Culture Of Corruption And GOP Hypocrisy: Will John Carter, John Boehner And Don Young Please Stand Up?

As part of a talk he gave for the L.A. screening of Capitalism: A Love Story Michael Moore wondered aloud if perhaps Obama figured the best way to figure out how Wall Street crooks had gamed the system against the American people was to hire a bunch of topnotch Wall Street crooks. That would explain how we voted for Change and Hope and wound up with Summers, Geithner, Emanuel and Rubin. Perhaps that's why John Boehner-- who could certainly have done the job himself, considering his shady past-- tasked Texas crook John Carter with the job of acting as the Republican pointman on the Charlie Rangel corruption scandal. Boehner is claiming that Carter is still the man to hunt Rangel, even though he will no doubt soon be the subject of his own ethics investigation, having "somehow" neglected to mention $300,000 he netted in a recent stock transaction. No doubt that seems perfectly normal and par for the course for Boehner-- and most of the GOP caucus.

Boehner said Carter made an error that many other Members have made, and that some of the fault lies with the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, which sometimes gives Members incorrect advice on completing their financial disclosure forms.

Carter’s office denied on Tuesday but then acknowledged on Wednesday that the Congressman failed to report nearly $300,000 in profits from his sales of Exxon Mobil stock on his annual financial disclosure forms for 2006 and 2007... Boehner said Carter’s error was relatively minor. “Those forms are very confusing,” Boehner said.

Carter's hometown paper, the Waco Tribune-Herald, noticed and has noted that "for some Democratic groups, the Round Rock Republican’s error was evidence of hypocrisy. For the last month, Carter has been hammering New York Democrat Charlie Rangel over a series of tax errors and disclosure mistakes."

Earlier this month, Carter pushed to pass a resolution on the House floor that would have stripped Rangel of his Committee on Ways and Means chairmanship while he’s under investigation by the House ethics committee.

“Carter’s violations might be seen as inadvertent and even forgivable had they not exposed his utter hypocrisy, especially in light of his recent vicious floor attacks against a respected colleague,” Democratic strategist Matt Angle posted on his Web site, The Lone Star Project.

I don't know that I'd go quite so far as to describe Rangel as a "respected colleague," but he certainly isn't any more crooked than Carter-- and has a long way to go before he even approaches the systemic corruption of John Boehner, whose fame as a frequenter of tanning salons is surpassed only by his stint as (an illegal) lobbyist for the tobacco industry, having been caught handing out bribe checks from Big Tobacco on the floor of the House, during a vote! Still Boehner could have done worse than choosing Carter as the GOP Grand Inquisitor. Take Alaska Congressman Don Young, for example, better known as Mr. Pork.

Many people just assume that Young is in prison. He isn't. In fact, he's still in Congress. Although probably not for much longer-- and I'm not talking about the inevitability of actuarial tables. The man has broken so many laws that even he gets confused. Last week when an oil executive who had bribed him on several occasions admitted it and the Anchorage Daily News asked Young about it, his response was a terse "Don't bother me, don't bother me." That's the biggest newspaper in his state.

The documents [implicating Young in bribery] were filed late Wednesday as part of the preparations for the sentencing next week of former Veco chief Bill Allen, who is at the heart of the investigation into corruption in Alaska politics.

It included a 2007 "confession of additional criminal activity," made public for the first time in filings Wednesday, in which Allen alleged 13 years worth of gift-giving by him and fellow Veco executive Rick Smith to "United States Representative A," described as Alaska's representative in the House. Only Don Young fits that description.

Allen's confession said Veco spent between $130,000 and $195,000 on illegal corporate donations to Young by paying for his annual "pig roast" fundraiser in Anchorage from 1993 to 2006.

Another example offered in the same document signed by Allen in May 2007 was a gift of $1,000 golf clubs which prosecutors said Smith purchased with Allen's credit card for Young.

Young reported no gifts on his disclosure forms from 1995 until last year, when he disclosed $77,000 in donations that he received for his legal defense fund.

It was lack of disclosure on those same forms that led the Justice Department to indict then-Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens on corruption charges also related to Veco. A jury convicted Stevens, but those charges were withdrawn earlier this year by the Justice Department after defense attorneys questioned the way prosecutors and the FBI handled witnesses and evidence.

Harry Crawford, an Anchorage Democratic state representative running against Young for Congress in next year's election, questioned why charges have not been filed.

"I guess you get the kind of justice you can afford," Crawford said. "He's been taking campaign contributions and paying for the best legal help that you can find."

Since early 2007, Young has spent more than $1.2 million from his campaign account and legal expense fund on lawyer bills connected to federal investigations of his fundraising and other matters.

Young maintains he's done nothing wrong-- and from the perspective of a political establishment populated by men like John Boehner, Rudy Giuliani, Mitch McConnell, David Vitter, David Dreier and Roy Blunt... what's wrong with a little corruption between friends?