Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Rep Hayworth (R-AZ) Uses Convicted Bookmaker As A Stand-In For A Campaign Debate

From the Arizona Republic:

A J.D. Hayworth representative whose remarks at a candidates forum last week sparked a walkout from the event once coordinated betting for a criminal gambling ring, court records show.

Hayworth campaign representatives said Monday that they did not know Jonathan Tratt's criminal history before sending him to a debate to fill in for the Republican congressman seeking re-election in District 5.

Tratt, who told the scores of attendees at Temple Beth Israel that the Christian congressman is a "more observant Jew" than some audience members, pleaded guilty to promotion of gambling in 2001.

The charge, a Class 5 felony, was reduced to a misdemeanor to which Tratt agreed to plead guilty.

As part of his sentence, Tratt was placed on probation for a year and forced to pay a $40,000 fine to the attorney general's Anti-Racketeering Fund.

Hey - so what if Hayworth's hiring mobsters. This is Arizona we're talking about here. Hell, Joe Bonnano retired in this area. Vegas is right around the block. So what's a little bookmaking among GOP campaign operatives? I mean, even Ralph Reed's in the bookmaking business these days! Not that Reed's a mobster or anything. And even if he is, he's a "mobster for the Lord."

UPDATE: Hayworth, btw, is only leading his opponent by 1 point in the latest poll (though it is a Democratic poll, so take it with a grain of salt.)

Comments:
I wonder exactly what Tratt did. It couldn't have been too serious if he concluded by pleading guilty to a misdemeanor.

Furthermore, gambling, in many forms, is legal in the US. In several states all forms of gambling are illegal.

It's just a little hypocritical to think that running a gambling operation in Arizona is an affront to law-abiding citizens everywhere when the same activity is practiced everywhere in the adjoining state.

But what else is new for you guys?

You're horrified by gambling in Arizona, but all for it Nevada and New Jersey and every other state where casinos are legal.

You agonize over the possibility that some states might take away women's right to kill their unborn children -- that's about 1.5 million deaths a year. But you bury those killings under a blizzard of bluster about 2,700 deaths of US soldiers over more than three years.
 
P.S. -- edit

In several states, all forms of gambling are LEGAL.
 
Maybe ole' J.D. can get a convicted prostitute to stand in for him in the next campaign forum he can't make?
 
reality, you wrote:

"Maybe ole' J.D. can get a convicted prostitute to stand in for him in the next campaign forum he can't make?"

Explain how your view on "convicted prostitutes" -- otherwise known as sex workers -- squares with the Democratic Party platform as you see it.

Prostitution is legal in Nevada and it is a common practice around the country, the world, in fact. But you reflexively show your true conservative nature when you malign sex workers and gamblers who are engaging in nothing more harmful than satisfying everyday human desires.

Do you know what you stand for? I think you don't.
 
I always knew bookmakers and prostitutes were part of the core make-up of the Republican Family Values coalition.

The point of the original post, btw, was to point out the hypocrisy of "Family Values" J.D. Hayworth using a convicted bookmaker to tell other people their immoral at a campaign function.
 
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