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Pres. Bush looks down on Katrina damage (WH photo)
As I pointed out last week, long time employees at the Susan G Komen Foundation who have spent years there developing the brand and creating what was previously thought to be an unstoppable force, must hate VP of Public Policy Karen Handel’s guts with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns. So it should come as no surprise that someone would leak internal documents showing that Handel was behind the whole Planned Parenthood debacle and defended it to the bitter end:
…a Komen insider told HuffPost on Sunday that Karen Handel, Komen’s staunchly anti-abortion vice president for public policy, was the main force behind the decision to defund Planned Parenthood and the attempt to make that decision look nonpolitical.
“Karen Handel was the prime instigator of this effort, and she herself personally came up with investigation criteria,” the source, who requested anonymity for professional reasons, told HuffPost. “She said, ‘If we just say it’s about investigations, we can defund Planned Parenthood and no one can blame us for being political.’”
Emails between Komen leadership on the day the Planned Parenthood decision was announced, which were reviewed by HuffPost under the condition they not be published, confirm the source’s description of Handel’s sole “authority” in crafting and implementing the Planned Parenthood policy.
[...]
“Komen’s been dealing with the Planned Parenthood issue for years, and you know, some right-wing groups would organize a protest or send out a mailing every now and then, but it was on a low simmer,” the source said. “What Karen’s been doing for the past six months is ratcheting up the issue with leadership. Every time someone would even mention a protest, she would magnify it, pump it up, exaggerate it. She’s the one that kept driving this issue.”
Handel and Komen President Elizabeth Thompson didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The source said Handel submitted a final version of the new grant criteria to Komen leadership in November, and the board approved it in December, at which point Komen’s top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned “on the spot.”
“It was apparent to everyone in the organization that Karen was doing everything in her power to defund Planned Parenthood,” the source said, “and that’s why Mollie Williams quit.”
As vice president of public policy, it’s Handel’s job is to help shape the image of the Komen Foundation and provide guidance and strategy of how to sell that image to the public. But in the face of massive donor fallout, she refused to back down because her mission (damaging Planned Parenthood) was more important to her than Komen’s mission (making money, creating a warm and fuzzy female empowerment vibe, and incidentally funding breast cancer research).
Stunned by the fallout, Komen leadership decided within three days to reverse the Planned Parenthood decision and apologize. But the Komen insider said Handel was furious about the cave and fought against it up until the point that it was announced Friday morning.
“It became clear Thursday night that something had to give,” the source said. “Nancy Brinker, Liz Thompson, the board, and leadership were saying, ‘We’re really worried about Komen’s mission if we don’t figure this out.’ But Karen was still arguing against it as of Friday morning — she was horrified that we were caving, she said. She’s politically tone-deaf.”
Karen Handel is the Michael D. Brown of the Susan B. Komen Foundation… only less qualified and without the good sense and decency to quit.
Also. Whoops.
(Updated): Looks like taps for Handel.
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I’m reminded of the fable about the scorpion and the frog.
They knew what Handel was when they hired her.
(Also too – site is now working in IE, at least at the moment. Praise be!)
“Nancy Brinker, Liz Thompson, the board, and leadership were saying, ‘We’re really worried about Komen’s mission if we don’t figure this out.’
Well, perhaps they’d worry less if they’d “defund” Ms. Handel.
You know, when you’re stuck in a hole, stop digging…
I also predicted elseblog last night that SGK insiders would start leaking like colanders, given that Handel hadn’t walked or been pushed out. Once again: I’m amazed at how one staff wingnut is able to convince an organisation to crap over its donor and volunteer base.
And when Handel does walk, she’ll do so in the knowledge that she’s earned herself a lifetime eligibility for wingnut welfare.
Seriously, I don’t know how she wasn’t gone by Friday morning after she re-tweeted that pro-lifer victory dance shit. It’s almost as if she understands nothing about public relations. Which makes one wonder, why was she hired, and more than that, when she’s engineered a bad situation and then made it worse by pretty much publicly admitting “yeah, that “under investigation” stuff was all bullshit – let’s all celebrate the evil baby-killers being defunded!” on twitter, why she wasn’t immediately shown the door.
It would have been accurate if, instead of Handel’s anti-choice victory lap, she had tweeted: Chaos, devestation, destruction, my work here is done.
Amazing how that one rotten apple in the barrel thing works, isn’t it?
Maybe they’re just haggling over Handel’s retirement bonus.
I keep wondering how morale is over at SGK these days. My guess is that 100% of employees are working on their resumes at this very moment. Mollie’s starting to look like a hero at this point.
Ooopsy! Clean-up on aisle 5. Someone spilled the spam all over the place.
A sleeper agent who joined SGK with the explicit intention of destroying its brand couldn’t have done a better job.
It’s almost as they have no actual governance despite all the presidents, VPs, directors, officers, program staff, grand poobahs and other execs they pay substantial salaries too–and that doesn’t even include the slew of consultants and advisers they’ve funneled donated funds to. I think this is more than just one bad apple, though. I think it’s been a fairly rotten bunch for a while now (see suing other nonprofits and blocking legislation that supports women’s health on political grounds which WAY predate Karen Handel’s influence). Karen Handel’s lack of skills simply served as an inadvertent flashlight to reveal the tainted core.
Yes, that’s what’s particularly galling to me. Handel’ll be shoved out at some point with some gargantuan “golden handshake” courtesy of cancer-survivor donations (or from their concerned friends & relatives). Of course, entitled greedheads like Handel, undoubtedly’ll think it’s only a small smidgeon of what she “rightfully deserves.”
Then Handel commence to being a highly paid shill on the anti-abortion circuit, and she’ll continue to rake in huge buckeroo$$ from the usual gullible rubes who’ll whine endlessly in their fabulous victimhood about how unfair liberals are to, uh, not choose to not *donate* their money to the Komen Ponzi scheme.
Typical.
Let’s face it. While approx 75% of the USA populace more or less supports a woman’s right to choose (for the most part), the views of the 25% are propounded almost constantly anymore – mainly by the corporate-owned propoganda media – as IF the views of a small minority are actually the views of, like, 99% of the population.
Is it any wonder, then, that greedy grubby shits like Handel simply *believe* the bullshit, and come to believe that what they’re doing is not only “acceptable” but that it’s what the “majority wants.” Then when the shit truly does hit the fan, coporate welfare greedheads like Handel go to the immeidate fall-back position of: it’s not myyyy faaaauulllttt, it’s all the fault of the horrid LIEbruls, who “rule” the media.
That’s only way any of this makes any sense, esp in light of all the rightwing whining and vicimizing that’s gone on over whether citizens should be able “choose” which charity they donate to, esp if it’s not “accpetable” to rightwingers.
I respectfully disagree. I think Handel, et al., know that they hold the minority view, but want to force it on everyone.
We all knew that Handel was the hack that most likely pushed the defunding. BUT, where was Brinker, Thompson and the rest of the board pushing back on it? Oh yea….THEY FREAKING SIGNED OFF ON IT. Probably with high fives all around.
Where is that story? Ya it is nice to try and throw Handel under the bus, but where is the story on where individual members of the board stood on the issue? Brinker? did you support the move? Thompson? you too. Obviously HuffPo has someone with inside information over there, push him/her on it.
With the hires of Handel and Fleishman there to spin when the shit hits the fan, I would take that as a sign they were all on board .
Perhaps. Sometimes hard to tell. The propoganda wurlitzer definitely pushes the meme that it’s representing “commonly held” views, which I do think fools some of the people all of the time.
Good points. Handel is a tool, but it does look like a lot or all of the Board was definitely behind this move, esp bc of hiring a tool like Ari Fleischer. That “real story,” of course, will be buried by the propoganda wurlitzer, and at best, we may see Handel, as you say, thrown under the bus. A sop to the 99%.
At to the Komen Ponzi scheme: caveat emptor. Hopefully enough citizens have learned to really check where their money goes when they donate to any charity.
“Whoops” is an understatement.
She was hired to provide a bridge to the wingnuts, for inclusion in Komen grants and fundraising, and also to provide a bridge to GOP electeds across the country, who could provide state/local funding for breast health. She was, in other words, a known quantity hired for her wingnutiness.
They knew what they were getting. There’s Board support for her, or she’d be gone.
But maybe they hadn’t heard the scorpio/frog fable.
Yes, I agree that her wingnuttiness was the motivation in hiring her, to build those bridges. But the sheer incompetence she showed with that re-tweet is breathtaking. It’s like she was leading a SGK konga line through the middle of a big pile of poop, and not content with having the entire organization smelling like poop and tracking it all over the place, she felt the need to scoop some up and smear it all over the walls, too – just in case anyone hadn’t yet noticed the stench and figured out what was going on.
Then again, incompetence is no barrier to promotion on the right – in fact it’s a prerequisite.
I’d tend to agree. The choice now is to get rid of her and cut their losses, or ride the shitstorm out, knowing (hoping) the fatcat rightwing donors will bail them out once the dust settles.
SGK’s leadership will probably conclude that the long term gain is worth the short term, ahem, hemorraging (er, sorry for that).
I think the entire SGK foundation is on life support and can only survive with intensive wingnut welfare.
Handel and her fellow idiots have pretty much destroyed a Motherhood and Apple Pie brand… Who would give money to a bogus charity whose CEO makes $500,000…?
So their best hope now is that of the Koch brothers steps in to save their sorry asses… which of course means they’d definitely say bye bye to Planned Parenthood.
Which, as far as I’m concerned, would be a “win-win” solution.
There’s a Koch company already on their corporate sponsors list, so that’s definitely within the realm of possibility.
Did not know about the Curves thing. Never too late for a boycott, though.
Me neither. Here’s more:
I was thinking this was more of a “new coke” or “Edsel” moment. Or maybe a Romney “I don’t care about poor people.”
TB, I could also list some Rick Perry incidents, but I don’t think you have enough room.
Isn’t SGK in the business of providing a secure financial future for its upper echelon employees under the guise of a “charity”? I’m pretty sure I read that less than 30% of donations go to funding anti-cancer research and treatment.
Just to tie things together (around whichever neck is most suitable), let’s not forget the little story of how Mittens, whilst acting as a Bishop in Massachusetts, ‘counselled’ a member of the collective against having an abortion, despite having a potentially deadly blood clot. Mittens has since claimed not to remember the occasion, saying that he only followed his collective’s stated ethos. Church and State, all in One Priest!
Karen Handel is toast. Anyone who causes such embarassment to a major outfit will be shown the door. Just a matter of time.
Komen has been, quietly and very effectively, on the wrong side of many women’s health initiatives over the years. See Betty Pinson’s diary at DKos: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/01/1060885/-Behind-the-Pink-Curtain-Komens-Political-Agenda Betty ran into the Komen bulkhead years ago. Komen lost me completely with the article in Huffpo about the Komen legal wrangling over “for the cure” use, but I’ve never contributed because it never registered with me as a worthy charity. I’m always suspicious of big brand charities. Too often devoted to the franchise and the paychecks afforded therein, not to mention having a seat at the big boys’ table and all the perks and privileges and status enhancements that go with.
Right now I’m considering Drs without Borders. Any opinions with personal experience of?
The only thing with that is that when they attempted to crawfish their way out of their own dung pit by conditionally refunding PPFA, they alienated the very wingnutters that they were attempting to woo in the first place…and they aren’t too happy, either. Already, folk like Erick Erickson and the Dobsons are calling for refunds of the donations they were practically drowning on Komen for their initial decision.
So, Komen ends up trapped in both ends of a buzzsaw, with really no escape. Serves them right.
Mission accomplished.
Yeah, pretty much that.
I think their only hope is to lie low and reorganize under a new, nondescript name. Just like Blackwater.
Yeah, that renaming bit really hid Blackwater.
she’s not tone deaf, it’s scorched earth strategy, accomplish mission at all costs, no matter what so ever the fall out
With a little luck, we might be able to thank Handel. She exposed Komen as a wingnut corp shill. Of course with captive media trying to whitewash whole brohahalette, who knows how many women will actually figure it out.
You read right. I’ve seen 23 point something. I’ve also seen 38 percent, but 1) I’m not competent to parse IRS charity filings, 2) there are some categories of expenses that can be stretched to make a charity’s distribution seem better than it really is. So, I’m inclined to think the Komen real charity distribution is closer to 23 point something percent than to 38 percent.
In either case, it’s not generous. From charitywatch.org:
And PP is a doormat, so they’re in the make-nice-repair-bridges mode. Gah.
The endowment I have served on spends a tea-insy fraction on fund raising. They should prolly spend a lot more, but as it is a college that was a normal school for the majority of its lifetime (not what you think, i.e. the opposite of an abnormal school; ‘normal school’ used to be the designation for colleges that primarily trained elementary and secondary school teachers), its alums are not rich enough to give much.
I’d truly love to see Handel be terminated from her position in disgrace and for Thompson and Brinker to offer their resignations. The hypothetical new leadership should then re-instate all of the officers who resigned in protest and then publicly and abjectly apologize in all media and promise that their mission will never again be subsumed by politics. It won’t happen and it probably wouldn’t get me back but it’s their only chance to survive now. I don’t see good sense prevailing though. Do you?
The corporations that drop SGK will determine whether SGK survives or not. I can’t imagine any corporation, having a ton of women decide not to buy their products, continuing association with SGK.
Conservatives aren’t going to rush to SGK’s side to give money. They don’t like “other” people enough to do it.
Margaret, I haven’t seen your fonts be naive until this one.
Komen, imo, is going to balls (heh) this one out, and I give them greater than halvsies that they are successful.
I know an uninsured woman who rec’d a free Komen Breast Screening. Finding some abnormality, she became uninsurable.
Can’t qualify for Komen financial aid for the prescribed $5000.00 biopsy.
In cases like this, Komen helps AHIP screen unwanted customers and leaves the patient with diminished alternatives.
Women have no clue that the cosmetic products they are adverticed into buying are carcinogens.
ew’s post on this subject (short version: breast cancerers are customers) is the best short version I’ve seen so far.
If the foundation is truly interested in making amends and attempting to repair the damage, they should start by jettisoning Handel and anyone else among their ranks that harbor such political agendas.
A charity raising funds to cure disease of any kind should be politically neutral.
Why?
Because diseases are.
Thanks for that. My imagination hadn’t taken me to that place yet.
Wolf Blitzer, Brian Williams, Katy Couric and Russert-the-Lesser to the Rescue.
The MSM will throw out all the stops to save the Fascist Juggernaut.
Spot on. Conservatives don’t give money unless there’s something in it for them. What do they care if poor women die of breast cancer? They don’t care if poor men die of prostate cancer or job related injuries. They don’t care if poor, single parent children have to pay $1000.00 per month for their drugs. That way pharmaceutical companies can afford to keep doing research to allow people, (those who can pay for it of course), to live longer and better. They think poor people should have “worked harder” to earn access to health care.
Dr. Susan Love website for the real thing.
Maybe you should read the last three sentences in that comment before calling me “naive”.
How is that “naive”? I clearly said I don;t see it happening in the scenario I outlined.
She’s 47 and Komen told her they can’t help her til she turns 50.
Obviously, she could be dead by then.
FREE MARKET BOOTSTRAPS HEALTH”CARE”. USA USA USA!
“As vice president of public policy, it’s Handel’s job is to help shape the image of the Komen Foundation”
That is exactly what she was doing and did it very effectively by giving Komen an image of anti-women, anti-choice, anti-abortion political agent.
Good for Mollie Williams, a woman with some balls. She should start her on cancer foundation and receive all those donations that would have gone to Komen.
For its on survival, Komen for Cure should CHANGE its NAME to
“WOMEN for CURE.”
The best thing they could do right now is show Handel the door. The fact that they don’t shows that they are not really serious about their apology.
KOMEN’S CORPORATE SPONSORS:
http://ww5.komen.org/CorporatePartners.aspx
You know what to do.
Kind of looks that way
Hey, Please, Margaret, do not feed;)
It’s not just Handler. SGK lobbied against Nationalized Health care. That says it all about this group. They support cancer as a for profit opportunity and we know how many people die because of this. They have spent donated money to stop other breast cancer and cancer awareness programs, thus revealing they are operating as a business with its bottom line being the true concern. Endorsing BPA and refusing to call Polluters to task is unconscionable. Not surprising when the cancer biz, oil industry, and Big Pharma have one big ole incestuous relationship.
I think the war on abortion is more about a war on poor women of which SGK is one of their war ships. SGK is acculturating breast cancer acceptance and resignation of this illness as a way of life by teaching the acceptance of exposure to dangerous toxins more so than looking to cure it and blaming women’s bodies themselves for cancer. If they really cared about the suffering of women they would be putting out info about toxins in our environment and foods. No, they prefer the “it’s natural for a woman’s body to turn on itself after 50″ horse shit that is ridiculous. Famously, and not even remotely convincingly, clearing big polluters of any responsibility and endangering women and leaving them wide open for cancer rather than protecting them.
Well said. Sadly true.
Curves stopped donating to the Komen Ponzi Scheme bc Komen gave money to PP?? Wow. I knew there was some reason why I didn’t like Curves (well, there’s a number of reasons why I don’t like them, but that’s another story).
It’s pretty egregious how all of these corporations and businesses have really pumped up the volume on a woman’s right to choose. And sadly, a LOT of those businesses are raking in the big buck$$ from women. Ick.
Thanks for that info. Good to know, anyway.
Rejoice, the wingnuts are doing damage to the Republican brand beyond Komen.
The Republicans already face a considerable gender gap. This will serve to lose them even more votes among Independent women.
Sorry if well-meaning people at Komen suffer, but everyone knows now that donating directly to Planned Parenthood is the smart way to go.
Interesting tidbit
3M – SKG donor
3M Sued by State for Pollution Clean-Up Costs
After months of failed negotiations, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson filed a lawsuit last week demanding that 3M pay the state for damage caused by its disposal of a certain type of chemical.
http://tcbmag.blogs.com/daily_developments/2011/01/3m-sued-by-state-for-pollution-clean-up-costs.html
I see Koch on this list as well.
There’s still more to this. Last I heard, Jane Abraham was on the BOD of Komen, as well as being General Director of the Susan B Anthony List. Check out that home page for a few shudders. http://www.sba-list.org/
No one can read that home page and not think Abraham wasn’t in this up to her third chin. But there’s more. Abraham also helps direct the Nuturing Network, a global network of crisis pregnancy centers, organizations widely known for spreading ideology, misinformation and lies to women facing unintended pregnancy. IOW Abraham is associated with organizations which, among other evils, insist on spreading the lie that abortions cause pregnancy.
For the Komen administrative structure to claim naivete is as if Ari Fleischer were to claim he was only an innocent bystander…and equally convincing.
“Heckuva job, Handel-ie!”
This is refreshing, but as you say, it’s a diversion.
Handel is NOT the only issue at Komen . . . that abuses women’s issues, women and their healthcare needs.
At issue is the whole 401,c,3 slate of non profit status and how these once SERVICE based orgs became huge money swallowing pits of federal, state and donor financed monies that put money in the pockets of the execs and contracted fundraisers, while diminishing the services they provide, and then, became wholly owned and operated and guided by political pressure from the right wing.
N this trend is as old as Komen (;82) and was highly discussed and taught in PR classes in the late 80′s to now at the university level.
Grifters, n Xtians . . . all aligned like a comet to destroy us dinosaurs.
LeSigh.
On we trudge.
I highly advocate Occupy and all us humans protest Komen till we drive them out of business . . . n ensure individual donors donate to PP and do it local, not thru the National Chapter, which in and of itself is no shining beacon of service to the needy, poor and the masses . . . but that’s another rant some other time about the 1%.
;-)
Ok, well, maybe Salvation Army and others have been in the griftin business while preachin salvation for decades . . . so maybe they are the model. But Komen, damn, is epic for the new age non profit travesty version n how it gets done. ;-)
Handel was a political commitment to Komen, Handel leads, congress and others enable more skullduggery, thru GOP.Right Wing and likely some DIMS influences . . . and everyone profits one way or another.
Komen stinks, top to bottom, it’s not just Handel, Komen stank LONG before she came on board.
I wish someone would point out their history and such.
You, and too many others, overlook that Komen has always been all about wing nut welfare . . . it’s a hustle, a grift, a scam.
It’s little different from Swaggart Ministries, or any of the others.
ALL nationally based non profits are built and operated this way.
N THAT’S the real travesty, how large and deep this shit is.
N there’s NO one covering this part of the big picture in the MSM or the blogosphere, that I know of.
N that’s sad.
Jenn, this is a step in the continuing steps to dominate us, our nation, and our lives and futures in every form.
And the corporations and our illegally erected offals and all systems are behind it . . . sometimes the rightwing gets all the attention, sometimes it’s individuals.
But DIMS are fully culpable too . .
It’s total control, corporate fascism hiding under right wing repressionist skirts . . . Komen is all in for this shit, Handel is NOT their only problem.
Be fully suspicious of any nationally based non profit, hell, be suspicious of ANY thing in your life that puts on a happy face.
Question all of it, everything. It’s all likely very well corrupted, only you don’t know about it yet.
Very few services based orgs are what they seem to be in the media. Behind the scenes, someone is pulling levers to benefit themselves or others who sponsor them.
;-)
No fuckin way, no sleeper.
Hired with intent, full intent, to do what she does.
Komen is a ruse, a fake, a faux service org to profit the few.
N that includes the founder . . . who is in on it all, from the get go.
And HAS been, from the get go. It was HER, who steered this org to what it is . . . don’t be blaming anyone else. She is the enabler and the others are well trusted fellow profiteers and grifters.
Preying on women’s fears for donations, shifting attention to fundraising, slowly but surely ensuring services delivered came with CONDITIONS . . . all the while, money changes hands and moves upwards in their food chain.
Are you kidding? They’ve won. They got Komen to back down; they’ve let it be known that they are more than prepared to start another shitstorm if Komen decides to de-fund them in the future (don’t forget, it was PP who publicized the decision in the first place); they’ve raised multiples of what Komen pulled from them, so they can not only fund breast cancer screening, but expand the program; they’ve exposed Komen as a branch of the right wing; they’ve gotten more people to think of them as a provider of women’s health care rather than a provider of abortion services; and they’ve shown weasels like Brinker, Handel and that doofus in Congress that they’re *not* going to roll over.
They’re not doormats at all. They just have no need to be ungracious in victory.
well said, and i’d guess, right on the mark.
brinker was repeatedly, evasively supportive of the “defund pp” game the first couple of days after the pp decision was announced.
her tune only changed after there was a massive uproar – and then only to fake a return to sgk support of pp.
there’s a missing piece of info here someplace,, another shoe to drop
to fully explain why brinker initiated the attack on pp.
maybe the fundies caught sgk siphoning of money to family and friends, or to the republican party.
I definitely agree that the 501(c)(3) guidelines basically allow all manner of grifts to happen under the auspices of non-profit status — and I think David Brock’s Blinded By The Right offered a decent insight into how it works.
That said, you can paint better pictures with a brush that’s not so broad. And I still believe in cock-up before conspiracy.
That history has been written. Start with the Betty Pinson diary I cited.
interesting and informative.
thanks for the cite.
My mother graduated from Newark Normal School. It’s Kean University now.
There just is no recovering from this; if SGK was not a grifter org to start with, they’d have their good works to fall back on, and they could rebuild. But since they’re a house of cards to start with, it’s just over.
I don’t have enough to donate much, but (I think on Roy E’s recommendation) I dropped $20 on DWB for, I think, the Haiti earthquake. I have since received what seems like $50 spent in mailers back seeking more donations, in addition to the emails.