Babeu And Grimm... Grotesque Republican Corruption

The video above has nothing to do with either Arizona congressional candidate Sheriff Paul Babeu or Staten Island Republican Congressman/Mafioso Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm. Instead it's another real world tableau documenting the pervasive political corruption that reaches right up the Republican Party leadership chain. The doofus being interviewed by investigative journalist Lee Fang is third-ranking Republican in the House, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield). He lies right to Fang's face, claiming not to know about the Buck McKeon and Vern Buchanan scandals roiling their California and Florida districts.

So what does this have to do with Grimm and Babeu? Fang points out that the #2 House Republican, Eric Cantor, said he would have "zero tolerance" for corruption in the House GOP Caucus. Boehner was equally adamant when the Republicans won their majority in 2010. But neither is addressing the outrageous public scandals that both McKeon and Grimm are embroiled in-- with McKeon already under investigation by the House Ethics Committee (which informed McCarthy) and Grimm's case so serious that the NY Times demanded that the Justice Department start looking into it. As for Babeu... he's the favored Republican candidate in a deep red western Arizona district where he's up against incumbent (from another district) Paul Gosar. Or at least he was the favorite until it came out that... well, he came out-- or, more to the point, was outed... by his ex-lover, a Mexican immigrant he was trying to strong-arm and threatening to have deported.

When we first started covering Babeu we suggested that his time as headmaster of the DeSisto School was going to lead to very ugly places. And yesterday the media finally started confirming just that.

Pinal County Sheriff and U.S. Congressional candidate Paul Babeu was the school's Headmaster and Executive Director from 1999 to 2001.

He touts his experience there on his campaign website.

While Babeu ran the school, the Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services launched an investigation into repeated allegations of abuse.

The ABC15 Investigators traveled across Massachusetts and tracked down reports that have never been released.

The documents show that during Babeu’s tenure the school was not licensed. Other allegations include detailed instances of physical and sexual abuse.

Holli Nielsen was a student of DeSisto while Babeu was Headmaster.

“It's not unreasonable to say we were cult-like,” said Nielsen.

The school's policy was "tough love" and it led to at least one death-- a boy forced out in a blizzard with no clothes, who froze to death-- and several rapes. And, Babeu, being Babeu, is going to have a lot more seedy crap associated with himself, of course. This is when we get to the part of the danger of these hypocritical Republican closet cases not being treated for their severe mental illness.

Several students we spoke with say they also knew a secret about Babeu.

It was a secret that Babeau’s older sister said she discovered one day after visiting his home.

Lucy Babeu told the ABC15 Investigators she confronted her brother after finding a student from DeSisto school living with Babeu.

“I said what is this student from Desisto doing here? He says, ‘Lucy, he's my boyfriend. I love him’.”

Lucy Babeu told us her brother was having a relationship with the male student.  

“I said Paul get a hold of yourself here,” said Lucy. “You were his teacher! You were his Executive Director! You can't do this.”

ABC15 is not identifying the former student. He has not responded to our interview requests.

At the time, he was 17 which is the legal age of consent in Massachusetts.

“He was of age. He would be what we considered a high school senior,” said Nielsen.

Holli says she knew the student personally.

“It was widely known but not discussed. People were aware of it,” said Nielsen. “It was kind of swept under the rug.”

Babeu left the school in 2001. Three years later, the state investigation forced DeSisto to shut down.

And Grimm? He wasn't having sex with young boys too, was he? Not that we know of... but we do know of a meeting he had at the Crow Bar with the owner, major New York crime figure-- now imprisoned for 30 years... our old friend "Gus" Kontogiannis. Yep... yesterday's New York Daily News published a story about the relationship between Grimm-- basically an astonishingly corrupt cop-gone-bad-- and Kontogiannis, one of the crime figures behind, among other things, the Duke Cunningham scandal. We've been talking about Kontogiannis (and "Mikey Suits" since 2005). Kontogiannis, among his many other crimes, gave Cunningham $400,000 to give George W. Bush in return for a pardon. Kontogiannis became too hot for a pardon but no one has ever accounted for the $400,000. I doubt the Daily News investigation will lead to it. What they came up with, though, was Grimm trying to get Kontogiannis off the hook another way.

Staten Island  Rep. Michael Grimm urged a federal judge to spare a New York-based developer with three bribery-related convictions from serving a day in prison, the Daily News has learned.

Grimm sought leniency for Thomas Kontogiannis in 2008, before Grimm entered Congress as a Republican and after he had left a career as an FBI agent. Kontogiannis then faced sentencing on his third conviction-- for helping funnel $1 million in bribe money to former Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R-Calif).

In a three-page letter, Grimm asked California Federal Judge Lawrence Burns to “be as lenient as the law will allow and your conscience accepts, granting him a noncustodial sentence.” Burns sentenced Kontogiannis to eight years [a sentence that has grown over the years].

A lot of people focus on the Republican Party for its ideological extremism and its aggressive international policies. But you never need to scratch too deeply on the surface of conservatism without finding the stench of corruption. They go hand-in-hand because of the adoration with which sociopathic, self-serving behavior is treated. Oh-- and Boehner isn't on Grimm's case either. Last we heard of an interaction between them was when Grimm suggested to the Speaker that Members of Congress be allowed to pack heat and Boehner promised to look into that great idea.