Dick Armey's Departure from Freedom Works Turns Nasty

Koch Brothers better watch out!  Will their underhanded tactics during the election catch up with them?

Would have bet there was more to the Dick Armey leaving Freedom Works then what we were first told.  Remember this is the same Dick Armey when during the Clinton Monicagate he had this to say:

As the Los Angeles Times described the scene:

... the jam-packed room burst into raucous laughter as one reporter prefaced a question about the Lewinsky scandal by saying, "If you were in the president's position ..."  Armey didn't miss a beat.  "If I were, I would be looking up from a pool of blood and hearing my wife say, "How do I reload this thing?""

I will never forget his quote and realized that he was an honest person -- you don't find many in DC who will stand on principle.  An example is how he took after James Dobson from Focus on the Family:

Armey also feuded with Focus on the Family leader James Dobson in his later terms in office. Armey wrote, "As Majority Leader, I remember vividly a meeting with the House leadership where Dobson scolded us for having failed to 'deliver' for Christian conservatives, that we owed our majority to him, and that he had the power to take our jobs back. This offended me, and I told him so." Armey states that Focus on the Family targeted him politically after the incident, writing, "Focus on the Family deliberately perpetuates the lie that I am a consultant to the ACLU." Armey has also said that "Dobson and his gang of thieves are real nasty bullies."

Wish Armey had become Speaker as I thought he made an outstanding Majority Leader.  When he took over as head of Freedom Works, it made no sense because Armey isn't the type of guy to take orders from the Koch Brothers.  It finally got to him and the real truth came out.  It is the secrecy of the origins of cash donations to the Freedom Works PAC which he knew nothing about.  I would bet there is a lot more and if I were the Koch Brothers, I might be very concerned that he will spill everything he knows about the operation or actually report how secretive the Koch Brothers operation really is.

Now you can say I have put on my tin foil hat.  Did the Koch's hire Senator Jim DeMint who is not known as the most ethical Senator to use his clout to take on Armney for the Koch's.  Jim DeMint is a liar as we saw when he promised the Republican conference he wouldn't primary incumbents but did just that e.g. Richard Lugar.   If that is the case, I am buying tickets for that match and my money is on Dick Armey.

Mother Jones with David Corn has done an excellent job this election cycle of digging for the facts and finding them.  The election may be over but they are still digging.  Very impressive organization that make sure they have the facts even when stirring the pot.  I can just see the 'cat that swallowed the canary' look on David Corn he gets on TV as he reports on Armey's break with Freedom Works.  Looking forward to seeing more details:

Dick Armey: "This Kind of Secrecy Is Why I Left" FreedomWorks
—By David Corn| Fri Dec. 7, 2012 1:42 PM PST 

The Sunlight Foundation, a group that pushes for more transparent politics and policymaking, on Friday reported that federal records show that two mystery companies in September donated over $12 million to the super PAC of FreedomWorks, the tea party-supporting organization that this week was rocked by the abrupt resignation of its chairman, Dick Armey, the former Republican House majority leader. These contributions accounted for more than half of the $23.2 million the group raised for the 2012 campaign, and they came from two shadowy Knoxville-Tennessee-based firms—Specialty Group, Inc., and Pike Development LLC—that publicly have no reason to exist other than apparently to make contributions and mask the true source of the money. Moreover, Armey tells Mother Jones that he knew nothing about the donations or the origins of the cash and that he quit FreedomWorks partly because of a lack of transparency. 

(snip)

Mother Jones then reached Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks (whom Armey has accused of misappropriating FreedomWorks resources for his own personal benefit), and asked if it was unusual for the chairman of an outfit to be in the dark about half of the group's funding. "Well, we have 81,000 individual donors," Kibbe replied. Indeed, but only two donations that account for over $12 million. Nothing curious about Armey not being in-the-know? "It's not unusual," Kibbe said. He continued: "I don't know about these [donations]. It's the first time I've heard." 

This seemed even more bizarre. Would Kibbe not know where half of the money for his group's super PAC came from? In fact, in September, Associated Press reported:

A shadowy Tennessee company donated more than $5 million to a prominent conservative super political action committee days after establishing itself…Campaign finance reports filed late Thursday show that the political committee, FreedomWorks for America, received seven donations totaling $5.28 million from Knoxville-based Specialty Group Inc. The money, which accounted for about 90 percent of FreedomWorks for America's donations during the first 15 days of October, is helping pay for TV ads supporting conservative candidates for federal office.

That money helped underwrite a massive $1.5 million television ad buy targeting Democrat Tammy Duckworth who was challenging Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), a leading tea partier. At the time, a FreedomWorks spokesman declined to comment, and the registered owner of Specialty Group, William S. Rose, stayed mum, as well. (The money didn't help; Duckworth won the race.) 

When asked how he could not be aware of these hefty donations, Kibbe requested that he be sent the Sunlight Foundation article and said, "I'm not supposed to comment before reading."
Armey's bad-blood departure from FreedomWorks—which yielded him an $8 million payout—has created a bigtime dustup. And the group's big secrets may well be in jeopardy.

Source:  David Corn at Mother Jones