And then there’s this correction issued by the Washington Post when one of their “guest writers” quoted that $100k figure about Pelosi:
Yes, whew. Steele spending RNC money at a bondage club is dramatically different than some anonymous, soon-to-be-fired staffer doing the same thing is. No organization can guarantee that every single person it hires will perform correctly. What a well-run organization must do is not reach that mythical zero-defect level, an impossible goal, but respond appropriately when malfeasance is found.
As, apparently, the RNC is.
In general, yes. There’s nothing irresponsible about buying a private plane, if that saves time and money over commercial or chartered flights. I haven’t heard anything to make me feel that there’s poor stewardship afoot. Have you?
Except… where is the evidence that Steele did it in the first place?
We seem to have settled on a standard of, “Steele must prove his innocence,” and it’s unclear to me how we got there.
By the way, I notice Obama has not yet denied the funneling of taxpayer money to Hamas, which I have just now accused him of with absolutely no evidence. When will he set the record straight?
Well, there’s the whole “$3.9 million in the red” deal. Plus the fact that it wasn’t an internal audit that uncovered fiscal malfeasance, but a sharp-eyed FEC outsider.
The RNC is entitled to borrow; they’ve raised over $90M and will undoubtedly continue to raise more, and the results of the races they’ve spent on, Virginia, New jersey, and Massachusetts, have been positive. There’s nothing irresponsible about a campaign or a political party borrowing money to address cashflow issues.
And as to your latter observation: cite? My understanding is that the FNC was already aware of the issue, but the FEC made it public.
Well, then, let’s clarify things for you:
RNC Staffer: $30.72 paid to Yellow Cab… $1,946.25 paid to Voyeur West Hollywood… $9,099 paid to the Beverly Hills Hotel… yawn… when’s quittin’ time?
Article Writer: $30.72 paid to Yellow Cab… $1,946.25 paid to Voyeur West Hollywood… $9,099 paid to the Beverly Hills Hotel… whoa… when’s deadline?
Amusing as the image of Mr Steele personally partaking of the club’s attractions may be, the more likely explanation that he is “merely” inept and incompetent, and under him thrives a culture of negligence in which party members confidently submit bills for this sort of thing expecting them to be paid without question.
I didn’t say it was Steele, only that it could possibly be. It’s someone at the RNC, and Steele is at the RNC. Steele having a spokesman deny that it is not him is not entirely convincing. Someone was authorized to have a credit card and misused it. Steele is the only one that I know of at the RNC that has a credit card for expenses. Now I don’t think that this person is entitled to the presumption of criminal innocence because he/she is not accused of criminal misconduct, but rather, having a penchant for S & M clubs and being a member of the RNC. I am not going to exclude Steele just because he or some spokesman give a routine denial. This is a juicy scandal, full-fledged hypocrisy, from the par-tay of family values. Let’s get to the “bottom” of it and mete out some punishment! In the meantime, let’s make the whole par-tay suffer for the idiocy of one “staffer”.
Probably would have been better for all concerned if the RNC owned up first, right?
Personally, I just think it’s nice to see a top Republican who’s not anti-gay politically, and secretly in the closet himself. A lesbian themed bondage club seems very mainstream and wholesome by today’s standards.
I don’t know about that. From the RNC’s statement, it sounds like the “staffer” used the credit card, submitted the expense, was reimbursed and, only now that this is making headlines, the RNC is “investigating.” And they’re requesting that the employee repay the money. So, it doesn’t sound at all like the RNC was on the case and just happened to be outed by the FEC. If this was something they were already aware of and taking care of, certainly they would have made that clear in their statement.
True, but I’ve become so used to gettin’ it regular that a short dry spell seems like forever!
They just updated the link I posted in post #30…we have a name! The guy who dropped $2000 in the strip club is Erik Brown, owner of a direct mail firm, pal of Steele. He says he’ll repay the money.
Nitpick: Air Force Two is the Vice President’s plane (or whatever A.F. plane the VP is on that POTUS isn’t on). It does not refer to Pelosi’s plane.
I have to agree with Bricker here. We’re gearing up for an election cycle - this is typically when cash is low for a party.
Particularly when they have had to deal with off-year and special elections.
I would be upset right now had they been sitting on tons of unspent cash and had lost the Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts races. And that needs to be said even as I point out that I am not sold on Chairman Steele.
And PARTICULARLY when they had to hold their winter retreat in Hawaii.
Well, their purpose is to raise money. Salesmen working big accounts have to do what they have to do. If someone who is a likely quarter million dollar donor comes into town and wants to go to a 2 grand strip club, you take them to a 2 grand strip club, and put it on the business card.
Erik Brown has saved Michael Steele’s ass. From a severe spanking. Mikey is not pleased about this whole episode. So Brown is the direct mail goon who is helping trick old teabaggers out of their pensions? Will the RNC continue to do business with his company?
I always love how in these sorts of scandals, the person always says they’ll repay the money, as if it’s something they had intended to do along, but just hadn’t got around to doing yet when the expenses were uncovered.
Private companies don’t typically do that if they are required by law to publish the line items.
This was picked out of a Federal Election Commission report by a blogger-journalist (Daily Caller, run by the conservative Tucker Carlson). That the RNC permitted this to happen suggests weak internal controls: “Voyeur West Hollywood” should have sent up a flag.
Then again, I don’t really have a problem with this: if the RNC wants to blow their donations at high priced hotels, restaurants and strip-bars, that’s fine by me.
Anyway, the OP got the story from a blog. By the time the MSM got to it, they had worked out some of the details:
I’m curious about the details of that other stuff: how big of an entourage did it cover? How many nights?
Wha? If there’s an improper charge made on a company card a company can could demand reimbursement, right? After all, that’s what the RNC claims it did today. Furthermore, why do you believe that Erik Brown of Dynamic Marketing, Inc. would have an RNC credit card?
Yes, but the malfeasance should have been found right after the staffer submitted his expense report or the CC statement came in. Thus, their stewardship and internal management are to blame. The buck stops at Steeles desk, he’s the top guy. It’s his lax management that allowed this to get overlooked until outsiders found it.