Based on Allred’s track record, when she hits the news with some new client, what I think is that client is going to win.
Avenatti is the only one who has managed to give Trump a bloody nose. Wasn’t he responsible for Cohen flipping too? That was a huge thing. Without Stormy’s lawsuit that doesn’t happen.
No by all means be loud about that. But not “your antics made the Kavanaugh thing cost us the Senate and also you’re a grifter!”
For my part, I’m not clear on the details of this particular grift. Was the site particularly shady about where the money was going? Was it different than other PAC sites that offer a similar opportunity? I get that something like ActBlue lets you send all the money directly to Beto, but if the only problem is that Avenatti was funding a PAC as well as the candidate and the candidate doesn’t want the PAC money, then that seems less shady than “he pocketed half the money”.
magnet
5101
Yeah, I don’t get the hate.
First Democrats complain that Republican partisans are the only ones willing to take risks and play dirty to get what they want.
Then they point at a Democratic partisan and complain that he is playing dirty and taking too many risks.
And now look at this, he is taking money for his own PAC! So unbecoming of a proper Democrat…
Looks like the answer is, “No, there was nothing shady about this at all - it was someone asking for contributions to his PAC to help fight Ted Cruz”. It’s great that Beto doesn’t want money from PACs, but he doesn’t really get to control whether or not PACs attack Ted Cruz. Painting this as a grift seems pretty extreme. Like, “don’t buy this game on steam, they are grifting you out of dollars you could send direct to the developer!”
And now if you’ll steer me to The Fight Pac’s financials from 3Q 2018? (It was formed in August.)
(Also, that’s a trick question).
The half of the money that goes to Beto here is earmarked from The Fight PAC. Which, Beto being Beto, he won’t accept (and really doesn’t need.)
So how does The Fight Pac attack Ted Cruz and help Beto O’Rourke independent of O’Rourke then? Or for that matter, some other Democrat needing assistance, if they go that route? The window for getting on the air with TV ads is starting to close. They could go online with ads, as that’s a shorter turnaround time, but donating to PACs without a track record, and who do not spell out what they’re going to do with their money even vaguely has the whiff of monorail all over it.
What is shady about it is that the rules for PACs are far more lax than the rules for direct campaign contributions. By setting this up as “support Beto by donating $25, cause he’ll get half!” Avenatti is essentially funneling $12.50 of every donation into the coffers of an organization he controls, which pays him and anyone he appoints “Administration” and “Consultant” fees, which can be practically any amount he desires. All he has to do is make sure that some of the money gets spent buying ads supporting Dems and plastering the name The Fight PAC around, and it’s legit.
Avenatti did a very good job representing Stormy Daniels and embarrassing the Trump Administration. The problem is, now that the Stormy Daniels saga is pretty much over, Avenatti has, as @Scuzz so aptly pointed out, become the male version of Gloria Allred, seeking out new ways and clients that will keep him in the spotlight, presumably for his 2020 Presidential run. This led directly to his inserting himself into the Kavanaugh controversy by supposedly having a bombshell client who turned out to be far from credible if not a complete liar.
While it may not have swung the already decided GOP Senate (other than perhaps Susan Collins), Avenatti’s bullshit Kavanaugh client absolutely gave the wider GOP an out after Dr. Ford’s compelling testimony had them on the ropes. Go to any contested race in any state and you will now find GOP PACs running commercials beating the drum about how “completely false accusations can ruin the lives of upstanding Americans” to go along with this same talking point being broadcast 24/7 via social media and Conservative radio/TV. What was shaping up to be an embarrassing low point for the GOP (appointing Kavanaugh despite credible accusations against him and his own erratic and highly partisan demeanor during the hearings) has turned into a net win for them and their base in large part thanks to Michael Avenatti.
Avenatti needs to shut the fuck up and go away for awhile. What he did with Daniels/Trump/Cohen was fantastic for Dems, but now he’s just a publicity seeking albatross around their neck.
Described that way, you make it sound like PACs are a pretty good scam!
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But this is true of any PAC. If you send money to Heidi Heitkamp’s PAC, how do you know if it will be spent on outrageous consulting fees?
Either you trust whoever runs the PAC or you don’t. Maybe you don’t, but people who follow Avenatti and are motivated by his tweets probably do, and they want to support his long term political ambitions. Starting a PAC is not a good reason to stop trusting him.
EDIT:
If you’re so easily discouraged by failed political stunts, then you have no right to expect successful political stunts. Except those from more stoic opponents.
They absolutely can be.
Simple answer : You can’t trust any PACs.
PACs were created as a way to get around the crackdown on campaign contributions and finances. Most PACs only receive a small percentage of their funding from the general publics $25 contributions, where the real money comes in is from deep pocket donors. If I am Richard Moneybags III, and I own a huge pharmaceutical company, and there are a couple of Senate candidates who are agreeable to voting the way I need them to vote to keep regulations loose on my businesses, I can only donate so much directly to the campaigns of those candidates, but I can donate millions to PACs. This is also why most ads created and run by PACs are full of ridiculously blatant bullshit statements and already disproven talking points. The candidates themselves aren’t running the ads, they don’t approve the ads, and they have no control over the ads, so they won’t be held accountable for what’s said in the ads.
PACs are pure evil. When/If we ever see political campaign reform, PACs should be the first thing on the chopping block.
Djscman
5110
It’s like they don’t make kids watch Eddie Murphy’s “The Distinguished Gentleman” in schools any more.
TOMMY
I found this shit in the library.
You know how much a congressman
makes? A hundred and thirty a year
-- and that's just base pay for
getting your ass elected. Then
there are these things called PACs,
and these lobbyists, whose whole
point in life is to buy you off.
It's the con of a lifetime -- and
the damn thing is, it's legal!
This is hot, people, we can do this!
Wait, they never did?
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5111
So your advice to Democrats is to never donate to PACS? Great strategy, if you don’t want them to win elections.
Based on that quote, it sounds more educational than Mr. Smith Goes to Washington… (Also, Claude Rains’s jaded Senator seems rather quaint by today’s standards.)
No dude, my advice to the average American, Democrat or Republican, is don’t donate to PACs, donate directly to the campaigns of the candidates you like. Why?
Let’s look at a federal multi-candidate PAC (like the giant GOP PAC “Congressional Leadership Fund”). Here’s what Federal law states are the limitations of the PAC:
- Can donate no more than $5,000 to a single candidate per election (primary and general count as separate elections)
- Can donate no more than $15,000 directly to a political party per fiscal year
- Can donate no more than $5,000 directly to another PAC per fiscal year
So with those limitations, a PAC would reach it’s limits fairly quickly even if it was only funded by $25 individual donations. What the hell are they using their millions for? Federal law also states:
- PACs may make unlimited expenditures independently of a candidate or political party
Hence the ridiculous swiftboat ads we see in constant rotation in the media. “The Daily Gazette says John Smith admitted to being ashamed to be White. John Smith is on record as hating Dancing With the Stars and Unicorns. John Smith is a Washington Insider who voted with Satan 400 times in the past 6 years, including the 2014 vote making it legal for people to kick puppies! Tell John Smith it’s time for change! Congressional Puppies PAC is responsible for the content of this advertisement.”
So you tell me, is that something you want to give your $25 to support, or would you rather just donate directly to the candidate?
I guess the main issue I have is that ActBlue is basically a platform. It’s GoFundMe for left-leaning political candidates – Democrats. Beto has his own ActBlue page. You can donate directly to him there. If Avenatti really wanted to help Beto out, he could have posted Beto’s actual donation ActBlue link.
Avenatti declined to do that, and instead posted a link to his own PAC page.
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5115
What I want is irrelevant. There are plenty of other people who are more interested in supporting a pro-gun message or a pro-life message than in supporting candidate X or candidate Y. A savvy political operation knows how to leverage those kinds of people for political gain.
Likewise, there are surely people who are more interested in seeing Avenatti make Trump uncomfortable than donate to a particular candidate. If Democrats know what they are doing, then those people can still be helpful.
Yes. That suggests that Avenatti has his own political motives. So what?
Timex
5116
Avanatti is pretty transparently a con man.
The fact that folks can’t see this is amazing to me. He’s effectively running exactly the same con as Trump.
Looks like the people are pretty solidly against Kavanaugh.
