Who Is Brian Smoot?
By Erick Posted in 2006 — Comments (15) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Let's follow this chain of events, which may be coincidental and may not be coincidental.
In August of 2004, Rodney Alexander's Chief of Staff, Brian Smoot, and five other staffers abruptly quit because Alexander switched to the GOP. National Journal reported on August 13, 2004, that the Chief of Staff "sharply criticized Alexander for switching parties." The Chief of Staff and five staffers were promptly hired by minority leader Nancy Pelosi.
In November 2005, Alexander is notified by a couple in his district that the couple's son had gotten emails from Mark Foley that were not really kosher.
In October of 2006, we find that Alexander's former Chief of Staff is now running the congressional campaign of Ron Klein in Florida's 22nd Congressional District against Republican Representative Clay Shaw -- a district that shares a major media market with Mark Foley's district.
Read on . . .
From today's Congress Daily:
Smoot is currently working as campaign manager for Democrat Ron Klein's bid to unseat GOP Rep. Clay Shaw in Florida's 22nd District. Shaw's district neighbors Foley's former 16th District. . . . When contacted, Smoot said while there is no love lost between Alexander and himself, he never worked for Pelosi and he only learned about the Foley matter from media reports. "I would be the last person to have any idea of what is going on in Alexander's office," said Smoot. "I had no idea about e-mails or ideas about this page and am absolutely not involved in this situation whatsoever. I also never worked for Pelosi nor have I ever worked for the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] or Democratic Party."
Admittedly, there is a year's gap between Smoot leaving Alexander's employment and this happening. But this whole chain of events is certainly coincidental. And why deny working for Nancy Pelosi when it was widely reported in Roll Call and the New Orleans Times Picayune in August of 2004?
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Who Is Brian Smoot? 15 Comments (0 topical, 15 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life.-Ronald Reagan
You see, this is why I'm convinced that we're actually accommodating some sort of weird fetish*; even when you give 'em a chance they decline it.
Bye-bye: hope it was everything and a bag of chips for you.
Moe
The Fuzzy Puppy of the VRWC.
*And if it wasn't true before it is now, thanks to Quantum Fetish Mechanics.
Thank you very much for that link. I now have a new term for my vocabulary.
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Internet member since 1987
Member of the Surreality-Based Community
The same way the Union Soldiers were unified as the Confederate soldiers approached their positions on Missionary Ridge.
. . . on August 13, 2004, Smoot signed up with Ginny Schrader's congressional campaign. This was picked up by the press on August 17.
The faux outrage just goes on and on and on. (Not this post, just generally.) Creepy guy hits on kids he has responsibility over. It's not the end of the world, and I dare say it's happened before.
Not a conspiracy, not a cover-up. Icky experience. Wow.
Sorry, but this is quite a reach. Especially now, I don't think this helps at all.
First, we have a supposed upstanding Republican that turns out to be a total sleaze, doing things that most normal people like myself think are completely out-of-bounds and quite frankly, scary for parents of young adults.
But, we also have all of this coming out, just in time for an "October Surprise" once again, and it is immediately being tied to the Republican leadership. This stinks.
We on the right-side of the political spectrum demand a bit more of our people in office, and when confronted with damning evidence of their malfeasance, they leave as they should. Where is William Jefferson's resignation? And where is the Democratic leadership demanding that he leave?
It has gotten so bad that Ms. Pelosi cannot even keep her cool when the President simply quotes her at a campaign rally (not even by name – although it was kinda nice to see her lose her cool on TV today).
In short, the politics of personal destruction, so named by the master of those tactics, seems to be alive and well these days on the left. They got Delay to leave as well he should – they got Foley to leave as well that slime-ball should. But now, they want to tar it onto the leadership as well.
The good news is, for the last six years, the American people have not been fooled by these tactics. Let us hope that in five weeks, they are not again. You may be like me, unhappy with the deficit spending ways of the current crop of Republicans, but just imagine the horror that we will face, not only on National Security issues, but all across our society if the current crop of liberal Democrats retake the Congress.
I glad we finally have a a democrat source, but is this whole thing really a problem. Buggery is not illegal in DC (thanks to the dems), so why did Foley have to resign.
There are plenty of gay members of the republican party. As long as the sex, or offer, was legal whats the problem?
How can we cal the Dems "cut and run", when at the first sign of a difficult situation we cut and run.
Ask Pelosi how many of her staff had sex with a 16 year old of the same sex.
Same thing with Murtha et al
If there is no answer or obfuscation, we have all the ammunition we need.
but I am pretty certain that the parents of various Pages sending their kids to Washington weren't doing so to have them hook up sexually with congress members.
Foley was wrong ethically and morally if not legally (although it does appear he may at the least be liable for the IM and email contacts under a law he sponsored).
The man should have to go. I don't want him in congress. I don't want him anywhere near congressional Pages.
I think there may be some legitimate questions about who knew what and when, but passing Foley's behavior off as something okay is wrong.
Who cares? Foley got it on with teenage boys over the internet, and he found them through the page program. The Republican leadership of the House knew it, but they preferred to keep it quiet, probably because they feared losing his seat in an open race (and having to spend money there). The motives of whoever made it public just don't matter.
The hypocrisy of some of you in the "party of personal responsibility" is astounding.
To their credit, many Republicans have insisted that Foley and the leadership be held responsible. I don't blame all Republicans for finger-pointers like Erick. Scandals like this allow you to separate the straight shooters from the posers.
Show some evidence for your second sentence, or retract your LIES and begone to the filthy swamp you came from.
(Note: I'm just a reader here. I can't blam you. That's why I get to just let it fly instead of being kinder and gentler like the blammers have to be.)
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If you're seeing shades of gray, it's because you're not looking close enough to see the black and white dots.
First of all, no Republicans have defended Foley and by investigating how this info came out and how long people knew about it does not imply consent for his actions. You really can't figure out why it matters? That's weird. Since you are so outraged by Foley's behavior, one would think you might be equally outraged by the fact that someone may have known about this for sometime and failed to report it to the proper authorities. I'm sure that you just overlooked that, however, and are starting to agree with this point--Because we all know that you Democrats are known for your intelectual and moral integrity. Come to think of it-I'm sure you and your cronies will soon be calling for the resignation of all congressional Democrats who were members of the House back in the 80's who so staunchly defended-no, fought-for Rep. Studds (D-MA) to keep his seat for actually acting on his perverse urges.
I have to admit, it took me a long time to figure out just what is being alleged (theorized?) in this post; this is the third time i have come back to this thread to figure out what is being asserted.
The theory is that Smoot is the source of emails? Presumably the couple, disgusted with inaction on the part of Alexander, turned the emails over to Smoot (now working in race in adjacent district) who then held them until he could achieve maximum effect.
Why not just say so?
The theory tells a good story -- some evidence would be better.
I hope there is more to the story because we need one person to focus all of our anger on. If we don't have an enemy, a bona fide liberal power player, then how can we stay unified?