Former Utah Republican Senate candidate Cherilyn Eagar wrote a post on RedState.com today. The post had many half-truths, lies, and misrepresentations. Here are a few of them:
- “Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina has received thousands of dollars over the last several years from EnergySolutions.” - Eagar uses this line in an attempt to show that Senator Demint has been bought by Energy Solutions. The truth is Jim Demint has received $7,000 total from Energy Solutions in his career ($6,000 from their PAC & $1,000 from individuals). That pales in comparison to the $46,400 Rob Bishop has received from Energy Solutions, or the $55,800 for Lindsay Graham and the $36,600 for Harry Reid in this election cycle alone.
- “If that were not egregious enough, ES is now trying to “blend” the waste so that the Clive facility can take the “hotter” B and C waste that Utahns oppose.” The “blended waste” Cherilyn Eagar mentions would still have to fall under the category of class A low level waste in order for it to be allowed in Utah. Class A LLW is the least radioactive (it’s things like clothing, cement, or other things that have come in contact with radiation) and has a half-life of less than 5 years. Ms. Eagar sounds like a Democrat attacking an American corporation with a 30 year spotless safety record.
- “The big cash cow…is the foreign waste from Italy…EnergySolutions stands to make $6 BILLION in profit.” I honestly have no idea where Eagar got the $6 billion number from. I find it hard to believe considering Energy Solutions’ profits in 2009 were only $50.8 million. That means that if Energy Solutions is able to import the LLW from Italy their profits will increase by over 12,000%! If that’s the case, then I better go buy some ES stock!
- “Who better than a young lawyer who made over $600,000 in 15 months arguing that Utah had no right to refuse foreign waste?” Mike Lee did not make any money from Energy Solutions. His law firm assigned him to ONE case on a constitutional issue. To say Lee made over $600,000 for arguing foreign waste is false.
- “When Mike Lee was the general counsel for Governor Jon Huntsman, he was against Energy Solutions and for states rights. He argued passionately AGAINST the importation of waste…” Mike Lee successfully kept spent nuclear fuel out of Utah. Spent nuclear fuel is very dangerous, class A LLW is not.
- “Wanting a Senator who can bring home the bacon also means that if you cross EnergySolutions and their puppeteering, it could very well cost you your job. Popular radio talk show host Bob Lonsberry was fired yesterday after 10 years on the air in Utah.” Cherilyn Eagar provides no evidence to substantiate this claim and I was unable to find anything in my own research.
- Mike Lee claims to have raised $115,000 online, yet it is Jim DeMint’s PAC that is responsible for $106,000 of it… This is flat out wrong. While Jim Demint’s Conservative PAC has raised over $106,000 for Mike Lee, the $115,000 on MikeLee2010.com is separate from that.
- “Make no mistake – electing Mike Lee means electing someone who has sold his soul lock, stock and barrel to EnergySolutions and outside interests. He will not be representing Utah to Washington, he will be joining Jim DeMint in “controlling the Senate”“ Wow, I don’t even know what to say about this. Cherilyn Eagar is attacking the most conservative man in the Senate and arguably the most principled man in both houses of Congress.
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Comments on: "Fact Checking Cherilyn Eagar’s RedState.com Post" (23)
You stated that “Cherilyn Eagar provides no evidence to substantiate this claim and I was unable to find anything in my own research.” in reference to Mike Lee being responsible for Lonsberry’s firing.
Since her post was all about conspiracy how about this one…Lonsberry submitted his resignation a couple of weeks ago, KNRS looked for a replacement, Bob chose not to air a goodbye aircast and falsely claimed that he was canned. All in an effort to pin it on Mike Lee to garner votes for his chosen candidate to secure sympathy votes.
Yeah, I’m more inclined to believe my conspiracy theory.
Yea….. he decided to quit his sole source of income… to help Tim win. Are you serious?
I don’t know all the particulars of Lonsberry being off the air at KNRS but it was not his “sole” source of income. He was not fired even! He remains employed by ClearChannel broadcasting. He remains on the air in Rochester, NY. He did have his assignment changed so he is not on the air in both markets. (I don’t know what happened with his son, however. If his son was only doing the support for his time slot in Utah then that is, indeed, more unfortunate.) The reverse happened a while back where he was no longer on the air in Rochester, they gave him a time slot here, then he got back on the air in Rochester while retaining his Utah time slot.
All that said, I have great sympathy for him on his complaints about the new radio ratings results. I think it is really really difficult to gauge radio listenership. But to pin the specific timing of losing his airtime slot in Utah to his backing of a particular candidate seems dubious to me. On different days I heard Lonsberry say he liked “none of the 8 GOP candidates”, that he preferred “Cherilyn Eager”, that “Tim Bridgewater” was the guy you definitely wanted fighting for you, and even that “Mike Lee” would make an excellent Senator fighting for us back in Washington. Lonsberry was, quite frankly, all over the map – like most radio personalities. He seemed particularly supportive of Bridgewater in those last couple of days, certainly, but I would be really surprised to find that swapping in the live Glenn Beck feed hadn’t been planned long, long before he temporarily settled in on Bridgewater for a spell.
Great Fact Checking! Thank you!
One more — The case where Lee represented Utah was against Private Fuel Storage, LLC., not against Energy Solutions. See http://www.howrey.com/leem/
The connections Eager tries to draw here are absolutely ridiculous and as you show, absolutely baseless.
If you read the Energy Solutions decision, you will see that:
*The Energy Solutions case had nothing to do with whether disposing of class A material in Utah was a good idea.
* It had nothing to do with whether it’s a good idea to import foreign material to dispose in Utah.
* It had ONLY to do with which government entity gets to regulate that.
And it should be Congress since Congress specifically has the power to regulate foreign commerce.
There’s no inconsistency in Lee’s cases. Lee stands on principle, even when not popular. That’s why I like him.
And the Eager post is just another Bridgewater Mud Job coming from the man who claims Lee is the one who is negative campaigning. Seeing how he treated Swallow, expect more!
He was general counsel for Energy Solutions. Cmon!
He was DEFINITELY not the general counsel. Maybe you should do some fact checking of your own Locke.
He was the lead attorney, correct? Getting paid $600,000 last year not including stock options, correct? Seems that ES has a new lackey.
Show me where it says Energy Solutions paid Lee $600k. Lee’s disclosure report for 2009 shows he made $600k. So he only represented one client? That makes no sense.
Lee’s firm represented ES on one case! There’s no conspiracy!
Mike Lee does not favor hotter waste in Utah. He’s not trying to bring foreign waste to Utah. His father was a down-winder and died from cancer.
If you don’t like foreign waste in Utah, you should be mad at Congress, they’re the ones with the right to regulate it!
Lee is standing on Constitutional principal.
here are the real facts about Mike Lee and Energy solutions;
http://utahpatriot.wordpress.com/2010/06/18/the-truth-about-mike-lee-and-energy-solutions/
We should all remember this turn Cherilyn has taken. No doubt she will run again in the future. Several months ago I attended a debate held by the Patrick Henry Caucus where Mike, Tim, Cherilyn and others debated. I was impressed with Mike and Cherilyn and wanted to speak with each. Mike was willing to talk to me and answered my questions. I then approached Cherilyn. I introduced myself and said that I was impressed and would like to speak with her more and that I was deciding if I may want to help in her campaign. She brushed me off and told me to get fliers off her table and then proceeded to yell at a young man who was there helping her. That experience solidified in me that she was not the person I would support. After attending many more debates and events I chose to support Mike Lee. He is a wonderful man, always courteous, respectful and very knowledgeable.
I was a cherilyn supporter, but now I see she is a “politician”, I will not ever support or vote for her.
Utahconservativegal: Oh please. I can promise you that that is NOT how Cherilyn Eagar is. This is so ridiculous.
This site is a joke.
“I can promise you that that is NOT how Cherilyn Eagar is.?” Give me a break. I saw on her own Facebook page a rant she handed out to someone she thought had done her wrong. She can be extremely shrill and vindictive when someone crosses her. She does not handle adversity very graciously at all.
The woman is so dishonest. Where do you even begin. She is nuts and frankly, mentally unstable.
Sad to say that Cherilyn Eager has misrepresented everything about Mike Lee in her post on Redstate.com. I have lost all respect for her, not that I had much to begin with.
I am frankly quite disappointed in both Tim and Cherilyn for the way this campaign has turned. All of the issues Cherilyn talks about here are falsified to some degree. And you are fooling yourself if you think that is not the way Cherilyn always is. I helped form a coalition to educate delegates about candidates in the interests of selecting the best replacment for Bob Bennett and she openly attacked us and never gave a response to our open letter.
I think Mike Lee is the best choice by far.
I will be so glad when this is over. I am begining to think that some people have too much time on their hands. I was very dissapointed that Cherilyn sold out. Mike Lee is the only choice.
I’ll be glad for the 23rd as well. I’m sick of the innuendo, twisted “facts” and outright lies. I too am seriously disappointed in Ms. Eagar. There was a time when I believed she stood on principle.
Great post! Thanks for doing the hard work of breaking down her contrived conspiracy theory. The wierd constructions and underhanded insinuations from the Bridgewater camp are icing on the cake of why I’m supporting Lee.
Anyone can help now, too. Email phonefromhome.tpx@gmail.com and you can get a call list to help turn out the vote for Mike.
My Husband and I upon leaving our County Convention night walked up to Cherilyn and said “Good Luck”. She handed us a paper, while saying to us, “I’m the only conservative running.” My husband said, “I don’t think so, you have some good conservative competition.” Then she gave as a dirty look and stuck her nose in the air and turned away. I could feel her coldness and self-superiority like a brick wall I had just run into. In her literature she was putting down Mike Lee and Tim Bridgewater. My husband and I met Mike Lee earlier at a Mock-Caucus meeting. We didn’t know anything about him, and he cordially introduced himself, and told us he was running for Senate. He treated us with respect and dignity. Later he blew both of us away on his knowledge of not just the constitution but what needed to take place to change things. It wasn’t a gathering to meet him, just a Mock Caucus and this all took place in a short conversation before the Mock Caucus. My husband and I have followed him, and got on board his campaign in our area from that moment forth. We have both kept up on anything we can find on the candidates so we could better represent Mike when confronted by the negative statements. We are still so impressed with his attitude and openness to let people see he is genuine. Mike Lee is the only trustworthy candidate period.
Hmmmm, I have not seen utah politics this nasty and negative since…..John Swallow and Tim Bridgewater!
mmm a coincidence?
Jason Powers is being referred to as an “advisor” for the Mike Lee campaign. He seemed to be running things for Club for Growth in Utah prior to his spot after the convention.
Despite the tone of some worried about Jason Powers, they do have one point.
There are still people that were involved with the Swallow v Bridgewater races that don’t like the others. There are still people that were involved in this year’s US Senate race that will not vote for Lee. There are some Bennett people that have gone to Granato, most to Bridgewater, and just a few to Lee. Most of Eagar’s supporters went to Bridgewater.
Most supporters that have been dealing with Lee’s campaign are willing to vote for almost anyone but Lee. Lee bringing in someone with experience in helping to create that feeling as opposed to smoothing the feelings may backfire somewhere. If not in the primary, in the general election, or in the senate.
Mike Lee purposely picked the one person that had the reputation of helping to cause the bad feelings in the Swallow/Bridgewater races in an attempt to win. I don’t know what his thinking was, but concern for the direction this race would go was raised within 1 week after convention.
The Mike Lee campaign has spent $100,000, perhaps more to the same advertising group that does many of club for growth ads.
Bridgewater hitting back came only after almost a month of supporters of Lee trying to ruin his reputation. That includes Jim Demint, Freedomworks, Redstate.com, and of course blogs like this.