The BRAVO! TV show about Steve Israel's constituents and psyche, Princesses: Long Island, has no sympathetic characters. Every single one of them is vomit-inducing. But the worst is the spoiled gnome from Roslyn, Ashlee White, a thirty year old monstrosity who lives at home with her parents and spends her time asking Irish and Italian hunks in bars if they're Jewish.I can't imagine any scenario that would bring Ashlee and Michigan teacher of the year/reindeer rancher and impeachment-obsessed congressman from Michigan's 11th district, Kerry Bentivolio, into contact. Too bad. All Steve Israel's constituents should have to experience the Tempest in a Tea Party that is Bentivolio.
“If I could write that bill and submit it, it would be a dream come true,” Bentivolio... “I stood 12 feet away from the guy and listened to him. I couldn’t stand being there, but because he is president I have to respect the office. That’s my job, as a congressman, I respect the office.”Bentivolio said that after the encounter with Obama he returned to his office and summoned lawyers to discuss the impeachment process.“These are lawyers, Ph.Ds in history, and I said ‘tell me how I can impeach the president of the United States.’”
Bentivolio is an accidental congressman and will probably lose his seat, wither in a primary or in the general election next year. When long-time incumbent Republican nutcase Thaddeus McCotter was caught up in an election fraud and resigned as part of a deal to stay out of prison, there was a special election, which was won by Democrat Dave Curson. Curson, a UAW rep, beat Bentivolio to fill out the remainder of McCotter's term. Curson got 159,258 votes (48.39%) to Bentivolio's 151,736 (46.10%) and he was a congressman from Nov. 6, 2012 to January 3, 2013. Curson had decided to not run for the next two-year term... and that's where Ashlee's congressman, Steve Israel, head of the DCCC, comes in.First the end of the story: Bentivolio beat Dr. Syed Taj 51-44%. Taj ran without the backing of the DCCC and, in fact, Israel sabotaged his efforts to raise money, making sure he couldn't compete effectively against Bentivolio. Although the race ended in a virtual dead heat in Wayne County, Oakland County, where Taj needed ad money to overcome a GOP advantage, gave Bentivolio his margin of victory.Although Oakland and Wayne County Democrats had nominated the popular Taj to be their nominee, Israel didn't like what he saw, i.e.- a progressive and a Muslim with a funny Indian accent. He adamantly refused to allow the DCCC to help elect Taj, even though Obama had handily won the district against McCain in 2008 (54-45%) and the seat was ripe for a blue take-over. Israel just could not bring himself to help a progressive, let a alone a Muslim progressive. At the time, I wrote that "even under the new boundaries, originally drawn by the GOP-dominated Michigan legislature to shore up McCotter, the district still leans blue and Obama would have beaten McCain 50-48%. This is a winnable district... if we had a competent DCCC chairman, instead of a reptile. This is what Israel is saddling Congress with:
The brother of Kerry Bentivolio says the Michigan congressional candidate, who's favored to win on Tuesday, is “mentally unbalanced” and could end up in jail."I've never met anyone in my life who is conniving and dishonest as this guy," Phillip Bentivolio said, according to the Michigan Information and Research Service. "He's my brother so it's hard to talk about this, but I believe that if he gets elected, he'll eventually serve time in prison."...Kerry Bentivolio is a Santa Claus impersonator and reindeer farmer. He made headlines after old court documents surfaced quoting him saying he had a “problem figuring out which one I really am, Santa Claus or Kerry Bentivolio.” He’s running against Democrat Syed Taj.Philip Bentivolio said that in 1992, he helped his brother build houses in Arkansas and Kerry owed him $20,000. This month he told Kerry he would go to the media with the story if he did not get paid, and Kerry then said he called the FBI and the Little Rock Police Department.“He told them that I told them that if he didn't send me money, I was going to kill myself," Phillip Bentivolio said. "I couldn't believe it."Kerry Bentivolio said that his brother has “serious mental issues” and that the FBI was looking into his brother’s request for repayment 20 years after the fact.
Instead Israel chose to chase a host of hopeless Blue Dogs in districts that had no interest in electing Democrats. And most of his candidates-- even had they been elected, would have been nearly as dependable to vote against progressive legislation as the Republicans they were running against. Steve Israel-- Nancy Pelosi's worst mistake ever.