Sunday, September 19, 2010 3:35:20 PM
Watchdog group: Delaware candidate's spending 'flat-out illegal'
Video: O'Donnell campaign scrutiny
Video: O'Donnell rallies Tea Party base
Video: 'These people don't want compromise'
By the CNN Wire Staff
September 18, 2010 -- Updated 0950 GMT (1750 HKT)
(CNN) -- A watchdog group says it plans to ask authorities in Delaware to investigate Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's finances.
At issue are more than $20,000 of spending in 2009 and 2010 that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington claims was illegal.
"It turns out Miss O'Donnell has treated her campaign funds like they are her very own personal piggy bank. She's used that money to pay for things like her rent, for gas, meals and even a bowling outing. And that's just flat-out illegal," said Melanie Sloan, the group's executive director.
In an interview on CNN's "AC360," Sloan said her organization would be sending letters to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware and the Federal Elections Commission on Monday asking them to investigate.
"For example, in 2009, Miss O'Donnell wasn't a candidate for anything, yet she had numerous campaign expenses, things like travel and gas, and yet she had no actual campaign," Sloan said.
O'Donnell's spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
Speaking Friday afternoon at the Values Voters Summit in Washington, O'Donnell discussed the increased scrutiny she has faced as she has moved from a virtual unknown to a Sarah Palin-style celebrity in a matter of days.
"Will they attack us? Yes. Will they smear our background and distort our record? Undoubtedly. Will they lie about us, harass our families, name call and try to intimidate us? They will. There's nothing safe about it. But is it worth it?....Are those unalienable rights worth a little alienation from the beltway popular crowd. Yes! I say yes, yes, a thousand times yes," she said.
Sloan said Friday that her organization's complaint to the Federal Elections Commission will allege that O'Donnell abused campaign funds for personal use and made false statements on forms she filed with the Federal Elections Commission.
But Sloan said her organization's scrutiny had nothing to do with partisan politics. She noted that her organization had also recently called for Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, to step down after allegations of ethics violations.
"We're about right and wrong and not about black or white, Republican or Democrat," she said. "And it is flat-out wrong for a candidate for the U.S. Senate to be stealing her campaign funds and be using them for personal use."
Politically, O'Donnell is firmly aligned with Tea Party movement, which funneled more than $150,000 to her campaign shortly before Tuesday's primary. Largely opposed to abortion rights and gun control, she has been endorsed by two conservative populists -- former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
The 41-year-old upset winner of Delaware's GOP Senate primary may be a blank slate to most Americans, but she is no stranger to political bosses in what had been -- until Tuesday -- one of the country's last safe havens for moderate Republicans.
O'Donnell, single with no children, has run for the U.S. Senate three times in five years. She finished a distant third in the GOP primary fight in 2006 before running uncontested for the right to challenge then-Sen. Joe Biden in 2008.
Her claim that Biden had turned his back on Delaware when he joined Barack Obama's ticket fell on largely deaf ears; she lost by roughly 30 percentage points.
© 2010 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/18/odonnell.ethics/ [with comments]
=====
Recent O'Donnell Fundraising Letter
Ellis Weiner [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellis-weiner ]
Co-author of The Big Jewish Book for Jews
Posted: September 18, 2010 07:54 PM
Am I the only one who received this email yesterday?
E.W.
Dearest Most Beloved--
I am Mrs. Charity Heavensent Obolele, widow of the Hon. Napoleon Masterpiece Obolele, formerly Assistant to the Chief of Treasury of the Official Exchequer for Disbursement of Funds of the Country of NIGERIA. It is my purest delight and esteemed honor to be blessed as Head Campaign Fund Raising Chairman-in-Chief for the Miss Christine O'Donnell 2010 Senate Victory Now! Campaign.
Miss Christine O'Donnell obtained dialogue with me when I sent to her an email detailing an extraordinary opportunity for her to assist in the transfer of secret monies under the custodianship of my late husband for the benefit of the unfortunates.
Miss Christine O'Donnell replied to me via email, "Charity, what a noble Soul you are, plus in my humble opinion you are an excellent Communicator! You're writing is a dignified song to freedom and you are a good Christian woman and you understand what I am doing here for the goodness of our fabulous nation. You must come and communicate with me in assistance of the effort I am making to communicate with the American people. Because you are totally familiar with soliciting funds it is my fond wish to tap you to be my head reachout person in our godly endeavor."
Thus it is my holy benison to be employed by this excellent Lady and is why I am writing to you in this capacity. It is the burning desire of Miss Christine O'Donnell to send a message to the Government and to all of We People. Surely this is a message replete with Christian values and virtues and includes no socialism, bailouts, self-pleasuring, death panels, or homosexuals in accordance with our Savior's preference.
In order to send this message it is necessary to be in the Senate which is why Miss Christine O'Donnell is vying to bring her wonderful outlook to that body. I know I do not know you but I know you are a good person and will want to assist her in this endeavor by contributing monies to a fund that will be used strictly for her campaign and necessary expenses for living a proper Christian life.
In this manner the persons of Delaware will learn of her opinions and intentions and vote for her at the appropriate juncture.
Once Miss Christine O'Donnell is triumphant, her employment by the Senate will enable her as never before to be of aid to the poor, Humanity, the orphaned, the barren women, the hungry, the lame, the halt, numerous widows, penitent profligates, the sincere ones, and others of need provided they are deserving in the appropriate manner.
Kindly and without hesitation write a cheque or bank draught in favor of "The Christine O'Donnell Senate Campaign And Associated Expenses Fund 2010 Victory Fund Account" and post it to the address appended below. Please be assured that this is a good thing to do, also be informed that in the event that there are monies left over in the Campaign Fund following the election, they will be re-distributed and returned pro-rata to all who have contributed.
To expedite this possibility, kindly include with your contribution the informations concerning your bank, your account number, the relevant PIN for its access, and the Number of your Social Security. This will hasten our ability to wire your share of the returned monies directly to you at our earliest possible convenience.
God bless you and God bless America.
Yours in Christ,
Charity H. Obolele (Mrs.)
General Delivery
P.O. Box 422086
Lagos, NIGERIA
Email odonsen2010@swiftmail.com
Copyright © 2010 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellis-weiner/recent-odonnell-fundraisi_b_722168.html [with comments]
=====
Christine O'Donnell fights back at Values Voter Summit
Video
Tea Party pick O'Donnell: 'We are our country'
The tea party's latest darling, Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, aligned herself squarely with the Republican Party's social conservative base Friday in her first national appearance since her upset primary victory. (Sept. 17)
By Felicia Sonmez and Paul Farhi
Saturday, September 18, 2010
It's unclear whether Christine O'Donnell will be coming to Washington for the long haul. But on Friday afternoon, social conservatives meeting in the nation's capital welcomed her as their ascendant star.
Pick your metaphor: O'Donnell, the winner of the Delaware Republican Senate primary and a darling of the "tea party" movement, was the rookie of the year, the ingénue sensation and the It Girl of the Values Voter Summit, the Family Research Council's annual gathering of roughly 2,000 social conservatives from across the country.
Speaking at the end of a long line of national Republican luminaries, including former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, O'Donnell electrified a ballroom of activists with a message aimed squarely at her critics -- both inside and outside the GOP establishment.
"They're trying to say we're taking over this party or that campaign," O'Donnell said to a raucous reception. "They don't get it. We're not trying to take back our country. We are our country."
The Values Voter crowd, a collection of antiabortion activists, anti-same-sex marriage advocates and Christian conservatives, has been a key constituency for Republican candidates on the national stage, propelling the likes of Huckabee and Romney.
O'Donnell followed other social conservative stars including Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), stealing the show from better-known party leaders.
The enthusiasm with which O'Donnell was greeted Friday afternoon stood in stark contrast to the dour assessments of her electoral viability, even after her stunning upset of establishment Rep. Mike Castle (R).
O'Donnell has been attacked from within her own party as an extremist gadfly out of touch with the generally moderate to liberal Delaware electorate.
Former White House adviser Karl Rove dismissed O'Donnell the night of her win, telling Fox News's Sean Hannity that "there were a lot of nutty things she has been saying that don't add up."
You wouldn't know it from her appearance Friday at Washington's Omni Shoreham Hotel. O'Donnell was the recipient of multiple standing ovations during her 18-minute remarks. Her speech elicited so much emotion from the crowd that some attendees in the few first few rows had eyes welled with tears.
Such an emotional outpouring may reflect the sentiment among many social conservatives that they, much like O'Donnell, have been underestimated and undervalued by the media and political establishment.
O'Donnell told the crowd to fight back against the critics who dismiss them as out of the mainstream.
"Some have accused us of being just an aging crowd of former Reagan staffers and home-schoolers," O'Donnell said. "They're trying to marginalize us and put us in a box."
She made no mention in her speech of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R), who gave the candidate a much-needed boost in her race against Castle by endorsing her earlier this month.
But it was hard to escape Palin's echo. In her dark suit and stylish haircut, O'Donnell looks like a somewhat younger version of her political godmother. The cadences of her speech seemed to owe something to Palin, too -- cheerful, but slightly barbed.
An eager media scrum waited for O'Donnell to appear immediately after her speech in a foyer outside the ballroom. O'Donnell never showed.
But for some in the audience -- many of whom had never heard O'Donnell speak before -- O'Donnell filled them with an enthusiasm unmatched by previous speakers.
"I love her," said Ruth Mizell, 88, the wife of the late baseball legend and North Carolina congressman Wilmer "Vinegar Bend" Mizell (R). "Her voice is better than Sarah Palin's. She reminds me of Margaret Thatcher." Mizell added that O'Donnell was "down-to-earth" and "isn't just some sweet-talking politician."
It's unclear whether this marks the peak of O'Donnell's political career or if she's on her way to enduring stardom. O'Donnell's victory over Castle, a 40-year political veteran, has been hailed by those in the tea party as a triumph of their movement over politics-as-usual. But most political handicappers have deemed O'Donnell's primary win as a major setback for Republicans in their quest to claim the seat of outgoing Sen. Ted Kaufman (D).
The ebullience evident at the Values Voter Summit, though, was a sign that it's still too early to discount O'Donnell and other tea-party-backed candidates. In an election year in which polls point toward a dispirited Democratic base, insurgent Republican candidates such as O'Donnell could turn disaffection into votes.
O'Donnell pushed back against the notion that at a time when voters are focused on the economy, social issues should take a back seat. And a few politicians with longer résumés and national profiles expressed their own righteous indignation.
Santorum told the crowd that "when people come out and tell us that we have to put the values issues in the back of the bus, we have to have a truce on the values issues, because the economic issues are paramount -- we can have no economic freedom unless we have good, virtuous moral people inspired by their faith."
But speeches also ran the gamut from campaign-style addresses such as Romney's and Santorum's to a blistering critique of Islam from conservative Christian leader Gary Bauer, who told the summit attendees that "we are at war with a group that is getting their inspiration from their religious teachings."
"Mr. President, it's time for the Islamic world to prove to the rest of the world that they understand human rights and that they will tolerate religious freedom," Bauer said to applause.
© 2010 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/17/AR2010091706766.html [comments at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/17/AR2010091706766_Comments.html ]
=====
Delaware's O'Donnell is a 'tea party' hero, but controversy casts a shadow
By Sandhya Somashekhar and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 18, 2010; 10:11 PM
WILMINGTON, DEL. - In her opening remarks during a debate that came just two days after her stunning victory in this state's Republican primary for Senate, Christine O'Donnell acknowledged what had already become apparent.
"There's no secret," she said, "that there's been a rather unflattering portrait of me painted these days." But, she went on, "as we approach the general election this next month and a half, it is my goal for you to find out who I am."
Who O'Donnell is has suddenly become one of the most important questions in politics, as leaders in both parties try to figure out whether she is the fresh face of a burgeoning movement or a fringe figure who will soon fade.
She has been introduced to the country through a dribble of unearthed video footage of her comments on Christian morality. In one widely circulated clip from a 1996 MTV documentary, she decried masturbation on religious grounds. In another previously unreleased clip from 1999, she laughingly told a television audience that she'd once "dabbled into witchcraft" and unknowingly had a picnic on what she called a Satanic altar.
On Saturday, O'Donnell canceled two appearances she had agreed to make on the Sunday morning talk shows, saying she would make local campaign stops in Delaware instead.
While her come-from-nowhere victory undoubtedly catapulted the "tea party" movement forward, it has also brought a new and intense level of scrutiny that has the potential to damage it.
Even as many tea party activists praise her victory, strange stories about O'Donnell emerge daily. Some of her financial troubles could counter the tea party's message of fiscal and personal responsibility. And her wide-ranging comments on sex could marginalize a movement that has tried hard in recent months to portray itself as a cross-section of America.
Democrats immediately seized upon O'Donnell as emblematic of what they say is an untested and fringe element that is taking over the Republican Party.
And among Republicans, her victory stoked the fear that has followed them all year: that there will be a backlash against the tea party that could dampen support for their candidates and cost them a shot at taking over Congress.
Most of the GOP establishment has lined up behind her. And to her most avid supporters, O'Donnell's personal problems have humanized her and helped establish her as a symbol of the power of voters over an establishment that has become too accustomed to anointing candidates.
"I'm the everyman and she's the everywoman," said Bill Colley, a conservative radio talk show host in Delaware who backs her candidacy. "All of the allegations that the Republican Party establishment have heaped on her have only made us rush to her defense."
For her opponent, Democrat Chris Coons, she could be a galvanizing force that helps him turn out voters in November.
But at the debate, even some disgruntled Democrats who had planned to vote for Rep. Michael N. Castle (R), whom O'Donnell defeated, said they were willing to consider voting for her.
A Christian advocate
O'Donnell, 41, grew up in Moorestown, N.J., and attended Fairleigh Dickinson University, though she did not earn her degree until this year. She is single and has never held public office. She moved to Washington after college, working short stints in communications at the Republican National Committee and the Concerned Women of America.
She then started her own group, the Savior's Alliance for Lifting the Truth, which still exists, according to her campaign filings. She started appearing on television as a conservative pundit, usually speaking on moral issues and particularly expressing her opposition to sex outside marriage.
Through her extensive media appearances in the 1990s, she expressed doubts about evolution and criticized homosexuality. She also said, in a 1997 C-SPAN clip unearthed by Talking Points Memo, that AIDS sufferers brought the disease on themselves and that too much money is spent on prevention efforts.
O'Donnell has been ridiculed on liberal blogs for statements she has made about sex, including the MTV appearance in which she referred to masturbation as sinful. During Thursday's debate, O'Donnell said her views had matured. "I was very excited and passionate about my newfound faith," she said about that period in her life.
On Friday, Bill Maher, on whose "Politically Incorrect" show O'Donnell had appeared in the 1990s, released the clip from 1999 of her talking about witchcraft.
"I dabbled into witchcraft, but I never joined a coven," she said. "One of my first dates with a witch was on a Satanic altar, and I didn't know it. I mean, there's a little blood there and stuff like that . . . We went to a movie and then, like, had a little midnight picnic on a Satanic altar."
Maher has promised to show a new clip every week until O'Donnell appears again on his show.
In 2003, she joined a Wilmington-based group called the Intercollegiate Studies Institute that produces journals and other material for Christian college students. As the group's director of communications, she often railed against co-ed bathrooms and what she viewed as increased sexual activity on college campuses.
"What's next? Orgy rooms? Menage-a-trois rooms?" she told the Washington Times that year.
O'Donnell was fired from the institute in 2004, and an official told the Wilmington News-Journal at the time that the dismissal was because she had used organization resources to run a for-profit business. Institute officials declined to comment about O'Donnell in an interview Friday.
She filed a lawsuit against her former employer the next year, alleging gender discrimination and seeking more than $7 million in damages. (She dropped the suit in 2008, saying she could no longer afford her legal fees.)
She ran for the Senate in 2006, 2008 and again this year, but it's unclear how she supported herself financially. In a disclosure form filed in July, O'Donnell answered "no" to the question of whether any group has paid her more than $5,000 over the past year. She listed about $6,000 in income from two conservative groups, neither of which could be reached for comment. She did not list any assets or bank accounts.
According to a biography posted on her Web site Saturday, O'Donnell has served as a marketing and media consultant to the Mel Gibson film "The Passion of The Christ"; Natalia Tsarkova, the Vatican's first female portrait painter; and the World Education and Development Fund, a charity that provides scholarships in Latin America. In 2002, she was awarded a Lincoln Fellowship at the Claremont Institute in California ; she is listed on the program's Web site as an alumna. A fellow in the program this year is conservative activist Andrew Breitbart.
Financial troubles?
The IRS placed a lien against her earlier this year, saying she owed nearly $12,000 in unpaid taxes from 2005; O'Donnell has said it was a mistake by the IRS. Fairleigh Dickinson has sued her repeatedly to collect almost $5,000 of unpaid tuition, and two years ago, her mortgage company sued her for not paying rent. All of these matters appear to have been resolved, however, as she has sold the house and paid back the tuition. The lien has also been lifted.
O'Donnell had long said she was a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson, but she did not receive her degree until this month. While she says on her Web site that the delay was a result of the unpaid tuition, a campaign official told Politico earlier this month that she did not complete her coursework until this summer.
She told the News-Journal earlier this year that she lived in a townhouse that doubled as her campaign office, and that she paid part of her rent with campaign funds. On her Web site, however, she said she lives elsewhere and keeps her address private for security reasons. "During my 2008 campaign, both my home and campaign office were vandalized, broken into, and files were stolen," the Web site states. "Threatening messages were left and nasty names were scrawled across my front door and porch."
On Friday morning, there was no sign to distinguish the beige townhouse as a campaign office. When a reporter rang the doorbell, a woman in a "Christine 2010" T-shirt emerged and said the leasing company requested that members of the media be asked to leave the neighborhood.
The nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says it will file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission and ask the U.S. attorney in Delaware to investigate whether she used campaign funds for personal expenses.
Since her Tuesday victory, O'Donnell has raised nearly $1.8 million, according to her Web site.
At the Values Voter summit in Washington on Friday, O'Donnell was greeted as a conquering hero and was defiant about what she expects to face this fall.
"Will they attack us? Yes. Will they smear our backgrounds and distort our records? Undoubtedly," she told the crowd. "Will they lie about us, harass our families, name-call and try to intimidate us? They will. There's nothing safe about it. But is it worth it? I say yes, yes, a thousand times yes. This is no moment for the faint of heart."
sandhya@washpost.com baconp@washpost.com
Alice Crites and Amy Gardner contributed to this report.
© 2010 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/18/AR2010091803585.html [comments at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/18/AR2010091803585_Comments.html ]
=====
and again -- see also (items linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54568354 and preceding and following
Video: O'Donnell campaign scrutiny
Video: O'Donnell rallies Tea Party base
Video: 'These people don't want compromise'
By the CNN Wire Staff
September 18, 2010 -- Updated 0950 GMT (1750 HKT)
(CNN) -- A watchdog group says it plans to ask authorities in Delaware to investigate Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's finances.
At issue are more than $20,000 of spending in 2009 and 2010 that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington claims was illegal.
"It turns out Miss O'Donnell has treated her campaign funds like they are her very own personal piggy bank. She's used that money to pay for things like her rent, for gas, meals and even a bowling outing. And that's just flat-out illegal," said Melanie Sloan, the group's executive director.
In an interview on CNN's "AC360," Sloan said her organization would be sending letters to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware and the Federal Elections Commission on Monday asking them to investigate.
"For example, in 2009, Miss O'Donnell wasn't a candidate for anything, yet she had numerous campaign expenses, things like travel and gas, and yet she had no actual campaign," Sloan said.
O'Donnell's spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
Speaking Friday afternoon at the Values Voters Summit in Washington, O'Donnell discussed the increased scrutiny she has faced as she has moved from a virtual unknown to a Sarah Palin-style celebrity in a matter of days.
"Will they attack us? Yes. Will they smear our background and distort our record? Undoubtedly. Will they lie about us, harass our families, name call and try to intimidate us? They will. There's nothing safe about it. But is it worth it?....Are those unalienable rights worth a little alienation from the beltway popular crowd. Yes! I say yes, yes, a thousand times yes," she said.
Sloan said Friday that her organization's complaint to the Federal Elections Commission will allege that O'Donnell abused campaign funds for personal use and made false statements on forms she filed with the Federal Elections Commission.
But Sloan said her organization's scrutiny had nothing to do with partisan politics. She noted that her organization had also recently called for Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, to step down after allegations of ethics violations.
"We're about right and wrong and not about black or white, Republican or Democrat," she said. "And it is flat-out wrong for a candidate for the U.S. Senate to be stealing her campaign funds and be using them for personal use."
Politically, O'Donnell is firmly aligned with Tea Party movement, which funneled more than $150,000 to her campaign shortly before Tuesday's primary. Largely opposed to abortion rights and gun control, she has been endorsed by two conservative populists -- former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
The 41-year-old upset winner of Delaware's GOP Senate primary may be a blank slate to most Americans, but she is no stranger to political bosses in what had been -- until Tuesday -- one of the country's last safe havens for moderate Republicans.
O'Donnell, single with no children, has run for the U.S. Senate three times in five years. She finished a distant third in the GOP primary fight in 2006 before running uncontested for the right to challenge then-Sen. Joe Biden in 2008.
Her claim that Biden had turned his back on Delaware when he joined Barack Obama's ticket fell on largely deaf ears; she lost by roughly 30 percentage points.
© 2010 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/18/odonnell.ethics/ [with comments]
=====
Recent O'Donnell Fundraising Letter
Ellis Weiner [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellis-weiner ]
Co-author of The Big Jewish Book for Jews
Posted: September 18, 2010 07:54 PM
Am I the only one who received this email yesterday?
E.W.
Dearest Most Beloved--
I am Mrs. Charity Heavensent Obolele, widow of the Hon. Napoleon Masterpiece Obolele, formerly Assistant to the Chief of Treasury of the Official Exchequer for Disbursement of Funds of the Country of NIGERIA. It is my purest delight and esteemed honor to be blessed as Head Campaign Fund Raising Chairman-in-Chief for the Miss Christine O'Donnell 2010 Senate Victory Now! Campaign.
Miss Christine O'Donnell obtained dialogue with me when I sent to her an email detailing an extraordinary opportunity for her to assist in the transfer of secret monies under the custodianship of my late husband for the benefit of the unfortunates.
Miss Christine O'Donnell replied to me via email, "Charity, what a noble Soul you are, plus in my humble opinion you are an excellent Communicator! You're writing is a dignified song to freedom and you are a good Christian woman and you understand what I am doing here for the goodness of our fabulous nation. You must come and communicate with me in assistance of the effort I am making to communicate with the American people. Because you are totally familiar with soliciting funds it is my fond wish to tap you to be my head reachout person in our godly endeavor."
Thus it is my holy benison to be employed by this excellent Lady and is why I am writing to you in this capacity. It is the burning desire of Miss Christine O'Donnell to send a message to the Government and to all of We People. Surely this is a message replete with Christian values and virtues and includes no socialism, bailouts, self-pleasuring, death panels, or homosexuals in accordance with our Savior's preference.
In order to send this message it is necessary to be in the Senate which is why Miss Christine O'Donnell is vying to bring her wonderful outlook to that body. I know I do not know you but I know you are a good person and will want to assist her in this endeavor by contributing monies to a fund that will be used strictly for her campaign and necessary expenses for living a proper Christian life.
In this manner the persons of Delaware will learn of her opinions and intentions and vote for her at the appropriate juncture.
Once Miss Christine O'Donnell is triumphant, her employment by the Senate will enable her as never before to be of aid to the poor, Humanity, the orphaned, the barren women, the hungry, the lame, the halt, numerous widows, penitent profligates, the sincere ones, and others of need provided they are deserving in the appropriate manner.
Kindly and without hesitation write a cheque or bank draught in favor of "The Christine O'Donnell Senate Campaign And Associated Expenses Fund 2010 Victory Fund Account" and post it to the address appended below. Please be assured that this is a good thing to do, also be informed that in the event that there are monies left over in the Campaign Fund following the election, they will be re-distributed and returned pro-rata to all who have contributed.
To expedite this possibility, kindly include with your contribution the informations concerning your bank, your account number, the relevant PIN for its access, and the Number of your Social Security. This will hasten our ability to wire your share of the returned monies directly to you at our earliest possible convenience.
God bless you and God bless America.
Yours in Christ,
Charity H. Obolele (Mrs.)
General Delivery
P.O. Box 422086
Lagos, NIGERIA
Email odonsen2010@swiftmail.com
Copyright © 2010 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ellis-weiner/recent-odonnell-fundraisi_b_722168.html [with comments]
=====
Christine O'Donnell fights back at Values Voter Summit
Video
Tea Party pick O'Donnell: 'We are our country'
The tea party's latest darling, Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, aligned herself squarely with the Republican Party's social conservative base Friday in her first national appearance since her upset primary victory. (Sept. 17)
By Felicia Sonmez and Paul Farhi
Saturday, September 18, 2010
It's unclear whether Christine O'Donnell will be coming to Washington for the long haul. But on Friday afternoon, social conservatives meeting in the nation's capital welcomed her as their ascendant star.
Pick your metaphor: O'Donnell, the winner of the Delaware Republican Senate primary and a darling of the "tea party" movement, was the rookie of the year, the ingénue sensation and the It Girl of the Values Voter Summit, the Family Research Council's annual gathering of roughly 2,000 social conservatives from across the country.
Speaking at the end of a long line of national Republican luminaries, including former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, O'Donnell electrified a ballroom of activists with a message aimed squarely at her critics -- both inside and outside the GOP establishment.
"They're trying to say we're taking over this party or that campaign," O'Donnell said to a raucous reception. "They don't get it. We're not trying to take back our country. We are our country."
The Values Voter crowd, a collection of antiabortion activists, anti-same-sex marriage advocates and Christian conservatives, has been a key constituency for Republican candidates on the national stage, propelling the likes of Huckabee and Romney.
O'Donnell followed other social conservative stars including Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) and former senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), stealing the show from better-known party leaders.
The enthusiasm with which O'Donnell was greeted Friday afternoon stood in stark contrast to the dour assessments of her electoral viability, even after her stunning upset of establishment Rep. Mike Castle (R).
O'Donnell has been attacked from within her own party as an extremist gadfly out of touch with the generally moderate to liberal Delaware electorate.
Former White House adviser Karl Rove dismissed O'Donnell the night of her win, telling Fox News's Sean Hannity that "there were a lot of nutty things she has been saying that don't add up."
You wouldn't know it from her appearance Friday at Washington's Omni Shoreham Hotel. O'Donnell was the recipient of multiple standing ovations during her 18-minute remarks. Her speech elicited so much emotion from the crowd that some attendees in the few first few rows had eyes welled with tears.
Such an emotional outpouring may reflect the sentiment among many social conservatives that they, much like O'Donnell, have been underestimated and undervalued by the media and political establishment.
O'Donnell told the crowd to fight back against the critics who dismiss them as out of the mainstream.
"Some have accused us of being just an aging crowd of former Reagan staffers and home-schoolers," O'Donnell said. "They're trying to marginalize us and put us in a box."
She made no mention in her speech of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R), who gave the candidate a much-needed boost in her race against Castle by endorsing her earlier this month.
But it was hard to escape Palin's echo. In her dark suit and stylish haircut, O'Donnell looks like a somewhat younger version of her political godmother. The cadences of her speech seemed to owe something to Palin, too -- cheerful, but slightly barbed.
An eager media scrum waited for O'Donnell to appear immediately after her speech in a foyer outside the ballroom. O'Donnell never showed.
But for some in the audience -- many of whom had never heard O'Donnell speak before -- O'Donnell filled them with an enthusiasm unmatched by previous speakers.
"I love her," said Ruth Mizell, 88, the wife of the late baseball legend and North Carolina congressman Wilmer "Vinegar Bend" Mizell (R). "Her voice is better than Sarah Palin's. She reminds me of Margaret Thatcher." Mizell added that O'Donnell was "down-to-earth" and "isn't just some sweet-talking politician."
It's unclear whether this marks the peak of O'Donnell's political career or if she's on her way to enduring stardom. O'Donnell's victory over Castle, a 40-year political veteran, has been hailed by those in the tea party as a triumph of their movement over politics-as-usual. But most political handicappers have deemed O'Donnell's primary win as a major setback for Republicans in their quest to claim the seat of outgoing Sen. Ted Kaufman (D).
The ebullience evident at the Values Voter Summit, though, was a sign that it's still too early to discount O'Donnell and other tea-party-backed candidates. In an election year in which polls point toward a dispirited Democratic base, insurgent Republican candidates such as O'Donnell could turn disaffection into votes.
O'Donnell pushed back against the notion that at a time when voters are focused on the economy, social issues should take a back seat. And a few politicians with longer résumés and national profiles expressed their own righteous indignation.
Santorum told the crowd that "when people come out and tell us that we have to put the values issues in the back of the bus, we have to have a truce on the values issues, because the economic issues are paramount -- we can have no economic freedom unless we have good, virtuous moral people inspired by their faith."
But speeches also ran the gamut from campaign-style addresses such as Romney's and Santorum's to a blistering critique of Islam from conservative Christian leader Gary Bauer, who told the summit attendees that "we are at war with a group that is getting their inspiration from their religious teachings."
"Mr. President, it's time for the Islamic world to prove to the rest of the world that they understand human rights and that they will tolerate religious freedom," Bauer said to applause.
© 2010 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/17/AR2010091706766.html [comments at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/17/AR2010091706766_Comments.html ]
=====
Delaware's O'Donnell is a 'tea party' hero, but controversy casts a shadow
By Sandhya Somashekhar and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 18, 2010; 10:11 PM
WILMINGTON, DEL. - In her opening remarks during a debate that came just two days after her stunning victory in this state's Republican primary for Senate, Christine O'Donnell acknowledged what had already become apparent.
"There's no secret," she said, "that there's been a rather unflattering portrait of me painted these days." But, she went on, "as we approach the general election this next month and a half, it is my goal for you to find out who I am."
Who O'Donnell is has suddenly become one of the most important questions in politics, as leaders in both parties try to figure out whether she is the fresh face of a burgeoning movement or a fringe figure who will soon fade.
She has been introduced to the country through a dribble of unearthed video footage of her comments on Christian morality. In one widely circulated clip from a 1996 MTV documentary, she decried masturbation on religious grounds. In another previously unreleased clip from 1999, she laughingly told a television audience that she'd once "dabbled into witchcraft" and unknowingly had a picnic on what she called a Satanic altar.
On Saturday, O'Donnell canceled two appearances she had agreed to make on the Sunday morning talk shows, saying she would make local campaign stops in Delaware instead.
While her come-from-nowhere victory undoubtedly catapulted the "tea party" movement forward, it has also brought a new and intense level of scrutiny that has the potential to damage it.
Even as many tea party activists praise her victory, strange stories about O'Donnell emerge daily. Some of her financial troubles could counter the tea party's message of fiscal and personal responsibility. And her wide-ranging comments on sex could marginalize a movement that has tried hard in recent months to portray itself as a cross-section of America.
Democrats immediately seized upon O'Donnell as emblematic of what they say is an untested and fringe element that is taking over the Republican Party.
And among Republicans, her victory stoked the fear that has followed them all year: that there will be a backlash against the tea party that could dampen support for their candidates and cost them a shot at taking over Congress.
Most of the GOP establishment has lined up behind her. And to her most avid supporters, O'Donnell's personal problems have humanized her and helped establish her as a symbol of the power of voters over an establishment that has become too accustomed to anointing candidates.
"I'm the everyman and she's the everywoman," said Bill Colley, a conservative radio talk show host in Delaware who backs her candidacy. "All of the allegations that the Republican Party establishment have heaped on her have only made us rush to her defense."
For her opponent, Democrat Chris Coons, she could be a galvanizing force that helps him turn out voters in November.
But at the debate, even some disgruntled Democrats who had planned to vote for Rep. Michael N. Castle (R), whom O'Donnell defeated, said they were willing to consider voting for her.
A Christian advocate
O'Donnell, 41, grew up in Moorestown, N.J., and attended Fairleigh Dickinson University, though she did not earn her degree until this year. She is single and has never held public office. She moved to Washington after college, working short stints in communications at the Republican National Committee and the Concerned Women of America.
She then started her own group, the Savior's Alliance for Lifting the Truth, which still exists, according to her campaign filings. She started appearing on television as a conservative pundit, usually speaking on moral issues and particularly expressing her opposition to sex outside marriage.
Through her extensive media appearances in the 1990s, she expressed doubts about evolution and criticized homosexuality. She also said, in a 1997 C-SPAN clip unearthed by Talking Points Memo, that AIDS sufferers brought the disease on themselves and that too much money is spent on prevention efforts.
O'Donnell has been ridiculed on liberal blogs for statements she has made about sex, including the MTV appearance in which she referred to masturbation as sinful. During Thursday's debate, O'Donnell said her views had matured. "I was very excited and passionate about my newfound faith," she said about that period in her life.
On Friday, Bill Maher, on whose "Politically Incorrect" show O'Donnell had appeared in the 1990s, released the clip from 1999 of her talking about witchcraft.
"I dabbled into witchcraft, but I never joined a coven," she said. "One of my first dates with a witch was on a Satanic altar, and I didn't know it. I mean, there's a little blood there and stuff like that . . . We went to a movie and then, like, had a little midnight picnic on a Satanic altar."
Maher has promised to show a new clip every week until O'Donnell appears again on his show.
In 2003, she joined a Wilmington-based group called the Intercollegiate Studies Institute that produces journals and other material for Christian college students. As the group's director of communications, she often railed against co-ed bathrooms and what she viewed as increased sexual activity on college campuses.
"What's next? Orgy rooms? Menage-a-trois rooms?" she told the Washington Times that year.
O'Donnell was fired from the institute in 2004, and an official told the Wilmington News-Journal at the time that the dismissal was because she had used organization resources to run a for-profit business. Institute officials declined to comment about O'Donnell in an interview Friday.
She filed a lawsuit against her former employer the next year, alleging gender discrimination and seeking more than $7 million in damages. (She dropped the suit in 2008, saying she could no longer afford her legal fees.)
She ran for the Senate in 2006, 2008 and again this year, but it's unclear how she supported herself financially. In a disclosure form filed in July, O'Donnell answered "no" to the question of whether any group has paid her more than $5,000 over the past year. She listed about $6,000 in income from two conservative groups, neither of which could be reached for comment. She did not list any assets or bank accounts.
According to a biography posted on her Web site Saturday, O'Donnell has served as a marketing and media consultant to the Mel Gibson film "The Passion of The Christ"; Natalia Tsarkova, the Vatican's first female portrait painter; and the World Education and Development Fund, a charity that provides scholarships in Latin America. In 2002, she was awarded a Lincoln Fellowship at the Claremont Institute in California ; she is listed on the program's Web site as an alumna. A fellow in the program this year is conservative activist Andrew Breitbart.
Financial troubles?
The IRS placed a lien against her earlier this year, saying she owed nearly $12,000 in unpaid taxes from 2005; O'Donnell has said it was a mistake by the IRS. Fairleigh Dickinson has sued her repeatedly to collect almost $5,000 of unpaid tuition, and two years ago, her mortgage company sued her for not paying rent. All of these matters appear to have been resolved, however, as she has sold the house and paid back the tuition. The lien has also been lifted.
O'Donnell had long said she was a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson, but she did not receive her degree until this month. While she says on her Web site that the delay was a result of the unpaid tuition, a campaign official told Politico earlier this month that she did not complete her coursework until this summer.
She told the News-Journal earlier this year that she lived in a townhouse that doubled as her campaign office, and that she paid part of her rent with campaign funds. On her Web site, however, she said she lives elsewhere and keeps her address private for security reasons. "During my 2008 campaign, both my home and campaign office were vandalized, broken into, and files were stolen," the Web site states. "Threatening messages were left and nasty names were scrawled across my front door and porch."
On Friday morning, there was no sign to distinguish the beige townhouse as a campaign office. When a reporter rang the doorbell, a woman in a "Christine 2010" T-shirt emerged and said the leasing company requested that members of the media be asked to leave the neighborhood.
The nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says it will file a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission and ask the U.S. attorney in Delaware to investigate whether she used campaign funds for personal expenses.
Since her Tuesday victory, O'Donnell has raised nearly $1.8 million, according to her Web site.
At the Values Voter summit in Washington on Friday, O'Donnell was greeted as a conquering hero and was defiant about what she expects to face this fall.
"Will they attack us? Yes. Will they smear our backgrounds and distort our records? Undoubtedly," she told the crowd. "Will they lie about us, harass our families, name-call and try to intimidate us? They will. There's nothing safe about it. But is it worth it? I say yes, yes, a thousand times yes. This is no moment for the faint of heart."
sandhya@washpost.com baconp@washpost.com
Alice Crites and Amy Gardner contributed to this report.
© 2010 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/18/AR2010091803585.html [comments at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/18/AR2010091803585_Comments.html ]
=====
and again -- see also (items linked in) http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=54568354 and preceding and following
Greensburg, KS - 5/4/07
"Eternal vigilance is the price of Liberty."
from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
F6
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
