The Republican National Committee recently conducted an?online straw poll?identifying 32 candidates who could get its nomination in the 2016 presidential race. Each of the 32 has quite a questionable history, though, that contrasts with the GOP’s consistent claim of it being the ?moral? option for voters.
Philander, racism, thievery, bribery, and combinations of these and other?sins?are?found across the slate, in fact.?In this series on the 32 potential candidates (updated every other day), Liberal America will offer a quick rundown on the hypocrisy clouding each one’s ?holier than thou? claims.
Mitch Daniels
Former Governor of Indiana
Mitch Daniels is one of many on this list who moved up in the world through political appointments. After working as a staff member for Sen. Dick Lugar until 1982, Daniels worked for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, then President Reagan, and then the conservative and Republican-funded Hudson Institute, which takes funding from chemical corporations (and then argues against environmental issues).
Those political appointments eventually landed him top executive positions in energy and pharmaceutical companies, but with scandals in each.
While a board member with Indiana Power & Light (IPALCO), Daniels voted with other executives to merge with AES, another energy company, even though AES had shaky financial foundation ? and despite protest from shareholders, too. Shortly after the merger, company stock values fell 90 percent, leaving employee retirement accounts stranded ? but not those board members, virtually all of whom had sold their company shares right before the stock-exchange merger.
Daniels later took a top executive spot with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. During his term, the company had to pay $2.7 billion in fines and damages, and settled over 32,000 personal injury claims ? that’s about 11 lawsuits and $1 million in penalties?for every single day of Daniels? eight years with the drug manufacturer.
In 2001 Daniels got appointed by President Bush to direct the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, earning himself the nickname ?Deficit Peacock? for his drafting of the tax cuts on wealth.
He was elected governor of Indiana in 2005, an office through which he maintained association with Eli Lilly, hiring several senior staffers of the pharmaceutical company to be part of his administration. His election?campaigns received over $160,000 from the company’s executives and PAC, too.
In his first year as governor, he signed an executive order decertifying the labor unions that represented state workers, taking away their rights to collective bargaining; in following budgetary changes, state workers earned less money and had to pay more out of pocket on medical expenses. In his second term, he helped create a school voucher program, providing tax-payer funds to cover tuition costs at private schools in the state.
Daniels also enacted new restrictions on abortion, reducing the period in which Indiana women could seek such medical treatment by four weeks, and blocked funding for all services provided by Planned Parenthood, including breast cancer screening. A later court ruling overturned those restrictions, however.
He was appointed president of Purdue University in June 2012, but shortly after got called out by media for trying to restrict secondary education while governor. He ordered a ban of particular textbooks and writings at Indiana public universities as state governor, calling for a ?cleanup,? because he thought they were too liberal. When a professor and school director publicly protested, Daniels called for an audit of the school, followed by request that the professor’s program be cut from funding.
He recently told Fox News that he took a vow of ?political celibacy? when he started at Purdue, but has not ruled out a 2016 bid.
Visit Liberal America for future updates on?the other?GOP 2016 hopefuls.
What’s your take on these?hypocritical Republicans? State your case on?Liberal America’s Facebook?page.
See previous posts on GOP 2016 hopefuls:
Kelly Ayotte??|?Haley Barbour?|??John Bolton?| ?Jeb Bush?|?Hermain Cain? |?Ben Carson?|??Chris Christie??| ?Ted Cruz ?|
