By now, you have heard about the allegations of sexual misconduct by Christian Ziegler, leader of Florida’s state Republican Party, and his wife, Bridget Ziegler, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, school board member in Sarasota, and DeSantis appointee to the Disney World governing board. An unnamed woman accused Christian Ziegler of raping her. In her statement to the police, she referred to a prior three-way sexual tryst that included Bridget Ziegler. She canceled her date with Christian because he didn’t bring Bridget. Then she claims he showed up and raped her.
If you want to see the full police affidavit, read Mercedes Schneider’s account of the ménage a trois.
If you want to see Peter Greene’s wise take, read here.
Moms for Liberty released the following statement via a public relations person:
From: Grace English <Grace@cavalrystrategies.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 5, 2023 1:16 PM
Subject: Statement from Moms for Liberty Co-Founders re: Christian and Bridget Ziegler
Hello,
In response to numerous media inquiries about Christian and Bridget Ziegler, please see the following statement from Moms for Liberty Co-Founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich:
Comment from Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice:
“We have been truly shaken to read of the serious, criminal allegations against Christian Ziegler. We believe any allegation of sexual assault should be taken seriously and fully investigated.
“Bridget Ziegler resigned from her role as co-founder with Moms for Liberty within a month of our launch in January of 2021, nearly three years ago. She has remained an avid warrior for parental rights across the country.
“To our opponents who have spewed hateful vitriol over the last several days: We reject your attacks. We will continue to empower ALL parents to build relationships that ensure the survival of our nation and a thriving education system. We are laser-focused on fundamental parental rights, and that mission is and always will be bigger than any one person.” – Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice
—
Grace English
Cavalry Strategies
(904) 923-1684
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Tax support for public universities should come with strings. There should be a way to get the return of cost for students who later work for Republican causes and/or the Koch agenda. How many of Calvary Strategies’ employees went to state universities?
This is where that PR turd lied the most.
Moms for Liberty does NOT support parental rights across the country. Parents already ahve a lot of power and rights.
Moms for Liberty wants to take away the parental choices parents already have and limit them, and decode what parents are allowed to not do, like let their children read a book Mom’s for Libearty doesn’t like or take their children to a drag show that doesn’t include nudity or pornography.
Moms for Liberty, who are all MAGA-RINO fascists, also want to change the defintion for pronography not what Britannica says. These MAGA-RINOs want to include a kiss on the forehead or cheek or hand holding as porn.
“Pornography, representation of sexual behaviour in books, pictures, statues, films, and other media that is intended to cause sexual excitement. The distinction between pornography (illicit and condemned material) and erotica (which is broadly tolerated) is largely subjective and reflects changing community standards. The word pornography, derived from the Greek porni (“prostitute”) and graphein (“to write”), was originally defined as any work of art or literature depicting the life of prostitutes.” … (There’s more to this Britannica piece — a lot more.)
https://www.britannica.com/topic/pornography
I know. Perhaps the Minivan Taliban, aka the Ku Klux Karens could gain a huge following on social media by releasing their sex tapes. Who knows, this could lead to their own television reality shows! Is your sex life dull and unimaginative? Try some Calvary Strategies to put the zing back in this thing!
“Minivan Taliban” HAHAHAHAHA!!! Great one, Shep! Hahahahaha! You better copyright it because I’m using it! Hahahaha!
I wish it were original with me. I stole it from one of the posts that Diane shared.
Posting this should be beneath even this hyper-partisan blog. It’s an obvious effort to discredit an entire organization because of the alleged misdeeds of a few. There have been hundreds of convictions of public school teachers over the last 20 years for criminal sexual conduct involving students. It is unfair to tar all teachers because of the actions of this very small percentage of criminals. Diane Ravitch should be better than this.
It’s not an attempt to discredit the organization if it’s just a reporting of facts. I come to this site for information as much as for discussion. Thank you for the information, Diane. Even if it were an opinion post, however, it wouldn’t change the fact that the accused was a founder of the group. An anti-LGBT founder being open to a threeway encounter demonstrates the hypocrisy of the organization at its leadership roots. It suggests ulterior motives from the outset. Sorry if you fell for the pitch, Dot. Perhaps consider aligning your political beliefs with more reliable folks, with open and honest people like Diane Ravitch.
I agree that the Minivan Taliban, aka Moms for Liberty, has already done enough to discredit itself.
Lord, save our kids from the freaking backwoods morality police.
There have been laws passed all across America motivated in part by outlier teachers’ posts on TikTok.
Sounds a bit disingenuous to compare a hypocrite to a whole profession in a holier-than-thou manner, Dot. You can color the organization MfL as a Superman cult all you want—that doesn’t make them any less smarmy or illegitimate as a speaker for rights. This group seeks to TAKE AWAY rights, or maybe you didn’t get the memo?
Dot can’t recognize the difference between a right wing, billionaire-funded astroturf group vs a situation where there are a few bad apples in a substantially sized professional workforce. Sad. Dot missed the class about false equivalencies.
The demographics of Calvary Strategies, based on the photos at the site and the bio of the leader, detect anything worth noting?
Unlike the “Moms for Liberty,” enlightened, progressive adults in the United States do not pass judgment on the sexual practices of consenting adults. They know that there is nothing wrong with self-love or homosexual, bisexual, or polyamorous sexual relations, for example. They know that strictures against these derive from ancient superstition and taboo and run contrary to the goal of promoting human flourishing and health and joy–eudaimonia. What makes this case notable by Diane, Mercedes, and others is the hypocrisy–the do as I say, not as I do nature of it. And in general, those who hold backward, regressive views about sex and sexuality–the Ted Cruzes and Ku Klux Karens for the world, for example–belong to one of two camps: the twisted and frustrated, on the one hand, or the hypocritical, on the other. The latter are folks who offer dishonest prayers in the street where people can see them, and that is what makes them into proper objects for social sanction and contempt.
It’s too late baby. From The New Republic:
“A local chapter of the far-right Moms for Liberty has taken a step back from its national entity amid a swirling rape allegation against the husband of one of the group’s co-founders.
The Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, chapter announced Monday that it will distance itself from its parent organization, citing a difference in values.
‘The journey has always been the strength of our local community and we found all the support we need among us,’ chapter chair Clarissa Paige told The News Item on Monday. ‘We are going to continue to champion parental rights with dignity and integrity.’”
https://newrepublic.com/post/177329/rape-allegation-moms-liberty-pennsylvania-chapter-split
Parental rights when the Catholic Conferences use the term, means tax-funded religious schools. M4L likely is made up of a sizable number of religionists. To understand the campaign manned by individuals like those who are part of M4L and in the Catholic Conferences, readers can review the research at the Scielo site, “The new official contents of sex education in Mexico: laicism in the crosshairs.” The article references the global efforts aimed at schools .
The M4L who aren’t religionist ideologues, may be grifters desirous of money from wealthy GOP political spenders. They may be desperate attention seekers. Or, they may have motives in the same playing field as Mr. and Mrs. Ziegler. Regardless, the SPLC has them pegged.
There are five groups, at least, in the unholy anti-public education tribe:
* private, mainly religious, schools that want your tax dollars
* grifters, particularly corporate charter owners
* the intellectual heirs of the Virginia “voucher” program that was part of the Massive Resistance to desegregation. Their toots are pure racist with a classist overtones.
* drown the government in the bathtub anti-taxers, so-called libertarians
* virulent anti-unionists
* homeschoolers and the homeschool industry
They are allied against public schools, but do not necessarily seek the same ends.
Thanks for the listing Steve.
If you were to rank them in terms of legislative success for school choice (especially in states), where would the influence of the aggregated Catholic Conference lobbying and voter mobilization coupled with the efforts of other Catholic organizations like Notre Dame (e.g. ACE and Prof. Nicole Stelle Garnet) and, individuals, who self identify as promoters of tax funding for Catholic schools, rank?
Are you aware of an accounting of how much has been spent by Catholic school interests for school choice?
I hope you’ve read the Akron Beacon Journal, Dec. 14, 1999, article, “Whose Choice, How School Choice Began in Ohio.”
For a picture into Ohio GOP politics, Gov. Dewine (8 kids) is a primary influencer in the appointment of the person who leads the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The appointee has just been federally indicted. The court action follows the conviction of the GOP former speaker of the house in the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history. The three major city dioceses spent $900,000 (one of the top 5 spenders) in Aug. to gut democracy via the ballot. Had the ballot initiative passed,
Ohioans would have been totally at the mercy of the gerrymandered GOP oligarchy.
“Bridget Ziegler resigned from her role as co-founder”
How does one resign from being a cofounder?
The deed was done, it can’t be undone. Reeks of pure hogwash to me.
Nice catch.
Well said, Duane.
No primetime-ready PR available? Maybe they’re busy with other endeavors. Or, maybe they are discerning and don’t take on client groups that the SPLC has in its crosshairs. Or, maybe an association with unsavory situations lead other firms to steer clear.
No, they are just obfuscating, deflecting, lying, muddying the waters, attempting to distance themselves-ya know ya cain’t be having no lesbo love, etc. . . .
thanks for the laugh
In other news, EVERY NATIONAL POLL but one on 538 shows Trump beating Biden in the general election. The one that doesn’t shows them tied.
Who the heck is being polled?
Americans. Idiots.
off topic, Axios suggests that Elon Musk’s rants are part of a strategy to minimize X in favor of his new OpenAI business.
Twitter seemed like an odd purchase at too high a price…
Twitter has lost 29 billion dollars in value since Musk bought it. Billion. With a B. That’s not a business strategy. That’s close to being the largest acquisition failure in history. The only greater failure in an acquisition, to my knowledge, was AOL’s having to write down Time-Warner to the tune of $99 billion a year later.