Archive for July 28th, 2010
Welcome to the program, already in progress: HuffingtonPost and CapitalFax are finally covering the Cook County GOP sex scandal and coverup
Huffington Post and CapitalFax are finally covering the Cook County GOP sex scandal and coverup. That puts them 16 days behind us, as we’ve been on the case since July 12th. Not that we’re keeping count or anything.
We’re just pleased they “get it”, in that this is not just about “The Prophet”, whom Huffington Post (not us) has identified as one Jeremy Rose, and what he did to women in the Chicago Young Republicans organization — this is about Lee Roupas, the Chair of the Cook County GOP, lying in a July 16th email to his committeemen, claiming he did not know about what Rose was up to until June 10th, 2010 (and trying to remove Eloise Gerson from her elected post after she blew the whistle on this whole thing on June 11th, 2010). As we all know, and as two important Chicago attorneys have come forward, on the record, and testified, Roupas was informed of what Rose did back in July of 2009…a FULL YEAR before he admitted having that knowledge.
The Huffington Post piece lifts large parts of this story directly from HillBuzz (but does not, in typical HuffPo style, give us credit…which could be because we make so many Ariana Huffington jokes about straight women who are too dense to know their husbands are gay).
Lee Roupas needs to be removed from his position this week.
There’s just no way the GOP can keep him: he has been proven dead-to-rights to be a liar.
Even if Rose didn’t do the things the complaint states he did, Roupas lied about having information the Committeemen under him asked him directly about. After he lied to them, they were forced to go to their constituents, and the media, and unknowingly lie about all of this as well.
Roupas doesn’t realize it yet, but he ended his political career on July 16th, 2010 with the lies in that email.
We will not drop this story until he is fired, and Eloise Gerson, truthteller, receives an apology from the Illinois GOP for what Roupas tried to do to her. In our opinion, Gerson should be made the Chair of the Cook County GOP…so she would be given Roupas’ position, and afforded the ability to clean house.
Fate, Hera, poetic justice, whatever you want to call it has a nice sense of humor with that outcome: Roupas tries to oust Gerson for bringing the truth to light, Roupas is ultimately destroyed by the truth, Roupas loses his job, and Gerson takes his place.
We like the sound of that turnout.
NOW, this next part is a bridge we didn’t want to come to, and hope we don’t have to cross.
BUT, Illinois State Chair Pat Brady can no longer protect Lee Roupas. Sending out that July 16th, 2010 email, chock full of lies, is a terminable offense for Roupas because it exposed every Committeeman who received it to potentially damaging blowback because Roupas provided them with false information that they then passed on to constituents and the press — making EVERYONE look like liars. That is conduct unbecoming of a County Chair, and Roupas must be relieved of his position because of it.
Pat Brady is one of the best men we have ever met in this world. We worked closely with him (and his wife, who was McCain’s #2 in command here in Illinois) and we think the absolute world of the both of them. If not for the Bradys, we would have never continued our involvement in politics after Hillary Clinton suspended her presidential campaign. We were hesitant to help Republicans, even though we had conservative tendencies, because before the Bradys every Republican we knew had been nasty to us…unapproachable…and pretty much the stereotype the DNC always drilled into us. The Bradys, however, went out of their way to build a connection with us…to rally everyone possible coast to coast to help defeat Obama…and in the process we realized just how much our thinking had in common with the Republican Party. While we’ll never be Republicans, because the corruption in the Cook County GOP is just as bad as in the Democrat ranks, so we feel more comfortable being independents at this point, HillBuzz has evolved into what it is today, with all of you as daily readers, because of the overtures the Bradys made to us way back in the spring of 2008.
We’d give kidneys to these people if they needed them. We love them, and are so grateful to them, and are so inspired by them.
BUT, Pat Brady needs to do the right thing regarding Lee Roupas. As nice of a man as Brady is, and much as Brady likes Roupas and tried to groom him for bigger things, Roupas has lost all credibility and has seriously damaged Republican chances in November.
Pat Brady needs to fire Lee Roupas.
If he won’t, then we need to cross the uncrossable bridge and start advocating for someone to fire Pat Brady and replace him with someone who WILL clean house in Cook County, get rid of Roupas and the other “Romney Guys” frat boys stinking up the place, and prove to the voters of Illinois that there really is a choice to be made in this state: either vote for the corrupt, revolting Democrat party or vote for a party that’s about cleaning up the mess in Illinois and doing the right thing.
If Pat Brady fails to act by the end of this week, then we know he’s not serious about giving voters that choice.
It will break our hearts, and highly disillusion us, but we’ll have to start calling for Brady’s removal at that point.
Here’s what needs to happen, if you have any clout or access to Republican leaders:
(1) Lee Roupas is fired immediately, for lying in that July 16th, 2010 email
(2) Profuse apology is given to Eloise Gerson for Roupas’ attack on her
(3) An investigation is immediately launched into the undue influence multimillionaire Chicago cougar Beth Christie has had on the daily operations and staffing decisions of the Cook County GOP
