Aside from being former senator Norm Coleman's buddy, Jeff Larson also runs a very successful communications and fundraising company, FLS Connect. Norm's campaign and Senate office contracted FLS Connect for upwards of $1.5 million worth of work. Larson is also slightly famous for helping outfit Sarah Palin for her appearances at St. Paul's Republican National Convention in 2008.
Larson has not been immune to controversy.
Larson gave his little buddy Norm a sweetheart apartment deal in Washington, DC. The rates were well below market prices and he even allowed Norm to skip rent payments and even pay with furniture that then remained on the property, probably for Norm to use.
His latest controversy is the equivalent of being posed the question when did you stop beating your wife?
An Arizona man who spent 10 months working as a telephone solicitor for a Minnesota-based Republican fundraising firm claims that the company regularly hires convicted felons who have unrestricted access to political donors' credit card numbers.
Minnesota political consultant Jeff Larson - a founding partner in the company, FLS Connect, which has offices in St. Paul and Phoenix - vehemently denied that any ex-convicts working at FLS have access to credit card information.
(St. Paul Legal Ledger's Capitol Report)
Sarah Palin's folksy authenticity must have been touted by Republican operatives at least once for every dollar the RNC has spent on her clothes, hair, and makeup over the past six weeks. (That's 150,000 times/dollars, for those of you who spent today in a cave.)
But it turns out the Republicans didn't trust Palin to dress herself for the big time. No, her Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys, and Neiman Marcus clothes were purchased by one Jeff Larson.
Does the name Jeff Larson sound familiar? It should. Larson is the Karl Rove protégé who's a principal in the robocalling firm of FLS Connect (the "FLS" stands for Tony Feather, Jeff Larson, and Tom Syndhorst, all veteran Republican political operatives). Larson's firm is the same one that launched the scurrilous robocalls against John McCain in 2000, and that McCain has now hired to make robocalls connecting Barack Obama to Bill Ayers. He's also well known in Minnesota for leasing his basement apartment at a steeply discounted rate to embattled Republican Senator Norm Coleman. Evidently, Larson also has quite the eye for women's fashion. Even hateful liberals would have to admit that Palin dresses awfully nicely.
And in a stunning coincidence, $75,000 of the clothes for Palin were purchased by Larson at the very same Neiman Marcus where Republican donor Nasser Kazeminy allegedly bought suits for...Norm Coleman. I foresee an ad for that store: "The choice for Republican operatives seeking to outfit up-and-coming politicians who can't dress themselves."
I don't know which is worse, the blatant and invasive corruption or the stunning incompetence of the modern Republican Party and its leaders.
One of the primary firms serving Norm Coleman's reelection campaign is FLS Connect -- I wrote about them some time ago. They share an address in St. Paul with Coleman's campaign, and have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees from Coleman's coffers.
FLS is closely linked with DCI, the same firm that's involved with the Myanmar junta.
Yep, that's right -- FLSConnect.com is registered to an entity called "FLS-DCI" located in Oakdale, MN. Sourcewatch indicates that those first three letters stand for "Feather Larson Synhorst" -- Synhorst refers to the chairman of DCI, Thomas Synhorst, and Sourcewatch notes one of their specialties: "creating phony front groups to make it appear as if there's a groundswell of support for its clients' issues."
Really now.
So, it's no small wonder that Norm Coleman doesn't want to return that money. One has to wonder how many cookie jars in which we're going to find these guys' hands.
