Randy Shannon – 3/17/06

This page was last updated on March 18, 2006.

The Times is a tool of the GOP; Randy Shannon; Beaver County Times; March 17, 2006.

I don’t know what Mr. Shannon knows so I can’t call him a liar. That said, his letter is full of falsehoods as I show below. I don’t know if he makes this stuff up on his own or if he gets it from wacko liberal websites. It’s clear Mr. Shannon subscribes to the Deutsch Doctrine.

For background info about Mr. Shannon, see my notes on his speech of October 16, 2004, in front of the Beaver County Courthouse.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Sometimes it’s hard to see the woods for the trees.

“The Times campaign against state Rep. Mike Veon is part of a much larger strategy. Local Democratic officials are under attack not only in Beaver County but also Washington and Allegheny counties.”

[RWC] By the time you reach the end of Mr. Shannon’s letter, you will notice he doesn’t defend Mr. Veon. Not once does Mr. Shannon attempt to refute anything in the referenced stories. Instead, Mr. Shannon tries to distract us by lobbing lies about Republicans.

“The purpose of this campaign is to save U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart and U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum in the November election.”

[RWC] This letter shows how far out of it Mr. Shannon is. The Times bypasses no opportunity to bash all Republicans from President Bush on down, and even runs editorials giving Democrats advice on how to beat Mr. Santorum, yet Mr. Shannon expects us to believe the Times wants to save Hart and Santorum.

I guess Mr. Shannon has missed the plethora of “I like Mike” letters to the editor the Times printed from people who benefited from Mr. Veon’s largesse with taxpayer dollars.

I have to admit I was surprised the Times picked up the BIG story, especially since the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review beat the Times to the punch by a week or so. Though liberal outlets like the Times like to bash opponents and provide cover for fellow travelers, sometimes even very liberal outlets can’t look the other way. I don’t know if there’s anything illegal going on with Mr. Veon regarding BIG or his alleged attempt to buy off a primary opponent. It’s hard to believe there’s nothing there, however, when two newspapers on completely opposite ends of the political spectrum are pursuing the same stories and both are coming up with the same facts.

On the other hand, perhaps Mr. Shannon is correct about the Times being a tool of the GOP. After all, what better way to make Republicans look good than to publish Mr. Shannon’s letter. <g>

“Not only are they in trouble for supporting all of Bush’s vicious budget cutting for the people, tax cutting for the rich, and war profiteering, but the Republican Party is caught up in the greatest corruption scandal in American history involving billions of dollars.”

[RWC] “Bush’s vicious budget cutting for the people?” I thought the liberal mantra is that President Bush is spending like there’s no tomorrow. Come on, guys; make up your mind. Of course, the sad fact is there have been no spending cuts. Don’t trust me; check the President’s proposed budget.

“Tax cutting for the rich?” Everyone received tax cuts, and the cuts took even more of the “poor” off the tax rolls.

“War profiteering?” Where are the examples? You have to remember, though, business profit of any kind is bad to people like Mr. Shannon.

“The greatest corruption scandal in American history?” Mr. Shannon wishes. You’ll read what I mean below.

“Billions of dollars?” It’s not chump change, but the max amount of potentially illegal contributions to Democrats and Republicans alike appears to be less than $10 million when you add up all of the reported individual numbers. Of course, I’m assuming Mr. Shannon is referring to the Abramoff scandal. It’s entirely possible Mr. Shannon wants us to believe there’s some other scandal out there no one yet knows about, except for Mr. Shannon of course.

“Former U.S. Rep. Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham of California has already been sentenced. This scandal involved setting up phony consultant businesses that received hundreds of millions of dollars from the Pentagon. These phony consultant companies then funneled the money to the Republican 2004 election campaign to buy the presidency, the House, and the Senate.”

[RWC] The only part of this paragraph that’s true is the first sentence. The rest of this paragraph is pure fabrication.

Cunningham was convicted of accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors in exchange for directing Pentagon business toward those contractors. He was guilty and deserved what he got. Cunningham’s actions had nothing to do with “phony consultant businesses” or funneling “money to the Republican 2004 election campaign.” Don’t trust me; check out the news coverage yourself.

As I noted above, I don’t know if Mr. Shannon dreams up these fantasies himself or if he merely passes along stuff he picks up from wackos.

“Lobbyist Jack Abramoff and U.S. Rep. Thomas Delay set up a network of corrupt fund raising for Republicans selling meetings with Bush, using extortion, and committing murder. This criminal enterprise controlled the Congress and allowed Bush to trample the Constitution with impunity.”

[RWC] This letter gets better and better. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. I wish Mr. Shannon had a daily or weekly column.

“Selling meetings with Bush?” Why haven’t we heard about this? Given the way President Bush has conducted himself in the White House, I doubt this is true. For reference, though, let’s remember President Clinton “sold” sleepovers in the Lincoln bedroom for special campaign contributors. I haven’t heard any credible allegations that President Bush is doing the same.

“Extortion, and committing murder?” Does anyone – including Mr. Shannon – know what he is talking about?

What are the examples of President Bush trampling “the Constitution with impunity” and where is the evidence?

“In their greed for power, the Republican mafia excluded the Democrats. While Hart and Santorum have access to this dirty money for their campaigns in 2004 and 2006, the Democrats got none.”

[RWC] The “Abramoff didn’t give to Democrats” lie was laid bare a long time ago by no less than the liberal Washington Post, but folks like Mr. Shannon refuse to tell the truth about it.

The “Democrats got none” comment shows Mr. Shannon is not familiar with logic. Above board or not, why would Republican politicians contribute to Democrats? Does Mr. Shannon believe Democrat politicians contribute to Republicans?

The records show Abramoff and his clients contributed about $2 million to Republicans and $1 million to Democrats over the same period. Even the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) received over $50,000 from Abramoff clients. Further, Mr. Reid wrote letters helpful to these clients.

So far, it appears some of the Abramoff contributions were “above board” while some were quid pro quo (Do this and I’ll contribute to your campaign; a.k.a. pay to play.). As part of his plea deal for defrauding some of his clients, Abramoff agreed to testify in cases involving quid pro quo contributions to members of Congress. To date, though, my quick research indicates no one has yet been charged for illegally accepting contributions from Abramoff and/or his clients.

“So the Republican tactic now in play is to spread the taint of corruption to local Democrats and cover up the massive corruption of the Republican Party. If Hart and Santorum are defeated, then the whole criminal enterprise will unravel.”

[RWC] Sure, liberals are as pure as the driven snow – not.

I have one last point. All through this screed Mr. Shannon implies there’s some massive Republican corruption conspiracy going on. If that were true, wouldn’t the conspiracy have protected Messrs. Abramoff and Cunningham? Instead, we have the Justice Department of a Republican administration investigating and prosecuting Republican bad guys.