A story about Ed Schultz [View All]

Saw your post about Schultz. I have a story to tell you. Maybe you've heard it already but its interesting because I was involved.

Mike, Randi, Thom Hartman, The Turks, Nancy Skinner, myself and a couple of others attended a two day meeting a little over three years ago. It was held at the Rayburn building on Capitol Hill. It was sponsored by Democracy Radio Inc. which was headed up by Tom Athans, who is the husband of Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.

Athans, thru his wife got this nice cushy job with a nice fat salary and he was to promote "Liberal Radio". The reason for this meeting was for him to get to know whatever "Liberal" talent there was available.

Randi and I were sitting in one of the House of Representative hearing rooms and this guy walks in and sits over in the corner by himself. It was Ed Schultz. Randi says to me: "The asshole over in the corner is that prick Ed Schultz from North Dakota." She had already had a problem with him of some kind and it was obvious she didn't like him even a little bit. Anyway, Tom Athans promised to help a couple of us out with money to buy airtime and promote some shows into syndication. He promised me to my face that Democracy Radio would do "whatever it takes" to get my show into syndication. From what I've heard he promised a couple of others at that meeting the same thing.

Well, that was the last time Athans had anything to do with any of us except Schultz. Tom Daschle was in trouble for his re-election bid and he went to Schultz (since Schultz was on the big station up there in Daschle's area) and made a deal with him. Sort of a "you scratch my back I'll scratch yours type deal." Schultz was a dyed in the wool conservative Republican at the time but he was on Fargo's biggest station. I'm told Daschle promised him that he (Daschle) would see to it that Schultz would have access to the money people in the Party thru him. Daschle hooked Schultz up with several Democratic Senators, including Hillary, Mary Landrieu, and some others who met down in New Orleans. The rest is history. Daschle lost but Schultz came out the big winner with a nice fat contract and the promise of all of the Democrat big-wigs appearing on his program anytime he wanted. Athans then got him syndicated with Jones network (along with Stephanie Miller who is also very well connected in D.C.) Now, Athans is a vice-president at AAR.

The idea that Schultz is any kind of Liberal whatsoever is laughable. Right after he started his program I listened to him one day and wrote him an e-mail stating that his attitude on the show was hardly Liberal. He wrote back: "Who gives a shit what Liberals want. This is MY radio show." He is a complete phoney. The part that really burns my ass is that Democrats on DU and elsewhere think this guy is one of us when all Schultz is doing is laughing at his audience behind their backs.