How Not To Respond To An Online Political Critic: Ask The Attorney General To Jail Her For Five Years
from the that-congressman-is-nuts dept
When will they learn? Slashdot points us to the story of Congressional Rep. Alan Grayson from Florida. Like most any elected official, there are people who oppose him and are trying to convince people to support his opponents. That's part of the ballgame that you play as a politician. In Grayson's case, one of his critics is a woman named Angie Langley, who set up a website called MyCongressmanIsNuts.com, which is a parody of Grayson's own CongressmanWithGuts.com (not linking to either, as I don't wish to link to any political sites). Again, this shouldn't be a surprise. Now, it turns out that Langley is not actually a constituent in Grayson's district, but lives nearby. That is a bit misleading, but hardly a major issue.Until, that is, Grayson turned it into one by sending a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder (pdf) asking for an investigation of Langley and the eventual jailing of her for five years over falsely representing herself as a constituent:
These matters were brought to Ms. Langley's personal attention through complaint to the FEC weeks ago, but she and the Committee continue to solicit contributions fraudulently, and have stubbornly refused to return the contributions that they already have, received. Therefore, Ms. Langley and the Committee should be fined, and Ms. Langley imprisoned for five years.Again, there is an issue with falsely soliciting political contributions, but the thing is, she wasn't getting much attention for her campaign, and the issue of where she lives is really quite minor. There are always people who oppose elected officials. But sending this letter and requesting five years in jail for Langley suddenly made this a national story -- and guess who that's helping? It's certainly not Grayson. But I understand that Langley has suddenly found a lot more willing donors to her campaign. Wouldn't Grayson have been better off just focusing on his "guts" and not why someone outside his district thinks he's "nuts"?
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Filed Under: alan grayson, angie langley, streisand effect
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ignorant, self-centered, poorly read, has terrible advisers ...
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Cooling effects
Okay, in all seriousness, isn't this a case of trying to create a cooling effect on meddlesome out of jurisdiction idiots trying to game the political system for their odd party line stances? I seem to remember certain radio talk show hosts encouraging listeners to "storm the borders" of a neighboring state or two and try to affect elections there. Oh, and by the way:
"there is an issue with falsely soliciting political contributions"
Sorry, but fuck that. With all the bitching we do about lobbyists granting backdoor and under the table campaign contributions, I'll be damned if I'm going to stand by and not highlight how HUGE that element of this story is. This woman was meddling outside of her voting area/district/whatever, and LYING to people to raise POLITICAL funds. I'm shocked they didn't try to slap some kind of wire fraud or mail fraud (if she accepted donations by or advertised her site via snail mail) to slam her ass in a federal pen for x years per offense, The Firm style....
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Re: Cooling effects
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Re: Cooling effects
Her about us page (in very brief):
The header graphic says: While this is certainly a case of "carpet bagging" (not the porn kind) I'm fairly certain it isn't illegal. Maybe she works in his area; perhaps she's planning on running for his position or backing somebody who is running for his position. This just seems like 'business as usual' in the political world... with one guy getting all butt-hurt for no good reason.
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Re: Cooling effects
"I seem to remember certain radio talk show hosts encouraging listeners to "storm the borders" of a neighboring state or two and try to affect elections there"
- and are they behind bars? Didnt think so
"meddling outside of her voting area/district/whatever, and LYING to people to raise POLITICAL funds"
- Sorry, but that seems to be norm.
- And what about the talking heads that encourage actual violence ... are they behind bars? Nope.
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Re:
Well, if he said so, it must be true - huh
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you know that whole koolaid thing is so passe, isnt it time to adopt some new slogan to throw around?
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and who asked anyway ?
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The Congressman in question may be an idiot and he may have found real fraud. If she isn't a constituent as she claims and collects funds for a political movement against him is it fraud?
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Dis-Grayson
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Re: Dis-Grayson
As you may guess, I reside smack dab in the middle of Mr. Grayson's district...Windermere. While I am not inclined to label him "Dis-Grayson", I am inclined to label him a self-promoting blowhard who honed his skills (and income) as a lawyer by shaking down government contractors with qui tam lawsuits of dubious validity.
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short term pain, long term gain
I also think that it is very important that voters are not mislead by people from outside the district trying to slant the process. Angie Langley is apparently someone who isn't even in the district, and as such, her actions in this case are a negative to the process. She may be right in what she says, but she is the wrong person to lead the charge.
In the end, I suspect that Grayson will get the result he is looking for, with the site going away and the issue disappearing long before any votes are cast.
Mike, I have to say, this is another one of those cases where you appear to be standing on the wrong side again.
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Re: short term pain, long term gain
Do organizations like MoveOn continuously relocate to the districts of the politicians they attack?
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not this time ....
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This has been an interesting read...
My thoughts are that her actions are not valid, based on the following:
There are several courses of action that Ms. Langley could have taken, and may still be able to take. The easiest would be to provide links from her site to the sites of valid candidates, who would be able to receive campaign monies. Another option would be to turn over the site to a political action committee (or whatever organizations are similar these days) that could support alternative candidates.
I believe Ms. Langley should return the contributions she has received to this point and then use her site as a means to point people to legitimate fundraising sites.
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Re: This has been an interesting read...
Election results are influenced by outside money at a rate that probably approaches 100%. Plenty of websites, volunteers, etc solicit monetary contributions for use in political endeavours which cross many imaginary lines. And this has been going on for some time ... welcome to the real world.
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PAC funds and Filings
Normally I'm rather impressed with your site and the way that you bring to light some very interesting stories but I think you missed the mark with this one.
For all your kneejerk reaction to the headline in this one, Mr Grayson actually has a valid point and not over what she might say on a blog. She took the extra step and registered as a PAC with all the political financial obligations and TAX EXEMPT status that goes with it.
The problem is that she is taking in money, registered as a PAC, but is acting as a campaign site against one specific congressman. PACs do not have a disclosed donations list, but PACs are also not allowed to be specific in raising what amounts to campaign funds.
This issue isn't about free speach, its about campaign fraud. Thats why there is a five year jail term tacked onto it. He isn't asking the AG to toss her in cause 'he' doesn't like her, he is asking the AG to apply the maximum fine for political fraud.
She filed the documents with the federal elections committee forming her tax exempt PAC with broadly false statements while true statements would have severely limited or not allowed her to form a PAC at all.
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Re: PAC funds and Filings
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Todd Long
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ANGIE LANGLEY HAS A HISTORY OF BREAKING ELECTION LAWS.
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Alan Grayson
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