(More investigation journalism from Nashville's CBS affiliate about House Speaker Glen Casada.)

[forums.macresource.com]

In 2016 Michael Lotfi was fired by then-Speaker Beth Harwell for his political consulting “being in conflict with his service in the legislature." Her successor re-hired him to do exactly that.

Lofti owns a company that among other things, creates political content for Facebook and pays FB to distribute it as highly targeted campaign advertising. Possibly you're aware of similar scenarios playing out on FB back in say, 2016 at the federal level.

In 2017 Lofti's company was employed by Glen Casada (current TN state House Speaker, since January) in that capacity to campaign for Rep. David Byrd, seeking re-election. Casada’s PAC paid Lofti’s company. These ads targeted Bryd's accusers.

A year earlier it was claimed Bryd committed sexual assault occurring many years earlier when he coached a girls’ basketball team. Two former team members came forward, and now so did Casada, to defend him. The accusers by now were publicly known and so, received death threats with the help of the ads.

Taxpayer-funded death threats, only ain't nothin' wrong since you can't prove intent of course. Lofti says that since the women weren't identified in the ads, they were not targeted (wink, wink) despite the ONLY reason the ads were made was to refute Byrd's accusers.

[www.newschannel5.com]


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It’s 2018 and Bryd was re-elected (thank you, Facebook) despite one of his accusers recording a phone call with him that year. In the call he did not deny anything and apologized.

When Casada made Speaker in January, he further rewarded both Byrd and Lofti. Byrd got a subcommittee chair position and Lofti was hired as a staffer, as "senior legislative advisor." Lofti still owns his company that places political ads!

In February, on a recording, Casada said: "If I was raped I would move." Then again, he also called the allegations fake news and has made many heartwarming pronouncements about how people are innocent until proven guilty and don't these allegations hurt "survivors and mothers?"

[www.newschannel5.com]

So, the timeline: Bryd's conscience has been spreading public apologies for what he did, and yet Casada still calls it all fake, later.

The following month (March) Byrd resigned from the subcommittee. A friend had come forward saying Bryd had also admitted the assault to him and well ... it was apparently just a bridge too far for a former high school basketball coach accused of sexual assault (with supporting evidence) to chair an Education subcommittee. Ya think?

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As for Lofti, he now gets paid to be on-call, by the state of TN. "You would not believe the amount of down time up here [at the legislature]. It's totally ridiculous."

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Rep. Bo Mitchell, a Nashville Democrat, said he had never heard of anyone in legislative offices having that kind of arrangement.

"If you are getting a full-time salary and you are getting benefits, you should show up full time,” Mitchell said.

"The question is: why is someone getting paid this type of money and not having to show up? Everyone else has to show up for work. If he's not adding any value to the Tennessee General Assembly, then why is he getting paid nearly $50,000 a year?"

Mitchell possibly knows Lofti has great value, to Casada.

[www.newschannel5.com]

But are they good Christians?

Obstruction of justice seems to be the modus operandi of the Republican Party from the bottom of the cesspool all the way up to the top. Ugh.

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Steve G.
But are they good Christians?

They appear to be, when you consider their alternative Bible that promotes misogyny, power, and especially vengeance. You can read what The Tennesean says about Casada's employment of "hall monitors" to help stop dissent:

(if your browser doesn't choke on al the ads USA Today sells)

[www.tennessean.com]

Cutting off the mic of dissenting fellow Republicans and stopping live streaming of legislative sessions are also a feature of Casada possessing "wide support, still."