Connecting the dots for the ‘lamestream media’ on ‘Weinergate’

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I happened to catch Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) on this segment of the Rachel Maddow Show on Friday, May 27 in which Maddow asked Rep. Weiner about his being in the news on Friday regarding his pressuring Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (and his wife Ginni) to release his financial disclosure forms because he believes Justice Thomas has a conflict of interest with respect to the Affordable Care Act for which Justice Thomas should have to recuse himself when the appellate court cases make their way to the U.S. Supreme Court (around the 11:20 mark).

Friday, May 27th – msnbc tv – Rachel Maddow show:

MADDOW: You have been in the news today because you have been pressuring Supreme Court justices to release their financial disclosure forms. Clarence Thomas‘ form shows his wife Ginni earns salary and benefits from an anti-health reform group called Liberty Central, as well as another group Liberty Consulting.

I was reading the forms after you posted them, I felt like there was also some sort of reference maybe to Clarence Thomas himself receiving funding from Liberty consulting. What do you interpret those disclosure? What do you think they mean?

WEINER: So everyone understands it‘s required that every year, members of the Supreme Court disclose anything that might be a conflict in their background. Well, as it turned out for almost 20 years, Clarence Thomas‘ spouse was getting money not only from think tanks but think tanks that were actively trying to persuade the court to do something. Things like the Heritage Foundation and others.

And so, now, when that became public, we‘ve been paying extra attention to when these filings are reported. And here‘s the conflict. It is clear under the law that if any member of your household is going to benefit one way or another from the outcome of a case, you got to refuse yourself.

Well, Ginni Thomas is actively raising money, taking money from organizations that would benefit if the health care reform act were struck down. It‘s clear that Clarence Thomas should recuse himself. And let me just say this to make it very clear: Clarence Thomas‘ spouse can earn money anyway she wants and be free to speak.

But the question becomes: does that income to the household present a conflict for Clarence Thomas? And so, you know, we‘ve started a Web site ConflictedClarenceThomas.com, where we‘ve put all of these documents up. And it‘s pretty clear that Justice Thomas should recuse himself from health care reform debate at least because it‘s clear his household is benefitting from one side of that debate.

MADDOW: Benefitting financially because she would not be getting the income that she‘s getting from these ideological groups if it were not for her perceived influence on her husband?

WEINER: Exactly. As a matter of fact, she goes as far as to advertise that and to talk about the idea. You know, she makes fun of the idea. She says, oh, yes, I‘ve got a great deal of influence over these proceedings.

And remember something, she‘s basically—her organizations are raising money by saying if you give money to me, we‘re going to try to stop health care reform from being implemented. Well, she returns home to Justice Thomas who has to make that decision and probably in less than a year.

So, we‘re pressuring him to recuse himself. To me, it‘s a pretty clear case to the law that he should.

MADDOW: And, of course, there‘s no way to force him to do it except by shame.

WEINER: That‘s right.

Rep. Weiner was in the news on Friday for his prolific Twitter activity that day regarding Justice Thomas's financial disclosure statement being released in a Friday news dump before the long Memorial Day weekend when it was least likely to draw the attention of the feckless "lamestream media." Anthony Weiner Tweet-Taunts Clarence Thomas About Financial Records News Dump:

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) spent his Friday afternoon pestering Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for executing a classic news dump: a release of his financial disclosure filing on the eve of Memorial Day Weekend.

The Congressman spent the day tweeting to his heart's content, first alerting his 43,000-plus followers to the likelihood that someone on the Court was going to try and bury an embarrassing story while the world's attention was turned toward the commute and barbecue ahead:

"Friday dump Scotus style? I'm hearing disclosures released today. #ConflictsAbound," he tweeted.

Shortly thereafter, Weiner let it be known that it was Thomas whose financial disclosure filing he was awaiting. Around 4:30, he had a link to send, showing that Thomas had served on the Board of Directors for the nonprofit Horatio Alger Association and had made $10,000 for a speech at University of Minnesota School of Law.

The real conflict, if there was one, was with his wife Ginni, who earned "Salary and benefits" from Liberty Central and Liberty Consulting — prominent Tea Party Groups. The filing also revealed that the two share several financial investments, including 1/3 interest in rental property in Liberty City, Georgia, and a 401k plan. Thomas went on to note that, "two of the Georgia rental properties have been torn down. The only remaining property is an old house in Liberty County."

All in all, the file told a fairly well traversed story. It's been known for several months now that Thomas's wife — whose employment at Liberty and the Heritage Foundation had not been disclosed on prior documents — presents ethical questions for the cases he chooses to handle as a Supreme Court Justice. " Spouse of #ConflictedClarenceThomas has every right to work for whomever, but he must recuse himself," Weiner tweeted, reiterating his belief that Thomas' should not rule on cases regarding the constitutionality of the health care reform law, due to a potential conflict of interest.

* * *

The Huffington Post reached out to Weiner's office to ask why he spent his day obsessing over this singular task. They did not immediately return that request. The office did, however, put out a press release stating that the disclosure from Thomas came after "months of pressure" from the Congressman.

“We knew that Justice Thomas’s family had a financial stake in opposing health care reform. Now we know even more,” Weiner said. “It’s pretty clear the Justice has one option here: recusal.”

Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones reports what happened next in this story. Will Clarence Thomas Recuse Himself on Health Care Reform?:

Following a time-honored Washington tradition of dumping required but embarrassing information on a Friday night before a major holiday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas finally released the details of his wife's income from her year or so working for the tea party group Liberty Central, which fought President Obama's health care reform law. His new financial disclosure form indicates that his wife, Virginia, who served as Liberty Central's president and CEO, received $150,000 in salary from the group and less than $15,000 in payments from an anti-health care lobbying firm she started.

The disclosure was apparently prompted in part by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), who had been needling Thomas (including on Twitter) for months to disclose how much money his wife earned from Liberty Central. That's because challenges to Obama's health care reform law are likely to end up before the Supreme Court sooner rather than later, and if Thomas and his wife benefited from her income working against the bill, the justice has an enormous conflict of interest in hearing any legal challenge. Thomas had failed to disclose Virginia's income on his financial disclosure forms for 20 years; under pressure from Weiner and others, he had recently amended old disclosures to reflect hundreds of thousands of dollars she had earned working for the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that also opposed Obama's health care plan.

But, up until now, Thomas had not revealed how much money his wife made from her controversial Liberty Central work.

* * *

Justice Thomas finally released the details of her compensation Friday night, but the disclosure, and Weiner's triumphant press release announcing the move, were largely overshadowed by Weinergate.

Over the weekend, Weiner's Twitter account was allegedly hacked and Tweeted a photo of a near-naked man [factually incorrect: the photo shows a man's erect penis outlined in a pair of tight boxer briefs] to a college student. Conservative media mogul Andrew Breitbart published the photo on his site, Big Government, and the feeding frenzy was furious enough to ensure that Thomas' news barely saw the light of day. Still, if and when health care reform makes its way to the Supreme Court, Thomas will have a much harder time making his conflict of interest go away.

An analysis by this website suggests that the screen-grab Breitbart's site posted as 'proof' is a fraud. Breitbart's media enterprises have had serious credibility issues in the past, including questions surrounding the ACORN "sting" carried out by conservative prankster James O'Keefe and the selective editing of a speech by former USDA official Shirley Sherrod.

Yet the "lamestream media," which is comprised mostly of reporters whose intellectual development was stunted during pre-adolescence and who are fixated on prurient sexual interests, took the bait. Sophomoric weiner jokes were just too much for these pre-adolescents to resist.

I have to give Breitbart credit, he used Rep. Weiner's weapon of choice, Twitter, against him. This is a classic Rovian move to use one's perceived strength against him.

Susie Madrak at crooksandliars.com asks the question that serious political journalists (are there any left?) should be asking. Wonder Why Anthony Weiner Was Attacked? Wingnuts Needed A Diversion From His Clarence Thomas Recusal Campaign:

Rep. Anthony Weiner has been working since February to hold Clarence Thomas accountable for hiding his wife's income to avoid the appearance of a conflict, and his campaign was finally getting some traction. So what do the wingnuts do? They quickly create a diversion:

Rep. Anthony Weiner says Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from any health reform cases cases that come before the high court, and he and 73 other Congress members have formally asked him to in a letter.

Their problem is that Thomas' wife, Virginia, has reportedly earmed money lobbying against the health insurance reform law.

"As an Associate Justice, you are entrusted with the responsibility to exercise the highest degree of discretion and impartiality when deciding a case," Weiner and Co. wrote.

"As Members of Congress, we were surprised by recent revelations of your financial ties to leading organizations dedicated to lobbying against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," they wrote. "We write today to respectfully ask that you maintain the integrity of this court and recuse yourself from any deliberations on the constitutionality of this act."

They point to her touting her connections to clients who want the health reform law tossed. One of those connections might be considered to be her husband, they argue, and say Thomas should duck any cases that raise the appearance of a conlict of interest.

They also note that Thomas had failed to disclose the $686,589 that Virginia Thomas earned from the health reform-opposing Heritage Foundation from 2003 to 2007, and that his wife stood to gain from his decision in the Citizens United case.

Karoli adds:

Does anyone remember hearing that Justice Thomas released his financial disclosures on May 27th? Here's a little tidbit for you: His disclosures indicate a direct cash investment of between $15,000 and $25,000 into Ginni Thomas' Liberty Consulting lobby firm…the one that she started after resigning from the Liberty Central Tea Party astroturf group. The disclosures also indicate payment from Liberty Central and Liberty Consulting to Ginni Thomas in 2010, post Citizens United.

And Anthony Weiner was pushing hard on Thomas to recuse himself from any ACA-related lawsuits before Andrew Breitbart sprung into action.

The right-wing noise machine manufactured this "scandal" (quite possibly illegally, hacking is a crime) that would appeal to the prurient sexual interests of the pre-adolescent media villagers and Beltway bloviators who have, of course, fixated on their prurient sexual interests — "Weiner" – Snicker! — that was perfecly timed to cover up or at least to bury any reporting on a deeply conflicted Supreme Court Justice whose wife is heavily involved in right-wing political activity affecting cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Justice Clarence Thomas's conflict of interest, and the retaliatory smear campaign against Rep. Weiner from the right-wing noise machine for his having made this conflict of interest an issue are the real stories here. But of course our "lamestream media" is failing to report either story. They are still having too much fun with the distraction of telling pre-adolescent weiner jokes.