RNC fires finance director & deputy director following spending scandals

By GottaLaff

Heads are rolling... because, hey, that's how the RNC, well, rolls:

The Republican National Committee has fired Finance Director Rob Bickhart in the wake of a two embarrassing scandals that originated in the committee's fundraising department.

Deputy Finance Director Debbie LeHardy has also been removed from her post.

Remember that powerpoint presentation to Republican donors that stooped to the usual fear tactics, calling Obama a socialist, blahblah spewspew? That would be the same powerpoint in which they referred to GOP donors as "ego-driven". Bickhart was reportedly the one behind it.

CA Republican Erik Brown return RNC money; RNC cultivated young donors at Voyeurs

By GottaLaff


Michael Steele is toast. His sexcapades at the bondage-themed Voyeur club (that features topless dancers simulating sex acts), where he blew nearly two grand to hang with the who's who of voyeuritude, is getting blowback. (Fun with words!)

A California-based political consultant who charged the Republican National Committee nearly $2,000 for a night out at Voyeur - a risque West Hollywood nightclub now at center of the latest controversy surrounding RNC chairman Michael Steele - will return the money to the party, a committee spokesman told CNN Monday.

Erik Brown, president of the Orange County-based Dynamic Marketing, Inc., was re-imbursed in February for $1,946.25 worth of charges at the nightclub, according to the RNC's latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. [...]

Brown's firm, which also has an office in Washington, D.C., has done direct mail and consulting work for GOP candidates in California including Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, now a candidate for Senate, and Steve Poizner, the state Insurance Commissioner now running for governor.

Erik and Mikey are bff. Well, they're at least f:

In October, Brown tweeted: "Enjoying the football game with RNC Chairman Michael Steele. (Eagles vs Redskins at FedEx Field)."

Brown closed his Twitter account after the Voyeur story broke. His Gen Next page was also scrubbed. Sadly, I accidentally closed my tab while it was still up. But luckily, Democratic Underground copied the text and his photo (click on images to enlarge):

Erik Brown is Chief Executive Officer of DMI, Dynamic Marketing Inc. a direct marketing/media production company with offices in California and Washington DC. DMI provides services for corporations, political campaigns, issue advocacy groups, fundraising professionals, and various private concerns. Recipients of the prestigious AAPC Pollie Award in 2008, DMI’s portfolio includes work for notable candidates as well as a several prominent elected officials and public policy organizations.

A graduate of the University of California Irvine with a degree in Political Science, Erik has been an active member of The National Honor Society, Young Republicans, Friends of the NRA, Claremont Institute, and the Sheriff's Advisory Council. Apart from a passion for politics and a driving commitment to advocate on behalf of founding principles, Erik is a sportsman and a mentor to young athletes. As an ice hockey coach for over 12 years, his teams have won acclaim as State, District, and National Champions.

Erik is married to Alison Brown, a graduate of Chapman University and an MBA student at UCI’s Merage School of business. Alison has served as President of the Illuminating Engineers Society of Southern California, a mainstay of her industry. A former director of the Sunday school, Alison and Erik reside in Las Flores, California and are actively involved in the ministries of their local church.

Here's what is there now:

But wait! There's more!

What exactly was going on at that little Voyeurpalooza?

A $1,946.25 bar tab at a bondage-themed Hollywood nightclub financed by the RNC was part of a night of cultivating young Republican donors [...]

The California blog Red County reported that the outing at Voyeur West Hollywood was an after-party for a number of young Republicans who attended a Young Eagles event that night at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Those would be the same under-40s who are pallin' around with Blackwater for a fundraiser in April. I wrote about that earlier here.

The Party of No is morphing into the Party Party.

H/t: Windy City Watch, Gr8RDH

Republicans Will Run on Fear of Obama and Socialism

By GottaLaff

Why would they stop their fear tactics now? And once and for all, I wish they'd get out their dictionaries and look up the word "socialism".

While they're at it, they might look up the words "ethical" and "democracy":

The RNC plans to raise money this election cycle through an aggressive campaign capitalizing on "fear" of President Obama and a promise to "save the country from trending toward socialism," Politico reports.

"The strategy was detailed in a confidential party fundraising presentation which also outlines how 'ego-driven' wealthy donors can be tapped with offers of access and 'tchochkes.'"

And by "tchochkes" they mean apologies for calling them "ego-driven".

I'm so glad I'm a Marxist Commie fascist so they can't lump me in with all those evil socialist types.

Eric Cantor reveals his not-tech-savviness

By GottaLaff

Oh, those contempo-Republicans! They're so hep!

[House Minority Whip Rep. Eric] Cantor was addressing more than 100 of the Republican National Committee's top donors [...]

"He’s talking about the importance of technology and understand that we need to connect with new voters and how President Obama’s campaign really demonstrated how to use technology effectively," said a major donor who was in the room, one of two attendees who recalled the moment.

"Cantor says, 'We understand these things: we need to be on social networking sites – like Facebook, and YouTube, and LinkedUp,'" the donor said.

Oops. It's called LinkedIn. Cantor needs to link up with his memory.

"We’re talking about getting tech right and the minority whip doesn’t even know the name of the goddamn website?" groused the donor. "At least John McCain was honest."

"The Congressman simply mis-spoke," said a Cantor spokesman, Brad Dayspring.

Of course he did. He knew exactly what he was talking about. They always do.

The new Norm-Al: The bad news continues for Coleman

By GottaLaff

Toker Norm's political career is slowly but surely going up in smoke (pun intended):

Former Sen. Norm Coleman's political and legal problems over the security breach at his campaign website may get worse, with new questions about whether his team violated state law by not reporting the problems earlier.

The campaign's disclosure Wednesday night that a hacker may have gained access to about 5,000 donors' financial information will almost certainly deter new online contributions, further hindering Coleman's ability to raise money for the ongoing recount lawsuit against Democrat Al Franken.

Oh noes! What a Norm-tastrophe! Al may actually become Senator before 2010!

On the legal side, experts say there's a valid question about whether the campaign violated a state law that requires any person or business that conducts business in the state to notify consumers immediately that their personal information has been breached. As early as Jan. 28, Minnesota bloggers reported that personal security information could be downloaded by anyone after a brief crash of the Coleman for Senate website. [...]

On top of that, there's a question about whether the Coleman campaign was allowed by state law to retain the full credit card information and security codes of their online contributors — and whether the data were properly encrypted.

Norm Coleman: A human atomizer of Eau de Loser.

Donors, Data-Security Experts Blast Coleman Campaign

By GottaLaff

Yesterday, I posted about Toker Norm's little Oops Moment. I couldn't resist following up with some reaction:

[T]he Pioneer Press -- which endorsed Coleman for re-election last year, by the way -- doesn't appear to be buying it.

Coleman-supporter Kelly McShane, who donated $100 online and whose job is to secure data for the banking industry, had this to say: "I'm in IT security for a bank, and I can tell you that this is so ... irresponsible that I can't believe it."

Eric Schultze, chief technology officer for a Minnesota-based computer-security company (not to be confused with DSCC spokesman and former Franken spokesman Eric Schultz) explained to the Pioneer Press that no Web site should be set up to store credit-card data on the same server as the rest of the site -- let alone in an unencrypted form. "Anybody worth their salt would not set up a Web site that way," said Schultze.

Seems Toker Normie inhaled once too often.

Coleman Camp To Online Donors: Cancel Your Credit Cards After "Strong Likelihood" Of Breach

By GottaLaff

Via TPM:

Coleman campaign puts all its online donors' credit card info up on the web.

But they didn't tell anyone until a watchdog site sniffed it out.

More:

The Coleman campaign now has another headache to deal with: They are advising contributors to cancel their credits cards, The Hill reports, after an apparent security foul-up in late January.

Toker Norm lost to Al Franken, and for good reason. He is an inept losery twit.

Last night, Coleman's entire online donor list received an e-mail from a Wikileaks.org e-mail address, notifying them that their private information had been posted in a publicly accessible area of Coleman's campaign site this past January 28, and has circulated out of public view. [...]

The Wikileaks e-mail also includes a link to an Excel spreadsheet purported to contain all the donors' names, addresses, employers, and the last four digits and CSC security codes on their credit cards.

Follow the link for more details.

Yeah, this is who should continue to represent Minnesota. In Coleman they trust. Not.