Posted: May 21, 2013 at 12:37 am

Intimidation Tactics

The Billings Montana Shrugged TEA Party is preparing for another angry anti-government rally today. They are calling it a protest against the IRS, but they should be calling it a celebration of their success in stopping existing U.S. laws from being enforced.

What the TEA Party doesn’t understand (and its big money donors are hoping no one does) is that the law IRS to investigate political dark money groups–even if congress and several administrations have failed to enforce them.

As Floyd Norris explains in the NYTimes business section: there are two reasons that the IRS is involved in political contribution rules.

The first reason is that while 501c3 charities (such as the March of Dimes) are exempt from gift tax laws, there isn’t an exemption in the law for c4s–like American Tradition Partnership. That means that if the laws were actually enforced, donors who gave more that $13,000 to a c4 like ATP should be paying taxes on that donation.

This would certainly constrict the massive flow of cash into these organizations –conservative and liberal both, though of course there is much more conservative money. As ABC news reports, there has been a big uptick in 501 c4 applications from right-wing groups like American Traditions Partnership recently.

There is a second reason the IRS has a role here. While your donations to the March of Dimes (a C3) are tax deductible, donations to c4s like ATP and ALEC are not. However, corporations may be deducting their support for groups like ALEC anyway, calling their donations “necessary business expenses.” No one knows whether corporations are doing this or not–and we never will since the TEA Party has bullied the U.S. government to the point that its afraid to do its job and even investigate the matter.

That’s why the GOP is so up in arms about the latest IRS attempts to find out what’s going on. They’ve learned that any time the IRS makes a move to actually enforce current law, the TEA Party, the GOP, and Fox News can simply freaks out and the IRS and the administration backs down. Here’s how Norris explains it:

As the political furor grew this week, President Obama forced out the acting commissioner of the I.R.S. Does anyone think his successor, or his successor’s successor, will have any appetite for trying to enforce the tax law’s restrictions on political activities by so-called social welfare groups? After all, any political group can contend that an audit reflects partisan politics.

It would be much better if someone other than the tax collection agency had to decide whether to start investigations, but that is not what the law now says.

Posted: May 16, 2013 at 6:07 am

National Watchdog Group Profiles Jason Priest’s Dark Money Group

Michael Beckel has just published a new profile on the dark money group a GOP state senator used to influence the Montana state Supreme Court race and block the Medicaid expansion.

The profile shows how Priest used dark money to demonize Supreme Court candidates Ed Sheehy and Elizabeth Best in support of a TEA Party candidate. Priest also used the dark money group to send out attack mailers to kill the Medicaid expansion. Because of Priest’s actions, 70,000 of Montanan’s most disadvantaged working poor won’t be able to get health care.

Beckel, who writes for the Center for Public Integrity, published the report on the heels of a new analysis by the National Institute on Money in State Politics that found Montana is one of 35 states where rules regarding the disclosure of political spending by independent groups are less stringent than federal election law.

There’s much more on this, so check out the links in Beckel’s story above.

Posted: May 14, 2013 at 5:58 am

Small Claims: Wittich sues former client for $93.99 of unpaid bills

Art Wittich, the Montana Senate Majority Leader and Tea Party stalwart, has been in court lately to try to get what he believes is rightfully his.

Wittich, a lawyer, had once provided legal services to a Bozeman couple. There was an outstanding balance of $93.99 that the couple had not paid Wittich. Wittich was not going to abandon the matter, and not only collected the debt but got himself a tidy reward, an additional several thousand dollars.

It appears, as best I can tell from a not-very-clearly-drafted court opinion (the link to the decision is below), that Wittich quietly got a default legal judgment against the couple, for the $93.99, even as his office was in talks with the couple over possibly arriving at a settlement over this piddling amount of money. After successfully getting the judgment, he began efforts to collect it. After some time, he managed to persuade the court to award him not only the $93.99, but $2,900 more for “fees, costs and interests” that he claimed to have incurred as a result of spending his time trying to collect the $93.99.

A divided state Supreme Court, shockingly, upheld the judgment. Justice Cotter dissented, calling the decision [UPDATED pdf] “unconscionable” and an “affront,” scolding Wittich for “financial carnage wreaked upon [the Bozeman couple] for their refusal to pay a disputed $93.” Justice Baker grudgingly voted in favor of Wittich because there was apparently a contract, which Wittich had gotten the couple to sign, including a clause that allowed him, ultimately, to get this outrageous amount of money from them in the event of a collection action. But Justice Baker strongly cautioned him to review the rules of the State Bar which address lawyers and their billing practices, and are designed to prevent lawyers from fleecing their clients.

And Cotter notes that when the dust finally settles, the couple will probably owe north of $5,000 to Wittich, because Wittich will try to recoup additional costs from them, namely, his costs in litigating the case of the $93.99 in front of the Supreme Court.

In essence, Whittich did what he could, not what he should. Nice guy.

Oh, and one other point, which goes without saying: if Wittich ever thought he could run for statewide office, that dream he can now kiss goodbye.

Posted: May 13, 2013 at 5:10 am

Would-be “Peaceful Ethnic Cleanser” from Montana Makes National News

A white supremacy group leader who has called for a “peaceful ethnic cleansing” that would clear parts of North America for only white people was profiled on the Rachel Maddow show this week.

Here’s the clip:

The Human Rights Network has done some research on this group, which calls itself the National Policy Institute.

In 2011, they held an event at the National Press Club to release its report called “Majority Strategy: Why the GOP Must Win White America.” The report urged the Republican Party to “reach in” to its base of white voters instead of “reaching out” to minorities. The report told the GOP to embrace immigration restrictions, end civil rights laws, and stop all forms of affirmative action.

The group’s leader, Richard Spencer, recently moved the group from Georgia to Whitefish. He says: “It is perfectly feasible for a white state to be established on the North American continent,” adding, “I have a dream.”

You’ll want to go read James Conner’s post on this, which is up at the Flathead Memo.

Posted: May 9, 2013 at 10:31 pm

Former TEA Party Lawmaker’s Trial Gets Weirder

Today’s TEA Party news comes to us courtesy of former GOP lawmaker Joel Boniek, who is using his trial to put forth conspiracy theories and frivolous arguments to defend himself against charges that he ran a police roadblock in 2012. Because of his behavior, the court was forced to issue an official ruling to limit what Boniek can address in his upcoming trial to try to keep him on topic.

Cowgirl readers will recall that last year, Boniek was hauled into court to answer charges that he’d sped through a roadblock in defiance of an officer’s order to keep out. Boniek was trying to get to his house, but his house was in an area where a forest fire was burning and had been evacuated and blocked off due to the emergency. As a devoted Tea Partier and general wingnut, Boniek did not recognize the authority of the policeman to keep him away from his private property. Also, during his encounter with the officer before he crashed the barrier, Boniek allegedly reached for a gun that he had with him in the front seat. As the Livingston Enterprise reported, he:

“allegedly argued with the officers and eventually ‘dropped his left hand near what looked like a holster’ before a deputy brought him to the ground….The deputy removed a loaded handgun from the holster, according to court documents.”

For his day in court, Boniek brought with him an angry mob of supporters, who shouted down the Judge and Prosecutor in such a menacing way that they fled the courtroom fearing for their safety. At that point, Boniek stood up and proclaimed himself regent over the courtroom, and decreed himself innocent of all the charges (before the bailiff told him otherwise, while brandishing his own weapon).

Boniek, who is representing himself, has been asked to stop bringing up a number of frivolous and conspiracy-related arguments.

The first is “jury nullification” which is when a jury ignores the evidence and or instructions of the judge and returns a verdict of “Not Guilty” despite its belief that the defendant is guilty of the violation he or she is charged with. This appears to be a primary focus of Boniek’s self-defense, and the case is being closely followed by the jury nullification crew, as you can see from their press release on the case. He and his band of TEA Partiers have also been ordered not to distribute TEA Party pamphlets around the courthouse before the trial tomorrow, May 10.

During a hearing of his court case on Friday, the Livingston Enterprise reports, Boniek himself “lodged multiple complaints and objections, including that the court is fraudulent and that officials are treating him as an “artificial person” because his name appears in all capital letters on legal documents.”

He’s also accused the judge and everyone involved with the trial of being “fraudulent” so therefore his trial should not proceed. Boniek alleges that the judge will see personal financial benefit from his trial and any fines related to it.

Boniek is also angry with the Livingston Enterprise,who he has demanded show him every story they write about him before it is printed. The whole Enterprise article on the case’s latest developments is a must read.

Posted: May 8, 2013 at 11:30 am

TEA Party Launches Bid for GOP Leadership

The TEA Party may have its own ticket among the candidates who seek to run the Montana Republican Party

Embattled TEA Party figure Tim Ravndal, who made headlines for his remarks that implied support for violence against gays, is floating a slate of candidates for GOP Chair and Vice Chair. Gary Carlson has already announced and put out a flyer listing his qualifications. Jennifer Fielder, a TEA Party legislator from Noxon with ties to the militia movement, is the second name.

In the past, the GOP has tried to give token support to the hard right wing of the party without actually letting them take full control. However, the battle we saw in the Montana legislature between the hard right leadership of Wittich, Priest, and Essmann and the more traditional GOP-ers is also likely to play out here.

Posted: May 6, 2013 at 6:44 am

What Not to Wear

Missouri Senator Ryan McKenna added an amendment to an education bill to ban anyone in the state of Missouri over the age of eight from wearing seersucker suits.

McKenna added the following language to Missouri Senate Bill 437:

“Any person living in this state aged eight and under may wear seersucker suits at their leisure. Any person over the age of eight living in this state may not wear seersucker suits because adults look ridiculous in seersucker suits,”

While the Esquire blog in which this item first appeared has its own theory on the proposed ban, I’ll add mine here. It’s already started to get quite warm in the south, and perhaps by banning comfortable clothing Sen. McKenna was hoping to get the GOP-controlled body out of town earlier before more damage could be done. The 2013 session of the Missouri legislative assembly is scheduled to end May 17.

Posted: May 3, 2013 at 7:20 pm

Is GOP Chief a Francophile?

It turns out that I’ve been wrong about Montana Republicans, insofar as I’ve mocked them for being ignorant and crude and lacking a taste for fine culture.

Bowen Greenwood, the head of the Montana GOP, has been hard at work tweeting about his exciting evening at home watching Les Miserables on DVD.

He even has a Hugh Jackman man-crush, describing him this way:

Alas poor Bowen is an outlier, and leads a party that might not share his tastes. Not so long ago, conservatives in America were renaming things like French Toast to “Freedom Toast” for their hatred of despicable France. The Tea Party despises France for many reasons, among them that the nation did not support our invasion of Iraq, and that all French citizens receive medical care. Tea Partiers do not go to see Les Mis, but rather Atlas Shrugged or Transformers 3.

And consider too that most Tea Partiers believe that to own a passport and visit France is to commit treason.

I worry that Bowen could be making himself vulnerable to accusations that he is a European Socialist, especially given that Les Miserable is about a revolution that germinated a socialist state, now hated by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

I wonder if Bowen might have had a little too much Merlot when he sent these tweets.