Ok, I know we all love watching the GOP Tea Party nuts rip each other apart. Especially with this story:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
Rep. Paul Broun's (R-GA.) Senate campaign bashed Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA.) for complaining about his congressman's salary.
Gingrey is running against Broun and other Republican candidates in the Senate primary in Georgia.
"While most Americans are struggling to make ends meet and battling higher healthcare costs, it's disappointing that Congressman Gingrey, whose reported net worth exceeds $3 million, complains about being 'stuck here (in Congress) making $172,000 a year,'" the Broun campaign said in a statement released Wednesday. "Congressman Paul Broun is fighting to exempt all Americans from Obamacare, to get Georgians back to work, and to jump start the economy so that our country can return to the path to prosperity. Georgians needs a senator who understands what it’s like to balance a budget, not one who is more concerned with their salary than the needs and economic challenges faced by most Georgians." - TPM, 9/19/13
Here's the back story behind this:
http://www.slate.com/...
The world's tiniest violin is playing for Georgia Republican House member Phil Gingrey, who's very troubled by his inability to make ends meet on $172,000 a year:
Capitol Hill aides, he said “may be 33 years old now and not making a lot of money. But in a few years they can just go to K Street,” the Washington, D.C., vernacular for becoming a lobbyist, “and make 500,000 a year. Meanwhile I’m stuck here making $172,000 a year.”
Back in the real world, of course, there's nothing stopping Gingrey from retiring and cashing in. Meanwhile last year the median household income in the United States was $51,017 a year. And that's for a household. Gingrey's wife has her own earning potential. What's more, Gingrey is currently eligible for a full pension alongside his Social Security benefits any time he chooses to step down. - Slate, 9/18/13
It's very clear Broun's throwing a hard punch at Gingrey and he deserves it. But remember that Broun is running for his party's nominee to run for Saxby "Chicken Hawk" Chambliss' (R. GA) Senate seat. He would be going up against Michelle Nunn (D. GA) next year. Broun is playing prison rules, make Gingrey his bitch on day one. This is one of several moves that he will have to pull to win the primary. But here's something else you need to know about Broun:
http://www.13wmaz.com/...
The group known as C.R.E.W., or Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, listed Rep. Paul Broun (R-Athens) on its annual list for the second consectutive time.
The online article puts Broun on the "most corrupt members of Congress" list.
The C.R.E.W. report says Broun's listing stems from his "failure to disclose the true source and terms of his campaign loans."
According to the report, when Broun originally ran for his congressional seat in 2007, he reported making personal loans without interest to his campaign. In 2010, his campaign reported making more than $30,000 in interest payments to Broun, the report said. - WMAZ, 9/19/13
http://chronicle.augusta.com/...
In 2011, after the watchdog group filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, Broun’s then-spokesman blamed the mix-up on an “inexperienced staffer who made a simple error” when reporting the loan. The loan stemmed from a home equity line of credit through Athens First Bank & Trust and included market-rate interest, the spokesman said.
Broun’s campaign finance reports were amended in 2012 and included two previously undisclosed loans, as well as new information on the known loans, according to the report. The newly disclosed loans totaled about $207,000, bringing the total for the loans in question to $321,000.
The group is alleging that Broun violated several campaign finance laws by mischaracterizing the bank loans as coming from personal funds and might have violated others by failing to disclose the loan in the amended 2010 report. The report cites a congressional rule that members of the House of Representatives conduct themselves “at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House” in condemning Broun. An investigation by the FEC is pending, according to the group’s report.
“Incredibly, Rep. Broun is now seeking a promotion to the Senate without ever fully explaining the source of money he used to get elected to the House,” its executive director, Melanie Sloan, said in a news release. “Members of Congress should not be able to evade the basic requirements of the law by relentlessly obfuscating the truth.”
In response, Broun’s office sent a report from the Office of Congressional Ethics, labeled confidential, that reads “there is not substantial reason to believe that a violation of House rules or federal law occurred” in relation to Broun’s earning interest income from the loan. The Aug. 24, 2012, report show that the ethics board unanimously recommended the House Committee on Ethics dismiss the allegations of wrongdoing. - The Augusta Chronicle, 9/19/13
So not only is Broun bat shit crazy but he's also pretty corrupt. But he has a shot at winning and that makes Republicans scared:
http://www.newrepublic.com/...
Republicans are letting on their fears that the race to replace Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss could end in disaster for them. The cast of GOP primary characters, which The Hill has ruled a “clown car,” features the likes of Rep. Phil Gingrey—briefly infamous for saying Rep. Todd Akin was “partially right” about rape and pregnancy—and Rep. Paul Broun—who seems to utter “a gaffe every other day,” in the words of Georgia political operative Joel McElhannon. My colleague Nate Cohn has called the general election, where Democrats will likely run Michelle Nunn, Democrats’ best shot for picking up a Senate seat in 2014.
Today, Manu Raju of Politico reports that in a bid to avoid “Todd Akin 2.0,” Republicans are considering substantial primary ad buys against Broun. Establishmentarians are right to focus their fears on him: The first legislation he introduced to Congress was a personhood bill defining life as beginning at conception, he’s a goldbug, and he voted for Allen West as speaker this Congress, even though West was no longer a member. And his over-the-top rhetoric makes fertile territory for the next “legitimate rape.” See his contribution to the debate over the 2009 stimulus bill:
“This non-stimulus bill is the road to socialism. It will give us a journey that includes bureaucratic controls, high taxes, government intervention, Cuba-style medicine, and economic collapse of America. This steamroller of socialism is being shoved down our throats, and it will strangle our economy. This porkulous bill has a few decent provisions in it, but it's mostly filled with mystery meat. Rancid meat.” - The New Republic, 9/19/13
I am looking forward to this primary. I'll have more on this race as more news develops. If you would like to get involved with Michelle Nunn's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.michellenunn.com/