Previous polical frauds (people who aren't who they first seem)

August 15, 2009 6:46 PM

Searching for previous political frauds such as not-a-doctor Roxana Mayer.

Roxana Mayer recently spoke at a forum on the health care initiative, claiming she was a doctor. But she isn't a doctor. I'm looking for the names of other people who got caught pretending to have certain credentials for political purposes (to back or oppose candidates or political positions), but who didn't have those credentials.

posted by jcdill to society & culture (10 comments total)

Well, Joe the "Plumber" wasn't a licensed plumber, or named Joe.
posted by drjimmy11 at 6:49 PM on August 15 [2 favorites]

Dr. Laura (Laura Schlessinger, PhD) has a doctorate in physiology but hosts a call-in radio show where she espouses very conservative ideas as well as counsels people on their personal and sexual issues, despite the fact that she's not a licensed therapist and the "Dr." title before her name is sure to mislead people into thinking so.
posted by contessa at 7:23 PM on August 15

Would Rick Scott count? I swear there is one other person with a fraud conviction pulling this scrap, but my own memory and google faile me. Perhaps someone else has the other name.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 7:34 PM on August 15

I thought of Joe the Plumber, but he doesn't really count because although he wasn't licensed as a plumber (as was required by his local community), he was *working* as a plumber for a licensed plumbing contractor and when he was asked what he did for a living he wasn't misleading anyone by saying he was a plumber. (He really is named Joe, his full name is Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. It's not uncommon for someone to use their middle name as their primary given name, 2 US presidents went by their middle names, Stephen Grover Cleveland and Thomas Woodrow Wilson.)

Laura Schlessinger has a doctorate and can legitimately call herself a Doctor even though she's not a "medical" doctor. If Roxana Mayer had claimed to be employed at a "Houston medical clinic" (leaving an assumption she was a doctor) that would be a similar stretch, not a lie like saying she was a “pediatric primary care physician” to the Houston Chronicle, or introducing herself as a “general practitioner” who has been practicing for “four years” at the Town Hall meeting. I'm sure she's not the first person to inflate her credentials in this way, which is why I'm looking for others that were caught.

Rick Scott doesn't count - I'm not looking for someone who spews a lie-filled infomercial, I'm looking for someone claiming to be a grass-roots supporter of a political cause but whose title or presumed credentials are not as presented.
posted by jcdill at 8:07 PM on August 15

Creationist scumbag Kent Hovind has a doctorate from an unaccredited diploma mill yet can't stop referring to himself as "Dr.".
posted by Rhomboid at 8:35 PM on August 15 [2 favorites]

Jesse Macbeth
Micah Wright
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:36 PM on August 15

See list of links re "Notable Imposters"
posted by applemeat at 9:30 PM on August 15 [2 favorites]

There's also Ward Churchill, who claimed to be American Indian for political (and other) purposes.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:52 PM on August 15

This is very local, but a state rep race in Oregon last cycle featured probably the greatest political fraudster I have ever seen: http://tonythephony.com/
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 5:26 AM on August 16

That URL is a 404. (Redirects to a placeholder.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:45 AM on August 16