Mark Meadows’ Main Squeeze Gets Squished
Wanna hear a great story to ease those “I Got The MAGA Blues” blues? Got one here.
TFG’s fourth White House Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, has a wife, Debbie. Or Debra for short. Debra started a political action committee called “Right Women”. Clever, huh? As in “hmmm, do they mean exactitude or a place on the political spectrum?
Or both?
Mark’s wife, along with another political wife, that of Theodore “Ted” Budd, the Republican junior senator from North Carolina, formed a Super PAC in order to fund MAGA-prone Republican candidates in primary and “winnable” general elections. Such congressional divas like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren “Beetlejuice” Boebert have benefitted from the PAC’s largesse.
It seems that the PAC made “an administrative error” in 2022 when it funneled $191,871 in campaign cash to the campaign of former Rep. Stella Yvette Herrell of New Mexico in her failed attempt to retain her seat against Democratic challenger Gabe Vasquez (D NM-02). The error entailed not reporting the donation to the FEC within the prescribed time period.
The FEC has a thing about reporting donations of more than $10,000 cash to a campaign within 20 days of an election. That’s probably to keep cheating cheaters who cheat from dropping a potload of money on a campaign without telling anyone so as to give them hidden advantage as Election Day nears.
It’s a pretty good law, but somehow the PAC forgot to mention to the FEC their donation until after the election.
After the election (that Vasquez won by 1300 votes), the PAC filed their report, the error was flagged, and the matter finally landed in the Alternative Dispute Resolution Office.
There, we are told, the PAC agreed to pay a $9,500 fine, and from what we are given to understand, the PAC agreed to fold their tent.
After paying their fine and various debts, the PAC cashed out by sending $45,000 to each of three charities that we can all agree are highly deserving entities: St. Jude Hospital, Toys For Tots, and the USO.
And that is $135,000 that does not go to make door hangers, campaign signs, and bumper stickers for some MAGA candidate.
Sometimes we win one.
[Hat tip to Alfredo at the Dairy Queen.]
Long ago (in the 60’s) I worked as a teacher’s aid in an orphanage. One thing I learned was that the kids got tons of toys donated around Christmas, so many that they had to be doled out slowly during the year. And what the kids really needed was clothes, books, and adults who did not treat them as three-headed freaks.
I don’t know about Toys for Tots, it may be a good charity. But I recommend to both others that they volunteer as free tutors for the kids. It’s something that will last longer and help them more than any toy. There’s one kid at the orphanage who still contacts me, over fifty years later.
Another tip: no kid can learn if they’re hungry. So I always bring a sack lunch with me when meeting with them, open it up and say something like “Damn, my wife gave me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I hate PB&J, do you want it?” At the orphanage food was not a problem, but with school lunches the latest right wing target, it doesn’t hurt to do this nowadays. Even if you really do like PB&J sandwiches.
Not related, but the years of helping students with math meant that I aced the SAT (and later, GRE) exam in math. That in turn helped a near-30 year old get into college with scholarships. So I benefited as well. Just in case anyone starts thinking I’m a nice guy, I can claim it was all for selfish purposes.
1I’m just guessin that there might be more the PAC was not forthcoming about. While the article doesn’t go further into legal fees the PAC paid out, the timing around maga mike Meadows indictment on his Jan 6 involvement certainly seems fishy. They wouldn’t hide anything would they?
2Surly,
Actually, you are a nice guy.
3Surly’s a relative term.
4P.P…..most of my relatives are surly.
And S. Prof….couldn’t agree more. Great ideas!
5My late husband worked as an aide in special education at our local high school after he retired from dentistry. It was what they called “content mastery” for kids who needed the info. read to them to help them understand it. There were so many smart kids who’d been called “stupid” or worse because they had a different way of learning. We would run into some of them years later and they were always appreciative and proud to show off their families and talk about their success with their jobs.
6Surly, Toys for Tots is a US Marine Corps Reserve organization. https://www.toysfortots.org/
7Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toys_for_Tots
I’ll double down on Surly’s mention of clothes. Fashionable clothes, new.
The Catholic high school I went to was next door to the diocese’s orphanage, so we had a high proportion of ‘orphans.’ Few, I think, were technical orphans, they were kids whose parents were in prison or drunks.
We wore uniforms to class, so that was not an issue, but outside class it would have been. We were all obsessed with Bass Weejuns, Gant shirts, even Gold Cup socks.
Orphans (or functional orphans) do not need hand-me-downs.
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