Vin Weber, the Republican former Minnesota congressman and veteran political operative, resigned from Mercury Public Affairs Friday amid scrutiny of his pro-Ukraine consulting efforts, the Washington Post reported.
I interviewed this guy once in the Eighties when he was a congressman. Nothing eventful at all but he was slick enough to give me the impression that if heâs crooked it wouldnât surprise me.
You can usually tell in short order, canât you? âSlickâ guys donât hide it very well.
He forgot:
Manafort was ultimately sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of eight of 18 counts against him
And letâs not forgot that the only reason he wasnât convicted of all 18 counts is that one juror was a feral Trumper who found solace in Judge âCrankypantsâ Ellisâ entirely improper outburst to the effect that âitâs not bank fraud if the bank CEO knows youâre lying on your application.â
He had more bounced checks than almost anybody in the House (the main reason he resigned in 1992) yet he got a gig on NPR as voice of the establishment. As slick as snot.
âWe respect Vinâs decision to resign from Mercury to focus his time and energy on protecting his reputation."
Comedy gold.
Putin funneled over $1 million to him. To lobby Congress. And help keep a political prisoner locked up.
Some reputationâŚ
âWhile Weber has not been charged â nor has Tony Podesta, who led the effort at his firm â the former congressman told Mercury leadership in a letter that the scrutiny had become a distraction.â
"While Weber has not been charged â nor has Tony Podesta, who led the effort at his firm â the former congressman told Mercury leadership in a letter that the scrutiny might lead to 10 to 15, plus fines, Jesus Christ WTF have I got myself into!!!???"
FIFY
Iâm sure if he sensed anything improper he would have notified the appropriate authorities.
Here is some messaging I can get behind. How long until someone picks up on this, especially in the Senate races (looking at you, KentuckyâŚ)???
Weber was close to and an advisor to Newt Gingrich. That says it all!
IIRC, Manafort pleaded guilty to those deadlocked charges as part of his overall plea deal.
The Vin Weber story helps blow up a number of myth:
Myth 1: Donald Trump is an aberration. Vin Weber is as Old School Establishment as you get, so the idea that Donald Trump is something new is ridiculous.
Myth 2: There are (or at least used to be) Reasonable Republicanâts. No, they just used to do a better job of flying under the radar and appearing reasonable. The Party of Lincoln has been the Party of Corruption since the day after Lincoln was shot.
Myth 3: Anybody who crawled into bed with the Ukraine did so because of loyalty to Putin. Bullshit! Vin Weber is many things, but he is not a traitor, per se. He is first and foremost a grifter, like all the rest in his Party, and chasing money in the Ukraine only makes him look like a traitor. Weber would have done what he did no matter who was running Russia or what their politics happened to be.
Myth 4: We just need to go back to what things were like in the Obama Administration and everything will be okay. Yeah, no. One need only look at the Democrats associated with the likes of Weber and Manafort to know that the corruption is deeply embedded in both Parties, with top players in the Democratic Party just as dirty as Weber and Manafort. Eisenhower warned this would happen, but there was too much money to be made for anyone to care. Simply going back to some version of The Good Old Days isnât enough, what with the survival of human civilization now on the line thanks to runaway capitalism and unchecked greed.
I ran a couple of Democratic Congressional campaigns while Vin was part of the Republican House caucus leadership and tangentially knew him from that. Not the paragon of virtue he pretended to be in the 80s either.
Skadden et. al.?
Werenât they once one of those âwhite shoeâ outfits that worked on both sides (that is, impartial)?
Not anymore, not since Manafort and peepee.
Proven once again . . . ETTD.
The only thing to do is to take the money out of politics. The devil is in the details, but start with the consultants and lobbyists, and work from there.
agreed, on Myths 1-3.
#4 though, I really donât think the corruption is as widespread in the Democratic Party, but maybe thatâs just my natural revulsion to the cancer that is bothsiderism. I hate the idea of giving the likes of Chuck Todd and so many others in the DC press corps a Myth 4 to frame our future elections - and you just know they will. (not that I think those elites get their ideas from the likes of usâŚor do they?)
Plenty of grifting Democrats, I donât dispute that, but I refuse to believe itâs as widespread as you find among conservatives.
As I always tell the DNC folks when they callâŚIâm not a Democrat, Iâm a liberal.
A true Conservative is a crook, a con man/woman with flexible ethics. A grifter.
A true Liberal strives to uphold the Golden Rule (not the 80âs version) in all matters.
Simplistic, but I have observed the truth of it many times, in matters both private and public.
Wholeheartedly agree. My theory has always been public financing, based on the number of votes for that particular office in the prior election(s). This eliminates the grift and also requires candidates to get involved in the hard part of campaigning: pressing the flesh rather than relying on consultants and TV advertising. Both of those are where campaign money is spent (except when the candidate wants to run personal expenses through the campaign).
So their supporters donât care? Or they donât see it?
Serious question, and without understanding that weâll be stuck with the status quo forever.
I never really understood that old curse about âinteresting timesâ until recently.
They have a reputation for burning out their associates who are seeking to become partners, destroying marriages and such.