Democracy for New Mexico

Demonstrators Protest Karl Rove's ABQ Fundraiser for Heather Wilson for Senate

Karl Rove -- uncouth political strategist and GOP babysitter to the uncouth stars of the right wing -- who was once known as (George W.) Bush's Brain and referred to as "Turd Blossom" by Bush himself, headlined a fundraiser yesterday at the Tinnin residence in Albuquerque for none other than Mz. Heather Wilson, who's running for U.S. Senate now. Rove and Wilson became pals and co-conspirators of sorts during the time Wilson served as NM-01's congresswoman, and she joined former GOP Sen. Pete Domenici and worms like Mickey Barnett in trying to get rid of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. Note that Barnett is one of the fundraiser's co-hosts. How sweet. It's like a reunion of the can Iglesias conspiracy ring.

Folks had to pay a premium of $1000 per person to get into yesterday's event -- but all the thousand-dollar donors also got a personally signed copy of Rove's book, Courage and Consequence. Who could ask for anything more, even though Media Matters points out the tome is rife with falsehoods? Hey, they're the falsehoods right wingers cling to, even today.

Naturally, New Mexico Dems couldn't resist demonstrating their distain for everything Rove-Wilson-GOP outside yesterday's event, and they did it with spirit and pizzazz. Check out the photos of some of the protestors with their pointedly critical signs. They had to make SOME dent in the attention-getting department with all those well-heeled GOP campaign pork providers, right? You betcha! (Oh wait, that's Sarah Palin's schtick.)

Blast From the Past
You may recall that Iglesias refused to pursue bogus "voter fraud" cases and allegedly wasn't working fast enough on certain corruption cases, and thus became an enemy of Wilson-Domenici et al. He was fired and eventually Wilson-Domenici got into trouble for pushing Iglesias to prosecute cases they perceived would help Wilson's chances at reelection.

Although neither one actually received the punishments they deserved, you'd have to say their squeaky clean facades, constructed so carefully over the years, didn't look so squeaky clean anymore. Domenici ended up retiring -- claiming a malady that miraculously disappeared when he left office -- and Heather lost her seat to Dem Martin Heinich when she ran in the GOP Senate primary in 2008 and lost to the right-wingers' right winger, Steve Pearce.

You can read more about the misadventures of Heather in he Iglesias case, as well as her real voting record, below. Always good to get the facts instead of the spin.

Why Rove for the headliner of this big bucks event? I guess Karl is considered a good money draw out here, and he does have those high-flying PACs that can easily pay for swoops into swing states when the time is right. Heather also clearly wants to rub elbows with right-wingers as much as possible to try to make the NM GOP base forget her long-time claims to being "moderate" when she believed that might help her reelection chances. Of course the truth is that she was a Bush-Cheney cheerleader through and through, so I'm sure it was easy to get Rove to make a trip to Albuquerque on her behalf.

However, Rove is also persona-non-grata among Tea Party advocates. He has regularly insulted them and pointed out their stupidities, so I don't know how much the Rovey vibes will help her with the right-wing extremist/Tea Party wing of the NM GOP, which is expected to back her opponent -- current Lt. Gov. John Sanchez. Well, you take what you can get when you're Heather Wilson -- an old-hat candidate in an era when the GOP wants fresh meat for their rabidly extreme base voters.

Heather Wilson on the Record:

• In mid-October 2006, Wilson and Domenici each called Iglesias personally, asking him about the status of the courthouse corruption investigation and possible indictments of New Mexico Democrats. Iglesias, seeing the calls as unwarranted interference in a criminal case by elected officials, refused to give them any information. Iglesias later testified that he was “sickened” by the calls from Wilson and Domenici. [Politico, By John Bresnahan &Josh Gerstein, 8/12/09]

• Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) called Iglesias’s dismissal “the most egregious case of political abuse of the U.S. attorney corps” and said he has forwarded the information obtained by his panel, including depositions of Rove and former White House counsel Harriet Miers, onto a Justice Department prosecutor. [Politico, By John Bresnahan &Josh Gerstein, 8/12/09]

• CQ also found that Wilson doesn't buck the president quite as much as she and her campaign handlers might like us to believe. Starting in 2001, CQ found that Wilson voted in support of Bush's stated positions on issues 88 percent of the time. In 2002, she supported the president 90 percent of the time, in 2003 her support level was 89 percent, in 2004 it was 88 percent. Only in the last year, 2005, did Wilson put some serious distance between herself and Bush, voting on his side of issues just 70 percent of the time. [Wilson Record a Maverick Streak, Not GOP Buckin' , ABQ Journal, by Michael Coleman, 3/12/06]

• In 2001, Wilson voted with House Republican leadership 94 percent of the time, according to CQ. The following year, in 2002, that number dropped to 90 percent. In 2003, the number edged up to 91 percent, then dropped to 79 percent in 2004 and then 82 percent last year, in 2005. [Wilson Record a Maverick Streak, Not GOP Buckin' , ABQ Journal, by Michael Coleman, 3/12/06]

• Democrats criticize Wilson for her decision to return only $10,000 of about $50,000 she received from Americans for a Republican Majority, or ARMPAC, a political action committee founded by DeLay. [Wilson Money Draws Criticism, ABQ Journal, by Michael Coleman, 9/14/06].  Tom Daley was eventually convicted of money laundering and conspiracy.

Hate Email Typifies Approach of Right Wing "Movement"

See below the break for a message I received today at the email address for this blog. I decided to share it with you as I believe it illustrates the kind of hateful mindset that is being fomented and nourished by right-wing and tea party strategists, politicians and pundits, as well as their misguided supporters.

As we've learned, a significant amount of funding for this "movement" is being funneled through secretive right-wing organizations that are getting their donations from large corporate interests, wealthy hedge fund managers and even foreign governments -- thanks to the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS and American Crossroads, American Action Network and the US Chamber of Commerce are examples of "movement" players that poured millions of dollars into nasty ad campaigns attacking Democrats and using appeals to the baser nature of voters to do it. One of the "movement's" favorite techniques is to use immigration as a wedge issue. Another is to question the citizenship and religion of President Obama -- as we saw now congressman-elect Steve Pearce do in this campaign cycle.

On another local note, one of the donors who contributed seven million dollars to American Crossroads was none other than Swiftboater Bob Perry of Texas. You may recall that Perry and his wife gave now governor-elect Susana Martinez the largest donation in New Mexican history -- $450,000. It's all of a piece, isn't it? And there's more of it to come. Rove has announced that he and others intend to keep up the barrage of attack ads and other initiatives all the way through the coming lame-duck session of Congress and beyond. This is the new America courtesy of conservative and corporatist extremists. And it's not a pretty picture.

I reproduced the email just as it was received -- odd spacing and all -- so you could get the true flavor of the sender. I did remove the sender's email address:

	Subject: Illegal Wetbacks
	Sent by "Mario"   On:  Nov 11/05/10 8:56 AM
	To: "dfnm albq"

 

Subject: Obama/Scumbag

 

Impeach the Black Muslim Bastard ! ! !

 

  
Pelosi,
 
You along with this Raghead in the Whitehouse are a total disgrace to this nation ! ! The only thing that would personally make me feel better,along with millions of Americans,is that you along with Harry Reid and Obama are diagnosed with terminal cancer.
 
 This Black Raghead Obama has to go ! !
 
This handling of this oil spill in the Gulf is just another
reason your are a total failure as
President of the United States.Every
bill you have pushed
through Congress has been a total failure,including Healthcare reform,
the failed stimulus bill along with the total out of control spending and
lack bi-partisanhip on the behave of this administration,also your
refusal to secure are borders to stop the flow of illegal Wetback
Scum ! !
 
To whom it may concern:
 
Mexican murder suspect: US consulate infiltrated ! !
 
Put the Wetback Bastards through a
woodchipper and use
their the remains for fetilizer in the
gardens of the Left
Wing Liberal Democrats that support amnesty for
these Wetback Scum !
 
Mario P. Hepp

 
This email was recently sent to all state Governors ! !
 
Subject: Gov .Jan Brewer

Congratuation Governor Brewer ! !
 
This law  was way over do,something has to be done to stop the flow of illegals into this country.Now maybe other border states will do the same.These illegals are committing voilent
crimes and taxing the already overloaded  social programs here in the United states.This Left Wing Liberal Barack Hussein Obama is certainly not doing anything to stop the flow of these Wetbacks into this great nation ! !
 
This email was recently sent to Allen Bersin.
 
Attention: Allen Bersin ( Border Czar )
 
 
This is a recent email I sent to my Congressman Scott Murphy of New York (21st
District
 
Congressman Murphy,
 
What the hell is wrong with this Rep.Luis Gutierrez
from Illinois,what part of illegal doesn't this"Wetback"
idiot understand ? These illegal aliens living here in
the U.S.A. are entitled to nothing ! !
These "Wetbacks"and their siblings should be deported back to the counties they came from period.I and the millions of legal hard working men and women of this great country are tired of seeing are tax dollars going to programs in the 
United States being used by this "Wetback" illegal scum ! !
I believe I have the solution to this illegal alien problem.
Have the federal government order shoot to kill those illegals trying to cross are borders,then take their dead bodies and put them through a woodchipper then the remains
could be used as fertilizer in the gardens of the Left Wing Liberals Democrats,that support amnesty for this scum ! !

 
 
Bring this email to the attention of this Lius Gutierrez.

P.S This certainly doesn't surpise be that this Luis Gutierrez is pushing to take care of his illegal "Wetback"
aliens.Why is it that many corrupt low life politicians such
as Barack Hussein Obama,Eric Holder,Rahm Emamuel,Jessee
Jackson Jr,Valeri Jarrett,Senator Burris,Van Jones all come from the state of Illinois.

This email was also sent to Bill O'Reilly,Glenn Beck,Sean Hannity,Rachel Maddow,Keith Olberman,Cnn,ABC,NBC and CBS,Eric Holder,Janet Napolitano,L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa,Media Matters
L.A. Times,Washington Post,Miami Herald,Chicago Tribune,N.Y.Times,
and Senator John McCain.

Mario P. Hepp
Glens Falls N.Y.