Herman Cain, David Koch, Scott Walker, Paul Ryan & the Smoking Man - By John Nichols

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Herman Cain, David Koch, Scott Walker, Paul Ryan & the Smoking Man
John Nichols on November 2, 2011 - 1:50pm ET

Herman Cain’s smoking campaign manager, Mark Block, was the Koch Brothers’ man in Wisconsin until two days before Governor Scott Walker’s inauguration. That’s when he made the switch from controversy-plagued campaigning at the state level to controversy-plagued campaigning at the national level.

In January, 2005, Block appeared at Walker’s inaugural ball in a tuxedo to celebrate what “we did” to elect Walker, whose assaults on collective bargaining rights and public education and services sparked some of the largest protests in recent American history and who now faces the prospect of a citizen-sponsored recall.

Block’s presence at Walker’s inaugural was something of a triumphal return to the fold for a veteran political player after he had been unwillingly sidelined politically for a number of years. In 2001, Block paid a $15,000 fine and agreed to refrain from participating in campaigns in an agreement that ended an investigation of illegal coordination between a 1997 Wisconsin Supreme Court campaign he ran and the smearing of the opposition candidates by a supposedly “independent” group.

Now Block’s in trouble again, facing allegations that he is back to the old game of coordinating between a political campaign and a supposedly “independent” nonprofit group to position Cain as a presidential contender. Media reports suggest that groups Block set up and operated were moving money back and forth between nonprofit organizations and the campaign in order to benefit Cain’s campaign. There are also indications that Block—and Cain—may have been involved in an elaborate scheme to shift money between Block’s groups, a speakers’ bureau and organizations that would give Cain high-profile speaking gigs.

http://www.thenation.com/blog/164346/herman-cain-david-koch-scott-walker-paul-ryan-smoking-man

[NBachers]

1. The villainry of the Smoking Man

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2. Doooo Dood! Doo. Doot! Dooooo.

[Leopolds Ghost]

3. Does this man look like he gives a shit?

I thought not.