Bachmann's Pal Pod Lobbyist Edwin Cain Lobbied for Shady Veterans Charity

In this morning's DB post, Karl Bremer broke the news about Bobby Thompson:

A tax-exempt Navy veterans group founded by one of Michele Bachmann’s top campaign contributors may be under investigation by the IRS at the request of U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA). The group is under investigation in at least six states and has been banned from operating in at least three.

Webb has asked the IRS to investigate the U.S. Navy Veterans Association, a national charitable veterans organization founded by Bobby Thompson of Tampa, FL, after reading “alarming reports” that the charity’s directors cannot be located and its multimillion-dollar expenditures cannot be accounted for.The U.S. Navy Veterans Association was founded by Thompson, who donated $10,000 to Rep. Michele Bachmann’s campaign at her Minneapolis event with former halftime governor Sarah Palin April 7. Thompson was only one of six individuals who ponied up the 10 large to have his picture taken with the Tea Party darlings.

According to the St. Petersburg Times there's yet another connection between the shady Florida charity and Michele Bachmann.

The lobbyists were Wright, special counsel to the Navy Veterans; J. Kenneth Klinge, a consultant of JKK Associates who once served as executive director of the Virginia Republican Party; and Edward E. Cain, whose Minnesota company, Legislative Associates, is a consultant for the Navy Veterans group.

Actually it's Edwin Cain, but he is indeed a registered lobbyist in Virginia for the Navy Veterans Association. Contact info for Legislative Associates appears on the navyvets.org website.

Edwin Cain is also a registered lobbyist in Minnesota for the the City of Granite Falls, Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee, the City of Marshall, Short Elliot Hendrickson Incorporated, and would-be personal rapid transit vendor Taxi 2000.

Taxi 2000 recently took part in an attempt to flim-flam a $25 million Federal earmark for a pod project in Winona.

Picture of Edwin Cain and Bachmann as it appears on Bachmann's congressional website (Click on screenshot to make it bigger):



Listen to Edwin Cain promoting the pod boondoggle to the House Transportation Finance Committee hearing on Thursday, April 14th, 2005:



You can read about Bachmann and Edwin Cain pushing the Stillwater bridge boondoggle here.