CALIFORNIA REP. DAVID DREIER CAUGHT IN ANOTHER REPUBLICAN ETHICS SCANDAL

In recent days we've been talking about how incompetent individual Republican congressmen have been as guardians and stewards of public money. The current catastrophe on Wall Street flows directly out a GOP ideology of greed and selfishness that takes the laissez faire approach to such extremes that abuses, like the ones being exposed now, are positively invited. But that isn't the only financial scandal congressional Republicans are choking on. We've talked about the billions of dollars "missing" in the Iraq mess, missing meaning stolen by defense contractors who are kicking it back to their Republican patrons. With a policy of GOP obstructionism in full force, it will take Henry Waxman's Committee on Oversight and Government Reform years to sort that all out. But still another Republican financial mess is one they actually do want to get to the bottom of-- and pronto.

One of their own, National Republican Congressional Committee Treasurer Christopher Ward, has been systematically embezzling hundreds of thousands, probably, millions of dollars in campaign contributions-- and not just from the hapless (and broke) NRCC, but also from dozens of individual GOP congressmen who hired Ward to run their fundraising operations. So far, it doesn't look like any of them were party to the embezzlement-- but they are certainly guilty of gross incompetence. This guy has been stealing them blind for most of the past decade.

Most of the victims are trying to hide the fact from the public that they have been suckered, but it's starting to dribble out, one congressman at a time. Frankly, I don't know if California's David Dreier was ripped off by Christopher Ward or not; I can't get a straight answer out of his office. But I expect we will find out that Dreier was indeed one of the victims of this Republican's Republican. This morning Roll Call did disclose that this would certainly not be the first time Dreier has been less than scrupulous is watching out his financial obligation.

They are reporting that Dreier "failed to disclose tens of thousands of dollars in profits he made on stock sales on his annual financial disclosure forms for the past several years." That's a crime. Now that he's been caught, Dreier is scurrying around trying to amend his disclosure forms for 2004, 2005, 2006, "listing 86 separate stock sales for which his profits were not previously disclosed, totaling between $85,000 and $263,000 in income." Dreier claims it was not intentional. So I guess he's pleading... incompetence?

Since 2003, Dreier’s disclosure forms have reported his stock transactions, including the total value of each sale, but have not indicated how much profit he earned from those sales. For example, Dreier reported in 2005 that he sold Motorola stock with a total value of between $15,001 and $50,000. But his list of income sources for that year reported only $1-$200 worth of “dividends” from the Motorola stock, making no mention of the more than $5,000 in profits that Dreier netted from the sale.

Under House rules, each Member of Congress files a personal financial disclosure form every year listing income, assets, liabilities and transactions. The ethics committee provides instructions for filling out these forms that stipulate that capital gains from stock sales must be listed as income in “Schedule III”-- the income table-- of the form. A stock that is sold in its entirety is to be listed as having no value at the end of the year (because the Member no longer owns it), but any dividends earned prior to the sale and any income from the sale are to be listed in the various ranges provided on the form-- $1-$200; $201-$1,000; $1,001-$2,500, etc.

The same sales must also be recorded in “Schedule IV”-- the transaction section-- indicating the date of the sale and the total value of the transaction, in broader ranges of $1,001-$15,000; $15,001-$50,000, etc.

This year Dreier faces the toughest opposition of his political career, progressive Democrat Russ Warner. Russ' campaign manager, Kristin Points explained to the local media that "These are basic rules that everyone in Congress is required to follow-- the Ethics Committee even has workshops and handouts to make sure they are understood. The idea that David Dreier, who has been in Congress for 27 years, wouldn’t know how to fill out a basic financial disclosure form is absurd." Actually, it's worse than absurd since he'd been filling them out properly until 2003.

Russ brought up a good point that I hadn't connected when I real the Roll Call story. Dreier was one of the leaders of the fight to kill the new ethics legislation last week. At the time, I couldn't understand why he was so adamantly opposed to putting some teeth into the ethics process. I do now.

"I guess it’s no surprise given these repeated failures to comply with House ethics rules that David Dreier just recently voted against the tough new ethics rules the House of Representatives just passed. I’m running for office because we deserve better than the scandal-plagued culture of corruption that has taken root in Washington.  David Dreier has been in Congress for 27 years, and it is time for a change."

You like the idea of clean-- and competent-- government? Blue America has endorsed Russ Warner and his contribution site is open, 24/7.