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Karl "Benedict Arnold" Rove Supports Candidate Who GOP PAID to Run for Lt. Governor of Maryland
by Open-Publishing - Thursday 28 July 2005A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
Well, the GOP is temporarily succeeding at making treason appear normal and fully acceptable when the national security is damaged by a Republican. Because Republicans are "good people" who betray the country out of divine inspiration, not malice.
So Karl Rove spent the evening of July 26th at a fundraiser for Michael Steele, the African American Lt. Governor of Maryland, who the GOP is hoping will siphon off enough black votes in the next Governor’s election to keep the Governor’s mansion Republican.
BuzzFlash happened to be out in Maryland during the 2002 election and remembered reading an odd story: the GOP was paying Steele — yes, as in a salary — to run! No, we are not making this up.
In fact, here is some of the August 27, 2002, Baltimore Sun article that broke the scandal:
The Maryland Republican Party is paying Michael S. Steele $5,000 a month in consulting fees under an arrangement that began shortly after his selection as gubernatorial candidate Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s running mate.
Although the payments appear legal, Democrats said the GOP’s contract with Steele raises ethical questions and suggests the party might be subsidizing the living expenses of a candidate for statewide office.
"It looks to me like they’ve hired themselves a candidate," said David Paulson, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party.
Steele - who held the unpaid position of Republican Party chairman when he was tapped to run for lieutenant governor - defended the consulting arrangement yesterday, saying he negotiated the deal as a way to continue working on party issues while he campaigns. The contract was not a condition of his candidacy, he said.
"I have a consulting business. I have consulting clients. I have to take care of my family," he said. "The state is paying (the salary of Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend) while she is running for governor. So what’s the difference?"
But Paulson said "there’s something obscene" about the arrangement. "They are paying a guy to be on this ticket whose very presence is being used by Ehrlich and Republicans as a show of diversity," he said of Steele, who is black. "They are the ones who call it the ’opportunity ticket.’ We just didn’t know how much of an opportunity it was."
Ehrlich announced July 1 that Steele, 43, would be his running mate, and Steele promptly took a leave of absence as party chairman. Campaign finance records show that he received his first $5,000 consulting payment from the GOP on July 26.
So Tuesday night in Washington, a man who betrayed the national security of America, with the apparent blessings of Bush, helped raise money for a candidate that the GOP PAID to run for office.