Think Progress

GOP Rep. Frank Lucas Says If John Boehner Had Been Speaker, ‘We Wouldn’t Have The Bank Reregulation Bill’

This past July, reacting to the economic crisis of 2008, Congress passed a sweeping financial reform bill that placed new regulations on the the nation’s financial institutions. While the law recieved little support from Republicans, many leading GOP politicians maintained — like with health care — that they supported some sort of reform, just not the specific reforms that passed.

Now, GOP Rep. Frank Lucas (OK) is casting doubt on this claim. In a wide-ranging interview with a local radio station, the congressman ran through a list of bills that he believes would not have passed under a House of Representatives run by Rep. John Boehner (R-OH). He told the host that if “John had been speaker, for the last two years there would never have been a global warming bill passed in the House, Obamacare would never have been signed into law, we wouldn’t have the bank reregulation bill”:

FRANK LUCAS: If John had been speaker, for the last two years there would never have had a global warming bill passed in the house, Obamacare would never have been signed into law, we wouldn’t have the bank reregulation bill.

Watch it:

The congressman’s remarks match the behavior of his party well. In December 2009, Boehner met with “more than 100 financial services lobbyists ‘to try to fight back against financial regulatory overhaul legislation.’” His counterpart in the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), also met with financial elites in April 2010 shortly before attacking efforts to reform the banking system.

Corker Says The ‘Crazier Republicans’ Are The Ones Who Want To Repeal New Health Care Reform Law

Most Republicans in both houses of Congress have made repealing President Obama’s signature health care law a major campaign issue this year. “Because the new health care law kills jobs, raises taxes, and increases the cost of health care, we will immediately take action to repeal this law,” says the House GOP’s “Pledge To America.”

But Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) has been offering a more realistic position on the new health care reform law. Citing the need for 67 votes in the Senate to override a presidential veto, Corker said of a repeal, “The fact is that’s not going to happen, OK?” But in a recent meeting with some top GOP donors, Corker went a bit further, taking a shot at his colleagues who are calling for repeal:

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) recently told a group of high-dollar GOP donors that Senate Republicans would not move to fully repeal President Obama’s health care law next year, according to multiple sources who attended the event.

The junior senator from Tennessee told the gathering of donors not to worry about the incoming class of “crazier Republicans” because the majority of Senate Republicans, especially minority leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), had no intention of repealing the president’s health care bill. They instead planned to fix only the “bad parts” of the law, Corker reportedly told the group. Several attendees, including a very senior Republican official, appeared visibly shocked by Corker’s comments.

Though McConnell has said the GOP “probably” won’t be able to repeal the law, a spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that the Kentucky senator will move forward with a repeal bill. He “has been unambiguous…on the need to repeal the bill and replace it with commonsense reforms that actually reduce cost,” said the spokesperson, noting that McConnell said recently that the health care reform law is “the single worst piece of legislation that’s passed since the time I’ve been in the Senate. It’s just been a disaster for the country. How much repealing [President Obama is] willing to sign, I don’t know, but I think we ought to give him the opportunity.”

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), going against his previous postion, said this week that he doesn’t think “starving or repeal is probably the best approach” and many other Republicans, whether incumbents or candidates for Congress, are beginning to recognize this reality.

So according to Corker, McConnell, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), the entire GOP House caucus, and a whole host of other GOPers represent some of the “crazier Republicans.”

Like House And Senate GOP Candidates, Most Republican Gubernatorial Candidates Are Global Warming Deniers »

An exclusive Wonk Room analysis finds that 22 of the 37 Republican candidates for governor this November are deniers of the scientific consensus on global warming pollution. These science deniers are part of an anti-reality wave of Tea Party candidates, who comprise the Republican slate for the U.S. House and Senate. “The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones,” writes the National Journal’s Ron Brownstein.

Although 97 percent of climate scientists agree that climate change is manmade, only two Republican gubernatorial candidates in Democratic strongholds — Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie (R-VT) and Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona (R-HI) — want to address the threat. Two more candidates — Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) and Meg Whitman (R-CA) — accept that global warming is a manmade problem, but oppose enacting policy to reduce fossil fuel pollution. The other eleven candidates have “artfully avoided” any discussion of the threat global warming poses to their states, from flood-ravaged Iowa and Tennessee to drought-parched Nevada.

Without further ado, meet the twenty-two climate zombies running for governor:

ALABAMA – Robert Dudley
ALASKA – Sean Parnell
CONNECTICUT – Tom Foley
FLORIDA – Rick Scott
GEORGIA – Nathan Deal
ILLINOIS – Bill Brady
KANSAS – Sam Brownback
MINNESOTA – Tom Emmer
MAINE – Paul LePage
MARYLAND – Robert Ehrlich
MASSACHUSETTS – Charlie Baker
NEW YORK – Carl Paladino
NEW MEXICO – Susana Martinez
OHIO – John Kasich
OKLAHOMA – Mary Fallin
OREGON – Chris Dudley
RHODE ISLAND – Joseph Robitaille
SOUTH DAKOTA – Dennis Daugaard
TEXAS – Rick Perry
UTAH – Gary Herbert
WISCONSIN – Scott Walker
WYOMING – Matt Mead

ALABAMA

Dr. Robert Bentley is a cautious global warming denier:

Bentley mentioned a favorite fact of global warming skeptics, that temperatures dipped after a peak in 1998. However, average temperatures over time have risen. According to NASA, January 2000 to December 2009 was the warmest decade on record. After introducing that note of skepticism, Bentley continued. “But I know you look long-term. Now, carbon emissions, I do think, probably play a role in climate changes. I do scientifically agree with that and I do think we have to look for ways to reduce carbon emissions.” [Birmingham News, 10/17/10]

His Democratic opponent, Ron Sparks, also questions climate science. “You still have the debate on whether we have the problem of global warming or you don’t,” Sparks said. “You still have scientists on both sides. Some say we do and some say we don’t.”

ALASKA

Gov. Sean Parnell, who wants to rapidly expand oil drilling in Alaska, denies that global warming is threatening the extinction of polar bears:

This ice by nature shifts and melts . . . Years ago, environmental advocacy groups picked one species — the polar bear — to be the poster child for global warming, and these groups have waged a relentless publicity campaign ever since. Alaskans recognize the lock-up effort for what it is: a job-killer and damper on our nation’s energy security. [Washington Post, 8/5/10]

CONNECTICUT

Republican candidate Tom Foley is in denial about the impacts of global warming:

Until you know what the problems are, and you’re in a reasonable time frame of their arrival, then there’s not much you could do. Until we actually experience the impact, then I’m sure there will be plenty of time to respond. [Connecticut Mirror, 10/13/10]

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MEMO: Health Insurance, Banking, Oil Industries Met With Koch, Chamber, Glenn Beck To Plot 2010 Election »

In 2006, Koch Industries owner Charles Koch revealed to the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore that he coordinates the funding of the conservative infrastructure of front groups, political campaigns, think tanks, media outlets and other anti-government efforts through a twice annual meeting of wealthy right-wing donors. He also confided to Moore, who is funded through several of Koch’s ventures, that his true goal is to strengthen the “culture of prosperity” by eliminating “90%” of all laws and government regulations. Although it is difficult to quantify the exact amount Koch alone has funneled to right-wing fronts, some studies have pointed toward $50 million he has given alone to anti-environmental groups. Recently, fronts funded by Charles and his brother David have received scrutiny because they have played a pivotal role in the organizing of the anti-Obama Tea Parties and the promotion of virulent far right lawmakers like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). (David Koch praised DeMint and gave him a “Washington Award” shortly after the senator promised to “break” Obama by making health reform his “Waterloo.”)

While the Koch brothers — each worth over $21.5 billion — have certainly underwritten much of the right, their hidden coordination with other big business money has gone largely unnoticed. ThinkProgress has obtained a memo outlining the details of the last Koch gathering held in June of this year. The memo, along with an attendee list of about 210 people, shows the titans of industry — from health insurance companies, oil executives, Wall Street investors, and real estate tycoons — working together with conservative journalists and Republican operatives to plan the 2010 election, as well as ongoing conservative efforts through 2012. According to the memo, David Chavern, the number two at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Fox News hate-talker Glenn Beck also met with these representatives of the corporate elite. In an election season with the most undisclosed secret corporate giving since the Watergate-era, the memo sheds light on the symbiotic relationship between extremely profitable, multi-billion dollar corporations and much of the conservative infrastructure. The memo describes the prospective corporate donors as “investors,” and it makes clear that many of the Republican operatives managing shadowy, undisclosed fronts running attack ads against Democrats were involved in the Koch’s election-planning event:

– Corporate “investors” at the Koch meeting included businesses with a strong profit motive in rolling back President Obama’s enacted reforms. Several companies impacted by health reform, including Allan Hubbard of A & E Industries, a manufacturer of medical devices and Judson Green, a board member of health insurance conglomerate Aon, were present at the meeting. Other businessmen at the meeting, like Omaha Burger King franchiser Mike Simmonds, are owners of fast food stores which have fought efforts to provide health insurance to their employees. Many corporate attendees of the meeting represent the financial industry impacted by Wall Street reform. For instance, attendee Bill Cooper is the CEO of TCF Financial, a corporation involved in the mortgage banking industry. Cooper recently filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Wall Street reform. Other financial industry players in the meeting hail from firms ranging from Bank of America, JLM Investment, Allied Capital Corp, AMG National Trust, the Blackstone Group and Citadel Investment. Annie Dickerson, a representative of Paul Singer, a powerful hedge fund manager who also gives tens of millions to Republican causes, was present. In addition, Koch Industries itself has a hedge fund and other financial derivative products in its portfolio of interests, which include oil pipelines, coal shipping, asphalt, refineries, consumer goods, timber, ranching, and chemicals.

– Corporate “investors” at the Koch meeting included businesses with a strong profit motive in preventing progressive reforms promised by President Obama. Several executives at the meeting have an incentive to stop Democrats and President Obama from addressing climate change and enacting clean energy reform. The meeting included oil executives from Aspect Energy, Murfin Drilling, Anschutz Company, GeoPark Holdings, Smoky Oil, and several members of Koch’s various subsidiaries. The meeting documents explicitly state that funding efforts to curb “climate change alarmism” were discussed.

– Fred Malek, Karl Rove’s top fundraiser for his $56 million attack ad campaign against Democrats, attended the meeting, along with leaders of other secret attack groups. Heather Higgins, who leads the Independent Women’s Forum, a shadowy group that has spent millions of dollars in attack ads on health reform, attended the meeting. So did Gretchen Hamel, a former Bush flak who now runs an attack ad group called “Public Notice,” which denounces spending programs.

– Participants collaborated with infamous consultants who specialize in generating fake grassroots movements, as well as experts on how corporations should take advantage of Citizens United. One session, about how to “mobilize citizens for November,” involved a discussion with Republican strategists Tim Phillips and Sean Noble, anti-union leader Mark Mix, and longtime Koch operative Karl Crow. Phillips — a veteran astroturf lobbyist who previously managed a deceptive grassroots lobbying campaign to help the Hong Kong-based Tan family maintain their forced abortion sweatshops in the Mariana Islands — now leads the day-to-day operations of Americans for Prosperity, the group ThinkProgress first reported to have helped organize many of the initial Tea Party rallies against Obama. Americans for Prosperity, founded and financed by David Koch, has a field team of over 80 campaign staffers spread out around the country, and additionally plans to spend $45 million dollars worth of attack ads against Democrats. Shortly before the planning meeting, Crow authored a campaign finance memo explaining that because of the Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, he advised specifically that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 501(c)(6) and Americans for Prosperity’s 501(c)(4) can “now use general treasury funds to produce communications materials opposing or supporting specific candidates” and corporations can aggressively pressure their employees to vote a certain way.

The memo notes that participants in the 2010 election planning meeting “committed to an unprecedented level of support.”

Interestingly, the Koch meetings are managed by Kevin Gentry, an executive who doubles as a staffer in the Koch Industries lobbying office in Washington and as the key point person who helps deliver Koch charitable foundation grants. As ThinkProgress has documented, Koch Industries has dramatically boosted its own profits by using conservative front groups to manipulate public policy. The fusion between the “intellectual” conservative movement and big businesses opposed to regulations and accountability has a history in America dating back to the New Deal. During the thirties, the Du Pont family and other wealthy interests organized an assortment of “Liberty League” front groups to try to defeat New Deal agenda items and repeal President Roosevelt’s Social Security program. Now, corporations fund groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute — both had representatives at the Koch meeting — to further their lobbying agenda. The American Enterprise Institute even changed its name from the New Deal-era American Enterprise Association to try to dispel the notion that they were nothing more than a glorified business trade association.

As the memo states, Beck has addressed this regular gathering of conservative corporate executives in previous years. Past Koch meetings have included various Republican lawmakers, including DeMint, and Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia as speakers.

After ThinkProgess published its exclusive investigation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce revealing that the Chamber has been actively fundraising from foreign corporations for its 501(c)(6) account used to run a $75 million attack ad campaign, Chamber lobbyists found common cause with Beck and many of the conservative talking heads. Shortly after our investigation, Beck hosted an on-air fundraiser, asking his audience to give to the Chamber. Casual observers might have been surprised by the Chamber’s swift alliance with Beck (Chamber executives appeared on the Beck radio program and sung Beck’s praises on the Chamber blog), who has compared Obama to Adolf Hitler and called the President a “racist” who has a “deep-seated hatred for white people.” By telling his listeners to give money to the Chamber, Beck, who owns a media company worth more than $32 million dollars and an experimental Mercedes Benz, essentially told his working class viewers to give their wages back to their employers. However, Beck never disclosed his long working history of discussing political strategy with America’s largest corporations. The Koch memo clearly shows that Beck has been collaborating with the Chamber, as well as other titans of industry, for years. In his latest appeal for support to the Chamber’s foreign-funded trade association, which already counts JP Morgan and ExxonMobil as dues-paying members, Beck yesterday told his audience that the Chamber simply “defends the little guy.”

Click below to view a letter inviting corporate executives to attend the next Koch meeting in January, along with a list of the sessions held by Koch for the last meeting in June of 2010. An attendee list of the June, 2010 meeting is attached at the bottom of the document:

Some of the donors at the Koch meeting were longtime Bush fundraisers, like Cintas Corporation CEO Dick Farmer and wholesale executive Art Pope. However, many names appear to be relatively new to conservative movement “investment.” Click below for a listing of the attendees More »« Less

Radical Anti-Choice Group In Colorado Runs Ad Calling Obama ‘The Angel Of Death’

Personhood Colorado is a radical right-wing anti-choice organization supporting Amendment 62 on the ballot this November, which if passed, would define a fertilized egg as a “person,” thus essentially outlawing abortion in the state. Personhood CO has put out some disturbing ads in support of the amendment, particularly one radio ad likening abortion to slavery.

But Right Wing Watch notes that the group has upped the ante a bit this week, releasing a new ad that calls President Obama “the Angel of Death” and those who presumably support him as lurking from the depths of hell:

Watch the ad here:

Politics Daily reports that “that Amendment 62 would ban all abortions, without exceptions for rape, incest or to save a mother’s life. It also would ban stem cell research and birth control other than ‘barrier methods.’” Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards said the amendment “reaches into birth control, it reaches into fertility treatments. The legal turmoil this could create is so immense. I think that’s just the purpose of this amendment…to go far beyond choice; it’s to take away women’s right to family planning.”