Will Cliff Stearns Wind Up Going To Prison Even Before Mikey Suits Grimm?

Cliff Stearns (R-FL) is a keep-yer-head-down garden-variety careerist dirtbag. He's not going anywhere-- at least not upward. No one's thinking of him as a VP pick or a cabinet member or as someone who ought to run for governor or senator. He's far to the right of even the GOP mainstream and no one much likes him. He got slapped down when he ran for a minor GOP leadership job in 1994 and he's never gotten over it. People in Washington just think of him as an ineffective hypocrite with bad toupees. He doesn't get anything much done either-- I mean not for his constituents, other than the extremely wealthy ones. He's had no real challenges in his north-central Florida district since he was first elected in 1988. Once a sleazy real estate speculator, he ran unopposed last year-- and 3 other times since being elected. But this hasn't prevented him from amassing the biggest war chest of any Florida congressman.

He'll now be running in the new solidly red 3rd CD (much of it to the north and west of the old 6th) and there is no Democrat in the race. There are, however, 3 Republicans challenging him, veterinarian Ted Yoho. state Senator Steve Oelrich and Clay County Clerk James Jett. Stearns is sitting on $2,382,747 cash in hand. Yoho, his closest financial competitor, has $55,259. Since 1989 Stearns has raised $6,941,653, more than half of it for the sleazy corporate PACs whose agenda he's famous for backing in Washington. His biggest contributors are AT&T, the National Association of Realtors and the American Bankers Association and he can always be counted on to take their positions against the positions of the families of north Florida. So what does he do with all that money sloshing around in his campaign war chest?

Well, this week he was accused of using it to try to bribe James Jett to drop out of the race. That was a bad move. Stearns wasn't the first person to try to bribe Jett-- and Jett has made a point of building a reputation as a non-bribable kind of guy. He reported Stearns to the FBI and allowed them to wiretap his phone where they recorded a Stearns agent offering him bribes. That's illegal. Boehner has a lot of that going on among his senior caucus members, particularly Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Buck McKeon (R-CA)... and junior crook and Mafioso Michael "Mikey Suits" Grimm (R-NY).

Jett said former state Education Commissioner Jim Horne was the middle man who offered everything from money to appointed political positions. He also said it during a South Clay Republicans meeting at the Magnolia Point Golf & Country Club.

Horne was among the names given by Jett to the FBI. Also on the list: Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, who formerly represented Clay County in the state House.

Offerings included a job on Stearns' campaign staff or cash to cover the approximately $25,000 Jett has personally spent on his congressional run, Jett said. He also said he was told there could be a job heading the Florida Department of Law Enforcement or a U.S. Marshal position once there are vacancies.

Jett said Horne first called him on Feb. 17 and said asked Jett to leave the race, saying that state heavyweights Carroll, GOP Sen. John Thrasher of St. Augustine and state party chairman Lenny Curry of Jacksonville all were behind Stearns.

There were subsequent conversations with Horne and Orange Park Republican heavyweight donor Judd Sapp acting as a go-between, Jett said. Two of the taped voicemails, supposedly from Sapp, are heard to talk of a meeting with "Jim" and others to finalize a deal. The second voicemail says the meeting was to take place at Sapp's riverfront home on Friday, March 2, at a gathering that was to include House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.

The FBI wiretapped Jett's phone, he said, and recorded conversations between him and others. He asked about wearing a microphone to the party at Sapp's house, but he says the FBI wouldn't let him wear a wire in Boehner's presence.

Boehner swore to keep his Members on the straight and narrow. But he hasn't. More and more of them are under investigation by the House Ethics Committee and some, like Stearns and Grimm, are already being looked at by the Justice Department for serious criminal activities.