Tea Party corporate backers might want to start vetting these candidates
This is state level Tea Party insanity, but the Governor has now stepped in, so I think it merits a mention:
Governor Chafee on Wednesday joined the chorus of political leaders calling for state Rep. Daniel P. Gordon to step aside, following his recent arrest and revelations about his lengthy criminal history in Massachusetts. “While I commend Representative Gordon for acknowledging his personal challenges, I concur with [House Speaker Gordon D.] Fox and [House Minority Leader Brian] Newberry that he is no longer able to effectively serve his constituents,” Chafee said in a statement. “Some time away from political life may give Representative Gordon the ability to focus on his own recovery. His arrest and the subsequent attention on his past, however, are a tremendous distraction for our state.”
Gordon rejected the request, saying that Chafee had no business mixing in the General Assembly’s affairs. “I work for my constituents, not the governor. I’ll step down when he steps down.”
Tyranny! Don’t you tread on me, mister.
State Rep. Daniel P. Gordon, who blamed alcohol and legal problems on combat stress sustained in the 1991 Gulf War, never served in the Gulf, according to his military records. Gordon also claims that he suffered a shrapnel injury to his leg; however, his records do not list a Purple Heart, ordinarily awarded for injury sustained in combat.
“There appears to be no listing of combat tour of duty in the Middle East,” said Maj. Stewart T. Upton, head of media operations in the public affairs office for the Marine Corps at the Pentagon. “I don’t see a Kuwait Service Medal or any combat action or Purple Heart,” Upton said. Excepting any inaccuracies, “obviously we’re saying the information in front of us doesn’t have these tours of duty that he’s talking about.”
He was in the military, though, so that part is true:
While he could not provide his military discharge papers, Gordon did provide a Jan. 13, 2011, financial statement from the federal Department of Veterans Affairs showing that he was honorably discharged from the Marines after serving from June 4, 1987, to Nov. 12, 1991. It also states that he receives a $123-a-month benefit from the government for a “service-connected disability.”
The military service record revelations are the latest in a series of discrepancies in Gordon’s account of his past. That includes his contracting business, Alliance Building Contractors LLC, which is registered to what officials say is a nonexistent street address in Connecticut. “We don’t have a 2 Stonington Ave.,” said Adele Adriano of the Stonington assessor’s office. “I have a 3-5 Stonington Ave. East and a 54 Stonington Ave. West,” she said, “but in the center, there’s nothing. You can even see that there was a brook that ran through the middle of it.” Gordon also is not a licensed contractor in Rhode Island or Connecticut. according to public records.
He is wanted in Massachusetts, so he went to the state police to make sure they found out about that, I guess:
Gordon’s troubles began last week when he went to file a cyber-stalking complaint with the state police, related to comments people posted about him on the Internet. A police record check revealed that Gordon was driving on a suspended license and was wanted in Massachusetts for failing to appear in court in 2008 on charges including eluding the police and driving with a revoked license. The arrest led to public disclosure of a criminal record in Massachusetts, including four months in jail in 1999 for assault with a dangerous weapon, and an attempted murder charge in 2004 that was later dismissed.
Attempted murder? He was charged 12 times over 18 years, including six assault and battery charges.
This is his part of the Tea Party Facebook battle that led to his going to state police to lodge a complaint against his fellow Tea Partiers:
“Please pass the word to her … she is destroying all semblense [sic] of cohesiveness. We have had it. She is a liar, fake, and subversive. We real Tea Party conservatives have had enough of her traitorism,” Gordon writes. In another Facebook post, Gordon accuses one of his Republican House colleagues of spreading rumors that he is an alcoholic, and of trying to unseat a conservative state senator.
And, this is the sort of important work he’s been doing since he landed in the state legislature:
He made headlines in March when he criticized Tiverton High School for allowing the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance student group.
September 25, 2011 12:36 pm
Posted in: Blatant Liars and the Lies They Tell, Corrections, Teabagger Stupidity, The Decadent Left In Its Enclaves On The Coasts
69 Comments
69 Responses
johnsmith1882 - September 25, 2011 | 12:46 pm · Link
But if Gordon doesn’t stand up to the high school students, who will?!
mark - September 25, 2011 | 12:47 pm · Link
Wow, what a scumbag liar.
what about these dominionists is South Carolina. Can’t someone finally revoke their tax status and cesure this Rep. Bearfalsewitness
http://www.postandcourier.com/.....a-bad-mix/
sukabi - September 25, 2011 | 12:47 pm · Link
several years ago there was a paper going around that described a group of people that had multiple arrests for dui, tax evasion, domestic abuse, bouncing checks, basically all the sorts of ‘low level’ criminal activity that would make you think twice about ever hiring them…
the group described was our well paid, elected congress critters…. they’re going to have to redo that list and include attempted murder and assault & battery as well as several more felonious crimes…
The Dangerman - September 25, 2011 | 12:48 pm · Link
I wonder how the real Tea Party conservatives will react to Romney being the candidate (assuming Perry continues to implode and Palin stays out of the race).
Gin & Tonic - September 25, 2011 | 12:48 pm · Link
I posted a comment about this last week. He actually went to the RI State Police to file the cyber-stalking complaint, because “people were saying things about him on blogs.” The RI State Police, as is customary, checked his background and found out that he had outstanding warrants in Mass, so they went to his house and arrested him a week ago Friday, and he spent the weekend as a guest of the State of RI.
The rest of the talk was all brewing last week.
It doesn’t help that the previous Minority Leader in the RI Assembly was arrested by Connecticut State Police a few months ago for DUI, and blood tests later showed positive for marijuana and cocaine. So he stepped down as Minority Leader, but didn’t resign as an Assemblyman.
ericblair - September 25, 2011 | 12:48 pm · Link
It makes things much simpler this way. Instead of referring to the “conservative delegate” or “tea party state senator” or “originalist justice” we can just refer to them all as “the defendant”.
Linda Featheringill - September 25, 2011 | 12:51 pm · Link
Do we know any details of the cyber stalking? What was actually said online?
Wendy - September 25, 2011 | 12:51 pm · Link
This is just a huge embarrassment for the East Bay of RI, which is a fairly well off area, which is probably why they wanted some Tea Party moron who promised to make sure they didn’t have to pay taxes to pay for those evil brown people and lazy union slackers in Providence and Central Falls. It doesn’t really speak to the Tea Party in general, though he obviously is the kind of paranoid, violent, law-breaking personality that the Tea Party attracts with its eliminationist rhetoric and its “the rules apply to you not to me” thinking, but it does speak to the danger of these low-information voters who are willing to vote for morons based on very little information other than that he’s “one of them.”
He went on my radar when he started posting obnoxious illiterate comments on the Portsmouth Patch articles on the Tiverton GSA group. (I’m from another MA town in the area, so it showed up on our Patch site in the local roundup.)
kay - September 25, 2011 | 12:52 pm · Link
@Gin & Tonic:
Right. I saw that in one of the articles. I do think violent crime is different than DUI or civil legal troubles, though. He’s had some civil issues too, but he has a fairly extensive record of getting picked up for hurting people.
Combine that with the fact that he’s (still) a belligerent hothead, and I’m not sure he belongs in a debate with…anyone.
Unabogie - September 25, 2011 | 12:52 pm · Link
I just want to take this opportunity to say that this proves Democrats and Republicans are all the same, Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, so vote Nader in 2012 and…
Nah, can’t even joke about this. Please people, stop letting the freaks into office, mmmkay?
Gin & Tonic - September 25, 2011 | 12:59 pm · Link
@kay: Too lazy to read the linked articles, but Gordon is widely known as a bozo. In fact, the (very small) Republican caucus in the state Assembly tried to kick him out (of the caucus), and he refused to go.
Corner Stone - September 25, 2011 | 1:05 pm · Link
I like this thread. It has potential.
So can we please get an NFL Open Thread dropped?
dmsilev - September 25, 2011 | 1:06 pm · Link
@The Dangerman:
Probably the usual. Some will hold their noses and vote for Romney (or, rather, vote against Obama). Some will stay home. Maybe, if we’re really lucky, some Tea Party avatar will mount a non-trivial 3rd party run.
Large amounts of Internet kvetching will be guaranteed, of course.
Corner Stone - September 25, 2011 | 1:06 pm · Link
Andre Johnson just ran people over for a huge Texans first down.
B W Smith - September 25, 2011 | 1:06 pm · Link
Maybe all those tea party folks need to quit asking for long form notarized birth certificates and ask for criminal background checks instead. I had to have one to work for the state.
Corner Stone - September 25, 2011 | 1:07 pm · Link
Texans on the march baby!
Yutsano - September 25, 2011 | 1:08 pm · Link
Calmly awaiting efgoldman to return from church and grant us his insights. This being his state and all.
Corner Stone - September 25, 2011 | 1:09 pm · Link
Game clock infraction! Freakin’ homers. Trying to cool off hot Texans Mo.
Corner Stone - September 25, 2011 | 1:10 pm · Link
TD Texans bitchez!!
aisce - September 25, 2011 | 1:11 pm · Link
i always enjoy it when, after showing such disdain for the “unenlightened” flyover states and the south, liberal new englanders have to face up to the fact that their politics are as much a corrupt, cesspool as anyone else’s. how many massachusetts pols have been indicted recently? they’re giving illinois and florida a good run for their money.
Wendy - September 25, 2011 | 1:21 pm · Link
aisce, you’re mistaken in the belief that liberal New Englanders haven’t faced up to corruption in this area. We just can’t stand the holier-than-thou areas of the country who assure us that their candidates are “Christians” and “the right kind of people” and thus above corruption. We know what we’re dealing with here, and most of us would vote for a decent Republican any day, given the chance, if the alternative was a corrupt Democrat like, say, Cicilline. Unfortunately, Cicilline’s opponent was John Loughlin, who is buddy buddy with the subject of this post, Dan Gordon, and thus yet another Tea Party moron. A lot of people I know held their noses and voted for Cicilline. (I’m a Masshole, and I get to vote for Elizabeth Warren! Yay!)
sb - September 25, 2011 | 1:22 pm · Link
If this guy sends a cock shot on twitter, he’s toast.
The Dangerman - September 25, 2011 | 1:25 pm · Link
@dmsilev:
As well as the Republicans toe the line, this would appear to be the way I see it happening; wouldn’t it just be the shits if it was Palin with Nader as her VP?
The Sheriff's A Ni- - September 25, 2011 | 1:28 pm · Link
@aisce: So vote the Last Honest Snowflake, Ron “What Newsletters?” Paul.
Kola Noscopy - September 25, 2011 | 1:30 pm · Link
His insane TP politics aside, I kind of generally admire people who navigate in the shadows of this fucked up society. I mean, just look at all the war criminals walking around in broad daylight with the blessing of Nancy Impeachment Is Off the Table Smash and Barack Obama.
Is this guy worse than Cheney?
Amir Khalid - September 25, 2011 | 1:31 pm · Link
@Cermet:
Earlier today, aisce demanded that I explain how come I knew about Chris Christie being all the not-so-nice things he is, as though American news were somehow beyond reach for a Malaysian with Internet access.
Mr Furious - September 25, 2011 | 1:36 pm · Link
So did this assclown run unopposed for his office? Because any halfway decent opportunity research should have dragged some of this stuff to light.
Yutsano - September 25, 2011 | 1:37 pm · Link
@Amir Khalid: I think the comment you’re replying to went poof. FYWP.
And yeah, it’s like, the 21st Century, and stuff. They even have Internet access in AFRICA!!
/tunes snark meters
MAJeff - September 25, 2011 | 1:37 pm · Link
@aisce:
Have you ever met a New Englander that wasn’t aware of the corruption of their politics? Shit, the last three Massachusetts Senate Presidents have been convicted of corruption. Having spent a fair amount of time living in New England, I don’t know a single person out there who’s unaware of their state’s corruption.
But, the MA political system isn’t dominated by “unenlightened” and willfully ignorant bigots in the same way that, oh, Texas, Arizona, Mississppi, North Dakota (where I live now), etc. are.
rikyrah - September 25, 2011 | 1:38 pm · Link
this is so like a Republican.
kay - September 25, 2011 | 1:38 pm · Link
@Gin & Tonic:
I just adore people who go to the police to file on someone else when they’re wanted themselves. “My RIGHTS!”
It’s a way of thinking.
Sly - September 25, 2011 | 1:47 pm · Link
Also, too, state government is the primordial muck from which Federal officials are often drawn. People like Gordon eventually get enough crazy fucks in the state party to support them for a House race or an executive/judicial appointment. Best to kill the cancer fast before it spreads.
Jennifer - September 25, 2011 | 1:50 pm · Link
@Amir Khalid: Chris Christie = Fat Bastard
Gin & Tonic - September 25, 2011 | 1:55 pm · Link
@Mr Furious: He beat the Democrat by 47 votes. “Opposition research” is something RI Assembly candidates do not have the time or more importantly money to carry out. These are small-potatoes races. It’s the lower house of the RI legislature/ You can usually win a seat with about 10,000 votes or thereabouts.
Gin & Tonic - September 25, 2011 | 1:58 pm · Link
Wow, I was pretty far off on what it takes to win. The 2010 results for RI Assembly district 71 were Gordon 2707 and the Democrat George Alzaibak 2660.
Wendy - September 25, 2011 | 1:59 pm · Link
Gordon won by 47 votes, 2707 to 2660, according to here.
http://ballotpedia.us/wiki/ind.....e_Alzaibak
Aha, I see what happened. Before Gordon was elected, his buddy John Loughlin was representative from that district, then he left to run against Cicilline for Congress. It was probably a hand me down seat from Loughlin to Gordon, and as it was, it was a close race.
Meanwhile, Alzaibak is a real small business owner, unlike the fake business Gordon runs when he’s not running around harassing people and drinking to forget his non-existent war injuries. http://www.portsmouthridemocrats.com/rep/alzaibak
Gin & Tonic - September 25, 2011 | 2:00 pm · Link
@Sly: The state Republican party wants no part of Gordon, actually. He ran unendorsed, and the Republican caucus in the Assembly voted recently to exclude him from the caucus.
smintheus - September 25, 2011 | 2:00 pm · Link
Hilariously incompetent liar. Gordon claims he was wounded “eight miles south of Baghdad” in 1991. But American troops never got closer than 175 miles south of Baghdad in Operation Desert Storm.
suzanne - September 25, 2011 | 2:02 pm · Link
@Jennifer: You need eemom here to stand up for you.
@MAJeff:
As an Arizonan, I will admit that our state’s political system is dominated by unenlightened and willfully ignorant bigots.
It’ll change, though. I’m working on it.
Gin & Tonic - September 25, 2011 | 2:02 pm · Link
@Wendy: Loughlin explicitly refused to endorse Gordon. Voters may have thought “OK, Republican before, I’ll keep the Republican.” But he did not have the party’s endorsement.
Frankensteinbeck - September 25, 2011 | 2:04 pm · Link
To address the title of this post: The Tea Party’s corporate backers are the Koch Brothers. They are completely insane and are as drawn to narcissistic lunatic grifter candidates as their patsies are. The whole reason the Tea Party is out of control is because two billionaire nutcases are funding a nutcase movement.
Wendy - September 25, 2011 | 2:06 pm · Link
@Gin & Tonic Ah, missed that. Well, Gordon was scheduled to speak at a fundraiser for Loughlin today, along with another Tea Party moron, Doreen Costa. Guess Loughlin is willing to take the TP’s money, at least.
aisce - September 25, 2011 | 2:11 pm · Link
@ amir khalid
not the means, the motivation. clearly you are posting online on a medium sized american political blog as we speak, so it was never a question of how you acquire this foreign information. it’s a question of why.
are you living vicariously through our politics?
@ sheriff
whatever floats your boat, i guess. that was a missed opportunity. a nader shoutout was just begging to be made, and you passed it up. bad form.
Donald G - September 25, 2011 | 2:17 pm · Link
@smintheus:
Clearly, Gordon must’ve been serving with the Iraqi army and hurt himself fleeing back to Baghdad. After the war, he was inserted into American society as a sleeper agent as part of the same conspiracy that gave us the time-travelling Kenyan-Muslim Usurper. Gordon’s assignment was to bring into disrepute the Rhode Island Tea Party Republicans and thus, ultimately, destroy them as an effective political force going into the 2012 campaign.
MAJeff - September 25, 2011 | 2:19 pm · Link
@Donald G:
Quick! Someone notify Louis Gohmert!
Gin & Tonic - September 25, 2011 | 2:26 pm · Link
I’m sure he will ignore it, but today the Providence Journal (the largest daily paper in the state) published an editorial calling on Gordon to resign, calling him an “angry, troubled man.”
PurpleGirl - September 25, 2011 | 2:27 pm · Link
@aisce: I would think that Amir Kahlid is interested in and follows American politics because he is an intelligent and curious person who likes having a diverse group of interests. It would be a good thing if more Americans showed that level of interest in other countries and cultures.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q) - September 25, 2011 | 2:35 pm · Link
@PurpleGirl:
Indeed it would, but I’m not enough of a hoper to expect it to occur within my lifetime.
Elizabelle - September 25, 2011 | 2:38 pm · Link
@PurpleGirl:
Seconded re Amir’s being here. Sharp intelligence and elevates the discussion when he’s here.
It’s cool to get a perspective from another spot on the blue planet.
Ash Can - September 25, 2011 | 2:39 pm · Link
After the extent to which the GOP muckety-mucks vetted their vice presidential candidate in 2008, I wouldn’t trust them to vet whether there’s a parachute on their backs before jumping out of a plane.
Citizen_X - September 25, 2011 | 2:46 pm · Link
@Wendy:
Wait, hold up a second: you mean to say he started talking obnoxious trash around the fucking Girl Scouts?
MAJeff - September 25, 2011 | 2:52 pm · Link
@Citizen_X:
Nope, Gay-Straight Alliance.
But, the wingers aren’t all that fond of the Girl Scouts. After all, while the Boy Scouts have been waging a campaign to maintain their exclusions on gays and atheists, the Girl Scouts have been like, “Sure, we like lesbians and we’ll stand up for them.”
Jennifer - September 25, 2011 | 2:53 pm · Link
@suzanne: Not really.
I mean, I saw the back & forth about making fat an issue and so forth, but the fact remains, Mike Myers created a funny Austin Powers villain persona named “Fat Bastard” and Chris Christie happens to be both a) fat and b) a bastard, so…you can’t let something like that just lay around and go to waste.
Judas Escargot - September 25, 2011 | 3:06 pm · Link
@aisce:
True. Except, up here, our corrupt fuckers get driven out of office and indicted. They put theirs on the Presidential ticket.
Slight difference, there.
Chris - September 25, 2011 | 3:16 pm · Link
@smintheus:
He’s banking on the fact that the average conservative couldn’t find Iraq, let alone Baghdad, on a map, but they have heard the name often in Fox News commentary and thus know it exists, it’s hajji and we went at war with it at some point.
Joey Maloney - September 25, 2011 | 3:47 pm · Link
Far be it from me to tell the Girl Scouts their business, but that’s not usually how it’s done.
mellowjohn - September 25, 2011 | 4:24 pm · Link
@Jennifer: i liked chris christie better when he was playing bobby baccalieri (AKA bobby bacala) on “the sopranos.”
efgoldman - September 25, 2011 | 4:30 pm · Link
@Yutsano:
Sorry I’m late. I’ve been busy having schpilkes over the Pats losing to the Bills(!!) which they are about to do. Tom Terrific has been intercepted four times. Who the hell are these guys in the blue shirt.
Also too, I was sympathizing with your plaint in the baseball thread.
+++
OK, having got that out of the way….
Sweet, little RI bows to no-one, not even MA, LA or TX, in the number of corrupt politicians per 1000 voters. However this isn’t ordinary “corruption,” which was always considered to be strictly monetary: graft, bribery, venality, kickbacks, like that…
This is something entirely different. Here’s a guy who apparently made up his background, and left out just… a… few… important details. I don’t know the RI legislative rules of procedure, but I expect they’ll formally kick him out pretty soon. What this does, of course, is put even more doubt in voter’s minds about the basic trustworthiness of government, which is basically what the GOBP TeaTards have been trying to do since Saint Ronnie.
I’m not suggesting the guy was a plant – nobody at the local or state level around here is that clever, plus no-one could keep the secret. But no-one vets local or state-rep level candidates, either. You don’t need the party’s permission to gather signatures and get yourself on the ballot (I’m guessing that’s true in most states).
The leading network affiliate has already started carrying stories suggesting that parties should vet candidates, but I don’t really see a mechanism for that.
Hey, got us some attention in bloggy world, didn’t it?
efgoldman - September 25, 2011 | 4:34 pm · Link
@aisce:
Not so many. Only a few.
The fact that three of them were consecutive speakers of the House in the Great and General Court, and all were convicted, might mean a little something, though…
ETA: And as I said above, it was for old-fashioned greedy graft. The GOBP in MA or RI doesn’t have enough power to ask anyone fo kickbacks, so their bad guys are drunk-driving domestic-assaulters, Hey, whatever works for you.
efgoldman - September 25, 2011 | 4:38 pm · Link
@MAJeff:
Speakers of the House, but your point is clear.
MAJeff - September 25, 2011 | 4:46 pm · Link
@efgoldman:
Yup, you’re right, it’s House Speakers. Didn’t Travaglini face something? And then there’s Billy Bulger.
Yeah, Beacon Hill is a cesspool, and City Hall ain’t much better.
That was one of the weird things about moving to MA from MN. Corruption is endemic and part of the life blood of MA politics. MN has a much stronger tradition of good governance ideals, so that sort of blatant patronage-type corruption wasn’t the same kind of problem. I was living in MA when Jesse Ventura was elected. All the Massholes I knew had a hard time understanding that he was just sort of crazy and incompetent, but not corrupt.
efgoldman - September 25, 2011 | 5:03 pm · Link
@MAJeff:
Long tradition, too. James Michael Curley was elected from jail (but not for mayor, I don’t think. Congress, maybe?)
And when I was in high school, a state rep or state senator named Charlie Ianella or Ianello, also too.
But I’d much rather have a grafty Dem than, say, Bachmann or Pawlenty. Good government, my ass.
MAJeff - September 25, 2011 | 5:05 pm · Link
@efgoldman:
Or a Paul Wellstone or Al Franken…
Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937 - September 25, 2011 | 6:25 pm · Link
PTSD has come home to the war party to roost.
PhoenixRising - September 25, 2011 | 8:47 pm · Link
For a time last decade, the slogan on the box of cookies was “the girl comes first in Girl Scouting”.
I worked for the organization and we literally hurt ourselves falling off the furniture in the office when that was introduced by the geniuses from national—um, yeah, typically, but I thought we were supposed to keep our private lives off GS time & property.
dr. luba - September 25, 2011 | 9:12 pm · Link
@PurpleGirl:
Or even in their own country…..... Hell, my friends in India and other countries understand American politics better than most of my countrymen.
gocart mozart - September 25, 2011 | 11:12 pm · Link
@Jennifer:
You’d think good liberals would applaud recycling.
gocart mozart - September 25, 2011 | 11:14 pm · Link
@Frankensteinbeck:
We have a winner.
Bulworth - September 26, 2011 | 9:14 am · Link
The next teabag martyr hero….