Corruption-- The One Thing In Politics That Really Is Bipartisan

Today's Chicago Sun Times broke a story about Illinois corruption that looks, on the surface, pretty dire for Roland Burris and his ill-conceived bid to cling to the Senate seat then-Governor Rod Blogojevich appointed him to fill. It's more disigenuousness from our despicable and corrupt political class, the most bipartisan thing about American politics.

The son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris is a federal tax deadbeat who landed a $75,000-a-year state job under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five months ago, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

Blagojevich's administration hired Roland W. Burris II as a senior counsel for the state's housing authority Sept. 10-- about six weeks after the Internal Revenue Service slapped a $34,163 tax lien on Burris II and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure suit on his South Side house.

...Burris II's hiring, however, raises more questions about Sen. Burris' interactions with Blagojevich and his inner circle at a time when the governor was soliciting Sen. Burris for campaign contributions and Burris was angling to have Blagojevich appoint him to the Senate seat once held by President Obama.

Despite the efforts of the good guys-- Tom Geoghegan has just filed suit to have Burriss removed from the Senate--sometimes it looks like the Democrats are working like mad to catch up with the Tom DeLays, Denny Hasterts, Duke Cunninghams, Roy Blunts, and Jerry Lewises of the world. That will be hard because the GOP will always be one step ahead of them when it comes to corruption, something that they actually believe in as an ideological good-- stealing from the "damn government" and the law of the jungle, both part of the GOP Ten Commandments.

Just a few hours ago the NY Times reported another major Republican indictment, one that should sear McCain, Giuliani, the whole Florida Republican establishment, and a gaggle of wingnut politicians all over the country, from Richard Burr in North Carolina and Richard Shelby in Alabama to NRSC chair John Cornyn of Texas. Yesterday federal prosecutors got an indictment against a sleazy Jordanian "businessman," Ala'a al-Ali, who has been funneling large amounts of money to Republican Party politicians through one of the most corrupt Republican Party fundraisers in the country, Harry Sargeant III. Until recently Sargeant, who has-- along with his immediate family (people living and working at the same addresses as him)-- given hundreds of thousands of dollars to a roster of right wing crooks, from shady characters like the Diaz-Balart Brothers, Connie Mack, Tom Rooney, Richard Burr and Cass Ballenger to nationally prominent Republicans like John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Charlie Crist. Sargeant pumped more than half a million dollars into McCain's failed campaign last year, funneled tens of thousands of dollars into Giuliani's campaign, most of it illegally and was recently forced to resign as the treasurer of the scandal plagued Florida Republican Party.

Sargeant was the go-between for corrupt Arabs trying to buy influence from McCain and other right-wing leaders. And although there were small amounts that were given to Democrats as well, the vast majority of the money that went through Sargeant and al-Ali went to Republicans, usually extreme right wing ones. Richard Burr and Richard Shelby, two blowhard obstructionist Republicans who took tens of thousands of dollars from Sargeant, are refusing to return the money.


UPDATE... AND THEN THERE'S NEW HAMPSHIRE SENATOR JUDD GREGG

AP broke the story today about how Gregg and his brother stand to make a bundle based on one of his earmarks. The sleazy Republican hypocrite "personally has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in Cyrus Gregg's office projects at the Pease International Tradeport, a Portsmouth business park built at the defunct Pease Air Force Base, once home to nuclear bombers. Judd Gregg has collected at least $240,017 to $651,801 from his investments there, Senate records show, while helping arrange at least $66 million in federal aid for the former base."

He says he didn't break any laws. They always say that; think back to Duke Cunningham, William Jefferson, Bob Ney and Tom DeLay. After all, they write the laws and the loopholes and know how to steal taxpayer money without putting themselves in jeopardy. It does now appear that this is the reason why he "decided" to withdraw his name as a Cabinet appointee.