THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS' CULTURE OF CORRUPTION
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Nancy Pelosi had it right a couple days ago when she talked about the GOP Congress' "culture of corruption" and how it isn't just about a few bad apples like DeLay, Cunningham, Ney and Frist. These may be the ones headed for prison but scores more are seriously challenged ethically (if not legally). And now most of these politicians have to face the voters in just a little over a year. Imagine how freaked out the ones are who accepted tainted money from DeLay's pac! Oh... that's all of them. Well, actually, it isn't. 241 current members of Congress (House and Senate) have accepted money
from DeLay's political action committee; about half a dozen Republican congressmen haven't. Some of them have accepted a great deal of money, especially some of the right-wing loons like NJ Congressman Mike Ferguson and West Virginia's Shelley Moore Capito. But one moderate GOP Senator, who often angered DeLay with votes contrary to his interests, Maine's Olympia Snowe, was given only $6.00. The big chatter on Capitol Hill today among Repugs was whether to give back the money now or wait for DeLay's trial. The first to straight-forward return the cash was New Hampshire Congressman Jeb Bradley, who faces a tough re-election fight as is, without having to fight off charges that he's in cahoots with DeLay. He announced he's returning $15,000 to DeLay's pac.
After DeLay was reprimanded by the bi-partisan House Ethics Committee last October, some GOP congressman started getting queasy about accepting contributions from him. There's some confusion about who received what, but not even counting the huge sums of money funneled into GOP campaigns by DeLay's consiglieri Jack Abramson and other shady DeLay fronts, no matter how you slice it, the biggest beneficiaries of DeLay's largesse were Mike Ferguson (NJ), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), Robin Hayes (NC), Heather Wilson, neck and neck this year with Ferguson for the biggest sums of tainted cash, over $50,000 (NM), Anne Northup (KY), Jim Ryun (KS), Clay Shaw, Jr. (FL), Chris Chocola (IN), John Kline (MN), Sam Graves (MO), Randy Forbes (VA), Rob Simmons (CT), Mark Kennedy (MN), Mark Green (WI), Tom Tancredo (CO), Tom Latham (IA), Paul Ryan (WI), Timothy V. Johnson (IL), Jon Porter (NV), and, of course, Bob Ney (OH). These were only the ones with the huge contributions from DeLay. In 2004 DeLay doled out over $2 million to obedient Republican legislators.
LAST YEAR The Campaign for America’s Future's director, Robert Borosage, called on House Republicans to return the dirty money. “Tom DeLay is the kingpin of the most corrupt Congress in recent history,” said Borosage. “DeLay has a long record of working in the shadows. Taking money from DeLay compromises the integrity of every elected official who supports his dark tactics. Everyone who has taken Tom DeLay’s dirty money must publicly decide if they stand with DeLay or with decency.” That was LAST YEAR; wonder what Borosage is saying this week?
By the way, DeLay's approach has always been a carrot AND a stick one. Remember, when the Ethics Committee, including a Republican chairman (who DeLay soon after fired) voted to reprimand DeLay, it wasn't only about the bribes. On the list of violations was an attempt to bribe a Republican colleague to change his vote on President Bush’s lobbyist-written Medicare prescription drug bill. DeLay tried to force GOP Congressman Nick Smith of Michigan to vote his way on the bill and threatened to work against the House candidacy of Smith’s son if he refused. Smith voted against the bill and DeLay saw to it that Smith’s son's political career was destroyed; of course he lost his primary.
Probably the most clueless of DeLay's favorite pet Congressmen is NJ extremist Mike Ferguson. Ferguson not only accepted a great deal of money from DeLay-- in the $50,000 range-- but then turned around, in a possibly criminal money laundering scheme, and donated much of it to candidates DeLay wanted to get it to in... Texas! I think Travis County D.A. Earle needs to talk with Mike Ferguson and see why the NJ legislator was shipping so much cash to Texas (almost half of all the money Ferguson gave to other candidates in 2004). Although fellow New Jersey Republicans received only a measly grand from Ferguson's MIKE-PAC, he managed to dole out over $30,000 to DeLay's Texas minions Randy Neugebauer, Roger Sessions, Arlene Wohlgemuth, Louis Gohmert and Ted Poe.
Looks similar to the DeLay modus operandi for spreading tainted donations around, the m.o. that forced him to resign as Majority Leader yesterday.
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 10:29 AM
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NAILING THE HAMMER
Molly Ivins
AUSTIN, Texas -- Jeez, that was quite a hissy fit Tom DeLay had, calling Ronnie Earle a rogue prosecutor, a partisan fanatic and an unabashed partisan zealot out for personal revenge.
Ronnie Earle? Our very own mild-mannered -- well, let's be honest, bland as toast, eternally unexciting, Mr. Understatement, Old Vanilla -- Ronnie Earle? If the rest of Tom DeLay's defense is as accurate as his description of Ronnie Earle, DeLay might as well have himself measured for a white jumpsuit right now.
For the one-zillionth time, of the 15 cases Ronnie Earle has brought against politicians over the years, 12 of them were against Democrats. Earle was so aggressive in going after corrupt Democrats, the Republicans never even put up a candidate against him all during the '80s. Partisan is not a word anyone can honestly use about Ronnie Earle, but that sure doesn't stop the TV blabbermouths. So many of them have bought the Republican spin that Earle is on a partisan witch-hunt, the watchdogs like Media Matters can hardly keep up.
On the other hand, I've never liked conspiracy charges. They are notoriously weak and often just an add-on when a prosecutor wants to make someone look bad going in: "... and he's been charged with six felonies!"
Conspiracy as a stand-alone charge is particularly hard to prove without evidence of other concrete acts. Was there a conspiracy to move corporate cash from DeLay's federal PAC to influence Texas legislative races? On the basis of what we have already known for months, that's a "Does a bear poop in the woods?" question. But as all watchers of "Law and Order" know, what anyone with common sense would conclude can be a long way from what can proved in a courtroom.
On the other hand, Earle has already had one spectacular failure trying to prosecute a high-profile Republican. His 1993 case against Kay Bailey Hutchison was a flame-out: The judge indicated in pre-trial hearings he had doubts about the admissibility of Earle's evidence, so Earle withdrew the charges -- no point if he couldn't present his evidence. The judge wasn't satisfied and directed the jury to acquit Hutchison. Hutchison had an unbeatable legal team -- Dick DeGuerin and Mike Tigar. For Earle, this is a case of once-stung.
Speaking of the aforementioned Dick DeGuerin, he is now defending Tom DeLay. Want to know how good DeGuerin is? One of his recent clients was Robert Durst, heir to a New York real estate fortune, who admitted killing and dismembering an unfortunate vic in Galveston. Durst was a suspect in a California killing at the time and had moved to Galveston posing as a deaf-mute woman. (NOTE: the woman Durst murdered in CA was an old friend of DownWithTyranny.)
Durst jumped bail on the Galveston charge and was arrested in Pennsylvania for stealing a chicken sandwich while carrying two guns and $38,000. DeGuerin got him acquitted on the murder charge on the grounds of self-defense, but they nailed him for the guns and tampering with evidence -- that would be dismembering the corpse. They let him slide on the chicken sandwich charge. I swear, I'm not making up any of this. That's how good Dick DeGuerin is.
If I were fool enough to give DeGuerin advice, it would be, "Don't let DeLay on the stand." The man just can't help himself -- he's just too mean, he always pushes it that step too far, like the cheap shot about Earle not coming to work unless there's a press conference on. (Ronnie Earle comes to work every day -- you can ask anyone at the county courthouse.)
That DeLay always takes things a step too far is apparent from his record. This is the man who pushed Bill Clinton's impeachment when everyone knew it would end with acquittal. He fixed his repeated troubles with the House ethics committee in typical fashion by going after the committee itself. His bludgeoning style earned him his nickname, "The Hammer."
Sometimes, but not that many, it is hard to tell the difference between playing political hardball and operating with no moral compass whatever. But in DeLay's case, we have a very long record, and what it is shows is that this is a man who has repeatedly crossed ethical and legal lines, and then claimed he was just playing hardball politics -- and that anyone who complained about it was just a partisan whiner. Whenever he is really threatened, DeLay plays the Jesus card and claims he is standing up "for a biblical worldview in everything I do and everywhere I am."
Back in 2003, when DeLay was involved in a sleazy legislative payoff to a big donor, his press secretary offered this defense, "It is wrong and unethical to link legislative activities to campaign contributions." It is precisely that upside-down quality about DeLay's bulletproof sense of moral rectitude that makes it so bizarre. Suddenly, it is not wrong or unethical to try to slip an unrelated amendment to help a campaign donor into the defense appropriations bill, it's wrong and unethical to raise questions about it.
To tell the truth, I don't think Tom DeLay is smart enough to keep getting away with this stuff.
He should be called the "exterminator". The "hammer" is just too warm a word for that rodent.
Instinct has to tell people that along with bill bennett and karl rove and trent lott, delay is one of the most insincere person's in the public eye. Not to mention, criminal.
When will this phantom government of ours finaaly be exposed? What on earth is it going to take?
BTW, Rahm Emanuel is making some good sense out there friends.
THE GOP'S SPREADING PLAGUE
Joe Conason
Salon.com
Friday 30 September 2005
Voters are notoriously slow in voting out politicians accused of corruption, but they may reach the tipping point with the latest revelations.
To be an honest Republican these days must be to wonder what awful revelation is coming next - and how the Grand Old Party, which once claimed to represent political reform, became a front for sleaze, corruption and cynical criminality. Across the country, from the Capitol to statehouses, Republican officials are under indictment, under investigation or under suspicion.
This week's headlines featured the indictment of Rep. Tom DeLay and the probe of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, but the infection of venality among their fellow partisans is now reaching epidemic proportions. So widespread is the plague that keeping track of all the individual cases, and their increasingly baroque variations, has become a distinct challenge.
Consider Jack Abramoff, once the prince of K Street lobbyists and a dedicated right-wing ideologue who boasted of his powerful connections to DeLay, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist and the entire Republican apparatus in Washington. Already under investigation by the Justice Department for his influence peddling among House members, including DeLay, and his swindling of Indian tribes, Abramoff was indicted last month for bank fraud in a separate South Florida case involving a casino boat company that he partly owned.
The fraud allegedly committed by Abramoff and his business partner Adam Kidan involved a phony wire transfer they used to purchase a controlling interest in SunCruz from the company's founder, Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, in 2001.
Abramoff and Kidan later fell out with Boulis in a bitter business dispute that turned violent. In February 2001, gunmen ambushed Boulis on a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., highway and shot him repeatedly. On Tuesday, Florida authorities arrested three New York men with mob connections for the Boulis killing. Two of the men - Anthony Moscatiello and Tony Ferrari - had received payments totaling more than $240,000 from Kidan and Abramoff. Moscatiello, a longtime associate of the Gambino Mafia family, and Ferrari were supposedly providing food and consulting services to SunCruz - or so Kidan claimed when questioned by prosecutors. There is no evidence, however, that Moscatiello and Ferrari provided any services to the company.
Connecting the dots isn't difficult here: Kidan and Abramoff want to get rid of Boulis, who won't go away. Kidan and Abramoff hire Moscatiello and Ferrari with SunCruz money. Moscatiello and Ferrari allegedly whack Boulis, without any motive of their own. If the Broward County state's attorney has sufficient evidence to win convictions for a capital crime, some people will probably be talking soon in hope of avoiding the hot shot.
The stunning fall of Abramoff, who has yet to hit bottom, is certainly the most colorful tale of Republican depravity. The corporate money laundering to Texas politicians that led to DeLay's conspiracy indictment, and the suspicious insider stock transaction that spurred investigations of Frist by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, seem mundane by comparison. Outrage will be warranted if their misconduct is proved, but everyone sadly knows that these felonies are now common practice in our political and corporate culture.
Corporate misbehavior has also brought down right-wing publisher Conrad Black, neoconservative strategist and former Bush advisor Richard Perle and the entire corporate board of Hollinger Inc., the Republican-friendly media conglomerate formerly controlled by Lord Black - and that he and others are plausibly accused of illicitly looting for their own benefit. Furious shareholders forced Black to relinquish control of the company and are suing him, as well as Perle and former Black deputy David Radler, for $500 million. The SEC is also suing Black and Radler, and the Justice Department is investigating the former Hollinger directors.
Last month, US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who also happens to be the special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame case, accepted Radler's guilty plea to mail fraud and wire fraud. Radler is now believed to be cooperating in the prosecution of what former SEC chairman Richard Breeden, a Republican who investigated Hollinger on behalf of shareholders, termed a "corporate kleptocracy."
Kleptocratic morality evidently ruled at least two Republican statehouses in the Midwest as well. Currently under indictment are former Gov. George Ryan of Illinois, whose trial on bribery charges began last week, and Gov. Robert Taft of Ohio, who pleaded no contest last month to charges of accepting illegal gifts from a state contractor.
That contractor is Thomas Noe, a coin dealer who received lucrative investment deals with the state's Workers Compensation Fund and is now at the center of a gigantic scandal known as "Coingate." More than $12 million has disappeared from the fund, and former GOP official Noe stands accused of laundering money to various Republican politicians, including the Bush-Cheney campaign. Like Abramoff, Noe is a Bush "Pioneer," responsible for raising at least $100,000 for the president last year.
Still another Pioneer is currently under criminal investigation in a celebrated corruption case involving Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a prominent Republican representative from San Diego with a senior position on the House defense appropriations subcommittee. On Aug. 18, FBI and IRS agents raided the offices of defense contractor and Bush fundraiser Brent Wilkes.
Wilkes is reportedly a former business associate of Mitchell J. Wade, the head of a defense contracting firm called MZM Inc. who is under investigation in San Diego for alleged bribery of Cunningham. According to newspaper reports, Wade purchased a home owned by Cunningham at a price inflated by at least $700,000, and also permitted the congressman to use his 42-foot yacht free of charge. Federal agents searched Wade's offices in July.
Although prosecutors have brought no criminal charges in the case yet, they have filed civil court documents describing the home sale as a violation of federal bribery laws - and Cunningham, who has served in Congress for decades, has already announced that he will not seek another term next year.
The Republican National Committee's new treasurer, Robert Kjellander, is under investigation too. (Naturally, he is also a Bush Pioneer.) Not long after he assumed his new post at the party's Washington headquarters, Kjellander received a federal subpoena for records of his dealings with the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, a state pension fund, and the Carlyle Group. Federal prosecutors are reportedly looking into alleged corruption at the fund, and have asked Kjellander to provide information about a $4.5 million fee he received from Carlyle for his role in arranging investments by the fund with the huge private equity fund. Carlyle, of course, is closely connected to the Bush administration, including the president's father, George H.W. Bush, who has worked for the firm as a rainmaker and advisor.
In fairness, it should be said that all these pols and parasites may be innocent (except for those already convicted), or at least not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It is also true that voters have historically been slow to evict politicians from office because of corruption charges.
But public opinion of congressional Republicans is hitting new lows, and Americans are growing furious about the war in Iraq, the government response to Hurricane Katrina and rising energy prices. The natural impulse to throw the rascals out can only be encouraged by the Gilded Age spectacles now unfolding in Washington and in cities across the country as the indictments continue to come down between now and November 2006.
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