Rep. Duncan Hunter and Wife Indicted

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast. Subscribe to Andrew's Heard Tell SubStack for free here:

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27 Responses

  1. pillsy says:

    About $1500 of those campaign funds were spent on Steam.

    It’s a shame “GamerGate” is taken.Report

    • My favorite was the $6k to fly the pet rabbit cross countryReport

      • Troublesome Frog in reply to Andrew Donaldson says:

        That’s the type of hilariously goofy spending that happens if you’re a pop music star or pro athlete who has just gone from being broke to having $20M and you’re enjoying the 3-4 years before you’re broke again. At least in that case you could reasonably think that you were set for life.

        Seeing somebody who is broke and just has access to a few hundred thousand bucks in campaign money do it is just kind of sad. It’s weird, compulsive behavior like Scott Pruitt’s corruption. It doesn’t even make sense unless you’re physically possessed by a demon that feeds off of bad decisions and shamelessness.Report

        • Kolohe in reply to Troublesome Frog says:

          Duncan Hunter grew up the hardscrabble life as the son of…an Orange County US Congressman also named Duncan Hunter.

          Report

        • LeeEsq in reply to Troublesome Frog says:

          Many political corruption scandals in the United States seem to be for really small stakes, like in the mid-five figures to the low six-figures. The Asian-American state legislator from California, Leeland something or other, got involved in an arms dealing fiasco for the mid-five figures I think. He ruined a very promising career in Democratic politics over nothing.Report

          • Lot of these people its the power, its just being able to get that perk, or deal, or insider status, more so than the money.Report

            • Phaedros in reply to Andrew Donaldson says:

              I have to wonder how much of this is a lack of clarity as to what expenses were permissible for which card.
              Irrelevant for determination of guilt, but very relevant in the punitive stage.

              IIRC, the treasurer is the one who signs off on the reports as accurate, and maintains legal responsibility.
              I may well have that cross-wired with PAC regulations.Report

              • 1000+ overdraws on their accounts…I’m disinclined to give the benefit of the doubt here. We will see how solid the prosecutions case holds up but it certainly seems well laid out, and the activities to conceal are convincing.Report

            • Troublesome Frog in reply to Andrew Donaldson says:

              Definitely. The Pruitt stuff was nothing short of amazing. There was no reason for it other than some sort of weird compulsion.

              Whenever I think of him, I imagine inviting him into my house and having him immediately open my fridge and start stuffing his face with food. I ask him to stop and he just eats faster, pouring condiments and leftovers alike into his mouth. It makes no sense, but it’s clearly not about the food.Report

            • Power corrupts.. Or it attracts corrupt people. I’ve seen it in all stripes, from small-town officials skimming property tax money, to small-town cops using the auspices of their office to harass those they dislike, to people in bureaucratic offices making other people play the ‘dance monkey dance’ game before the bureaucrat will do the thing that is literally their job….up to university presidents doing money fiddles and politicians doing….well, everything.

              It’s really soured me on the human race.. And it makes me never want to have any power, lest its temptation be too strong for me.

              I’m particularly irritated with those who dip into the cookie jar for their own benefit when I think of all the times I went out and bought lab supplies on my own dime because of budget limitations here.

              I’m also on a board of a nonprofit foundation and we’ve been warned we’re going to need to be extra vigilant vetting all the financial stuff, because people not looking at the statements closely is what allows those with criminal intent to embezzle.

              I didn’t sign up to be a cop. And yet, here I am, one in so many areas of my life. Like I said: disgusted at humanity right now.Report

          • Chip Daniels in reply to LeeEsq says:

            There’s a thing in Hollywood, I’ve heard, where the sign of power is getting stuff for free, stuff you could easily afford but is given to you like tribute to a Mafia don or something.
            Lakers tickets, dinners, entry into hip clubs, hotel rooms comped, whatever. The point is that you breeze in the door and never have to touch your wallet.Report

            • LeeEsq in reply to Chip Daniels says:

              This is invoking Sam Vime’s Theory of Weakth. Rich people are rich because the spend less money. Merchants and craftsman gave very generous credit to aristocrats, like having a credit card company that rarely asked for bills to be paid, simply because having aristocratic customers were that prestigious.Report

              • j r in reply to LeeEsq says:

                That theory doesn’t hold up to the math. The Wall St trader isn’t rich because he gets a few free $10k steak dinners from brokers; he’s rich because he makes high six figures in salary and bonus. The Hollywood actor isn’t rich because he gets a $100k swag bag at the Oscars; he’s rich because he makes $10 million a movie.

                The amount of the freebies generally pale in comparison to the amount of actual compensation.Report

              • pillsy in reply to j r says:

                Also, contra the Vimes Theory of Wealth, a lot of the time rich people spend a lot of money on impractical, fragile crap to show that they can afford to keep and maintain impractical, fragile crap.Report

    • LeeEsq in reply to pillsy says:

      He also blamed this on his son. That isn’t cool. Its outright abusive.Report

  2. Kolohe says:

    On 10News, he defended his son, saying Margaret Hunter was responsible for the larger expenses

    Because nothing says “Code of the Warrior” like blaming everything on the wifeReport

  3. Kolohe says:

    One thing is that unlike Manafort and Cohen, the feds would have got Hunter even without a Trump victory.

    Report

  4. Mike Schilling says:

    How do you spend $3K at In’N’Out?Report