeper".

BTW, did these two co-ordinate their clothes before they went out? I can hear Rmoney now..."Is this a "farmer" shirt?

[slackmaster]

44. Nope. Sleeper.

[opiate69]

50. Ahh.. right you are... this is the Body Double house

[slackmaster]

56. I grew up in La Jolla, CA near the beaches north of La Jolla Shores

Behold the Mushroom House:

[opiate69]

57. man, the view from that house must be incredible....

I`d be paranoid about landslides though

[slackmaster]

58. The house has nearly 180 degrees of unobstructed ocean view

I've heard it's pretty intimidating at high tide during a storm.

The house was featured in a National Geographic magazine article about La Jolla way back in about 1970 or so.

[snooper2]

21. I bet he walked around the whole time with that one piece of corn in his hand

[Skidmore]

22. And his pudgy hands have no callouses, his face isn't leathery brown, and

I doubt he plowed and planted those fields on his own. They just happen to be sowed on his land.

Now the farmers around us look like farmers. I thought that guy was one of Mitt's campaign workers.

[Sheepshank]

23. But, is he a NASCAR owner?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

24. If that guy's a farmer I'm an astronaut.

The guy has a buttload of money and used some of it to buy a bunch of farmland (which, by the way, as all the rage these days. Wealthy hedge fund managers are paying $7K+ an acre for some midwestern farmland to take advantage of high corn and soybean prices). This does not make him a farmer. I'll bet he's never been inside the cab of a combine, and I'll also bet he seldom even looks at his acreage. He has people to take care of all that.

Poseur. He's just exactly what Romney would imagine a farmer to be - a rich businessman with a fancy house who happens to own some land that is farmed and managed by the little people.

[klook]

75. This is one of those "family farmers" whose heirs stand to lose millions because of the "death tax"

Just another sod-buster workin' the land, feedin' his family, and goin' to church on Sundays...

Yes, you can become a millionaire farmer, too!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

25. They look like they're lost in one of those corn mazes.

"Derp. Lemar, where the hell are we?"
"Damned if I know, Mitt. I never step foot in cornfields if I can avoid it."

And what's with the tattersall plaid shirts? Is that the uniform for The Entitled Rich Guy Who Wants To Look Like A Regular Person? Mittens is, however, wearing a reg'lar guy watch instead of the usual gold Rolex. Maybe one of his minions clued him in.

[louis-t]

49. This is the repug campaign uniform.

Blue shirt, sleeves rolled up. It 'polls well'. He looks like he's 'werkin' hard'.

[JDPriestly]

27. Sure doesn't look like my grandfather's farm -- or my cousins' either.

Tell me this isn't true. Please.

Romney can't be this stupid.

I just hope people don't decide to vote for him out of pity. At this point, I really can't believe that he will get the nomination.

I also think that Obama had better watch out because Republicans are going to be very desperate by November.

[Kadie]

29. That figures. LOL! - more pics here...

here are some pics I posted a couple of days ago...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021094288

[Voice for Peace]

36. this is the funniest OP I think since

the John McCain tongue series. Thanks for the hilarity to start my day.

[Voice for Peace]

30. Romney appears to be doing some complex mathematical calculations

related to corn, probably.

[JHB]

43. Related to corn subsidies -- financial math he can handle...

...he's a bit shakier on political calculus.

[bongbong]

60. What Flip-Flopper is thinking

"How can I make money off agriculture? It's gotta be about outsourcing jobs, so how can I work this con?"

[Voice for Peace]

62. let's see.. one corn cob equals how much? times .. hmm

[Coyotl]

31. The Rmoney Farm Plan: A spaceship on every farm AND

five farms total with five rich men owning all the farmland in America

[WestWisconsinDem]

32. so this is Mittens' "Joe the Plumber?"

Good luck with that one Mitt.

[JBoy]

35. Must be the most incompetent campaign team in history.

The tone deafness of this guy is astounding. He needs a hearing-ear dog on his staff.

[HopeHoops]

37. "I understand farmers. I know a lot of farmers with multi-million dollar houses."

[TahitiNut]

38. I'm willing to bet they're lamenting the loss of slave labor as much as any drought.

Rmoney yearns for the days of the antebelllum South ... and the prior "plantation economy" that enriched a few from the labors of many.

[JohnnyRingo]

39. Neither is dressed for the photo op.

Romney has the obligitory blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up like he's ready to pitch in and work, but doesn't he have a pair of blue jeans? Mitt may call them dungarees, but every candidate has a pair on the bus for just such an occasion.

That so called farmer isn't dressed for work either. It looks like he just left his posh office to take an SUV ride with Mitt to the nearest corn field... because he did.

The only thing agricultural about this photo-op is that they're two peas in a pod.

[Berlum]

48. Remember, Nixxxon trying to "look casual" on the beach? So phony. So Republican.

Classic Republican BS photo op

[JohnnyRingo]

55. hahahahahahaha! I'd forgotten that one.

You can just imagine an aide wiping the sand off his shoes and handing him his suit jacket before he got back in the car.

[DefenseLawyer]

40. Mitt: "If this drought gets any worse, my friend, you may need to sell some stock"

"or borrow money from your parents!"

[lunatica]

41. All the better to see his acres and acres and acres of corn and soy

And what's with the fake palm trees?

[hatrack]

42. This is fucking HILARIOUS - this is the farm they pick for the photo-op?

More! More political vaudeville!

This guy is to presidential candidates what Florence Foster Jenkins was to opera.

&feature=list_other&playnext=1&list=AL94UKMTqg-9C7AI5Mo6UqkuH0lGLuFizM

[TalkingTina]

80. Please God make it stop!!!!!!!

I don't know how that poor accompanist got through that.

[CanonRay]

45. Does Rmoney know ANY ordinary people?

I guess not.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

47. "Does Rmoney know ANY ordinary people?"

He's AFRAID of "you people".

[47of74]

71. Are you fucking kidding me?

He looks down on regular people with the same contempt Helmsley did.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

46. "it’s got its own car wash bay and recreation center:"

His cars need a recreation center?

Is he afraid they'll get overweight if they just sit around?

[JPZenger]

51. If Repubs that concerned about drought, why did they skip town without passing farm bill?

The new farm bill includes some aid for farmers hit by the drought. The House skipped out of town for the next few months to campaign, without passing it. To address the drought, all they did was pass a special benefit for ranchers.

Of course, the drought is all Obama's fault.

Meanwhile, north of Canadian border, they are getting all the rain they could want. I guess God likes Canadians better.

[hedgehog]

52. Make him take his shirt off so we can see if he has a farmer tan!

[Liberal_in_LA]

53. nice house!

[bongbong]

59. Quote From Flip-Flopper

When asked about the housing crisis, R-Money said, "I'm friends with people who own multi-million dollar homes"

[Warren DeMontague]

65. Wait. Why is the end of that corn brown?

[Tx4obama]

66. On Al Sharpton's show they were talking about the 'farmer' but I caught only the tail end

Thanks for posting this story!

Now I know what happened

[renate]

68. real farmers who are really suffering are NOT that hard to find in Iowa

Did it not occur to anybody on the campaign that they could have talked to somebody who isn't a multimillionaire? Or do they think that non-millionaires are just imaginary creatures, like unicorns?

[bigtree]

72. nope, not hard to find at all

shit for brains with that bunch

[smirkymonkey]

69. You know what this reminds me of?

Stephen King's "Children of the Corn"



F-ing scary!

[tomm2thumbs]

77. scary and then some - somepin' ain't right with that Romney

[smirkymonkey]

83. Malachi!

I had nightmares about that kid for years! He is definitely one of the creepiest SK movie charachters I have ever seen.

[Tx4obama]

73. Kick! Let us not let this story die.

I noticed this was talked about on MSNBC Friday evening.

And then Romney leaked about picking his VP Saturday morning.


We can NOT let Mitt change the discussion.


Need to keep the billionaire farmer, tax returns, and Bain in the forefront !!!

[DonRedwood]

74. kick to the top for the night peeps

[tomm2thumbs]

76. Romney almost seems to be saying 'what exactly am I holding?'

and that house, what an embarrassment of excess. he's just Mitt's type!

[SDjack]

78. House is tornado bait. nt

[obxhead]

79. I know where you can put that corn cob mittens....

You can stick it right in your eye. Your brown eye that is.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

81. I don't know, just had a flashback

to the crop duster scene from "North by Northwest." Don't think it was shot in Iowa, but there was definitely a corn field.

[Initech]

82. Mitt just does not know how to relate to the common people. It's the gift that keeps on giving.