Last month, I asked “Is there anything State Sen. Robert Hurt (R-Chatham) won’t do for his donors at [American Electric Power subsidiary] Appalachian Power?” Today, we’re learning more about what’s in it for Hurt as he tries to win the GOP nomination to challenge Rep. Tom Perriello (D-5th).

Hurt’s shilling came into the spotlight as he made outlandish excuses to defend Appalachian Power’s massive rate hike in December. When 5th district voters expressed outrage at the huge price spike in the middle of a recession, Hurt claimed Appalachian Power had no choice but to raise rates because of carbon pollution regulations. Just one problem — those regulations don’t actually exist yet. (Will Hurt next blame AEP’s recent minor stock slip on financial reform that has not yet passed?) Hurt has also vigorously rejected mainstream climate science, sounding an awful lot like Tea Party favorite Ken Cuccinelli.

Hurt’s first quarter fundraising report shows his efforts  paid off handsomely, with AEP delivering a $1,000 donation. That’s on top of the $3,250 Appalachian Power has contributed to Hurt’s campaigns since 2001, just a fraction of the $64,717 Hurt has received from energy companies over that period, including $20,750 from electric utilities.

And if Hurt plays his cards right, there’s a lot more where that came from! Don’t believe me? Just ask Virgil Goode!

AEP gave then-Rep. Goode $10,000 in 2008 alone & $25,850 over his Congressional career, making AEP one of his top donors ever (just ahead of Altria/Philip Morris & RJ Reynolds Tobacco).

It’s all part of a massive expansion of AEP’s political contributions. As recently as the 1998 cycle, AEP’s political action committee spent “only” $139,950. But AEP has already spent $875,048 this time around — and the 2010 cycle’s only half over.

Why is AEP suddenly so interested in politics? It may have something to do with those pesky Democrats (like Rep. Perriello) trying to hold polluters accountable for their pollution. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst named AEP to the Toxic 100 list, identifying AEP as the 35th-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, releasing roughly 88 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air every single year.

So the bottom line is, I guess not every customer in Virginia’s 5th district is so upset about all that extra money flowing into AEP’s coffers & all that pollution going into our air, huh? For Robert Hurt, it just paid off.

On Wednesday night’s edition of “The O’Reilly Factor,” Bill played a new VoteVets.org ad for guest Dennis Miller. The ad points out that the money we pay to import polluting oil ends up in the hands of terrorists who targets our troops in Iraq & Afghanistan. It closes with a call for clean energy & climate legislation. Watch as Miller, a hardcore conservative & self-described global warming denier, refuses to say one bad word about it:

Thanks to Tom Whipple for the Friday “Clips.”

1. MCDONNELL SIGNS REFORM MEASURES

2. SIERRA CLUB CALLS ON LEGISLATURE TO REJECT MCDONNELL AMENDMENT ON AIR POLLUTION BILL

3. BLACK BAPTIST PASTORS CRITICIZE MCDONNELL’S POLICIES

4. WILLIAM AND MARY FRATERNITY SNUBS GOVERNOR OVER CONFEDERATE HISTORY MONTH PROCLAMATION

5. REPUBLICAN ACTIVIST ACCUSES BOLLING OF ‘POLITICAL PAYBACK’ IN LOCAL ENDORSEMENTS

6. CUCCINELLI: I’M FIGHTING FOR CONSTITUTION

7. THINK TANK SAYS VIRGINIA BUDGET RAISES TAXES ON POOR

8. GROUP: VA. BUDGET WILL BOOST WORKING POOR’S TAXES

9. VIRGINIA DELEGATES SIGN LETTER SUPPORTING 10TH AMENDMENT ON STATES’ RIGHTS

10. STEWART FIRES UP TEA PARTY

11. VA. GETS $59.8M FOR STRUGGLING SCHOOLS

12. TEA-PARTY SUPPORTERS RALLY IN RICHMOND

After everything that happened on their watch in 2007, this is the extent of their contribution?  After all their buck-passing and blame-shifting for what they did, now Mitch McConnell thinks this is how they should lead?  Huffington Post reports that 41 Republicans will block ANY debate on financial reform.  

There it is for all the world to see.  They spin bad-fiction about whatever the issue is.  They seed all manner of hate against the president. They incite (and actually are behind) tea-ranters.  And then they do this to the American people.  For more on this story, please go here.

We got into the financial crisis because of too little regulation and too much thumb twiddling,  by George W. Bush as Wall Street collapsed around him.  The belated action to stop the collapse was on Bush’s watch. Yet the GOP keeps blaming it on President Obama. The GOP blames everyone but themselves.  Now they do not want the federal government to have the power to protect our financial system from the massive fraud bringing us to the brink of collapse already.  They call themselves a political party.  They think they are patriots and are at the ready to question everyone else’s patriotism.

It’s time for Harry Reid and the Democratic Senate majority to throw out the Senate rules.  Senate “rules” are not sacred.  Predicated upon good will now missing, they only worked when real gentlemen and women sat in the Senate.  Now the obstruction crew can hardly be considered that.

Harry, do something now.  Start with making them do a real filibuster.  Make them put on this charade in front of the camera.  Let the public see what they do.  

And then, when they continue to obstruct, as you know they will, pull the rig out from under them.   Change the rules.  You are in charge.  What are you waiting for, Harry?  Don’t wait till the beginning of the next session. Don’t’ let them stop the government’s business for the next three years.  Do something!

Teabaggers, listen up.  It’s not usually how you roll, but there is always a first time.  If you pay attention at last, you’re in for a shock. You are celebrating with the wrong side.  The sad thing is you don’t even know it.  Even generally conservative blogs such as Bacon’s Rebellion have it correct.  But not the rest of you.  You should be celebrating that 95% of Americans got a tax break this year.  That’s right, our taxes were cut. And there you go again, carrying on for nothing.  

Both our paychecks were reduced each week and the tables were reduced to allow further savings come tax Day (er, Celebrate with the 95% Day). So, celebrate, unless, that is you care more about the other 5%–or unless you prefer to serve as a useful pawn for Dick Armey, Peter Peterson and the big moneyed interests feeding their astro-turf groups.)

It’s sad, really. Instead of working for your own, most Americans’, and the country’s interest, you work on behalf of Armey and Peterson (and the corporations who love them. What did they ever do for you, really? How does it feel to be ditto-heads in the Dick Armey and Peterson campaign to undermine your own financial security so corporate execs will be even richer.  Is that a cause to believe in?  Is it?

And, no you are not real Tea Partiers.  The original Tea Parties hold little similarity to your groups.  They were not against taxes.  They were opposed to taxation without representation. But what’s a little revisionism?  

I call your attention to another diary on this site here. How’s that for irony guys?  Mickey D. is raising taxes.  And he’s doing it in a very sneaky way.  Kind of a paradigm buster, isn’t it? Obama cut taxes for 95% of Americans.  And Bob McDonnell is going to raise them on the least well off (about the lower half of the economic scale).  WOW!  What a perfect metaphor for the differences between the two parties!.  

Wait, wasn’t Bob McDonnell supposed to be against stuff like this?

Virginia will receive nearly $59.8 million in federal funding from the United States Department of Education for use in improving some of the Commonwealth’s most consistently underperforming public schools. The funding was announced earlier today by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. The money will come from the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program.

Speaking about the funding, Governor McDonnell noted, “I have often stated that a child’s educational opportunities should be determined by her intellect and work ethic, not her zip code. Every child in Virginia deserves the basic opportunity of a quality education. This funding will help allow us to improve and reform schools that have underperformed for far too long. Providing world class educational opportunities for all of Virginia’s children is a bipartisan goal that we are committed to achieving.”

But, but, but…isn’t this “socialism” or something? Isn’t federal funding – or anything by the federal government, for that matter – supposed to be a bad thing? So confusing.