March 18, 2015

"But looking back at Schock’s history, his preternatural drive is unsettling, even for a politician."

"Schock didn’t want two phone lines. He wanted six. He didn’t want one credit card in middle school. He wanted 13. He wasn’t satisfied graduating high school in four years. He didn’t want to just sit on the school board — he wanted to be its president. He wanted to be the youngest everything. Health wasn’t enough. He needed a six-pack. He didn’t want his office to be beige. He wanted it red."

From "The self-destructive mania of Rep. Aaron Schock," by Terrence McCoy.

ADDED: Aaron Schock's father said: "Aaron is a little different... He wears stylish clothing and yet he’s not gay…and he’s not married and he’s not running around with women, so everybody is throwing up their arms. They can’t figure out Aaron, so he must be crooked. So attack him, bring him down, because he doesn’t fit into our picture."

46 comments:

Scott said...

I wonder if he does PX90 with Paul Ryan?

Scott said...

er P90X. One of those thangs.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Aaron Schock is still young and there's plenty of time for him to get into the televangelism business.

traditionalguy said...

Catch me if you can cons work out better for the young and attractive people whom everybody likes to see become the new success, until one day they get older and then people want to see them gone.

That is why strick rule keeping and honesty is really a necessary defensive tactic so you can keep on climbing the ladder.

Scott said...

Yeah, with prison pecs and a few prison tats, he should be quite appealing to a certain kind of woman.

madAsHell said...

While getting through Bradley University in two years flat, he bought 107 acres for $63,000 and sold it two years later for $170,850. Then he got some other scores by purchasing properties and selling them back to Bradley University. In all, he pocketed more than $230,000 profit in four years, the Journal Star noted.

How does one triple their money in two years by buying Illinois farmland??

This almost looks like insider trading. I know where the University will be buying, and I'll buy there first. Didn't Billy and Hilly pull this trick in Arkansas?? White water, or something like that.

madAsHell said...

Next question: How does one plow through school in two years, and make mortgage payments on a $63,000 loan??

madAsHell said...

This just doesn't pass the sniff test.

Sebastian said...

"But Schock’s rush to the top turned out to be hazardous. Terry Bibo, the Peoria Journal Star columnist, sensed something early on. It was 2008, and President George W. Bush had come to Peoria to campaign for Schock’s election to Congress. The cost of attendance at the fundraising event was high — as were costs to the city, which had to provide security. Schock at first tried to walk away from the bill, until it generated bad publicity . . . Bibo described this as one of the first “missteps in a charmed career.”"

I take it that Dem candidates, including Barry, routinely pay back costs to taxpayers, and that they do not commit such "missteps"?

“Relatively, the average guy can’t afford $500 to meet the president, much less $5,000 for a photo with him,” Bibo wrote. “Relatively, the average guy thinks $38,000 of extra cost to Peoria taxpayers for a private fundraiser they can’t afford to attend is an outrage. Relatively, the average guy thinks if Schock’s campaign received $700,000 from that fundraiser, the potential congressman should have ponied up gladly to the city.”

I take it that relatively Dem candidates stage more affordable fundraisers and are therefore immune from such criticism.

madAsHell said...

congressional ethics officials were looking into Schock’s office, an inquiry that had the potential to generate at the very least troublesome publicity and at worst a formal rebuke.

He is obviously of the wrong skin color because this would not concern Charlie Rangel.

Michael K said...

They managed to get a Republican scalp. Good for them.

Illinois Republicans have been as crooked as the Democrats for a long time. Obama's story is nearly as filled with barely legal stuff as this guy's and Obama is president.

traditionalguy said...

NB: Schock was not married.

He never stopped long enough to start a family, which would have also meant he had to explain what he did to a wife.

Sam L. said...

Reached burn-out fast.

damikesc said...

So, again, Republicans will part company with sleaze balls while Democrats will not.

JRoberts said...

When Pelosi became Speaker of the House in January 2007 she claimed she would "drain the swamp". She simply declared it a federally protected wetlands.

Brando said...

There is something about constant and nearly instant success that becomes so self-reinforcing that it leads you to ultimately make huge mistakes. It seems crazy to ruin a promising political career with silly expenditures that apparently were bad enough to cause him to resign mid-term, but then if you were running businesses in middle school and making profits on land while in college, you may feel you can do no wrong.

Usually a string of surprising successes cause people to do the classic mistake--invade Russia. Decorating your office (for $40K) is the invading Russia of Illinois congressmen, apparently.

Andrew said...

$40,000 for red paint and $500 worth of trim? DC must not be a "Right to Work" state, er district.

Matt Sablan said...

On the bright side, people have something to talk about now other than Hillary Clinton.

madAsHell said...

Schock was reimbursed for about 170,000 miles on his personal car, a Chevrolet Tahoe, between January 2010 and July 2014, but when he sold the car it only had approximately 80,000 miles on the odometer. (Schock’s staff says his office will repay the reimbursements to the government.)

SDaly said...

Dollars to doughnuts he is, in fact, gay. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

MadisonMan said...

I guess we won't have Aaron Schock to kick around anymore.

lgv said...

If he had only waited until he gained more power before doing this crap, e.g. Rangel, things might have been different. But, no, he wanted his corruption now! He couldn't help himself. That's what scorpions do.

This guy is going to be rich or in jail some day...or both.

Fritz said...

Mileage fraud is so gosh.

It's better to launder Chinese money through the family charity.

MadisonMan said...

It's interesting that the Press was using Schock's instagram account to monitor him. I can only assume they do this with all politicians.

carrie said...

He must suffer from hypomania.

Balfegor said...

Re: MadAsHell:

Next question: How does one plow through school in two years, and make mortgage payments on a $63,000 loan??

If you assume 20% down, 30 year fixed rate at 5%, that would be less than $300/month, which one could cover with a part-time job. That doesn't seem at all unrealistic. And since he seems to have been intent on flipping the properties, he might have done something more exotic, with teaser rates or no principal payment for an initial period, etc. Risky, but there's a certain kind of person who goes in for that kind of this.

In terms of getting through school in 2 years, I assume that's just a matter of credits -- if he was able to pull in some credits from AP classes in high school, that can knock off a year. Add in summer school or an extra class or two each semester, and it's not impossible, especially if he was doing an easy major. He might also have taken a bunch of large lecture courses and skipped everything but the exams. When I took Introduction to Systems Engineering, I skipped all but one of the lectures. Participation was not part of the grade, just the exams.

Re: Brando:

Usually a string of surprising successes cause people to do the classic mistake--invade Russia.

No, the classic blunder is "never get involved in a land war in Asia."

Re: the $40,000, that's a lot of expensive furniture and furnishings. I can't see the entire office, but this is a bit tacky. There's a "red room" in my family home, but it's not all red everywhere. Red tones just predominate. I find that glaring, featureless red carpet particularly offputting. And the mismatched frames and paintings.

MadisonMan said...

Presumably the person who replaces him brings a lot of paint the first day.

Brando said...

"Risky, but there's a certain kind of person who goes in for that kind of this."

I realize it's a typo, but "that kind of this" should really become a part of the vocabulary.

madAsHell said...

Risky, but there's a certain kind of person who goes in for that kind of this.

Sure, I can do the math, but there is just too much good luck going on here.

As an 18 or 19 year old male, I was only interested in skirts, beer, and weed.

Wilbur said...

I wonder at what tender age he got a court to emancipate him.

dreams said...
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David said...
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HoodlumDoodlum said...

"He didn’t want his office to be beige. He wanted it red."

I'm no artist, but is red just an extreme version of beige? Pink<red, sure, even coral<crimson, but how do you get from there to beige<red? Is beige * 20 = red? Somebody grab their Pantone guide, I need help.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Brando said...I realize it's a typo, but "that kind of this" should really become a part of the vocabulary.

This of a thisness.

richard mcenroe said...

Hoodlum Doodlum: Thusly, that.

Carl Pham said...

I'm going to guess Mr. Schock was bored with Congress, and is looking for something more adrenaline-soaked than voting yea or nay a few hundred times until you turn into a doddering fool like Charlie Rangel or Robert Byrd.

Also, the idea of Congress rearing up in outrage over one of its members splurging on his office redeco or adding 90,000 miles to his reimbursement request is a hoot. Caligula says, while destroying the Republic and looting the Treasury of $billions I see you, you naughty boy, stealing rolls from the public buffet!

Har har. An ethics probe by Congress is like a bunch of alcoholics lecturing one of their members on chewing gum with sugar instead of sugarless. Sort of fascinating, in the way terrible freeway accidents are.

MayBee said...

The left always wanted to out Aaron Schock.

I'd bet my bottom dollar the guy who went after the red office story was hoping to find out he was gay, not financially inappropriate.

Zach said...

The office doesn't look so terrible to me. There's a distinct Gilded Age vibe, what with the framed portraits of presidents, the red color scheme, and the use of brass. But nothing looks incredibly expensive. Paint is cheap, and so are pheasant feathers.

What should it cost to renovate a multi room Congressional office? $10,000 seems low, and apparently $40,000 is scandalously high.

Francisco D said...

It is generally well known in Peoria, that Schock is gay, according to a former girlfriend and strong Schock supporter. Outing him would not hurt his chances at re-election.

Phil 314 said...

I have one word for you son:

Lithium

stlcdr said...

NPR was full of glee over this story; the tone was 'yet another Republican ripping off the hard working you, the listener'.

Brando said...

"What should it cost to renovate a multi room Congressional office? $10,000 seems low, and apparently $40,000 is scandalously high."

I don't have the answer to that, but if I were in Congress I'd find out what the median is and stay below it--and if I really wanted a plusher office, I'd spend my own cash on it (if allowed--there may be rules against that). There's just a certain tone-deafness to these Congressmen spending taxpayer funds for their own pleasure (rather than just what's needed to do their jobs) and not realizing the media will find out and have a field day with it.

Tom said...

Seems like American Psycho.

Titus said...

My dad thinks I am straight.

Known Unknown said...

My dad thinks I am straight

On the internet everyone is gay.

Zach said...

I don't have the answer to that, but if I were in Congress I'd find out what the median is and stay below it--and if I really wanted a plusher office, I'd spend my own cash on it (if allowed--there may be rules against that). There's just a certain tone-deafness to these Congressmen spending taxpayer funds for their own pleasure (rather than just what's needed to do their jobs) and not realizing the media will find out and have a field day with it.

I certainly agree with this as a matter of prudence. But it is the man's primary place of business, after all, in a job that involves a lot of meetings with people.