April 12, 2008 06:06 PM UTC

Today's "Sweatshop Schaffer" Report

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• by: DavidThi808

And the bad news keeps on coming for Bob. What’s amazing is there is no real damage control coming from the Schaffer campaign. Their whole approach seems to be refuse to talk about it and it’ll go away.

That approach worked so well for Allen’s “Macaca moment” that I can see why Dick Wadhams is choosing to follow the same playbook here. (Do you get the feeling that instead of a playbook Wadhams may just have a playsheet?)

Major update below In addition, Bob you can clear this up a lot if you would please answer 3 basic questions about this.

First we have yesterday’s Post article. This is the most damaging because this is where most people go for their serious in depth news.

And it leads with:

At two key moments in the political life of Benigno Fitial – governor of the Northern Mariana Islands and a powerful former ally of now-jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff – then-Congressman Bob Schaffer was among several Republican U.S lawmakers who stepped in to lend their support,…

Schaffer has also left himself open to being politically destroyed if anyone can find a photo of him meeting Abramoff. In a comment similiar to Hillary’s Sarajevo sniper story (do these politicians all go to the same oracle for bad advice?) he said:

I have had no contact with the individuals in the story, particularly Jack Abramoff,” Schaffer said. “It’s a matter of fiction. That’s all I’m going to say about it.”

And then this beauty talking to KREX – talk about looking guilty (Bob – running away makes you look guilty, not innocent):

And finally, Talking Points Memo is running with this story big time including the following major inconsistency.

Original statement:

“There were some examples of problems that we found, and we raised those with the equivalent of the attorney general,” Schaffer said of his visit. But in many others, “the workers were smiling; they were happy.”

Latest to Lynn Bartells:

Former congressman Bob Schaffer says the night he landed in Saipan to review working conditions in the U.S. territory, he demanded an immediate tour of a garment factory he heard had an unsavory reputation.

A welcoming committee wanted to take Schaffer to his hotel, he said, but he prevailed. He said he found women working in a “sweatshop,” and demanded leaders of the Northern Mariana Islands investigate.

The Schaffer campaign is clearly hoping this will go away. I think it will continue to hang around through November, just poping up every week or so – and that is the worst result for Bob.

Good news though for Moderate Mark, the Democratic party, and the Amercian people.

Update:

Ok, I should have looked this up before. I went to the Saipan Tribune and found this article about Bob’s trip. It includes this quote from Gov. Tenorio:

“We did not actually discuss some of the issues but he is concerned about the employees as well as the employers.

How lame was your “investigation” when the Gov’s comment is you didn’t even discuss the issues?

And how close is Bob to these slimeballs? In this article we have this gem:

” I know Ben, for years, have worked closely with many of us in the Congress.

Granted, his grammer sucks (maybe that’s why Bob is such a supporter in education – he wishes he lerned good how right words better), but he’s clearly supporting the slimeball.