Former FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey says the conservative outlet that helped launch the Tea Party paid Glenn Beck at least $1 million last year to fundraise for the organization, an arrangement he said provided "too little value" for the money.
"The arrangement was simply FreedomWorks paid Glenn Beck money and Glenn Beck said nice things about FreedomWorks on the air," Armey, the former House majority leader, told Media Matters Friday. "I saw that a million dollars went to Beck this past year, that was the annual expenditure."
Armey, who left the organization this past fall after a dispute over its internal operations, said a similar arrangement was also in place with Rush Limbaugh, but did not know the exact financial details.
"I put it down now as basically as paid advertising for FreedomWorks by Beck," Armey said, calling it a mistake.
Oh but wait, that is only the tip of the scummy iceberg. Mother Jones has more:
According to ex-FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey, when he joined the organization in 2003, FreedomWorks relied heavily on corporate donations. The group, he says, subsequently weaned itself off such underwriting and used direct-mail lists—some provided by Armey—to build up a base of small donors. But in the last year, there was a "big surge in private individual contributions," most of which Armey says he didn't know about. "The details were kept secret from me," he remarks.
FreedomWorks, flush with wealthy donors' money, took full advantage of the nation's lax campaign finance rules during the 2012 election cycle. The group's nonprofit side shifted millions of dollars in dark money to the FreedomWorks super-PAC, effectively hiding the true source of those funds. One campaign finance reform advocate blasted those internal money transfers as the "laundering of secret money." A FreedomWorks spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.
So essentially this is the same thing that Sarah Palin has done, as well as various other so called conservatives. They talk about freedom, conservative values, and apple pie to attract donations and then use the money to pay staff, fund raise, or else launder it by paying other conservative groups who then send the money back to them for some bullshit or unidentified service.
Rachel Maddow revealed on her show Friday that Dick Morris used that exact same money laundering scam with his SuperPAC.
Wow, I think I might need to take a shower now.
You know you would think that the conservatives who are donating to these scam artists would eventually figure this out, but you know they probably won't. After all, if they were smart enough to see through this stuff they would be smart enough to become liberals.
8 million dollars of those "private individual donations" went towards making Dick Armey go away. Rachel and even Stephen Colbert exposed those alleged grassroots organizations way back, but a fool and his money....
ReplyDeleteI wish Rachel would mention the Palin SarahPAC scam. We suspect the Palins are using that money for personal use.
ReplyDeleteArmey is getting paid $8 MILLION to just go away!! These people do their dirty work stricktly for the money, not for any high minded "values" Armey has been a slimeball forever, he worked alongside the little jailbird DeLay when both were in office. The repubs. really know how to get the crooks onboard, don't they? Hopefully Sarahpac will be investigated, and audited next.That is overdue.
ReplyDeleteGryphen,
ReplyDeleteThis same kind of operation also goes on in charities (not all -- but some).
Learned this through a show done on CNN by Anderson Cooper and Gary Tuckman. Yes -- CNN -- who also pumped the Baggers following the Bagger tour etc.
The charity raises money, pay an organization to fundraise and in the end the bill for the fundraise organization is basically equal to what the donations were. This was evidenced on the show with an organization for dogs for soldiers which was a scam. In fact all the organizations shown were with regard to raising money for those in the military in need whether because of inuries, etc.
The woman heading the 'dog' charity, also had headed the 'dog' charity after Katrina. She got caught but it didn't stop her as she moved & opened the one for military dogs.
Correction to my comment re dogs for military just posted:
ReplyDeleteI said Gary Tuckman of CNN -- It should be Drew Griffin.
Here is one article I found quickly talking about Baghdad Pups and investigations:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/14/us/animal-charity-investigation/index.html?iref=allsearch
There was another charity about military and I haven't found the info yet but I remember the charity sending thousands of packs of coconut flavor M&Ms to the organization helping the vets. WTF??? The organization said they didn't ask for and WTH were they going to do with them as it took money to store them
"if they were smart enough.....they would probably become liberals." Wasn't Morris at one time on the DNC payroll working with Bill Clinton? Now there was a lapse in Clinton's judgement! Morris is, as you say, scum. The whole machinery of the RNC is scum, and will continue to bottom feed as long as they get fellow scum like Bachmann, Ryan, Cantor, and Boehner elected. I heard Ohio Dems are working to find someone to contest Boehner's seat next year. Let's hope that is happening all over this country. We need to take the government back from the money and the scummies who use it for evil.
ReplyDeleteMorris was Clinton's campaign manager until he got caught in a prostitution matter.
DeleteI believe it was The Last Word this week with Ezra filling in, there was a segment about just this about Morris resigning the day Clinton was to give his speech at the Dem Convention.
It's one disgusting financial circle-jerk where they are all wealthy yes-men telling each other what they want to hear.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's when they went to bed surprised and heartbroken that Obama didn't lose in a landslide.
It pays to be a conservative in this country, not only do you have unimaginable power, but imagined power and you get to keep your money within the con community and just pass it around through musical chairs.
If you read the latest postmortems of the Republican failure in the 2012 election, it is striking that they are increasingly amazed and awestruck at how the Obama campaign spent money and used resources effectively and intelligently. The Romney campaign spent money purely to spend money, as if they truly believed that merely dumping money anywhere and everywhere guaranteed the win.
ReplyDeleteThis, above all, illustrates ridiculousness of the idiotic notion that Romney and the people working with him have any kind of capable business minds or ability to strategize.
It's obvious to me that having been a "community organizer" was much better background for running a successful political campaign than having been a dubious businessman.
DeleteBeaglemom
Absolutely! But they will still mock him for it. No matter, it served him(and us)well.
DeletePalin tried her best to turn 'community organizer' into another 'dirty' word for the rethug Nation, akin to something as depraved as 'pedophile'. Wonder where the idiot might have gone in her political career if she had ever actually tried to do something for her community or spent some time with her 'constituents'.
DeleteShe probably thinks it means someone who works hard and we know how that meme sits with terminally lazy and spoiled grifters like the mama griz.
I think that all "super PACs" should be abolished. If people want to contribute to a candidate, they should do so directly to the campaign or to the candidate's political party whether at the state level or the national level.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
The brain trust. Rush, Hannity and Beck. Not a college degree amongst them. Drug addiction, alcoholism, multiple marriages. Real republicans. Money well spent as far as this liberal is concerned.
ReplyDeleteBeck and Hannity didn't go to college either????!!! Wowie. That is truly frightening since they pose as conservative thinkers and intellectuals among a certain set anyway.
DeleteDon't forget Sarah Palin. I will bet my last dollar that she did not finish college.
DeleteThey are the conservative thinkers. White, angry, uneducated and ill-informed. Take that away from the repubs and you could have the convention in a shoe box.
DeleteIt's not just liberals who are smart, Gryphen.
ReplyDeleteI'm an independent conservative, with progressive and libertarian views on issues like gay marriage, pro-choice, equal pay, separation of church and state, and civil rights.
I think the government should stay out of my bedroom, my doctor's office, my garden, or what liquids I may choose to distill in my back yard.
dunno if I'm "smart as a liberal" but I even voted for President Obama over Mr 47% :)
Well it's probably dubious whether you can call yourself a conservative anymore--your'e one of the old school types--one of the smart kind--who are rapidly vanishing, being kicked out of your own party that has been invaded by RWNJs (stupid ones.) You smart conservatives better band together and get your act together and kick these dumb crazies out so that you can give us smart liberals a run for our money! :)
DeleteAmen. In my circle of family and friends there are many who remain 'conservative' voters despite admitting embarrassment at the antics of the extreme in their party. Most claim that it's for 'fiscal policy' despite so much documented evidence to the contrary that the spending actions/results of Repubs in reality are anything but conservative.
DeleteAs most of those I know fall into higher income brackets it's apparent to me that it's really only about their own personal 'tax' increases as they notice their increasing incomes equaling a higher tax bill. No kidding, that's what % brackets do. Yes, they want a peaceful and prosperous society but they don't want to 'pay' to have it. It matters not a whit to them that corporate profits over workers are the true cancer in our society. In fact, it's one of the driving forces within the repub agenda. Have also noticed that many in this crowd spend little time examining political issues in any depth. Too busy, too boring. Vote party line and complain about their taxes and 'freedom'. Yawn.
I had a suspicion that there were a lot of dummies out there, but now that I'm reading Oliver Stone's BOOK version of his documentary ("Untold History of the U.S.") I came across a passage that mentioned that in the not that distant past, a HUGE I.Q. test was conducted, which showed that a frightening FIFTY PERCENT of individuals in America, do not rise to the level of MORON.
ReplyDeleteSadly, politicians and religious scam artists, obviously know this, and ply their trade among the drooling hordes of our society.
So, in fact, their so-called freedom can only work with OPM. They accuse democrats of requiring OPM and taxable income to relieve the needy and minorities.
ReplyDeleteFreedom Works and the SuperPacs are using and begging for hard-working Americans to give so they can crown their man/woman in the White House - so he/she can use OPM to prosper the haves and ignore the have-nots.
Sounds like everybody needs everybody else's money and whether it's donated voluntarily or done through a elected political Party by a majority vote is.........the same.
So these guys are practicing the same format but calling it a different name....."freedom". Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.......and the fools are falling for it.
LOVE your last sentence, Gryphen. It's right on the money (so to speak;-) ).
ReplyDeleteIt is similar to FOX paying people like Ham Rove to be political 'consultants' while at the same time Rove is being paid for shilling for Republican super PACs.
ReplyDeleteAnd like $creech Paylin, grifting from personal PACs and using the money for 'postage'and 'bus epairs.' Someone is hopefully sniffing around about the half term half wit's use/abuse of her grift.
It should come as no surprise to people that the broadcasts of political televangelists such as Beck and Limbaugh are little more than right wing infomercials.
ReplyDeleteI am sick - yes, sick -of both the Democratic and Republican Parties. There is absolutely no honesty, no transparency, no morality and no commitment to the U.S. Constitution in either party.
ReplyDeleteWe are, indeed, ready for a third party - one which elects moral men/women - not ones who have broken marriages. If these cannot be trusted in a marriage, how can we trust them as leaders of our once-great country? The wise founders could see that our leaders needed to be God-fearing and to credit God's providence for guiding and blessing this country.
Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Savage and Hannity, not to mention the Tea Partiers and 9/12ers, have done more than anyone or anything else to educate us about the Founders and the Constitution.
What these people have taught us would make a firm fountation for a third party. By the way, none of these mentioned above would qualify as candidates for any office if they have skeletins in their closets and most of them do. Nevertheless, people do learn by their mistakes, and they have taught us well. However, they have disqualified themselves for office because of their past mistakes.
Wow, are you off your meds or just in the wrong place?
DeleteThe Pee Pond is that-a-way.
Sounds as though Dick Armey is utilizing a little scorched earth policy here. So like a conservatard. He could go on like this against "Freedom Stolen" all week and I would happily listen to every minute of it.
ReplyDelete