Really now — I don’t understand why this should be a cripling blow to J.D. Hayworth’s teabagger-backed campaign to unseat John McCain:Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) … had an interesting job for a time in 2007: Appearing as an infomercial pitchman — for a company telling people that they can get free grant money from the federal government.
In 2007, shortly after Hayworth lost his re-election battle in 2006, Hayworth appeared in a half-hour informercial for the National Grants Conferences, … which advertises itself as running seminars in which people can find out how to get grant money from the federal government — which the infomercial’s on-screen text pitched as being “FREE MONEY” in quotes.
“Well I don’t want to shock anybody’s sensibilities, but I have to use a four-letter word: Real. This is real,” Hayworth said in the infomercial. “The money is out there, the opportunities are out there. And by the way, it’s not something where it’s the government’s money — it’s really your money. You surrendered it in the form of taxation. Now’s the time to take advantage of a situation where the government can invest in you. And in turn, you’ll have a chance to build a business, or make a better life for yourself — and in so doing, you’ll help improve the country.”
It should be noted that the company’s conferences and business practices have received an F rating from the Better Business Bureau, and in 2007 it was the target of a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, signed by 32 state attorneys general….
Well, there’s Hayward glaringly obvious first line of defense: The FTC and those state AGs are obviously engaging in a shakedown of a private business! And they’re doing it because they hate capitalism!
Beyond that, what teabagger would doubt the main premise of the infomercial — that government programs have billions of dollars lying around just waiting to be snatched up by the first person, deserving or otherwise, who figures out the paperwork? Isn’t that what teabaggers think all government programs are? Don’t they think all tax money is essentially poured down a rat hole, while elves and fairies maintain the Interstate highways and conduct FBI investigations and run the Pentagon and the national parks and the Centers for Disease Control for free?
Oh, the AGs say that people who paid big money for the seminars were never really able to get all that government loot? Well, that’s got to be the result of typical big-government red tape! Right? Don’t blame the folks telling you how to cut through the red tape — blame the evil government because cutting through the red tape is obviously even harder than it looks!
Heck, I think this could actually help Hayworth, if he has the sense to play it right. Clearly he’s the victim here — an honest guy who just wanted to help return more of taxpayers’ own cash to the taxpayers themselves, but was thwarted by the evil government mafia, which now is trying to destroy him because he almost helped true patriots unlock the government’s secrets!
