The Senate Democratic Campaign Committee gave former Sultan Police Chief Fred Walser the tidy sum of $10,000 for his campaign on June 17, almost two weeks after he pled guilty to providing false information and was sentenced to one year in jail.
The obvious question is: if you're a Democrat on the ballot, what do you have to do to NOT get money from the party? What sort of corruption will the Democrats in power NOT overlook from one of their own?
I think the money will likely go to waste, and that he will not have a legacy as an elected official. But there's always skateboard parks.
Also check out the Walser Countdown Clock on our Fred Walser web site. Only 240 hours of community service, $20,000 of restitution, and 346 days of probation to go!
Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.
Posted by pudge at June 23, 2008 12:54 PM | Email ThisThey only speak truth.
Gezzz.
Posted by: Army Medic/Vet on June 23, 2008 01:24 PMPlease tell me somewhere there is a Democrat who is at least a little bothered by this.
Posted by: Mike H on June 23, 2008 01:52 PMIf it's not "Felony Fred" Walser "knocking on doors while he's picking up trash" (my favorite line in Pudge's brilliant ditty), then it's Geoff Simpson and his restraining orders and arrests for knocking around his wife. It's Tami Green gettting slapped with an ethics violation for using her position as a state rep to bully small businesses on behalf of her big labor boss employer, who, incidently, paid her more than $70,000 to run in the first place. It's Rep. John McCoy, who used his position as a legislator to propose legislation to direct millions of sales tax revenues to his own company. Or Hans Dunshee, who wouldn't help the City of Snohomish get funding for a sewage treatment plant until they sold him some lake view park land (he was the only "bidder") so he could park his mobile home on it, blocking the neighbors view lots...who thought they had built next to a city park.
The Democrat ranks are chock full of corrupt and unethical candidates and legislators. Not only do they not care, but they continue to enable this behavior by tossing $10K at convicted criminals like Walser, and even paying his personal medical bills.
In ironic words of another jail bird, Jim Trafficant, "Beam me up!"
Posted by: Chad Minnick on June 23, 2008 02:29 PMthe practice that you identify is not limited to a single political party, despite your desire to 'isolate' this as a democratic practice.
it is an indictment of our political system, not of a particular party.
i'm sure your clever mind can identify instances where convicted republicans received party support.
Posted by: dinesh on June 23, 2008 02:53 PMThe fact is, the Democrats in Washington are doing this. Here and now. They are supporting corruption all over the place, as Chad pointed out. And if we don't point it out, who will? No one else is. Do you think it is not something that should be pointed out? Wait, don't bother answering that ...
Posted by: pudge on June 23, 2008 02:59 PMdinesh actually put the blame on the system.
I should have recognized that right away, what with the same line being used to absolve Obama of his campaign lies.
Look, if you have specific charges against the Republicans, feel free to bring them. But vague hand-waving about "everyone does it" or "it's the system, man" won't cut it. In a free society it's our duty to hold our representatives and parties responsible for misdeeds.
I would hope the one thing we should all be able to agree on is that people who do wrong things -- especially when those people have political power -- they should be held to account.
If you cannot agree on that, then we have nothing more to discuss. If we CAN agree on it, then you have nothing more to complaint about with what I posted.
Posted by: pudge on June 23, 2008 03:04 PMBut the Washington State GOP leadership has done a great job in eliminating bad apples when they find them. Just this last year alone, they forced Rep. Curtis to resign, force Shirley Hankins to not run again, and stripped Rep. Dunn of all his committees and asked him to step aside. When he refused, the GOP gave him the gift of a well-funded primary opponent.
Far cry from the Democrat reaction of "if Walser just pled guilty, he'll need more money for his campaign."
At least for now, Republicans are demostrating sacrificial leadership, while Democrats are displaying their brazen culture of corruption.
Posted by: Chad Minnick on June 23, 2008 03:08 PMAccused of rape (Clinton)
Perjury (Clinton)
Kill a woman (Kennedy)
Statuatory rape of an underage male (Studds)
Lover run a gay prostitution ring from your home (Frank)
Accuse fellow vets of war crimes (Kerry)
Call innocent Marines cold blooded murderers (Murtha)
Guess if you're a dem, pretty much anything is OK.
I do not want Walser to join that list. :-)
Posted by: pudge on June 23, 2008 03:58 PMI don't like many of our Republicans politicians. There is a lot of sleeze on this side of the aisle as well. But it's far worse on the Democrat side, both in ideology, behavior, arrogance, pay-offs, union money, corruption, waste, Socialism, and radical environmental nonsense.
The only thing worse than a Republican is a Democrat.
Posted by: Jeff B. on June 23, 2008 10:42 PMhowever, you lose credibility i think when cloaking these abuses when you suggest, as i believe your post does, that these abuses are somehow endemic to democrats.
let's face facts--both parties have swerved out of control, and are a political apparatus designed to raise money to finance elections to retain/gain power. most 'abuses' are not party-specific (i can't really think of any that are, but i'm sure someone on this site can point some out).
people on this site applaud the commuting of scooter's sentence and clinton's impeachment, but remain silent about abramhoff or delay.
standards are, shall we say, a bit inconsistent.
Posted by: dinesh on June 24, 2008 02:22 PMthese acts are simply un-american and i would expect more outrage from this group. instead, i am likely to get a bunch of vitriol suggesting that we have to fight terrorists using new means, etc. (i.e., we have to become terrorists to defeat terrorists).
meanwhile, some republicans are still fixated on clinton's bj.
that said, continue to point out the abuses committed by dems and remain silent about those committed by republicans--at least half of the issue is out there.
Posted by: dinesh on June 24, 2008 02:31 PMlet's see:
enron execs created a scheme to defraud shareholders of money and inflate corporate earnings. they did so while they continued to sell shares based on material inside information. enron ultimately collapsed, shareholders got nothing, enron execs got rich, and notably 3 of their leadership were convicted.
comparing to a republican congress from 2001-2006, republicans ran up the deficit (increased spending and size of govt), cut taxes irresponsibly (see greenspan's initial reaction before he succumbed to right-wing political pressure) and now we face a huge deficit, the dollar has lost about 30% of its value over the last few years, china continues to increase its creditor status towards us, and we face huge deficits going forward.
what exactly have the dems (who have not had control of the budget since 1994) done that reminds you of enron?
Posted by: dinesh on June 24, 2008 02:59 PMhowever, you lose credibility i think when cloaking these abuses when you suggest, as i believe your post does, that these abuses are somehow endemic to democrats.
I don't do that. Please do not misrepresent me so blatantly. I am simply pointing out the fact that the Democratic PARTY is supporting these people. It's a fact. I linked to the documentation, even.
people on this site applaud the commuting of scooter's sentence and clinton's impeachment, but remain silent about abramhoff or delay.
On Clinton, I have stated many times that while Clinton OBVIOUSLY broke the law, impeachment was a mistake, for the sake of the country, so throw that out. I am not sure how your referencing the fact that Clinton broke the law helps your case here, though.
And as far as I am concerned, it was never proven beyond reasonable doubt that Libby lied, but while I disagree with the conviction, I was not in favor of the commutation, so throw that out.
DeLay did nothing wrong, as best we can tell so far. The evidence is flimsy: it took multiple tries to indict, and one of the charges, a CLEARLY unconstitutional charge against him, was tossed. This shows you something about the prosecutor, Earle. Regardless, he has not had his day in court. When he does, we can talk more then. Until then, throw that out.
Then there's Abramoff. Why should I give a damn either way about Abramoff? He is not a Republican as far as I know. If he is (many people are, he could be) he isn't elected, he doesn't represent my party, and he has no close ties to anyone I know or vote for. Amd even Howard Dean says that if a politician did not give anything to Abramoff, then there was no wrongdoing. And the only person I know of offhand who was found to have given something to Abramoff was Ney, and he was punished, and I DO disavow Ney. But if you want me to disavow Abramoff: sure. Done. Consider him disavowed. And if he is ever shown to have done something wrong with Abramoff, then sure, I'll disavow him.
I don't know about "this site," I can only speak for myself, and I've been very consistent. I defy you to show otherwise.
You're only highlighting my point for me: I, like most other Republicans, do disavow Repubublicans when they do something wrong. Libby is one sort-of exception because many people are convinced he did nothing wrong (whether that's true or not, it's still consistent if you believe he is innocent, to not disavow him). But Walser clearly is guilty, as are many other Democrats that the Democratic Party still support. With lots of money.
if you ask me, the single biggest crime committed by a president (including watergate) is bush's authorization of torture in violation of the geneva conventions and the related suspension of habeas corpus.
You have your facts all backward, dinesh. Let's straighten them out.
Bush never authroized torture in violation of the Geneva Conventions. That never happened. You cannot show otherwise.
Also, the suspension of habeas corpus was from CONGRESS, not the President, and despite your claim, there was NOTHING unconstitutional about the idea: the Supreme Court unanimously agreed that it is perfectly constitutional to replace standard habeas corpus protections with another system, which is what Congress tried to do with the DTA/MCA. The Supreme Court merely ruled that this particular attempt did not offer sufficient protection.
This is really much ado about very little: we WILL come up with replacement provisions, which WILL still deny standard habeas protections to alien unlawful enemy combatants in favor of these replacement provisions, and they will be found sufficient protection according to the Court.
these acts are simply un-american
Riiiiiiight. You listed two things: one of them never happened, and the other the Supreme Court actually, unanimously, affirmed is perfectly constitutional.
And you want us to think they are un-American? Pull the other one.
that said, continue to point out the abuses committed by dems and remain silent about those committed by republicans
As shown, that clearly isn't true. I've spoken out against Ney, I've vocally supported upholding Libby's sentence, I've spoken against Clinton's impeachment, and I am perfectly willing to disavow DeLay if it is shown he violated the law. And while I don't see any reason why he should be counted among Republicans, I have spoken against Abramoff and I believe he belongs in jail.
But none of this is relevant, of course. I just wanted to prove you were wrong even on your tangent. We are talking local politics here, and my interest specifically is the people who are in my districts, who are on my ballots. Fred Walser will be on my ballot. None of the other people you mentioned will be on my ballot, or the ballot of anyone else here.
If you want to point out criminal or ethical problems with Republican locally, feel free to do so. I know of no such problems to point out. If you don't, then you are tacitly admitting there's nothing wrong with what I am doing, but that your logical fallacies are the only way you can fight back against the charges.