Florida's Culture Of Corruption-- Alcee Hastings Meets The Murphys

Alcee's and Patrick's hands and beverages

FL-20 is one of the most heavily Democratic congressional districts in the country. The PVI is D+29 and Romney only got 17% of the vote there. 52% of the population is black and 21% is Latino. It's also the 408th poorest district of the country's 435 districts with a median income of $37,105-- more than $10,000 below the median income for the state of Florida. Only one district is worse off economically-- another bizarrely gerrymandered district, represented by Corrine Brown, who was just defeated by the voters after being indicted on 24 counts of fraud. The voters of FL-20 should consider doing what the voters of FL-05 just did: remove and replace their own corrupt congressman, Alcee Hastings.

FL-20, which is a ridiculously contrived district drawn to gather up as many African-Americans in Southeast Florida as possible, creating a safer than safe black seat, while removing Democratic voters from the Republican-friendly 18th district. FL-20 includes much of the Everglades but that isn't where the voters live (although some voters live in the sugar growing areas around the southern shores of Lake Okeechobee). Most of the voters live in Broward county's black neighborhoods around Ft. Lauderdale-- Lauderhill, North Lauderdale, inland Pompano Beach, Tamarac, and Sunrise-- and in another outstretched arm west of ritzy West Palm Beach, again, black neighborhoods inland from the Treasure Coast. Republicans often don't even bother to run candidates against him and when they did in 2014, Hastings got 82% of the vote. His opponent this coming November, Gary Stein, hasn't even raised the $5,000 that would trigger an FEC filing, while Hastings had raised $614,441 by the August 10 filing deadline, only 3% of it from small contributions, most of his cash coming from big donors and PACs. Hastings, for example is the #1 recipient of campaign cash from the pay day lending industry, even more than his crooked ally Patrick Murphy. Over the course of his shady career in Congress no other Floridian has taken as much from the sugar barons as Hastings ($283,000).

Wherever there's some tainted cash being weaved around for Congress, Hastings is at the front of the line. But that shouldn't surprise anyone. The man has a history-- a shocking history that should have disqualified him from elective office long ago. Eager to appoint Florida's first African-American federal judge, in 1979 Jimmy Carter found Hastings, who had been a Broward County circuit court judge for just over a year. In 1981 Hastings was charged with soliciting a $150,000 bribe in exchange for giving a couple of mobsters, convicted felons Frank and Thomas Romano, light sentences. His co-cosnpirator and close friend, William Borders, took the fall for Hastings in the criminal trial and Borders went to prison. But it was so obvious that Hastings was a crook that the Democratic-controlled House impeached him on bribery and perjury charges by an astounding 413-3 vote. The House impeachment managers included Peter Rodino and John Conyers. The Senate then found him guilty and removed him from the federal bench, only the sixth federal judge in the history to be removed from office by the Senate. Bill Clinton pardoned Hastings on his last day in office (January, 2001).

A special committee of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals began a new probe into the Hastings case. The resulting three-year investigation ended with the panel concluding that Hastings did indeed commit perjury, tamper with evidence, and conspire to gain financially by accepting bribes. The panel recommended further action to the U.S. Judicial Conference, which, in turn, informed the House of Representatives on March 17, 1987, that Judge Alcee Hastings should be impeached and removed from office.

On August 3, 1988, following an investigation by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, the House of Representatives voted 413 to 3 to adopt H. Res. 499, approving 17 articles of impeachment against Hastings, the greatest number of articles in any impeachment proceeding to date. Charges included conspiracy, bribery, perjury, falsifying documents, thwarting a criminal investigation, and undermining the public confidence "in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary." The Senate received the articles on August 9, 1988.

...The Senate deliberated in closed session on October 19, 1989. The following day, the Senate voted on 11 of the 17 articles of impeachment, convicting Hastings, by the necessary two-thirds vote, on 8 articles (1-5, 7-9). On two articles (6, 17) the vote fell short of the required majority to convict. On article 11, the Senate voted 95 not guilty to 0 guilty. Having achieved the necessary majority vote to convict on 8 articles, the Senate’s president pro tempore (Robert C. Byrd) ordered Hastings removed from office. The Senate did not vote to disqualify him from holding future office.

Why bring this up? I just requested that the Public Integrity Section of the FBI initiate an investigation of Patrick Murphy's parents buying an endorsement from Hastings for their son. There's more to it than that and I'll be blogging about it more thoroughly once I'm sure I'm allowed to be the FBI. But right now, let me just include information that is already public. On March 26, 2015 Hastings endorsed Patrick Murphy for the Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. Senate. Less than a month later on April 24, 2015, Leslie Murphy, Patrick's mother, made the maximum legal contribution of $5,400 to Hastings. Within two weeks, on May 5, 2015, Thomas P. Murphy, Jr., Patrick's father, also made the maximum legal contribution of $5,400 to Hastings for Congress.

Clearly what happened here is that Patrick Murphy's parents entered into a scheme or artifice to defraud the people of Florida by purchasing an endorsement for their son and thereby denying the people of Florida the honest services of Representative Hastings. The purchased endorsement-- and another one I will discuss here at DWT soon-- had the effect of preventing Patrick Murphy's competitor for the Democratic Party nomination, Pam Keith, from receiving any assistance from the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee.

The federal anti-fraud statutes are extremely broad. They criminalize any "scheme or artifice to defraud." 18 U.S.C. § 1341 (emphasis added). The statute is not limited to efforts to defraud another of money or tangible property. Congress amended the anti-fraud statutes in 1988 to define the phrase "scheme or artifice to defraud" to include specifically any effort to "deprive another of the intangible right of honest services." 18 U.S.C. § 1346. The right to honest services includes the right to honest and impartial government.

By purchasing endorsements for their son, Patrick, Mr. and Mrs. Murphy have used their wealth to unlawfully skew the political process and deny the people of Florida the honest services of Congressman Hastings. Accordingly, I requested that the Public Integrity Section and the FBI initiate an investigation of Thomas P. Murphy, Jr. and Leslie Murphy for multiple violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1346. And, by the way, Alcee isn't the only member of Congress named in my request to the FBI, because he wasn't the only member bribed by the Murphys. More on that soon.

Career Politicians And Payday Lenders-- Once A Comfy, Symbiotic Relationship

In his opposition to payday lenders, FL-23 progressive Tim Canova, the law professor taking on the odious Debbie Wasserman Schultz, has been saying that It is immoral to support an industry that makes money by targeting poor communities. Florida has been ground zero in the battle against the plague of pay day lenders and the most paid off members of Congress working for the pay day lenders are Florida's most corrupt politicians. This election cycle, only half a dozen Senate candidates have taken over $10,000 in pay day lender bribes, 6 men with notorious reputations in DC for selling their votes to sleazy industries. And two of the 6 are Floridians: "ex"-Republican Patrick Murphy, a spoiled rich bum masquerading as a Democrat and "No Show" Marco. Even though Rubio is already a senator, the pay day lenders know who will serve their interests better and have poured far more money into Murphy's campaign. By far, most of their bribes go to Republicans and, in fact, of the top 10 recipients of pay day lender bribes for the 2016 cycle there are 9 Republicans and just one "ex"-Republican masquerading as a Democrat.

Among the half dozen most corrupt members of the House there are 3 Republicans and 3 notoriously corrupt Democrats on the payday lender gravy train, 6 members who have one really giant thing in common-- this would be a far better country if all six were forced out of public office.

6 crooks who could make America better by resigning from Congress

So where's Wasserman Schultz? Oh, she dialed back her solicitation of payday lender bribes this cycle when people in south Florida started calling her #DebtTrapDebbie. This cycle she's only taken $5,100 in pay day lender bribes. But guess what-- since she was first elected to Congress, among Florida congressmembers only the walking corruption, Alcee Hastings, has taken bigger bribes from the payday lenders than #DebtTrapDebbie. He's gobbled up $121,450 and she's taken $68,100. They both co-sponsored a bill to allow pay day lenders to rob Floridians with ease but she fled in terror, along with Murphy, when Elizabeth Warren called out their bill and Floridians started asking uncomfortable questions. That's why career politicians like Murphy and Wasserman Schultz fight tooth and nail to avoid debates. Washerman Schultz got trapped into one, but Murphy is still refusing to debate his two opponents in the August 30 Florida primary. If Murphy wins the primary and faces Rubio in the general election, payday lender bribes are off the table, since they both take them.

Anyway, I got off on a Floridian tangent and really wanted to point out some good news on this front-- but up in New Jersey. Two of New Jersey's highest profile progressive mayors, Ras Baraka of Newark and Jersey City's Steve Fulop, are helping make the payday loan industry an issue. According to Terrence McDonald of the Jersey Journal, Fulop and Baraka "are lending their voices to the chorus of Democrats nationwide who are calling for stricter regulations on the payday loan industry." That's an especially good thing because both young mayors are seen as the hope for a future corruption-free New Jersey, a difficult concept to wrap your head around, I know.

The two mayors have asked the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to "rein in abusive, high-cost payday loans," saying residents of New Jersey's two most populous cities are directly affected by the "potentially damaging" short-term loans.

"Loopholes within the CFPB's rules and regulations not only hurt our residents who seek out these types of loans, but influence our economy as a whole when such loans take on unfair practice," Fulop wrote in an Aug. 9 letter to CFPB Director Richard Corday.

The CFPB is set to finalize a proposal it unveiled in June that would require payday lenders in many cases to verify borrowers' income and confirm they can afford to repay the money they borrow. Customers would also be restricted from rolling over loans into newer, pricier ones.

They payday loan industry has been vilified by Democrats for charging customers exorbitant interest rates on the short-term loans. Two of the U.S. Senate's most liberal members, Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, and Sherrod Brown, of Ohio, said last month that the CFPB's plan does not go far enough.

In a statement issued today by Fulop's office, Baraka called payday loans "predatory instruments.

"In order for us to move forward, we must enforce legislation that will ensure financial permanency for citizens and families across New Jersey and facilitate greater entree to the institutions and apparatuses that will reinforce their economic futures," he said.

In New Jersey, interest on short-term loans is capped. In his letter, Fulop said CFPB regulations should "not undermine" the state's laws.

Fulop is running for governor and Baraka is his most enthusiastic advocate.

Being Conservative And Being Corrupt Are Overlapping States Of Existence

The nature of political conservatism is corruption

Friday morning the House rejected a plan to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics-- which concerned me, because I just filed a complaint against corrupt conservative Patrick Murphy with it. Right wing New Mexico multimillionaire oil industry crook, Stevan Pearce (R) was behind an amendment to kill it by taking $191,000 out of its budget. It lost 137-270, with most Republicans (134 of 'em) voting with Pearce but with all but 3 egregiously corrupt conservative Democrats and 102 Republicans voting NO. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, one of the most corrupt people to ever sit in Congress, warned other corrupt members that the optics on Pearce's amendment would look bad and "it would make it appear as if lawmakers were trying to limit accountability," something, of course, she's eager to do, but not as blatantly as what Pearce proposed.

One of her closest cronies in crime, Alcee Hastings, who lives for corruption and has no other function in Congress or in life, voted with the GOP against it, as did serial bribe-taker Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN) and Kyrsten Sinema (Blue Dog-AZ), who always votes with the GOP unless forced to do otherwise by her liege lord, Steny Hoyer, who rarely asks her to stray from a straight-up Republican line. Patrick Murphy (FL), on the other hand, who has spent his entire congressional career voting with the GOP Sinema-style, is now in a tough senate primary against Alan Grayson and he was warned to pretend to be a Democrat and to try voting with the Democrats most of the time. So, as much as he wishes there was no Office of Congressional Ethics, he voted NO Friday.

Another crooked Florida politician, this one Republican Mario Diaz-Balart could barely wait to cast a vote against ethics in government, something the Diaz-Balart family has never embraced. We spoke with Alina Valdes, the progressive Democrat running for his seat and she didn't seem surprised that Diaz-Balart voted to de-fund and debilitate the Office of Congressional Ethics. "It seems that  Mario Diaz-Balart," she told us, "the Republican incumbent running for re-election in Florida's 25th congressional district, has something to hide as he voted aye to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics. His fellow Cuban Republican allies in neighboring South Florida districts 26 and 27 voted no and by a 2 to 1 majority, the noes persevered and the amendment did not pass. Unfortunately for the Diaz-Balart dynasty, their longstanding corruption dating back to Cuba and the Batista regime, will still need to be accountable for their actions."

Another member eager to get rid of ethics oversight in Congress is Texas extremist Lamar Smith, who represents a part of the state-- the Austin-San Antonio corridor where accountability and transparency is recognized as important for a democratically functioning government. We reached out to the progressive Democrat running for the seat Smith is sitting in, Tom Wakely. Hours after the vote, he told us that "Lamar Smith has represented my district for nearly 30 years, so while it's extremely disheartening that he'd like to cripple an entity whose sole responsibility is exposing congressional corruption, it isn't terribly surprising. Democrats and Republicans have been investigated by the [OCE], and while Lamar would likely use its creator Nancy Pelosi as a scapegoat for his reactionary vote, it should certainly give his constituents cause for concern. Personally, I'd like to see us expand their funding and capabilities. If members of Congress have nothing to hide, why wouldn't they agree with that sentiment? The public would certainly benefit from the increased transparency."

Many congressional observers have pointed out that in recent years, Michigan oligarch Fred Upton has been one of the most blatantly and systematically corrupt of the GOP committee chairmen. We spoke with Paul Clements, who was busy campaigning for the southwest Michigan congressional seat Upton has been disgracing. "Is it any surprise," he asked, "that one of the biggest recipients of out-of-state PAC contributions in the House, with most contributors in industries he is responsible to regulate, should want to cut funding to the Office of Congressional Ethics? When I was running against Fred Upton in 2014 the citizen’s group Mayday, established to reduce the corrupting influence of money in American politics, identified Upton as 'one of the most corrupted by big money in Congress,' and came in to support my race. Then Upton indicated in a press interview that one of his committee staffers (a government employee) was calling Mayday contributors to complain. When corporate funds are sloshing through the halls of Congress we have to expect power to corrupt, and this looks to me like a prime example. With the current tidal wave of Big Money in American politics, the Office of Congressional Ethics is not much more than a fig leaf. But at least it can address some of the worst offenses, and the threat of action deters others. Democratic governance depends absolutely on transparency and accountability; it makes no sense to undermine one of the fragile institutions that stands in the way of overt corruption."

Friday one of the most powerful politicians in Albama-- again, a corrupt conservative-- House Speaker Mike Hubbard, was convicted on 12 felony ethics charges, mandating his removal from office. He'll be sentenced in July and faces up to 20 years in prison and as much as $360,000 in fines.

In court filings, prosecutors paint a picture of a desperate, down-on-his-luck man who used "the mantle of office" to embezzle over $1 million to Hubbard's printing and media businesses.

...Chief Justice Roy Moore, head of the Alabama Supreme Court, has been suspended on charges he violated judicial ethics in ordering probate judges to ignore the federal ruling allowing same-sex marriages ...[and Albama] Gov. Robert Bentley is facing allegations he had an affair with a former staffer and used public funds to facilitate and hide it.

All conservatives with corruption in their political DNA. Alabama is, at least for now, hopeless. But please consider helping replace corruptionists, Mario Diaz-Balart, Lamar Smith and Fred Upton with progressive reformers, Alina Valdes, Tom Wakely and Paul Clements, all of whom are on the same page this thermometer leads to:

Which Florida Politicians Should Be Serving Time In Prison Instead of Congress?

Patrick Murphy and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, as bad as any Republican

At the end of March PolitiFact weighed into the fight between Tim Canova and Debbie Wassermann Schultz over her career-long practice of soliciting bribes from the finance industry in return for carrying their agenda even when it conflicts with the interests of her own constituents. PolitiFact looked at a statement by Canova that Wasserman Schultz disputed: "After taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks, (Debbie Wasserman Schultz) has voted to prevent the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from regulating payday loans and addressing racial discrimination in car loans."

"Did Canova accurately describe her donations from banks and her votes related to payday loans," was at the crux of the thorough investigation PolitiFact undertook.

Canova’s campaign pointed to donations from banks, securities/investment firms and finance/credit companies to Wasserman Schultz’s campaign committee and her political action committee, or PAC.

At PolitiFact Florida’s request, the Center for Responsive Politics compiled the large individual donations (more than $200) and donations to her PAC starting with her 2006 election. The center found she received $309,020 from commercial banks, which represented about 2 percent of the total; $408,450 from securities/investment firms, and $325,850 from finance/credit companies.

Her leadership PAC, Democrats Win Seats, received donations from the Goldman Sachs PAC: $5,000 in 2016 and $10,000 in 2014.

...Payday loans are small, short-term loans that borrowers promise to repay out of their next paycheck at a high rate of interest. It is a controversial industry that targets the poor and is disproportionately located in minority communities.

For years, payday loans were unregulated by the federal government, although some states had their own laws.

President Barack Obama took a step toward regulating the industry when he signed a bill in 2010 that included the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Republicans have targeted the bureau for years.

Enter some Democrats into the fray-- including Wasserman Schultz, who has gotten about $68,000 from payday lenders, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

...More than 200 consumer or civil rights groups-- including the NAACP, National Council of La Raza, Southern Poverty Law Center and the Consumer Federation of America-- wrote a letter to Congress urging them to defeat the bill. They argued that the bill favors an "industry-backed Florida law" and would hurt consumers.

Florida’s 2001 payday loan law was a compromise and included protections that were intended to help the poor avoid an endless cycle of debt. But the loans leave consumers stuck on a debt treadmill in Florida, where they have racked up $2.5 billion in fees since 2005, according to the Center for Responsible Lending’s March report. In the past year, the average Florida payday loan had an annual rate of 278 percent.

Richard Cordray, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, disputed Ross’ description of Florida’s law as the "gold standard" during a congressional hearing on March 16.

In Florida, "these loans are still being made above the 300 percent, and they are being rolled over on average nine times," Cordray said.

Our ruling

Canova says Wasserman Schultz "after taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks, has voted to prevent the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from regulating payday loans and addressing racial discrimination in car loans."

Her campaign committee and PAC have taken $309,020 from commercial banks since her re-election campaign in 2006-- about 2 percent of the total. That includes $15,000 in donations from Goldman Sachs to her leadership PAC.

The payday loan bill hasn’t had a vote in the House yet, although Wasserman Schultz is a co-sponsor. The bill would not prevent the bureau from regulating payday loans entirely, but it would cede power to the states, including Florida, which has its own payday law that some advocates have criticized as weak.

She voted for a bill that squashed bureau guidelines that were intended to provide clarity about the law on racial discrimination related to car loans.

We rate this claim Mostly True.

Then this Tuesday the Miami Herald ran an exposé on the most corrupt politicians in Florida taking bribes from the payday lenders. As expected, Wasserman Schultz was among the worst of the worst. The short list of Florida corruption in Congress:

• Alcee Hastings
• Patrick Murphy
• Debbie Wasserman Schultz

They also included Wasserman Schultz's corrupt protégé, Kendrick Meek, who is no longer in Congress but working as a lobbyist (of course) and took $72,800 in bribes from the payday lenders while he was in Congress.

Payday lenders have donated about $2.5 million to Florida politicians and both political parties in recent years, according to a new analysis by a liberal group.

Allied Progress has drawn attention to the issue of payday lending in Florida by attacking U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chair, and other politicians who have taken money from the industry.

The group gave the Miami Herald an advanced copy of its new report, “A Florida Plan: How payday lenders bought Florida’s political establishment.” The report lists donations given to federal and state candidates as well as the state’s Republican and Democratic parties since 2009.

Overall, Republicans received $1.6 million and Democrats received about $890,000, while $29,000 went to independents. But the top individual recipients were South Florida Democrats:

• U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings of Delray Beach: $110,700;

• Former U.S. Rep Kendrick Meek, who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2010: $72,800;

• U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy of Jupiter, who is running for the Senate: $51,000;

• Wasserman Schultz of Weston: $50,600.

The Republican Party of Florida received $1,083,447, and the Florida Democratic Party received about $366,500.


...“Florida’s political establishment has pushed the disastrous Florida model of payday lending on the rest of the country because they have been bought by the industry and one family and company in particular,” said Karl Frisch, executive director of Allied Progress.




The issue of payday lending has become a thorn in the side of Wasserman Schultz, who is facing her first re-election primary challenge since winning the seat in 2004.


...The donations she received from the payday industry are a small portion of the millions of dollars Wasserman Schultz has raised for her re-election campaigns.

Payday loans could become a topic in the Democratic Senate primary, in which Murphy faces U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson.

Last year, Grayson signed the joint letter that defended Florida’s law, but later said he would oppose the bill filed by Ross because of the two-year waiting period.

Murphy said in April that Florida’s regulations on the payday lending industry are “stronger than almost any other state.”

PolitiFact Florida rated that claim False.

The race for the open Florida Senate seat is heating up. If you want to see Washington continue down the road that puts the corruption of characters like Mitch McConnell, Harry Reid, Paul Ryan, Chuck Schumer, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Donald "I Buy Politicians" Trump in power, you must vote for Patrick Murphy. If this kind of thing revolts you and makes you think government is the enemy, consider supporting a proven and effective reformer, Alan Grayson. You can contribute to him-- as well as to Tim Canova-- by clicking on this thermometer:

Will The Payday Lender Bribery Scandal End Scott Garrett's And Farmer Fincher's Miserable Political Careers?

Wall Street shill Scott Garrett represents Lodi, home of the Bada Bing strip club from The Sopranos

Last week we talked about a new payday lender scandal breaking in Washington because of bribes that were taken by something like a dozen slimy Members of Congress. Campaign contributions were delivered and legislative favors were given return. "A dozen lawmakers received campaign contributions from payday lenders at around the same time they were introducing bills and writing letters benefiting the high-cost cash-advance industry."

Happily, local newspapers in the districts of the criminal-congressmen have begun picking up on the story. One of the most corrupt men ever to stalk the halls of Congress looking to sell his ass, Wall Street whore Scott Garrett (R-NJ), was one of the first to feel the wrath of the local media in Bergen County:

Garrett is one of 11 House members cited in an ethics complaint filed Monday by a watchdog group that accuses lawmakers of taking actions to protect the payday loan industry around the time they received campaign contributions.

The complaint by the Campaign for Accountability asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate Garrett and 10 others, including two Democrats. Most are members of the House Financial Services Committee, on which Garrett is a subcommittee chairman.

The group’s complaint requests an investigation into whether the House members “violated House rules and criminal law,” but there is no guarantee any investigation will be conducted or that any official decision about the complaint’s merits will become public.

The complaint against Garrett focuses on $3,500 in contributions he received between March 2011 and August 2013, a time when his campaign account raised nearly $2.6 million, according to an analysis by The Record of records filed with the Federal Election Commission. In both years, the contributions were made within weeks of an official act Garrett took that would have protected payday lenders from government scrutiny, the watchdog group charges.

“Those contributions seem to be directly tied to actions that he took and that, from our perspective, is really the key here,” said Ann Weismann, executive director of the Center for Accountability. “I understand members accept contributions from industry all the time and there’s nothing per se illegal about that. It is illegal if you accept contributions and it is in exchange for exercising your official authority or taking an official act.”

...The complaint notes that the indictment in April of Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from Paramus, accused him of bribery for allegedly performing official acts around the time his codefendant, Salomon Melgen, made contributions to a political committee supporting Menendez’s 2012 re-election.

The ethics complaint against Garrett says he signed on as a cosponsor of a bill that the Campaign for Accountability says would have limited the CFPB’s oversight of the payday loan industry on March 16, 2011. On March 31, 2011, he received a $1,000 contribution from payday lending executive Ian MacKechnie of Amscot Financial.

The bill, which was not enacted, would have replaced the management of the bureau, currently by a presidentially appointed director, with a five-member commission made up of a vice chairman of the Federal Reserve and four appointees requiring Senate confirmation.

Payday lenders offer small loans that borrowers agree to repay within a short period of time, such as from their next paycheck. The lenders have been criticized for trapping people who are least able to pay into a cycle of ever-rising debt because people who cannot repay are offered bigger loans with higher fees.

Garrett also signed an Aug. 22, 2013 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FDIC Chair Martin J. Gruenberg opposing a program called “Operation Choke Point,” which was designed to prevent “payday lenders and other unscrupulous Internet-based companies from gaining access to the banking system through intermediaries,” the complaint said. On Oct. 4, 2013 Garrett received a $2,500 contribution from the political action committee of payday lender QC Holdings Inc.

Garrett got the smallest total amount of contributions of anyone in the ethics complaint. Amounts received by others ranged from $5,000 to $68,200... Possible violations listed in the ethics complaint include bribery, honest services fraud, acceptance of an illegal gratuity, and conduct not reflecting creditably on the House. Any member of the public can request an investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics, and the watchdog group’s allegation has no legal authority.

You remember Tennessee hypocrite Stephen "Farmer Fincher" Fincher from a different type of scandal a couple of years ago which saw him taking millions of dollars in taxpayer money, while leading an effort to cut food stamps for families living in poverty. (It didn't make any impression on the voters in grotesquely gerrymandered TN-08-- Memphis' white suburbs north to Jackson, Dyersburg and Union City-- who reelected Fincher last year with 70.8% of the votes cast.) This week both the Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Knoxville News focused on Farmer Fincher's newest bribery scandal. His constituents in the Memphis 'burbs were reading that "payday loans taken out by their constituents helped fund big paydays for members of Congress who used their positions to advocate on behalf of this unscrupulous industry... The allegations against Fincher, a Frog Jump Republican who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, involve $13,500 in contributions from the payday lending industry or its executives."

The execrable bribe-taking Farmer Fincher (R-TN)

According to the complaint:

• On July 19, 2012, Fincher signed on as co-sponsor of a bill that would have negated actions to safeguard consumers from the risks of products offered by the payday lending industry. Ten days earlier, he received $5,000 in campaign contributions from payday lending executives Dennis and Kimberly Gardner of the Equity Management Group. Five days after co-sponsoring the bill, Fincher received a $2,500 campaign contribution from payday executive William Allan Jones of Jones Management.

• On June 3, 2013, less than a month after Fincher co-sponsored a similar bill, he received a $1,000 campaign contribution from a payday lending industry political-action committee, the American Financial Services Association PAC.

• On Aug. 22, 2013, Fincher signed a congressional letter to then-Attorney General Eric Holder and Martin J. Gruenberg, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., complaining about the Justice Department's "Operation Choke Point," which was designed to "prevent payday lenders and other unscrupulous Internet-based companies from gaining access to the banking system through intermediaries." About three weeks earlier, Fincher had received a $5,000 campaign contribution from the Cash America International Inc. PAC, a payday lending industry PAC.

Fincher's office declined to comment.

And there's a Florida Democrat with a shady record as a bribe-taking judge, Alcee Hastings, who must be uncomfortable with the local coverage he's been getting.

Congressional ethics investigators will review allegations that South Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings and 10 other House members took bribes by accepting campaign contributions from the payday lending industry shortly before or after taking official actions in support of the industry.

...Here’s what Hastings, a 23-year House member whose district includes much of Broward and parts of Palm Beach and Hendry counties, is accused of in the letter:

• May 21, 2013. Hastings co-sponsored HR 1566, legislation that Allied Progress said would “undermine oversight of payday lenders by allowing them to bypass the regulatory authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and stronger state laws.” On March 27, 2013, he received a $2,500 campaign contribution from payday lending executive Ian MacKechnie of Amscot Financial. MacKechnie contributed another $500 to Hasting’s campaign on June 28, following Hasting’s support for HR 1566. In all, Hastings and five other congressmen who supported the measure, or similar legislation, received a total of more than $72,000 in contributions from industry executives or PACs, the letter says.

• July 10, 2014. Hastings co-sponsored HR 4986, a bill aimed at ending Operation Choke Point, a Department of Justice initiative investigating banks and their connections to payday lenders, payment processors and others at higher risk for fraud and money laundering. Three weeks earlier, Hastings accepted a $2,500 contribution from Cash America International Inc. PAC, a payday lending industry PAC. Industry PACs sent another $26,000 to the campaigns of four other congressmen.

The other crooked congressmen involved in the scandal include Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Gregory Meeks (New Dem-NY), Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) Pete Sessions (R-TX), Steve Stivers (R-OH) and Kevin Yoder R-KS).