Why Congress Shouldn't Be Allowed To Define Bribery To Exclude It's Own Corrupt Behavior

We often talk about how Congress has redefined how the Justice Department is supposed to look at bribery, specifically overlooking standard congressional behavior. Recently we mentioned how a pretty junior Wisconsin congressman with no concept of ethical behavior, Sean Duffy, the chairman of the House Financial Services Oversight Subcommittee saw nothing untoward about his taking a bigger series of bribes from Wells Fargo than any other member of Congress-- more than his committee chair, Texas crook Jeb Hensarling, more than House Majority Leader McCarthy, more than Speaker Paul Ryan, more than the most notorious bankster whores in Congress, from Patrick Murphy (New Dem-FL) and Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) to Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Patrick McHenry (R-NC). Since getting into Congress, in 2011, Duffy has already taken an astronomical $2,334,422 in bribes from the Financial Sector. See, it's easy enough to see who thank banksters are paying off for favors done and favors expected. All the characters mentioned above, from Duffy on down, have used their official positions to push Wall Street's toxic agenda, despite the damage it does to their own middle and working class constituents. In fact, here's a handy list of the 20 worst members of the House-- this cycle only-- in that regard:

Notice that of the 6 Democrats on this list of shame, 5 are New Dems and all 6 are on committees that deal directly when the banksters' agenda-- Patrick Murphy, Kyrsten Sinema, Jim Himes and Sean Patrick Maloney are on the House Financial Services Committee; Chris Van Hollen is the Ranking Member of the House Banking Committee and former head New Dem (and the establishment's pick for post Pelosi-Hoyer House Leader) Joe Crowley is on the House Ways and Means Committee.

But... and here's the key-- how do we know who the future crooks are likeliest to be before they get into office. Well, sometimes it's too easy-- like when Ohio banking lobbyist Steve Stivers ran for Congress. No one doubt who'd be pulling his strings and, as you can see above, he's in the top 10 of Wall Street's congressional bribe takers. This cycle, I've been watching closely to see which non-incumbents the banksters have been showering with cash. Not counting a $27 contribution or two from a teller now and then, the Blue America candidates aren't getting paid off by the banksters and the bank lobbyists and bank PACs. Here's a list of the corrupt non-incumbent House candidates who have already gotten on the Wall Street gravy train. Some are Democrats and some are Republicans but they are all future crooked operators regardless of party and should be avoided like the plague:

• Ro Khanna (D-CA)- $729,801
• Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ)- $668,333
• Anna Throne-Holst (D-NY)- $400,658
• John Faso (R-NY)- $360,224
• Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL)-$297,789
• Brad Schneider (D-IL)- $284,308
• Salud Carbajal (D-CA)- $211,579
• LuAnn Bennett (D-VA)- $190,475

The Democrats who have already joined the Blue Dogs and/or the New Dems are decorated colorfully so they'll stand out more. And it looks like that's exactly where Wall Street is putting its money, for the next Congress, even more so than on Republicans!