Roadblock Blog

Roadblock Roundup for August 1

Coleman chief of staff romantically linked to indicted Senator Ted Steven's chief of staff
In fact they're married! TPM wonders if sparing Stevens further embarrassment accounted for Coleman's initial resistance to making charitable donations in the amount of 2008 campaign contributions from Stevens. Coleman has a bi-ethical standard for "returning" contributions from shifty donors. He's keeping contributions made by Steven's for his 2002 race as money he cannot unspend, although he got rid of (retroactively laundered) money he received from Jack Abramoff for the same election cycle. Coleman is also keeping money from DCI Partners who lobbied on behalf of the government of Myanmar. Ties to DCI cost two McCain staffers their jobs in May.

Will Smith claim support from FDR, JFK next?
Republican Gordon Smith (R-Gordon Smith) would like you to forget that he's a Republican. Republican Gordon Smith (R-Gordon Smith) recently released a campaign ad falsely suggesting that he, Republican Gordon Smith (R), enjoyed the support of Barack Obama. Republican Gordon Smith's latest ad features not only Obama, but Democratic Senator and 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry. Obama and Kerry support Democrat Jeff Merkley, not Republican Gordon Smith (R) who is a Republican.

Smith donates Stevens contributions to his favorite charity, himself
Like all the other Republican candidates hoping in vain to defend their Senate seats, Gordon Smith has donated to charity in the amount of contributions from indicted colleague Ted Stevens, at least contributions from this year. Smith accepted $10,000 from Stevens in 2005-2006 to retire debt from his 1996 campaign, money he owed himself! Now that's a charity Gordon Smith (R-Gordon Smith) can support!

NRSC (Not Returning Stevens Contributions?)
And while we're on the subject, what charity will receive the windfall of the National Republican Senatorial Committee to which indicted Republican Senator Ted Stevens has contributed $725,000?

His cookie recipe is also oddly similar to Cindy McCain's
When party-swapper John Neely Kennedy isn't misrepresenting the voting record of Mary Landrieu, he's displaying his encyclopedic knowledge of the chemical processes involved in the recovery of oil from shale on WIST radio, verbatim, from wikipedia.com. If this weren't part of the GOP plot to suggest that Democrats are responsible for higher gas prices (even as Republicans scuttled a Democratic plan to reduce the price of oil by limiting speculation) it would be as funny as it is pathetic.