Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Where Is The Attorney General On The Sportsman United Scandal?

The following was pointed out by a fan of Cog Dis.  The level of corruption and culpability is just breathtaking, even for me, who has decried Scott Walker's corruption long before most of the state had ever heard of him:
Lobbying by Republican lawmakers on behalf of a politically connected sportsmen’s group that received a $500,000 state grant was far greater than previously known, state records show.

Eighteen lawmakers signed on to an Aug. 22 letter urging the state Department of Natural Resources to award the grant to the United Sportsmen of Wisconsin Foundation, according to the records obtained by the State Journal under the state open records law.

The records also show that when hundreds of emails poured in to the agency in late August and early September opposing the grant amid questions about United Sportsmen’s tax status and qualifications, top DNR officials plowed ahead with the award, saying they had no choice but to follow the budget language inserted by lawmakers. The grant was later rescinded.
And three hours before the grant was awarded on Sept. 3, United Sportsmen’s president acknowledged to DNR executive assistant Scott Gunderson that he incorrectly told the committee considering the grant that the group received tax-exempt status from the IRS as a charitable organization. 
The documents also show that Deputy DNR Secretary Matt Moroney spoke at United Sportsmen’s annual banquet and fundraiser May 9 in Madison.

Weeks later, language requiring the agency to award $500,000 to a group to recruit and train people to hunt, fish and trap was inserted by lawmakers into the state’s two-year budget. After the budget was passed, critics charged the criteria were narrowly drawn to exclude every group except United Sportsmen, which ended up being the only bidder.

Among the records was an Aug. 22 letter from 18 GOP members of the Assembly and Senate urging the DNR to award the grant to the group, which had close ties to then-Assembly Majority Leader Scott Suder and Americans for Prosperity, a conservative organization that spent an estimated $3.7 million on behalf of Walker to help him beat back his 2012 recall.
Some people might blame Scott Suder for this whole mess. And he definitely played a major role in it.  But as the article points out, seventeen other Teapublican legislators played a part in the corruption.

As did Scott Walker, who rewarded Suder for his betrayal of the Wisconsin voters and taxpayers.

And none of the top officers in Walker's DNR - from Cathy "Bambi Killer" Stepp to Matt Moroney - are clean on this bit of political money laundering.

All of this blatant corruption occurring in broad daylight shows that the Teapublicans aren't afraid that they will be held accountable in any way, shape or form.  And why should they be?

The top cop in the state, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, is nothing but a political hack with aspirations of being governor some day.  If he actually does his job and hold his fellow Republicans accountable for their actions, he could hardly expect their support in the future, even for reelection.

Perhaps the best way to describe the current state of the state government is to paraphrase am old adage and say, "The rats will play while the cops look away."

Since we can't count on our Attorney General to do his job, I would say it's time to file a formal complaint with the U.S. Attorney and have this case investigated by someone who isn't part of the problem.

12 comments:

  1. And where can we find the names of the skunks that put their names on that letter. Tax payers would like to know!!!!!

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  2. Take it to the Fed. You'll gather cobwebs waiting for Van Hollen to do his job.

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  3. J.B. Van Hollen prefers "tea" above the law. What a sad truth that though we live in the U.S.A., the citizens of Wisconsin can't count our Attorney General to enforce the law in a non-partisan way. What would we think of third world countries that behaved this way?

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  4. Job has no time for this. He's very busy requiring all his DOJ lawyers to stop prosecution of sex crimes,drugs, murders, etc to make time to go after the real serious criminals...the solidarity singers..you need to look into this farce. Good news for the serious criminals!

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  5. Strategically speaking, now is the time to put all the media coverage, FOIAs, and write emails to the DOJ requesting an investigation. With the Vukimir/ALEC situation slipping back under the radar, now is the time to put pressure on Van Hollen. Shine a little light on the DOJ. Keep the DOJ in the spotlight. Turn up the heat. He knows WI and his own higher apsirations can't afford continuing bad press whoing him not doing his job. Sure, he's allowing the Walker John Doe files to be released. But you're not hearing much about Vukimir/ALEC, the bigger animal he's trying to protect. Put the spotlight on him.

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    1. Good points. Leah Vukmir must be hiding something really bad; otherwise, why would our Attorney General go to such lengths to protect her and ALEC?

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    2. Because there is SO much money behind ALEC, it's ooperations are quasi-legal from what we already know, AND it would be a national scandal that could take down the existing GOP. She's their treasurer. That's a pretty big reason to protect her. Don't you think?

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    3. I agree. That would be some investigative report for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel! (definitely Pulitzer Prize material) MJS could do a huge service to the citizens of our state and nation by digging deeper into this story and reporting their findings.

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  6. He knows WI and his own higher apsirations can't afford continuing bad press showing him not doing his job.

    Sorry for the typo

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  7. What is the hook that would make this a Federal case?

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  8. Well we can start with the Panel that approved this Scam, I have written Sen. Kedzie numerous times, Yet NO response, A few questions I had for Him, Who specifically Verified the application of this group, Why wasn't this an Open application process to all legit Organizations within the State, The GOPTP cried foul over the IRS doing there job, But for some reason this was OK, That those 18 members knew full well what was going on, Yet allowed this to continue. At what point will there be an Investigation?

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  9. Be sure to include the words GOP "Robin Vos" as a keyword search to ALEC-related nonsense. He's directing all of this 5hit in the Assembly.

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