Today is Thursday, May 17, 2012

Ethics

How Scott McInnis betrayed and disappointed his friends, the Hasan family

Scott McInnis wanted to extend his two-year, $300,000 fellowship with the Hasan Family Foundation, but he had blown the foundation off with sloppy and incomplete work. No wonder that the Hasans replied, “Scott, you’ve got to be kidding,” Patrick Malone reports in a nicely timed article in the Pueblo Chieftain. If you still like and support McInnis after reading this piece. . .well, ok. LINK: McInnis-Hasan ties mostly social; Dr. Malik Hasan recounts relationship during McInnis congressional years. h/t Jason Salzman.

Why don’t many Republicans care about Dan Maes’ lying about his resume?

Why don’t many Republicans, conservatives or libertarians care that Dan Maes has been embellishing his record as a business executive, which I consider the equivalent of lying on his resume? And why don’t Obama Democrats care about the president’s lies?

The simple answer is that a lot of people lie on their resumes and otherwise and excuse it. According to The Cheating Culture by David Callahan (HarcourtBooks.com, 2004, $26, 353 pp), some 40% of executives and new college graduates have lied on their resumes. Some executive recruiters say nearly half of job applicants lie on their resumes. If voters habitually lie, they don’t care if Dan Maes tries to turn his mediocre business career into a ladder to political power as governor of Colorado.

Search the internet for “resume lying” and you’ll find dozens of stories and articles about dishonest job applicants and lying on resumes. 

Note that more often than not in the private sector, resume lies disqualify job applicants immediately.

But in politics, the same voters who complain about corrupt politicians elect them even after they’re resume lies have been exposed. The leading U.S. Senate candidates in Illinois and Connecticut, a Republican and a Democrat respectively, have had their resume lies exposed this year. They have good chances of being elected regardless.

In her article, Lying on your resume: why it won’t work, Michelle Goodman writes in part:

Ditto for Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate who recently was outed by the New York Times for having fabricated his supposed combat experience during the Vietnam War. (Although Blumenthal did join the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve in 1970, he never served in Vietnam.)

Then there’s U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who’s running for the Senate. He, too, has been accused of exaggerating his military record, claiming an award he never received and combat duty in Iraq he never served.

What’s really discouraging is that folks who lie on their resumes probably lie about other things that affect their careers and lives. They tell lies when they buy and sell. They lie to themselves, their spouses, their kids and friends. And they think they’re fine, principled Americans.

LINKS:

Lying on your resume: Why it won’t work. By Michelle Goodman.

How to catch those lying liars. By J. Jennings Moss.

Lying on your resume may hinder your career in the future. By Lee Miller.

The Cheating Culture; why more Americans are doing wrong to get ahead. By David Callahan.

Dan Maes continues to make a fool of himself

The Denver Post has decided that the lesser evil of two ethically-challenged incompetents in the Republicans’ Aug. 10 primary election is Scott McInnis, also known at the Post as “McPlagiarist.”

For the second day in a role, the Post attacks McInnis’ opponent, Dan Maes, for his incompetence as a gubernatorial candidate, his poor understanding of government, his habitual white lies about his career in business and, today, his foot in mouth problems.

In addition to today’s editorial, the Post has a story by Christopher N. Osher that shows that Maes has been a lousy manager for years. In addition to failing to file timely campaign finance reports, he has failed to file annual reports with the secretary of state and to pay his home owners association dues.

The only thing Maes is really good at is shooting himself in the foot and getting bad publicity from the Post, other mainstream media and conservative bloggers.

Now, the only people defending Maes and McInnis are folks who have bought their lies hook line and sinker and who put the GOP ahead of good, honest and competent government. These people don’t know about Google, which future employers will use to check them out. Any employer or client can finds posts on FaceBook or in comments sections on blogs and news sites. When they posts and coments that reveal that a Maes or McInnis supporter rationalizes lying, cheating and incompetence will not hire that supporter.

Honest employers (voters) and clients should not hire people who defend lying and cheating.

Indeed, Colorado voters won’t vote for Republican candidates who continue to defend and rationalize the behavior of McInnis and Maes. So far, few Colorado Republican candidates get it, yet.

So the Post agrees with the chairman of the Colorado GOP. McInnis is “untrustworthy” and Maes is a “joke,” Dick Wadhams has said, according to both Peter Boyles and Tom Tancredo.

Both Maes and McInnis should quit if they win the Aug. 10 primary and let a real Republican run. McInnis is slightly more likely to quit than Maes who seems to think that he’s another Scott Brown.

LINKS:

GOP’s big tent is a real circus; Republicans are without a credible candidate in the governor’s race—but one candidate is even less credible than the other. Denver Post editorial.

Get your facts straight; Dan Maes never released tax forms from the 1990s, so he can’t really claim that the earnings on those forms are being ignored.

Guberntorial candidate Maes being asked to explain delinquent filings politics, life. By Christopher N. Osher.

Dan Maes not fit to govern? The Business Word, 7.13.2010. 

Maes’ fines are a big deal; Though the GOP candidate has addressed campaign finance violations, they raise questions over whether he can govern. Denver Post editorial.

Dan Maes raised less than $10,000; his campaign treasurer is missing in action. The Business Word, 1.18.2010.

Dan Maes agrees to fine for alleged campaign-finance issues. By Jessica Fender.

 

Walker Stapleton is turning off Republicans; won’t appear with J. J. Ament

Republican candidate for state treasurer, Walker Stapleton, is turning off me and other GOP activists with misleading and unfair attack ads against his opponent, J. J. Ament. And he’s recently refused to appear with Ament before various GOP groups six times, according to Jessica Fender at the Denver Post. Ament recently said Stapleton has stood up him and sponsoring groups eight times. Earlier in the campaign, the candidates made several joint appearances.

How is Stapleton misleading voters with his direct mail pieces and attack ads? He’s blaming the approval of Ref. C by 52% of voters in 2005 on a commission on which Ament served. Ament told me, “That’s not true.” And to blame Ref. C, which was backed by a conservative GOP Governor Bill Owens, on a commission and one member of the commission, Ament, is absurd. 

Also, Stapleton brags that he is the only chief executive officer of a publicly-owned company in the race for treasurer. Yes, he’s CEO of Sonoma West Holdings (stock symbol SHWI.PK). It is a tiny real estate business that is controlled by Stapleton’s father. The company owns a few buildings in California, and is so small that it probably takes anyone who knows how to delegate only a few hours a week to run.

For more details and links to Sonoma West’s annual report and a profile of the company on Yahoo, see this link to my February interview with Stapleton. See more links after the jump by clicking on the headline of this story.

LINKS:

John Hickenlooper 46% to 24% each for Tom Tancredo, Dan Maes in 3-way

Without running a commercial or having said much during the Colorado Republican’s disastrous July, Governor-elect John Hickenlooper has the support of 46% of Colorado voters in a three-way race against Tom Tancredo and Dan Maes who get 24% each. If the GOP candidate is Scott McInnis instead of Maes, he would get 25% to 26% for Tancredo and 44% for Hickenlooper, according to a new poll published in the Denver Post. (Now that I’ve found the actual poll results on 9News, the poll’s co-sponsor, I’ve corrected the numbers, which weren’t totally clear on the Post’s site.) The poll shows the underfunded Maes, who has failed to impress Republican activists, leading the admitted plagiarist, McInnis, 43% to 39% with a 4 point margin of error.

As a result of McInnis’ integrity scandal and growing doubts about his competence, McInnis is sinking rapidly in the polls even before Hickenlooper or independent Democrat groups have a chance to hit him hard with negative ads. And Maes, who has his own ethical and competence problems is gaining on McInnis only because while he’s been hammered in the media and on conservative blogs, he really hasn’t been taken on by the Democrats, either.

I’ve been predicting that in a three way race, Hickenlooper would get 45% of the vote to about 35% for Tancredo and 5% to 10% for McInnis (or Maes). That looks like the direction the campaign is going.

That the Post’s poll shows that Hickenlooper is leading Maes 50% to 41% and McInnis 48% to 43% doesn’t mean much because the public is still coming to grips with the character and competency weaknesses of the GOP candidates.

McInnis and Maes are at their peaks. Hickenlooper, his backers and Tancredo will bury them with negative ads and reminders of why McInnis and Maes would be lousy and weak governors.

If Maes wins, which still seems unlikely given that so many McInnis backers made the mistake of voting early, he won’t drop out. That means that there would be a three-way race between Hickenlooper, Tancredo and Maes. Hickenlooper almost certainly would win. 

Tancredo may be running on the American Constitution Party ticket, but he’s really a Republican and always will be. Maes, on the other hand, has said that the GOP doesn’t mean much to him. 

Republican leaders and activists currently are trashing their best candidate, Tancredo, the real Republican. Are they going to back the so so conservative and wimpy Republican, Maes, or the real Republican, Tancredo? 

To date, the state’s GOP central committee is pursuing a losing strategy of backing Mcinnis or Maes regardless of their integrity, intellectual, experience and competency failings. The Colorado GOP brand is going the way of Enron. 

The central committee had better reconsider and get behind Tancredo unofficially, if not officially.

Tancredo spent 10 years in the state legislature and 10 in Congress. He’s much smarter and wiser than any of the other three candidates—Hickenlooper, McInnis and Maes—and he would be a much better governor than any of them.

The Denver Post poll shows how the McInnis scandal has destroyed his candidacy. Once the public knows more about Maes, his popularity will tank, too. In 2006, Bob Beauprez made a few untimely and stupid comments and lost by some 17 percentage points. McInnis and Maes have not only said dumb things, they have done and are doing things that make them look dumb. They have no chance and probably will make “Both ways Bob” look like a genius.

If McInnis manages to win the primary, it’s hard to see how he could stay in the race. He’s a very slow learner and very proud and stubborn, but he’s a political pro and can read the tea leaves well enough to know that he’s done. The pressure on him to quit is growing, and this poll, negative ads and a few nudges from his sugar daddies may get him to quit.

As long as Maes or Mcinnis are in the race, Tancredo will be in to win. There will be a three-way race, and only Governor-elect Hickenlooper will enjoy the show.

The poll was conducted by Survey USA.

LINKs:

Maes holds slight edge over McInnis, poll says. By Michael Booth and Colleen O’Connor.

Poll: Romanoff barely beating Bennet; Maes ahead of McInnis. By Christina Dickinson.

Ad blasts Scott McInnis’ plagiarism

If Colorado Republicans and Scott McInnis think that Coloradans won’t hear about his plagiarism until he is defeated in the primary or general election or until he drops out, they need to watch this ad from Colorado Freedom Fund five times. The ad isn’t great, but it shows how the Democrats will deal with a plagiarist. h/t ColoradoPols.

The ad stresses the importance of integrity in government. That’s the point I’m trying to make. 

What I don’t agree with is that the ad concludes that McInnis is a “typical politician.” No, the reason that he’s in trouble is that he has shown that he’s more unethical than anyone who’s run for governor in this state for decades. He’s not typical. He’s a sorry outlier.

Who’s behind Colorado Freedom Fund? Outraged conservatives? Democrats going for the kill? A secret Republican gang? Betrayed supporters?

My guess: Someone who wants to convince McInnis to get out is sending him a message he might be able to understand.

LINK:

Scott McInnis’ plagiarism. Colorado Freedom Fund ad on YouTube.

Scott McInnis is to 2010 GOP as Nixon was to 1976 GOP: A disaster

Possibly too many Colorado Republicans are in denial about Scott McInnis, and they are imploding.

The party’s leaders and too many activists are more worried about beating Governor-elect John Hickenlooper than about the future of Colorado. They want to elect Scott McInnis even though it is clear that he lies, blows off clients and voters, delivers much more to top contributors than to constituents and doesn’t care or know much about the issues.

What today’s GOP apparently isn’t getting is that McInnis is to the 2010 GOP as President Richard Nixon was to 1976 Republicans. He’s a disaster.

He is setting up the GOP for losing not only the governor’s race, but every other down ticket race. Worse, he’s setting up the GOP for years in the whining gallery.

After Nixon, we got Jimmy Carter, the worst president in history. Only Ronald Reagan was able to save the country and the party from having to live down Nixon’s Watergate longer than it did. It’s very unlikely that a once-in-lifetime Republican will come along to save the GOP from McInnism. The state’s GOP bench doesn’t have a Ronald Reagan in the wings.

Both Hickenlooper and Tancredo will hammer away at McInnis’ ethical record. They’ll mock his earmarking, his service to contributors and the way he plagiarized and blew off the Hasan Family Foundation. They’ll quote his family friend, Rolly Fischer, who called him a liar about the plagiarism scandal.

And Democrats will spend years talking about the Scott McInnis Republicans and their lack of integrity.

Republicans don’t get it yet. But they will.

Is Ken Buck as unethical as Americans for Job Security?

Given the ethical problems of gubernatorial candidates, Scott McInnis and Dan Maes, voters are more concerned about the integrity of politicians than they were only a few weeks ago. And Democrat Charles Rangel’s ethics problems in the U.S. House are making voters even more concerned about the integrity and character of this year’s candidates in all races.

Corrupt politicians try to reduce our liberty and distort free markets in favor of their campaign contributors.

Thus, we have Ken Buck’s sugar daddies at Americans for Job Security running ads that are painting his opponent, Jane Norton, as a tax and spend Republican. These ads are both misleading and self serving, because they are being funded by a few government contractors who are backing Ken Buck because they expect that if he is elected, he will make sure that the Senate passes government programs that will enrich those contractors. They are trying to elect an earmark Senator. 

Buck will have to pay back the government contractors who are paying for the radio and TV ads that are attacking Norton and dishonestly painting her as a tax and spend Republican. And he will.

Norton promises that she won’t be an earmark Senator and that “bringing home the bacon,” won’t be her priority. Fixing the country’s budget deficit and other fiscal problems are her top priorities. Controlling government spending is her top priority, she says. 

Buck encourages these ads even though he has nothing to do with them directly. He pretends that Norton increased government spending in her previous jobs in the state and federal government, which is untrue. He makes a big issue of Ref. C, which 52% of voters approved in 2005 as provided for under TABOR.

What we have here is a career government attorney, Buck, who is trying to cleverly duck his own ethical problems, inaccurately rewrite Norton’s resume and promise to do things he can’t deliver on.

I’ve heard and talked to Buck and Norton many times. I’ve interviewed both of them. I like both of them and can support the winner of the primary. I’m neutral in this race.

But I have to say that Norton comes across as more direct and straightforward than Buck.

I just heard Norton talk to the South Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce. She is a very talented speaker, knows the issues and would make a strong and believable Senate candidate. The Democrats could attack her on the issues just as they would attack Buck.

But I think the Democrats would have trouble attacking Norton on her character. They would have a field day with Buck, I’m afraid.

The McInnis scandal has cost the GOP the governor’s race. Will it also cost the GOP a critical U.S. Senate seat?

Note that Americans for Job Security is basically an ad agency that allows conservatives to pour millions into political attack ads without disclosing their identities until next April, long after the election is over.

Dick Wadhams called Scott McInnis ‘untrustworthy,’ Dan Maes a ‘joke’

Peter Boyles and Tom Tancredo on 630 KHOW said Colorado GOP Chairman has told them that GOP gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis is “untrustworthy,” and he’s told them that McInnis’ primary opponent, Dan Maes, is a “joke.” Wadhams denied saying that and he said John Hickenlooper would beat Tancredo two to one.

Tancredo said on the radio that he had sat down with Wadhams and talked about what they could do about McInnis and Maes.

Boyles pretty much sided with Tancredo and called McInnis and Maes “jokers.”

Wadhams, of course, is in a tough position because he can’t pick sides in the Republcian Party Aug. 10 primary. He said he will back whoever wins the primary.

After Wadhams asked Tancredo if he would drop out if the GOP replaced McInnis with a strong candidate, Tancredo asked if Wadhams if he would back Tancredo if the GOP didn’t name a candidate or named a weak one. Wadhams said he couldn’t back Tancredo against a GOP candidate and promised that the GOP would have a candidate. “That’s win, win for you and lose, lose for Tom,” Boyles asserted.

Tancredo’s never been caught telling lies. Wadhams is a professional political campaign manager.

On Caplis and Silverman, Wadhams called Tancredo a “manical egotist.” Wadhams then blasted Tancredo for having run for office in five decades and not being a loyal Republican. 

Hickenlooper will win the election with Tancredo in the race, Wadhams predicted. He predicted that Tancredo will talk about national and international issues rather than about state issues.

Craig Silverman told Wadhams, “I’ve never heard such invective.” 

Wadhams was very unconvincing. He’s on a rant. He’s defensive and he’s making outrageous comments about Tancredo. His credibility is going into the toilet, which is too bad, because other GOP candidates will need his help and support during the campaign.

Scott McInnis Republicans are making Clear the Bench a waste of time

Scott McInnis Republicans are making Matt Arnold’s Clear the Bench campaign to deny retention to three Colorado state Supreme Court partisan judges a waste of time. Scott McInnis Republicans are showing that they have no more integrity than their candidate does. Scott McInnis Republicans want to unseat the partisan Democrat judges because of their lack of intellectual integrity, which is real. But how many voters are going to pay attention to Scott McInnis Republicans who complain about intellectual integrity when they themselves are showing that they have none? The unintended consequences of blind party loyalty are huge and long lasting.

Scott McInnis Republicans: 6 county chairs trash Tom Tancredo; they are destroying Colorado’s GOP

The chairmen of six of the seven large Front Range counties that have 70% or more of the state’s voters have become Scott McInnis Republicans and enablers. They have issued a press release calling on Tom Tancredo to withdraw his courageous threat to become a third party candidate, Lynn Bartels reports. I have met most of these guys and appreciate what they’ve done for the GOP, but now they’re undoing their good work. They are so worried about party divisiveness and losing an election to Governor-elect John Hickenlooper that they’re backing the disgraced Scott McInnis. They are saying that they and the GOP don’t care about ethics, integrity or good government. They just want to beat Gov.-elect Hick. I want to beat him, too, but not with McInnis or Dan Maes. Only Tom Tancredo or Bruce Benson have the name recognition and the ability to raise enough money to beat Hick. Fortunately, nobody listens to county chairs. LINK: GOP county chairs to Tancredo: Don’t run. By Lynn Bartels.

Guilt by association hurting Scott McInnis backers, Dick Wadhams?

Will the Republicans who are still supporting disgraced gubernatorial candidates Scott McInnis and Dan Maes pay for their loyalty by being deemed guilty by associating with them? 

Is there enough 

Tom Tancredo’s saying that Scott McInnis has to quit or he’ll run as 3rd party candidate

Scott McInnis has to decide.

Is it time for Gov.-elect John Hickenlooper to measure the curtains in the governor’s mansion?

Dan Maes says he called on former employer’s customers; he didn’t take customer list

Dan Maes has told the Colorado Independent that he called on his former employer’s customers but didn’t take his customer list. He apparently had his own list of contacts. 

Dan Maes’ former boss accuses him of taking customer list, trying to poach clients

There is no one a small business owner despises more than a former employee who quits, takes a list of customers, starts a competing business and tries to win the former employer’s customers. I can’t think of many things besides outright fraud that an employee or former employee can do that are more dishonest. Like plagiarism, taking a customer list and using it to try to steal customers is considered theft by most small business owners.