Good News In Northern California

Dean Andal must have been in the men's room

If California Republicans were smarter they would have focussed all their energy and their meager resources to try to hold onto the seats of endangered rubber stamps like David Dreier, Dana Rohrabacher and Brian Bilbray. Instead, they foolishly blustered around northern California, as delusional as ever, thinking they could win back Pombo's old seat with a Pombo-clone and win the seat John Doolittle has so thoroughly disgraced with a Doolittle-clone. Wrong on both counts.

The GOP's hopes for recapturing CA-11 have been spiraling rapidly downward as Jerry McNerney and his constituents have gotten to know and like each other better and better. Even Republican-leaning media outlets that supported Pombo have to admit that McNerney has been providing the San Joaquin Valley district with the best representation its had in many, many years. The opponent the hapless Republicans have put up, right-wing extremist Dean Andal, is already rolling around in the mud of scandal-- even before the election! And then there's the little fundraising problem... Andal's got the stench of death all over him. No one wants to get too close.

A bit further north, is CA-04, a district specifically created for Republicans. But even a district like that can only take so much before they just say "no more." And, according to the latest polling, that's exactly what they're doing. Charlie Brown, already well known and well-liked across party lines, almost beat Doolittle in 2006, when Doolittle's massive corruption case was just a rumor. It's gone way beyond rumor and no one doubts that Mr-- and Mrs-- Doolittle will be spending some considerable time contemplating their crimes in federal prison. Doolittle announced he wouldn't be running again and the GOP let out a collective sign of relief... and then managed to find someone even worse! Tom McClintock is not merely a worse and more radical extremist than Doolittle, he's not even from the district! He's not even from near the district. He's an L.A. guy.

And for anyone whose attention span is so short that they can't remember much about the Republican Culture of Corruption that has so taken root in DC, Doolittle's crooked chief-of-staff, a close associate of Jack Abramoff's, was charged with "conspiracy, fraud and obstruction of justice for allegedly providing lawmakers and officials with gifts to win favors for lobbying clients." (That's a polite way of saying bribery.) He has the nerve to even buy Dixie Chicks tickets for some of these crooks! What happened to the right-wing boycott! Why not buy them tickets to see Ted Nugent?

People who want more of that can vote for John McCain and vote for Tom McClintock. The two members of Congress who look likely to wind up in prison with Ring are Ernest Istook, former Oklahoma Republican congressman, once voted the most homophobic asshole in the House, and, of course, Doolittle. It's great that Doolittle wants to fight this-- he still claims that everything is just circumstantial and a coincidence and that he-- and the crooked wife-- didn't do anything wrong. The longer and harder he fights, the more he'll drag McClintock and the GOP down the toilet with him. Go, Doolittle, Go!

THE NEXT INEVITABLE STEP TOWARDS CONGRESSLOON AND MRS. JOHN DOOLITTLE'S INCARCERATION IN FEDERAL PRISONS

uhh... No good news today, John

Although Northern California's pathetic right-wing nutcase, John Doolittle, is trying to spin the media into believing he resigned from the House Appropriations Committee-- membership on which helped him build valuable and illicit financial relationships with GOP rainmakers like Jack Abramoff, Kevin Ring, Brent Wilkes, etc-- reliable sources tell DWT a very different story. Doolittle actually thought he could prevent news leaking out about the FBI raiding his home Friday. He didn't tell the Republican hierarchy and when someone knocked on Boehner's tanning booth to tell him he flipped out. I mean if someone says "Resign by tomorrow or be fired," does that count as a resignation? Just asking.

Boehner allowed Doolittle to say "I understand how the most recent circumstances may lead some to question my tenure on the Appropriations Committee. Therefore I feel it may be in the best interest of the House that I take a temporary leave with seniority from this committee until this matter can be resolved." Boehner then followed up in a statement that "Doolittle's decision" is "in the best interest of the House and the American people."

So when does he resign from Congress? Help rebuild democracy in CA-04 by making a donation to Charlie Brown's campaign and by voting for him in Democracy for America's "Grassroots All-Star" competition.

FBI RAIDS CHEZ DOOLITTLE. HE HASN'T BEEN ARRESTED YET

I don't think the FBI needed to read our Doolittle story on Monday to figure out they needed to raid John Doolittle's Oakton, Virginia house. They should have done it long ago, in fact, before he and his moll had a chance to destroy evidence. Most people are guessing that Kevin Ring, a Doolittle bagman who worked for Abramoff and with Julie, has turned state's evidence to save his own worthless neck.

The Hill is reporting that the FBI actually searched the Doolittle's lair Friday. It looks like Doolittle was trying to keep it secret, not even telling Boehner.

The search took place on the same day that his former chief of staff, Kevin Ring, abruptly resigned from his lobbying firm. Ring left Doolittle’s office to work for Abramoff at the law firm Greenberg Traurig and may have played a role in Abramoff’s decision to hire Julie Doolittle’s consulting firm. After the Abramoff scandal broke, Ring went to work for the lobbying firm, Barnes and Thornburg.

Doolittle came within three percentage points of losing his election in November after facing months of scrutiny over his relationship with Abramoff, who is in jail for an array of fraud, bribery and money-laundering charges. The lawmaker has denied any wrongdoing.

Throughout his campaign, Doolittle refused to return an estimated $50,000 he received from Abramoff clients, mostly tribes, between 1999 and 2004. Abramoff also personally donated $14,000 between 1999 and 2004 to Doolittle’s congressional campaigns.

Doolittle used Abramoff’s luxury sports box for a fundraiser without initially reporting it to the Federal Election Commission.

Doolittle also has been under fire for paying his wife’s company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions, a 15 percent commission on all contributions that the company raised for Doolittle’s campaign committee and leadership PAC. Her only other clients were Abramoff’s former firm, Greenberg Traurig; Abramoff’s former restaurant Signatures; and the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, which Ed Buckham, a former chief of staff to ex-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), created.

The Justice Department previously subpoenaed Julie Doolittle’s files.

Doolittle also received contributions from indicted defense contractor Brent Wilkes and his associates, and investigators are probing whether those contributions are linked to any official action Doolittle took to help Wilkes’ company obtain millions of dollars in government earmarks.

Wilkes recently was indicted in connection with his investigation stemming from former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s (R-Calif.) bribery conviction and jailing.

Charlie Brown, who nearly beat Doolittle last year and is well positioned to win the seat next year, issued a statement: "This is a sad day for the people of the 4th District, for our Congress, and our country.  It is my sincere hope that the ongoing investigation will bring the era of corruption and scandal ridden politics to a close, so that we can move forward on addressing the real priorities of the American people:  like ending the war in Iraq, winning the war against Terrorism, securing our borders, keeping faith with our veterans, expanding economic opportunity, and achieving energy independence." Charlie's one of the most upstanding and all-American guys I ever met. Please join me in helping to make sure he has enough money to go into battle against Doolittle-- or whatever Doolittle-clone the GOP finds if the original model is in prison he has to fight-- right here


UPDATE: FBI RAID HITS THE WIRES


The Associated Press newswire is reporting that the search "the search last Friday focused on records of Doolittle's wife's company, Sierra Dominion Financial Solutions." That company was one of the ways Doolittle was laundering bribes into his personal account from crooks like Ring and Abramoff. Doolittle slyly tried to insinuate to the press that the whole thing is about his wife and not about him!

"My wife has been cooperating with the FBI and the Justice Department for almost three years and that cooperation is going to continue in the future," Doolittle said. "I support my wife 100 percent and fully expect that the truth will prevail."

Yeah, me too. But meanwhile... there's John Doolittle, the video homage to corruption and wingnuttery.

AND IF MEAN JEAN HAD BAD NEWS-- THAT'S NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO JOHN DOOLITTLE (R-CA)

One of the most crooked congressmen still unindicted and still holding onto his seat-- though just barely in this case-- is northern California Culture of Corruption kingpin John Doolittle. Doolittle, who will again be facing a relentless Charlie Brown when he's next in front of voters, has had some bad fundraising news lately-- Brown with around $125,000 cash-on-hand while Doolittle with a negative balance of $80,000 in his campaign account (much of that having been skimmed off the top by Doolittle himself via his "consultant" wife). But that bad news was just how he started today. It got worse.

Abramoff had a bagman whose primary job was to handle criminal activities between Abramoff's GOP operations and Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle. That man is Kevin Ring, a former Doolittle staffer who went to work for Abramoff's crime syndicate and refused to answer questions put to him by John McCain's Senate Indian Affairs Committee in 2005 on the grounds that his answers might incriminate him. The feds who are investigating Doolittle are more interested in Ring incriminating him And that looks exactly what is happening.

Like a top aide for former Republican Congressman Bob Ney (currently serving time in the federal pen in Morgantown, WV), Neil Volz, Ring abruptly resigned from a very shady Republican law firm, Barnes & Thornburg. The next step is likely to be Ring turning state's evidence on Doolittle who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from Abramoff in return for assistance to Abramoff's clients. Like Doolittle, part of DC's powerful and ultra corrupt "Mormon Mafia," Ring is a far right extremist with an extraordinarily shallow understanding of morality.

Before going to work for Barnes & Thornburg, Ring was fired by Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff's former front company. Previously-- at the height of the Tom DeLay Republican Culture of Corruption Regime-- Ring had been named "Top Rainmaker" by The Hill. He also wrote an embarrassingly ass-kissing book on Antonin Scalia published, of course, by the far right vanity press, Regnery.

Unless Doolittle winds up in prison before the election-- which is not far-fetched-- Charlie Brown is going to have a tough and expensive campaign. Blue America is channeling donations directly into his campaign. Even a $5.00 donation is helpful. And here's the place.