Democrats urge GOP leaders to work against 11th District Republican Bentivolio

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Democrats urge GOP leaders to work against 11th District Republican Bentivolio

BY LAUREN ABDEL-RAZZAQ
OCTOBER 23, 2012 AT 6:37 PM

Democrats on Tuesday urged Republican leaders to encourage voters to not vote for their party's candidate in the 11th Congressional District.

Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, in a conference call with reporters questioned Republican candidate Kerry Bentivolio's fitness to serve in Congress, calling him "deeply troubled."

"I think you've got to have somebody who's able to have a grasp on reality," Brewer said. "I believe his election will make Michigan a national laughingstock. It will be a national embarrassment."

Brewer referred to Bentivolio's alleged misconduct during his time as a teacher in Fowlerville High School, his participation in a conspiracy theory film about the 9/11 terrorist attacks and a 20-year-old court case he was involved in where he "testified under oath that he believes himself to be Santa Claus."

...

Matt Frendewey, spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party, said Brewer's comments were insulting and offensive.

"I really think questioning Kerry Bentivolio's fitness to serve is an insult to a man who has served his country twice in two different theaters of combat," Frendewey said. "It might be easier for the Michigan Democratic Party to take potshots from the sidelines at a decorated veteran."
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read more:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/...k-against-11th-District-Republican-Bentivolio
 
I read about it in an US Today piece some time ago. Something he said in a deposition in a bankruptcy case. Looked like it was said in jest and taken out of context.

Still, this guy will need to work his rear end off in the next two years to provide great constituency services. Otherwise he's DOA in 2014.
 
From 'If you don't vote for the Republican you're not a team player and you're participating in the incrementalization to the Left,' to 'don't vote for the Republican if someone, somewhere might consider him laughable,' to...

DeMintConservative said:
Still, this guy will need to work his rear end off in the next two years to provide great constituency services. Otherwise he's DOA in 2014.
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...'conservatism sounds fine but it's dead because you have to essentially be a Democrat to win.'

No wonder the GOP is dying. Conservatively speaking, it's all hat and no cattle.

Yo, DeMint worshipper--you ever hear of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments? Let Lansing provide the 'constituent services'. A federal congressman's highest calling is to drain the swamp.
 
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Maybe he'll get primaried, and maybe he won't. The GOP swore with a vengeance that they were going to primary Amash, but ultimately decided they had other battles to fight.

Make no mistake - the reigning class of Republicans would certainly prefer to have a Democrat in office than a fiscal conservative. Boehner has been having fits because he can't get the few TEA Party candidates that didn't sell out to toe the party line. Sure, Bentivolio is going to be a target. So was Ron Paul, yet he survived. Politics is a blood sport.
 
angelatc said:
Maybe he'll get primaried, and maybe he won't. The GOP swore with a vengeance that they were going to primary Amash, but ultimately decided they had other battles to fight.
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Especially since 'get him out because he didn't bring home enough "constituent services" bacon' isn't exactly a huge selling point among those conservatives who don't have to preface the word 'conservative' with some moderate corporatist's name in order to explain how they can claim to be conservative without actually being conservative...
 
And btw - Mark Brewer is a total blowhard. It's pretty easy to see why he's the leader of the party. He reminds me of Wasserman-Schultz, in that he doesn't care if a talking point is even remotely true, and that no matter what the topic is, he'll change it back to that talking point. He's a a typical Democrat loud mouth bully.

He's worried that Bentivolio will make Michigan a laughingstock? Hello? Detroit???
 
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Holy crap - I just read the article again.
Carl Paulus, political director of Bentivolio's campaign, criticized the Democrats for saying a veteran shouldn't be in Congress."It shows how out of the mainstream the Michigan Democratic Party has become that they would say that a 27-year veteran who served in Vietnam and Iraq is unqualified to serve in Congress while they support a candidate who's being funded by the largest socialist organization in the United States and a group that has been linked to Hamas by the FBI," Paulus said.


From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121023/POLITICS01/210230446#ixzz2AE2pyhSt
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Ouch! This is getting ugly!
 
acptulsa said:
Yo, DeMint worshipper--you ever hear of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments? Let Lansing provide the 'constituent services'. A federal congressman's highest calling is to drain the swamp.
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Ron Paul himself got repeatedly re-elected by providing top notch constituent services.
 
mz10 said:
Ron Paul himself got repeatedly re-elected by providing top notch constituent services.
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Some claim he didn't, because he didn't do a good enough job of 'bringing home the bacon'. But, yes, he did.
 
acptulsa said:
From 'If you don't vote for the Republican you're not a team player and you're participating in the incrementalization to the Left,' to 'don't vote for the Republican if someone, somewhere might consider him laughable,' to...

...'conservatism sounds fine but it's dead because you have to essentially be a Democrat to win.'

No wonder the GOP is dying. Conservatively speaking, it's all hat and no cattle.

Yo, DeMint worshipper--you ever hear of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments? Let Lansing provide the 'constituent services'. A federal congressman's highest calling is to drain the swamp.
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Again, you need to drop the personal remarks. Also the bizarre strawmen attacks. How do you get all that stuff from my post? I don't even know what to say.

To the point, some of the most conservative congressmen provide great constituency services. And it doesn't even mean pork, which was "the Ron Paul way". Earmarks are now banned anyway and Bentivolio is going to be a mere freshman. This guy has some garbage and he isn't a good ideological fit for the district. He needs to earn the trust of his constituents in the next two years, to entrench himself, otherwise he won't be re-elected. And I wasn't even thinking about the primary - had the Dems nominated someone like Tim Melton instead of Taj, they'd win this seat this year. This is a totally dispassionate horserace analysis. Agree or disagree with it, but don't mix it with ideological preferences and other nonsense.

And unlike you, I don't worship any politician. They are all, without exception, a necessary evil. I think I've said this before and it didn't stop you from keeping your over-emotional and slightly creepy obsession, but I don't mind stating it again.
 
FYI, here's where the Santa Claus thing comes from:
In his first year, he aimed high, wrote to the White House and asked whether he might make an appearance there as Santa during the holiday season. The day he got the official invitation from the White House (George Bush was president at the time), he called a news conference in Milford to announce the invite. Several newspapers, including the Free Press, wrote about it, attracting attention from one of the vendors who Bentivolio had owed money -- about $2,600 that was wiped clean by the bankruptcy.

That vendor called the White House to complain and word got back to the newspapers that Bentivolio filed for bankruptcy.

A second story came out about Bentivolio withdrawing from the White House appearance. Bentivolio sued the vendor, her husband, the Free Press and the Spinal Column newspapers for slander and libel and asked for $1 million in damages. He detailed the lengths to which the vendor went for revenge, including a confrontation in a Milford restaurant and speaking to potential clients and workers in Bentivolio homes.


Bentivolio's deposition in the lawsuit is full of "Miracle on 34th Street" moments.

"I have a problem figuring out which one I really am, Santa Claus or Kerry Bentivolio," he said in his deposition. "All my life I have been told I'm Kerry Bentivolio, and now, I am a Santa Claus, so now I prefer to be Santa Claus."
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Fairly or unfairly, a well-funded democratic candidate could turn this, his record as a school teacher, the truther film, the bankruptcy, etc, into a very powerful attack ad.
 
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DeMintConservative said:
Amazing.

What else should they do?
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Do you know who Sue Lowden is?

But it doesn't come into play if the GOP backs their candidate.

As to pork being the Ron Paul way, he voted against all unConstitutional spending and if everyone who voted for earmarks did it, as he does, because it is the Constitutional role of Congress to earmark every penny, on amendments, but also voted against the spending altogether by voting the bill down, none of it would have been passed. Earmarks are spun to be bad by those pushing for line item vetoes and even more strengthening of the imperial presidency outside of Constitutional checks and balances. Unconstitutional SPENDING is what is bad, and Ron votes against it. The bad thing about the practice of earmarks is when someone SELLS their vote saying they will vote YES on the final bill, only if they get this spending. Ron NEVER voted yes on the ultimate bill, and never, ever sold his vote. Lobbyists long ago stopped bothering to go to his office.

You are very well versed, impressively so, on ancient Rome, but not so much on the Constitution. Checks and balances between the executive and Congress are there for a reason, a very important reason.
 
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sailingaway said:
As to pork being the Ron Paul way, he voted against all unConstitutional spending and if everyone who voted for earmarks did it, as he does, because it is the Constitutional role of Congress to earmark every penny, on amendments, but also voted against the spending altogether by voting the bill down, none of it would have been passed. Earmarks are spun to be bad by those pushing for line item vetoes and even more strengthening of the imperial presidency outside of Constitutional checks and balances. Unconstitutional SPENDING is what is bad, and Ron votes against it. The bad thing about the practice of earmarks is when someone SELLS their vote saying they will vote YES on the final bill, only if they get this spending. Ron NEVER voted yes on the ultimate bill, and never, ever sold his vote. Lobbyists long ago stopped bothering to go to his office.
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I wasn't actually talking about pork, he had a very efficient constituent service system (i.e. helping them get their social security checks, other small-time stuff like that) that endeared him to his district. Sherrod Brown from Ohio does the exact same thing, which is why he's so hard to beat even though he's too liberal for his state.
 
DeMintConservative said:
FYI, here's where the Santa Claus thing comes from:

Fairly or unfairly, a well-funded democratic candidate could turn this, his record as a school teacher, the truther film, the bankruptcy, etc, into a very powerful attack ad.
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Perhaps but the former district 11 went 60% GOP (w/o the 2% LP) in 2010 and even went 51GOP/45DEM in Obama's '08 heyday. Thus, in this presidential election year the dem's have bigger priorities than sinking money down the tubes in MI11. It's pretty much guaranteed that Kerry gets in and you can tell by his demeanor in certain recent tv interviews. The dems can't talk policy so they resort to childish games and the Detroit rags oblige them. par for course
 
Meh, Oakland County is quirky enough to keep a guy like Bentivolio in office, I think.
 
sailingaway said:
Do you know who Sue Lowden is?

But it doesn't come into play if the GOP backs their candidate.
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I know who Sue Lowden is; I fail to see her relevancy here.

You claimed "he GOP leadership had better respond appropriately to having THEIR candidate attacked". But they did. What else did you want them to do? I could only wish the NV GOP was as effective defending Republican candidates as the MI GOP.

sailingaway said:
As to pork being the Ron Paul way, he voted against all unConstitutional spending and if everyone who voted for earmarks did it, as he does, because it is the Constitutional role of Congress to earmark every penny, on amendments, but also voted against the spending altogether by voting the bill down, none of it would have been passed. Earmarks are spun to be bad by those pushing for line item vetoes and even more strengthening of the imperial presidency outside of Constitutional checks and balances. Unconstitutional SPENDING is what is bad, and Ron votes against it. The bad thing about the practice of earmarks is when someone SELLS their vote saying they will vote YES on the final bill, only if they get this spending. Ron NEVER voted yes on the ultimate bill, and never, ever sold his vote. Lobbyists long ago stopped bothering to go to his office.

You are very well versed, impressively so, on ancient Rome, but not so much on the Constitution. Checks and balances between the executive and Congress are there for a reason, a very important reason.
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So? The bad thing about earmarks is that they're a gateway to corruption and more spending. I never accused Ron Paul of those things, merely of being a porker. My point was that constituent services don't equate to appropriations. Even with an earmark ban, Bentivolio can provide top notch constituent services.

FSP-Rebel said:
Perhaps but the former district 11 went 60% GOP (w/o the 2% LP) in 2010 and even went 51GOP/45DEM in Obama's '08 heyday. Thus, in this presidential election year the dem's have bigger priorities than sinking money down the tubes in MI11. It's pretty much guaranteed that Kerry gets in and you can tell by his demeanor in certain recent tv interviews. The dems can't talk policy so they resort to childish games and the Detroit rags oblige them. par for course
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The old MI-11 went 54-45 Obama. This district, with the new lines, went 50-48 Obama.

I've always said Bentivolio was a shoe-in in this general election. I wasn't talking about this year if you read my post carefully.

This district is fairly republican at a congressional level, but republicans there are fairly moderate and more focused on competence than ideology. Bloomfields, Novi, Birmingham.. that's where the republican and swing votes are and they're mostly Romney republicans. Too many affluent suburbanites. Then you have some social conservative pockets in the more rural parts of Oakland and around Canton and Catholics in Livonia. But Oakland suburbs will decide how this district goes. A competent Conservadem from that part of the district can be very competitive if those voters aren't happy with the Republican candidate, as those democratic pockets in Southfield and Redford will always give the Dem a decent enough floor. And attack ads, even in stuff like this Santa Claus and the film stuff, which are very easy to take out of context, work. That's why Bentivolio needs to work hard to be very well-known and liked by those voters in the next 2 years.
 
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