Dems attacking GOP for 15 minute speech, but seem to have forgotten about Dem staffer who is in prison for spying.

Pat Powers

I’m assuming by now everyone has read the story about Maria Butina, the gal who has been charged with being an unreported foreign agent. If you remember back in 1980, President Carter’s brother Billy had similar accusations leveled against him for doing the same for Libya.

Surprisingly, South Dakota Democrats, trying to not look inept for once, have blasted out a press release attacking the GOP, because Butina spoke for about 15 minutes at TAR Camp several years ago:

SDDP Executive Director Sam Parkinson released the following statement after Maria Butina, a Russian woman who, along with current GOP congressional candidate Dusty Johnson, spoke at the 2015 SDGOP Teenage Republicans Camp, was arrested yesterday and charged with conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of the Russian government with the goal of infiltrating American political organizations:

“The SDGOP owes the people of South Dakota a detailed explanation of how Ms. Butina came to speak at their Teenage Republican Camp at the same time she began her efforts to infiltrate and influence American political organizations, and what relationship, if any, she has with their organization or any of their candidates and elected officials.

Read that here.

As one of 25-30 speakers addressing the kids, during her 15 minute talk abut gun rights Butina was unable to infiltrate the Teenage Republicans, since she was no longer a teenager.

Although, I do see a couple kids wearing red shirts. I promise you, we’ll keep our eye on those kids.

That being said, it’s interesting that Democrats are taking such interest about an unregistered foreign agent standing in front of high school kids. Because they are surprisingly quiet about the woman who served on the staff of South Dakota Dem elected officials (PUC and US Senate) who was convicted of espionage against the US, spying for nearly 30 years before being caught:

Unbeknownst to their large families and lifelong friends, Kendall was Cuba’s Agent 202 and Gwen Agent 123 or E-634—spies dedicated not just to each other but also to what they saw as Fidel Castro’s socialist nirvana in the Caribbean.

And despite their enjoying every benefit that US citizenship and residence can bestow, the government alleges that they nursed a deep-seated rage against the United States.

and..

Cuba bonded Kendall and Gwen Myers together. They met in Washington sometime after 1976, when she moved here, fired by a starry-eyed idealism.

She had been a constituent case worker for Senator James Abourezk, a liberal Democrat, in Aberdeen, South Dakota, and had landed a low-level job on his Capitol Hill staff. Among her colleagues were Tom Daschle, later Senate majority leader, and Pete Rouse, now a senior adviser to President Obama.

One of Abourezk’s passions was Cuba and ending the economic embargo. He visited the island several times, including taking a basketball team to Havana in 1977 as part of a group from South Dakota.

Abourezk recalls: “At the welcoming banquet, I told them, ‘This is the biggest gathering of Americans in Cuba since the Bay of Pigs invasion.’ The Cubans tore the roof off laughing.”

At the banquet, Abourezk took out his guitar and sang country numbers and the Cuban patriotic song “Guantanamera” with Teofilo Acosta, a former first secretary at the Cuban Mission to the UN and a known senior DGI clandestine operative. Afterward, Abourezk declared: “I’ll tell you one thing—these Communists got rhythm.”

and…

After her arrest, the first person Gwen called was former senator Abourezk. He recalls: “They had her in the FBI lockup, and a woman FBI agent called me on the phone and said, ‘Gwen Myers wants to speak to you.’

Read the entire story here.

So, while Dems are raising cain about the mote in the eye of Republicans, they’re being pretty darned quiet about the log in their own.

UPDATE:

The argus did a story on it, and Dusty Johnson responded to the schadenfreude that the Dem ED is trying to whip up:

Prior to her speech, Johnson scoured Butina’s record online and found no reason to question her. He said he also felt more comfortable hosting the free speaker because USD and Sioux Falls schools had also welcomed her in.

“Expecting that people at a summer camp would sniff out a Russian spy as part of a 25-minute speech about freedom is probably expecting more than any rational person could,” he said.

Read that here.

“Expecting more than any rational person could?”

Considering that we’re dealing with hysteria from the Dem ED, that’s pretty dead on.

61 thoughts on “Dems attacking GOP for 15 minute speech, but seem to have forgotten about Dem staffer who is in prison for spying.”

  1. Other than as a continuing message that nobody in their right mind should trust Paul Erickson, there is no traction in this story for attacking the TAR camp appearance. I don’t know this Parkinson, but I’d be curious about what it is that he thinks should have been done differently by the segment of the public that didn’t own a crystal ball with special star-gazing future powers in it, and what damage he thinks this 15 minute exercise in free speech caused. Just say’n

    1. That story about Abourezk, Rouse, Daschale, and the Cuban agents is fascinating reading. I’m not calling any of those guys (Abourezk, Rouse, or Daschale) Castro’s puppet or any of that baloney. Spies chase political leaders like flies chase….refuse. Just interesting to think that (40 years ago) there were actual commie agents placed into the SD state bureaucracy. I never would have guessed it. Too naive I suppose…

    2. Don Jr. Dusty J.

      Wow. Republicans can’t catch a break.

      Dems are bananas over this russia stuff.

      Hillary was the reason you lost.

  2. I suspect there are more SD Democrats calling themselves socialists than people who heard the 15 minute speech who now identify as same.

  3. Nice try at deflecting but the fact is the Republicans didn’t check the young Russian lady’s background. Spin and deflect: that’s the Republican way!

    1. So what would have been the red (no pun intended) flags back in 2015? I suppose the Democrats would have been able to tell she was an unreported foreign agent. Oh, wait, the Democrat party is the party that hired the Pakastani IT guy who turned out to be stealing secrets from the Dem’s computers, and Debbie Wasserman-Putz kept him on even after it was shown he was committing crimes.

      Don’t try to deflect the hypocrisy and lying and outright dishonest of the Democrat party by trying to project it onto the Republican party.

    2. yeah I bet she’s the reason the sddp convention results weren’t reported correctly.

  4. “Didn’t check her background”?

    The CIA didn’t yet know she was a spy, but you think a Google search would have uncovered that?!?!

    1. Oh, but the Democrats are psychic and would have been able to see the future, don’t ya’ know. Anon 2:57 is really grasping at straws. Could it be Parkinson trying to defend his idiotic position?

      1. Who’s calling her a spy? There’s a difference between a “foreign agent” and “secret agent.” For example, George Soros is a Hungarian-born agent (claiming dual citizenship) who spends mega millions each year to influence US policy. As far as I know, he’s complied perfectly with the various federal registration laws and filed all necessary DOS paperwork. Thousands of other examples. Saudis, Israelis, Brits, Chinese. Foreign agents, yes, but not spies. The DOJ indictment seems to allege Ms Butina is a politically-active foreign national, a lobbyist type who’s failed to register. Or her registration paperwork was incomplete, missing, void or something. Maybe she’s guilty? You tell me.

        I’m no COINTELPRO guy. I don’t know every juicy detail. Maybe Butina is, in fact, the real-life Black Widow — slinking around DC in a black spandex costume, hiding microfilm for uncle vlad. That would be an engrossing tale, but I don’t think it’s the *official* accusation.

        1. You are correct. She was essentially attempting to lobby for Russian interests without ever registering as a foreign agent. There is no claim that she was attempting to access secure government information.

          1. Exactly. Unregistered foreign agent… who was building bridges between the NRA and Russia to funnel money and influence into our political system to advance Russian interests. Still illegal, still should send chills down every patriot’s spine. F*** Russia, f*** Putin.

    2. How do you know the CIA didn’t know she was a spy? Are you privy to that information?

    1. “I’m angry that instead of being a freedom fighter that she promised she was, it seems as though instead she’s a scam artist and a liar,” Dusty Johnson said.

      Outrage aside. This is probably the most exciting thing that is going to happen to them at camp other than their leader getting elected to Congress.

  7. “This one time…. in band camp… a Russian agent talked to us for 15 minutes.”

    2. But her friend, Erickson, has been involved in the SD GOP politics for years, hasn’t he?

      Oh, and was Billy Carter ever indicted?

      And Rouse and Cuba, well, that’s no Russia and Putin, trust me….

  8. Seems the Obama administration is responsible for letting these Russian agents run amok across our country. What were Obama/Hillary/Comey doing? Why aren’t Dems outraged at that? (I know, dumb question.)

    1. We were attacked and are still under attack from a hostile foreign power. Nothing “faux” about it. Obama ignored it, but that doesn’t give Trump a free pass to lick Putin’s boots. For people always wrapping themselves up in the flag, y’all are sure quick to do a striptease for a bare-chested Russian tyrant.

    2. “Makes them look” doesn’t mean that the story doesn’t have substance itself. Don’t let the messenger damage the message…

  10. Pat have you ever taken a step back and asked yourself if you would have written the same blog post if a democrat had done what a Republican did? Your hypocrisy is deafening.

    1. Nope. Because I would not have stretched so far as to assume a psychic ability to know the future.

      1. You would have had ten articles already. Who are you trying to kid, Pat? The fact you think you are in any way objective makes me fall out of my chair laughing.

  11. SilentFauxGOP,

    Your faux outrage is deafening. Who is the Republican who did something that is outrageous? Put top secret emails on an unsecure server? Share secret documents on the House server?

    A defector, former KGB agent said today there is literally a thousand Russian agents in the US committing nefarious acts. They are obviously skilled or they wouldn’t be sent here.

    1. How about trying to throw an election? I have a feeling that soon Mueller will tell us who the “Republicans” are…

      And a “thousand Russian agents” makes it right? Something to just be dismissed? Should we have a coming out party for them and try to fill them with disinformation just for fun. Or how about a truce where we just play a game of softball against them, perhaps as a fundraiser for TARS and “Guns for Russia.”

      And how did the Party of Reagan somehow become the Party of Putin, anyhow? ….Have you guys forgotten Reagan’s 1984 campaign ad, or what?…………:

      1. I miss the old Republican Party from the cold war. They were tough on those Russians and had spines of steel.

        Richard Painter former life long Republican and ethics advisor to George W. Bush is now running as a DFLer for Al Franken’s old Senate seat. “Ethical leadership” No PAC or special interest money, No Rubles, No Russian Agents and only accepting small individual donations from Americans.

  12. JKC,

    You should really listen to yourself. Let me speak slowly for you.

    She is a Russian agent trying to do harm. She was caught and arrested. Her arrest makes me feel safer. I hope catching her helps us catch the others.

    Unless you were opposing Hillary for her handling of top secret documents, you are a phony and there is no message of any significance except our counter-espionage folks are doing their job.

    1. Yet you try to act like Trump is right while he makes you look like a fool when he back pedals on his statements. It’s priceless because it exposes your blind following and inability to criticize your own. As I said, priceless.

      1. I disagree with Ryan and everyone else (regardless of party who failed to grasp what Trump was doing.

        I disagree with Trump backtracking.

        I have no problem expressing disagreement.

    2. And what was Hillary’s intent? You are comparing oranges to apples. For some crimes, or accused crimes, are general intent in nature, while others are with specific intent. The Russian sparrows crimes appear to be specific, while no where have I defended Hillary’s acts, general or not, or non existent…

  13. R u nuts, Paul Erickson is a con man. His registration matters to him as much as Hubbel’s does to her

  14. Long article at politico which indicates the Real target of this particular investigation is the NRA.

  15. Apparently KM really was a Russian agent and the J School was the Justice Department . Quite possibly she was Maria Butina, herself. SDWC was as clueless as Dusty.

  16. So what is the difference between a “unreported foreign agent” and an “undocumented illegal immigrant”?

  17. Spotting, Assessing, Developing, Recruiting and finally Handling. That is the intelligence officer’s methodology. You look for the character weaknesses of the target and assess the target’s vulnerabilities, and once they are identified you move in and develop rapport and slowly draw the target under your influence until you are finally invited into his activities. It is very easy to see why Dusty Johnson was drawn in. He is naive and clueless and the worst possible candidate that the GOP could run for Congress. He was seen as a fairly shallow politician who wasl allied closely with a so-called Republican-in-name-only governor who repeatedly demonstrated seriously mixed loyalties to his own party. That is the perfect profile for an intelligence service to go after.

  18. If the SDGOP owes the public an explanation for how she ended up at a TARs camp, how about this:

    The US State Dept, under the Obama administration, let this woman into the country and the FBI, under the Obama administration, kept her under surveillance, but as as she was only trying to infiltrate the NRA and other predominantly-Republican organizations, they didn’t do anything.

  19. And her cover story was that Russia has a gun rights movement. Bwaaaa Ha Ha. How gullible can you get, Dusty? Russia kills people that even talk about having a gun.

      1. What Russia needed was a dupe in South Dakota to help illegally funnel Russian money to the crooked NRA and then on to the colluding Trump campaign.

    2. It’s weird that when someone gets identified as a spy, everyone points to anyone who met them and acts like they must’ve known.

      Wouldn’t that have made them a really lousy spy?

    1. “The event was a small pizza lunch with approximately a dozen students in attendance”… UH OOHH…Pizzagate!!!!!!

  21. Sex, guns, a Russkie babe. Heck of a story. I’m off to the store for extra salt and butter for the popcorn.

  22. every single event that happens, near, far, local, national, whatever, each is being played for its maximum political effect. totally bury, totally highlight, totally trash and attack, totally ignore. it’s soulless, mechanical and tedious.

    1. The politics of this is boring, yes. The human element with all its falterings and deceits is endlessly fascinating.

  24. I read the FBI is investigating the fact that the NRA gave $6/member to the Trump campaign.

    The FBI considers this amount of money very suspicious and suspect it was Russian money laundered by the NRA. This is how they are going to deflect from any money-laundering done by the Clintons.

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