Do you remember Dr. Ronny “The Candyman” Jackson? The Everyone’s Ambien guy?

The guy who was once TFG’s official White House doctor?

He was the guy who famously gave The Convicted Felon a cognitive test (person, woman, man, camera, TV) and once claimed that TFG could live 200 years.

He’s also the guy who TFG referred to as “Doc Ronny…Doc Ronny Johnson…” in his speech at the “People’s Convention” a “Turning Point” event in Detroit last week.

He’s also a congressman now, Republican wouldn’t you know, representing Texas CD-13.

That guy.

Well, yesterday, Doc Ronny Whatshisname got a break from the House Ethics Committee when they 18a’d him.

18a is a House Ethics Committee rule that allows the committee to “gather additional information concerning such an alleged violation…unless and until an investigative subcommittee has been established.”

The information sought (and also provided) showed how Dr. Jackson used campaign funds to pay his membership dues to The Amarillo Club: over $6,800 in donors’ money so he may belong to a “fine dining club and gym in downtown Amarillo”.

But you know how it goes, there such was a crying need for more information on the matter, that rather than assign a subcommittee to investigate it, they decided to file it for future reference and study.

Here.

We have mentioned the tightrope act that Texas Senator Ted Cruz performs in his deal with iHeartMedia as he plays push the envelope with The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.

What we’ve barely touched on is Ted Cruz’s partner in crime: the very same iHeartMedia. You see, it is not only a crime for Cruz to extract hundreds of thousands of dollars from a donor by directing them to pay the lucre he earns from his podcast, Verdict With Ted Cruz, to a PAC fund whose sole purpose is to re-elect him, it is also a violation of 52 USC § 30129(a) and 11 CFR § 115.2(a)(1) to make these contributions while a federal government contractor.

Which is what iHeartMedia is, and has been.

iHeartMedia maintains government contracts with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Here is the description of one such contract for which iHeartMedia was paid $30,000.

It’s just that clear.

Cruz can’t do what he’s doing, and iHeartMedia can’t do what they’re doing.

You’d think that the Federal Election Commission would be all over this, but all of the players in DC know how toothless the FEC has become. Its governing board of 6 has barely had a quorum these past few years, and when it does, the votes are at times deadlocked along party lines.

Like everything else in government today, our institutions are constructed to ride herd over those who complain about not being told not to mow the carpet.

John C. Padora is a Democrat running for US Congress in CO-04. That’s Ken Buck’s old seat. The one he resigned from. The one Lauren Boebert (R CO-03) is now running for because the competition against a Democrat in her old district is just too fierce. She might lose there this time.

But this is Ken Buck’s old district, and the demographics haven’t changed. It’s still a Cook’s rated R +13 district.

Padora hasn’t a gnat’s chance in a hailstorm.

But that didn’t stop John. He videoed some of his campaign ads sitting in the very seat that Lauren sat in when she showed her date how handy she could be at a performance of the play “Beetlejuice”.

If you’re not going to win, you might as well make it fun.

Poor misunderstood Ted Cruz can’t catch a break. Capitol watchdogs keep attacking Teddy’s own grift gathering media presence on his iHeartMedia-sponsored podcast by saying such unfair things like “This is not an arrangement we’ve seen before, and it seems like Senator Cruz is trying to find a way to walk the line between not falling into an ethics violation and not falling into a campaign finance violation.” 

But TFG must be fuming. What must The Don think about all of this grift not flowing his way? Not even getting to wet his beak a little?

Cruz’s latest reporting to the FEC, thanks to Alfredo at the Dairy Queen, had a whopping $156,185.72 in digital revenue sent to his Truth and Courage PAC. That plus the last reporting period gives an aggregate sum of $370,938.70.

Not bad for a podcast.

And not that a cool 370 large is chicken feed, but wait until The Convicted Felon hears about what Sheldon Adelson’s widow, Dr. Miriam Adelson did for Cruz’s PAC.

Yep. Seven figures. A cool million from The Las Vegas Sands…er…a successful medical practice…that did NOT go to TFG, even after The Former Guy decorated Dr. Adelson with a Medal of Freedom.

What’s a corrupt grifting former President to do? You hand out these hunks of metal and they repay you by donating to one of your former opponents whose dad helped kill JFK?

And that is the best thing I can say about Ted Cruz’s grift: at least TFG didn’t get it.