Andy Kroll

Reporter

Andy Kroll is Mother Jones' Dark Money reporter. He is based in the DC bureau. His work has also appeared at the Wall Street Journal, the Detroit News, Salon, and TomDispatch.com, where he's an associate editor. He can be reached at akroll (at) motherjones (dot) com. He tweets at @AndrewKroll.

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Virginia Gov. Candidate Ken Cuccinelli: Outlawing Slavery and Outlawing Abortion Are Part of the Same Fight

—By Andy Kroll

| Wed Mar. 20, 2013 9:09 AM PDT

Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who is running for governor this year, has a knack for controversy. He told state colleges they couldn't include "sexual orientation" in their anti-discrimination policies. (Current Gov. Bob McDonnell assured the academy that no discrimination was tolerated.) He led a witch hunt against prominent climate scientist Michael Mann. (Cuccinelli is a climate change denier.) He requested that the exposed left breast of Virtus, the Roman goddess adorning the state's two-century-old seal, be brought in from the cold. ("Breastgate," the affair was called.)

And now, the latest addition to the Cuccinelli canon. On Tuesday, Virginia Democrats released a video of Cuccinelli comparing the fight to end slavery to the anti-abortion movement. "Over time, the truth demonstrates its own rightness, and its own righteousness," he said. "Our experience as a country has demonstrated that on one issue after another. Start right at the beginning: slavery. Today, abortion."

Here's the video, taken by a Democratic tracker in June 2012:

Cuccinelli added: "History has shown us what the right position was, and those were issues that were attacked by people of faith aggressively to change the course of this country. We need to fight for the respect for life, not just for life but for respect for life. One leads to the other."

A Cuccinelli spokeswoman told the Associated Press the release of the video was an effort by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, the former head of the Democratic National Committee, to "run a contentious campaign that divides Virginia."

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Scandal-Plagued Menendez Donor Feted Obama and Chauffeured Harry Reid on His Jet

—By Andy Kroll

| Wed Mar. 20, 2013 7:39 AM PDT

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.).

Salomon Melgen is the eye doctor, investor, and big-time political donor embroiled in controversy for his cozy relationship with Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), one of the most powerful Democrats in the Senate. On two occasions, Menendez pressed government officials—once over Medicare and Medicaid billing practices and another time over Latin American governments not honoring trade-related contracts—in ways that appeared to benefit Melgen, who has donated handsomely to Menendez and Democratic causes. Menendez also took two round-trip flights on the doctor's private jet, reimbursing the doctor only after the details spilled into public view.

Menendez, it turns out, wasn't the only powerful politician Melgen feted. Politico reported Tuesday night that Melgen hobnobbed with President Obama at 2010 fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (though Melgen was peeved at Obama's reluctance to fully schmooze him). Melgen also ferried Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on his private jet to a fundraiser in Boston for Majority PAC, a super-PAC devoted to electing Senate Democrats and run by former Reid aide Susan McCue. Reid flew back to Washington with Melgen. Reid's office said the senator reimbursed Melgen for the flights.

Politico gleans some more details about Melgen's quirkiness as a big-time bankroller:

Some rich folks looking for special treatment would work through a lobbyist with experience navigating government bureaucracy.

Not Melgen—he was his own lobbyist, with access to lots of cash and a private jet owned by his company.

He went to top officials about the Dominican government’s reluctance to implement a $500 million port cargo-screening contract with one of his companies and to challenge the finding that another of his companies overbilled Medicare.

While he was glad-handing politicians, Melgen was living the high life. He was driven around South Florida by a chauffeur in a customized Audi A8 and invited all manner of politicos to his mansion in the Dominican Republic.

Melgen keeps an enviable collection of photos with politicians—including one of him golfing with Bill Clinton—and bragged of using his plane to transport the rapper Pitbull to a super PAC fundraiser at the Democratic National Convention last summer, according to sources who know him.

Yet Democratic fundraisers interviewed for this story say Melgen fits a particular model of naive, high-maintenance donor: the type that expects politicians to help further their business or philosophical interests but don’t know enough about the process to figure out if they’re getting anything for their money.

Let's not forget that Melgen is under federal investigation over a port deal in Latin America and his company's Medicare billing practices. The Senate ethics committee, meanwhile, is probing Menendez's trips on Melgen's plane, and a grand jury is looking into the senator's advocacy on Melgen's behalf, according to the Washington Post.

Even if nothing comes of these probes, the whole affair has been an embarrassment for Menendez. You can bet other politicians with even the faintest connection to Melgen will be distancing themselves from the donor so as to avoid any future stories like Tuesday's Politico item.

Sen. Carl Levin Plans to Grill The IRS Over Dark Money

—By Andy Kroll

| Tue Mar. 19, 2013 8:44 AM PDT

Sen. Carl Levin, right, in the Detroit Red Wings jersey.

In his Tuesday column, the New York Times' Joe Nocera hails Democrat Carl Levin, the tough, irascible senior senator from Michigan who will retire at the end of his sixth term in December 2014. Nocera calls Levin "the Senate's muckraker," and he's right: As the top Democrat on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Levin has probed shady mortgage dealings, the dark world of derivatives, feckless ratings agencies, and more. He famously said "shitty deal" a dozen times during a hearing with Goldman Sachs executives on, well, Goldman's shitty mortgage deals.

At the end of his column, Nocera drops in this juicy detail:

Toward the end of my interview with Levin, he let slip a tantalizing tidbit. Sometime in the next few months, the permanent subcommittee plans to call the Internal Revenue Service to task for allowing the political super PACs to be classified as tax-exempt 501(c)(4)s. "Tax-exempt 501(c)(4)s are not supposed to be engaged in politics," he said. "It is against the law to do so." Then he added, with a certain undeniable relish, "We're going to go after them."

Oh, boy!

Oh, boy, indeed! Finally, someone in power plans to grill the IRS on why it is allowing hundreds of millions of dollars in secret money to flow through supposedly nonpartisan "social welfare organizations" and into our elections. Levin's comments aren't a complete surprise. In his retirement announcement, Levin said his investigative subcommittee will "look into the failure of the IRS to enforce our tax laws and stem the flood of hundreds of millions of secret dollars flowing into our elections, eroding public confidence in our democracy."

We're keenly interested in dark money here at Mother Jones, and as Mother Jones' own dark money reporter—yep, it's there in my bio—I can't wait to see what Levin digs up. Levin and his staff declined multiple interview requests, so you'll just have to keep an eye on this space as the story develops.

Mitch McConnell Will Fundraise With Billionaires After Saying the GOP Is Not The Party of Billionaires

—By Andy Kroll

| Mon Mar. 18, 2013 8:19 AM PDT

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

On Friday, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took a turn on the main stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the groupthinky annual confab for the young and old of the conservative movement. Dressed in a red tie and white-collared blue dress shirt, McConnell attempted to debunk one of the more pernicious myths about the Republican Party. "Don't tell me Republicans are the party of millionaires and billionaires," he said, "when Obama's campaign arm is charging a half-million dollars for a meeting over near the White House." The GOP, he later added, is "not beholden to any special interests."

We're not the party of the rich, McConnell insisted; we're you.

You won't find any objections here to McConnell's jab at "Obama's campaign arm"—a reference, more specifically, to Organizing for Action (OFA), the big-money nonprofit formed out of Obama's reelection campaign. I've written plenty about OFA and its fundraising tactics, namely, reportedly offering donors and fundraisers access to the president and top administration officials in exchange for big bucks.

But let's go back to McConnell's claim that the GOP is not the party of millionaires or billionaires. For a thorough debunking, I defer to none other than Mitch McConnell.

Next week, McConnell and his wife, former Labor secretary Elaine Chao, will fly to Palm Beach, Florida, for a fundraiser at the home of millionaire John Castle, according to the Palm Beach Daily News. Then, after the Castles' fundraiser, Wilbur Ross (net worth $2.6 billion) and his wife, Hilary, will wine and dine McConnell at their house, which is so extravagant that it has its own name, Windsong. (So does the guest house: Windsong Too.) Tickets range from $1,000 to $5,000 for the night's events; to co-chair the event, you've got to pony up $15,000 to $30,000.

McConnell, of course, is in full campaign mode—even though Election Day 2014 is 18 months away and Kentucky Democrats have yet to settle on a challenger. (More on that here.) Indeed, McConnell's fundraising blitz began the very day the 2012 campaign season ended, with a $2,500-a-head dinner hosted by the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Since then, he's raised money at the home of another billionaire—New York City mayoral candidate John Catsimatidis, in January—raised money at lobbying firms, and raised money at an event sponsored by the political action committees for Koch Industries, Home Depot, Capitol One, Amgen, and Delta Airlines—all multibillion-dollar corporations.

Fundraising is McConnell's specialty. As former Sen. Alan Simpson once observed, "When he asked for money, his eyes would shine like diamonds. He obviously loved it." Don't think for a moment McConnell will let his defense of the GOP get in the way of his chase for millionaires' and billionaires' money.

At CPAC, Sarah Palin Has Not Gotten Any Smarter Since Her Disastrous Political Career Ended

—By Andy Kroll

| Sat Mar. 16, 2013 11:15 AM PDT

Sarah Palin rocked a packed ballroom here at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday afternoon. The applause was roaring. The hollers many. The atmosphere crackling. In other words: Dog bites man.

Palin's speech, if you can call it that, was Palin at her most Palinesque: heavy on one-liners and folksy charm; light on, you know, anything resembling substance and solutions. Here, a sampling of Palin's many zingers:

"They talk about rebuilding the party. How about rebuilding the middle class?"

"They talk about rebuilding the GOP? How about restoring the trust of the people?"

"Let's be clear about one thing: We're not here to rebrand a party. We're here to rebuild a country."

"Barack Obama promised the most transparent administration ever. Barack Obama, you lie!"

"Mr. President, we admit it: You won! Now accept it and step away from the teleprompter and do your job."

"Remember no-drama Obama? Now it's all-drama Obama."

"More background checks? Dandy idea, Mr. President. Shoulda started with yours."

"[Obama] is considered a good politician—which is like saying Bernie Madoff was a good salesman."

"We're not here to put a fresh coat of rhetorical paint on our party."

"If you don't have a lobbyist in DC, you are not at the table, you are on the menu."

"Never before have our challenges been so big, and our leaders so small."

"My only advice to College Republicans is: You gotta be thinking Sam Adams, not drinking Sam Adams."

Imagine that for 30-plus minutes and you get the idea. I hesitate to call the above quotes "punchlines." Punchlines follow a wind-up of some kind, an anecdote or an argument. Palin's speech didn't have any of these. The one-liners were the speech.

The closest she came to making a point about the future direction of the fractured Republican Party was to say that "it's time to stop preaching to the choir," a piece of advice offered, as Jon Ward sagely tweeted, to the choir. The closest she came to tackling an issue of importance was to note that the median household income has declined by thousands of dollars since 2007 "even as we work longer and longer hours."

That's right! Also: Data! Economics! Here at Mother Jones, we, too, are concerned about this phenomenon of working longer while earning less. We call it "the Great Speedup." So go on, Sarah, tell us what we should do about the Great Speedup!

Instead, a few moments later, she told a joke having something to do with her "rack." Then she did this:

Dorsey Shaw/Buzzfeed

Yes, that's a Big Gulp. Palin was making a jab at New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's proposed ban on big sugary sodas, which was struck down in court this week. "Bloomberg's not around," Palin said. "Don't worry." And the crowd went wild.

Oh, Sarah. Don't ever change.