Chinese Prostitutes?!? Let the Dirty Campaign Tricks Begin

Chinese prostitutes, soliciting votes ... or something else?!?

Understand, Jim Gerlach and I have our differences, but I feel confident in saying he's not taking money from Chinese prostitutes.


The 6th District Republican, who has battled through three tough reelection races by the slimmest margins in the country to keep his seat, is a regular target of the folks over at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

After all, it's their job is to unseat him and replace him with one of their own.

As a result, I get at least one e-mail a week from them, tying Jim to every reprehensible thing that every House Republican has ever done since the dawn of time.

But the one that arrived July 2 was so far over the line, I couldn't believe it. I thought maybe in came from The Onion.

I mean we've just come off one of the most patriotic holidays on the calendar, feeling good about our country when -- WHAM! -- the DCCC comes out with something so slimy, I feel like I need another shower before I can say the word "democracy" in mixed company.

Sheldon Adelson

It all starts here, where the DCCC extrapolates to the nth degree on a couple of news reports about a rich guy you've never heard of named Sheldon Adelson.

To be sure, he's rich. Really rich.

He's a big business magnate type, casino billionaire, and, according to Wikipedia, the "chairman and chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, the parent company of Venetian Macao Limited which operates The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino and the Sands Expo and Convention Center. He also owns the Israeli daily newspaper Israel HaYom. He is listed in the Forbes 400 as the eighth wealthiest American. His personal wealth is estimated to be $24.9 billion as of March 2012."

Venetian Macao is the largest single structure hotel building in Asia.
There was no information available about how many Chinese
prostitutes it can hold, but I'm guessing a lot. It could also hold a lot of
DCCC staffers. Right now, I'm not seeing much difference.

And, according to CBS News, he and his wife "are the single largest donors - $25 million and counting - to what are known as "super PACs," which disclose all of their donations to the Federal Election Commission.

Adelson also reportedly gave $10 million in the last few weeks to Restore Our Future, the super PAC supporting presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney." He's also in tight with the Koch brothers.

So you get the picture. He's a right-wing poster boy for the DCCC to take pot shots at.

Well, apparently, according to the Wall Street Journal, one of his ex-executives, in a wrongful termination suit, says Adelson is OK with prostitutes operating in his casino in Macao, China.

I know, you're shocked that prostitutes could be found in casinos. Me too. I'd write my Congressman, but the DCCC tells me he's in on the deal!

Please.

Well all the folks over at the DCCC needed to hear were the phrases "Chinese prostitutes" and "major Republican fund-raiser" and they were off to the races, painting every Congressional Republican as the happy beneficiaries of allowing Chinese ladies of the evening to wander free in the casinos of Macao.


"It’s past time for House Republicans to reject the support of these groups funded by foreign money from a Chinese prostitution strategy," Jesse Ferguson of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee thundered on the DCCC web site ... presumably with a straight face.

How is this different from half the stuff
Rush Limbaugh says? It isn't.

Me? I would rather have a Rush Limbaugh tweet attributed to me than be quoted saying this garbage.

I guess Jesse Ferguson is made of ... let's just say sterner stuff.

This pablum is then adapted and sent out to the local press corps with the name of the local congressman inserted into the text and headline in the hopes that someone lazy and stupid will run it in their paper.

In some places, maybe it will, which may be the saddest part of this story and an even sadder commentary on my profession.

I briefly contemplated calling Gerlach's office to give them an opportunity to refute this absurd charge, until I realized what an insult it was to even ask them the question.

I might as well ask them where they buried Jimmy Hoffa's body.

People who want to know what's wrong with American democracy, why American voters are so apathetic, need look no further than this.

Want to unseat Jim Gerlach? Try this: Find a better candidate, make a smart case against his votes and positions and convince enough people your candidate is better.

I know it's old fashioned, but hey, we just celebrated Independence Day, a day recognizing the people who gambled their lives and fortunes -- and often lost them -- by signing their name to a document that declared to all the world that a people can determine for themselves how they should be governed.

The DCCC said what?

Throwing scut like this around and calling it political discourse is just reprehensible and, frankly, makes the DCCC look like a ridiculous joke, not a huge leap these days.

Consider their chain of logic:

One person, who was fired, said in a lawsuit against this mega-billionaire who fired him, that the mega-billionaire approved having prostitutes in his casinos; therefore when the mega-billionaire contributes to House Speaker John Boehner's campaign fund and Eric Cantor's campaign fund, he must be using prostitute money; therefore, since that money is going to Republicans, it must be going to all Republicans; therefore, since Jim Gerlach is a Republican, he must be benefiting from Chinese prostitution money.

But just to make sure they don't get sued, the DCCC throws a question mark at the end of the headline, shrugs its proverbial shoulders and says, in essence: "hey, we're just asking the question..."

"What will Congressman Jim Gerlach do when his Chinese prostitution money comes from billionaire Sheldon Adelson?" Ferguson said in the release.

My question is what will Jesse Ferguson do when history uses this as an example of  everything that's wrong with Washington?

Happy freakin' Independence Day everybody.