American Conservative Union (and Grover Norquist) Caught in Pay to Play Scandal

[Earth Bound Misfit]

Source: D KOS

Oops.

The guardians of all truth, honor, integrity and Small Town Real American Family Values® got nailed with their hands in the cookie jar. This time, it was about soliciting pay to play between disparate corporate interests on legislation.

The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group’s endorsement in a bitter legislative dispute, then flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay.

For the $2 million+, ACU offered a range of services that included: "Producing op-eds and articles written by ACU’s Chairman David Keene and / or other members of the ACU’s board of directors. (Note that Mr. Keene writes a weekly column that appears in The Hill.)"

The conservative group’s remarkable demand — black-and-white proof of the longtime Washington practice known as "pay for play" — was contained in a private letter to FedEx that was provided to POLITICO.


Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/17/754477/-American-Conservative-Union-(and-Grover-Norquist)-Caught-in-Pay-to-Play-Scandal

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Link to letter (Linkletter?): http://www.politico.com/static/PPM130_fedex_grassroots_proposal_6-30-09_final.html

For the activist contact portion of the plan we will contact over 150,000 people per state multiple times at a cost of $1.39 per name or $2,147,550 to implement the entire program.
Each person will be contacted a total of seven times totaling nearly 11 million contacts total in the ten targeted states.
If we incorporate the targeted, Senator-personalized radio effort into the plan, you can figure an additional $125,000 on average, per state.

Edit typo

[PA Democrat]

1. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

Someone last night posted that the Republican party is shrinking to the size that it could be drowned in a bathtub. :rofl:

[unpossibles]

3. poetic justice indeed! nt

[rfranklin]

7. Hey, that's my sig line!

And I pray every night to have it come true.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

20. I'd like to shrink the Republican party

as small as one reasonable lump of sh*t, so I can flush it down the toilet.

:evilgrin:

[rfranklin]

21. That made me laugh...

I had a picture of a little boy looking into the bowl as it flushed, saying "bye-bye, doodies!"

[KingFlorez]

2. What a nice thing to read first thing in the morning

I just got up and I like reading good things in the morning.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

4. Made my day too. n/t

[Oceansaway]

5. K&R...n/t

[madrchsod]

6. grover tried to pull a similar scam here....

but the local republicans saw threw the scam

[formercia]

8. I guess UPS coughed up the money instead.

"The American Conservative Union asked FedEx for a check for $2 million to $3 million in return for the group’s endorsement in a bitter legislative dispute, then flipped and sided with UPS after FedEx refused to pay."

[peacetalksforall]

9. In about three weeks, Republican corporate networks will have him on one of their programs as

a guest expert on taxes (not paying them) and bathtubs (draining a shrunken government down the drain).

Whenever I hear the words about the bathtub my mind forms an image of his shrunken person being drained down a bathtub with the plumbing coming out in the Saudi Arabia area to be received and revived by his partner in fund raising - remember, the two of them were being investigated by the FBI for fund raising for al Queda terrorists - what ever happened to that investigation?

Here's a good Primer/101 on Norquist:

http://www.americanpolitics.com/20021209Koop.html

Here's a good source for scoops about Norquist:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Grover_Norquist/external_articles

And in case none of these articles say it - good friends are: Rove, Abramhoff, Reid (Ralph) and many Middle Easterners.

He's also the person who is always pushing the Ronald Reagan dime or dollar or Reagan on Mt. Rushmore.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

18. Thanks for the links, bookmarking. n/t

[Javaman]

10. Shall I draw your bath, mr. norquist? nt

[Old and In the Way]

11. "Our principles for sale to highest bidder"

Must be getting desperate for funds...I'm betting that donation stream has slowed to a trickle and Grovers swirling around the bathtub drain.

Sure sounds like a shakedown...I believe extortion is a crime. Hope Grover and friends get lodging soon at the Federal Pen.

[bushmeister0]

14. They need to get Joe the Plumber('s crack) in there to fix that blocked stream.

By the way, what ever happened to that monument to Reagan Grover wanted erected on the Mall?

[Earth Bound Misfit]

19. Conservatives driven by unscrupulous greed.

Yeah...that's news.

I'm SHOCKED! SHOCKED, I tell you...SHOCKED!

[gademocrat7]

12. K & R

[global1]

13. Caught - But Will He Be Punished?........nt

[gratuitous]

22. Yeah, what's the penalty?

Three days without appearing on the Situation Room or getting bloviate uncontested on Morning Joe? You can bet a shiny nickel that nobody who has Norquist on regularly will drop him for this, or even have the bad taste to ask him about it. Business as usual will resume no later than July 20 is my prediction.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

23. You're probably not too far off from the truth.

**sigh** :shrug:

[yowzayowzayowza]

15. Sweet!!!

[redqueen]

16. Nice.

Huge thanks to whoever sent that letter to Politico.

[snake in the grass]

17. Nice delivery service you got here.

It'd be a shame if something happened to it.