The MountainGoat Report

The Walt Minnick, Russian Brides Connection

Remember this?  In the 2008 campaign to unseat Bill Sali, Idaho Congressman Walt Minnick heavily courted Republican votes, even launching a website complete with a roster of well-known GOP defectors.

Here's how the site, developed by webdesignboise.com, looked then:

Seems someone by the name Artem Zakharov bought the domain, republicansforminnick.com, in October and the site has changed dramatically.  It now features the top story, "10 Perfect Places to Foregather Women" and a top tag, "Russian Brides."

Walt Minnick, a magnet for Russian Brides?  Who knew?!

Meet John O'Neal [former] Idaho State Senate Candidate

On his website, John O'Neal has announced that he "is a candidate for the District 19 State Senate Seat" and "will be representing the Republican Party in the 2010 effort to defeat current Senator Nicole LeFavour."

And from his Opening Words [emphasis mine]:

I will lead this State and District with Fine Tuned Conservative specks. I will call on the talents of all in the party and engage and encourage my opponents to abandon the views and ideologies the Federal Government has currently backed and advocated for even though the Public has made their opinions noted in various polls and demonstrations.

I'm here to will a new kind of politics. For people today view conventional party politics with contempt, especially Conservatism. I believe in limited government and an evaluation of the allocation of funds spent in a variety of areas in order to get this state back on a more Conservative track.

Rigorous honesty, measured criticism, and realistic alternatives are the only way can we revive people's trust in Idaho politics. We must look forward but not be afraid to look back. A back to basics approach is what's needed and I intend to lead by example.

Uh... okay.

Boise Police responded to a report of a theft at the Wal-Mart on West Overland Monday at approximately 1:30 p.m.

Store employees told police that they witnessed the suspect, John O’Neal, 33, of Boise, leave the store without paying for several items.

Officers believe the suspect entered the store with the intent to commit the theft which led to the burglary charge. O’Neal was transported to the Ada County Jail and booked charges.

O'Neal teaches fifth grade at Chief Joseph Elementary and recently announced his intent to run for the District 19 State Senate seat.

Yeah, good luck with that, John...

Oh, and you may want to rethink your "Crime and Public Protection" position statement but definitely don't give up that "Cupcake Party at School" initiative as part of your Health Care platform.  That's got legs.

Update: It appears that John's campaign website has already become an embarrassment for someone and has been taken down. Lucky for us I grabbed a few screenshots and most of the site can still be accessed through google cache.  Shots after the jump:

A 'Day of Reckoning'

Take a few minutes and listen to this clip of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) as he spoke in the health care debate yesterday.

Along similar lines is this post at The New Republic: "The Republican Health Care Blunder."

A snip:

The GOP leadership put immense pressure on all its members to withhold consent from any health care bill. The strategy had some logic to it: If all 40 Republicans voted no, then Democrats would need 60 votes to succeed, a monumentally difficult task. And if they did succeed, the bill would be seen as partisan and therefore too liberal, too big government. The spasm of anti-government activism over the summer helped lock the GOP into this strategy -- no Republican could afford to risk the wrath of Tea Partiers convinced that any reform signed by Obama equaled socialism and death panels.

[...]

The Republicans eschewed a halfway compromise and put all their chips on an all or nothing campaign to defeat health care and Obama's presidency. It was an audacious gamble. They lost. In the end, they'll walk away with nothing. The Republicans may gain some more seats in 2010 by their total obstruction, but the substantive policy defeat they've been dealt will last for decades.

The Gentleman Farmer

Lest there be any doubt that Idaho Congressman Walt Minnick has deep ties to agriculture, the millionaire Blue Dog demanding the federal budget be balanced has even taken farm subsidies.  Yes, your tax dollars and mine have gone to supplement the income of this gentleman farmer growing up on the "wheat farm in Walla Walla."

Minnick has an interest in these two entities which, according to the Environmental Working Group's Farm Subsidy Database, have received USDA subsidy payments from 1995-2006.

• Foundation Farm, Inc. — $48,119
• Minnick Harvesters, Inc. through a 29% stake in Dewitt Ag Associates — $1,705,336

The EWG also has an updated database which attributes direct and pass-through USDA subsidies for program years 2003-2005 totaling $13,683 for Minnick.

Never mind that roughly three-quarters of Washington and Idaho farmers don't find it necessary to take government handouts and never mind that roughly 150,000 people in his district are living without the health insurance he says is too expensive, that hasn't kept millionaire Minnick from putting a hand out for his.

How Many Times?

This video of Idaho Blue Dog Congressman Walt Minnick appears on the official YouTube channel of Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House Republican Whip.  It has scored over 2,000 views, in six days vaulting to rank 36 of over 330 videos Cantor has uploaded in the last two years.

Minnick is railing against the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency.  This is the agency whose job it will be to watchdog over the financial industry, to protect consumers from fraud and unfair lending practices and prevent the kinds of excessive risk-taking that led to last year's taxpayer-funded bailouts.

Backed by the power of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce multimillion dollar lobbying effort, Minnick sponsored an amendment attempting to kill the creation of the agency in favor of a council of existing regulators without the enforcement teeth of the CFPA.  Commercial banks and finance companies also fiercely opposed creation of the CFPA and, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, "aggressively fought to water down Democrats’ plans for new regulations and oversight" and have "long lined the pockets of lawmakers who voted against the bill."  Leading the fight against the CFPA, Minnick was funded by over $566,000 in campaign contributions from the financial sector.

Minnick's amendment failed narrowly 208-223 and he ended up voting for the bill on final passage, the banking industry winning sufficient concessions (read: weakening the legislation) to make the vote palatable.  Now the banking industry is gearing up for an all-out battle in the Senate.  They really, really don't want to be regulated by the CFPA.

Back to the video, which, btw, does not appear on Minnick's YouTube channel nor his congressional website.

Here's where Walt Minnick has completely lost my respect and my vote and it started sometime in mid-July.  There's a difference in being a proud Democrat with an independent voting record and being a reluctant Democrat who uses Republican talking points to skewer other Democrats.

Many on the other side have called Rep. Mike Simpson a RINO.  They've demonized him at TEA parties and are delighted to have a "true" conservative running against him.  All this even though you don't hear him using Democratic talking points in press releases, editorials or debate.  Can you imagine Simpson calling his fellow Republicans the party of "no?"

Yet that is exactly what Walt Minnick has done, time after time, and this is just one more example. How many times is the Idaho Democratic Party going to allow Walt to skewer other Democrats?  If Walt wants to be a Democrat, then be a Democrat.  We are a big tent and we can disagree on issues, but don't use messaging designed to appeal to the teabagger wing, trampling over Democrats in the process and then expect them to embrace you.

What's Really Up Those Plaid Sleeves?

Walt Minnick has deep ties to agriculture, at least he's been saying so to anyone who would listen since his successful quest to become Idaho's 1st District Congressman began in 2007.  "Growing up on a wheat farm in Walla Walla . . ." became the refrain in ads and bios.  And then there are those ubiquitous plaid shirts.

It was no surprise, then, to hear his insistence that he was protecting Idaho farm families from onerous tax increases when he voted to preserve a $7 million dollar per couple estate tax exemption this month.  No matter that the average family farm isn't worth anywhere near that amount.

Protecting multimillion dollar estates—like his—meanwhile clucking that health care reform is too expensive.  Guess that's really no surprise either.

It was a surprise to find conflicts between his financial disclosure statements and state records regarding that "wheat farm in Walla Walla."

According to the Washington Secretary of State website, Minnick holds governing positions in these four businesses in Washington state, all of which list as the registered agent his sister, Laura, in Walla Walla:

• Vice President — Foundation Farm, Inc, an active for-profit incorporated in 1965
• Vice President — Minnick Harvesters, Inc, an active for-profit incorporated in 1987
• Manager — Minnick Hills Vineyard, LLC, an active for-profit incorporated in 2000
• Member — Minnck Land Company, LLC, an active for-profit incorporated in 2002

On his 2008 financial disclosure statement filed May 15, 2009 and found at the Center for Responsive Politics, Minnick disclosed his asset value and income for just three of those businesses—but listing one twice—and only disclosed the positions he holds in one.

• Director and Vice President — Foundation Farm, Inc — disclosed value $250,001 to $500,000
• Position not disclosed — Minnick Harvesters, Inc — value not disclosed
• Position not disclosed — Minnick Hills Vineyard, LLC — disclosed value $100,001 to $250,000
• Position not disclosed — Minnck Land Company, LLC — disclosed value $500,001 to $1,000,000 (listed twice with different capital gains income amounts and without indication that the asset may be held by a dependent child)

As he disclosed them (including Minnick Land Company twice), Minnick's value in these assets falls somewhere between $1.35 million and $2.75 million but it is unclear why one asset and three governing positions are omitted from the disclosure.

Certainly Walt must have a logical explanation for this discrepancy. Certainly this isn't simply a filing error, after making the filing of accurate reports an issue in the 2008 campaign.  And certainly there isn't anything else Walt has failed to disclose.

Guess we'll find out.

The Convenient Conservative

It has become nearly impossible to determine what is driving Idaho Congressman Walt Minnick these days.  Is Minnick really being driven by what's "Right for Idaho" as he claims?  Or is it just whatever's right for Walt Minnick?

The bluest of the Blue Dogs, Minnick bills himself as a "true fiscal conservative," vowing to vote at every opportunity to strip earmarks from spending bills and "demanding that Congress balance the budget."  Last week Minnick voted for a measure that, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, will cost $609 billion over ten years.  In a press release, he touted the vote as a guarantee for Idaho family farmers who would otherwise be burdened with onerous tax increases.

The measure, which passed the House on a 225 to 200 vote, permanently extends the current estate tax exemption of $7 million per couple and keeps the tax rate at 45 percent.  Without this legislation the exemption would have dropped to $2 million per couple in 2011.  Minnick also supported Republican procedural attempts to eliminate the tax for two years and has supported excluding farm land from the tax completely.

Being a businessman for 30 years, as he is fond of saying, Minnick is acutely aware that a decrease in revenue has the same effect on a balance sheet as an increase in costs—not what you'd want to see in a budget, especially one you were demanding be balanced.  Evidently a vote against spending roughly $900 billion on health care reform is sexier than telling those inheriting multimillion dollar estates to pay a little more for the services they receive.  That, or it just sounds better to teabagging voters.  Or maybe Walt Minnick is just a convenient "true fiscal conservative."

Whatever the case, it is unclear who Minnick thinks he is protecting from "onerous" taxes.  In his press release he conceded to estimates that only 100 people in the entire United States would be affected by estate taxes under this recent legislation.  But how many Idaho family farms would actually be "saved" from this onerous tax if the legislation is enacted?

Lucky for us, the U.S. Department of Agriculture takes an annual survey of just such things.  The balance sheet for the average operator household, or family farm, from the most recent Agricultural Resource Management Survey, is shown below.  [The assets and liabilities are broken out further in this chart and access to all the data and tables can be found here.]

According to the survey, the average family farm in the West is currently worth just over $1 million—far below the $7 million exemption that Minnick felt it vital to preserve and even well below the $2 million exemption that would have been "onerous" to family farms.  The average Idaho farm family would have been exempt from estate taxes in either case.

It is crystal clear that it is not the average family farm Minnick is protecting.  In fact, it doesn't take a survey to see that there is nothing average about a $7 million estate and that Walt Minnick is just fiscally conservative when it's convenient for him to be so.

Protecting multimillion dollar estates is more important to Walt Minnick than providing health insurance to average Idahoans.  That may be right for Walt Minnick but it's not right for Idaho.