Posted on 06/28/2007 7:32:20 AM PDT by SmithL
THE GOP has a guy problem. Even after Veep Dick Cheney shot a friend in a hunting accident, he still hunts. In California, GOP biggies injure their comrades in a less ballistic manner. State party chairman Ron Nehring is under fire for handpicking an Australian immigrant -- who was ordered deported in 2001, was jailed on visa violations in 2004 and has filed a $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security -- to be the party's chief operations officer. Under Nehring, the party also sought an H-1B visa so that a Canadian citizen could serve as director of political research and technology.
If someone had paid a Democratic operative to smear the GOP, he could not have done a better job than Nehring.
After all, Repub biggies routinely harp about illegal immigrants and the need for the federal government to get tough on employers who hire them. So when the party seems to carve out an exception for an Australian -- and an H-1B visa for a Canadian to do work no American can do -- it seems as if Nehring bought a billboard that shouts: You can call me "mate," but not "amigo." Eh?
I've talked to party operatives who insist that Michael Kamburowski was a good COO. Canadian Christopher Matthews was a personal assistant to Stephen Harper before he was prime minister of Canada. It's not unusual in politics for operatives to work in other countries. Some insiders see The Chronicle stories as overplaying the fact that the GOP did a poor job vetting one job candidate (Kamburowski).
"Get over it," state GOP board member Jon Fleischman, wrote on his blog www.flashreport.org. "It's time to move on. The guy omitted key information when he applied for the job. When ...revealed, he quit."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Wishul thinking: the “good ole boys” which I am sure I have more association with than Ms. Saunders don’t care about this, they care that the GOP has abandoned its princples such as immigration, spending, and morality!!
This is the most important point about this article/scandal. There he is, just like DC.---Norquist running California politics. I keep asking the same question so many others do....WHY isn't this guy in jail?
This from the Calif. Majority report today:
Now that the San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials believe the California Republican Party may have broken federal immigration laws by hiring an immigrant without verifying his legal residency, it's time for Congress take a look at this matter -- as well as how the CRP managed to get a limited HB1 visa for an incoming political director from Canada.
The Chronicle is reporting that CRP Chairman and Grover Norquist sidekick Ron Nehring admits that he never saw a green card for Michael Kumburowski, an Aussie who was hired to run the state party's operations. Nehring also said he was unaware if anyone at the CRP had checked.
The newspaper quotes a Homeland Security spokesperson as saying "it is the responsibility of the employers to check and see that someone is legally in the country and eligible to work."
So given that -- and that there is no way in hell the Bush Administration will probe this matter -- it's time for Congress to step in. California has a number of committee chairs who should get factual information from the feds and from the CRP about these hirings, who greased the skids for their landing jobs, and the possible role of Grover Norquist.
http://www.camajorityreport.com/index.php?module=articles&func=display&aid=2007&ptid=9
bttt!
Bump to your post!
All these little undercurrent dudes and their "good ol boy network" is playing a part, but compared to all the Democrat judicial appointments, Democratic bureaucratic appointments, etc., etc... You could hardly tell Republicans had anything to do with California's State Government!!!
I can't imagine ANY right-minded Republican and certainly NO righteous conservative being happy with ANY of the crappola going on under the Golden Dome of the CA Crapitol!!!
Never thought I would actually miss Dufus Sundheim...
Arnold and Norquist are buddies. Norquist is NOT a conservative.
Point to you.
A major problem with its dabbling in foreign nationals is the toll that dabbling must necessarily take on hard working, domestic, journeymen Republicans. If the CAGOP is to succeed in its scheme, Republicans must die before the Austrian can succeed.
The Austrian can't sidestep Republican to achieve his dream of socialism in California. He (and the CAGOP) has got to bury them to succeed.
It gets worse!
CRP hires the wrong guy for COO
by Mike Spence
6-28-2007
CRP hired the wrong guy to be COO. Plain and simple.
As many of you know the CRP has hired Bill Christiansen as the new temporary COO.
First, we hear Bill is an American, although I haven’t seen proof. Second, Bill is an accomplished political operative, former ED in Orange County and Arizona, a graduate of UCLA and of course his last gig was as the statewide coordinater for Victory ’06.
For those of you new to the Victory ’06 saga, it was the statewide arm of the CAGOP that spent massively on behalf of the Governor (I would argue and the evidence indicates at the expense of everyone else on the ticket.) See here, its just not me.
The Victory ’06 effort left part of the California Republican Party in massive debt. Over 4.5 million dollars and growing. (Those pesky interest charges). The ill-advised board approved $3 million dollar loan is due June 30th. The other 1 and half million of just plain mismanagement and overspending is still out there. (See a previous post here.)
The Governor and past Chairman Sundheim promised fundraisers to pay it off. The two planned fundraising events were consolidated in to one massive gala dinner in LA that raised about $150,000. Barely over one month’s interest payment! Even if the CRP gets ANOTHER loan extension or better yet forgiveness, there is still the other parts of the debt, with Victory ‘08 just around the corner.
So unless Bill has a previous employer that was a magician, debt collector or shows an arrest record for loan sharking in the Dominican Republic, all the political skills in the world won’t save the party from mismanagement and overspending on behalf of a “Post-partisan” Governor who doesn’t care about the party, its principles or keeping his promises.
Under these circumstances, not sure there is a “right” guy for COO?
BTW the Governor’s California Recovery Team fundraising is doing just fine.
"I wanna be around... to pick up the pieces... When somebodybuilder breaks yer heart..."
lol
I don't believe I ever heard of this person before...
Former head of the CA GOP...so to speak...
Oh...no wonder.
thanks.
“why isn’t Norquist in jail”
I question I ask as well.
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,21977958-5001021,00.html
June 28, 2007
A FAST-talking Australian who landed a job running the campaign office of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been forced to quit after it emerged he was jailed for immigration offences.
Michael Kamburowski, 35, has lived in the US since 1995, reportedly working as an aspiring actor before drifting into real estate.
His lucky break came in March this year, when to the surprise of many he was appointed chief operating officer of the California Republican Party.
But an expose by the San Francisco Chronicle this week revealed that Mr Kamburowski had once been imprisoned for violating his visa and appeared to be out of work for six years before landing the high-powered political job in March.
Mr Kamburowski, facing an avalanche of criticism inside the party from Schwarzenegger down, handed in his resignation yesterday. “We thank him for his service,” was all California Republican chairman Ron Nehring was prepared to say yesterday.
Already suspicious at Mr Kamburowski’s status as an Australian immigrant, Republicans are furious not only that he spent 30 days in jail in 2004 for overstaying his visa but that he is also suing the US Government for $5 million for wrongful imprisonment.
“Somebody who has been imprisoned, faced deportation, has never worked on a state political campaign . . . and who is suing the government for harm inflicted by his deportation order defies description,” former White House adviser Steve Schmidt said.
A complete unknown in Australian political circles, US officials are slowly working out how Mr Kamburowski rose to become one of the key movers and shakers in US politics.
Arriving in the US in January 1995, Mr Kamburowski set up home in Arlington, Virginia. He married an American woman in 1997 but divorced her a year later and moved to Washington, where he worked as a lobbyist.
Mr Kamburowski claimed he worked in Washington DC as executive director of the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, which was set up to name monuments in US states after the late Republican President.
He married another woman in June 2001. Three years later, he was imprisoned in the Wackenhut Correctional Facility in New York for failing to observe a deportation order.
In February this year, just a month before his rise to glory, Mr Kamburowski was selling real estate in the Caribbean.
“I wouldn’t give him my company to run, I can tell you that,” former boss Rico Pester told the San Francisco Chronicle.
“He couldn’t sell anything the whole time he was here – and we provided him with clients. He didn’t rent anything and he didn’t sell anything – I have no idea what he was doing.”
Mr Pester said Mr Kamburowski “ran away” one day and he was shocked when told he that had resurfaced as a top Republican official.
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