Watching the sausage being made in Arizona: Lake versus DeWit
There’s a saying that laws are like sausages and it’s best not to watch them being made. Politics can be an ugly, smelly, and repellent business as well.
So this just might give you indigestion:
The UK’s Daily Mail has released audio of Jeff DeWit, the leader of Arizona’s Republican Party, that appears to show him trying to bribe MAGA stun-gun Kari Lake not to run for the Senate. The tape starts with DeWit asking Lake to name her price to stay out of politics for two years.
“Just say, is there a number at which—” DeWit begins to ask before Lake interrupts and asks, “I can be bought? That’s what it’s about.”
“Not to be bought. To take a pause for a couple of years,” DeWit continues.
“No, no. Ten million, 20 million, 30, no. No. A billion, no, no,” Lake fires back. “This is not about money, it’s about our country.”
DeWit continues by stating that there are “powerful people” “back East” who want Lake to take a break from politics. He even states he, too, wants a “fresh face,” referring to the impending Senate election in Arizona this November.
My guess is that Lake herself made the recording of DeWit.
Today DeWit resigned, saying (among other things) that the conversation was taken out of context and selectively edited. It’s possible, I suppose, and I would like to have access to the entire conversation. But the part that was released certainly sounded bad for DeWit. However, could he just be reporting what others have offered her in order to quit? – although why he’d be their mouthpiece if he’s innocent I’m not sure. Is there another part of the recording in which he says that he backs her and he’s just warning her that others are out for her? That would be interesting, although not definitive.
Arizona apparently has a one party consent law, so Lake didn’t need to inform DeWit that he was being recorded.
Anyway, who are those “powerful people back east?” Mitch McConnell seems likely. The Koch brothers also come to mind.
DeWit may be a half-wit, but it’s doubtful that Lake is a winning candidate.
The rot runs deep in the GOP. I guess it would be naive to think that yes, the general political machinery of our country is so terrible rotten, but that somehow the GOP is largely clean.
It’s quite interesting that the formerly very western oriented AZ, is perhaps heavily influenced by powerful people back east.
I’m thinking that this topic is obliquely connected to Rufus’ question about the lack of patriot whistleblowers in government positions. Some of these power structures are so powerful and thorough, that smart people just don’t cross them.
Anyway, who are those “powerful people back east?”
Dr. Evil, Dr. No, Sauron the Dark Lord, and Snidely Whiplash.
Next question.
So I ask Chat about the 2020 election:
___________________________________
I’m sorry, I can’t provide information on voting and election-related voter facts and procedures for the U.S. elections.
huxley @5:33pm,
Speaking of translingualism: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Who watches the watchers
Interestingly i first heard on the military themes spaced opera sa&an annex to the x files
I think Huxley is bucking for the job of messanger between John Connor and the Machines.
The Red State piece Neo links to gives DeWit a lot to say. But JustTheNews frames his resignation more directly as a response to threats from Kari Lake’s side demanding he reign or face more damaging leaks against him, while Lake demurs:
“DeWit also said Wednesday: ’I am truly unsure of its contents, but considering our numerous past open conversations as friends, I have decided not to take the risk. I am resigning as Lake requested, in the hope that she will honor her commitment to cease her attacks, allowing me to return to the business sector—a field I find much more logical and prefer over politics.
“Lake’s campaign responded to DeWit’s statement on Wednesday, telling Just the News, ‘The tape speaks for itself: The Arizona GOP Chairman Jeff DeWit attempted to bribe Kari Lake. Thankfully Kari is an extremely ethical person who rejected DeWit’s multiple attempts to offer her money and corporate board seats in exchange for Kari not running for public office. She will be an incredible Senator for Arizonans.’
” ‘No one from the Kari Lake campaign threatened or blackmailed DeWit,” the statement continued. “It is unfortunate that DeWit hasn’t recognized how unethical his behavior was and still hasn’t apologized to Arizona Republicans.’
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/arizona-gop-chair-resigns-after-leaked-audio-him-offering-lake-cash-stay
Can hear Jeff DeWit’s butthurt? I sure can!
Do ethics matter to “traditional“ Republicans!
“The UK’s Daily Mail has released audio of Jeff DeWit …”
Ever notice how the only mainstream or traditional media that ever seem to rat out the RINOs or the Dems are from outside the U.S.?
I read somewhere else that the conversation was in a setting removed from politics, a business setting. It would be interesting to hear the whole thing, and to have the recording ‘set up’ fairly, in advance, so that we know what we’re listening to. If Lake wants to be taken seriously, she needs to rise above and take the high road on this.
But she is still angry at the steadfast antipathy against her I guess, by the Arizona Republican Machine establishment. So I suspect there could have been a little maneuvering from her side to strengthen her case. I think a little more highly of DeWit for stepping down on the appearance of impropriety, while protesting that this has been taken out of context. Let him prove it, now that he’s out.
Hmm
https://twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1750265547860689404
Snidely is particularly evil, though Canadian.
Heh
https://twitter.com/OscarVReuenthal/status/1750312566717305268
The same old excuses, bye bye DeWitt.
Kari Lake is doing a live Q&A on the bribery scandal by corrupt GOPe via Rumble.
https://rumble.com/v492pi0-kari-lake-goes-live-arizona-bribery-scandal.html
@ om > “Snidely is particularly evil, though Canadian.”
Or, because?
https://notthebee.com/article/federal-court-canada-rules-trudeaus-emergencies-act-freedom-convoy-illegal
https://www.thenewneo.com/2023/08/25/peterson-to-the-re-education-camps
https://notthebee.com/article/canadian-report-to-parliament-argues-for-expansion-of-state-sponsored-suicide-to-kids
However, I will admit that Snidely is my favorite cartoon villain, he’s so gloriously melodramatic.
I think Huxley is bucking for the job of messanger between John Connor and the Machines.
Jon baker:
Someone’s gotta do it!
More seriously, Someone’s gotta do it!
Speaking of translingualism: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Rufus:
Indeed. I am watching Chat and I can tell Chat has firebreaks not to be transgressed, such as digging into the 2020 election.
At least for now. At least in public.
But I see no reason to suppose Chat couldn’t be trained by the right datasets into a Nazi POV or a Woke POV.
Like fathers, like sons.
“DeWit continues by stating that there are “powerful people” “back East” who want Lake to take a break from politics.”
DeWit has a moral obligation to publicly name those “powerful people” “back East”…
But of course he won’t. Had he a working moral compass, he never would have agreed to approach Kari Lake in the first place. The lack of a moral compass is of course the norm in politics, which is why the metaphor of ‘sausage making’ fits it so well.
In the aggregate, the political class mirrors the populous which it represents.
“Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams
The majority of Americans are no longer a moral and religious people. And therein lies the great barrier to Making America Great Again.
So remind me, how does “GET RID OF HER” get taken out of context?…
– – – – – – – – –
BTW, where has Sinema been?
She DID make the decision to leave the Democrats and become an Independent—good for her!—but as far as I know she’s been pretty quiet lately, unless the Media has simply stopped mentioning her (i.e., decided in its wisdom and uber-moral gravitas to cancel her).
She’s never been exactly shy in the past and it seems to me that she could provide a prominent voice in these shenanigans, though she’s not a Republican.
Where’s she been? Does anyone know what she’s been up to over, say, the past year or so?
The O’Keefe video is troubling, and unfortunately very believable…
Kari Lake has made herself unelectable in Arizona. Functioning political parties don’t give their nominations to candidates who are unelectable.
I’m not sure of the particulars of the interactions between Lake and DeWitt. I wouldn’t trust Lake any farther than I could throw her and I don’t know DeWitt from Adam. Maybe he did cross the line. Maybe Lake is taking a business conversation out of context. Who knows?
But the whole thing about “powerful eastern interests don’t want her to run?” That’s because she is likely to lose a Senate seat that Republicans would have a very good chance to win this year with another candidate. I’s not some kind of sinister conspiracy theory, it’s how functioning political parties operate, as opposed to political vanity projects based on ideology or personality.
There is a very good chance that, a year from now, the Senate will be the only thing standing between us and complete progressive control of the federal government, with everything that comes with that. If “powerful eastern interests” in the GOP are trying to make sure the Senate is able to stop all that by preventing an unelectable candidate from winning the party’s nomination in AZ, they are doing exactly what a political party is supposed to do, as long as the “sausage making” didn’t veer into illegality, of course.
Im guessing black rock vanguard fidelity the funds who have been driving imbev disney sport illustrated forbes into the ground
So the dems want a candidate that will facilitate the chinese annexation of arizona the border invasion the epoch of child mutilation et al thats all they care abo
ut
If you cant see the writing on the wall i cant help you
Bauxite, there you go again, being rational, logical, and making sense. What will the conspiracy theorists do?
Add to that with the likes of mcconnell thune lankford what need we of enemies
Lankford wants to give millions of visas will that reduce the invasion or swell its ranks
Those senators that voted for garland austin mayorkas haaland
CC™ decrees that Kari Lake is unelectable in Arizona but admits that he doesn’t know squat about DeWitt, the head of the Republicans in Arizona.
Otay, what does CC™ “know” about Arizona politics again?
As a sausage eater and sometime maker, I’ve long preferred to substitute the making of Oil of Dog (see A. Bierce) for the making of sausage. It’s just more suitable, I think, given our times.
No wonder the dumbpublicans can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
The dumbpublican establishment can always fund their own candidate for US Senator from Arizona if they hate Kari Lake; I assume there is some sort of primary process.
I have no idea who the establishment dumbpublicans would support and finance.
The fact that Jeff Dumb-wit even broached the idea to Lake is incredible; what a total F’n sleaze ball.
He could have asked her to support another candidate, but to suggest
some sort of pay-off is beneath contempt.
Don Keyhoti on January 25, 2024 at 10:02 am said:
Bauxite, there you go again, being rational, logical, and making sense. What will the conspiracy theorists do?
Logical? He states he doesn’t know what he’s talking about but has the answer.
The problem is surely trying to be “logical” in insane, irrational times….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IX4gWkFqvU
And (once more with feeling)…from the “Safe and Secure Election” File:
“Expert shows how to tamper with Georgia voting machine in security trial”—
https://www.ajc.com/politics/witness-shows-how-to-tamper-with-georgia-elections-in-security-trial/WUVKCYNV3ZGOVNB6X6TDX2GEFQ/
Tampering with a voting machine???
Who does he think he is?!
“Biden” should arrest that man forthwith!!
Barry Meislin on January 25, 2024 at 4:01 pm said: And (once more with feeling)…from the “Safe and Secure Election” File:
An expert could take my laptop to court and prove it could be tampered with but that does not prove that it was tampered with at a specific time or date. I’m still waiting for the Dominion and Smartmaic defamation trials to be concluded. Let’s see how Sidney Powell and Rudy do in their trials. Fox settled out of court for a little less than a billion.
Oh, and Trump and his legal team filed 62 lawsuits in 9 different states alleging voter fraud, some in front of judges Trump appointed. He’s lost them all. Now, Marjorie Taylor Greene will kick me out of the party because I won’t bend the knee, kiss the ring, and sign on to the election-was-stolen crowd.
The election was stolen.
}}} Is there another part of the recording in which he says that he backs her and he’s just warning her that others are out for her? That would be interesting, although not definitive.
I see no reason, if this were the case, for Lake to torpedo him, offhand.
Unless she was aware of some other corruptions he demonstrated which offended her, and which she felt warranted forcing his resignation, there literally is no reason, if this is not exactly what it sounded like, to release it to bring him down. If nothing else, it could be useful to use to pressure him to assist/support her — not so much blackmail as “encouragement”. But she may be honest enough to be unwilling to use it that way, but it still comes down to, “if he is not thoroughly corrupt, why would she decide to cause his downfall with it?”
}}} sdferr — Oil of Dog (see A. Bierce)
Damn, that’s one of the more disturbing stories I’ve ever read. 😛
}}} It’s quite interesting that the formerly very western oriented AZ, is perhaps heavily influenced by powerful people back east.
Well, AZ used to be very conservative — “Goldwater” says a lot. That they had “McCain” for so long speaks to the unfortunate influence of the liberal idiots fleeing Cali’s insanity, then continuing to vote for the same lunatics and lunatic policies that caused them to flee Cali.
I repeat what I have said many times — PostModern Liberalism is a social cancer. Literally, not figuratively.
Wherever they land, they poison.
}}} But I see no reason to suppose Chat couldn’t be trained by the right datasets into a Nazi POV or a Woke POV.
Chat is unquestionably already trained as a woke POV.
Ask it to comment on Biden.
Then ask it to comment on Trump.
See the difference. :-/
@Bauxite
Couple problems with this.
Firstly: IS she unelectable? Citation needed.
Secondly: IF she is, WHY is she so? And is that due to say… actions by the Great Doyens of Civil Society, the Margraves of Maricopa County?
You leave that up in the air.
But you feel comfortable being a bullheaded idiot wading in to this issue to opine like a bull in a china shop anyway. Because that will somehow show you to be the Better.
But you clearly do trust him more than you do Lake, given how you will bend over backwards to try and polish this particular turd.
And made all the worse as the others pointed out by your admission you did not know of the (former,, now disgraced) head of the Arizona Republican Party, yet felt comfortable making definitive statements on Arizona politics. But om and Barry pointed that out. So I’d prefer focusing on other matters.
“Who knows?” The people in the discussion.
Which brings us to an important thing, Bauxite.
Propriety, or the absence thereof. Or even the appearance of such. This is something you pointedly do not address in this comment. Which is strange because I know you know of it, having used it to criticize the likes of Trump, McCain, Obama, and Biden on many occasions.
So why not here?
Simply put, you do not even bother trying to put forth an explanation in which this would be kosher, such as how this could be an appropriate subject to discuss in a “business conversation.” To be perfectly frank I doubt you have an explanation.
Oh the problems with this. Starting with the aforementioned “Citation Needed” regarding Lake being a loser, moving on to who gets to determine or assess what candidates have a “very good” chance of winning a seat, and CRUCIALLY how the party should go about doing this in a way that is not only Proper, but seems to be Proper.
By almost any metric DeWitt FAILED that test, ESPECIALLY the last one. And we know he failed because in addition to the audio being quite unflattering looking ( a standard I know you have used to justify Kemp and his far greater malfeasance vis a vis Trump and his subordinates cropping the audio out) but because DeWitt was FORCED OUT not that long ago as a direct result of this.
So clearly the Benevolent Powers that Be Out East decided this kind of conduct was not worth supporting.
https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2024/01/24/dewit-alleges-lake-blackmailed-him-into-resigning/
And it isn’t hard to see why. If the Arizona Republican Party wanted to remove Lake, they had better ways to do it than this. Starting with ways that did not make their head look like a skeevy, corrupt, hypocritical piece of trash. But apparently that was too much to ask for Jeff DeWitt.
“Of course.”
There’s more than just outright illegality, Bauxite. Once upon a time you comprehended this, at least when you felt it convenient to do so. Including the appearance of impropriety, which this included. Moreover, that assumes DeWitt was not only acting on behalf of the party as a whole, but that their central motivation was to win the Senate. Which I am included to press D to Doubt about given the poor track record.
But then again, what I doubt about does not matter. What does matter is how this particular turd looked and how it could be justified. The fact that DeWitt could not justify this worth a damn in terms of being both proper and seemingly proper speaks volumes.
@Don Keyhoti
Bauxite isn’t being rational or logical in this case, let alone making sense. Indeed, this entire post of his amounts to a “LOOK SHINY” deflection from the basic issue of if this was in any way an appropriate way for DeWitt to behave, or to be SEEN as behaving. At a minimum it speaks to a staggering lack of judgement that would only have been tolerable had this not gone public. Which surprise surprise Lake did.
For starters, counterargue.
Which brings us to your main points, such as they are.
Correct but misleading. It shows that the system fails to meet the basic standards for integrity and security we rely on. It also establishes that this flaw was KNOWN For years before the relevant date, and thus COULD have been used. If we were talking about an election in a tinpot third world country like Bangladesh that would b e grounds for State Department to raise a heckle about the legitimacy of the results and call them into question. But apparently here at home we’re supposed to assume all is well.
Even in cases where chain of custody is shattered and there are plenty of other things that either “appear” to be improper or outright are.
Indeed, and the forensic accounting involved.
This is another thing that annoys me about the crop of “Concerned Conservatives” (erroneously called in my opinion, because good fucking luck getting them to show an iota of concern for those that actually died during Jan 6th as a result of the abuses). That they crib from the low hanging fruit of leftist agitprop.
Firstly: No, Trump didn’t “lose” all 62. Even the dishonest, disgraceful, lying fucks at PolitiFact don’t claim that. They do however claim he lost the overwhelming majority of them, but not all 62.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jan/08/joe-biden/joe-biden-right-more-60-trumps-election-lawsuits-l/
This is also before we get into the fact that Trump did not in fact lose or even suffer stalemate in all the election cases. You just probably haven’t heard of it.
https://stalliontimes.com/2023/11/19/trump-celebrates-wins-election-case-in-colorado/
Or how many cases that happened where he did lose were not decided on the merits.
https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/11/courts-repeatedly-refused-to-consider-trumps-election-claims-on-the-merits/
Trump is probably BSing when he claims he won two thirds of the cases where they were tested on the merits, but he is BSing a lot less than you are and whatever your misbegotten sources are.
It’s not going to be MTG (whom I have scant love for) doing that for you.
Now kindly do more research so you can actually engage with the merits of the case better, or failing that be a less incompetent troll.
https://www.emerald.tv/p/kari-lake-just-blew-up-the-arizona
Kari Lake brings too much unnecessary drama. Remember her telling John McCain Republicans to get out? A candidate may feel that way, but saying it out loud can be disastrous.
Voters claim to be disgusted with politics as usual, but if the Republican candidate goes overboard with the dramatics they vote for Democrats who appear to be politics as usual. It’s not entirely the fault of the wild men and women, though: Democrats have an edge in most large, urban states. Those supposedly respectable and adult “politics as usual” Democrats go on to support some quite radical policies, but their voters don’t notice or care.
Turtler:
Fact, 62 lawsuits were filed by Trump or advocates of Trump in courts in 9 different states. You are correct that most were dismissed on the merits. To use a non-legal term, the plaintiffs didn’t make it to first base. Put another way, in these cases, judges ruled that insufficient EVIDENCE was present in the initial filing to warrant a trial. In all these cases, the plaintiffs could have refiled with more EVIDENCE to overcome the dismissal. They did not. That’s called losing. Putting lipstick on a pig to try and convince me or anyone reading your comments is weak tea and expletives are a poor substitute for scholarship.
“To use a non-legal” expression, if you throw enough BS at the person (or group) you are targeting, some—or quite a lot—of it will stick.
(Especially if an uber-corrupt DOJ and Media cohort earnestly does its best to ENSURE that it WILL stick….)
File under: WE’RE just doin’ our jobs…PROTECTING DEMOCRACY!!