WHY THE HOUSE ETHICS COMMITTEE REFUSES TO INVESTIGATE DELAY-- MEET "DOC" HASTINGS, A CROOKED POL FROM YAKIMA

Chances are you never heard of "Doc" (as in Baby Doc) Hastings... unless you're an avid tracker of egregious Republicrooks destined for infamy and, hopefully, prison. Doc Hastings is a very very bad apple, one of the most rotten in a wormy bushel. If you go back into the DownWithTyranny Archives to June 23, you'll find a piece I did on Doc called "DOC HASTINGS FEELING THE HEAT AFTER PROTECTING DELAY." Apparently he didn't feel enough heat. He's still protecting DeLay. But of course, this is the ONLY reason why DeLay made this corrupt crook the chairman of the House Ethics Committee. Hastings latest excuse-- in a long line of excuses, none ever valid-- for not investigating for the most ethically-challenged House leader in the history of the United States is that "we don't have the resources."

Doc would rather just echo DeLay's desperate lies that Austin's D.A., Ronnie Earle-- who has spent much of his professional life going after corrupt politicians, OVERWHELMINGLY Democratic ones-- is a partisan on a vendetta. Norman Ornstein, at the conservative American Enterprise Institute was incredulous that the Chairman of the House Ethics Committee would publicly identify himself with this kind of trash. "It's outrageous for the chairman of the ethics committee to virtually endorse the idea that the indictment is a political vendetta. It's a matter that is before the committee." But, as Ornstein should know, that kind of partisanship is par for the course for Doc, who was hand-picked by DeLay after he fired Colorado Republican Joel Hefley when the Ethics Committee UNANIMOUSLY reprimanded DeLay several times for ethics violations. (DeLay also has contributed generously to Doc's campaign coffers and, of course, Doc has refused to join other Republican congressman in returning the tainted money.)

Doc's strategy for preventing the House Ethics Committee from taking further action against his master has been to keep it from meeting-- something he has been successful in doing for almost half a year! Considering this is the most corrupt Congress in modern history-- with indictments served or about to be served on a dozen members, that is quite an "achievement" (something the citizens of the Yakima area should be very ashamed of). After taking over from Hefley, Hastings purposely provoked a partisan staffing conundrum inside the committee-- with the intention of protecting DeLay from bipartisan investigation-- effectively closing down his own committee, and thus allowing corrupt Republicans like Richard Pombo, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Charles Taylor, Bob Ney and many others to steal with utter impunity. Hastings himself is closely tied, financially, to DeLay's now-arrested and indicted consiglieri, GOP lobbyist and murder suspect Jack Abramoff. Doc is up to his ears in a slave labor scandal in the Marianas Islands and should himself be the subject of serious investigations, not sitting in a position to prevent investigations!

A KEY TO REPUBLICAN ETHICS PROBLEMS IN THE HOUSE: DOC HASTINGS, YAKIMA'S CROOKED CONGRESSMAN

The GOP has been in power in the House for a very long time. In 1994 the country was sick of the arrogance and almost blasé corruption of the then long-entrenched Democratic Party. A new invigorated House Republican caucus led by firebrand Newt Gingrich put one over on the voters with a solemn promise that they would change things. Well, actually they did change things. But not what they promised to change. They said they would stop corruption. Instead they substituted Republican corruption, even more venal in scope and magnitude, for Democratic corruption. (Now my fear is that instead of real progressive reformers like Francine Busby, Coleen Rowley, Jerry McNerney, Ned Lamont, Rick Penberthy, Jan Schneider, honest and idealistic men and women who seriously want to fix the problem, the Democrats will wind up in Congress with sleazy, slimy pols like Rahm Emanuel and Steny Hoyer and Chuck Schumer in control, realpolitik hacks who have long since discarded any sense of integrity or idealism in the quest for power-- just like Gingrich and DeLay.) I guess we'll have to deal with that after November. At least, I hope so (in a perverse way).

Now, we need to keep our eye on the ball that is still in the air: the Republican Culture of Corruption, systematically put in place by the worst of the worst, the worst lowlifes to ever stalk the halls of Congress (and K Street): Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Rick Santorum, Roy Blunt, John Boehner, Jerry Lewis, Bill Frist, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Conrad Burns, Richard Pombo, John Doolittle, Deborah Pryce, Bob Ney and, in some ways, worst of all... Doc Hastings.

Who? Doc Hastings is the Republican Representative from Pasco, near Yakima, Washington and he was personally installed by his friend and ally, then House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, to derail the House ethics committee and keep it from investigating the culture of corruption being fostered by DeLay and his crime network. When the actual Ethics chairman, Joel Hefley of Colorado allowed an investigation of DeLay to go forward (and eventually slightly chasten DeLay, the Little Bug Man, Capo di Tutti Capi of the Republican crime wave, fired Hefley, ruined his career, assigned his most corrupted lieutenant, Bob Ney to teach the GOP version of ethics to freshmen congressmen, and installed the corrupt, slavish hack Hastings as head of the historically bipartisan committee. Hastings did a great job-- for DeLay.

Today's Seattle Times does an unflattering profile on Hastings called "Ethics Panel Stalled; What's Up Doc?" The Times starts off by explaining how Hastings was able to avoid pressure to investigate blatant criminals like Cunningham, Ney, and, of course, DeLay, all men either now in or soon headed for lives behind bars.

"Since 2005, newspaper editorials have denounced Hastings & Co. for 'nap time' on the 'do-nothing' 'feckless' and 'inert' ethics committee, accusing it of 'flatlining' and 'ossifying.' Unmoved, Hastings hasn't responded to the criticism. But he is papering the press about such issues as asparagus growers, the apple industry and Northwest wineries... Even GOP members have questioned the ethics committee's credibility recently. A frustrated Republican proposed a congressional inspector general to look into ethics issues, saying the committee is paralyzed."

Hastings has been coming under increasing pressure to explain why he has derailed not just the Ethics Committee in Congress but actually conspired to rid the U.S. Congress of ethics itself! And then there's the little matter of Hastings' involvement with Abramoff's slave labor colony in the Marianas Islands. Hastings refuses to answer any questions... about anything... except asparagus farming and wineries. In his 11 dreadful years in Congress he has held exactly one press conference in Washington, DC. The guy is so lame and clueless that his official campaign website is crawling with pictures of Dick Cheney, a man so reviled by Americans that he is less admired than OJ Simpson and Michael Jackson and barely beats out Paris Hilton on the popularity spectrum. Maybe he thinks no one notices.

Although Hastings resides in the very heart of the Culture of Corruption, his remote district is so red and so out-of-touch, that almost no one considers him to be vulnerable unless a mega-tsunami of revulsion with the Republican rubber-stamp Congress sweeps virtually the whole pack of them out of power in November. The Democrat who is challenging him in WA-04 is Richard Wright, the kind of good-government type who would give a corrupt sleazebag like Hastings nightmares if he represented a less partisan district.

AS THE WORLD TURNS... TOM DELAY'S LITTLE ETHICS STOOGE, "DOC" HASTINGS, MAKES ONE TOO MANY MISSTEPS

When Tom DeLay picked Washington rubber stamp nonentity Richard Norman Hastings (AKA- "Doc") to take over the House Ethics Committee-- after Republicans on it voted to give DeLay a gentle wrist slap-- he knew exactly what he was doing. DeLay simply picked someone who is inherently dishonest, someone with no scruples whatsoever and someone so utterly and inexorably compromised that nothing would ever make him forget his main job: protecting DeLay's and Blunt's carefully constructed Republican Culture of Corruption.

"Doc" is a slippery character and he's managed to evade the long arm of the law for quite some time, thanks in large part to a complacent, if not collaborative media. Many people know about Doolittle's and Pombo's and DeLay's role in the Marianas Islands scandal. Far fewer know of "Doc's" equally execrable participation. The wheels, however, may be starting to come off ole Doc's Pasco corruptionmobile now.

Last week CREW filed a complaint against "Doc," (as well as against Senator "Sneaky Pete" Domenici and Heather Wilson).

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to investigate whether Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) and his former chief of staff, Ed Cassidy, violated House rules by improperly contacting a sitting U.S. Attorney.

The U.S. Attorney in Seattle, Washington, John McKay, testified before the Senate that, in 2004, during a series of vote recounts in which a Democrat was narrowly elected governor of Washington, Rep. Hasting’s then-Chief of Staff Ed Cassidy called, informing him that “the purpose of the call was to inquire on behalf of Congressman Hastings” about the status of the ongoing investigation to inquire about the status of a federal investigation into voter fraud. Mr. McKay was “concerned and dismayed by the call,” believing the conversation might constitute obstruction of justice.

When asked about the call, Rep. Hastings claimed that Mr. Cassidy’s call to Mr. McKay was “entirely appropriate,” and that the call was “a simple inquiry and nothing more.” Mr. Cassidy claimed that his conversation with Mr. McKay “was a routine effort to determine whether allegations of voter fraud in the 2004 gubernatorial election were, or were not, being investigated by federal authorities.”

Mr. Cassidy’s call to Mr. McKay -- at Rep. Hastings’ behest -- violates chapter 7 of the House ethics manual, which prohibits members from contacting executive or agency officials regarding the merits of matters under their formal consideration. House rules also state that if a member wants to affect the outcome of a matter in litigation, the member can file a brief with the court, make a floor statement, or insert a statement into the Congressional Record. Directly calling officials to influence an on-going enforcement matter is not an option.

Moreover, the rules state that a member may not claim he or she was merely requesting “background information” or a “status report” because the House has recognized that such requests “may in effect be an indirect or subtle effort to influence the substantive outcome of the proceedings.”

The conduct of Rep. Hastings and Mr. Cassidy may also violate the requirement that members conduct themselves in a manner that “reflects creditably on the House.” In a precedent cited by the House ethics committee when it admonished former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), the House has held that members are prohibited from asking an executive branch employee to engage in an activity having an impermissible political purpose.

CREW’s complaint alleges that Mr. Cassidy contacted Mr. McKay to discuss an ongoing investigative matter for the impermissible political purpose of impacting the Washington gubernatorial election.

Yesterday the Ellen Tauscher of Washington state, Congressman Adam Smith, said he "absolutely" supports an ethics investigation of Hastings. OK, Congressman Smith are you going to refer your "absolutely" to the committee? Unless some member of Congress does, "Doc" gets to slither away... again.

DOC HASTINGS FEELING THE HEAT AFTER PROTECTING DELAY

The House Ethics Committee is the one (and only) House committee run in a bipartisan manner. There are an equal number or Republicans and Democrats, although the majority party gets to name the chairman. Last year, in light of the most outrageous and blatant ethics violations by GOP House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay-- violations that should have landed him in prison-- even the Republicans on the committee backed some VERY MILD admonitions against DeLay. Predictably, DeLay went berserk and purged the committee, ridding it of the fair-minded chairman, Joel Hefley, and putting a dependably corrupt crook and strong ally, "Doc" Hastings in his place. Hastings immediately provoked a series of confrontations with Democrats on the committee by trying to tamper with the structure of the committee's work in a way to specifically protect DeLay. The committee deadlocked and ceased to function-- and crooked politicians like DeLay and Randy "Duke" Cunningham continue to run amuck.

Hastings is a right-wing hack from rural central Washington State (Yakima area). Howard Dean has suggested, rather mildly, that Hastings allow the investigation of DeLay to proceed from which he should recuse himself due to his close lobbying ties to The Hammer (the very root of why DeLay is being charged with criminal activities in Texas and why the House needs to expel him). Although Hastings somehow forgot to disclose it, newly-released documents show he had a lucrative financial relationship with lobbyists at a Seattle law firm that was part of the DeLay/Abramoff scam empire for financing DeLay's gangster empire. (And, predictably, the firm's star lobbyist, DeLay's consiglieri Jack Abramoff, has been another Republicrook arranger of lavish overseas trips for DeLay and pals.) Local Washington State newspapers are starting to scratch their editorial heads about Doc's apparent sleazy behavior. His hometown paper in Pasco, the Tri-City Herald, for example, went into details of Hastings' ties to Preston Gates & Ellis, the Seattle law firm linked to some of DeLay's shenanigans, and to one of its big lobbying clients in the 1990s, the government of the Northern Mariana Islands, an American colony. The law firm got Hastings to support efforts to prevent the federal minimum wage from being imposed on the Marianas' sweat-shop clothing factories. The headline on the article was "Hastings' Link to Islands Sullies Ethics Post." Taking advantage of and victimizing (like in bilking them for millions of dollars) American Indians as well as colonial natives appears to be a Abramoff/DeLay specialty. To have the chairman of the Ethics Committee involved in this fits right in with the Bush governing principles of having foxes watching the hen houses.

And now that Hastings is feeling the heat, he's ready to jump ship and run for cover. Painting himself-- as they always do-- as a "victim," Hastings is "threatening" to resign as committee chairman. One anonymous Republican committee staffer told the Associated Press that "Doc has had just about enough of this. He'd like to find a face-saving way out." I'm sure he would.

REPUBLICROOK ABRAMOFF FINALLY ARRESTED! IS THIS CURTAINS FOR ARCH-VILLAIN TOM DELAY?

House Republican Leader Tom DeLay's closest political associate and #1 bagman, lobbyist Jack Abramoff was arrested in Los Angeles today. There are state and Federal investigations of Abramoff all over the country and the FBI, IRS and several other Federal agencies have created a joint Abramoff task force to sort out how he and one of his crooked business associates, Michael Scanlon, have managed to defraud American Indian tribes all over the countryout of nearly $100 million, much of it winding up in GOP campaign coffers tied to DeLay. Today a Federal Grand Jury indicted Abramoff on 5 counts of wire fraud and one for conspiracy in an intensely complex scheme stemming from the purchase of a Florida casino cruise line from a businessman later murdered in Fort Lauderdale. The six counts could bring him 30 years in prison (until Bush pardons him) and $1.5 million in fines (a mere drop in the bucket for the high-flying lobbyist).

From ripping off Indian Tribes and pitting gambling associations against Christian fundamentalist suckers (playing both sides of the fence with his hypocrite pal Ralph Reed in tow) to helping to create slave labor conditions in the U.S. colony of the Marianas Islands, Abramoff has been a crucial part of the Tom Delay money-generating machine and his pay-for-play Congress. Meanwhile another Federal Grand Jury, this one in Florida, is investigating separate allegations of bank fraud.

Time and time again records and interviews show that Abramoff has used his connections to members of Congress, particularly Tom DeLay and his chief lieutenants, like the corrupt pawn DeLay installed as head of the House Ethics Committee, Doc Hastings (R-WA), to help pull off his illegal scams. So far no one has publicly accused Abramoff (or DeLay) in the murder of Gus Boulis, an Abramoff associate gone astray who had a great deal of incriminating information on Abramoff and DeLay.

Now that Abramoff is finally in jail and indicted, perhaps the mass media will start reporting this story (unless, of course, there are new developments in the toilet scrubbing by the Runaway Bride).