MSNBC just announced Tony Snowjob will be hitting

[babylonsister]

the campaign trail to raise money for the GOP. Is that his job?
I guess he won't be available for press briefings. How convenient!

But no news is good news, right?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. So far as I knew, that's illegal.

I know Congressional Staffers are not allowed to do any campaign work while on the payroll of their office. I would certainly think the same would apply to the executive branch as well.

[graywarrior]

2. What's stopped them from doing anything illegal before?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

5. Absolutely nothing.

[ChiciB1]

13. Hey There.... Don't Know If You've Kept Up With What Is Going

on down here, but I'm sure you know Christine Jennings won and so did Mr. car-salesman Vern Buchanan.

But the real news is that right at this moment in time, she's 8 points ahead of him. I've been working down at the Venice Hdqrs. and we have had quite a few Repukes (maybe should be nice to this group) come in and say they are voting Democratic. THIS IS A FIRST for me!!! I actually worked with a woman yesterday who changed parties and is now working with us to elect her and Democratic candidates in this District!!!

He has a LOT of money and just bought about $450,000 worth of ads and we been having fund raisers for the candidates. If she wins, and I was ALL Jan Schneider, but if she wins I think I'll be in SHOCK. I have NEVER seen a Democrat from this District myself that I can recall. Someone might be able to correct me or I could do some research, but I do believe this would be a first. I just don't have the time right now to do the research and I keep forgetting to ASK about it at meetings!

Just thought I would let you know. Jennings did win by a big margin, but there was a mass exodus because of some comments Jan had made, PLUS.... and this is a true comment by many.... they felt Jennings was more appealing aesthetically!! IMO not my way to chose a candidate, but then this is the "American Idol" Era! Kind of ridiculous, but unfortunately it SELLS! Many will even admit that Jan was more capable, but THEY want to win!! So I'm now hard at work trying to make this thing happen!

And hey, guess what NO HURRICANES so far! I didn't just say that, and you didn't just hear me say that!! Heh, Heh!

[graywarrior]

15. Hey! Jan's problem was her last two runs were losses.

Jennings has the bucks. Jennings was a republican at one point in her life. Word I heard around town is that Buchanan can't speak in paragraphs and Jennings can shred him in a debate. Buchanan also pissed off a lot of republicans I know in Sarasota buy offending them with small stuff...like not appearing at functions, not responding to invitations, etc. As long as they don't fuck with the vote again, Jennings will probably pull it off. Can't stand her, but hope she wins.

[ChiciB1]

16. I Feel The Same Way!!

Buchanan does have lots of money though!

[graywarrior]

18. Yep, and money talks....better than he does.

[katinmn]

3. Yet Rove, who was replaced, is allowed to act as RNC spinmaster

and send out R-W lie after lie from his WH office, which we pay for.

No one in the media has ever questioned this to my knowledge.

[The Deacon]

7. There Are Two Classes Of Staff In Government:

One is what you might call professional or 'National' - they have to do with the actual running of Govenmental functions & are banned from participating in electorial politics while on the payroll. I would have thought the Press Secretary fell into this class.
The other class are the 'personal staff' who fall into the political class - most of them live in the Executive Branch doing made-up jobs (Domestic Policy Advisor, etc) who's names vary from admin to admin. They ARE allowed to participate in partisan politics. Karl Rove is a member of this class.

Both kinds are paid out of YOUR nickel.

[mcscajun]

8. They have ways around that. He goes off the WH payroll for the

time he's out campaigning, and onto the RNC's.

Snow said taxpayers will not pay for any of his travel — the bill is being footed by the Republican National Committee. He said fundraising is "fairly unusual ground" for a sitting press secretary, and he won't hesitate to cancel a political appearance if he's needed at the White House.

"If there's a conflict between that and my day job, then the day job wins," he said.

Politicians of all stripes LOVE their technicalities.

[katinmn]

9. And no ones sees any conflict of interest with this?

Holy f***! He's a paid RNC hack who doubles as the top spokesperson for the president. Their decisions impact our lives on a daily basis.

It's well past time we have a parallel government that operates ethically and with transparency and those hoodlums who say they are "governing" can rule the right-wing idiots who want to be told when to breath and when to poop. They can set their capitol up at Junior's pig farm.

[mcscajun]

11. "my day job"

Is the part that burns me.

Your DAY Job? When we hire politicians, we expect their services 24/7, and they know that. Any member of the administration on the public payroll is OUR employee, not a person holding a "day job".

Ugh.

[ccpup]

4. My first thought was

that if they're willing to send out -- and risk cries of illegality and inappropriateness -- the "star power" of a faded FOX newsman to scrounge up a few dollars, then their Internal Polling for the GOP's chances of holding the House and Senate must be looking pretty damn bleak.

[LTR]

6. Here's a link to the AP story

On a thread from last night:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2222767

[lpbk2713]

10. He's a minor celeb (very minor) with his mug on the tube so often.

They probably think that might be a draw for them.

[calimary]

12. Well, maybe it'll draw some wistful Pox "news" fans who miss seeing

him sound off on the air the way he used to.

[gratuitous]

14. Write your own political ad

TV reporter approaches the White House, being filmed by his cameraman. He goes to the gate, presses the button. He identifies himself as a reporter, and would like the White House reaction to some bit of late-breaking corruption. The voice on the other end says, "Sorry, but the press secretary isn't available right now. He's out campaigning for Republican candidates." Gee, says the reporter, I really need to find out how the White House feels about the new revelations of its corruption. After establishing that the reporter isn't from Fox and isn't Tim Russert, the voice says that everybody is either too important (Cheney) or too busy (Rove) to talk to them right now. The reporter keeps going down the list of people who might speak to him, and the voice, now exasperated, says, "All right, there's one guy you can talk to." Out toddles Dubya, and with that sociopathic smirk asks, "Can I he'p you?"

[bigtree]

17. better than from the WH as he's been doing