Honestly, Alabama, You Don't Have to Impose Tommy Tuberville on the Rest of Us
In a sane and sensible democracy, the U.S. Senate race in Alabama would occasion hilarity. The incumbent is Democratic Senator Doug Jones, a man who beat the Klan in court and got justice for the four victims of the unspeakable crime at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1963. The Republican challenger is Tommy Tuberville, a quasi-literate former football coach who, it turns out, has more than a little of the Trumpian grifter in him. From the AP:
In 2014, Tuberville started the Tommy Tuberville Foundation, which has given only a small portion of its money to charity while spending tens of thousands of dollars to stage annual golf tournaments. Those financial dealings are now in the spotlight in the closely watched Senate race as Republicans push to recapture the once reliably red state of Alabama. Tuberville, a Trump-backed political newcomer, won the GOP primary by besting former longtime Sen. Jeff Sessions, who failed to reclaim the seat he’d left to become Trump’s attorney general. An Associated Press review of its public tax records showed the foundation reported spending about one-third of the money it raised on charitable giving.
From 2015 to 2017, it raised $231,463 before expenses, but only spent $44,000 on its three biggest charitable programs in those years, according to records. The group’s last publicly available tax return, from 2018, lists all of its $34,000 spending as charity work, although large portions of that appear to be overhead costs. The 2020 golf tournament held this month at the Auburn University Club listed entry prices from $400 per player to $5,000 for a foursome as a “Gold Star Sponsor.” The post-golf activities included a reception and “Time with Tubs.” Tax forms show the foundation’s 2015 golf tournament brought in nearly $118,000 before expenses but cost $24,000 to put on. Eventually, about $20,000 that year was spent on veterans’ home renovations and program expenses, according to the form.
On the electric Twitter machine, Fred Wellman of The Lincoln Project took a deeper dive into the IRS filings of the Tuberville Foundation and discovered, in his words, that...
The accounting and paperwork is an absolute mess. Different forms every year, different addresses, wildly missed reporting numbers, totals that don't add up and bizarre financial choices. At a minimum the foundation has been incredibly poorly and unprofessionally managed. At worst its a sham. Let's talk about the numbers. He founded it in 2014 for $645 in New Lenox, IL filing a 990EZ. Then in 2015 they held a single golf fundraiser that made a whopping $117,688. It cost $24,224 to run. The single biggest event cash haul they had from 2014 to 2018...The 2015 990EZ is a mess. It only shows $8763 for home renovations and $11,365 for "Community Outreach and Education" which is said to be detailed in Schedule O. It's not. $43,838 went to professional fees/contractors. So, $93K raised and $20K went to the charitable mission?
There were reasons enough not to switch out a serious public servant like Doug Jones for a rodeo clown like Tommy Tuberville even before we learned about his foundation. This is a guy who's already on record as saying that the $600 per week unemployment benefit passed to help during the pandemic was too luxurious. His reasoning, via WBMA, was that of a thoroughgoing dope.
The problem we got is Doug Jones and Schumer and Pelosi. Look at the money that we spend on illegals. If we have not spent all of the money that American tax payers have been giving for years because the democratic rules and regulations are moving this country to the left we wouldn’t have to worry about all of this. We would have plenty of money. I'm for taking care of the American taxpayer.
Tuberville is bughouse on "illegals." He believes that there are towns where shariah law prevails and that nefarious Middle East characters are sneaking into the country through Central America in order to take over America. From the Washington Post:
“They told me we got more Middle Easterners coming across the border than we do Mexicans,” Tuberville told a gathering of Alabama Republicans in June. “This was before the caravans started coming. I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said they’re coming all over the Middle East. They’re coming across the border, and they ain’t leaving. They’re coming for a reason. Folks, they’re taking over, and if we don’t open our eyes, it is going to be over with.”
And from Mother Jones, the theological speculations of a 4-8 football coach:
“I think God brought [Trump] to us, and gave us the opportunity to have somebody just take the gloves off, start swinging, try to run these people back in their holes,” he said on another Alabama radio show. “I want to go to Washington to help him.”
I mean, honestly, Alabama. You don't have to be quite this much Alabama. Don't do this to the rest of us.
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