Rick Renzi (R-AZ), A Disgrace To The GOP And To The Entire House, Gets Some More Charges

Think way back to last February when a federal grand jury handed down a 35-count indictment against Republican Congressman Rick Renzi. He was charged with conspiracy, fraud, extortion, and money-laundering. He resigned from his committee positions and from his role as a co-chair of the McCain for President campaign and announced he wouldn't run for re-election and has since been replaced with a dull Democratic Party hack pushed forward by the DCCC. Renzi was not kicked out of the House or brought before the cruel joke known as the Ethics Committee.

Yesterday a federal grand jury added 8 more charges to Renzi's case, including falsifying his tax returns and... racketeering. Basically he has been charged with funding his political career with money he embezzled and then used his position in Congress for extortion. He's still voting in the House of Representatives. And people wonder why the American public holds that body in such low esteem? It was ironic that all during the campaign, while McCain was denouncing the Bridge to Nowhere and Alaska political crooks Ted Stevens and Don Young, he never once mentioned his indicted Arizona ally Rick Renzi. Politicians are good at that kind of thing.

According to the new indictments, Renzi "embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from insurance premiums paid to his company to fund his campaign and other personal expenses. His company specialized in providing coverage to nonprofit groups, and stealing the premiums led to a lapse in coverage or some groups for several months, according to the indictment."

Mr. Renzi also is accused of telling two companies he would use his position in Congress to help them if they purchased land from James W. Sandlin, who is also under indictment.

But the companies didn't know Mr. Sandlin owed Mr. Renzi $700,000, which was paid after the sale of the properties to the two companies, which are not named in the indictment.

Mr. Renzi didn't include that money on his congressional financial disclosure forms, according to the indictment. Part of that money was used to pay back the money he stole from the customers of his insurance agency, the indictment states.

Last month, Mr. Renzi's attorneys filed a motion to dismiss on the constitutional grounds known as the "speech and debate clause," which protects members of Congress from prosecution for carrying out acts related to their office.

His attorneys also argued that prosecutors improperly recorded phone conversations between Mr. Renzi and his attorneys in violation of attorney/client privilege protections.

Prosecutors have filed a motion opposing dismissal, and a judge has not yet ruled.

This year voters dealt appropriately with two other outrageously corrupt House members, Tom Feeney (R-FL) and Virgil Goode (R-VA) but returned most to office, including Don Young (R-AK), Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Gary Miller (R-CA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Tim Murphy (R-PA) and several of the worst Culture of Corruption congressmen, like Renzi, are retiring-- John Doolittle (R-CA), Vito Fossella (R-CA), and Duncan Hunter (R-CA). William Jefferson (D-LA) will face voters again in a run-off next month.