Prog Blogs, Orgs & Alumni
Bank Slate
Betsy Devine
birch, finch, beech
Democracy for NH
Live Free or Die
Mike Caulfield
Miscellany Blue
Granite State Progress
Seacoast for Change
Still No Going Back
Susan the Bruce
Tomorrow's Progressives
Politicos & Punditry
The Burt Cohen Show
John Gregg
Krauss
Landrigan
Lawson
Pindell
Primary Monitor
Primary Wire
Scala
Schoenberg
Spiliotes
Welch
Campaigns, Et Alia.
Paul Hodes
Carol Shea-Porter
Ann McLane Kuster
John Lynch
Jennifer Daler
ActBlue Hampshire
NHDP
DCCC
DSCC
DNC
National
Balloon Juice
billmon
Congress Matters
DailyKos
Digby
Hold Fast
Eschaton
FiveThirtyEight
MyDD
The Next Hurrah
Open Left
Senate Guru
Swing State Project
Talking Points Memo
50 State Blog Network
Alabama
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Shea-Porter, during her unsuccessful campaign against Republican Rep.-elect Frank Guinta, pressed Guinta on the source of he source of $245,000 in loans and $110,000 in contributions Guinta made to his campaign. Guinta said the money came from savings he and his wife had built up over 20 years. The Democratic Party lodged complaints on the issue with the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives and Federal Election Commission.
Not in Granite Status, 9/30:
This is the second time the FEC has been formally notified of the issue. In August Republican activist Chris Wolfe requested an investigation, and he tells "Scoop" that he is updating his complaint with new information in days.
Susan already covered this, but a follow-up article from Roll Call really underscores the point.
While VPOTUS Wannabe T-Paw basically tried to purchase the entire state house, the only person POTUS Wannabe Sarah Palin really cared about in New Hampshire after her endorsement of Kelly Ayotte was Frank Guinta.
While media attention to Frank Guinta's mystery bank account scandal began in August, it wasn't until NHPR's investigation on October 12th that it really reached its height during the campaign season, especially as it was followed up by a segment on WMUR on the 13th. I remember this distinctly as it was the first time my non-politically obsessed friends asked me about it, which in turn told me it had finally broken through
Sarah Palin chose to help out Frank Guinta, and no other Granite State Republicans, on October 14th or after.
Besides being the recipient of Sarah Palin's largesse, Frank Guinta has since the election also distinguished himself in the national press as one of four congressional Republicans entering DC with pre-existing campaign ethics scandals.
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter on her vote to censure Rep. Charlie Rangel:
"I have always been clear that should Congressman Rangel be found guilty, I would vote to uphold the Rules of the House and hold him responsible for his actions. Today's vote is a signal to all Members, both current and future, that the House of Representatives should always honor the integrity of this institution. Members of Congress should always be held to the highest of ethical standards." said Shea-Porter.
The following groups today urged incoming House Speaker John Boehner to keep the Office of Congressional Ethics up and running, and in fact to strengthen it:
The League of Women Voters, Common Cause, Taxpayers for Common Sense, The National Taxpayers Union, Judicial Watch, Public Citizen, The Campaign Legal Center, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Democracy 21 and U.S. PIRG. The Tea Party is also in on the act, expressing support for preserving OCE as well.
Thanks to the work of the OCE, which was created by Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Charlie Rangel, whom Tea Party Caucus member Frank Guinta called a "corrupt politician," was formally censured by the House.
Representative-Elect Guinta will go to Washington saddled with his own unresolved controversy over significant campaign finance discrepancies. He refused comment to the Washington Post when asked about it.
Sarah Palin dumped last minute money into some GOP campaigns:
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, contributed more than $200,000 to her fellow Republicans during the final three weeks of the just-concluded midterm election campaign.
One of the lucky beneficiaries?
Several Palin-backed Republican nominees for the House, such as Ann Marie Buerkle in central New York, Frank Guinta in New Hampshire and Paul Gosar in Arizona, ousted Democratic incumbents.
Could Franky's financial Panky come back to haunt Governor Quitter?
"The scandals surrounding Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters have shown us why we need to change the incentives for serving in Congress," Guinta continued. "If we can just change the way business is done in Washington, we can make it less attractive to serve for decades in Congress, and keep corrupt politicians like Rangel and Waters out."
Will he, as a member of the Tea Party Caucus, echo the Ohio Tea Party's call for incoming House Speaker Boehner to continue Speaker Pelosi's creation of an independent Office of Congressional Ethics?
So Frank Guinta thought he could stonewall and run out the clock on questions surrounding the mystery bank account he used to finance his campaign? That after the election, no one would remember or care? No such luck.
From the Washington Post:
Four freshman lawmakers are entering Congress amid questions and controversy over their campaign and personal finances.
The piece goes on to describe the $355,000 Guinta personally lent to his campaign and the amended financial disclosure reports belatedly identifying the source of those funds. Then the bombshell.
On Thursday, a coalition of watchdog groups plans to press House leaders to preserve the independent ethics watchdog that Democrats created after the 2006 elections.
In an interview with the National Review Online, incoming House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) recognized the importance of ethics issues and the need for the new majority to keep a clean record. "I think that as Republicans emerge as a new governing majority, it is incumbent upon us to institute a zero-tolerance policy -- that we understand there are reasons for our being fired in '06 and '08," Cantor said.
For '12 Hopefuls, Bass, Guinta Among Most Popular New Members
...Rep.-elect Frank Guinta told Roll Call that he also received congratulatory phone calls from former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former New York Gov. George Pataki and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
...I'm excited for New Hampshire," Guinta said. "It's an awesome responsibility."
Besides the comedy factor of him playing diva and bragging about all the bottom rung POTUS wannabes who called him, it is useful to take note of all these NH-Primary connections to Mr. Guinta.
Because when Representative-Elect Guinta becomes "embattled" Congressman Guinta these POTUS wannabes should be asked why they cozied up to someone with a pre-existing scandal hanging over his head.
The earmark ban supported by New Hampshire's newly elected Republican congressional members would eliminate $156 million in federal funding for New Hampshire projects. The funding is included in 69 earmarks contained in current drafts of congressional spending bills.
New Hampshire projects benefiting from the earmarks include the Dover Teen Center and its programs for at-risk teenagers ($240,000), the University of New Hampshire's "Inclusive Education Initiative" for students with autism and related disabilities ($500,000) and the New Hampshire Food Bank ($1,250,000).
It is unclear whether any appropriations bills will be passed during the current lame-duck session of Congress. If, as expected, Congress passes a continuing resolution rather than an appropriations bill, no earmark spending would be approved. And it will be much harder for organizations to renew their earmark requests next session.
New Hampshire's newly elected incoming members of Congress -- Kelly Ayotte, Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass -- have all said they oppose earmarks.
[Sen. Jeanne] Shaheen said smaller states like New Hampshire are sometimes at a disadvantage when it comes to the federal funding formulas used to distribute tax dollars. "Congressionally directed spending is one way to level the playing field," Shaheen said. "It allows us to make a case for worthwhile projects like enhancing the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, expanding the New Hampshire Food Bank, and helping our local police departments purchase the equipment they need."
The American people speak to Frank, Charlie, and Kelly, according to a new PPP poll:
Just 28% of Republican respondents said that new anti-reform members should take their federal benefits, while a whopping 58% said they shouldn't. Among independents -- who voted for the GOP in big numbers on Nov. 2 -- 56% say politicians who made health care repeal a cornerstone of their campaigns should deny themselves their government benefits. Only 27% said they should take them.
...Overall, the poll shows the electorate is not interested in paying for health care benefits for politicians who opposed government-funded health care on the campaign trail. Just 33% said anti-health care politicians should take their government benefits, while 53% said they should burn their government care cards.
Uh-oh. All three of our shiny new GOP winners ran on repealing RomneyCare "ObamaCare." Looks like another job for Mystery Bank Accounts.
In related news from a different polling outfit, a majority of Americans favor either keeping or expanding the new health care law.
A few times since the extremely disheartening election, I've found myself in a peculiar and unpleasant position here at BH. I've defended Frank Guinta--and primarily from Dean Barker, whom I respect and with whom I tend to agree.
It's unlike me. I distinctly remember seeing Guinta's laughably simplistic TV ads when he first ran for Mayor in 2005 and telling anyone who would listen that he stood for nothing real and wasn't good enough. I voted for Tom Donovan for Mayor in 2007. I've voted for Carol Shea-Porter every time I've seen her name on a ballot. After interning in her office in '09, I was only more convinced that she's the real deal, and I continue to be viscerally annoyed by the fact that Guinta will replace her in the 112th Congress.
Guinta, to me, represents what's wrong with the Republican Party--not the Michele Bachmanns and Rand Pauls, the actual core of the Republican establishment. They're for themselves and their patrons, against anything Democrats are for, and that's the extent of what they care about. They're not creative, they're not dynamic, they're not the best and the brightest, and they're sure as hell not for solving problems or advancing the interests of the nation; they're for them and they're not for us. And they don't talk about anything real.
Voters deserve an honest, honorable choice, and they don't have one. It's been a few cycles, and getting worse each time. I'm for fighting fire with fire, and if that means engaging them with independent expenditure until we fix campaign finance, I'm on board. What I'm not okay with is forgetting why we deserve to win.
So yes, we need to defeat Guinta in 2012--personally, I hope CSP will be back. And yes, I accept the unfortunate fact that the next election has already started. I accept that a certain amount of negative campaigning is necessary, and I certainly agree that there are plenty of legitimately negative points to make with respect to my next Congressman.
What I don't accept is the premise that we need to stoop to lines of attack that are trifling loads of crap.
I get why people feel the need to hit the other side on things like this. I dislike Guinta, and I resent him for unseating a far more worthy public servant who had earned the trust of a voting public plagued by apathy, cynicism, and misinformation. But unless it's a worthy criticism, unless it's a legitimate issue, or unless people will care, why hit him? We can't just let ourselves be driven by bitterness; not in a public forum like this, anyway. It adds fuel to the fire of everyone sounding like Sean Hannity. A big reason supporting Democrats helps me sleep at night is that I think (for example) if the roles were reversed, Dems wouldn't be trying to block the New START Treaty. Because we care about things that are real. We put our country first, even when it explicitly means not writing that on our campaign buses because doing so would imply an unreasonable attack on the other side.
We are better than that. We, liberals, are better than that. We, Democrats, are better than that. We, liberal Democratic netroots in New Hampshire, are better than that.
But even if you think we're not, please keep in mind that two years from now, the voting public will not care that two years before then, Frank Guinta took a family vacation and wasn't thrilled when he got a low pick of office space.
The infamous Frank Guinta, who campaigned on cutting government waste, looks disgusted that 64 other infamous frosh snagged a nicer gummit-run office than he did.
Since WMUR is still allergic to enabling embeds, you'll have to click here for it.
Don't worry, Rep.-Elect. While the look on your face makes it clear you prefer we taxpayers foot the bill for your nice things, I'm sure there's some money left in those mystery accounts to spruce up your so undesirable digs.
A report from the non-partisan U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) finds the the cost control provisions in the Affordable Care Act produce a "notable improvement in the long-term outlook" for debt reduction if the law is implemented fully.
The federal government faces long-term fiscal pressures ... driven on the spending side largely by rising health care costs and an aging population. GAO's simulations show continually increasing levels of debt that are unsustainable over the long-term.
Both of these simulations incorporate effects of health care legislation enacted in March 2010, which includes a number of provisions to control the growth of federal health care spending. There is a notable improvement in the long-term outlook under the Baseline Extended simulation, which assumes full implementation and effectiveness of cost control provisions.
I guess Frank Guinta didn't get the memo. Guinta claims to be focused on balancing the budget, but he never misses an opportunity to call for repealing healthcare reform. And he doesn't stop there. If can't eliminate it, he'll work to reduce its effectiveness.
“Procedurally, if it gets to the president’s desk and he vetoes it, the reality is that we don’t have the votes to override,” said Guinta. “So we’re going to have to work immediately after that to do three things: No. 1, reduce the cost of the overall bill. No. 2, eliminate the unconstitutional components of it. And No. 3, do what many people in this country wanted to see done in the first place, which is to reduce costs for employers and employees.”
So tell us Frank, how are you going to make up for the big budget hole that healthcare repeal will leave behind?
This makes perfect sense to me - and it would save Joe Taxpayer a bit of money too:
A group of House Democrats has released a letter to Republican congressional leaders calling on them to announce which of their members will be forgoing their congressional benefit health insurance (which is subsidized by the government) in light of their party's opposition to health care reform overhaul legislation.
"If your conference wants to deny millions of Americans affordable health care, your members should walk that walk," four Democrats write in the letter,
Here's a new member of that congress - from Frank Guinta's issue page:
"Health care needs reform - not a government takeover."
Frank Guinta opposes the government-run health care scheme that requires government to write a blank check it can't cover and threatens the quality of our care.
Given the multiple bank accounts worth between $250,000 and $500,000 Congressman-Elect Guinta insists are his, he can likely afford health care that isn't a "government-run scheme."
The news about Charlie Rangel brought back this August memory from a right-winger at RedState:
Unless you are Charlie Rangel you do not wake up in the morning, slap your forehead, and remember a $500,000.00 bank account you have failed...twice...to disclose. This is, according to the Union Leader, exactly what has happened in the case of Frank Guinta.
...We need a better answer than "inadvertent oversight" from Mr. Guinta. We certainly don't need him in DC only to find himself in the same position Rangel and Waters find themselves in today.
Fast forward to now. Guinta never gave a better answer than "inadvertant oversight." But he's already in DC declaring his infamy. Oh well.
Although they cannot yet vote, members of the incoming class of 13 new Republican senators and more than 80 new Republican House members are making themselves heard in the hallways and to the activists gathered on the Capitol grounds.
"This infamous freshmen class will not let you down," Representative-elect Frank Guinta, Republican of New Hampshire, told the anti-lame-duck rally.
I wasn't prepared for this level of self-reflective honesty so early:
in·fa·mous
-adjective
1. having an extremely bad reputation: an infamous city.
2. deserving of or causing an evil reputation; shamefully malign; detestable: an infamous deed.
3.Law .
a.deprived of certain rights as a citizen, as a consequence of conviction of certain offenses.
b.of or pertaining to offenses involving such deprivation.
It's true - they've gotten a really good start already.
"This infamous freshmen class will not let you down."
That is hands down my favorite new phrase. It was around this time, too, in the political cycle that Sununu the Younger blurted out "stop complaining about heath care."
I note with interest the following ethics charge against Charlie Rangel deliberated in the House Ethics Committee hearing today:
"Respondent engaged in a pattern of submitting Financial Disclosure statements that were incomplete and inaccurate."
I'm still seeing Guinta for Congress Google text ads pop up on various sites I visit. It reminds me that for at least the final two weeks of his campaign, Frank Guinta's cash-on-hand total was less than the $355,000 he provided his campaign but refuses to prove was his to give.
Here's a fun trivia question we should crowdsource the answer to: when was the last time a Republican was elected to New Hampshire's first district without a general election endorsement from the Union Leader?
Right after the election, Frank Guinta told the Concord Monitor that he'd be joining a newly formed Tea Party Caucus in Congress.
Then Beth LaMontagne Hall reported that Guinta would be heading "to Washington on Nov. 14 for orientation."
Hmm... turns out that's when the Tea Party Patriots orientation for frosh members is. Which brings us to the fiasco (h/t TPM):
Tea Party Patriots, one of the largest coalitions of tea party advocates, released to supporters the personal cell phone numbers and e-mail addresses of freshman Republican Members who the group thinks are in danger of being "co-opted" by D.C. insiders.
In an e-mail to supporters that was also posted Thursday on IronMill.com, Tea Party Patriots leader Jenny Beth Martin accused the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank, of trying to lure the freshman lawmakers away from the tea party movement by hosting orientation programs that conflict with those scheduled by the tea party group.
A look at the letter (I'm not linking to it) urges the Tea Partiers to call Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass directly. The Bass connection is especially ironic, since, after telling the Tea Partiers their agenda was "exactly the same as mine," post-election he doesn't want to have anything to do with the TP caucus.
Our first district Congressman-Elect was lucky on the timing here. Imagine if the Tea People had been ordered to contact Guinta after learning he opposes cutting a form of government welfare.
Frank Guinta will be hanging out with Tea Partiers Sen. Jim DeMint, Rep. Michelle Bachman and Rep. Mike Pence tomorrow. He's joining the three as featured speaker at the Americans for Prosperity "November Speaks" rally in Washington.
The rally is an attempt to block Democrats' policy priorities in the upcoming lame-duck session, including a childhood nutrition bill, food safety legislation and preventing a 23% cut in Medicare payments to physicians.
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is the right-wing political advocacy group funded by infamous oil billionaire David Koch of Koch Industries. AFP spent over $1.3 million during the midterm elections to elect Tea Party candidates including more than $74,000 attacking Rep. Carol Shea-Porter.
