Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

As per Trump-GOP form Cleta Mitchell blames government overreach for her husband's fraud

"Republicans Paddle Faster to Try to Keep their U.S. Senate Hopes from Sinking
You'd think airheads like these would float on their own."

THE OUTSIDER
By Jane Mayer
October 13, 1996

ANNALS OF ACTIVISM about Cleta Deatherage Mitchell, former Democratic state legislator in Oklahoma. In 1984, approaching her fifth term in office, Mitchell walked away from politics, feeling that her personal happiness supplanted her interest in political life. However, she has re-entered it in a new incarnation -- an antipolitical activist. She has become a crusader for term limits on members of Congress, an idea that reflects populist anger and has captured the support of nearly three-quarters of the American electorate. Unsurprisingly, it is less popular in Congress, where it was the only major measure in Newt Gingrich's Contract with America not to make it through the House. As director of and general counsel to an organization called the Term Limits Legal Institute, Mitchell has moved to Washington to make her case against full-time politicians full-time. In 1985, after leaving politics, Mitchell went to work in her husband's bank, Citizens National Bank and Trust. However, in 1986, she ran an unsuccessful race for lieutenant governor. Losing to Robert Kerr III, Mitchell felt she had clashed with the state's dynastic governing class, and decided again to leave politics, pursuing a private law practice in Oklahoma City. Mitchell began to realize that the contact with constituents that characterized her own career was lacking in the lives of national congressmen and senators, against the intentions of the Founding Fathers. She also saw a financial gap between the governing class and the governed. Mitchell realized she wanted the kind of self-sufficiency she applauds in her personal life to translate into government policy. Her ideal is a "citizen legislator." She likes the idea that people could "take turns in office, like jury duty." Following the collapse of his bank in 1986, her husband was investigated and, in 1992, convicted of bank fraud, fined and sentenced to five years' probation. The incident convinced Mitchell that "overreaching government regulation is one of the great scandals of our times."

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[INSERT: In 1984, Cleta Deatherage married Dale Mitchell, who was the son of 1940s and 1950s All-Star Cleveland Indians and Brooklyn Dodgers left-fielder (Loren) Dale Mitchell.[10] They have a daughter.[5] In 1986, the FBI began investigating Dale Mitchell for banking malpractice, and in 1992 he was convicted of five felony counts of conspiracy to defraud, misapplying bank funds and making false statements to banks.[10] He was ordered to pay $3 million in restitution, given a suspended sentence of five years, and ordered to perform community service.[42][43] Her husband's conviction on one count was reversed on appeal and the amount of restitution was reduced.[44 .. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/15/953/535832/ ] As a consequence of findings of the prosecutors' investigation, he had agreed in 1988 to self-removal from banking.[43] According to Cleta Mitchell, his conviction convinced her that "overreaching government regulation is one of the great scandals of our times".[45]]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleta_Mitchell#Personal_life
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In 1989, Mitchell was recruited by Eddie Mahe for the national term-limits movement. Today, twenty-one states have passed laws limiting the terms of state legislators, but attempts to establish national term limits have been frustrated by the courts. Mitchell has played a major role in this legal fight, recruiting Griffin Bell to (unsuccessfully) fight the challenge by Speaker Tom Foley of a term-limits statute in Washington state, in 1993, and personally litigating a second major test case in Arkansas, which went to the Supreme Court. In May 1995 the Court held congressional term limits unconstitutional. The movement's only recourse now is to amend the Constitution. Mitchell, frustrated by the process, says, "How can you argue for term limits in front of people with lifetime tenure?" In Congress, though Gingrich has promised to take it up first thing, the issue is overwhelmingly opposed by Democrats, and is losing support among Republicans as well (Mitchell has switched her own party affiliation to Independent).

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[Do political chameleons have a higher level of self-interest than others. Or not. Guess it depends.. Anyway it look like she is
Mitchell returned to politics and ran unsuccessfully for Oklahoma lieutenant governor in 1986.[10] In 1996, Mitchell switched her political affiliation from Democratic to independent, and then to Republican.[10][2][12]] .. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleta_Mitchell#Legal_work_and_conservative_activism .. a political chameleon.
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President Clinton opposes term limits; Bob Dole, a thirty-five-year veteran of Congress, seems reluctant in his support. It is disconcerting that Mitchell's antigovernment crusade has brought her under the support of the power structure; the umbrella organization for which she has worked, Americans Back in Charge, has been backed financially by powerful conservative foundations. Mitchell says, "I'm here -- but I'm not of here." However, she may have stumbled on the lesson that appealing to the discontent of those outside the system may be the surest path to becoming an important player inside it.

[THINK TRUMP.]

Published in the print edition of the October 21, 1996, issue.
Jane Mayer, The New Yorker’s chief Washington correspondent, is the author of “Dark Money” and the recipient of a 2021 Freedom of the Press Award.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1996/10/21/the-outsider-9