Live chat with Dem Strategist DAVE MUDCAT SAUNDERS. [View all]

[Skinner]

Last edited Tue Jul 31, 2012, 03:26 PM - Edit history (3)

The live chat is now over. Thank you to everyone who participated. --Skinner



Democratic Underground is pleased to host an online discussion with Dave "Mudcat" Saunders, a Senior Strategist for the Wayne Powell for Congress Campaign, which is challenging Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Virginia's 7th Congressional District.

Mudcat's candidate, Wayne Powell, is a retired Army Colonel, a small business owner, and a community lawyer. Wayne Powell was born and raised in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. He is running for Congress against Eric Cantor because veterans and working people need someone in Washington who will fight for them. And yes, he can beat Eric Cantor!

Recently, Cantor was caught red-handed, hiding a "spousal" exemption in House Insider Trading bill. Cantor's actions open the door to questions about his spouse's involvement in a Cayman Island hedge fund firm. Below is a piece that Mudcat wrote about the issue in the Huffington Post.

Please post your questions for Mudcat in this thread. He is going to join the discussion sometime around 2 pm ET today. Please be aware that he may not be able to answer every question.

Welcome, Mudcat!


[font size="4"]Mudcat sent me this message to get the discussion started:[/font]

My name is Dave Saunders, but everybody except my mama has always called me Mudcat, and you can, too. I am strategist for Wayne Powell's campaign against Eric Cantor, the worst human being in Washington. Wayne Powell and his positions are easy to explain. He is an expanded Jacksonian Democrat. That means he believes in the two guiding principles of social justice "for all people" (that includes women and gays) and economic fairness "for all people", including the middle class who have suffered so much. He is a social moderate, an economic populist, a retired military intellegence officer (has a son in Afghanistan), a well-spoken lawyer, and crucially, not afraid to loudly shout out Cantor's numerous sins. While we face an uphill battle against unlimited money, he is exactly the type Democrat who can take out Cantor in the 7th District of Virginia, and I can promise you I wouldn't have left SW Virginia if I didn't think it possible.

I'm here today at my request to answer your questions on how we're going to beat this degenerate. The reason I contacted Skinner is because many of your comments have made it to my computer, and I like your style. Simply put, many of you are ready to fight the bastards, and a lot of you are more than ready. I feel at home.

Bring on the questions.

Here is his article from HuffPo...

[font size="4"]"New Information" Is Cantor-ese for "I Got Caught"[/font]
By Dave Mudcat Saunders, Reprinted with permission

When President Obama signed the STOCK Act into law on April 4, it appeared that the country was finally on the road to curbing "insider trading" by members of Congress and their staffs. Members from both sides of the aisle were giddy as they hailed the "Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act" as a move that would restore trust in government by making members and their staffs disclose their stock transactions within 45 days.

However, there were skeptics in the Capitol when it came to those exempted from the Act. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) railed that the Act did nothing to stop the lucrative and un-American industry of unnamed individuals selling "political intelligence" (he called it "political espionage&quot to Wall Street and offshore investment firms. He called for these pirates of "non-public information" to register as lobbyists and disclose to whom they were selling the inside dope. In the House, that provision was stripped out by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, drawing outrage from an emotional Grassley.

And now in a masterful case of investigative journalism, CNN reporters Deidre Walsh and Dana Bash have uncovered even more of Cantor's deceptive and intentional gutting of the Act. Their report revealed a huge discrepancy in the Senate and House Bill... namely, the exemption of spouses and dependent children. The CNN report revealed that the Senate bill did include a provision that covered spouses and children, "but when Cantor's office wrote the House version, this language was shifted to a different section of the bill." Spouses and dependent children were exempted from the House's new reporting requirements.

When CNN first came across this discrepancy in the Senate and House versions, Cantor's office claimed "it did nothing to change the intent of the STOCK Act. But when pressed with the new information uncovered by CNN, the majority leader's office conceded it made changes to the House bill that effectively took out the requirement for spouses and children to file these reports."

Finally, once they knew they were caught, Cantor's office acted like CNN hadn't written down their first answer by saying: "Since new information has been brought to our attention with respect to this discrepancy, we are reviewing our options regarding transaction reports in the House of Representatives."

How could this information be "new" to Cantor? He was the one who changed it and moved it to a different section of the bill.

Cantor's office also told CNN they hadn't figured out when or how to fix it. He's Majority Leader, and he doesn't know when or how? The truth is he could fix it today if he wanted to. He called for 33 different votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and he can't call for a way to eliminate the "spousal and dependent children exemption" from the House version of the STOCK Act?

What is Cantor's motive? There is so much smoke floating around Cantor the Capitol Police should check the batteries in his office's fire alarms. Could it have to do with his own spouse (who he exempted from the House version) being a partner in the investment firm of Alternative Investment Management LLC., a company who deals in hedge funds for "high net worth individuals"?

It is no secret that Cantor was TARP's head cheerleader in the House, and AIM's president and both of the listed partners, including Mrs. Cantor, were formerly with Goldman Sachs (who received $10 billion in the bailout). According to Cantor's financial disclosure form, Mrs. Cantor at the time was with New York Private Bank & Trust who also received $267 million in the bailout. Of note, NYPBT is one of the top 10 banks who haven't paid back a dime to American taxpayers.

Also, SEC filings show that Mrs. Cantor's investment firm, Alternative Investment Management LLC., has a hedge fund in the Cayman Islands with assets of $134,570,536. While she is listed as a partner in AIM, Mrs. Cantor is not listed on any SEC filings. This raises two very serious questions. Is somebody trying to hide her name? Is her only job to sell political intelligence? Since his spouse is a named partner in AIM, a moron can see that Cantor obviously appears to ahve a personal financial stake and conflict in "spousal exemption," and with it, offshore tax games.

Dave "Mudcat" Saunders is a senior strategist for Wayne Powell (D), who is running for Virginia's 7th Congressional District against Rep. Eric Cantor (R).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-mudcat-saunders/cantor-stock-act-exceptions_b_1705142.html