‘The Unelected Cash Board’
Chip Flowers in full asshole mode. Words fail me. Count the number of times he says ‘unelected cash board’. Says Benner saved the state ‘hundreds of millions’ of dollars. BTW, Benner is no longer on the state payroll. According to Chip.
Tags: Chip Flowers, Erika Benner
Don’t forget his tired “they’re just picking on the black guy” theme!
If Chip knows his place he better start listening to his overseers.
I loved that ‘Erika Benner broke the glass ceiling for everyone under the sun’ meme.
‘Hundreds of millions’ of state dollars at risk. I mean, this man and this woman are bleeping heroes!
Folks, there’s too much good stuff here. You just gotta see the whole thing and let us know your favorites.
Hey, Puck, there’s a job open now. You might wanna polish up your resume. You seem like you’d meet Chip’s exacting standards.
How about that ‘…taxpayers, including myself, are tired of the political game…’?
Speaking as a taxpayer, I’m tired of Flowers playing games and not divulging how much his trips have cost state, um, taxpayers. But that’s just me.
Let’s see if he gets a sponsor for the CMPB amendments he is proposing.
All I can do is shake my head at this one. He still does not get that silence is his best answer to all of this. Why the hell do you call a press conference to say Benner is a martyr and the press and the governor are the bad guys???
I am convinced Benner has some serious dirt on him. Why the heck would he go into such depth about what she has done to the state and what was “done to her”? Last I checked, the lifetime movie was of her OWN creation. Perhaps had she not used her credit card inappropriately and kept her legs closed to this pompous moron she wouldn’t be in this position.
Wow. He can’t be serious. By that logic…
Without her actions, if that meteorite would have hit the earth, hundreds of millions of people would have died.
What bank is he talking about?
Presumably WT now M&T.
NC, placed your comment in moderation. We really don’t know if there was the type of relationship that you allege, and I don’t think it’s fair to state it as a matter of fact.
Feel free to repost the comment w/o the offending portion.
When he had the chance, Chip didn’t attack Markell, but prayed for him and he hopes Markell doesn’t have to suffer the deplorable treatment that Benner has suffered.
What a guy!
FenceSitter wrote:
“Let’s see if he gets a sponsor for the CMPB amendments he is proposing.”
Yet more evidence that he WANTS to lose that vote. His martyrdom, in his own mind, will be complete.
What an absolute moron. This guy is a total clown. He doesn’t even know, nor is he able to speak intelligently, about the functions of his own office.
The State of Delaware has a custodial bank (the Bank of NY Mellon – you’ll see their name on the statements on his web page) who is responsible for the safekeeping of assets of the State’s investment portfolio. All of the investment managers the State hires have to work with the custodian who safe keeps the funds while the investment managers actually make the discretionary decisions on what to invest in (according to CMPB guidelines). And that’s another point all together – him taking credit for investment returns when he has absolutely ZERO discretionary control over the State’s investment portfolio, whatsoever.
Sooooo, that means… wait for it… NO MONEY WAS EVER AT RISK! Not one dime of the State’s investment portfolio, let alone the “hundreds of millions” he claims Erika saved from evaporating.
Further proof that this guy isn’t even remotely qualified to hold this office.
And he calls others liars while telling bold face lies himself. With no opportunity for questions, I might add.
He also claimed that he/Benner earned $30 mill for the state.
They didn’t.
“Chip Flowers in full asshole mode”, funniest phrase ever!!!!
Sooooo, that means… wait for it… NO MONEY WAS EVER AT RISK!
Chips says that HAD the money been at risk, Benner would have saved it.
Similarly, HAD my house burned down, I will have saved my family by going to the movies that night.
El, I think recall reading that CF and Co. earned in excess of $30 million on the $2 billion cash and investment portfolio during CF’s tenure. I wasn’t a math major, but I’d say that is a piss-poor rate of return.
Had to wait a bit, but thanks, Chip! I really needed that!
There are no words left for this person.
Unelected cash board “She unelected cash board protected unelected cash board hundreds of millions unelected cash board of taxpayer dollars unelected cash board from money deposited unelected cash board by the unelected cash board unelected cash board in a failing bank,”unelected cash board
El, understood.
At any rate, his attempt to make her the victim was piss poor. As I said before, perhaps he should refrain from opening his mouth from now on. That press conference was ridiculous.
Ken Simpler must love this
God DAMN! Jason330 utilizing meta-fiction techniques to impressive effect!
What I would like to see is an ‘unelected state treasurer’. The office of State Treasurer is the equivalent of a county row office except at the state level. It is more ceremonial or a practice game for running for another office. What I would hate to see is an elected cash board. God knows we have enough elected officials already. Anyone who runs for this office could run on the premise of eliminating this as an elected office.
When you consider that voters had a ‘choice’ of Flowers, Velda Jones-Potter, or Colin Bonini in 2010, your argument takes on quite a bit of relevance and credibility.
BTW, and this is sorta off-topic, one reason why, to this day, I still really like John Daniello, is b/c when he was a lotlot younger, he was running for (I think) NCC Levy Court President. This was in the pre-County government days. He was at a coffee klatch at my parents’ house, and he said, “I’m running to eliminate my job.”
And he was true to his word. Some things you never forget.
My favorite line from the press conference was ” in my neighborhood, we call that a shake-down!”
Who knew Middletown had its own vernacular? Or maybe he meant Cambridge.
Yeah, got a real kick out of that one.
BTW, one of my fave moments was when he lifted his arms in religious supplication when mentioning the Treasurer’s office. Watch his arms when he says, “But from the Treasurer’s office, this matter is closed.”
It’s like he’s worshiping at his own altar.
Any chance for a discussion on the merits (and not the politics) of the proposed amendment? From my perspective, it seems like a fairly simple amendment to increase transparency on the CMPB.
As of now, the amendment to which you refer has not been introduced.
However, there is an amendment which removes the exemption of the Cash Management Board from FOIA. I think that’s a pretty good amendment, and increases transparency.
Whatever happened to the Chip Approval rating poll you were going to put up?
Who knew the upper class neighborhood of Back Creek (golf community) had “Shake downs”.
Maybe his arms are making the capital “T” he always uses in Treasurer?
Also, he paid back the $800 (he now says) not because it was wrong to bill taxpayers for that kind of room service, but because they were secret (ie, not transparent) meetings?
Tim said:
“Who knew the upper class neighborhood of Back Creek (golf community) had “Shake downs”.
Maybe they were just trying to get him to settle his overdue golf bet debts.
Hope he didn’t pay with his state credit card…
Agreed El Som, SA 1 to SB 151 improves the bill. It’s kind of strange the the bill would exempt the board from FOIA in the first place. I’d also like to see an amendment requiring disclosure of personal investments from members of the board. It’s seems ridiculous that they aren’t already required to do so.
Term limits and prohibition of campaign contributions, on the other hand, seem unnecessary.
Let’s not forget the $800 car rental and the overnight stays in philly.. And the expensive dry cleaning… And the……. The list is quite astonishing. He’s must be confusing state treas. with the President. The amazing thing is that he would have coasted by 20 points against the republican they are putting up. One google search of that guy makes you wonder about his character.
Drip….drip….drip. God, I love this!!!!!
RI and ES, if memory serves, SA 1 deals with the APA, not FOIA. That would mean that any regulations promulgated by the CMPB would be vetted publicly, with opportunity for comment, etc. I, frankly, think all of the Chipsters proposed amendments have merit and warrant serious consideration. Sadly, no one in Dover or anywhere else takes him seriously-for good reason.
If CF is really pro-transparency, he should propose an amendment to get rid of the silly FOIA exemption that permits the Treasurer to withhold correspondence with investment banks. If you recall, he invoked that exemption to withhold documents showing who he and Benner allegedly met with in Alaska. Why he couldn’t simply redact the FI identifying information and release the rest is a mystery. I take that back, there’s really no mystery.
That’s right, APA (Administrative Procedures Act), meaning meetings have to be open to the public.
I suspect that a really fine Aussie blend of grenache, mourvedre, and syrah impelled me to confuse my acronyms.
“a really fine Aussie blend of grenache, mourvedre, and syrah ”
All in the same bottle. or are we talking three bottles of wine here?
in
No, one bottle. And I didn’t drink it all myself. But it was so good I might have, if given the opportunity.
Schild Barossa GSM, for those enquiring minds out there.
The extraordinarily talented Rob Tornoe weighs in with this hysterical, can’t miss cartoon on the latest Chip Flowers saga…
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/component/flexicontent/item/63921-the-tornoe-spin-treasurer-vs-governor
Does Rob have any good cartoons on the Veasey report?
Meanwhile, there were no takers for Flowers’s good-government amendments to SB 151.
s
I think its funny that nobody wants to pick up what I think is a good amendment. Hate the messenger on this one, not the message. I think Chip has some valid points here. If what he’s saying is true about campaign contributions and conflicts of interest on the board, it falls in line with what we’ve already seen from this administration. This pay to play system has to end. Chip hasn’t done himself any favors, but at least he’s posing hard questions to the governor. Unlike our state’s media and apparently this blog. IMO
Chip has been talking about the serious deficiencies in SB 151 since June but waited until the day of the Senate Committee to float a remedy amendment? That is the stupid kind of gotcha politics that he should know better than to employ. But regardless of the late-to-the-game nature of his recommendations, they are sound and the House should ABSOLUTELY incorporate them into the bill.
Drawing Flowers as a clown (or laughing at it) is about as funny as drawing Obama as the Joker, and comes from the same ugly impulse.
Please.
In relative terms, I don’t see the scandal here. Flowers little spending indiscretions are nothing compared to all the money that has been wasted, misused, and dare I say, even stolen by past ,and present members of his own party.
Yes, this is some sort of hit on Flowers for not playing ball with the good old boys network. Could possibly even be racially motivated.
Enough with the racially motivated nonsense! We all were more than thrilled to elect our first statewide African American. The way he’s handled himself has gotten him in this mess. If I want to change things at work I don’t bum rush my peers and start going to the press with it. His strategy has been clouded by his massive ego and now he’s going to lose his job in the public sector. Plain and simple.
Paint the guy as a clown all you want… he’s caused a lot of PR problems for himself. Regardless of that, what he’s saying has merit (not the stuff about Benner). Nancy, I would imagine that the reason he brought the amendment out now is because this was the first possible time for him to do it with the legislature just resuming this week. I don’t think this is racially motivated, however I do feel that the very short rope that has been provided to Chip is a result of him being a black man. Jack has had numerous instances where there have been questionable practices surrounding campaign activity and funding… nobody says much about it. His rope is a mile long. Chip and his aide have a dispute with the Dept of Finance over personal vs state charges and all of a sudden its Watergate and he needs to be primaried? Meanwhile the Gov has done nothing to distance himself from this very public battle that he is having with the Treasurer. Even going as far as propping up his campaign manager to run for the seat. However, somehow Jack walks away from this thing squeaky clean. Just my perspective
There have been dozens of Veasey stories. There would have been exactly one Benner story had he been more accomodating (dare I say Chipper?) and simply said “wow. That Is a bit of a mess. We’ll fix it,” and did.
On the amendment and the timing – wasn’t there three years worth of time to find a sponsor and introduce this as a standalone bill?
When you respond to reporters’ criticisms by calling them liars, they tend to write more stories to prove that they are not.
When Karen Weldin Stewart’s office was under fire they had a Joint House/Senate Hearing to get answers. And I don’t recall her pulling the “it’s because I’m a woman” card.
BREAKING NEWS: House, Senate insurance committees to hold hearings into allegations of mismanagement at Dept. of Insurance
April 1, 2010 by leewilliamscri
Joint hearings will be held within two weeks, and open to the public.
By Lee Williams
The chair of the House Banking and Insurance Committee announced Thursday he wants Delaware Insurance Commissioner Karen Weldin Stewart to publically answer allegations of impropriety that were raised by the Caesar Rodney Institute, as well as allegations she failed to sufficiently regulate a local insurer.
Rep. Bryon Short, D-Highland Woods, said he’s heard the concerns expressed about the state’s insurance department after CRI released its special report titled: “Delaware Dept. of Insurance: Not in the public interest.”
“The best way to serve the public, is when there are concerns, make it public,” Short told the Caesar Rodney Institute.
So why KWS and not Chip “I accepted her resignation in August but she’s still on the payroll in January” Flowers? There are concerns, why not “make it public” for the Treasurer’s Office as well?
If race is an issue, as Flowers claimed in the Delaware State News more than once, it’s working in his favor. He should be glad that he’s not a middle aged (??), white, female, elected official on the Governor’s S*it List or he’d be sitting in front of a joint hearing like KWS was.
Just another Delaware “Democrap” dirt bag politician that thinks Delawareans are stupid.
Delusional=Mr. Flowers taking credit for the passing of the bill that keeps investment control in the CMB’s hands. They said they will review all of his “Honest” provisions in committee.
“You are calling for open government and meetings and this kind of stuff and you wouldn’t disclose, and to this day you would not disclose, what banks or bankers you met with on some of these trips months and months and months after the meetings were taking place … and yet we are supposed to have public meetings. It just seems ironic that you are calling for that.”
Sen. Lavelle said the the same thing about ironic, in regards to transperancy.
I see we have a fan of Senator Lavelle here.The Lavelle fans don’t get the order of magnitude difference between a couple of credit card receipts., and an ongoing giant mutual pay-for-play scheme between the Governor, GA leadership, and the state’s largest banks. One is petty hubris, the other is politically corrupt on a massive scale. Guess which one our Democrats want to take action on. Lavelle’s quip doesn’t give the Senate a pass.
I’m just grateful for this blog illuminating that Greg Lavelle has fans… Who would have ever thought? Certainly no one in Delaware.
Not a fan, he happened to make a point about transperancy going both ways.
Based on Chip’s victory lap in the paper today, I now think this whole thing – Alaska, attacking Biden, swinging daily at Markell, repeatedly calling M&T Bank and other major Delaware employers corrupt – all of it was part of a grand master plan by he and his cadre of advisors to bring the state together in a unanimous vote. Well done!
He’s a uniter!
Please!!! The Insurance Commissioner not regulating one of the state’s largest insurance companies and drawing federal attention in no way compares to state credit cards Anon. Just the fact that you think it does means that you’re weighing Chip’s issue a little more for some reason.
Pay-for-play must be why da Peep’s Treasurer is hiding what banks he met with.