Sunday, March 20, 2011

Gingrich Funnelled Money to Anti-Gay Hate Group in Iowa

Newt Gingrich is rapidly trying to make himself more vile and delusional than Glenn Beck with some of his recent anti-gay statements and general self-prostitution to the Tea Party and the worse elements of the Christian Right. Additional details are also coming to light of how Gingrich funnelled money to anti-gay groups - one or more of which is a registered hate group - in Iowa to help block the reappointment of three Iowa Supreme Court justices who joined in the landmark opinion striking down the ban on gay marriage in that state. Frankly, how Gingrich, who is thrice married and a documented serial adulterer, can realistically think he can win the Christianists' vote is baffling. But, then intelligence is not one of the strong suits of most Christianists who abhor having to think and make decisions for themselves. Moreover, the extent to which Gingrich is willing to prostitute himself to far right religious extremists almost makes self-enriching political whore Maggie Gallagher look like she has integrity. The Atlanta Constitution looks at Gingrich's money role in Iowa. Here are highlights:
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Potential presidential candidate Newt Gingrich quietly lined up $150,000 to help defeat Iowa justices who threw out a ban on same-sex marriage, routing the money to conservative groups through an aide's political committee. Gingrich, the former U.S. House speaker who has aggressively courted the conservatives who dominate Iowa's lead-off presidential caucuses, raised the money for the political arm of Renewing American Leadership, also known as ReAL.
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That political group, Renewing American Leadership Action, then passed $125,000 to American Family Association Action and an additional $25,000 to the Iowa Christian Alliance — two of the groups that spent millions before last November's elections that removed three of the state's seven state Supreme Court justices.
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the political group backed away from running the anti-judges campaign itself; lawyers cautioned the spending could violate the group's nonprofit status, which requires that it remain somewhat aloof from electoral politics. The group was founded under a tax provision that allows it to keep donors anonymous but bars it from making politics its primary purpose.
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[T]he money went to the two conservative organizations without specific instructions on how to use it, Tyler said. Some are skeptical. "It is not customary in the political world for large sums of money to shift hands without a clear objective," said Marcus Owens, a Washington attorney who for a decade led the Internal Revenue Service tax-exempt division. "To give money unfettered to organizations that have announced they are going to be undertaking a recall effort is not going to protect you."
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If the Christianists embrace Gingrich, it will be a strong testament to their idiocy and hypocrisy. The man is a sleaze bag and anyone with a shred of intelligence ought to realize they are being conned.

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