Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Goldbrickers

The Washington Post has an article today about goldbricking republicans, It's a decent article I guess, but there are a couple of things I want to address about it. First, this passage about Julie Doolittle. From the Post:

[John] Doolittle's wife, Julie, a professional fundraiser, has collected 15 percent of all contributions to Doolittle's leadership PAC and additional commissions on contributions to his campaign committee -- a total of nearly $140,000 since 2003, according to Federal Election Commission records.

A professional fundraiser? Are you joking? You might remember when I wrote this about Mrs. Doolittle in March based on an article in the San Diego Times Union:

Doolittle paid his wife, Julie, over $180,000 in commissions through her company Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions. She must be pretty good at fundraising, huh. Actually, she had no fundraising experience prior to forming SDFS and simply took a 15% cut of money that she brought in, or umm, to put it kindly, the money that was steered to her. [ed note] The $180,000 figure I quoted here dates back to 2001 when SDFS was founded while today's Post story only goes back to 2003.

Julie Doolittle is in no way a professional fundraiser, she is just the wife of another goldbricking republican who is using his position in Congress to enrich himself.

Also, this part about Rick Santorum really struck me as funny. Maybe it's because The Big Lebowski has recently been airing on Showtime. From the Post:

Sen Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) received attention in February when the news media reported leadership PAC expenses at a Starbucks near his Virginia home that totaled $558 since 2001, as well as payments to Wal-Mart, Burger King bills totaling $50 and 11 meals at Arby's worth $118.

This is classic goldbricking behavior. Can it be long before Santorum's charity Operation Good Neighbor (The Little Santorum Urban Achievers) has to pay a "ransom" to get Karen back? Better stay out of Malibu Rick, I hear the sheriff is a real reactionary, man.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Instead of paying $2,000 for dinners at Mortons, the Doolittles chose to host dinners in their home- with dinner prepared by Julie. She did all of the work, hand wrote the invites, made the food, etc. Any other Congressman would have had to pay Mortons $2,000 plus a professional party planner (oops, I mean campaign assistant) another thousand for her services. If Julie was ethical enough to form her own business so she could receive compensation for her work, how is that wrong? And what about the dinners she hosted for other people? And the funds she raised for other campaigns?
$400,000 raised just in dinners in her house? I'd say she's a professional and damn good at it too!

Anonymous said...

Is this sarcasm? Because a couple is willing to let themselves be bought makes the wife a qualified fundraiser?

Phlip said...

I agree with 2nd anonymous. Only after Doolittle became a member of the Appropriations Committee, where the money raises itself, did his wife become a fundraiser for him. You notice he had professionals handle his first ten years in the House.

I can't speak to her hostess skills, but I'm sure you can find someone who charges less than 15% for that skill set.

Of course, when you hire someone else the money doesn't come home with you does it?

Anonymous said...

Similar to our friend Rod Parsley having everyone related to him on the World Harvest payroll at $350,000 a pop. His wife must be one hell of a secretary!

Phlip said...

The Reverend Robin Parsley isn't a public official though. I really don't care how he spreads around the magic bean money he cons from rubes. It's sad that uses peoples fears for his own enrichment, but it isn't illegal.

erinannie said...

Julie Doolittle is a professional fundraiser. She's done plenty of fundraising for other people. In fact, it is her ties to Jack Abramoff that got her noticed in the first place.
And 15% is low. 20% is the average.