California Conservative

According to this Strib article, that’s the direct quote from Melanie Sloan, the executive director of CREW. That’s the most laughable thing I’ve heard in ages. First, let’s talk about why the Strib is interviewing Ms. Sloan:

A Washington-based government-watchdog organization filed a federal complaint Monday against the Minnesota Republican Party and its former treasurer alleging “multiple, egregious violations” of campaign reporting laws and regulations.

The complaint by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) will compel the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to investigate, said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the nonprofit group.

CREW’s complaint was based on a confidential memorandum written in February to the state party’s executive committee by its former finance director, Dwight Tostenson. The memo was made public by the Star Tribune on June 3.

The article’s timing is suspect at best:

Carey, who’s running for reelection this week as party chairman, blamed the leak of Tostenson’s memo on political enemies within the Republican Party who are out to get him on the eve of the Republican state central committee meeting.

Here’s a portion of the MNGOP memo as posted on Residual Forces:

Monday, Jun 4, 2007
Dear Republican,
As Congressional District Chairs and members of the State Executive Committee, we were greatly disappointed by yesterday’s article which appeared in the Star Tribune. In tone, substance and through the omission of key facts, the article failed readers in several important ways.
Most notably, the article left out many important facts and did not accurately portray the circumstances involved in a series of internal complaints. The story focused on months-old complaints about issues that had either been long resolved or were completely unfounded.
Given our knowledge of these issues, we can assure you that the Republican Party of Minnesota has dealt with these matters swiftly and effectively and with great transparency.

While it’s hardly surprising that the liberal Star Tribune would omit important facts, it is unfair that activists be left with only half-truths and innuendo to fully evaluate the Republican Party of Minnesota’s operations. As members of the governing body of our Party, we would like to provide you with the full story.

We’ve attached a point-by-point summary refuting and explaining each charge leveled against our Party. Further, we’ve attached a memorandum from Dwight Tostensen, which he issued in March of 2007, expressing confidence in Chairman Carey’s leadership in handling his complaints.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us, or call the State Party Headquarters at 651-222-0022.
Sincerely,

I strongly recommend that you read Andy’s post in its entirety. Now let’s return to today’s Strib article. Here’s what the Strib said about CREW’s ‘nonpartisan nature’:

Sloan acknowledged appearing on Franken’s show before it went off the air. But she said CREW is a nonpartisan organization founded in 2003, which has filed complaints against both Republicans and Democrats, including Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa, and William Jefferson, D-La.

That’s a steaming load of cow manure. It’s utterly laughable. It’s true that they cited Rep. Murtha and Rep. ‘Cold Cash’ Jefferson. But they aren’t telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth on it. Let’s first talk about Ms. Sloan’s day job. These days, she’s representing Mr. and Mrs. Joe Wilson:

Melanie Sloan, legal counsel to Joe and Valerie Wilson in their civil suit against Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby and Richard Armitage, released the following statement today in response to President Bush’s decision to commute Mr. Libby’s sentence.

“First, President Bush said any person who leaked would no longer work in his administration. Nonetheless, Scooter Libby didn’t leave office until he was indicted and Karl Rove works in the White House even today. More recently, the vice president ignored an executive order protecting classified information, claiming he isn’t really part of the executive branch. Clearly, this is an administration that believes leaking classified information for political ends is justified and that the law is what applies to other people.”

Unfortunately, that sounds like Washington’s definition of nonpartisan to me. Let’s not stop there, though. Ms. Sloan said that they cited Democrats and Republicans alike. This list says otherwise:

CREW’s Most Corrupt Members of Congress:
Members of the Senate:
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Bill Frist (R-TN)
Rick Santorum (R-PA)

Members of the House:
Alan Mollohan (D-WV)
Roy Blunt (R-MO)
Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)
Ken Calvert (R-CA)
Richard Pombo (R-CA)
John Doolittle (R-CA)
Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
Tom Feeney (R-FL)
Pete Sessions (R-TX)
Katherine Harris (R-FL)
John Sweeney (R-NY)
William Jefferson (D-LA)
Charles Taylor (R-NC)
Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Gary Miller (R-CA)
Curt Weldon (R-PA)

Five Members to Watch:
Chris Cannon (R-UT)
J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
John Murtha (D-PA)
Don Sherwood (R-PA)

My Minnesota math says that 4 Democrats are listed compared with 21 Republicans. Note, too, that Murtha just made the “Members to Watch” list. The others listed were “Cold Cash” Jefferson, who will soon be convicted of accepting bribes. According to this Washington Post article, Allan Mollohan “set up a network of nonprofit organizations to administer the millions of dollars he directed to such public endeavors as high-tech research and historic preservation.” During that time, his personal wealth grew substantially:

From 2000 to 2004, his assets grew from no more than $565,000 to at least $6.3 million. The partners in his rapidly expanding real estate empire included the head of one of these nonprofit groups and the owner of a local company for which he arranged substantial federal aid.

The other Democrat named was Maxine Waters.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though. Get comfy because we’re gonna be here awhile. Here’s what Discover the Networks says about CREW:

The “social change” sought by CREW is the transformation of America into a nation that more fully embraces leftist values and policies. Toward this end, CREW strives to discredit conservatives and Republicans it deems vulnerable to attack, with the objective of decreasing their numbers in political offices nationwide. Thus the overwhelming majority of the public officials targeted by CREW are Republicans. In September 2006, the organization issued a 241-page report, titled “Beyond [Tom] Delay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress”, which named 17 Republicans and 3 Democrats. The report further listed 5 “Dishonorable Mentions”, 4 Republicans and 1 Democrat. A similar disproportion has marked the political contributions made by CREW’s Board members and staffers in recent years. Between 1995 and 2004, those individuals contributed $125,245 to Democrats and $16,013 to Republicans.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg:

CREW was founded by Democrat activists Norm Eisen (an attorney) and Louis Mayberg (a prominent Democrat donor, and co-founder of the Maryland-based mutual fund management firm ProFund Advisors LLC). CREW’s “Form 990″ IRS filing for 2001 lists Mayberg as one of its three Founding Directors; the other two are Daniel Berger (a high-profile Democrat donor who in 2004 made a $100,000 contribution to America Coming Together) and Mark Penn (a fellow at the New Politics Institute, and a top Democrat strategist and pollster who not only played a key role in Bill Clinton’s 1996 presidential campaign, but also served as head of “message and strategy” for Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign).

Let’s briefly summarize:

• CREW was created in 2001.
• The three people listed as co-founders are bigtime Democratic activists and/or operatives, including people that worked on Bill Clinton’s 1996 presidential campaign and Hillary’s 2000 senatorial campaign.
• CREW’s aim is to defeat as many Republicans as possible, going so far as targeting specific incumbents.

Let’s see what else we can learn about CREW:

CREW has received financial backing from George Soros’s Open Society Institute, Democracy Alliance, the Tides Foundation, the Streisand Foundation, the Arca Foundation, the David Geffen Foundation, the Wallace Global Fund, the Mayberg Family Charitable Foundation, the Woodbury Fund, and the Sheller Family Foundation, all institutions distinguished by their support for far-left causes.

We’re supposed to believe that a group that’s heavily funded by George Soros, Barbra Streisand, David Geffen and the Tides Foundation is nonpartisan? That’s insulting. We’re supposed to believe that a group whose founding director also started ACT, the Democrat voter fraud group, is nonpartisan? Here’s part of ACT’s voter fraud operation exposed:

In Minnesota the Bush campaign has come into the possession of the following email from ACT to its Minnesota volunteers:

Election Day is upon us. You are confirmed to volunteer with ACT (America Coming Together - http://www.actforvictory.org/) on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov 2.

We will be creating name badges that include your Ward and Precinct information for each of the thousands of volunteers that day to make it easier to find a volunteer to vouch for a voter at the polls.

I am emailing you to request your street address, city and zip code. We’ve already got your other contact information, but your record in our database does not include this information.

You can save us time on election day by replying today to this email with this information, or give us a call at [phone number with St. Paul area code].

In order to get your badge correct, please reply by Thursday.

Thank you for your help and cooperation. See you on Election Day!

Here’s what Powerline’s Scott Johnson’s explanation of voting requirements in Minnesota:

Under Minnesota’s registration law, an eligible but previously unregistered individual may register to vote in his precinct by showing proof of residence in the precinct or, in the absence of such proof, having a voter registered in the precinct vouch under oath that he personally knows that the unregistered individual is a resident of the precinct.

This intercepted email provides contact information for people coming in from other states to vote illegally. That’s CREW’s definition of nonpartisan? Give me a break.

I hope you aren’t getting restless yet. We’ve got more information on Ms. Sloan:

CREW’s Executive Director is Melanie Sloan, a longtime Democrat operative who previously served as Nominations Counsel for Joe Biden’s Senate Judiciary Committee (1993); Counsel for the Crime Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee for Charles Schumer (1994); Minority Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee under John Conyers (1995-1998); and Assistant U.S. District Attorney for the District of Columbia (1998-2003).

Calling yourself nonpartisan after working for Chuck Schumer, John Conyers and Joe Biden is the ultimate in chutzpah. There isn’t a nonpartisan bone in their bodies. Simply put, that’s insulting to anyone who cares about the truth.

Here’s the ultimate irony of today’s Strib article. Not surprisingly, it’s found in the article’s last paragraph:

A lawyer who specializes in FEC matters and helped CREW prepare its complaint said it could be a year or more before the FEC decides whether enough evidence exists to merit further action.

If CREW is this great watchdog group, why isn’t it releasing the name of the attorney that prepared this complaint? The fact is that CREW’s reputation as a watchdog organization is nonexistent except with the Fever Swampers. Check back later today for more information on who CREW is and what their agenda is. I’ve only touched the tip of this iceberg.

Technorati Tags: CREW, George Soros, Barbra Streisand, Tides Foundation, David Geffen, Melanie Sloan, Joe Wilson, Al Franken, Air America, Hillary, Chuck Schumer, John Conyers, John Murtha, Allan Mollohan, William Jefferson, Culture Of Corruption

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 17th, 2007 at 12:28 am and is filed under Activism, Author: Gary Gross, Corruption, Crime, Hillary, Investigations, Liberals, Media, Washington, DC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.