Blackwater’s Nay-Sayer in HPSCI: Crazy Pete Hoekstra
You know how Crazy Pete Hoekstra has led the chorus of those who claim Leon Panetta should never have briefed Congress on the secret assassination squads, that the program in question was not that big a deal? To his credit, he’s doing it even now that Blackwater’s role has been revealed.
“I think there was a little more drama and intrigue than was warranted,” said Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.
Um, yeah. It all makes sense why Hoekstra would care about Congressional oversight when the CIA shoots down missionaries but not when CIA pays Blackwater’s mercenaries to assassinate its enemies.
Hoekstra, of course, is very closely tied (and financially reliant upon) the Prince and DeVos families. What he says about investigations into Erik Prince’s company should never be taken as credible.
I will say this though. As we get further and further along, the design of the HPSCI investigation into all this–including the inclusion of that missionary plane to get Crazy Pete’s buy-in–looks smarter every day.
Surprisingly, Crazy Pete hasn’t received as much as I would have expected from either Erik Prince or his mother, Elsa Prince in the way of campaign contributions. They gave far less each year than the maximum, and only three election cycles out of the last six. I suspect the Prince family donates indirectly to Hoekstra by making the maximum to the RNC, the local party apparatus (Ottawa County), or PACs instead, neatly sweeping the money trail.
I’ll link here shortly the spreadsheet I’m putting together in a bit reflecting the top 100 donors for election cycles going back to 1998.
The Princes don’t strike me as the type of people who would limit their donations to the kind that show up on Open Secrets.
Oh no, they aren’t, and yet Elsa doesn’t mind leaving really big footprints for causes she loves, like Prop 8. Just means their footprints are a bit more obscure at times.
If you look at their donations to the local party apparatus and the RNC, you’ll see they peg the amount they can donate. If my local party received that much moola, you can bet it would cause our folks to do backflips. The blase non-reaction from the local apparatus after receiving such sizable donations is a dog not barking.
Oh, and while looking up campaign contribution info I learned something new.
Did not know that Elsa Prince lived in Wapiti, Wyoming prior to 2000.
Smallish world, huh?
Gypsies Tramps and Thieves
i hate them all……..how did all these cretins get into power….argh@#$%^,we need another great flood
The great flood doesn’t reach up high enuff, wait for global warming.
must go shower off all the bad news…….
The CIA has no useful function. Can we start a discussion about the possible way it can be abolished?
Wow. Yesterday many of you were absolutely gushing over Valerie Plame’s incredibly important work and irate that Robert Novak had done such damage to the vital mission of the CIA.
Interesting.
Awful pointy head for such a dull mind you got there.
Good one!
More on Erik Prince: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Prince
and this from Democracy Now this a.m. with Jeremy Scahill (Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army) http://www.democracynow.org/20…..kwater_was
Let’s see…a Mi pyrimiad scheme co takes a bunch of reform school graduates and hillbillies, Michigan Militia, Montana Militia, give them clean military looking clothes and spending money and fancy guns, get a multi-billion dollar contracts from the Bushies all illegal of course,short version.
But of course. Erik’s sister married into the 20th largest donor family for the RNC and Bush/Cheney.
They bought it, they own it, they’re going to do with it whatever their ugly black corporatist hearts desire.
Pete doesn’t need the money. He’s the prototypical safe seat.
The DeVos’s,the Van Andel’s and the Prince’s are the elect. Eric went a bit off the rails perhaps. It will be interesting to see what how the third generations turn out. It’s pretty rare for third generation money not to exhibit dissipation and decay. Then again the Calvinism is pretty pure among this set and if they can keep the kids home, away from Malibu and the Hamptons, Harvard and Yale, they might keep the dynasties going. If not growing at least respectable.
As for gushing about Palme’s work, that work was a waste too. For every non proliferation person there are dozens of pro proliferation people beavering away. To imagine she wasn’t known to everyone in the world whose business is to know such things is touchingly naive. Her exposure was a technical matter having to do with the law. Obviously the law doesn’t really apply in these matters.
Rapier,
Re your comment on Plame:
“Touchingly naive”?
Careful, pal, there are some very hostile people in this neighborhood who will consider that heresy and will accuse you of being paid by KKKarl Rove or someone to write such treachery.
/s/ One who knows