gop presidential race – Warren Throckmorton

Anti-Gambling Group: Gingrich thwarted efforts to regulate gambling

Given the twin $5 million gifts given by gambling mogul and Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam, I wondered if reports of Gingrich favoring the industry would emerge.

According to an anti-gambling group based in Washington DC, Gingrich did in fact work to remove power from a government commission on gambling.

In this 1996 Washington Post article, Gingrich is quoted as favoring the removal of subpoena power from a commission being considered at the time.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has recommended a substantial weakening of a bill to examine the runaway growth of legalized gambling in America.

Speaking Monday at a fund-raiser in a Las Vegas casino, where he raised $70,000 for the reelection campaign of freshman Rep. John Ensign (R-Nev.), Gingrich said that a House bill to create a federal gambling commission should be modified so that the commission does not have the power to issue subpoenas.

According to a 1996 report in the Las Vegas Sun, Gingrich opposed a strong commission which led to some political fallout with a group he is now courting – religious conservatives.

Gingrich’s position has angered religious anti-gaming advocates who believe the gaming industry is calling the shots in Washington, D.C.

Methodist Minister Thomas Grey, executive director of the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, warned that efforts by Gingrich or other Republicans to water down the gaming commission bill could help Democratic President Clinton secure the “family values” vote in November.

“This could create great problems for Republicans because they’re making this a political issue,” Grey said. “This is a public relations disaster for these people.”

This Chicago Tribune report says Gingrich was the last obstacle of a tougher bill with power to get information via subpoena.

All of this should raise questions for Gingrich given that his non-profit organizations and his campaign have been underwritten by Sheldon Adelson, who casinos cater to gamblers here and in Asia.

Additional information: After I posted on Gingrich and gambling, Right Wing Watch’s Brian Tashman noted that many of Gingrich’s evangelical supporters had spoken out against gambling. Ironically, the American Family Association’s journal wrote about the gambling commission in 1997 and mentioned Gingrich’s role in appointing a person friendly to the gambling industry. He also eventually appointed Kay James, an anti-gambling member as well.

Gambling

Last year Congress voted to establish a nine-member federal commission to study the impact of gambling in America. Under that legislation, the President, the House and the Senate are each to choose three members. Almost $500 billion is wagered annually producing over $40 billion in profits for the gambling industry, countless ruined lives and families, political corruption, and increased crime. The Washington Post recently editorialized that the “big-money gamblers are betting a bundle on President Clinton to do their bidding” and “stack” the commission with those favorable to the gambling interests. According to the Post, on the President’s short list are many with close ties to the gambling industry, including Bill Bible, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) has already used one of his two choices to appoint the chairman and CEO of a Las Vegas casino company. House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-MO), a recipient of big gambling bucks, who gets one selection, favors the head of a union representing casino employees, the Post reports. Thus, the President’s three picks may determine the outcome of the commission’s work. He could make such a positive impact on America if he would only appoint three people with sound Judeo-Christian values and no ties to the gambling industry. Then we may learn the true impact of widespread gambling on America, and then states and communities may have some ammunition against the gambling industry as it seeks to expand. Will the President do the right thing? Don’t bet on it.

The AFA article criticizes Richard Gephardt for taking “big gambling bucks” and yet now Don Wildmon, founder of the AFA, is a supporter of Gingrich. Gingrich’s non-profit organizations have been funded with nearly $8 million in gambling donations and a PAC dedicated to getting him elected has accepted $5 million in donation from the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and another $5 million from Adelson’s wife.

Are “big gambling bucks” OK now?

Via the Tampa Bay Times

What does Ron Paul really believe about gays?

Currently, with one week remaining until Iowa’s Presidential Caucus, Ron Paul is in the hot seat. The Texas GOP hopeful denies writing racist columns for a newsletter bearing his name during the 1990s. Examining Paul’s denials, the Washington Post’s Josh Hicks gave Paul three Pinocchios which according to the Post means that Paul’s statements are misleading and use “legalistic language that means little to ordinary people.”

Paul’s views on gays are also open to question. One newsletter citation, frequently noted in the press, relates to his views on gays and HIV. Reportedly Paul said that gays “enjoy the attention” of that illness. In another 1989 newsletter, he criticizes the Massachusetts legislature for passing a gay rights laws, and implies that gays wanted to promote pedophilia:

Given the fact that Paul recently reversed himself and voted to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, one might wonder if his views on gays have changed. However, the Paul campaign’s current State Director is Mike Heath. Heath is also the chairman of the board of the Americans for Truth About Homosexuality and once worked to oppose state initiatives such as the one condemned by Paul in the 1989 newsletter. A 2010 article on the AFTAH website describes Heath as

…the former executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine and the new executive director of American Family Association of New England. (Heath will also retain the title of AFA of Maine.) He is also the only pro-family leader in American history to direct (as part of a pro-family coalition in Maine) the defeat of two statewide homosexual “special rights” laws, 1998 and 2001. In this interview, Heath, the Board Chairman of AFTAH, touches on the new evangelical politics surrounding anti-”gay marriage” initiatives — in which principled advocates against homosexuality like Heath are ostracized in the name of building coalitions more palatable to “moderate” voters.

AFTAH describes itself as “a group dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda.” Last year, the organization was listed as a “hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center due to frequent misrepresentations and vilification of gays in public statements and literature. Just recently, AFTAH used the Penn State child abuse scandal as a platform to link sex crimes of pedophiles with homosexuality.

Apparently, Heath’s work is having some effect in Iowa with at least one endorsement touted on Paul’s website. According to the news release announcing the endorsement, Heath has been to “295 houses of worship” in Iowa. On the matter of gays and gay rights, I wonder what position is being articulated in those houses of worship.

Given his prior newsletters and his current staff, it is fair to ask what Ron Paul really believes. Despite Paul’s denials, his views in 2012 may be about what they were in 1989.

UPDATE: Here is more on Ron Paul’s views from a former staffer. According to Eric Dondero, Paul is uncomfortable around gays but believes they should be free to do whatever they please in their private lives. The Paul campaign is taking this seriously, responding to CBS News over the matter.

If Paul had any chances to catch on with the mainstream, they are pretty much gone now. He claims he didn’t write the racist and bigoted newsletters but he has yet to name who did. He says he does not know but he has not, as far as I can read, given even a theory about who did or how he could recommend the newsletter without knowing what was in it.

A Peter Waldron Sighting in Iowa: Spreading the Gospel of Michele Bachmann

Peter Waldron, the man who helped Michele Bachmann take the Iowa caucus vote in August, is back in Iowa organizing pastors. According to the New York Times yesterday, Waldron was deploying his faith based strategies:

One Bachmann aide, Peter Waldron, gathered 16 evangelical pastors in Des Moines last week to discuss strategy. “These are our caucus-builders,” Mr. Waldron said. “We have a very deliberate plan. It’s been thought-out, prayed over.”

The plan probably looks something like the one he implemented for Gary Bauer in 2000, and described here. Waldron might be informing pastors in Iowa that Bachmann is like King David and Rick Perry like King Saul as he said in August, just after the straw poll victory. Churches are prime source of campaign energy in the plan, turning them into political organizing stations, where they spread the gospel of their favorite candidate.