Mike Braun campaign repeatedly violated election rules

The Indianapolis Business Journal has an online feature today about the mutiple violations uncovered in a Federal Election Commission audit.

"Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun improperly gave more than $1 million to his 2018 campaign, and received contributions in excess of legal limits, a federal audit has concluded," IBJ.com reports.

The ethical lapses have been reported by other media as well, including the Daily Beast.

Braun's disingenuous hedge that "he can’t fully answer the government’s questions because one of his key staffers "vanished" falls apart when The Daily Beast notes they found the "missing" staffer "within minutes".

This Indianapolis Observer waits for the next shoe to drop.

GOPer Jim Banks steps in it again

Rude, arrogant, discourteous, stupid, coarse, ill-mannered, ungentlemanly ...pick your adjective. There's no excuse for Banks' boorish behavior toward Dr. Levine.

As noted on Huffpost: "Twitter suspended the account of Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on Saturday for violating its hateful conduct policy after he intentionally misgendered Assistant Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, the nation’s first openly transgender four-star officer and federal official confirmed by the Senate."

If only our elected reps would stop conforming to the Indiana hick stereotype....

Read the article here.

Yet another GOP rep from Indiana caught in lies

According to CNN, "GOP Rep. Jim Banks lamented on the House floor that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi prevented him from serving on the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol on Thursday [21 Oct 2021]. And yet, Banks sent a letter to at least one government agency falsely claiming that he is ranking member of the committee in his signature."

Seriously? He thought he could get away with that blatant lie?

Banks has served as the U.S. Representative for Indiana's 3rd congressional district since 2017.

Read all about his chicanery here: "Liz Cheney calls out Jim Banks".

Quayle finally did something good

Yeah, yeah: we've all made jokes about Dan Quayle's inability to spell potato (and other innocuous gaffes) but this year he did something that might actually have saved the country.

When Mike Pence called him to consult about Donald Trump's efforts to have him nullify the Electoral College vote, Quayle said "nope". The former vice president told Pence he couldn’t throw out the election results in order to keep Trump in power. What a concept!

Here's one place to read all about it: "Dan Quayle Convinced Mike Pence To Ignore Trump’s Decertification Pleas"

As MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell said, "“Wow. Dan Quayle comes to the rescue of the republic.”

Venable's Indy Kiss-Off Gift

Lou Harry notes: "More than the resources, tech, and cost, what’s staggering and saddening about this is that an entire floor of an ART MUSEUM is being devoted to this sideshow, which is to art what an amusement park Laser Floyd show is to an actual Pink Floyd concert."

And, even worse (IMHO) it's just one of 50 such shows on view at the moment. The IMA (excuse me, "Newfields") should rue the day it let Charles Venable reset its focus.

Read the rest of his commentary here..

"The Mike Pence Saga"

Recovering Republican Sheila Kennedy has weighed in on the governor Hoosiers love to hate.

In a column July 1, 2021, she writes: Pence's " balancing act is unlikely to mollify either the crazies who form the base of today’s GOP or anyone who spent four years observing Mike Pence. (It’s especially unlikely to endear him to Indiana voters, who found his preference for pontificating over governing during the prior four years very tiring)."

"Pence never had the respect of anyone other than a few naive fundamentalists."

You can read her whole column here.

Pence is past his "sell by" date

As Bret Stephens writes in The New York Times: "Here’s a guy who makes his career on the Moral Majority wing of the Republican Party, until he hitches his wagon to the most immoral man ever to win a big-ticket presidential nomination."

Hoosiers know he did it to avoid the ignoble result of losing his second bid for governor, but still it was a shock.

"Pence spends four years as the most servile, toadying, obsequious, fawning, head-nodding, yes-sirring, anything-you-say-boss vice president in history," he continues.

"For this, Trump rewards Pence by throwing him to a mob, which tried to hunt him down and hang him."