In French Rarebit, Bugs Bunny finds himself at the center of a battle between two French chefs and he helpfully provides each chef with advice to help move things along.
It is in the spirit of that cartoon that I decided offer Mitt Romney a tip to help him hold back the Santorum surge sweeping though the base of the GOP.
Follow me to the jump for the helpful tips.
Mitt,
- Did you know that Rick Santorum was one of the first folks in Washington to work with Jack Abramoff?
- Did you know that representatives of the Chinese corporation that owned Sweatshops in Saipan attended a Santorum fundraiser in 1996?
- Did you know that--through an employee--Santorum was given two $5,000 donations by the Chinese-owned sweatshop?
- Did you know that the folks who went to the Santorum fundraiser have been tied to human trafficking, forced prostitution and forced abortions?
- Did you know that shortly after the donation was paid, Rick helped Jack kill some Legislation that his sweatshop owning clients wanted killed?
- Did you know that Rick kept working with Jack Abramoff over the years and that your pal John McCain has the evidence to prove it?
If Mitt Romney wants to take Rick down he should bring up his ties to the sweatshops of Saipan. It is in the public record. For example, in 1996 Jack Abramoff was hired to protect the sweatshops in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, a US Territory 40 miles north of Guam. The Governor--who was in the pocket of the Chinese sweatshop owners--used territory funds (that came from US taxpayers) to pay Jack to stop legislation that would extend US labor, customs and immigration laws to the rogue territory.
Here are samples from Abramoff's July 1996 billing invoice where he meets with Santorum:
And here is Jack billing the Marianas for four and a half hours of his time to take the sweatshop owner and some key employees to a Santorum fundraiser:
According to Open Secrets, Satorum's FightPAC recieved $5,000 just before the sweatshop owner and his employees went to his fundraiser and another $5,000 just after Abramoff and Santorum won a legislative victory for Jack's sweatshop dependent clients. Both payments to his PAC were from John Pangelinan, a long-time employee of the Chinese family that controlled the sweatshops of Saipan.
The human rights record of the Saipan sweatshops was appalling. There were documented cases of sweatshop owners forcing pregnant employees to have abortions and coercing other young women to become sex workers in local nightclubs. It was a system of abuse that Rick Santorum helped Jack Abramoff to protect and he did it for the money.
I'm sure the negative ad masters working for Mitt should be able to have a field day with this information. For inspiration they could look at the ads Casey Cagle ran against Ralph Reed in the 2006 race to be Georgia's Lt. Governor. The guy on Mitt's payroll who created the Willie Horton ad should be able to bring a world of hurt to little Ricky.
And if Mitt's oposition research team needs more dirt on the Santorum/Abramoff alliance, they only need to ask Mitt's pal John McCain. During his investigation of Jack Abramoff, McCain collected over 750,000 pages of Abramoff billing records and emails. I expect that you'll find Santorum all through these documents if you could examine them. John McCain is keeping these from public view, but perhaps he'll leak a peak to Team Mitt--if they ask him.
I hope this helps Mitt. Santorum's involvement with Abramoff to protect the sweatshops of Saipan is part of his record that should get some exposure.
And Rick, you might want to talk about Mitt's Dad and his feud with Barry Goldwater. Did you know that Mitt was with his dad when they walked out of the 1964 GOP Convention to protest Goldwater's extreme conservative platform?
Have fun boys.
Cheers
Re-posted from Balloon Juice
