INTRO MUSIC : “The Rockford Files Theme” as performed by John Gregory & his Orchestra
Philip Blumel: Happy Birthday, team. Hi, I’m Philip Blumel. Welcome to the 52nd episode of No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the term limits movement for the week of August 12th, 2019.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from partisan politics.
Philip Blumel: Nick Tomboulides and I dedicate the one-year anniversary of our weekly show to all of you who followed the headlines, controversies, and breakthroughs of the movement via this podcast each week, and our move to take action. Thank you.
Philip Blumel: But of course, the episode must also recognize those who inspire us in quite a different way. That’s right. The career politicians and their lobbyists, their lackeys, and their lapdogs. Take it away!
Nick Tomboulide: The politicians are real. The corruption is real. The awards are fake. Welcome to sthe first Scammys, the only award show to celebrate the rotten and villainous behavior of career politicians. Brought to you by our sponsor, U.S. Term limits. Now, let’s throw it over to the red carpet where our own Fannie Packer is standing by to hopefully snag some interviews with politicians before the show. Fanny?
“Fanny”: Oh, oh, oh, I’m here on the red carpet with Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders. Bernie, whose clothes are you’re wearing?
“Bernie”: Oh, someone else’s actually.
“Fanny”: Beautiful. Beautiful. Who’s that? Oh, oh! It’s Don Young, longest serving member of the U.S. House, 46 years in office, and running for another term. Don, who are you wearing?
“Don Young”: Huh?
“Fanny”: My God. Don Young has been in office so long his first chief-of-staff was Moses. Back to you guys.
Nick Tomboulides: Thanks for your service, Fanny. Now I’ll be joined by Phil Blumel and we will roll into our first Scammy award.
Philip Blumel: Hello, everyone.
Nick Tomboulides: First Award is best performance in screwing over the voters. I think that’s pretty self-explanatory.
Philip Blumel: Well, best performance in screwing over the voters. Okay, what do we got?
Nick Tomboulides: This one will not go to a person. This will go to a government body that has reached unique heights of sleaze, corruption, and underhandedness.
Philip Blumel: Okay.
Nick Tomboulides: Your nominees are the Arkansas state legislature for passing a bill titled, “Ethics and Transparency,” that actually tricked voters into repealing term limits and giving legislators a 150% pay hike.
Philip Blumel: Ah, bait and switch.
Nick Tomboulides: The County Commission of Pinellas Florida for refusing to put term limits in their county charter even after 73% of voters approved it.
Philip Blumel: Unbelievable.
Nick Tomboulides: The Metro Council of Nashville, Tennessee for trying a fifth time to repeal their term limits and failing once again.
Philip Blumel: Five times?
Nick Tomboulides: And finally, the City Council of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida for merely existing and being filled to the brim with corrupt miscreants. Phil?
Philip Blumel: Yes, Nick?
Nick Tomboulides: Any analysis? Who do you think is the favorite to take this one home? Best performance in screwing over the voters?
Philip Blumel: I’ll tell you what, there’s been a lot of politicians across America and a lot of government bodies that have worked very, very hard to win this award. I think you’ve nailed down some of the best or worst performers, depending on how you want to look at it.
Philip Blumel: And there’s certainly a case for all of these. I’ve got to tell you that the idea that voters in Nashville, with a overwhelming percentage of the vote, passed term limits with an initiative, and to have politicians almost every other cycle come out and try to overturn them, spend the money to spend the time to basically re-fight the same battles at their own expense. You got admit, Nick, that is pretty egregious.
Nick Tomboulides: It is. It is. But I happen to feel that the Arkansas legislature is the favorite on this one because they have really, really set a record for shamelessness, in my opinion, with this effort to change term limits in Arkansas from six years to 16 years in one seat. The way they did it was just unbelievably duplicitous.
Nick Tomboulides: See, the people of Arkansas have always loved term limits. In 1992, they passed it with about 70% of the vote. In 2004, when the politicians tried to double the limits, the people rejected that with about 70% of the vote again.
Nick Tomboulides: So what happened a few years ago was the politicians in Arkansas went into the smoke-filled rooms and they said, “How can we trick the voters? If we tell voters we’re repealing term limits, it’s never going to fly, so we need a scheme of the worst proportions to make this happen.”
Nick Tomboulides: They cooked up something called the Arkansas Ethics Transparency and Financial Reform Amendment. It was a 20-
Philip Blumel: Sounds good.
Nick Tomboulides: It was a 22 page monstrosity, constitutional amendment, festooned with goodies, and not until page 15 do you learn that what this bill really does is essentially repeal term limits and give legislators the ability to increase their own pay.
Nick Tomboulides: So the voters didn’t know what was happening. They had no clue. They weren’t aware of the fact that this had anything to do with term limits. They said, “Ethics, transparency, reform, that sounds great. Let’s vote for it.”.
Nick Tomboulides: It passed with 54% of the vote. They got to repeal term limits. They got the pay hike. And since that past, there’ve been seven Arkansas state legislators responsible for the amendment who have been convicted of bribery or fraud, including the mastermind of the amendment, the senator named John Woods. He’s doing 18 years in prison for money laundering and masterminding kickback schemes.
Philip Blumel: Wow.
Nick Tomboulides: So, I think that has to be up there, in terms of-
Philip Blumel: That’s going to be hard to beat. That’s going to be a hard one to beat. But then again, let’s look at Pinellas County, Florida.
Philip Blumel: Back in 1996, 73% of Pinellas voters voted for an eight year term limits law. It was to go into effect in January 1st, 1997, but the Pinellas county government never inserted the language into the charter because they felt that it was unconstitutional, even though no court had said so. Now, there was a court in another county that had made some tangential ruling that they leaned on to do this, but they said, “It’s unconstitutional. We’re not putting it in.”. So, eight years later, it did not go into effect.
Philip Blumel: Well, a few years later, the Supreme Court of Florida finally ruled in on this, weighed in on this, and said that, yes, county commission term limits in this state are constitutional and they always have been. So, some of the counties that had not been enforcing their term limits started enforcing their term limits. Except for one: Pinellas County, Florida. And their argument, “It was never put in the charter,” but they never put it in the charter because they said it was unconstitutional. When it was ruled that it was constitutional they said, “Well, it’s not in the charter.” Try to beat that, Nick.
Nick Tomboulides: I don’t know if I can. And with that, I’m going to open the envelope right now. The envelope, please.
Philip Blumel: I can’t wait.
Nick Tomboulides: And the Scammy for best performance in screwing over the voters goes to: Pinellas county, Florida!
Philip Blumel: Oh, Pinellas County, Florida.
Nick Tomboulides: Wow.
Nick Tomboulides: Step right up. Claim your Scammy and get pelted with tomatoes.
Philip Blumel: I’m going to have to say it right here and right now, Pinellas County, Florida is the most corrupt county in the U.S. of A.
Nick Tomboulides: Absolutely. And you know what’s so great about this? They’re … Well, not really great. It’s actually terrible. There are still several county commissioners from Pinellas who are serving on that board in defiance of the voters’ will. They were elected after term limits were passed. They’ve served way more than the eight years that voters approved. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to take this Scammy, we’re going to stick it in a brown paper bag with some dog doo, light it on fire, and leave it on their stoop.
Philip Blumel: Excellent plan.
Scott Tillman: Hi, this is Scott Tillman, the National Field Director with US term limits. In Mississippi, they have odd-year elections and the primary election was this past week. 28 candidates who have signed pledges to support Congressional term limits will be moving forward. 12 go into runoffs. 16 go into the general election. One other candidate is in a race that was too close to call and is having a recount.
Scott Tillman: This week, we had 25 incumbents sign the pledge at NCSL, the National Conference of State Legislatures. If you have access to a candidate, please ask them to sign our pledge. Pledges are available at termlimits.com.
Nick Tomboulides: Our next Scammy is the best of the worst. This is the Scammy for best actor.
Philip Blumel: Best actor?
Nick Tomboulides: It’s a little bit tongue-in-cheek. It goes to the politician with the worst excuse for breaking his or her term limits pledge. So, what we’re looking for is the best of the worst. We’re looking for the biggest liar when it comes to cynical politicians who promise voters one thing and then do another once they get into office.
Philip Blumel: How did we narrow down the field to just a couple for this award?
Nick Tomboulides: Well, there were so many. There were literally thousands of dishonest politicians who had, you know, taken and broken term limits pledges that I had to actually cast lots to find four.
Philip Blumel: Okay.
Nick Tomboulide: So, here we are. I think these four probably are the most egregious, but arguments can be made.
Nick Tomboulides: Congressman Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma for his role in, “God told me to break my term limits pledge.”.
Philip Blumel: That’s a good one.
Nick Tomboulides: State Senator Gary Stubblefield of Arkansas, who claims someone else snuck in and pushed the button to vote against term limits.
Philip Blumel: Wow.
Nick Tomboulides: Maine Senator Susan Collins for promising in 1996 to serve two terms and is now running for a fifth term, claiming that her seniority in Washington is very important. Susan Collins would have been out 10 years ago if she had followed through with her term limits pledge.
Nick Tomboulides: And finally, Arizona State Representative Diego Rodriguez, bringing this into the current day, for pledging to support term limits on Congress, but voting against it on the House floor. Most of all, Rodriguez gave no excuse for his actions. How are you handicapping this one?
Philip Blumel: Wow. This is a tough one. And I mean, all these people are so low. You know, how much lower can you get than the floor? You know? So … You know, God told him to do it. That might require a little explanation.
Nick Tomboulides: Apparently, according to Markwayne Mullin, God is fond of dishonest behavior. That’s not what I was taught going to Sunday school.
Philip Blumel: I recall that the way that this came about was that he had put a lot of thought and prayer into this. Him and his wife got together and they actually did a little video in which they opened their hearts to us and they said, “You know, we really thought about this and we decided to break the pledge after consulting with each other and God, and this is what decision we came to.” So, I mean, beat that, please.
Nick Tomboulides: Well, let’s find out right now I’m going to open the envelope.
Philip Blumel: Oh, okay.
Nick Tomboulides: And the Scammy for best actor goes to: Markwayne Mullin.
Philip Blumel: Markwayne Mullin!
Nick Tomboulides: The man with two first names, and the man with two broken term limits pledges. He didn’t just break the pledge he made claiming he would step down after three terms. He also broke the pledge he made to sponsor the US Term Limits Amendment. So I think at the moment you do that, at the moment you become twice as dishonest as everybody else, that really sealed your fate. How could we give it to anyone else?
Philip Blumel: Good choice.
Nick Tomboulides: Now we’re going to play a clip of Markwayne Mullin saying that his constituents don’t pay his salary and he’s a great public servant. Please. Thank you.
Markwayne Mullin: Actually, I’m going to address two things. One, you said you paid for me to do this. Bull crap. I pay for myself. I paid enough taxes before I ever got there and continue to within my company to pay my own salary. This is a service. No one here pays me to go. I do it as an honor-
Speaker 11: Pays you to go where?
Markwayne Mullin: … And a service.
Speaker 12: But that’s salary. I help pay-
Markwayne Mullin: I’m just saying, I’m just saying-
Speaker 11: Pays you to go where?
Markwayne Mullin: Don’t, don’t … This is a service for me, not a career, and I thank God this isn’t how I make a living.
Speaker 11: Oh, please!
Nick Tomboulides: And now, the award nobody has been waiting for. We’re bringing in a special guest to present this one. Fresh off his Covfefe World Tour, the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
“Donald Trump”: Thank you bigly for this honor. You look at what’s happening. The economy is doing huge. No obstruction, no collusion. I am tremendously great. Believe me. Many, many people are saying I belong on Mount Rushmore. Many are saying it. I’m not saying it personally, but others have said this about me.
“Donald Trump”: So it is my honor to be here for … Wait. What is this again?
Philip Blumel: The Scammy Awards, Mr. President.
“Donald Trump”: The what?
Philip Blumel: The Scammy Awards.
“Donald Trump”: Oh, geez. Okay. I’ve never heard of that before, frankly, but I will tell you this. I have a great relationship with the Scammys and with US term limits. We’re going to put career politicians on the other side of the wall and leave them there. I don’t have any time for this, so I’m just gonna present whatever this award is to myself because there is nobody better than me at anything. Good night.
Philip Blumel: Thank you, Mr. President.
Nick Tomboulides: He took the award and went home, but we’re going to power through this anyway.
Philip Blumel: All right.
Nick Tomboulides: Phil, I’ll do the honors?
Philip Blumel: Please.
Nick Tomboulides: The nominees for Most Corrupt Politician are: 24 year Congresswoman Corrine Brown, now a federal inmate who went to prison for stealing from a fake charity she started in the name of giving scholarships to underprivileged youth. She went on shopping sprees, rented luxury NFL skyboxes, went to Beyonce concerts, and from time-to-time would just get direct ATM cash.
Nick Tomboulides: Second nominee: 34 years Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, for shutting down efforts to force members of Congress to pay their own sexual harassment suits instead of sticking taxpayers with the bill.
Nick Tomboulides: 10 Year Congressman Duncan Hunter for stealing and spending a quarter of a million bucks in campaign funds to finance a lavish lifestyle and five extramarital affairs.
Nick Tomboulides: And finally, 29 year Congresswoman Maxine Waters, using her office to enrich her family through sophisticated kickback schemes. This might be the toughest one yet.
Philip Blumel: Wow. It sure is. Wow. Where do we even begin with these guys? Let’s take them in the order you threw them out there to us.
Nick Tomboulides: Maxine Waters is an interesting one. That’s not one I’ve heard about before, but apparently Maxine Waters has been using her power, using her clout, to siphon money out of her campaign and into the pockets of her family members. What’s up with that, Phil?
Philip Blumel: Well, I’ll tell you what, she’s been accused of a very long list of these type of violations going all the way back to 2006, in fact. She’s been given awards from citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington crew, which is sort of a lefty, honest government outfit.
Philip Blumel: Basically, what she does is she looks for any way that she can to funnel money to her family. For instance, she has her daughter, Karen, that runs an outfit that does mailings for Waters. The LA Times reported in a different case that a Water’s relatives pocket more than a million dollars over the course of eight years from businesses and political campaigns that were in some way connected to the Congresswoman.
Philip Blumel: And in fact, she was charged in 2010 with violations of the House ethic rules after it was reported that she had used her connections to insure a $12 million federal bailout of one United Bank, which had contributed heavily to her campaign in which her husband owned stock.
Nick Tomboulides: Wow.
Philip Blumel: So, I mean, this is the kind of a behavior that we’ve seen from her over the years. She’s apparently gotten very good at it.
Nick Tomboulides: Yeah, and she didn’t even get a slap on the wrist for that, right?
Philip Blumel: No. She blamed it on her son, and of course, a member of the family, and he took the reprimand. That’s right. And by the way, it was just a reprimand. So she’s gotten really good at this. Good enough, I think, that she might deserve a Scammy.
Nick Tomboulides: Yeah. I think that says a lot about not just how much corruption there is in Congress, but the culture of these guys covering for one another, giving each other political cover instead of exposing the bad actors.
Nick Tomboulides: You know, I’d be a lot more okay with dealing with some small instances of corruption if I knew that there would be some accountability, some consequence, some penalty for it, but that just doesn’t exist in Washington DC.
Nick Tomboulides: That brings me to Mitch McConnell. A lot of people don’t think about Mitch McConnell in terms of corruption, but what was uncovered in the last couple of years was really shocking, that Congress had been keeping a secret slush fund of taxpayer money, a hush fund, to make sure that when members of Congress got in trouble for sexual harassment, that they would not have to pay those settlements, pay those claims, out of their own pocket, that they could instead stick taxpayers with the bill.
Nick Tomboulides: I talked to Ron DeSantis about this. He’s a former Congressman. He’s now the Governor of Florida. He filed the bill to bring these settlements to light and to hold these people accountable. It didn’t see the light of day in Congress. And DeSantis told me that when he was elected, they didn’t even tell him that this fund existed. The leadership were keeping it secret because they knew if the public ever found out about it, it would be a massive scandal. And in fact, it is.
Nick Tomboulides: And Mitch McConnell’s-
Philip Blumel: Right. The public did find out about it.
Nick Tomboulides: Yeah.
Philip Blumel: I think it was as a result of Representative John Conyers, Michigan Democrat, who utilize the fund and it came to light again, and the media went crazy about it for I guess a week or so. It seemed to have gone away and I guess it’s still there.
Nick Tomboulides: Yeah, exactly. And I think Mitch McConnell’s hands are not clean because when this happened, every single female senator signed a letter to Mitch McConnell basically saying, “Mitch, we’re not going to tolerate this anymore. This is unacceptable. From now on, if members of Congress have committed sexual harassment, they need to pay that settlement out of their own pockets. They can’t stick the taxpayers with it.”.
Nick Tomboulides: They signed a letter and they said, “We demand action on this immediately,” and Mitch McConnell ignored it. Never saw the light of day. And I think-
Philip Blumel: Wow.
Nick Tomboulides: … The fact that he condones such a broken system, the fact that he condones a system covers up for this kind of misbehavior, it really makes a very strong case for him winning this award.
Nick Tomboulides: Duncan Hunter is another contender. You know, we’ve covered him on this broadcast extensively. Instead of using his campaign money to, you know, campaign, he just went on a spending binge. He and his wife were living way above their means. $14,000 vacation to Italy, $1,300 on video games, $600 for the pet rabbit to fly across the country in first class. He was spending money he didn’t have faster than he could raise it.
Philip Blumel: Yep. And it wasn’t just him and his wife.
Nick Tomboulides: No. What we didn’t find out until recently is that he was using the money to carry on five extramarital affairs. And he was also trying to start a sixth affair with a staffer who’s now accusing him of groping. So, Duncan Hunter is a dirt bag. All of this was known about him when he ran for reelection in 2018, so you’d think, Wow. Despite the power of incumbency, this guy’s going to get thrown out, right?
Nick Tomboulides: Uh-uh (negative), he won reelection by an overwhelming margin because the power of incumbency is so strong.
Philip Blumel: It’s that great.
Nick Tomboulides: No matter how big of a dirt bag you are, without term limits, you can still get reelected.
Philip Blumel: Right. Well, at least we’re not gonna lose that valuable experience that he’s amassed while he’s been in the Congress.
Nick Tomboulides: Now it’s time to give out this Scammy, which might be the most prestigious of all. In fact, I think this should be called the Prestigious Orange Jumpsuit Scammy.
Nick Tomboulides: Wow … It’s not the winner of the Scammy in this envelope.
Philip Blumel: What?
Nick Tomboulides: It’s the list of Congressmen who committed sexual harassment.
Philip Blumel: Oh, wow.
Nick Tomboulide: No, I’m just kidding. Mitch McConnell hasn’t released that yet, and that’s why Mitch McConnell is the winner of the Scammy for Most Corrupt Politician. Congratulations, Mitch.
Philip Blumel: Wow, congratulations. He’s really reached the pinnacle of power. He’s the Senate majority leader and now a recipient of the top Scammy award, the Orange Jumpsuit Award.
Nick Tomboulides: He’s got nowhere to go from here, but he’s still running for reelection in 2020. So, we will see how that goes. It’s unfortunate that you don’t leave Washington, but for a retirement, indictment, or death, because there are no term limits on Congress.
Philip Blumel: Not yet.
Philip Blumel: Well, I hope you enjoyed that as much as we did. Next week, we’ll return to the serious business of fixing Congress. By the way, do you follow your states’ Facebook page? Next time you’re on Facebook, type in the name of your state and the words, “Term limits,” in the search bar, and the page will come up.
Philip Blumel: Please like the page or go to termlimits.com/facebookstates, and just click on your state on the map. While you’re on the page, be sure to share it with your Facebook network. Thanks for sticking with us through our first year of the podcast. We’ll be back next week.
Stacey Selleck: The revolution isn’t being televised. Fortunately, you have No Uncertain Terms podcast.
Philip Blumel: U.S. term limits.
Nick Tomboulides: Now, Phil, this is a somber moment at the Scammys. Let us pay tribute now to those who have left us: Honesty, Decency, Truth, Wisdom, Intelligence, Fidget Spinners. Thank you.
MUSIC CREDITS – Full versions of the music sampled during this podcast may be purchased via iTunes at the following links : “The Rockford Files Theme” as performed by John Gregory & his Orchestra
The “No Uncertain Terms” podcast is produced by Duke Decter for U.S. Term Limits
Executive Producer Philip Blumel (President, U.S. Term Limits)