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Biden nom nominee

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belated 8 22

SEE AAF AM ACCT FDN OPPO HIT MAN buckham

see scalps

see dirty tricks

see BS invest oversight benghazi

see Gigi scalp

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new 10 23

Fox News blames Biden for 'lack of Senate-confirmed elected officials' after massive GOP blockade - Alternet.org

an badash 10 23

ignoring massive holds by numerous Republicans on the required Senate confirmations of U.S. military and diplomatic officials, **Fox News** is blaming **President Joe Biden** for what one host called the “lack of Senate confirmed elected officials.”

The officials are not “elected,” they are appointed or nominated by the President. The President nominates and the Senate’s constitutionally required role is “Advice and Consent.”

**U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville** (R-AL) since February has placed a near-total blockade on the confirmations of well over 300 military officers, and even in the wake of the terrorist attacks on Israel he has refused to lift his holds.

READ MORE: Former NATO commander latest to blast Tuberville blockade of military confirmations

“:{Sen. Tuberville is not the only one using this tactic,” noted the Bipartisan Policy Center on August 29. “Recently, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) announced that, because of the Department of Justice’s indictment of former President Donald Trump, he would put a hold on all DOJ nominees.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced a hold on Department of Energy nominations to pressure the Biden administration to produce an action plan for combating radioactive waste in St. Louis. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has a hold on the nominee for the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) recently released a two-month-long hold on State Department nominees over documents on the origins of COVID-19.”}:

On Monday, Foreign Policy reported, “At the time of the deadly Hamas attack on Israel, Washington’s closest ally in the Middle East, the United States had no confirmed ambassadors to Israel, Egypt, Oman, or Kuwait. The State Department’s top counterterrorism envoy position has sat empty for more than two years, the top human rights envoy position—the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor—has been unfilled for the entirety of the Biden administration, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has not had a top Middle East official in nearly three years.”

Those observations closely track with what the Fox News host was saying. But she did not appear to read this from the same Foreign Policy article:

“The mostly empty bench is due to a nearly broken Senate confirmation process, where nominees have languished in limbo for months or even years due to the ‘new normal’ practice of Republican senators placing sweeping holds on all nominees for different agencies over policy disputes with the administration. On the Pentagon side, hundreds of senior military posts are on indefinite pause due to Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s blanket hold on nominees over the Biden administration’s abortion access policies for the military—including senior officials at U.S. Central Command, which oversees the Middle East. At the State Department, Republican Sen. Rand Paul has held numerous nominees over access to documents on the origins of COVID-19, while fellow Republican Sens. J.D. Vance and Ted Cruz have also previously issued holds.”

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News and Controversies

AAF Attack on Federal Reserve Nominee Lisa Cook

Following Biden's nomination of Michigan State University professor Lisa Cook to the Federal Reserve, AAF group sought to discredit Cook's tenure at the school and further qualifications for the position, Politico reported. Cook's nomination garnered bipartisan support and she was endorsed by both conservative and liberal economists.[5] The New Yorker reported that Jones fished for information from about 50 of her colleagues at MSU, asking in an email, "Are any of you concerned that... she's not good enough to sit on the Federal Reserve Board?"[6] He also posted about Cook on "Economics Job Market Rumors", an online forum that the New York Times reports as "a cesspool of misogyny".[7]

AAF Spread Misleading Claims about SCOTUS Nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson

In alignment with a widespread misconception[8] popularized by Republicans, AAF released a statement saying Biden's nominee for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson "argued that America's judicial system is 'unfair' to sexual predators".[9]

AAF Attack on the Raskin Family

AAF launched an attack on Sarah Bloom Raskin and her husband Jamie Raskin following Bloom Raskin's nomination to the Vice Chair for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. Due to her stance on the fossil fuel industry's hand in climate change, AAF pushed the narrative that "Sarah and Jamie Raskin are career politicians who have used the system to enrich themselves"[10] The AAF filed an ethics complaint against Jamie Raskin due to his late disclosure of a stock sale by Sarah Bloom Raskin.[11] While Bloom Raskin told the New Yorker that she did not expect special treatment, she did explain that their son had committed suicide two weeks after the sale and that they "were comatose, barely functioning, so of course Jamie didn't remember to file".[6]

AAF Attack on Comptroller of the Currency Nominee Saule Omarova

AAF bullied President Biden's nominee for Comptroller of the Currency Saule Omarova into withdrawing herself from consideration after launching an investigation into her history and falsely painting her as a Marxist. Omarova told the New Yorker, "There were so many accusations. AAF was at the forefront of making my life extremely and unnecessarily difficult. It was complete absurdity. But people who have no idea who I am jumped in and said, 'Go back to the Soviet Union!'."[6] The AAF's tactics for attacking Omarova primarily involved taking clips of her speaking and reproducing them without context and weaponizing her childhood in Kazakhstan against her.[12]

AAF Attack on Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Nominee David Chipman

The New Yorker reported that the AAF accused Chipman of being both racist and too "woke", exaggerating his belief that Army bases should not be named after Confederate soldiers and his opposition to monuments that celebrate them due to their racial insensitivity. AAF claimed that he wanted to "use fighter jets to bomb" Mount Rushmore. Due to the relentless harassment of AAF, users on Twitter called for his death and his wife, a long-time ATF employee felt too unsafe to continue working and quit her job[6].

AAF Infiltrated Zoom Training Meeting for Congressional Staffers

AAF members posing as congressional aides infiltrated and recorded a Zoom meeting about earmark spending rules in the spring of 2021. The recording was posted online. Appropriations Committee spokesman Evan Hollander wrote in an email, "For a group that purports to concern itself with ethics, using fake identities, misrepresenting themselves as Congressional staff and surreptitiously recording meetings is hypocritical in the extreme."[13] Founder Tom Jones told Fox News, "I'm never doing anything illegal but just because it's impolite to log into an earmark training seminar and offend the morals of Capitol Hill staff, that's not going to stop me from doing it."[4]

Launched with the Help of the Conservative Partnership Institute

AAF lists itself as in care of the Conservative Partnership Institute in its 501(c)(3) application, and in CPI's 2021 annual report, it described that AAF was part of a "new dimension" to the group's work. The report states, "Before the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), conservatives didn't have a group performing research on Biden's woke nominees-- even though plenty of liberal groups were digging up (or manufacturing) dirt on our side."[14]

AAF Founder Tom Jones

Founder and executive director Tomas Jones was the Legislative Director to Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Senior Policy Advisor to former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Opposition Research Director for Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz, and served as the President of both the339 Group and the Cannon Research Group.[15] He also served as legislative director forJohn Ensign of Nevada.[6]He told Fox News that AAF wants to "take a big handful of sand and throw it in the gears of the Biden Administration"and that, unlike other opposition groups, AAF is based not on individual clients but on "causing trouble for the new administration".[4]

Funding

Funding information for AAF is not publicly available as of July 2022.

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https://thedemlabs.org/2022/04/19/republican-dark-money-group-smears-reputations-of-women-nominees-of-color/

no lnx pix

Republican group smears reputations of women nominees of color: Follow the dark money.

DEMLABS BLOG

April 19, 2022

Republican Slime Machine targets Biden Nominees - especially women of color.

"The Slime Machine Targeting Dozens of Biden Nominees" - Jane Mayer, New Yorker

"The American Accountability Foundation (A.A.F.), which is run by conservative white men, has particularly focussed on blocking women and people of color.As of last month, more than a third of the twenty-nine candidates it had publicly attacked were people of color, and nearly sixty per cent were women."

Who are the people running the 'slime machine'? Who funds them? How is the AAF treated as a nonprofit? Follow the dark money behind the smear campaign with this network map.

Republican group smears reputations of women nominees of color: Follow the dark money.

Share this Power Map freely with this link or as a GIF

Racist, misogynist attacks

"When Ketanji Jackson Brown defended herself on this point during the hearings, the A.A.F. said, on Twitter, that she was “lying.” The group’s allegation—reminiscent of the QAnon conspiracy, which claims that liberal élites are abusing and trafficking children—rippled through conservative circles. Tucker Carlson repeated the accusation on his Fox News program while a chyron declared “jackson lenient in child sex cases.” Marjorie Taylor Greene, the extremist representative from Georgia, called Jackson “pro-pedophile.” - New Yorker

Desperately pursuing dirt

"The A.A.F. has taken the practice to extremes, repeatedly spinning negligible tidbits or dubious hearsay into damning narratives. The group recently deployed its unorthodox methods, Politico has reported, while “desperately pursuing dirt” on Lisa Cook, the nominee for the Federal Reserve. Cook, who has been a tenured professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State University since 2013, has attracted bipartisan support. Glenn Hubbard, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers during the George W. Bush Administration, has said, “Cook’s talents as an economic researcher and teacher make her a good nominee for the Fed, adding to diversity of perspectives about policy.”

In college, Cook won a Marshall Scholarship. She subsequently obtained a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, taught at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and served as a staff economist on President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. She also held appointments at the National Bureau of Economic Research and at various regional Federal Reserve banks. The A.A.F., though, has portrayed her as unqualified, andsuggested that her tenure at Michigan State is undeserved." - New Yorker

Politically active, tax-exempt nonprofit charity

"An explicit purpose of the A.A.F.—a politically active, tax-exempt nonprofit charity that doesn’t disclose its backers—is to prevent the approval of all Biden Administration nominees. When Ketanji Jackson Brown defended herself on this point during the hearings, the A.A.F. said, on Twitter, that she was “lying.” The group’s allegation—reminiscent of the QAnon conspiracy, which claims that liberal élites are abusing and trafficking children—rippled through conservative circles. Tucker Carlson repeated the accusation on his Fox News program while a chyron declared “jackson lenient in child sex cases.” Marjorie Taylor Greene, the extremist representative from Georgia, called Jackson “pro-pedophile.” - New Yorker

Follow the dark money - Relationship map: https://embed.kumu.io/be295fbf0ae354739c97174ddb255144#untitled-map/political-character-assassination

All in the family

"Meadows’s son, Blake, an associate attorney at the Georgia law firm Foster, Foster, & Smith, appears to be involved with C.P.I., too: his name appears in a lawsuit filed last month on behalf of the A.A.F. against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Matthew Buckham, the A.A.F. co-founder, also has a Trump connection: he worked at the White House during his Administration, in the personnel office. (His father, Ed Buckham, is chief of staff to Marjorie Taylor Greene.) New Yorker

Russian connection

"Ed Buckham, the recently appointed chief of staff for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Today, Buckham handles a congresswoman who proudly attends “white supremacist, antisemitic, pro-Putin” rallies, as Congresswoman Liz Cheney characterized them, and has become renowned for touting conspiracy theories about how the California wildfires were started by Jewish space lasers. On Thursday, when the House of Representatives voted to suspend normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, Greene, not surprisingly, was one of eight Republicans who voted against it.

Buckham’s ties to Russian interests date back 25 years to 1997—before Putin came to power—when he served as an aide to House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. This was the heyday of “Casino Jack” Abramoff, the lobbyist-conman who took on pay-for-play clients ranging from the Choctaw Indian tribe of Mississippi to the Kremlin with a panache made for Hollywood. At the time, Buckham, in addition to his job with DeLay, oversaw a lobbying outfit called the U.S. Family Network, which presented itself as a public advocacy group but was really a vehicle funded largely by clients of Jack Abramoff." - New Republic

TakeAway: Follow the dark money funding Republican smears on highly qualified Biden nominees based on their race and gender. Does such a group deserve nonprofit exempt status?

Deepak

DemLabs

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no lnx

next to helping President Joe Biden get reelected, the Democratic Nation Committee's (DNC) top goal for 2024 is keeping their party's effective majority in the U.S. Senate. Democratic strategists and organizers realize that if Biden is reelected but Republicans retake the Senate, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) would — assuming he became Senate majority leader again — do everything he could to block Biden's nominees.

That could everything from a possible U.S. Supreme Court nominee if there are any vacancies to lower federal court nominees to potential members of Biden's administration.

Democrats slightly increased their effective Senate majority in the 2022 midterms. But in an article published on June 12, Politico reporters Burgess Everett, Jennifer Haberkorn and Daniella Diaz describe the difficulties that Biden nominees have been facing in the Senate Commerce Committee.

READ MORE: Senate Republicans resist Biden's Highway Traffic Safety nominee: report

"Relatively obscure nominations are turning into Senate knife fights as 2024 approaches,"the reporters explain. "And the Commerce Committee is the center of the action. So far this year, three Biden picks for executive-branch positions withdrew because they lacked enough support in the Committee, which has four Democratic members up for reelection in swing states next fall. And when Republicans stick together — under the surprising leadership of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) — that can cause problems."

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One of the Biden nominees who withdrew was Ann Carlson, who Biden had in mind to head the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration.

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According to Everett, Haberkorn and Diaz, "The Carlson episode is instructive for a White House and Democratic Senate that's faced several tough nomination crunches. At the moment, labor secretary hopeful Julie Su is in the highest-profile fight, as a handful of Democratic senators remain undecided and there's no floor vote in sight."

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The Politico reporters add that "it's not hard to see why the Commerce Committee is so tough" for Biden nominees.

READ MORE: Watch: Ted Cruz lashes out at Biden nominee for referring to Fox News as propaganda

"The combative Cruz is the top Republican on the panel," Everett, Haberkorn and Diaz note. "And the Committee's Democratic members include incumbent Sens. KyrstenSinema (I-Ariz.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Jon Tester(D-Mont.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)."

READ MORE: Susan Collins helps sink hopes of replacing Dianne Feinstein on Judiciary Committee

Politico's full report is available at this link.

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nooooooooooooo!

timing seems odd in terms of dominion shitshow?

Biden's nominee to lead the Federal Communications Commission withdrew her name from consideration on Tuesday amid ongoing character assassination by right-wing media, lobbyists, and lawmakers.

Gigi Sohn told The Washington Post in an exclusive interview that the "unrelenting, dishonest and cruel attacks" that labeled her as "extreme" and "partisan" despite her moderate résumé forced her to turn down Biden's offer.

"It is a sad day for our country and our democracy when dominant industries, with assistance from unlimited dark money, get to choose their regulators," Sohn said in a statement to the Post. “And with the help of their friends in the Senate, the powerful cable and media companies have done just that.”

READ MORE: [Watch: Ted Cruz lashes out at Biden nominee for referring to Fox News as propaganda

But the criticisms of Sohn were not only coming from Republicans. The Postnoted that United States Senator Joe Manchin (D-Wet Virginia) accused Sohn of harboring "partisan alliances with far-left groups," adding that "especially now, the FCC must remain above the toxic partisanship that Americans are sick and tired of, and Ms. Sohn has clearly shown she is not the person to do that."

The Post further explained that "conservative groups spent hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking Sohn as partisan and extreme, leading a campaign focused in states of several moderate Democrats, who were already on the fence on Sohn's nomination. 'Gigi Sohn is too extreme for the FCC,' read one billboard in Las Vegas, plastered with Sohn's face and a link to a website for theAmerican Accountability Foundation, a group that has opposed Biden's nominees. The AAF and another conservative nonprofit, the Center for a Free Economy, placed more than $200,000 in Facebook ads opposing Sohn."

The White House, meanwhile, respected Sohn's decision.

"She would have brought tremendous intellect and experience," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "which is why the president nominated her in the first place."

rEAD MORE: 'Infuriating': Telecom lobbyists spending big money to keep Gigi Sohn off FCC

The Post's full article is available here (subscription required).

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3 23 Gigi scalp

We strongly urge you to reject Sohn’s nomination to the FCC and hold our regulators to the highest standard.

Sincerely,

Center for a Free Economy

Americans for Tax Reform

60 Plus Association

American Commitment

Center for Individual Freedom

Citizen Outreach

Conservatives for Property Rights

Consumer Action for a Strong Economy

Institute for Liberty

Less Government

Market Institute

Independent Women’s Voice

Eagle Forum

Affiliations listed for identification purposes only.

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There were fireworks on Tuesday at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing as Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) grilled Gigi Sohn, a nominee for a commissioner position on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Sohn is no stranger to the Senate Commerce Committee as this is herthird hearing for the position, since her initial nomination in October 2021 by President Joe Biden.

Cruz took that familiarity as an opportunity to blast Sohn oveher past social media posts on Twitter.:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"/maxresdefault.jpg)

Sohn agreed with Cruz that the FCC has an obligation to “defend democracy,” then he used that opportunity to bring up Sohn’s past vocal opposition to Fox News.

Cruz read a past tweet from Sohn from September 2019 that stated, “I agree with the scrutiny of big tech is essential as scrutiny of big telecom, cable and media,” Sohn’s tweet continued. “And trust me, the latter have played their own role in destroying democracy and electing autocrats. Like, say Fox News?”

Cruz then pounced on Sohn for showing partisan scrutiny in her communications.

“You see why millions of people don’t think you are fair and impartial to regulate communications?” Cruz asked.

Cruz then featured a social media post from October 2020 where Sohn described Fox News as being “state-sponsored.”

Sohn quickly acknowledged her wrongdoing after the post was presented.

“I regretted the tone of that,” Sohn said.

However, Sohn acknowledged the close positioning the conservative news network had with former President Donald Trump.

“They were very, very, very, close to the Trump administration,” said Sohn.

Cruz countered her response by asking if MSNBC is close to the Biden Administration.

Sohn responded, “I listen to National Public Radio, I do not watch CNN or MSNBC.”

Watch video below or at this link.

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fail

https://www.alternet.org/2021/04/ted-cruz-josh-hawley

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murdoch fuckery

12/22 demand progress

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation has cooked up a new fee to charge TV provider DirecTV — and if it goes into effect, DirecTV, DirecTV Stream, and U-Verse customers nationwide are likely to get stuck with higher prices for their cable service.1 Tell DirecTV: say NO to Fox’s new carriage fee!

we need DirecTV to stand up to Fox to save consumers from exorbitant fees because the Supreme Court has ruled cable networks like Fox fall outside of the Federal Communications Commission’s jurisdiction.2 In cases like these, smaller corporations can be our ally in fighting price gouging.

But the fact that Fox is largely insulated from the FCC hasn’t stopped Rupert Murdoch from fighting tooth and nail to sabotage this critical institution. We haven’t had a functioning FCC for the entirety of Biden’s presidency because the Senate — pressured by Fox and Comcast — has refused to confirm Biden’s nominee for FCC Chair, Gigi Sohn. Comcast and Fox News have paid for lobbyists to actively court swing votes in the Senate against Sohn.2

Fox News has been pushingfalse narrativesthat Gigi Sohn would harm rural America, that she wants to censor conservatives, and that she’s bad for media diversity. As telecoms reporter Karl Bode put it, “None of these are supported by any facts that you can find if you spend 30 minutes objectively researching her record.”2

Fox’s smear campaign makes clear: cable news will stop at nothing to clear the way for profiteering. We need TV providers to resist, and we demand the Senate get in gear!

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aaf mailchimp

breitbart Exclusive — Oversight Group Says DOJ Attorney Handling Voting Integrity Likely Illegally Voted in North Carolina

A nonprofit government oversight group released an investigation, first seen by Breitbart News, which claimed Janie Sitton, an attorney who appears to work on voter integrity at the Department of Justice (DOJ), haslikely illegally voted in North Carolina.

American Accountability Foundation (AAF) outlined in its memo that Sitton, who is originally from North Carolina, has been working in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division since 2000. The division she works in frequently takes cases regarding voting rights.

AAF also noted that she previously worked as an adjunct professor of law at William and Mary School of Law, teaching sexuality and the law. In fact, she wrote Introduction to the Symposium, (De)Constructing Sex: Transgenderism, Intersexuality, Gender Identity and the Law for the William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice, published in October 2000.

The memo explained that records showed that Sitton had been a “resident” and “active voter” in Washington, DC, since August 13, 2010 — within days of buying her home on August 17 that year. It was also revealed that Sitton voted in five elections from 2012 to 2018 in Washington, DC, and at least once in North Carolina since 2020.

:{:(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:[**Read the FULL story at Breitbart**:{]}:

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aaf newsmakers [i thnk that mean they ref aaf

thefed BS

Report: Wall Street Bigwigs Are Left-Wing Activists Using Your Money To Push Their Politics

A new report out earlier this month shows that Wall Street’s near-religious adherence to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards is an effort run by Democrat political operatives at the nation’s premier financial institutions.

On Aug. 9, the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a nonprofit governmental watchdog, published a 47-page report chronicling Wall Street ties at the “Big Three” asset management firms, BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, with Democrat politicians who have a history of radical activism.

“The number of liberal staffers that are now serving in influential roles in financial firms raises the question — has a new ‘revolving door’ come to Washington?” researchers wrote in their memorandum of the report. “While traditionally D.C. staffers will go from official positions to K Street — there now seems to be a new trend emerging of D.C. staffers going from official positions to Wall Street.“

[Read the FULL story at The Federalist]

Biden Student Loan Amnesty a Windfall for DC Staffers

Analysis of financial disclosures by the conservative-leaning American Accountability Foundation found that the political staff at the agency that oversees the student loan program stand to benefit. The outstanding student loan debt balance among 41 education staffers evaluated could amount to between $2.8 and $6.5 million. According to the AAF estimate obtained by RealClearPolitics, the president may have wiped away as much as $512,646 of their debt.

More than 45 million Americans owe $1.6 trillion in federal student debt, a balance that the New York Times reports dwarfs what they owe in car loans, credit cards, and other consumer debt. The White House insists that the administration’s plan will target low- to middle-income borrowers in particular, with 90% of relief going to earners who make less than $75,000 a year. As many as 43 million people can benefit, according to an administration infographic, and 20 million people “can have their loans fully cancelled.”

Tom Jones echoed that criticism. The founder of AAF pointed to the “windfall” that political employees at the Education Department were set to receive, calling it “shameful” evidence of “the gap between the people and the ruling class in Washington, D.C.” Press spokesmen for the department did not respond to RCP requests for comment.

[Read the full story at Real Clear Politics]

Follow the Money In The Biden Administration

Anti-fossil fuel appointee should be rejected

Read More

Biden Education Department staff will get $500K from student loan bailout: report

Read More

AAF to File Suit Against New York State Office of the Attorney General if Audit Records Not Released In Political Smear Operation

Read More

VISIT OUR RESEARCH WEBSITES:

BidenNoms.com | KalpanaKotagal.com

AAF exists to educate the public on issues related to personnel, policy, and spending in government but we cannot do it alone! Click below to join our efforts to keep government honest and working for you.

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pics posters

eg lubchenko

https://www.facebook.com/AmericanAccountabilityFoundation/photos/pb.100068224886548.-2207520000./298333809019094/?type=3

https://www.facebook.com/AmericanAccountabilityFoundation/photos

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DIRTY TRICKS

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/16/democratic-strategists-launch-war-room-00065498

group of top Democratic strategists are launching a multi-million-dollar hub to counter an expected investigative onslaught by the likely incoming House GOP majority — digging into President Joe Biden, his administration and his son, on top of potential Cabinet impeachments.

The newly relaunchedCongressional Integrity Project initiative, details of which were shared first with POLITICO, will include rapid response teams, investigative researchers, pollsters and eventually a paid media campaign to put congressional Republicans “squarely on the defense,” founder Kyle Herrig said in an interview.

It’s designed to serve as the party’s “leading war room” to push back on House Republican investigations, Herrig said in an interview. He added that the project would “investigate the investigators, expose their political motivations and the monied special interests supporting their work, and hold them accountable for ignoring the urgent priorities of all Americans in order to smear Joe Biden and do the political bidding of Trump and MAGA Republicans." [vid]

a team of researchers has already begun scouring public records, press clippings and other documents in a bid to immediately undercut House GOP leaders, from Minority Leader — now speakership hopeful — Kevin McCarthy to the likely committee chairs expected to manage probes of Biden and his network.

The House GOP views investigations as a key piece of its agenda for the next Congress once it takes the narrow majority that’s now expected, particularly as much of its legislative wish list is on track to stall thanks to the Senate filibuster and Democratic president. McCarthy has privately talked with committee chairs-in-waiting to coordinate plans, making the swift launch of the outside-group pushback plan a potential godsend to Democrats.

Democratic leadership on the Hill has been briefed about the project’s relaunch, according to a person familiar with its plans.

Brad Woodhouse, a longtime Democratic strategist who is part of the project’s new leadership team, called the House GOP’s looming investigations a “vendetta” after two impeachments of and investigations into former President Donald Trump while Democrats controlled Congress, including the bipartisan select committee probing the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

The project “will exploit every tactic available,” Woodhouse said, adding: “It’s not enough to wait and see what they’re going to do and how far they’re going to go.”

Republicans wouldn’t formally take the House until January, but its leaders are already vowing to cut a broad investigative swath. As McCarthy put it during his conference’s recent agenda rollout: “Every committee has responsibilities for oversight.”

“They’ve virtually outlined no substantive agenda for governing,” Herrig said of House Republicans. “This is what they’re going to do ... so you really need a concentrated effort that’s doing this every day.”

In addition to Herrig and Woodhouse, the project’s leadership team will include Leslie Dach, a well-known Democratic communications specialist who has led progressive organizations for decades, served in the Obama administration and advised the Biden administration’s pandemic response.

In a sign of the important role the initiative will play over the next two years — and its proximity to the White House — other senior advisers include Jeff Peck, a former Biden aide during the president’s time in the Senate who served as treasurer and vice chair of the Biden Foundation as well as a senior adviser to the Biden-Harris transition.

The Congressional Integrity Project leadership team will include Leslie Dach, a well-known Democratic communications specialist who has led progressive organizations for decades. | Brian Stukes/Getty Images for Protect Our Care

For the final two years of Biden’s term, Republicans will be aided in their oversight push by a coalition of outside conservative research groups that have already mapped out potential targets and started digging into issues ranging from Hunter Biden’s business dealings to immigration policy.

And GOP lawmakers have left their own investigative breadcrumbs that make it clear where they intend to go. Likely Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) will lead the Hunter Biden investigation, with Republicans already preparing to elevate the probe to Joe Biden although no evidence has publicly emerged that his decisions were affected by his son’s business dealings. Comer recently told POLITICO that he and likely Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) would provide a public update this week.

Jordan, meanwhile, is preparing to use the gavel he’s poised to take for conduct a sweeping investigation into the Justice Department and FBI, two frequent targets of Trump’s ire. That probe is likely to touch on everything from the search at Mar-a-Lago for classified documents to tracking threats against local school officials, which the GOP slams as an effort to target parents despite denials from the bureau. [vid]

other GOP areas of interest include the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Ukraine aid and a coronavirus probe that is likely to sweep up longtime public health adviser Anthony Fauci.

McCarthy and his allies are under pressure from their base and some members of their own conference to pair their investigations with impeachment articles; some in the party are clearly itching for payback after then-President Trump was impeached twice. Though impeaching Biden is likely a heavy lift — and a step that McCarthy isn’t endorsing for now — Republicans see Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as a more likely target for attempted removal from office.

congressional Democrats and others close to the administration view Republicans’ vows to investigate Mayorkas’ department and the border as the latest sign that they aren’t serious about trying to pass immigration legislation. And they slam Republican investigative plans writ large as thinly veiled attempts to help Trump, pointing to Jordan’s public remarks earlier this year that characterized GOP probes as helping “frame up the 2024 race.”

The Congressional Integrity Project is also aiming to raise funds for a paid media campaign, including dedicated websites, digital ads, mobile billboards, newspaper ads and, occasionally, TV ad buys. Its public opinion research will be shared with like-minded organizations and congressional allies to contrast GOP investigations with issues the American public cares most about, project leaders said.

Their goal is to prevent a repeat of the 2016 presidential campaign when Republicans also controlled the House and created a select committee to investigate the 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. That GOP select panel ended up zeroing in on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she prepared to ascend to the Democratic nomination, culminating in an 11-hour grilling of Clinton.

Republicans’ two-year Benghazi investigation spent $7 million in taxpayer money and dogged Clinton on the campaign trail before finally producing an 800-page report that didn’t focus on the former secretary of state.

Then-Majority Leader McCarthy quipped in 2015 to Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the Benghazi committee had successfully driven down Clinton’s poll numbers. “He took a lot of crap for it, but in the end, it was true” that the investigation hurt Clinton politically, recalled Woodhouse.

Rather, Democrats hope the flood of investigations will lead to a repeat of the 1998 midterm elections, held amid the GOP push to impeach then-President Bill Clinton. Voter backlash against that move helped Democrats defy historical trends in House races that favor the party that doesn’t occupy the White House gaining seats.

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axios

gop Republican congressional aides huddled this month with conservative think-tank leaders on Maryland's Eastern Shore to hone tactics and messaging for Biden administration probes, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: If the GOP wins control in the midterms, leaders want to kick off high-profile investigations as soon as the new Congress is seated. Republicans plan to draw on investigative power from allies across Washington.

Details: The retreat was hosted by the Heritage Foundation, theConservative Partnership Instituteand theAmerican Accountability Foundation, a nonprofit run by Trump administration alumni that's dogged Biden nominees with independent investigative work.

The big picture: With unified Democratic control in D.C., Republicans have been limited in their efforts to wield Congress' probative powers around high-profile issues such as a southern border immigration surge, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and economic shocks that threaten a U.S. recession.

Behind the scenes: Over two days, congressional aides at the retreat got briefings from prominent conservative activists and organizations on a host of investigative tactics.

What they're saying: "We are pleased we brought together senior staff and leading outside researchers to focus on enhancing oversight skills, particularly since we're expecting increased oversight opportunities in the future," Jones said in an emailed statement.

Howell, who leads Heritage's Oversight Project, t0ld Axios the goal of the event was to ensure congressional staff members are equipped to kick-start investigations as soon as the new Congress is gaveled in.

Between the lines: The event provides a glimpse of where Republicans see potentially fruitful oversight avenues.

Republican oversight won't be confined to federal agencies or the White House, Howell said.

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ref axios lachlan markey

https://www.axios.com/2021/09/14/conservatives-aft-withdrawal-biden-nominee

david chipman nom atf scalp

even before President Biden formally withdrew his nominee to be the nation's top firearm regulator on Monday, a new conservative opposition research group was ready for a victory lap.

Why it matters: Democrats honed a research operation during the Trump era that effectively opposed some of his top nominees. Two veteran Republican operatives behind the American Accountability Foundation didn't see a comparable apparatus for the GOP, so they set out to create one.

Driving the news: Chipman, who lobbied for gun safety group Everytown after leaving ATF, was the first high-profile Biden nominee to withdraw from consideration.

What's new: During an interview, Jones took credit for helping to unearth and publicize allegations from Chipman's former colleagues at ATF — where he was a special agent until 2012 — that he'd disparaged agents of color who received promotions.

Between the lines: AAF's research largely ignored policy. Its strategy more resembled the type of research that political campaigns compile on their opponents: public records digging and research focused on Chipman's background.

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saule o kennedy LA scalp anti-commie BS

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8 22 intercept

SINEMA PRIVATELY BLEW UP BIDEN NOMINEE NEEDED TO ENACT REGULATORY AGENDA

Ryan Grim

Sinema quietly killed Biden’s nomination of Ganesh Sitaraman for an important regulatory office.

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https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2022/09/13/maga-group-grooms-members-of-congress-and-their-staff-for-america-first-movement/

CPI hit squad:

CPI has also launched a number of spin-offs to further right-wing causes, including the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), America First Legal, Center for Renewing America, American Cornerstone Institute, American Moment, and the State Freedom Caucus Network.

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Staffers Coached in Conservative Oversight

From May 5–6, seven House Republican staffers and three Senate Republican staffers attended an Effective Oversight Training Retreat paid for by AAF and led by CPI, AAF, and the Heritage Foundation—all ostensibly nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organizations.

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Attendees participated in six training sessions, according to an agenda obtained by CMD, including on “how to work with legal experts to leverage research and advance conservative priorities in the courts,” “working with outside groups involved in oversight,” and “how to conduct effect research into Presidential appointees and nominees” to “help congressional staff perform proper oversight.”

The latter session was led by AAF’s founder Tom Jones, who is credited with leading GOP opposition to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmationand for sinking the nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin for vice chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, among others.

AAF runs the website bidennoms.com,which currently features opposition campaigns against Phillip Washington for administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); Gigi B. Sohn to be a member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); Kalpana Kotagal to be a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); and Dilawar Syed for deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA).

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Kotagal appears to be a top target of AAF, prompting it to create the separate website kalpanakotagal.com, where she is labeled a “radical leftist” who is “poised to weaponize the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with an anti-American agenda.”

SCREENSHOT FROM WWW.KALPANAKOTAGAL.COM

Kotagal is actually an accomplished employment and civil rights plaintiffs’ litigator, perhaps best known for co-authoring the “Inclusion Rider,” a contract provision in Hollywood designed to increase diversity in casting and production staff.

In addition to staffers from CPI, AAF, and Heritage, others from the right-wing Capital Research Center, the Republican Study Committee, and Compass Legal also led training sessions. CPI launched Compass Legal to take “care of things like legal filings” and help nonprofits “to comply with federal tax law so they can keep their nonprofit status,” according to its 2021 Annual Report.

https://www.investmentnews.com/w-va-attorney-general-threatens-to-sue-sec-over-enhanced-esg-disclosures-204490

no lnx

State attorney general threatens to sue SEC over ESG disclosures

attorney general

State and federal GOP officials continue to push back against what they call regulatory overreach. The SEC says it is trying to meet investor demand for ESG information.

March 26, 2021

By Mark Schoeff Jr.

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West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has threatened to sue the Securities and Exchange Commission if it doesn’t back off its effort to expand environmental, social and governance disclosures.

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Morrisey said that mandating ESG disclosures from companies that are not related to their financial performance would represent regulatory overreach and would be unconstitutional because it would not “withstand strict scrutiny” under free speech rights.

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In a letter Thursday to SEC Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee, Morrisey criticized a recent speech in which Lee said the SEC is considering expanding climate risk and ESG disclosures to meet investor demand.

“There is a significant constitutional obstacle to the unprecedented and dangerous course you charted in your remarks,” Morrisey wrote. “If the Commission proceeds down this pathway, states and other interested stakeholders will not hesitate to go to court to oppose a federal regulation compelling speech in violation of the First Amendment.”

Disclosures related to ESG issues such as diversity and corporate political spending are outside the SEC’s regulatory purview, the state’s attorney general asserted, and would only serve to provide ammunition for some customers and investors to target companies on those issues.

The SEC should concentrate on disclosures that affect financial performance rather than “statements on issues that drive a political agenda,” wrote Morrisey, a Republican.  “Your proposal would in fact create a system with an unlimited number of additional mandatory statements. This is federal overreach and political activism at its worst.”

The SEC recently released a request for public comment on strengthening climate-risk disclosures, something Lee argued would meet a market demand.

“Of course, we already have an extensive public record demonstrating investor desire for the SEC to ensure better disclosure in this space,” Lee said during an online appearance at a March 15 event hosted by the Center for American Progress. “But, it’s time to move from the question of ‘if’ to the more difficult question of ‘how’ we obtain disclosure on climate.”

Over the last few weeks, the SEC has launched several ESG initiatives, including establishing an enforcement task force on climate and ESG issues.

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Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa. and the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, expressed concern that the task force would give the SEC a way to implement new ESG policies without going through a rulemaking process.

“It is imperative that the SEC provide fair notice, and fully comply with the Administrative Procedure Act if it is going to impose new requirements,” Toomey wrote in a March 24 letter to Lee. “The SEC also should not use enforcement actions as a backdoor for imposing new regulations on ESG and climate change issues.”

An SEC spokesperson declined to comment on Morrisey’s or Toomey’s letters.

Toomey’s worries reflected similar qualms by Republican SEC members Hester Peirce and Elad Roisman about the agency’s recent ESG focus, which has been carried out by Lee, a Democratic SEC member.

That intensity around the issue is likely to continue underGary Gensler, the Biden administration’s nominee for SEC chair, who is awaiting Senate confirmation. He voiced support for enhanced ESG disclosures at his confirmation hearing earlier this month.

Related Topics: Disclosures, Securities and Exchange Commission, Sustainable Investing

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:{KYRSTEN SINEMA PRIVATELY BLEW UP BIDEN NOMINEE NEEDED TO ENACT REGULATORY AGENDA:(style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-bottom:15px"):}:

Ryan Grim

Sinema quietly killed Biden’s nomination of Ganesh Sitaraman for an important regulatory office.

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:{KYRSTEN SINEMA PRIVATELY BLEW UP BIDEN NOMINEE NEEDED TO ENACT REGULATORY AGENDA:(style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-bottom:15px"):}:

Ryan Grim

Sinema quietly killed Biden’s nomination of Ganesh Sitaraman for an important regulatory office.

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