Two Profiles Hitting US Elections era Headlines: Term limits Champion vs. Accused Money Launderer

Land of Anybody’s “Patriot,” Everybody's Grand “Exceptionalism” Illusion

Perhaps the Presumption of ALL being Created Equal is off the mark.

    A Ten-term Member of the US Congress—holder of Texas and Georgetown baccalaureate, law, and doctoral degrees, who has enjoyed the enthusiastic support of top-tier, super influential Members of the US Congress—has furthered the besmirchment of US public office by being indicted on several federal crimes: 

“Money laundering, conspiracy, and bribery” (“accepting money from foreign entities … in exchange for ‘influencing the Treasury Department to work around an anti-money laundering policy that threatened the interests of the (foreign entities).”

In an early May 2024 press release, the US Department of Justice reported:

“According to court documents, beginning in at least December 2014 and continuing through at least November 2021,” this US Congressman and his wife “allegedly accepted approximately $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities….”

    This ten-termer, Mr. ENRIQUE ROBERTO (HENRY (no doubt a member with considerable standing in the US exceptionalism club), is positioned strategically on the US House Appropriations Committee, the (ranking member) House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security and the Defense Subcommittee and Subcommittee on Military Construction, and related agencies, current Congress’ Chief Deputy Whip. 

    He is a man who had dabbled in private law practice and public law enforcement the latter as Texas' Attorney General; and spent fourteen years (1987-2001) ensconced in the Texas House of Representatives, before offering his presence to the Congress of the United States of America.

    Perhaps it is long past time for this Texan to return to Texas. 

FOURTEEN HUNDRED MILES northward of Cuellar’s Texas
A candidate for public office who is championing term limits.

In her words: 

“I am a proud supporter of Congressional term limits.” “I am a supporter of term limits because our founding fathers wanted people to serve in office for a short time and then go home.… It is time to end the stranglehold of career politicians who put politics ahead of people.… This philosophy (term limits) brings people (into public service) with a wide variety of experiences.”

“Ninety percent (90%) of PAC money goes to incumbents which makes them beholden to the PACs, not to the people. The core responsibility (of elected officials) is to be the voice of the people. … [T]his is why I support term limits. By implementing term limits, we can help ensure that (elected officials) are voting for the people not their campaign accounts.”

“By implementing term limits, we will be restoring accountability to the people.” “I serve as Michigan’s Chairwoman for U.S. Term Limits.”

    In 2022 and 2024 Physician Sherry O’Donnell completed Ballotpedia’s “Candidate Connection Survey.” 

    Ballotpedia is a digital encyclopedia of American politics, a 501(c)3 charitable nonprofit organization unaffiliated with campaigns, candidacies and candidates for office. “All gifts to Ballotpedia are tax deductible to the extent of the law and help to provide voters with information about their ballots.” The organization provides “unbiased information on elections, politics, and policy.” (https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia:About) (https://ballotpedia.org/Sherry_O%27Donnell)]

    This was some of O'Donnell's answer to Ballotpedia’s survey question “who are you.” This candidate for US Senate (and physician) representing Michigan is a Fellow with the American College of Osteopathic Internists, and an adjunct professor at Seton Hall and Western Michigan universities. She is a pastor, author, mission leader, speaker, and Michigan State Chair for U.S. Term Limits.” In 2008, she “launched Herbie Medical Clinic providing care to (people who were) underserved and uninsured;” and during the pandemic, she spent “weekends (in 2020) caring for patients on the front lines in New York City.” She has led medical missions and disaster relief in many countries.

    Ballotpedia and other sources report Sherrell Anne O’Donnell's (Sherry O'Donnell's) birthplace as Watertown, Minnesota, a small city situated on the outskirts of the Twin Cities Metropolitan area, population estimate 4,842.  Dr. Sherrell Anne O’Donnell is a graduate of Oklahoma College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery (1995), Internal Medicine Osteopathic Physicians

    The Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports registration of O’DONNELL, SHERRELL ANNE: CANDIDATE FOR SENATE MICHIGAN ID: S4MI00561 REPUBLICAN PARTY. Data included from these committees: DR. SHERRY FOR SENATE (C00847657); Coverage dates: 07/01/2023 to 03/31/2024 https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/S4MI00561/

    Health line lists Dr. Sherrell O’Donnell, DO, as an Internal Medicine Specialist in Saint Joseph, Michigan specializing in Internal Medicine; with experience at the time of the article 29 years. She is board certified in Internal Medicine; a graduate of University of Oklahoma / Health Sciences Center; and affiliated with Spectrum Health Lakeland Medical Center and Lakeland Hospital Watervliet. Patients rated Dr. O’Donnell an average 4.0-star rating. Dr. Sherrell O'Donnell, DO; Practice, 3911 STONEGATE PARK, Saint Joseph, Michigan 49085 https://care.healthline.com/find-care/provider/dr-sherrell-odonnell-1699771725

Ensure choice. 

    Do not block difference or stand in the way of variety that has demonstrated work ethic, sound mental, emotional, physical, moral, intellectual wellbeing, experiential diligence; substantive and relevant qualifications: all-round fitness for purpose. 

    Once the citizenry is given real choice, stand aside and let them make independent choices about who will hold public office, who will represent them. In a March 25, 2024, article in the Michigan Advance, Kyle Davidson quotes US Senate Candidate Sherry O’Donnell saying this. 

“I believe the public needs to hear directly from the candidates, not just through 30-second sound bites and paid media. We are seeking a very important job in Michigan and the voters deserve us going through an interview process…. Let the people decide who is the best candidate to be their next senator, who has the experience, who has the right plans, and who has the courage to put people ahead of politics.” https://michiganadvance.com/2024/03/25/republican-sherry-odonnell-files-signatures-in-u-s-senate-bid/

Sources
US Department of Justice
Friday, May 3, 2024

“An indictment was unsealed today in the Southern District of Texas charging U.S. Congressman Enrique Roberto “Henry” Cuellar, 68, and his wife, Imelda Cuellar, 67, both of Laredo, Texas, with participating in two schemes involving bribery, unlawful foreign influence, and money laundering. Congressman Cuellar and Imelda Cuellar made their initial court appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dena Palermo in Houston.”

US Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs
Press Release: U.S. Congressman Henry Cuellar Charged with Bribery and Acting as a Foreign Agent
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-congressman-henry-cuellar-and-his-wife-charged-bribery-unlawful-foreign-influence-and

“According to court documents, beginning in at least December 2014 and continuing through at least November 2021, Congressman Cuellar and Imelda Cuellar allegedly accepted approximately $600,000 in bribes from two foreign entities: An oil and gas company wholly owned and controlled by the Government of Azerbaijan, and a bank headquartered in Mexico City. The bribe payments were allegedly laundered, pursuant to sham consulting contracts, through a series of front companies and middlemen into shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar, who performed little to no legitimate work under the contracts. In exchange for the bribes paid by the Azerbaijani oil and gas company, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to use his office to influence U.S. foreign policy in favor of Azerbaijan. In exchange for the bribes paid by the Mexican bank, Congressman Cuellar allegedly agreed to influence legislative activity and to advise and pressure high-ranking U.S. Executive Branch officials regarding measures beneficial to the bank.”

Other sources

https://cuellar.house.gov/biography/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Cuellar
https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/C001063
https://www.docsherry2024.com/meet-dr-sherry-odonnell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watertown,_Minnesota

US Term Limits press Release January 9, 2023 “Dr. Sherry O’Donnell Tapped as Michigan State Chair for U.S. Term Limits, Sees the Need for Congressional Term Limits”: Lansing, MI – U.S. Term Limits announces that Dr. Sherry O’Donnell has accepted a position as U.S. Term Limits’ Michigan State Chair. Dr. O’Donnell brings a depth of public service to this role.” https://www.termlimits.com/sherry-odonnell-tapped-as-michigan-state-chair-for-u-s-term-limits/

https://health.usnews.com/doctors/sherrell-odonnell-1057735
https://doctor.webmd.com/doctor/sherrell-odonnell-bec84b6b-9828-4727-b41a-dd6a1532d35d-overview
https://www.healthcare6.com/physician/saint-joseph-mi/sherrell-anne-odonnell-749177.html

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Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett

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Man from Nebraska via America’s Ivy Leagues Sounds Off

A Sasse Moment?

B

enjamin Eric Sasse: Plainview (Pierce County), Nebraska-born academic, author, government official

• U.S. Senate seat (January 3, 2015 – term ending 2021) Former Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation (December 19, 2007 – January 20, 2009); President of Midland University (December 10, 2010 – December 31, 2014); 
• Author of Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal (2018); and The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-age Crisis—and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-reliance (2017) 

• Harvard University (junior year abroad at Oxford University) government baccalaureate
• St. John’s private non-religious liberal arts college known for its Great Books curriculum (dual campuses in Annapolis, Maryland, and Santa Fe, New Mexico) Graduate Institute’s master of arts in liberal studies
• Yale University history doctorate
  

S

asse’s advice on Congressional committees

September 2020 opinion piece - his observations in a nutshell seem sound

“In the presence of cameras, senators ‘aren’t trying to learn from witnesses, uncover details, or improve legislation. They’re competing for sound bites,’ he wrote. ‘Without posturing for cameras, Republicans and Democrats cooperate on some of America’s most complicated and urgent problems.’”

This Sasse observation seems accurate. It is true of members of both houses of congress—and the executive. These people present as crooks and clowns, constantly putting on a show; driving the people into an unbridgeable chasm of tribal warfare, and the nation more and more deeply into failure (America, the failed state).

“The Senate’s tradition wants dramatic change geared toward selling (promoting) debate; not ending it,” he writes. Toward that end, he suggests the following

Lower the cameras.

Most of what occurs in committee hearings isn’t oversight (but) showmanship.

Senators make speeches that get chopped up, shipped to home-state TV stations, and blasted throughout social media.

They aren’t attempting to study (testimony) from witnesses, uncover particulars, or enhance laws.

They’re competing for sound bites.

 [The committee exception he cites is the “Senate Choose Committee on Intelligence” where “the vast majority” of work completed by Republicans and Democrats “is finished in secret, without posturing for cameras.”]

Different committees might retain transparency “by making transcripts and real-time audio (available to) the general public.”

Abolish standing committees.

The Senate is meant to be the world’s best deliberative physique; nevertheless, it operates on about 20 everlasting fiefdoms.

Dividing legislative work is essential, however there’s no company that will deal with its issues by creating 20 everlasting committees and operating each resolution by way of them.

The Senate ought to, as an alternative, create momentary two-year committees, each devoted to creating actual progress on one or two huge issues.

Committees ought to draw energy from their accomplishments—not based primarily on which industries must supplicate earlier than the gavel.

Pack the ground.

Severe debate occurs provided that senators present up (show up in person).

Ninety-nine percent of the time you see a senator speaking on the ground, he’s talking to a chamber with someplace between zero and two colleagues current.

The Senate’s guidelines privilege the bulk, which controls the agenda and ground time.

Senators should be packed on the ground having actual debates.

We will try this by altering the principles to permit committees to regulate some ground time.

Elections have penalties, so … (chief issues ought to manage) the vast majority of the Senate’s time; however, committees ought to be capable of commanding particular occasions for particular debates.

Reside collectively.

Lots of time is spent demonizing the opposition

However, most senators can get along fairly properly.

Senators ought to dwell, eat, and meet in dormitories when the Senate is in session.

It’s laborious to demonize individuals you spend time with day-after-day.

Cancel reelection.

One of Congress' many squanderers of “energy” is the political expediency “to keep away from selections that come from the work of legislating.”

Lawmakers are obsessive about staying in workplace, and one of many best methods of ensuring reelection “is by avoiding laborious choices.”

We should suggest a constitutional modification restricting each senator to at least one time period (one term), though doubled “from six years to 12 years.”

Senators who don’t have to fret about short-term reputation can work … on long-term challenges.

[Alternatively] “… ban fundraising (e.g., sandwiching a sit-down at a $2,000-a-plate lunch fundraiser with running over to make committee votes) while the Senate is in session in Washington.

Lobbying is protected by the First Modification; nevertheless, it shouldn’t be the first focus of senators after we’ve obtained work to do.

Repeal the 17th Modification.

Ratified in 1912, it changed the appointment of senators by state legislatures with direct election. Completely different states convey completely different options to the desk, and that should be mirrored within the Senate’s nationwide debate.

The previous saying was once that everyone’s politics is native; however in the present day—due to the Internet, 24/7 cable information, and a cottage trade devoted to political habit—politics is polarized and nationwide. That will change if state legislatures had direct management over who serves within the Senate.

Sundown the whole lot.

For many years, Pennsylvania Avenue has been a one-way road, as authority flowed from Congress to the chief department.

When the unelected paperwork gets energy, it doesn’t let go.

 We ought to finish that with the Senate’s creating a ‘tremendous committee’ devoted to reviewing all such delegations of energy over the previous 80 years; after which proposing laws to sundown the authority of whole bureaucracies on a rolling foundation.

For example, does the ‘Well being and Human Providers Division’ ever reply for its aggressive regulatory lawmaking? No. Sundown all its authority in 12 months, and watch lawmakers begin to make precise legal guidelines.

Anchor Funding process in statutory principle

The ability of the purse is Congress’s major lever—and the place where Congress is most unserious.

The course of funds is totally damaged, and every few months lawmakers are confronted with a monumentally silly resolution:

‘Shut down the federal government or spend 102 percent of what was spent during the fiscal year, with no oversight.

It is a limitless sequence of all-or-nothing brinkmanship fights—persevering with resolutions, omnibus spending offers and debt-ceiling hikes.

We ought to repair that with two-year budgeting that features all federal spending, together with entitlements.

We ought to finish the excellence between appropriation and authorization.

Laws that authorize federal motion must also accept the cash to pay for it.

“These aren’t partisan proposals,” Sasse declares. “Congressional dysfunction isn’t a partisan problem.”

Over years, Congress (Republican and Democratic lawmakers) decided “to shirk its obligation and cede energy to the chief department” (the executive branch of government).

“Restoration shall be laborious. Nevertheless, it is time that Congress constructs some muscle and works out the best way to serve the American people— once more, doing our constitutionally mandated jobs.”

 

S

asse’s record of sounding off: Votes and comments 2016-2020

 2016

 During primary season, Sasse reportedly announced that he would not support then-Republican front-runner Donald Trump; and questioned Trump’s commitment to the Constitution of the United States.

In the event of a Trump nomination, he reportedly said, “he would vote neither for him nor for then-Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton; but would probably ‘look for some third candidate—a conservative option, a Constitutionalist.’”

‘If the Republican Party becomes the party of David Duke, Donald Trump, I’m out.’”

Senator Sasse went on record as

“the only senator from either party to vote against the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which was intended to address abuse of heroin and opioid drugs by providing funds to the states for treatment and prevention programs and by making the anti-overdose drug naloxone more widely available to first responders and law enforcement agencies.” 

[Naloxone (sold under the brand name Narcan, among others) is a medication used to block the effects of opioids; is commonly used to counter decreased breathing in opioid overdose (Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naloxone.]

2017

Sasse reportedly describes President Trump as a “‘megalomaniac strongman’” whose “tariffs on steel and aluminum imports (are) ‘dumb,’; and whose “escalating trade war with China (is) ‘nuts.’”

February 2019

With fifteen other senators voted against legislation containing $1.375 billion for barriers along the United States-Mexico border, and “preventing a partial government shutdown.”

March 2019

With eleven other senators, Sasse cosponsored a resolution imposing a constitutional amendment limiting to nine the total number of justices on the Supreme Court of the United States.

2020

Sasse delivers a speech on the occasion of a commencement ceremony at his high school alma mater (Fremont Senior High School, Fremont, Nebraska) in which he reportedly attacks China “over the COVID-19 pandemic.” The school board later issues an official statement “disavowing responsibility for Sasse’s comments.”

October 2020

Audio clip of call reportedly obtained by the Washington Examiner

Sasse comments in interview with a “constituent” - Referring to President Trump

“In his partial defense here, I think that lots of the news media has pretended that COVID is literally the first public health crisis ever. And somehow, it’s Donald Trump’s fault. That’s not true. They just wanted to use it against him.”

Sasse continues

“But the reality is that he (President Trump) careened from curb to curb. First, he ignored COVID. And then he went into full economic shutdown mode. … I don’t think the way he’s led through COVID has been reasonable or responsible, or right.”

A Sense of the Electorate

“… [T]he overwhelming reason that President Trump won in 2016 was simply because Hillary Clinton was literally the most unpopular candidate in the history of polling.”

 “I've spent lots of the last year on a campaign bus, and when you listen to Nebraskans, they don’t really want more rage tweeting as a new form of entertainment”

 “[President Trump] … mocks evangelicals behind closed doors. His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. [The President] has flirted with white supremacists.”

S

asse’s momentary concern? 

That “… young people (will) become permanent Democrats because they’ve just been repulsed by the obsessive nature of our politics; (that) women who were willing to still vote with the Republican Party in 2016 (will) decide that they need to turn away from this party permanently in the future…”

 

Sources

Sasse, Benjamin “Make the Senate Great Again” September 8, 2020 Adam Jacob Technology 0 Consistent News via WSJ https://consistantnews.com/make-the-senate-great-again/

https://apkmetro.com/make-the-senate-great-again/

Constitution of the United States US Constitution Amendment 17 - Senators Elected by Popular Vote. Ratified 4/8/1913. History 

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

 

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

 

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Benjamin Eric Sasse

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congresshttps://bioguideretro.congress.gov/Home/MemberDetails?memIndex=S001197
• Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Sasse

Washington Examiner “Exclusive: GOP Sen. Sasse says Trump ‘kisses dictators’ butts’ and mocks evangelicals” October 15, 2020 by David M. Drucker, Senior Political Correspondent https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/exclusive-gop-sen-sasse-says-trump-kisses-dictators-butts-mocks-evangelicals

Wall Street Journal “Republican Sen. Ben Sasse Criticizes Trump on Policies, Ethics” October 15, 2020 by Siobhan Hughes and Madeleine Ngo https://www.wsj.com/articles/republican-sen-ben-sasse-criticizes-trump-on-policies-ethics-11602811020

CBC “Ben Sasse, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, made comments to constituents” Associated Press October 16, 2020 https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/republican-sasse-trump-1.5764781

 

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