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Cain Campaign Head Mark Block Stars In Creepy Cain Ad, Reveals Creepy Past

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Herman Cain‘s latest campaign ad stars his campaign manager, Mark Block. The ad is creepy. It shows Block speaking about Cain and the campaign and why they will win, and ends with Block inhaling a lit cigarette, then blowing smoke. No wonder it’s posted on YouTube, by Herman Cain’s campaign, as “unlisted.”

The YouTube description reads, “Chief of Staff Mark Block talks about Herman Cain’s Presidential Campaign and urges people to act because together we can elect Herman Cain!”

This ad, aside from how creepy and offensive it is (smoking a cigarette? Really?) is a big mistake, because it highlights Mark Block, Cain’s up until now fairly anonymous campaign manager.

Who is Mark Block? Apparently a Koch Brothers backed line-crossing pol who has been in legal trouble for his political activities, and has been forced to pay thousands of dollars in fines and was banned from politics in the late 1990s.

“Block formerly served as the executive director of the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a free-market advocacy organization. Block serves on the Board of Directors of the MacIver Institute and the First Freedoms Foundation,” according to Ballotpedia.

The MacIver Institute has been described as “a conservative propaganda organization dolled up to look like a conventional news service.”

“Wisconsin Family Action (WFA) and First Freedoms Foundation are challenging the new same-sex domestic partnership law authoried and signed into law by Gov. Jim Doyle in the 2010-2011 state budget,” according to the First Freedoms Foundation website.

Ballotpedia adds:

“Mark Block managed the 1997 election campaign of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Jon P. Wilcox. Wilcox won the election, and Block was later charged with illegal coordination with the political activities of Wisconsin Citizens for Voter Participation. During that period the constitutionality of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program was facing a legal challenge. If Wilcox’s opponent Walt Kelley had been elected the Milwaukee program might have been ruled unconstitutional.”

“Block reached a settlement to end litigation by paying a $15,000 fine and agreeing to a three-year ban on volunteer or paid political activity. Brent Pickens, a former Wisconsin State Assembly staffer who was running Wisconsin Citizens for Voter Participation, ended related litigation against him by agreeing to pay a $15,000 fine. Pickens also agreed to avoid political activity for five years.”

“In 2007, The West Bend Area School District attempted to pass a $120 million school referendum. This would have been the largest school referenda in Wisconsin history. Americans for Prosperity organized a phone call campaign to communicate with voters in the district about the referenda’s tax ramifications. The school district’s attorney responded to a request from It’s Time, a West Bend group supporting passage of the referendum, to investigate whether the message violated state law. The calls were placed Friday before the referendum in November 2007.

“Washington County District Attorney Todd Martens ruled in favor of Americans for Prosperity, writing, “I believe the language in the call comes dangerously close to express advocacy…Although it appears that some of the information in the call is misleading and a distortion of the true financial impact of the referendum on taxpayers, the veracity of the political speech is not the issue in determining whether Americans for Prosperity is required to register as a political committee.”

“State election law requires anyone expressly promoting the passage or defeat of a referendum question to register to campaign, according to the state Elections Board.

“Block has said the message was intended to educate West Bend residents.

“In the West Bend referendum, Americans for Prosperity’s telephone message said the building plan would cost “$574,000 for each child” added to the district since a 2001 referendum.

“West Bend School Superintendent Patricia Herdrich described the message as ‘inaccurate and misleading‘.”

 

If Herman Cain thinks this is a good representation of him and his campaign, imagine who he’d hire in the White House.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qhm-22Q0PuM%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US%26rel%3D0

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News

McCarthy Ousted as Speaker in Historic First as Republicans Vow Vengeance Against Gaetz: ‘Kiss My A–‘

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October 3, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has been ousted as the elected Speaker of the House of Representatives after a weeks-long campaign by his fellow Republican, Congressman Matt Gaetz. The Republican Florida lawmaker vowed over the weekend to put a “motion to vacate” on the House floor, which he did Monday night. Tuesday afternoon McCarthy lost the support of the majority in a full House vote.

No Speaker of the House has ever been ousted by a motion to vacation, according to the Associated Press, until McCarthy.

“The Office of the Speaker of the House of the United States House of Representatives is hereby declared vacant,” the presiding Republican lawmakers declared. The final vote was 216-210.

No Democrats voted to support McCarthy as Speaker.

Overall House Republicans are furious with Gaetz, with some vowing to expel him should the House Ethics Committee submit a negative report on their investigation into his alleged, possible sexual misconduct, unlawful drug use, and public corruption.

In addition to Gaetz, other House Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy include Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Tim Burchett, Eli Crane, Bob Good, Nancy Mace, and Matt Rosendale.

READ MORE: Trump Has Now ‘Crossed the Line Into Criminal Threats’: Top Legal Scholar

“After talking to a few House Republican lawmakers and aides,” during the vote to oust McCarthy as Speaker, Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reported he “would not be surprised to see someone move to have Gaetz expelled from the House Republican Conference.”

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) in a profane rant slammed Gaetz, in a recorded video, saying, “You want to come at me and call me a RINO you can kiss my ass! You go around talking your big game and thumping your chest on Twitter. Come in my office and have a debate mother —!”

U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-LA) help up his phone while delivering remarks against Gaetz, chastising him for fundraising off his efforts to oust McCarthy.

“Using official actions to raise money. It’s disgusting!” he told his colleagues.

What happens next? According to The New York Times on Tuesday, “If McCarthy is removed, the House would be paralyzed.”

“A vacancy in the speaker’s chair would essentially paralyze the House until a successor is chosen, according to multiple procedural experts. An interim speaker would be chosen from a list prepared by Mr. McCarthy and his staff at the beginning of the year, but staff intimately familiar with House rules say the role of that person would be to oversee a speaker election and little more.”

As for McCarthy, he has said if removed as Speaker he would not resign from Congress. On Tuesday he suggested he would definitely run again for Speaker.

READ MORE: ‘Fool or a Liar’: GOP Knives Out for ‘A–hole’ Matt Gaetz as Vote to Oust McCarthy Appears Likely to Succeed

Watch the videos above or at this link.

 

 

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‘Fool or a Liar’: GOP Knives Out for ‘A–hole’ Matt Gaetz as Vote to Oust McCarthy Appears Likely to Succeed

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October 3, 2023

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House Republicans are expressing outrage at one of their own, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who by day’s end may succeed or come close to ousting Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy for relying on Democrats’ votes to keep the federal government from shutting down Saturday night.

“I prefer, you know, common sense over chaos,” Republican Congressman Anthony D’Esposito, who referred to Congressman Gaetz as an “a–hole,” told Fox News on Tuesday.

“I think that we should be focused on governance rather than grandstanding, and the fact that we have one a–hole that is holding us up and holding America up is a real problem,” D’Esposito added.

Far-right Republican Derrick Van Orden told CNN’s Manu Raju that Gaetz is “either a fool or a liar.”

“I’m telling you,” warned Republican Andy Barr of Kentucky, “it definitely puts the majority in jeopardy when you see disunity.”

READ MORE: Trump Has Now ‘Crossed the Line Into Criminal Threats’: Top Legal Scholar

GOP Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas said, “I think it’s sending a terrible message to the electorate in advance of the 2024 election that this Republican majority could not govern itself.”

On camera, another Republican called Gaetz “a chaos agent,” and another said: “I don’t have tolerance for some pseudo psycho political fetish.”

Still another warned, “I think it’s sending a terrible signal to the electorate in advance of the ’24 election, that this Republican majority cannot govern itself.”

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’: ND Republican Unleashes Anti-LGBTQ Christian Nationalist Rant Calling for ‘Christ Is King’ Laws

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‘Probably So’: McCarthy Says His Speakership Likely Will End After Vote

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7 hours ago

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October 3, 2023

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The Republican Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, is acknowledging his leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives “probably” is about to end.

“If five Republicans go with Democrats, then I’m out,” McCarthy, sounding resigned to his possible future, told reporters late Tuesday morning. The Speaker acknowledged that if all Democrats vote against him in a vote schedule for Tuesday afternoon, and just five Republicans join them, he will lose his job.

“That looks likely,” ABC’s Rachel Scott told McCarthy.

“Probably so,” he responded.

There are currently at least five Republicans who say they will vote to oust McCarthy, according to CNN’s Haley Talbot, as of last Monday night.

Democrats on Tuesday have said they will not support McCarthy.

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has been on a campaign to oust McCarthy, who was elected Speaker in January but only after the House voted 15 times before granting him the gavel. That gavel came with public and private concessions, among them, that any one member of the House could initiate a “motion to vacate,” which Gaetz did Monday night.

Gaetz claims he is working to strip McCarthy of the Speakership because he reached across the aisle and accepted votes from Democrats very late on Saturday to avoid what had been an almost-certain shutdown of the federal government. But McCarthy has long contended for Gaetz it’s “personal,” because the Speaker would not intervene to save Gaetz from a re-opened House Ethics Committee investigation into possible violations including sexual misconduct, unlawful drug use, and public corruption.

if Republicans do succeed on the motion to vacate, there currently is no one named to replace McCarthy. That would leave the position that is second in line to the presidency vacant.

Watch today’s House session live below, starting at 11:45 AM, see his remarks to reporters above, or watch both at this link.

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