Tagged: affair

Posted: May 1, 2012 at 12:05 pm

Adultery and Abuse, Front and Center

I was forwarded a juicy e-mail late last night from a tipster, but didn’t have time to blog about it and I woke up to find that Pogie at Intelligent Discontent had scooped me. Check his post out. The e-mail contains a 30 second TV spot, by Montana Conservative Families, contrasting Rick Hill and Ken Miller on…..family values.

Miller is shown with his family, described as a Jesus-loving devoted husband, a “John Wayne, Johnny Cash and John Deere” type of guy, if you will.

We are then shown Rick Hill’s mug, and are told that he is an adulterer.  A photo of a cocktail waitress, in revealing dress, is then shown, the face blurred out, along with headlines from when Rick Hill’s first wife went public with his infidelity during his the 1998 Congressional campaign (said infidelity having been consummated with a cocktail waitress).

The narrator tells an abbreviated story of how Hill was stepping out on his wife at “a motel bar,” which we know to be none other than the world famous Sip ‘N Dip lounge in Great Falls (soon to have its own reality show, by the way.)

One might conclude, as Pogie does, that Ken Miller is behind this ad, though there is nothing in the ad to confirm this.  What we do know is that the apparent ring leader of Montana Conservative Families, a woman named Nancy Davis, has sent several emails out in the past, some bashing moderate Republicans and specifically Rick Hill for not having “social conservative values.”

Ken Miller has recently attacked Hill directly in public, in a very personal way–making fun of Hill for spending most of his time in Palm Springs, California at his second home–but has never alluded to his extramarital past.  Only the Stapleton campaign has crossed that line, with Bob Keenan, Stapleton’s number two, suggesting that Hill’s “skeletons” would ultimately take him down.

The timing of this video is also interesting if you consider the simliarities to what occurred in the Democratic Primary in 2006 between John Morrison and Jon Tester.

A month or so before election day during the Tester-Morrison face-off, Lee Newspapers had a big front-page expose about Morrison’s extramarital affair. He had a relationship with a woman many years earlier, but when he became State Auditor, his office ended up investigating her new husband for securities fraud. This raised a question about whether Morrison should have recused himself from the investigation.

But before the story hit the paper in 2006, an effective whisper campaign was conducted against Morrison, with letters and e-mails making the rounds among Democrats, giving the story a certain ripeness.  We will see if this Ken Miller-Rick Hill business follows the same trajectory.

 

Posted: February 28, 2012 at 7:45 pm

ANALYSIS: What’s Behind Rick Hill’s Burning Pants

Republican Rick Hill is trying to tell folks in Eastern Montana that he’s a “Montana native” – despite being born, raised and schooled out-of-state.  The deception was attempted at a Lincoln Day Dinner where Hill and the other GOP candidates spoke last week.  

There are two ways to explain Hill’s behavior here.  First, Hill could be lying because he thinks that’s the only way he stands a chance against Bullock.

Governor Schweitzer hit on this recently – pointing to one of the many reasons why Bullock is a stronger candidate  than the GOPers:

“They’re just going to have a real tough time beating Bullock.  Not only is he a great guy, he’s got a young and beautiful family . . . been a spectacular attorney general.  He’s born and bred in Montana.  A lot of these cats that are running right now, they’re born someplace else, they’re interlopers. They just show up, they say, ‘It’s a small state, maybe I can go be governor of it.’…Bullock has got deep roots, he’s a smart guy.  If you’ve got a $100 in your pocket, you ought to bet on Bullock.  Bullock’s going to win this race.”

The only other explanation is that dishonesty and deception is so deeply ingrained in Hill’s imbecilic nature that he just can’t help himself. After all, neither Jim Lynch nor Ken Miller lied about their out-of-state roots in the Sidney Herald article reporting on their appearance.  Nor is this the first time Rick Hill has been caught trying to hide the truth about his past.

He tried to scrub from his Wikipedia page the fact that he left his wife and young kids for a mermaid/cocktail waitress. When his family showed up to beg him to come home he laughed in their faces.  He described this behavior in an email to Republicans as “single parenthood.”  If Rick Hill will lie about his own background, no one should be surprised when he lies about jobs, schools and revenue.

Posted: February 9, 2012 at 5:47 pm

On Skeletons and Closets

When he was announced as Corey Stapleton’s runningmate yesterday, Bob Keenan took a whack at the entire Republican gubernatorial field, saying that all the other candidates “have skeletons in their closets” and thus Corey Stapleton “is the most electable.”

Whether this assertion is true or not, notice that Keenan expects the press to take care of his negative campaigning, to begin writing on the various problematic histories of each candidate simply because Keenan suggested it.

Asked at a press conference to elaborate about the “skeletons” in their opponents’ closets, Keenan declined.

“No, I won’t do that,” he told reporters. “That’s your job, and you’re good at it.”

There are several problems with what Keenan is trying to do.

First, in a big field of candidates, the media has to make some effort at fair treatment. Thus if they write about the scandalous past of one candidate, they must write about them all.  So the easier thing is to just stay away from the whole enterprise.

Second, the Montana press has an aversion to covering negative stuff, especially when it concerns Republican candidates. The conservative-owned newspapers in Montana will all be gunning for the GOP nominee in November.

Witness the hilariously absurd article in the Billings Gazette, regarding Rick Hill’s efforts to scrub his bio on his Wikipedia page (scrub it of any reference to his night club incident with a barmaid, and a subsequent press conference, while he was Congressman, in which his ex-wife burned him down as an abusive spouse).  The article refused to even state specifically what it was that Hill was trying to erase–describing it only as “details about Hill’s past campaigns and his 1976 divorce” but yet tried to report on the fact that he was trying to erase it.

Third, the press has an informal rule: you have to attack someone directly in order to make news.  That’s probably not a bad rule. It’s a spin-off of the age-old maxim, “if you have something to say, say it to my face.” Don’t go whispering it around town. Thus is Bob Keenan a sheep and a coward, for hinting at something but refusing to come out and say it directly. He’s hoping somebody else will do it.  Cowardice is not a quality we want in a leader.

I suppose that it’s not totally a bad thing that that Montana newspapers try to keep things clean.  There is something to be said for a positive news environment, especially in a special place like Montana.  But if you think about the way the press covers national politics, and the way that every little thing gets covered (a Tiffany’s revolving credit account, strapping the family dog to the roof of the car, failed marriages), one wonders if the Montana press’s self-censorship is really the way to go in a free and open society.  Nationally, the press rarely makes a concerted effort to cover things up.  Perhaps, too, should the Montana Press not be deciding what factual items about candidates are relevant.  That’s for the public to decide.

And the press is not always consistent in this regard.  John Morrison got skewered in the months before the primary in 2006, for an incident which occurred almost a decade earlier involving a bit of adultery.  The press simply decided that they wanted to write about it because it was juicy and timely.  Perhaps Democrats should be grateful that the incident was covered, because the issue surely would have been raised by Conrad Burns in the general election.  Morrison had been the big money leader in the primary, but went immediately down the tubes.  The stronger candidate (Jon Tester) thus ended up winning the Primary and the General election, and  thus did the media’s coverage of a steamy affair help ensure a meritorious election.   So maybe Democrats are quietly sitting by and hoping that Rick Hill’s several problems do not get ink until July.

It’s no secret that Keenan is pointing the finger at Rick Hill.  Numerous candidates, including Ken Miller and Stapleton and the now-defunct Essmann, have all been trying to get newspapers and TV stations to cover Hill’s flaws.

But Keenan should be careful what he wishes for.  Stapleton himself has a problematic past.  When he first put up his own Wikipedia page, it made a reference to his having suffered a “childhood addiction,” a term that I’ve never heard before.  (Presumably, this means that Stapleton was once a drug addict, probably as a teenager or young adult.)  A few weeks later, after this strange reference had been reported (and ridiculed) by my blog, the reference was taken down off the Wikipedia page.  But of course, it never made news.

Posted: January 13, 2012 at 8:42 pm

Rick Hill Responds to Attacks

Montana GOP Gubernatorial primary candidate Rick Hill has had enough of the personal attacks on his sex life.  He has released this campaign ad to respond to the dirty attacks on him.

Posted: January 11, 2012 at 5:05 pm

Rick Hill Touts His “Single Dad” Status

GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill, a philanderer and (according to his ex-wife) abusive husband who left his wife and tried to dump his kids on her, is now bragging about having been a single dad, believing that this will cause him to win his party’s nomination.

In an email circulating from the Billings Chamber of Commerce, which contains bios of each candidate for Governor, Hill writes in his bio that:

…he was challenged early in his career by having to run a business and a household as a single parent.

(Here’s the screenshot.)

And this is the second campaign in which Hill has played this card. In 1998 when running for re-election for Congress, when his infidelities were revealed, Hill ran a TV ad  in which he paraded out his children and talked about his struggles raising them on his own.

He’s not being untruthful that he raised his children.  What Hill is omitting from the story, however, is that he actually tried to ditch out of taking custody of his kids.  In fact, Hill lied about this very fact in 1998, and got in trouble for it.

On the front page of the Helena Independent Record and many other papers in Montana in the fall of 1998, an article appeared, entitled “Hill Omitted Key Details About Divorce.”

Republican congressional candidate Rick Hill left out crucial details when he trumpeted his divorce records in August as proof that he’s a more responsible person than his opponent…Namely, Hill neglected to mention that four years earlier, he tried to divorce his wife and give her custody of their three sons.

Nor does Mr. Family Values mention in his bio the sordid details of the affair with the cocktail waitress that led to the divorce.  Montana papers reported that Hill’s wife at the time:

recalled packing their three sons, aged 18 months to 8 years, in a car once and driving to the Sip-N-Dip lounge where she saw Hill with the other woman. She said she begged him without success to come home.

Nor does Hill mention that his ex-wife, in a public statement, accused him of being an emotionally abusive husband.

This is not the first time Hill has been caught trying to hide the truth from voters. This summer, the Billings Gazette revealed that Hill was caught trying to scrub his affair from his Wikipedia page.

Do I particularly enjoy delving into Hill’s personal and family affairs? Not at all. It makes me feel a little uneasy, in fact. I’d rather not have to do it.  And, as I’ve mentioned before, Hill’s adultery is decades old.  But I have no tolerance for politicians who try to take a negative aspect of themselves, and sleazily try to turn it into a positive thing, without someone holding them accountable for it.

This is a classic political trick, and you should know it for what it is.  You will see plenty of it this election.  Dollars to donuts, Rick Hill’s campaign ads this cycle will show lots of family.

Posted: May 2, 2011 at 5:26 am

Politico Raises Rating on MT Gov Race; Cites Hill Affair, Likely Bullock Entry as Factors

Politico now calls Montana’s 2012 gubernatorial race as one of the top two most competitive governors’ races in the nation, citing Rick Hill’s personal problems, and the likely entry of AG Steve Bullock, as the reasons.

Amusingly, Hill is quoted in the Politico story as saying that his sordid affair with a barmaid that was documented in the press, and his abusive behavior toward his ex-wife that she spoke publicly about, are “anonymous attacks from thirty years ago” and can all be chalked up to “Democratic dirty tricks.”

The Politico rating might sound like inside baseball, but it will probably have consequences within the primary. At some point, the other candidates will start talking publicly about the trash they have so far been only circulating anonymously via surrogates. And at least one candidate has several million dollars of personal dough he can dump into the race at the blink of an eye.

The story could embolden the field generally, dislodging candidates like Stapleton or Miller, of Billings and Laurel respectively, from a status of lieutenant-governor-hopefuls to full on candidates.

At a minimum, it looks like we’ll have something fun to talk about over the summer.

Posted: April 30, 2011 at 10:54 am

Rick Hill’s Campaign Banned from Editing Wikipedia Page

Wikipedia has temporarily blocked edits to its Rick Hill article after someone inside the campaign tried to erase references to some particularly-controversial Rick Hill scandals.

Early last week, the user cdenowh, who presumably is Rick Hill’s campaign operative Chuck Denowh, was banned from editing Rick Hill’s article on the “free encyclopedia anyone can edit” after a series of biased postings–and relentless whitewashes.

The shutdown warning cited a problem with bias, saying that:

A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia’s content policies, particularly neutral point of view.

Hill’s campaign had attempted to remove the portion of the page that currently reads:

When he was running for re-election in 2000 shortly before Hill dropped out of the race citing eye-sight problems, it was reported in the New York Times that Hill had attacked his opponent, Chief State Schools Officer Nancy Keenan, for “lacking an understanding of family values” because “she has no children of her own.” Keenan responded she had a hysterectomy after cancer as a young woman. [2]

The campaign was also frantic to remove information about the details surrounding Hill’s extramarital affair with a cocktail waitress, which have recently resurfaced in a series of emails from religious conservatives. Before the Rick Hill campaign’s edits, the page contained this information, (screenshot) which Hill’s campaign repeatedly removed.

The sources were listed here, but Hill’s campaign repeatedly removed both the language and the source material.

Posted: April 16, 2011 at 2:38 pm

Rick Hill Responds to Adultery Charge by Religious Right

It has been fun watching the infighting among Montana Republicans–played out through a series of Christian conservative emails and on the right-wing Montanafesto blog–about whether Rick Hill’s extramarital activities with a barmaid, some years ago, are sufficient to disqualify him as a conservative worthy of nomination for governor.

Now it has gotten even better.  Yesterday, Rick Hill (surprisingly) issued a response to the blast e-mail about him his infidelities.  In doing so, Hill has not only taken the Religious Right’s bait, but he has also, in my opinion, made things worse by playing the old and tired “family card” and “victim card”.

Hill’s full statement can be viewed here.  In it, Hill decries the general practice of negative attacks in politics, and expresses outrage at “attacks on his family”– by which he means an e-mail from a right wing conservative, simply stating that an adulterer who touts his “family values” should not be the GOP nominee for governor, and that Rick Hill would lose a general election.

The e-mail from the apparently uber-religious Nancy Davis can be viewed here. It contains news articles from the 1990s, including one with a statement by Hill’s ex-wife, Jennifer Spaulding, who Hill cheated on, and who came public about Hill’s cheating because she couldn’t stand to see Hill hypocritically slamming his political opponents for “lacking family values.”  Spaulding says Hill was an emotionally abusive husband, and that he constantly ridiculed her for being unattractive and uneducated.

Hill admitted the whole affair, including a very disturbing story, related by Spaulding, about how she brought her kids to the bar to confront him, and Hill was hanging out with the cocktail waitress, took one look at his family, and told them to get lost.

And now Hill is playing the victim. This is a bad idea.

Why? Hill has a terrible record of very dirty campaigning. When he was running for re-election in 2000 (before he suddenly dropped out of the race), he trashed his opponent, Nancy Keenan, for “lacking an understanding of family values” because “she has no children of her own.” It was later revealed that Keenan had had a hysterectomy after cancer as a young woman. Hill’s accusation was a calculated and typical Montana GOP veiled suggestion about lesbianism. It was as ugly as politics has ever gotten in Montana.  Hill’s GOP henchmen made hundreds of thousands of robo-calls all over the state, asking voters if they were “concerned about an unmarried and childless woman representing Montana in Congress.”

Also, in 1998 it was revealed that Hill had deployed his new (second) wife, Betti Hill, to assist a shady, third-party group in producing a TV attack-ad against Hill’s opponent, Bill Yellowtail. This attack ad accused Yellowtail of (you guessed it) lacking family values, based on the fact that he’d hit his wife many years earlier.  Betti’s involvement was discovered when a memo surfaced, written by the head of the third party group (the TRIAD group), mentioning that it had been in communication with Betti Hill.

Hill has also deployed his sharp elbows against members of his own party, in primaries.  Those of us in the Ag community with a long memory will recall that Hill smeared Dwight MacKay, a rancher who ran against Hill in the GOP primary in 1998, by insinuating that MacKay was a fake rancher.  It was pure smear, and pure lies.  But Hill had lots of money and MacKay did not, so it worked. Montanafesto has a few more examples of Hill “going negative” in GOP primaries.

The other thing I love about Hill’s response is that he wants us to believe, to presume, that he was cheating on a young wife with very young children by saying because, in his own words, he “had a difficult marriage.”  This is an attempt to confuse the chicken and the egg.  Hill probably had a difficult marriage because he was was cheating on his wife with a hot young cocktail waitress.

Hill should just admit that he did it, explain that it was many years ago, and then move on.  Instead, he’s now blaming others, and blaming “politics”.  He should have let the whole issue remain in the blogosphere and just ignored it.