DON YOUNG IS TRAINING A WHOLE NEW CLASS OF REPUBLICANS HOW TO MAXIMIZE CORRUPTION

There's a live & interactive version here

With DeLay and Hastert gone from the House, it's hard to say which of their craven Republican Culture of Corruption lieutenants is the most corrupt. Most people, just measuring my the amount of cash misappropriated, would probably guess Jerry Lewis (R-CA) but Don Young of Alaska has many supporters on this matter as well. I'd say these two corrupt old bastards around pretty much neck and neck. Arnold Schwarzenegger is still supporting Lewis but Alaska's popular Republican governor, Sarah Palin, has urged Alaskans to retire Young. Not all Republicans agree. This year Young's political leadership PAC, Midnight Sun has been funneling corporate bribes to lots of endangered right wing Republicans and to extremist candidates the GOP are trying to get into Congress. Among the recipients of Young's tainted lucre are these rightwing Republicans busy attacking Democratic members of Congress:

Dean Andal (R-CA) who is opposing Jerry McNerney
Jeb Bradley (R-NH) who is opposing Carol Shea-Porter
David Cappiello (R-CT) who is opposing Chris Murphy
John Gard (R-WI) who is opposing Steve Kagen
Rick Goddard (R-GA) who is opposing Jim Marshall
Jim Ryun (R-KS) who is opposing Nancy Boyda

Today, in light of the Senate asking the FBI to investigate Young's criminal use of earmarks to benefit his campaign contributors, the Center for American Progress made a yeoman's effort to present a broad overview of Young's beathtaking record of corruption.

The reinstatement of the $10 million earmark which had been rejected by the Senate directly benefited a key fundraiser for Rep. Don Young (R-AK), the former chairman of the House Transportation Committee. This week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced she would ask the House to accept the call for a DOJ investigation, while also continuing to press for an internal inquiry by the House ethics committee. Young is "perhaps best known as the architect of the 'bridge to nowhere,' a a project in a massive 2005 transportation bill that he named after his wife, Lu, and 'stuffed like a turkey,' as he put it when the $286 billion bill was done." Young's ethics troubles-- which hardly begin with the mysterious 2005 earmark-- have forced him to spend more than $1 million in legal fees, doling out $238,000 on lawyers in 2008 alone. The New York Times editorial board said of Young's latest earmark battle, "He remains incorrigible."


A COCONUT ROAD TO NOWHERE: As chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Young visited Florida, where he "received $40,000 in campaign donations from land developers during his visit. He requited by tailoring an earmark in the 2005 transportation bill for their pet project: a cross-wetlands connection to the interstate, known as the Coconut Road Interchange, that would boost development values while abusing the environment." The interchange was "a low priority" for county officials, but it was vitally important to Young donor Daniel Aronoff because it would have increased the value of his property. In fact, "local officials ultimately refused the money and asked Congress to let them use it for its original purpose." The 2005 bill approved by Congress included a $10 million earmark for "widening and improvements for I-75 in Collier and Lee County" Florida. However, the bill President Bush signed redirected that $10 million for "Coconut Road interchange I-75/Lee County." Young's office "admitted that it may have been a staff member who altered the bill after the vote, but not to finagle it-- only to somehow 'correct' it." The congressman defended the earmark last week, saying, "I think it's the right thing for the state of Florida, and you know, right now, they're supportive of it."

YOUNG'S TIES TO ABRAMOFF: Young's dubious ethics hardly start and end with earmarks. He also has deep ties to the face of Washington corruption: convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Though Young claimed in 2006 that he had "never had any personal or professional relationship with Abramoff," just this week "a trove of old billing records from two of Abramoff's firms" were leaked, showing "that his team of lobbyists had more than 120 contacts with Young's personal and committee staffs over 25 months, including at least 10 with Young himself." In 2000, Young directly aided Abramoff and his garment industry clients in the Mariana Islands, blocking a bill addressing labor and immigration scandals there. "Young stopped it cold in his committee, refusing to hold even a hearing." He dismissed reports of "rampant abuses" in the Marianas, "notably the trafficking of women for a commercial sex trade and the exploitation of mostly female workers from poor Asian countries." Young also said "the stories of worker abuse were largely fabricated by trade unions and special interest groups promoted by the news media." In a private memo to Mariana officials, Abramoff took credit for Young's stonewalling, writing, "We erected a roadblock in the House to stop the bill from moving." Though Young tried to deny his close ties to Abramoff, the lobbyist did not mince words. "The loss of Chairman Young's authority cannot easily be measured -- or replaced," Abramoff wrote on Jan. 4, 2001. "We have lost major institutional memory and friendship."

YOUNG'S TIES TO CORRUPT OIL FIRM: Even with the Coconut Road and Abramoff scandals in the headlines, Young's most pressing legal battle centers around a completely separate issue. Last July, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into Young's ties to Alaska oil services company VECO Corp. The FBI is looking into whether Young "accepted bribes, illegal gratuities or unreported gifts" from VECO. Last January, Young recorded "$38,000 in payments to Mr. [Bill] Allen, the former VECO chief. The refunds, which haven't been previously reported, were labeled 'fund-raising costs' in documents filed with the Federal Election Commission." Just five months later, in May 2007, both Allen and VECO's chief lobbyist, Richard Smith, pleaded guilty to extortion, bribery, and fraud, admitting to bribing other state legislators. VECO employees donated at least $157,000 to Young between 1996 and 2006, and the company is at the center of another investigation into its ties to Alaska's senior senator, Ted Stevens (R). Last summer, FBI and IRS Alaska home after contractors told a grand jury "that in 2000, Veco executives oversaw a lavish remodeling of Steven's house."

You think there's any chance Dean Andal, Jeb Bradley, David Cappiello, John Gard, Rick Goddard (R-GA), and Jim Ryun might consider returning the money Young funneled into his campaigns? I doubt it.