E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSA major conservative advocacy group, funded by Koch family oil interests, says it is reviewing its "financial dealings" with a Wisconsin charity headed by Herman Cain's campaign manager, raising fresh questions about the source of tens of thousands of dollars in funds that were used to pay expenses for Cain's presidential campaign.
The Center for Public Integrity reported late Thursday that Americans for Prosperity, one of the largest and most prominent of conservative political groups, has confirmed unspecified financial transactions with two closely linked Wisconsin non-profits -- Prosperity USA and Wisconsin Prosperity Network -- that were founded by Mark Block, Cain's campaign manager.
One of those groups, Prosperity USA, paid for $37,000 in expenses, including iPads, charter flights and items, for Cain's presidential campaign, according to financial documents disclosed this week by the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.
Non-profits are barred by law from paying for campaign expenses, and when the allegations first surfaced this week -- at the same time as the sexual harassment charges against the presidential candidate -- Cain said he would order an investigation of whether there were improper campaign violations.
Cain's campaign lawyer, Steve Bienek, declined to answer questions from NBC about the transactions between the Wisconsin charities headed by Block and the campaign, saying only that the campaign has retained an outside law firm to review them.
"We take these allegations very seriously," he said.
But the Center for Public Integrity report by Peter Stone raises additional questions as to whether Americans for Prosperity (AFP) funds were used by Block to pay Cain campaign expenses. AFP had "financial dealings with Prosperity USA and/or the Wisconsin Prosperity Network," Levi Russell, the spokesman for AFT is quoted as saying.
(Russell confirmed the transactions to NBC News, but declined to elaborate, and added that the group had no reason to believe there was any wrongdoing on its part.)
Some of those transactions are hinted at in the documents released by the Journal-Sentinel: They show a $5,000 expense in February 2011 for Cain to attend a meeting of a group called RightNation "at request of AFP" and that Block made a trip to Washington to meet with AFP's president Tim Phillips and David Koch."
Koch and his oil industry brother Charles Koch were the founders of Americans for Prosperity, but the group -- like most non-profits -- declines to identify its donors. The group is having a major conference in Washington starting Friday at which Cain and other presidential candidates are scheduled to speak.
Leave a Comment:
I mean I really LOVE ya babay. Lets meet at motel 6
The screwee screws the screwer. The T.V. soap loving Republicans just love this stuff!
Hey LetsBeSmart,
Let's see...the liberal media ( especially Msnbc) "reports" some 50 articles per day about Cain, often ignoring the REAL news, and you are accusing Repubs of loving TV soaps??
I think you need to change your name. LOL
LEONA- LOL. You righties can whine so much about that mean ole "liberal" media that it really makes me laugh. Your media bias fantasies have been repeatedly discredited by independent studies, and by anyone with common sense. You can always tune into Rupert Murdoch's 24/7 right wing propaganda network to be happy. Are you old enough to remember the Clinton/Lewinsky affair? We were treated to a steady diet of the sleazy details- stained dresses, cigars, descriptions of oral sex, ad nauseum. The media loves a sex or money scandal, and will crucify anyone, right or left, who is involved in one. Hermie has now given us both. So stop your whining and get over it. It's called journalistic sensationalism.
Koch and Cain ,greedy and insane!
Just draw a political cartoon with the Koch Bros holding the puppet strings and Cain dancing around to their tactics.
In a way I feel sorry for Cain, he is being used, he is letting someone control his beliefs, rights and his heritage thinking this will be useful to him in the long run, he does not yet realize that when the Koch Bros does no longer need him he will be discarded and ruined and the Koch Bros will once again have gotten what they want. Control and more power!
Koch Bros along with Wall Street, the big banks and most of the top 1% are anti-democracy.
I heard on "Up With Chris" this morning that Greece is afraid to do anything they want, to like get out of the Eurozone or do what they know would be right and just for their country and people because they are afraid of the banks & top 1% of whom is against democracy. So what does this say for the rest of us?
In the past 30-40 years the top 1% has gained control of everything in the world & this is the resort of it. They are literally destroying every government across the world. They are placing people in the governments that will do everything their way. They have convinced the majority of the world's population that it is the governments that were wrong, bad, and inapt and in return this is what we ended up with.
The top 1% is the puppeteers, the governments are the puppets and the 99% are here to be used as they see fit.
Greece prime minister may step aside; this is just one of many that will be forced out because they dared to oppose Wall Street, the big Banks and the top 1%.
the 1% are backed fully by?
the republicans see that cain was on a book signing spree insted of running for presideent and took all their money , now they want to try to make him look bad lol lol they were took down by a pizza owner lol lol
More corruption by herman cain ?? Now we have those tax evaders NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS tied in to the cain campaign!!! What next ? He's making the Mafia look like a shining star ! If I was on the republican's election commitee I'd get rid of him IMMEDIATELY, IF NOT SOONER! They only let him in there to STEAL President Obama's black votes. IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK ! Political greed is rampant through out the Republican Party and unfortunately for me, I'm a registered Republican voter. I have no other recourse but to defend President Obama and the Democratic Party. It's a disgrace to have such a political mess. If we could only get rid of ALL LOBBYISTS and give the country back to The American People ! All we want is equality, not greed, but equality. 8% Federal Income Tax for all corporations, businesses, NON-PROFIT ORGANOZATIONS/FOUNDATIONS and any possible loopholes for tax evaders. 8% Federal Income Tax for all working individuals. THAT'S ASKING VERY LITTLE FOR "The American People". We'll control our states while the Federal Gov't. spends ALL their time policing their own and taking care of Social Security and The American People who are retired and have worked their entire lives for the corporations & businesses. THE TIME FOR CHANGE IS NOW, NOT LATER, BUT RIGHT NOW !!!!
Hmmm...it may have been that Herman was outperforming the wildest expectations of his "handlers," and they decided it was time to pull the plug. Would not surprise me if they discovered the "tip" to Politico was by Mark Block.
I wonder if the Tea Partiers really know the involvement of the Kochs in the birth of their movement. I don't see many owning up to it. Now let's see, just what would someone like the Kochs be doing to help the plight of the common man?
It does not do any good to be fearful of Cain, the Kocks, Rove, Soros, Obama, Romney, the Kocks, Norquist, Rove, Bush, the Kocks when you have the individual voter to be fearful of! Jerrymander, that is the answer! Brainwashing that is the answer!
Nice upright friends this man associates himself with huh?
I worked for Koch Knight in East Canton for ten months and they do have the same mentality of Iran. They are invasive of your privacy. Not all of the employees follow you around gathering information on your browsing habits and freedom of choice to tell you that you cannot do or say something because it goes against what the company wants you to believe.
The Koch Brothers are an ultra-right wing political group that will coerce you into giving up your freedom of choice if you go against them by using many laws most of which are backwards to bend your will to their liking without freedom of choice being present. Basically they make you feel scared of being who you are and what you believe in personally because they are scared theirself of voicing their opinion for fear of being fired.
I even had one employee follow me from the Koch Knight factor that I was working at after I had dropped off some safety ideas that I had been working on one night. He followed me to the local gas station and asked me "What was I doing in Canton at this time of night." implying that my temporary employee status did not allow me to do as I chose to do and that he was some type of super security agent thwarting the bad guy. Needless to say that I was fired from Koch Knight after a female employee had put her hands on me in a sexually suggestive manner, I filed a complaint with Koch Knight and the temporary agency, of which the females side was taken where everyones response to her touching was merely that she was a compassionate person.
If she would have been a he and I a she the table would have been turned and she would have been fired. But since I was supposed to have enjoyed her unwelcome sexual advances, of which I did not, I was fired for being professional and knowing what the difference in a professional gesture and an unwanted sexual advance is.
Herman Cain and the Koch brothers are plotting against the ordinary citizens.They've formed an alliance against the american people.
Can someone explain the "Kochs other brother from a different mother" statement. Watching this man on t.v., who could even consider this man seriously. The rest of the world must be laughing at the spectacle they see in this Republican primary.
Sadly the TPers worship the Koch Bros. and Cain is trying to be one of them by stating that they are identical. The only difference is their color. The TPers love it. This is how insane the right has become. This is a very frightening time for our country and it's working class citizens.
Very strange blog....what is the message here? It's difficult to follow so many non related discussions.
Yeah and George Soros has his fingerprints all over Obama election.
You can say that both parties are corrupt, but that's like saying a firecracker and an A-bomb are both explosives. Yes, there are corrupted Democrats, but the Republican Party doesn't even try to hide the fact that they want this, they love this, this is their bread and butter meat and potatos. I get real tired of people saying "both parties are corrupt" when one party is about a hundred times more corrupt, and doesn't care who knows it.
Here's some "bread and butter" for ya...It doesn't get anymore corrupt than this...
President Clinton signed the US China Relations Act of 2000. Rather than ushering in a new era, granting China permanent normal trade status simply ratifies the status quo. China will continue to profit from their exports without the yearly review of embarrassing issues like trade, human rights, or nuclear weapons proliferation. During the Rose Garden signing ceremony Clinton remarked, "In case you all have forgotten, this thing was hard to pass. This was a lot of trouble."
Clinton's trouble with China began before his re-election in 1996. To defeat the Republicans, the Democratic party needed a quick infusion of cash to pay for campaign ads. Clinton turned to his Chinese connection, old friends Johnny Chung, John Huang, and Charlie Trie. They headed a shadowy cast of characters that funneled millions of dollars into democratic campaign coffers.
Bill Clinton took contributions he knew came from China, and played another angle as well. US companies wanted to sell China military technology, but the sales were prohibited by law. Economic sanctions for the Tiananmen square massacre and restrictions on technology exports prevented these companies from selling China the armaments they wanted.
In return for campaign contributions, the President shifted regulation of technology exports from the State Department to the free-wheeling Commerce department. The administration also relaxed export controls and allowed corporations to decide if their technology transfers were legal or not. When easing restrictions wasn't enough, Clinton signed waivers that simply circumvented the law. The President's waivers allowed the export of machine tools, defense electronics, and even a communications system for the Chinese Air Force.
Tough to beat this one.....
"Sue-prise, sue-prise." NOT!
I too remember the story and NBC, CNN and the other mainstream 6:30 newscasts did not hound dog it like they're doing the Koch Brothers. It was around a couple days and then it was gone, unlike the Koch's who are pounded daily. NBC wouldn't DARE investigate Soros like this. Creeps.
Enjoy the carnage. The very harshest vile things you can imagine will be done and said during the Republican primates. John McCain was accused of being a collaborator during the last cycle. You will never see anything that vile after they finally decide who will be top dog.