Pro-Hillary 527 Spokesman On FEC Complaint: "Is It Possible To Quote Me Yawning?"
American Leadership Project spokesman Jason Kinney has responded forcefully to Obama campaign chief counsel Bob Bauer's FEC complaint against the pro-Hillary 527 group.
The complaint alleges that the group is operating illegally as a campaign committee designed to circumvent reporting requirements, in order to fund their huge ad buys against Obama in Indiana and previous primary states -- something the Obama campaign wants to stop.
"He appears to have a gaping double standard for 527 committees that don't purport to benefit his candidate," Kinney says, pointing out that other 527 groups have helped Obama during this season, and Bauer has not filed any legal complaints against them.
And furthermore, Kinney says that before Bauer joined the Obama campaign, he argued that the law permits this kind of activity.
Kinney's closer: "Is it possible to quote me yawning?"
Who cares about this? Report on this group with strong connections to Hillary and the Clintons engaging in a mass voter deception campaign in NC and in at least 11 other states:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/30/11055/6499/141/506343
April 30, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eric?
Greg?
April 30, 2008 1:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
waiting...
April 30, 2008 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
......
[crickets]
April 30, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
here's some help:
Women's Voices Executive Director Joe Goode worked for Bill Clinton's election campaign in 1992 as a pollster; the group's website says he was intimately involved in "development and implementation of all polling and focus groups done for the presidential primary and general election campaigns" for Clinton.
Women's Voices board member John Podesta, former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton, donated $2,300 to Hillary Clinton on April 19, 2007, according to OpenSecrets.org. Podesta also donated $1,000 to Barack Obama in July 2004, but that was well before Obama announced his candidacy for president.
"The reports from other states are very disturbing, especially the pattern of mass confusion among targeted voters on the eve of a state's primary," Democracy North Carolina's Bob Hall tells Facing South. "These are highly skilled political operatives -- something doesn't add up. Maybe it's all well-intended and explainable. At this moment, our first priority is to stop the robo-calls and prevent the chaos and potential disenfranchisement caused by this group sending 276,000 packets of registration forms into North Carolina a few days before a heated primary election. We need their immediate cooperation."
While Hall says his group has "begged" the group to stop the mailings, Women's Voices has refused to do so -- even though the mail-in voter registration deadline for the primaries passed April 11.
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/04/facing-south-exclusive-dc-nonprofit.asp
April 30, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Greg!
This election is over! Stop with the poll numbers!
By the way, can you PLEASE print something tawdry about Hillary? Please! This Women's Voice Thing looks like it could be good for Barack!
April 30, 2008 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Still waiting.....
April 30, 2008 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Josh linked it on the front page, but it needs more attention.
April 30, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
It definitely needs to be highlighted more than a little link, this is a major story, or at least should be.
April 30, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Greg or Eric ? Doesn't matter. Both are shills.
BTW, how can you yawn and "respond forcefully" at the same time ? Is it a trick he learnt from Hillary talking from both sides of her mouth ?
April 30, 2008 2:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
they posted about it in muckraker, because, you know, it has nothing to do with the Election, or something.
It makes no sense.
April 30, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
They're not shills.
Half the time, I imagine that Eric and Greg are just laughing at how predictable both Clinton and Obama supporters are in terms of how quickly both assume that Election Central has an agenda of some sort.
If I were them, I'd start giving the over/under in terms of how soon it would be before some reader interprets a word or phrase or story as being in the tank for the other candidate. (And yeah, I'm guilty of this).
The other half of the time, I imagine that they're pretty busy during this prolonged nomination process, and stuff gets posted as quickly as possible, but not soon enough for some readers.
They're not shills. I think it's pretty insulting to refer to either that way.
April 30, 2008 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
That, and Eric's probably trying to keep Greg from eating his tots.
April 30, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm less interested in what a Clinton campaign spokesperson has to say about this lawsuit than, say, a judge.
April 30, 2008 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'd like to see a Clinton spokesman say "Is it possible to quote me yawning" to a judge.
April 30, 2008 2:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Obama campaign is redefining chutzpah before our very eyes. Let's face it - on the 527s, Barack Obama is a complete and utter hypocrite. He believes none of this. It is all just phony political posturing. That is politics I know, but the refrain that Obama is going to reinvent it is as phony as a three dollar bill.
April 30, 2008 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
We've dealt with this before, there is a difference between legitimate organizations with real purposes, like unions, which have done ads for both Obama and Hillary, and swiftboating groups set up for the sole purpose of skirting campaign finance laws and attacking a candidate.
April 30, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
The trolls chose to ignore your facts.
April 30, 2008 2:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
So glad you finally have achieved some self-understanding, gotalife.
April 30, 2008 2:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Check the 6th paragraph of the following story
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0507/Yawn.html
The ALP is so far up Hillary's booty that they use the same "quips".
"Is it possible to quote me yawning" was Hillary's official reaction to Carl Bernstein's book last year.
April 30, 2008 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ooooh, good catch. Is there a connection between Kinney and Reines?
April 30, 2008 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Childish.
April 30, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Memo to the Supers:
Do you want a nominee who swiftboats fellow Dems?
April 30, 2008 2:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Is it possible to quote me yawning?"
Classic.
April 30, 2008 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
So classic that it is a line the Clinton campaign used last summer.
April 30, 2008 2:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Even Hari with the Obama campaign noticed that in his response.
April 30, 2008 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, I bet Kinney has an extremely large penis. I am now envious and will not challenge his position in the pride.
April 30, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dem, you're actually wrong. The 527s that support Obama are legal--MoveOn, SEIU, etc. Because they are organizations devoted to issue advocacy. A 527 founded with the express purpose of electing a candidate are illegal. Now, these people may not care--as Greg or Eric postulated when the group was formed the FEC fine might be part of the cost of doing business, just another way to support Hillary. But there is a clear, legal difference between MoveOn and this group.
And, in fact, one could argue that allowing billionaires to set up illegal groups to advocate for a candidate after they've maxed out their donations is actually an important issue, and one very consistent with Obama's overall campaign.
April 30, 2008 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
ding ding ding, the correct answer.
April 30, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Memo to supers:
Do you actually actually want the gop to continue to run ads with Wright and Obama on down ticket races?
Do you actually want to run a candidate with terrible judgement and no credibility on his pastor.
Do you actually want to win this time?
April 30, 2008 2:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dear Gotalife:
Thanks for the note. While we understand your concerns, we are baffled by the implication that (1) Republicans won't run a thousand different ads with Senator Clinton's philandering husband (i.e., President Clinton), the numerous scandalous deals and conflicts of interest that exist between President Clinton's post presidency advocacy and his wife's potential position as POTUS, or any of the myriad of allegations directly implicating the Clintons'. If the standard is guily by association, we believe the association of husband and wife is far greater than that between pastor and congregant. That being said, we refuse to allow our decision to be dictated by the potential machinations of the Republican Party. They are baffoons and we expect them to act accordingly, regardless of who we ultimately nominate.
But thanks again for your letter.
Yes We Can!,
Signed Undeclared (as far as you know) Supers
April 30, 2008 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh well. The self realization didn't last very long.
April 30, 2008 2:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Is it possible to quote me yawning?"
Hmmmm. From Politico:
April 30, 2008 2:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha. I wonder if Hari reads Talking Points Memo?
April 30, 2008 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Haha, that's great.
The quote fits the overall "we need more sleep" theme of the Clinton campaign nicely.
April 30, 2008 2:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
They even have the same "Yawning Points".
April 30, 2008 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Notice that for all that talking and yawning, there is no refutation of the underlying charge?
April 30, 2008 2:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is one of the best lines in the entire campaign season. Right up there with "Change you can Xerox." Pure gold.
But seriously, is it going to be possible to quote you losing, in about 5 weeks? Cuz I can't wait for that day to come.
April 30, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quote this:
"Yawn".
April 30, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
you're about as Clever as Hillary's campaign.
April 30, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is it just me, or is everyone involved in the Clinton campaign an asshole?
April 30, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
the apples don't fall far from the tree....
April 30, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not you.
April 30, 2008 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seconded.
April 30, 2008 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not just you.
But I'd just like to say, before a firestorm breaks out, that some Hillary supporters are interesting and fun to debate with. Another_reader, for instance, or kensdad. Gotalife, every once in awhile.
Some of the others are just foul. Y'all know who I'm referring to.
April 30, 2008 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just had a rather chilling thought. What if Jeremiah Wright is angry not because Obama has distanced himself from some of Wright's teachings, but because he knows Obama believes those things to be true and is just denying them in order to get elected. As we now attempt to demonize Jeremiah Wright and say that he has turned on Obama out of spite because of his bruised ego, what if it turns out Wright knows something we don't know?
Wright has said, "If Sen. Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected. Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls." Many might agree with that. But what about the underlying anger that Wright is now displaying. Is it all just ego? What if Wright is angry at Obama because he genuinely believes that the things that Obama has distanced himself from are in fact things Obama himself believes to be true? Things that he learned under his twenty-year tutelage under his pastor of choice. What if Wright is angry that the man he mentored is now denying the things he believes to be true in order to get elected? What if Wright believes Obama is selling out the truth he actually believes? What if Wright is angry because he knows Obama is lying when he accuses Wright of being wrong?
April 30, 2008 2:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
First of all, Ive never seen so many "What ifs" in one post before.
Secondly... this has to do with the 527 how?
April 30, 2008 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is a stretch, even for you.
April 30, 2008 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
then, my question would be:
Why doesn't Wright simply say:
Don't elect Obama, he's a madman.
Of course, at this point, I'm not sure anybody would believe Wright.
A better conspiracy theory is that Wright purposely acted like an ass so that Obama could denounce him.
April 30, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Better have another quick! (chilling or otherwise) Wouldn't want it to die of loneliness, would you?
April 30, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
What if penguins sprout antlers and hurtle out of Mark Penn's colon?
April 30, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm fairly sure that's already happened.
April 30, 2008 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
AWESOME!!! He just made everyone who disagrees with him look like a gay pansy queer! TOTALLY OBLITERATED X 1,000,000!!!
Do you think they give each other high fives after they come up with this childish bullshit? I mean, every quote out of the Clinton campaign since PA sounds like it's coming straight out of high school locker room. "Saddle up." "Pansy." "Is it possible to quote me yawning?" Is it possible to further emulate the Republicans? Gay baiting? Check. Race baiting? Check. Trashing Move On? Check. Robo-calls aimed at voter suppression? Check. Threatening nuclear war? Check. Meaningless economic proposals? Check.
Hillary will be on TV eating freedom fries by Thursday night. Guaranteed.
April 30, 2008 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can you actually quote me yawning?
April 30, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm very concerned about your idea of "forceful". To quote Inigo Montoya, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." You use it a lot and every single time, the response is more on the level of a 5th grade play ground, than an actual "forceful" adult response.
April 30, 2008 2:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think we're missing the big picture here.
Obama will not stand for Swift Boat attacks. If a Republican 527 is illegally spewing crap, he will stop it. And handle damage control. Immediately.
April 30, 2008 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is it possible for me to get through to Greg or Erik that this is nothing more than legal trash talk?
Do you want me to post how much legal trash talk I've heard and engaged in in my career?
Give me a break.
This is a story?
April 30, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Given that the FEC isn't functional at the moment, is it open seans for campaign violations? Granted, people could get in trouble later, but there's really no way to stop anyone from violating the law or the rules at this point, is there?
April 30, 2008 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink