Monday, July 12, 2010

Ed Martin Gives Dana Loesch's Husband $2500 Prior to Loesch Attacking His Primary Opponent

Last week, I described how tea party talk show host Dana Loesch publicly freaked out on Republican candidate for House of Representatives John Wayne Tucker. Loesch claimed that allowing Tucker on to her radio show would be the equivalent of "electioneering," despite the fact that she had Tucker's Republican primary opponent, former Matt Blunt Chief of Staff Ed Martin, on her show multiple times. Loesch also blocked Tucker's supporters from commenting on her page on facebook.

Over the weekend, Loesch continued her attack via Twitter. Since the original outburst, Loesch has publicly attacked John Wayne Tucker's character:

She attacked his faith:


And she accused him of "bullying" her (without providing any evidence):


So what would cause Loesch to so publicly violate the Republican's 11th Commandment ("Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican"), when she could have dealt with all of these issues privately. Loesch clearly went out of her way to try to publicly humiliate John Wayne Tucker. Tucker, by the way, denies that he ever requested to be on Loesch's show, and Loesch has not provided any evidence to back up that claim.

I originally thought that this bizarre blowup was just a result of the St. Louis tea party's astroturf relationships with Republican insiders like Ed Martin. However, it turns out that there's another important part of the story. It turns out that Ed Martin had written a $2500 check to Shock City Studios, the business co-owned by Loesch and herLoesch's husband Chris. The check, according to the Federal Election Commission report (page 115), was for video production:

In other words, Ed Martin gave $2,500 to Chris Loesch's business in February. Since that time, Dana Loesch has had Martin on her show but never John Wayne Tucker. And then, a few weeks before the primary, Loesch freaks out publicly, attacking Tucker on her Twitter account, her facebook page, and her radio program.

Now, in the interest of not becoming the very thing I am fighting against by adopting all of the same nasty tactics, let me acknowledge that there may well be a good explanation for all of this. But Loesch has yet to provide any evidence to back up her claims, and the situation certainly looks pretty fishy.

11 comments:

  1. "very Christian-like"...uh, huh, like calling Michael Steele a "butt-sniffer", right Dana?

    The best explanation I can think of is that Shock City has produced videos for the Martin campaign.

    I watched a few videos at his site but there was no indication as to who produced them. Of course, most campaigns only state something like "paid for by Ed Martin for Congress...".

    If Shock City has done no work for the campaign, it looks suspicious. If they have performed work for Martin, then there's a conflict of interest and Loesch should state such whenever Martin is a guest on her program.

    I don't think an explanation either way is forthcoming.

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  2. Listening to Dana is painful. She has no radio voice. The best is when she laughs and snorts. What a goon.

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  3. "Goon" seems a bit harsh, but I've heard other people say they don't like her voice. I personally think her voice is much less problematic than the nonsense she uses it to express.

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  4. I agree with Russ in that if the Martin has paid Shock City for services, there is a conflict of interest there. It seems pretty common sense to me. But my common sense also tells me that insulting candidates publicly and childishly discredits you as a journalist.

    Personally, I think she just isn't very smart.

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  5. Its a total conflict of interest. Something needs to be said about this.

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  6. Dana said in a posting last August on free speech "I’m not going to try to manipulate the market by suppressing his (Bill Maher) free speech simply because I disagree with him".

    Later in the same posting she said "Bottom line: if you can’t handle dissent, you are a pansy. If you can’t handle someone having the same amount of airtime as Keith Olberman or Bill Maher to say things contrary to their talking points, then you need therapy to help you blossom from your arrested development."

    I suppose if you're in the tank for a particular candidate, you simply do not allow opposing views on your forum. Otherwise, go ahead and release "emails where his staffers and lackeys have gone off on me (Dana) for not carrying his water...". Show us the proof where John Wayne Tucker personally attacked you.

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  7. I think she sounds shrill, like the vilified Tea Party organizer Amy Kremer. One thing for sure. She's a "Party first" gal, not a conservative.

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  8. Dave Levine: She's a "Dana first" gal......nothing else.

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  9. So is she calling herself a pansy? I don't know anyone who handles dissent as poorly as she does.

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  10. Hey Adam--minor correction, if you see the RFT bit on this story. Dana is not a co-owner; only her husband. Doesn't make much of a difference, but there you go: http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2010/07/dana_loesch_husband_calls_2500_from_ed_martin_non_story.php

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  11. Thanks progjack, I'll correct the info!

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