Showing posts with label Jim DeMint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jim DeMint. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

The Alvin Greene Story: A Post-Mortem of the S.C. Democratic Party

It appears that former U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene's 15 minutes of fame are up. After predictably losing big-time to tea party leader Jim DeMint and embarrassing the state Democratic Party enough to force a change in management, the unemployed and criminally-indicted Army dropout will surely, finally recede back into anonymity... Right?

Maybe not. At Greene's "victory" party Tuesday night, the defeated challenger's supporters were outnumbered by members of the media, who did their best to provoke the latest absurd statement from a candidate who has unintentionally inspired hours of late-night monologue material and teevee news kickers. True to self, Greene pranced sheepishly around the reporters before revealing a comic book starring himself as a super-hero.

Yep, you read that right -- from the man who proposed ending the recession by producing action figures of himself, now comes the depiction of an Alvin Greene who can take on the Incredible Hulk, and was only trying to help that USC student write an oncology term paper. Seriously, read it for yourself.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Jim DeMint tries to pass the buck on the C Street cover-up


Over the past year there's been a fair amount of coverage on the C Street House, which is owned and operated by the secretive religious group The Family. Several conservative members of Congress live at the house, paying about $950 a month for upscale accommodations just blocks away from the Capitol. According to the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, that's about half the market value of apartments in that area.

It also might break congressional ethics rules. CREW has filed an ethics complaint against several C Street residents, including Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN), laying out their argument here:
The House and Senate gift rules specifically include “lodging” as a prohibited gift. ... In addition, members may not accept gifts offered to members of Congress because of their official positions. As only members of Congress appear to live in the C Street House, it seems likely that it is because of their positions that they are permitted to live there and are offered below market rent.