XPost: seattle.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.california   
   XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.politics.republicans, alt.impeach.bush   
   XPost: alt.rush-limbaugh, alt.society.liberalism, alt.politics.liberalism   
   XPost: alt.culture.alaska, tx.politics, az.politics   
   From: Clampett@Reagan.net   
      
   Olympic Flashback: '02 Salt Lake Games Tainted By Scandal, Bribery and Glenn   
   Beck's Church   
   By Logan Murphy   
   President Obama has been getting a lot heat since the announcement that the   
   2016 Olympics would not be coming to the United States. The right has   
   rejoiced in our loss, and Fox News and other right wing media have gone   
   berserk with stories about the Chicago Olympic Committee, and false claims   
   of cronyism and corruption.   
      
   Lost down the memory hole was the shame and scandal that tainted the 2002   
   Salt Lake City Olympics. Eventually led by Republican Mitt Romney and his   
   cronies, the 2002 games were plagued by fundraising woes, bribery   
   scandals -- and the committee was also heavily infiltrated by Glenn Beck's   
   Mormon Church:   
      
     Romney communicated his intention to take full command of the Olympics on   
   his first day on the job in February of 1999. A century and a half after his   
   ancestors trudged through Emigration Canyon to help pioneer the valley as a   
   land of the righteous, Romney arrived in a cheerless ballroom in a Salt Lake   
   City hotel. Immediately, he raised a rhetorical scythe at the trustees of   
   the scandal-tainted organizing committee.   
      
     Much of the damage seemed to stem from decisions made by two previous   
   executives on the Salt Lake City organizing committee, chief executive   
   Thomas K. Welch and vice president David R. Johnson, who embraced the tacit   
   form of influence peddling that greased the international selection process   
   for Olympic sites.   
      
     Vowing not to be defeated again, Welch and Johnson funneled through the   
   committee more than $1 million in gifts to numerous IOC delegates for the   
   2002 Games - a stunning trove of booty that included cash, college tuition,   
   medical-care payments, jobs, lodging, beds and bedding, bathroom fixtures,   
   Indian rugs, draperies, doorknobs, dogs, leather boots and belts, perfume,   
   Nintendo games, Lego toys, shotguns, a violin, and trips to ski resorts, Las   
   Vegas, and a Super Bowl in Miami. Almost no request from an IOC member went   
   unmet.   
      
     Shamed by the scandal - in which 10 members of the International Olympic   
   Committee would resign or be expelled for accepting gifts from the Salt Lake   
   committee - Utah's power brokers believed they needed a new CEO wise in the   
   ways of business, the law, and Mormonism.   
      
   Enter Mitt Romney, his buddies and the Mormon Church:   
      
     Almost as soon as Romney took the job, however, the Mormon Church's role   
   in the Games became a source of contention - a dispute exacerbated by   
   Romney's request for an additional $8 million in loaned property and cash   
   from the church, among other contributions.   
      
     Utah's wealthiest businessman, Jon Huntsman Sr., the father of Utah's   
   current governor, assailed Romney for exploiting his ties to the church.   
   Huntsman himself is prominent in the Mormon Church, which is officially   
   known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   
      
     ''We've got a chairman who is active LDS, now we've got a present CEO who   
   is active LDS,'' Huntsman was quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune as saying of   
   Garff and Romney. ''They claim they're going out [to] really scour the world   
   to find the best person, and Mitt brings in one of his cronies to be the   
   COO. Another broken promise. Because we've got three LDS folks who are all   
   cronies. Cronyism at its peak. ..... These are not the Mormon Games.' Read   
   on...   
      
   Romney came in after the initial bribery scandal, but created plenty of   
   controversy of his own.   
      
   http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/specials/romney/articles/part5_main/   
      
   So many republicans,   
      
   So little room in hell.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)