Friday Fun-- You Think We Have Dangerous Extremists In Congress Today? Meet John G. Schmitz (R-CA)

John G. Schmitz, formerly a Nazi congressman from Orange County

"I didn't care that Nixon went to China, I was only upset that he came back."

                     -Congressman John G. Schmitz (R-CA)

The above quote, given as an answer by Congress' then most extreme right member, to a question about President Nixon's 1972 trip to China, is the only time I recall ever agreeing with Schmitz about anything. You may not remember him but he was kind of the Paul Broun of his day-- only with some clout-- a fanatical leader of the John Birch Society and a deranged tool of the anti-communist plutocrats who felt they owned America. [In fact, I've embedded a video of the worst of that breed, Texas Republican oil man-- possibly the man who bankrolled the assassination of JFK-- H.L. Hunt, which typifies the spirit of the day in domestic right-wing circles and shows how just a little ahead of their time these dangerous sociopaths were-- the teabaggers of the mid-20th Century.]



We'll come back to the colorful Congressman Schmitz, who raised his family in a home owned by his idol, Joe McCarthy, in a moment. First let me ask you if you recall a school teacher in Washington state, a Mary Kay Letourneau, who was convicted of child rape for having a sexual relationship with one of her 12 year old students? It was a pretty notorious case. After serving 6 years in prison she married the kid-- by whom she had two babies in prison-- and took his name, Mary Kay Fualaau. Although she was born, in 1962, Mary Katherine Schmitz. Yeah, she was one of a large brood of children fathered by Congressman Schmitz in at least two simultaneous marriages, one with-- what else-- a teenage student of his while he taught at Santa Ana College. (Weird, yes, but he wasn't a Mormon; he was-- I kid you not-- a self-described "strict" Catholic.) Mary Katherine was a "strict" Catholic too but because she came from-- and ascribed to-- far right Republican values, she had no trouble reconciling that with her life as a "party animal," all through high school and college. She got knocked up in college and her parents forced her to marry the poor guy, who she says she never loved, Steve Letourneau. They had 4 children and he beat her frequently and eventually turned her over to the police for raping her then-13 year old student. Both she and Steve had extramarital affairs all during their "strict" Catholic marriage. Currently she and Fualaau host "Hot for Teacher Night" promotions at a Seattle night club-- Fualaau serving as the disc jockey and Letourneau as hostess.



Not to be overly judgmental, but her siblings-- the ones who can be tracked down-- turned out even worse. Two of them, John, Jr, and Joseph-- named for guess who-- have been Republican Party apparachiks for many years, although Joseph, who served in the German Navy (for old times sake, I guess) also worked for the far right mercenary firm Blackwater as a top executive, probably indicating that he's a war criminal. He also worked as a special assistant for Attorney General Edwin Meese III and as Inspector General for the Pentagon (until forced to resign for a pattern of extreme corruption that was exposed by Chuck Grassley) and for one of Washington's most notoriously shady lobbying operations, Patton Boggs. John, Jr worked as a deputy counsel for George H.W. Bush.



OK, another family values fanatic with the most fucked up family ever? First of all, you haven't heard the half-- and second of all... you haven't heard a half of the half. Remember I mentioned that Congressman Schmitz fathered two children with one of his college students, Carla Stuckle. (His legal wife, a right-wing TV commentator, Mary Schmitz, was widely known as the West Coast Phyllis Schlafly.") When the other woman died, Schmitz gave the kids to another German fascist-- crackpot astrologer Jeanne Dixon (born, like him, into a fascist home in Wisconsin)-- who had made a name for herself "predicting" JFK would be assassinated, although she traveled in the fascist circles of the people who were always talking about having him killed. She's also famous for being an advisor to both Nixon and Reagan and for writing a completely insane book on dog horoscopes. She died soon after taking the kids and both of them wound up in an orphanage, since their father (Congressman Schmitz) and his other family refused to have anything to do with them or give them a dime.



So, how crazy was Schmitz? How about this? A complete kiss-ass to wealthy Orange County wingnuts, he was a longtime national leader of the John Birch Society. His extremism was so off the cliff that they kicked him out of the organization! He ran against Nixon on the ticket of a domestic Nazi party, the American Independent Party, and got over a million votes, mostly in the same kinds of low information centers where Republicans still dominate, Idaho, rural Louisiana, Alaska, Utah...



A virulent racist his entire life, Schmitz was a Martin Luther King hater and once said, "I would have voted for a three-tier system-- have one school that the blacks could go to, one school that all the whites could go to, and those who want to mix go to a third school." He was also a bizarre anti-Semite at a time when Republicans were still very associated with Nazis. When Schmitz announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, he had Yassir Arafat at his side, a way to rally deranged right-wingers at the time.



Before becoming a congressman-- and again after he was defeated in a Republican primary by another psychotic wingnut, Andrew Hinshaw, who eventually went to prison for accepting bribes-- Schmitz was a California state senator. He made a name for himself opposing sex education, ironic when you consider he was basically raping his happily uneducated teenage students. He saw Communists under every bed and accused anyone and everyone he ever disagreed with of being a Communist, including Nixon, who lived in his district. Nixon recruited and helped finance Hinshaw's successful run against him.



Back in the state Senate he became the poster-boy for the anti-Choice movement, which he managed to turn into an anti-Semitic and anti-gay crusade as well. His last campaign was an attempt to gain back his congressional seat in 1984. He ran against B-1 Bob Dornan, the only race Dornan ever ran where he was the more mainstream candidate. Schmitz came in third and got 11% of the primary vote. He fnally died in January, 2001, then a peddler of knickknacks to tourists in Washington, DC.



How, to put this all in context and to see how Schmitz's were the strands that have tied the modern Republican Party together, please watch this video by one of the financiers of the GOP and the rest of the American far right:

Ever Meet A Republican Anti-Gay Fanatic Who WASN'T A Closet Case?

Phillip Hinkle (R-IN), count down to resignation has begun

The message "I Need A Sugga Daddy" always drives rightists into a feeding frenzy-- especially when they're homophobes and it comes from a young boy. Is it such a powerful sexual turn-on to conservatives because it's a power trip? I suspect it isn't bringing out a nurturing side of them. But we'll just have to ask notorious anti-gay fanatic Phillip Hinkle (R-IN), a 64 year old married man from Indianapolis, first elected to the Indiana House in 2000. Indianapolis' conservative Gannett newspaper, The Star reported today that Hinkle solicited sex from an 18 year old boy via the m4m "casual encounters" section of Craig's List. Maybe these perverted old Republicans should stick to smoke signals; they'd get in less trouble and leave less evidence of their hypocrisy.



Hinkle (phinkle46 @comcast.net) picked a hotel owned by a far right conglomerate, the Mormon Marriott to bring the 18 year old for a night. He offered him $80 plus another $50 or $60 "for a really good time." So not just a hypocrite but a cheapskate to boot!

The email exchange is in response to the Craigslist posting in which the young man -- who lists his age as 20 in the ad but says he is 18 years old-- says, "I need a sugga daddy."



The young man told The Star that they met, but that he tried to leave after the man told him he was a state lawmaker. He said the lawmaker at first told him he could not leave, grabbed him in the rear, exposed himself to the young man and then later gave him an iPad, BlackBerry cellphone and $100 cash to keep quiet.



When contacted by The Star about the emails, Hinkle, a Republican who represents portions of Pike and Wayne townships, did not contest the emails but said, "I am aware of a shakedown taking place."

And Rep. Hinkle, who admits he sent the kid the e-mails and that he loves "getting and staying naked," wants everybody to "respect the privacy of the family at this time." Rep Hinkle wanted the young man to spend the night with him but his offer wasn't all that enticing-- "No extra cash just free breakfast and maybe late night snack."

Brad Banks, supervisor of the D Felony Division at the Marion County prosecutor's office, explained-- without being provided details of the emails-- that prostitution in the state of Indiana is defined as an agreement between two parties to have sex in exchange for money and that the agreement must be about both sex and money.

But when the frightened kid tried to back out and go home, Rep. Hinkle, who had bragged about being a legislator and showed the kid his ID said, "You need to do this, because I came and got you, and I'm not taking you back until we do what we need to do." Hinkle got his wife-- and then she got their daughter and son-in-law-- involved after the boy was rescued by his sister. Hinkle's wife offered the sister a $10,000 bribe to shut up about the whole incident. Hinkle claims the boy and his sister ruined him. "You just ruined me," he said. That's how the right-wing mind works. And that's the kind of mind that would accuse Bert and Ernie and SpongeBob SquarePants of being gay.









UPDATE: Hinkle Solicited An African American Teenager For Sex



Yeah, turns out the 18 year whose ass Hinkle was grabbing was a Black kid. Hinkle is getting a lot of pressure to resign... primarily from his fellow Republicans.

"I strongly recommend that Representative Hinkle resign his position," said Marion County Republican Chairman Kyle Walker, "so that he can focus on his family and not have this situation detract from that or the work that needs to continue in his legislative district... And Indiana Republican Party Chairman Eric Holcomb said Hinkle needs to "do the right thing."



Asked if that meant the six-term lawmaker should resign, Holcomb said he "would word it differently."

A political scientist at Purdue adds that "Obviously, Hinkle's career is ostensibly done. He will either resign-- which I think is the most likely thing-- or be replaced anyways." No one thinks Mike Pence is going to want him on the ticket next year.

Who Would You Rather Discipline You-- Homophobic Closet Queen Marcus Bachmann or Rugby Player Nick Youngquest?

Nick & Marcus

Even people who don't realize that Marcus Bachmann is a longtime closet case who was caught several times frequenting (or doing "research" in) gay macho-man leather bars, might be offended by the effeminate First Lady wannabe's taxpayer-subsidized fake therapy that insinuates it can "cure" homosexuality. Michele has made a career out of making gay people in Minnesota afraid there's something wrong with them and she and her closeted husband charge them a bundle to pray the "problem" away in a fake clinic. Not long ago Marcus was hissing about gays people that “barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined." Being "disciplined" is the theme of the gay leather bars this sick and twisted man sneaks around whenever he can get away from Michele.

Even if discipline is your cup of tea... Marcus Bachmann I don't think so!

The new issue of Out features a cover story about several gay-friendly straight athletes who are doing their bit to fight the kind of hatred and bigotry the Bachmanns have built careers around. I can't help but think of Australian rugby star Nick Youngquest as the human antithesis of Marcus Bachmann.

When Nick Youngquest stripped down for the Naked Rugby League calendar in 2006, the Australian player planned to show off his muscles, charming smile, and blue eyes. But the picture published revealed much more. It captured Youngquest’s strategically placed hand slipping away.

It was the shot seen ’round the world-- and a controversial boon for the National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia, the charity that benefited from its popularity. The Australian National Rugby League criticized Younquest for having gone “too far.”

Naturally, gay men disagreed. So did Youngquest, whose confidence is impenetrable. In 2008, Australia’s prominent gay magazine DNA called, and Youngquest stripped down again. This time he safely sported the smallest of swimsuits. In the years since, he’s made a habit of bearing skin in gay magazines around the world.

While taking off his clothes, Youngquest has taken on the cause of gay rights.

And I would bet anyone Nick has done a helluva lot more for the mental health and self-esteem of gay men and women than the self-loathing, hateful and perverted Marcus Bachmann. Yesterday a horde of gay "barbarians" descended on the Bachmann "clinic" (video below). The horde requested to speak directly with Bachmann and experience some “discipline” for themselves.

When Marcus was no where to be found, the barbarians glittered the empty waiting room and reception area while chanting, “You can’t pray away the gay-- baby, I was born this way!”

The action was organized by the same young man who threw glitter on Newt Gingrich, starting a national trend in political protest of anti-LGBT sentiments from political candidates and campaigns.

“Michele and Marcus Bachmann think gay people are barbarians?” asked LGBT activist Nick Espinosa. “I think its clear to everyone who the real barbarians are, based on the Bachmanns’ archaic views on LGBT equality.”

Despite Bachmann's shrill homophobia, the Pentagon today certified that military ready to proceed with repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell.



UPDATE: President Obama Thinks Barbarians Might Work Out Fine In The Military

Here's a statement President Obama just gave today, which might upset the Bachmanns and their deranged, hateful supporters:

Today, we have taken the final major step toward ending the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law that undermines our military readiness and violates American principles of fairness and equality. In accordance with the legislation that I signed into law last December, I have certified and notified Congress that the requirements for repeal have been met. ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will end, once and for all, in 60 days-- on September 20, 2011.

As Commander in Chief, I have always been confident that our dedicated men and women in uniform would transition to a new policy in an orderly manner that preserves unit cohesion, recruitment, retention and military effectiveness. Today’s action follows extensive training of our military personnel and certification by Secretary Panetta and Admiral Mullen that our military is ready for repeal. As of September 20th, service members will no longer be forced to hide who they are in order to serve our country. Our military will no longer be deprived of the talents and skills of patriotic Americans just because they happen to be gay or lesbian.

I want to commend our civilian and military leadership for moving forward in the careful and deliberate manner that this change requires, especially with our nation at war. I want to thank all our men and women in uniform, including those who are gay or lesbian, for their professionalism and patriotism during this transition. Every American can be proud that our extraordinary troops and their families, like earlier generations that have adapted to other changes, will only grow stronger and remain the best fighting force in the world and a reflection of the values of justice and equality that the define us as Americans.

[I still oppose him on cutting back on Social Security and Medicare-- IF the rumors are true that he's joining with Boehner and Cantor and the GOP to push that through.]

Republicans Have Good Reason To Worry That Gays Are Taking Over Their Party

And the worst kind of gays, frustrated, self-loathing, deranged and mentally unbalanced closet cases. And I'm not just talking about the spate of Republicans who have come out recently, like Ken Mehlman and Lindsay Graham, or even just potential First Lady Marcus Bachmann. As Rick Perry promises to make his intentions-- in terms of the Republican presidential race-- known within the next couple of weeks, the discussions of his use of male prostitutes and of his affairs with other closeted Texas Republicans is coming back to haunt him. But first a little wrap up on ole Marcus and how that could impact the campaign of dedicated homophobic fanatic Michele Bachmann.

If you aren’t yet familiar with the growing whispers about Michele Bachmann’s campaign—the uncorroborated speculation that the candidate’s profoundly antigay hubby, Marcus, is a closeted gay man—you will be. The chatter has already made its way from the blogs and Twitter (Cher tweeted that Marcus has tripped her exquisitely tuned gaydar) to the alternative press to The Daily Show, where Jon Stewart and Jerry Seinfeld left each other in stitches this week taking shots at Marcus Bachmann’s effeminate manner and “center-square gay” voice. (Anyone out there old enough to remember Paul Lynde?) As Stewart joked, the guy is “an Izod shirt away from being the gay character on Modern Family.” Clips of the comedians’ faux “comedy repression” session promptly popped up on the websites of such stodgy outlets as the Washington Post and The Atlantic.

The wringing of hands about whether it’s fair for the respectable media to promote this sort of salacious chatter is as inevitable as the chatter itself. But this particular assault on Marcus is about more than critics lobbing generic bombs at a fiercely conservative presidential combatant. Michele Bachmann has long been one of the most aggressive anti-gay-marriage crusaders in politics, while Marcus runs a Christian-based therapy clinic accused of dabbling in “reparative therapy,” a controversial counseling technique premised on the notion that you can "pray away the gay." (One clip making the rounds from an undercover video shows a potential clinic patient being assured that, among other things, God had made men’s eyes to appreciate the form of a woman.)

The Minnesota congresswoman has lamented that involvement in “the gay and lesbian lifestyle” is a life of “personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement,” while her husband has charmingly likened bi-curious youth to “barbarians” who must be “educated” and “disciplined”-- parenting advice that manages at once to sound both draconian and pervy.
In short, we’re talking here about a couple that has planted its flag on the lush green fields of militant anti-gaydom and dared the deviants to take their best shot.

Which is precisely what is happening now-- and is likely to accelerate as the congresswoman’s profile and poll numbers rise.

Not sharing the Bachmanns’ squeamishness about homosexuality, I don’t give a pig’s lip which way Marcus rolls. I can’t even get worked up about the hypocrisy angle, always a favorite cudgel in politics. After all, if someone as religiously conservative as Marcus Bachmann were gay, of course he’d cling to the idea that a person can pray away his supposedly satanic urges. It’s human nature to flip out most about the things that affect us the most personally.

But while Marcus’s sexuality holds little interest for me, I am interested to see how the Bachmann camp will handle the still-below-the-radar-but-getting-tough-to-ignore buzz. It’s one thing to be attacked during a campaign for your political positions or personal quirks. Most big-league candidates make their peace with the possibility that their beliefs, character, and personal lives will be publicly shredded before they opt to enter the game (or not, as in the case of Mitch Daniels).

But in Bachmann Land, where politics is so personal, what will be the reaction to the suggestion that Marcus is the very thing he has long devoted himself to fighting against? Slamming the congresswoman as a Jesus freak or an antigovernment extremist only fills her with pride. But how will she and her camp deal with her husband being lampooned as a closet case? It’s like Ronald Reagan being tarred as a down-low commie-- or Grover Norquist being accused of harboring big-government impulses. Harsher still, as the FrumForum has noted, Bachmann’s fellow righties have thus far not been leaping to her defense on this most ticklish of issues. She and Marcus have been left to twist in the wind as outlets like Gawker compile the increasingly brutal commentary.

But here’s where Bachmann has the edge over many other pols: as a conservative Christian, the more she and hers are attacked-- especially on something she considers a core moral issue-- the more she will be convinced that she’s doing God’s work.

Among devout evangelicals, ferocious attacks-- including people bearing false witness against you-- are brandished as a badge of honor. It shows that you are willing to be despised and persecuted for your faithfulness, as were Jesus and his early followers. “They’ve heard the sermon over and over again, ‘You will be persecuted for righteousness' sake,'” observes Michael Cromartie, head of the Evangelical Studies Project at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. “So the idea of being misrepresented or persecuted is not new.”

The degree to which Christians should anticipate or even pine for persecution has long been a common debate topic. (“You know if you are never persecuted for your beliefs then you are probably not bothering Satan too much,” asserts this poster at ChristianOvercomers.com, adding that “being delivered up to Satan and the rules of his beast system is your DESTINY as one of God’s elect.”) The tendency of some religious conservatives to see themselves as a political minority under siege has even been given its own cheeky moniker, Christian Persecution Complex.

In modern-day America, chances for actual religious martyrdom are few and far between. For the pious like Bachmann, political martyrdom can be the next best thing.
Bachmann has already pointed to religious bigotry as a source of her political opposition. “I was attacked repeatedly for my religious faith, and the media was a willing accomplice,” she told the Minneapolis Star Tribune of her 2006 House race. “I’m really disturbed by the media’s lack of tolerance and understanding for the belief of a committed Christian.”

The more personal the persecution of her husband gets, tied as it is to his antigay labors, the more likely it is to steel Michele’s spine and persuade her to stay the course. “Most social conservatives agree with her about the homosexual issue,” asserts Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, predicting: “Not only is it not going to faze her, it will build sympathy for her among her supporters and admiration that she doesn’t back down.”

In which case, it could be the congresswoman who winds up having the last laugh.

And don't think for one moment that Rick Perry and his handlers don't know that. Kay Bailey Hutchison learned how hard it was to use Rick Perry's status as a closet case against him among Texas religious nuts. Yesterday Aaron Blake asked in his Washington Post column just how Perry's candidacy could be a game changer for the GOP nomination race. Blake outlines how his coming nomination will impact each of the other candidates:

* Uniting the coalition: While Rep. Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain may get some establishment support, and former governors Mitt Romney (Mass.), Tim Pawlenty (Minn.) and Jon Huntsman (Utah) may get some tea party support, no candidate can cross over as easily as Perry.

Just as we’re talking about how the tea party-and-business coalition of the GOP is breaking down, here comes a candidate who can unite them. Perry was talking about the tea party long before most other big-time elected Republicans were, and that gives him cache with the movement.

But he’s also gotten support from the business community and more traditional Republican bases. That makes him more of a double threat than any other candidate.

* Challenging Bachmann: Just when it’s looking like nobody is competing with Bachmann in Iowa, here comes Perry.

He can speak to social conservatives with the best of them, and his speech at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans last month is proof of that. While other non-candidates like Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee urged activists to be pragmatic about their nominee, Perry urged them to be uncompromising on social issues.

Bachmann may still be the favorite in Iowa with Perry in the race, but her path isn’t as clear.

* Competing with everyone: Because Perry’s base is so diverse, he is capable of stealing votes from just about anybody.

While he competes with Bachmann in Iowa, he could also steal the role of Bachmann’s chief competition from Pawlenty. And if he does that, Pawlenty’s path to victory becomes much more difficult.

There is also some thought that Perry getting in the race may draw Romney out of his shell. For now, nobody is forcing Romney to take positions and start defining his candidacy in detail. If Perry gets in, it helps force the issue.

“Romney stays a slight favorite, but he can no longer play it safe and has got to get more aggressive,” said Democratic consultant Ed Peavy.

* Frontrunner?: Sometimes, we may be a little careless with the term “frontrunner.” So far, the likes of Pawlenty and Huntsman haven’t earned that mantle. And all you have to do is look back at Fred Thompson in 2008 to see the blueprint for what some think could be a Perry flame-out. (The main question with Perry, of course, is his desire to be president, which he had previously and repeatedly denied-- so much so that people believed him.)

But with Perry, it’s hard not to think about the label at this point. He’s fresh off a win over a popular GOP senator in his 2010 primary and a moneyed Democratic opponent in the general election, and he’s already cracking double digits in a national poll, despite having pretty low name ID.

How Queer Are The Bachmanns?

We touched on it yesterday... but now we're getting some straight answers. Jon Stewart and Jerry Seinfeld looked at it Wednesday night-- and Murdoch's Evil (Criminal) Empire promptly blocked it from being rebroadcast online. Thank God Second City caught up with the Bachmanns in Waterloo (see video just below-- by all means).



But even queerer than Marcus-- or, to be more precise, just as queer as Marcus-- Bachmann and the rest of the far right fringe of the GOP are absolutely adamant that it is not ok to use tax dollars (federal funds) for Planned Parenthood and women's health services-- actually not for any health services-- but apparently it is perfectly fine to use our tax dollars for the Bachmann clinic's gimmicky and ineffective "gay cure therapy." Now that's queer. But, like she always says, she's proud of Marcus and proud of the scam business they've created.

Does Herman Cain Have A $40 Million Problem? One That Could, As They Say, Come Out?

The devastating Herman Cain video (above), posted by the Ron Paul camp should have put a quick end to whatever there is of Cain's campaign for the Republican Party presidential or vice presidential nomination (although I suspect he'd be equally happy with a secondary ambassadorship)... but it didn't. Inside the GOP these days, support from the Koch brothers for one of their lackeys trumps good judgment-- or even common sense.

Herman Cain wasn't just the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and he wasn't just the Godfather's Pizza guy either. A confidential DWT informant wrote the following guest post for us:

Two black Republicans walk into a restaurant... in Omaha... in 1986... could be either of their joints. They both are in the restaurant biz. One of them sang for two presidents. The other wants to be president. Well, maybe they've never been in each other's restaurants and even though they both would gain notoriety for their banking skills, maybe they have never traded one thin dime. But Omaha is a great big small town...

In Herman Cain lore, the man singlehandedly saved Burger King (and it still takes two hands for Chuck Norris to handle a Whopper!), and so impressed were the powers that be at Pilsbury that they made Cain head doughboy in charge of the faltering Godfather's pPizza chain. Cain was able (sorry) to turn Godfather's around in 14 months! So wildly profitable, goes the yarn, that Pilsbury sold the chain. (Scoobie say, "hhhrrrrrunnnnhhh???") You don't often see the name of the buyers in this tale of food and glory, but it was a group of manager-investors lead by one... Herman Cain.

Godfather's was a mess, but not on the brink of bankruptcy. Still, the mission statement on their website declares that they aim "To profitably provide consistently good food and great service." Now, I personally wouldn't target "profitability" as Job 1 on my customer-accessible website along with toppings and coupons, but I digress. Anyway, the truth is that Godfather's was only on the brink of not being worth Pilsbury's time, and it stayed that way for two years under Cain. Then they sold it to him and his investor friends for a rather curious sum (more on that later).

Who were these investors who had money for the slice? This was 1988, and restaurants were and remain dodgy investments, especially when a huge food conglomerate is giving them a vote of no confidence. When adjusted for inflation, Cain's long reign over Godfather's saw a 46% drop in profits and Godfather's went from the 5th to the 11th ranked pizza chain in the United States (which explains that mission statement, all campaign rhetoric aside).

Omaha is tornado country, so when I say it's a great big small town, I'm talking acreage versus gossipy connectivity. It's flat and spread out with few tall buildings, but everyone is a whisper away from everyone else's business. It's not so big as to be home to two up-and-coming black Republicans with strong ties with the bigwigs in the Republican Party who could never cross paths. Restaurant people of all colors make it a point to know each other. To know what secrets wandering waiters and chefs may have taken with them as they move from job to job, etc... Wealthy Republicans are an even tighter clique. Wealthy black Republican restaurateurs in Omaha Nebraska in the late '80s were more likely to have been twins than not to have social if not business ties.

Lawrence E. King was a fixture in the Omaha black community. He had seen his opportunity gathering up black folks' money in a credit union known as the Franklin Credit Union, which he'd taken over in 1970. By 1976 there where whispers about this 300-pound socialite living large. There were minor stabs at investigating him, but the police did not want to be seen as the big bad white guys picking on the little ol' great big black man.

Tales of King entertaining guests with cocaine, hookers and hustlers were pervasive, but Omaha has some strange code of silence. It had been for many years a sort of mob neutral zone. "Tony might whack Vinnie in Chicago," but in Omaha their kids and wives would peacefully shop, play and picnic together. Drawing attention is not acceptable. Bush flew to Omaha on 9/11 in a very standard emergency protocol, and not one in ten Americans ever knew. Lily Tomlin and her partner Jane Wagner were a known couple around "The Big O" long before Lily came out. Omaha had lots of stories and still does, but none of them are news.

King-- who had been recruited by the RNC to get out the black Republican vote-- in his rise through the Republican ranks, was able to be the sum of their black best friends, as it were. He sang the national anthem at the 1984 and 1988 Republican conventions. In 1986, the Franklin Federal Credit Union moved into brand-new digs that also served as headquarters for King's burgeoning catering and food-service empire. King began making donations to the Omaha Press Club, the Republican Party and even gay rights organizations (especially those funding area youth programs). Upon being told he had no style by a ten-year-old boy, he went shopping and became a clothes junkie, big-time-- thus earning the nickname "Reverend Alice." People really began talking. Franklin Federal Credit Union seemed to be all right until an audit of King's taxes revealed what appeared to be some missing funds. A phony "certificates of deposit" scheme. Initially it was thought that $400,000 had disappeared. Then $4 million. Ultimately $40 million was determined to have vanished.

The FBI raid of the credit union sparked rumors that drugs and child pornography were discovered in the lower levels of the facility. It had been whispered that King had used the basement of the credit union as a "waiter academy" to train young men (twinks and blinks) in the fine art of waiting tables for what was hopefully to become his restaurant empire. In an Omaha World Herald interview, he spoke about how he wanted his places to be real elegant; the waiters would wear white dinner jackets. But King's deeper desires were rumored to be something quite different.

There was a lot of recruiting going on for guys to come be part of King's catering business. Many teens and young men talked of being expected to "put out," and rumors of pornographic video shoots circulated in the gay and black communities. After the raid there was an investigation into what had become of the missing funds. Eventually a private investigator was hired by the state legislature to look into stories of an international child prostitution ring. He interviewed dozens of waiters and folks around Omaha who had been curious about King's lavish gifts and extravagant ways. But things seemed tempered by the fact that King hung out with presidents, and area journalists. And owned a bank, and a sushi bar and...

The investigator is said to have flown to Chicago to meet with a person who had damning photographic evidence as to what was going on in the bowels of Franklin. That investigator never made it back to Omaha. His plane mysteriously blew up on the return flight. Primary witnesses suddenly changed their stories, and those who did not were convicted of perjury. One rent boy who testified that he was farmed out to several closeted power brokers in and around Omaha died mysteriously in New Mexico.

King was convicted of bank fraud and served nearly 10 out of the 15 years to which he was sentenced, but the grand jury concluded that all of the salacious allegations were merely "a big hoax" (wtf!). These allegations included supplying children for satanic blood rituals in Spain and supplying teens to a sex party in Washington, D.C., where some of those teens claimed they saw George W. Bush in attendance.

The story is larger and dirtier than what is within the scope of a DWT guest blog, and in fact was the subject of a Discovery Channel investigative report. Alas, that program was "purchased" a week before it was to air by some anonymous party...

Everybody in Omaha knew about this story, and everybody knew somebody connected to it. I almost opened an account in Franklin, until a friend who worked there told me not to put my money in "the booty bank."

So what happened to the $40 million that King ripped off from the Franklin Federal Credit Union? It's not very clear, but the year Franklin was raided, a small group of restaurant managers and a future black Republican presidential candidate bought a chain of mafia-themed pizza joints from Pilsbury for $40 million.

Update On The GOP Nuisance Suit Against Blue America-- And More GOP Hypocrisy

Short version: the FEC dismissed the suit this week. Here's the letter they sent us:


And here's the story of the nuisance suit from deranged right wing hack Cleta Mitchell of Republican Party front group Let Freedom Ring, a fascist-oriented "think tank." Their spurious suit claimed we "engaged in the deliberate, willful and intentional violation of the [Federal Election Campaign] Act by specifically requesting that outside organizations make public communications in support of Democratic candidates for Congress." As best as I can tell, the only basis for their claim was that a couple of Inside the Beltway newspapers published a story that Pelosi was concerned that the Democrats were concerned that they were being crushed by outside spending and that they needed liberal groups "to do more-- and quickly." The suit claims Blue America Independent Expenditure Committee made its first buy on October 18, right around the time of the newspaper stories. Our Independent Expenditure Committee spent exactly $83,776.85 this year, on three races, one of which was in the Arizona Democratic primary in support of Randy Parraz ($20,315.00), a race Pelosi couldn't have been remotely interested in. Another was in the race in Alabama's Second Congressional District between Blue Dog Bobby Bright and Republican Martha Roby. We spent $48,364.15 opposing Bobby Bright, the candidate Pelosi was backing. And the third race was in support of Justin Coussoule, the progressive Democrat opposing John Boehner, to the tune of $15,097.70. The DCCC and the DNC made it clear that they had no interest in this race whatsoever. If Pelosi did, it would have taken a mind-reader to have known.

You might ask, "how can the Republicans be so hypocritical?" After all, they are the masters of mudslinging and dirty campaign tactics. And these types of suits against grassroots progressives groups is something they do on purpose, not because they think they can win, but just to help drain away resources that could be used opposing anti-democratic, fascist-oriented politicians. But if you wonder about GOP hypocrisy, I hope you watched Rachel Maddow Tuesday night-- IOKIYAR-- when she looked at the Republican response to the great Weiner weiner outrage. I hope you'll click on IOKIYAR and watch the clip. And watch this one as well:



Cowardly Democrats have demanded Weiner resign. He shouldn't-- and most people in his congressional district, where I was raised-- agree. But what does it prove to Virginia voters who heard conservative Democrat Tim Kaine demanding Weiner resign? That Kaine will be almost as bad as your garden variety Republican? The GOP is all over this today-- and adamantly refusing to talk about David Vitter's criminal case, since the still-serving right-wing senator paid prostitutes to spank him and change his diapers... for decades.

In any case, if you can help Blue America cover the legal costs for the suit just dismissed... we'd really appreciate it. Put the contribution in the PAC slot. Thanks.