Is The GOP At The Make S**t Up Stage With Walz?

It’s no secret that Trump and the GOP are on their heels these days. The whole strategy was to paint President Biden as old and feeble and Trump just spouting off insults now and then, made too many including in the media think HE was still young and vigorous. Now people in general, and even sometimes (not nearly often enough) journalists are starting to see and talk about Trump the way they did Biden. Kamala Harris is younger, smarter, far more energetic and also has charisma. Trump knows his TV and he can see that all too plainly. Tim Walz, the Democratic VP nominee is the same. Walz is also 20 years younger but seems both older yet far more youthful and vigorous than his 60 years on this earth. Team Trump has tried to attack him but as with Harris it’s not seeming to have much effect. Now it seems like they might have decided to invent scandals or take some WTF complex matter and try to blow it up into something big.

I’ve been too angry today to write something coherent about the attacks the GOP is making on Walz’s military service. Still, for the moment their increasing effort to ‘Swift Boat’ Waltz aren’t having the same effect that was the case with John Kerry twenty years ago. Trump on the phone praising Gov. Walz during the riots after the death of George Floyd took the wind out of the sails of THAT line of attack. He got elected to Congress from a red district and re-elected five times before running for and winning the Governorship of Minnesota so it’s damned tough to attack his ability to work across the aisle and to have voters back home see that. Oh, they’ve tried but THAT hasn’t proven fruitful either.

Tim Walz comes across like dad, grandad and Coach because that’s exactly what his life has been. And he also served honorably for over two decades in the National Guard. Tim Walz has lived a life of service to his family, his neighbors, his community, his state and his country. He literally has been the neighbor all of us would want to have, the person we’d love to have a beer with, our teacher and/or our coach. And even our NCO looking out for the troops under his charge while in the National Guard. That’s an awful lot to try and tear down but the GOP seems determined to do just that.

I’m sure Team Trump won’t give up on any of those lines of attack that haven’t worked but earlier I saw an article from Fox suggesting a new front in the ‘War on Waltz.’ If Swift Boating him won’t cripple his image then maybe giving him the Hunter Biden treatment will.  Take something that is pretty technical and that Walz doesn’t personally manage but paint a picture that’s misleading and blow it up into a LOOK AT THIS type of thing.

Fox’s story is sourced by a lawyer named Edward Siedle who has over time built up a successful practice going after public pension funds, or more precisely those who manage them. Perhaps it’s coincidence that whistleblowers who turn out to provide accurate information that fraud or mismanagement in fact took place get nicely compensated. Perhaps his motives are genuine. I did some looking and don’t see any obvious Republican connections. Still, Walz’s name was being floated as a possible VP pick back in July and you won’t find a state out there without some teacher (or someone in another field where their state runs their pension) with a complaint.  So Siedle checked and found at least one and filed himself a whistleblower complaint.

Siedle had talked to the NY Post (ok, that’s a flashing red sign) and used some eye popping language calling the Minnesota Teacher’s fund a sort of (Benie) Madhoff Miracle since Walsh has been Governor.  The Fox article notes that Walz, who is after all Governor has been serving as chairman of the Minnesota State Retirement System since January 2019, and that the system oversees $140 billion in state employee funds, including $28.2 billion for teachers, the outlet reported.  Basically, it’s one of the kinds of things that are part of Governor’s duties.  Few are actual professional financial managers with the kinds of investments actual pension fund people make. However, for someone who wants to paint a proverbial picture it can, like some “hard drive from a laptop” of questionable provenance that passed through who knows how many unknown hands before finally being handed in to the FBI something that can be blown up into a scandal.

As for Siedle as I’ve stated he does have a record of winning some large settlements.  However, if he’s running to outlets like the NY Post or Fox I’m a wee bit skeptical he’s got any “there” there with his accusations. Especially as he says this:

“I don’t know if the man had any pre-existing knowledge of finance or pensions, but as chairman, he should have educated himself,” Siedle said. “Pension board members have a fiduciary duty to monitor fees, and to ensure that the investments’ performance is accurately disclosed.”

Uh, Mr. Siedle that’s what a Governor has experts in finance that art part of a given state’s government are there to do. And unless I’m mistaken outside auditors check on things each year. I know that was the case when I worked in a management position in a local government twenty plus years ago.  The fact is, with any public official who’s spent a fair amount of time in elective office it’s easy to find some “issue” or a disgruntled person. Blowing it up into a BFD, especially without a LOT of solid evidence first smacks of political game playing. Col. Alexander Vindeman literally had the goods when he blew the whistle on Trump’s attempt to extort the new President of Ukraine. Phone logs, transcripts and corroborating witnesses ready to back him up.

On the other hand think about that whole situation. Trump wasn’t extorting Zelenskyy to mount an ACTUAL investigation into Biden. No, he was just fine with Zelenskyy merely announcing one. The he (Trump) and his team would take it from there and blow it up into a big deal.  I can’t help but wonder if this stuff about the Minnesota teacher’s pension is a variation on the same thing. With less than three months to go until the election, the GOP and Right Wing news outlets don’t need any actual evidence of wrongdoing. Just flooding the news with bogus crap like Biden’s “corruption” and Hunter’s Laptop is actually all they need. Weapons of Mass DISTRACTION.

So, on this Saturday night I think it’s fair to ask: Is the GOP actually so desperate at this point to just make sh*t up?  I don’t know how desperate they actually are at this point but they sure as hell are worried enough to be sh*tting bricks. And it’s not like they don’t have a long and sordid history of just making sh*t up to distract from their own problems.

So far the Harris Rapid Response Team has been fairly good at keeping things under control. However my spidey senses are telling me that Rapid Response Team needs to be beefed up and in a hurry.

*** Update ***

I was doing some late night news browsing. I should have thought of this earlier when writing this article but it’s a given that during vetting Eric Holder’s team did a deep dive into the finances of Waltz and the other finalists. However, the fact Walz has spent the past almost twenty years as an elected official means his financial statements are a matter of PUBLIC RECORD. It’s clear the guy Fox his giving star treatment to knows how to look all that up. Funny how he failed to mention what this article tonight from Business Insider shows. Walz has the lowest net worth of any modern VP candidate:

According to financial disclosures reported by The Washington Post, Walz and his wife, Gwen, earned $166,000 in 2022. This includes income earned from renting out a room in their Washington, DC, townhouse, the outlet reported, and Walz’s $115,485 annual salary for his role as governor.

Previous Business Insider reporting shows that Walz is just above the average middle-class American’s salary band.

At 60 years old, his net worth — $330,000, per Forbes — is less than the median American citizen’s of his age

Funny how Siedle is painting a picture of a corrupt public official, one who along with his wife is a retired teacher who contributed to that very same pension fund the GOP wants to now say he’s “mismanaging” (the countdown clock on when they will accuse Walz of “skimming” from it has started) and has a net worth LESS than most teachers and public officials his age/generation have!  I’d say it’s looking more and more like a smear job.  And one Walz himself can fairly effectively turn back on the GOP with a ‘My finances are public record. Where the hell is all this money they claim I’ve stolen?  I sure as hell don’t see it in my bank account!’ or something similar. He’ll come out looking even better. In fact, it could pre-empt a lot of new attacks. If Walz himself debunks this and whacks the GOP in the gonads doing so the public WILL remember it. Which means new ‘OMFG!’ smears from the GOP will be met with skepticism from the public at large.