Phony integrity for the win
by digby
God, politics is just insufferable right now:
Robert Mercer, the GOP mega-donor and co-founder of Renaissance Technologies hedge fund who once backed Texas Senator Ted Cruz, is launching a super-PAC with a novel twist to get establishment-minded donors off the sidelines. The new project will informally be dubbed the “Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC” and, despite its Trumpian name, will focus solely on attacking Clinton, not boosting Trump. The idea is that conservative donors reluctant to support Trump can still donate in good conscience to a super-PAC that only attacks Clinton. “It’s a way to participate without [directly] supporting Trump,” says a source involved in the super-PAC’s creation.
Mercer’s new anti-Hillary vehicle is actually a refurbished version of Keep the Promise PAC, a pro-Cruz super-PAC that Mercer and his daughter Rebekah poured $13.5 million into during the primaries. Kellyanne Conway, the Republican pollster who is president of Keep the Promise PAC, may leave to join the Trump campaign.
David Bossie, president of the conservative advocacy group Citizens United, will take over as the head of Defeat Crooked Hillary. “This is an opportunity to really refocus the presidential debate around Hillary Clinton and her character, and the whole culture of corruption that’s surrounded the Clintons for decades,” says Bossie.
Conway said that she recruited Bossie for his role at the super-PAC, but hasn't decided what she'll be doing next.
"Very few people have studied Hillary Clinton longer or stronger than Dave Bossie, and I support him in this role as I decide where I can be most helpful in defeating Hillary Clinton," she said.
Bossie says that the name Defeat Crooked Hillary PAC won't actually appear in Federal Election Commission filings. “Technically, the name of the super-PAC is going to be ‘Make America Number One,’” Bossie says. “If we call it ‘Defeat Crooked Hillary,’ it’s an FEC violation. You have to do these things because of the way federal election law works.”
Bossie would know. It was his 2007 anti-Clinton film "Hillary: The Movie" that was the basis of the 2010 Supreme Court case, Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission. The court ruled 5-4 in Bossie’s favor, opening the floodgates for more private money in politics.
However, many of the Republican donors who took advantage of the court’s ruling have refused to support Trump. The Mercers hope that Defeat Crooked Hillary will open a pathway for them to do so, at least indirectly.
If you are able to look at yourself in the mirror and feel as if your are morally unsullied because you didn't directly donate to Trump but you did help him get elected by giving that soulless hack David Bossie money to trash Clinton then good luck to you. You're not fooling anyone but yourself.
Hey, if you hate Clinton so much that you're willing to throw away money on scam artists like Bossie and Conway, people with fewer principles than a single cell organism, then just own the fact that you are willing to elect a fascist demagogue. Give the money directly to Trump. He needs it. Don't try to evade your personal responsibility for what you are doing. He's your guy.
Honestly, I have far more respect for the rank and file Trump voter cheering madly at his bigotry at those rallies than I have for these cowards.
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