Congressional Corruption - Part 2

Yesterday we reviewed some of the corruption accusations against half of the top 15 most corrupt members of Congress as designated by the Citizens For Ethics and Responsibility In Washington CREW). Their website goes into great details of the possible ethics and laws that these fifteen elected officials may have violated. Today we will do the rest of the list. As with yesterday's post, tonight's post reminds all readers that most of the accusations against these Congress people are only that at this point in time and they should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Nathan Deal, Georgia - Congressman Deal and a partner own a lucrative multi million business that through a no-bid contract provides services to the state of Georgia in the salvaged vehicles market. A local Georgia Commissioner took over responsibility for the state's operations in this area and found it to be too costly, deciding the best course of action was to do away with the no bid status and go to competitive bidding to reduce the costs to the state. Congressman Deal and his staff allegedly tried to coerce the Commissioner to reverse his stance, in face-to-face meetings, but when that was unsuccessful and the changes were passed by the state House of representatives, Congressman Deal's chief of staff used the Congressman's email to lobby against the change to competitive bidding, lobbying that was eventually successful. Congressman Deal is a nine term member of Congress.

John Ensign, Nevada - Senator Ensign's main problem is that he had an affair with a former member of his campaign staff, who happened to be married to his friend and a top aide to the Senator. Both husband and wife left their jobs with the Senator and his re-election organization. At this point, money started flying everywhere in payments to both the husband and wife, the Senator's parents got involved in making payments, payments were made to the husband and wife's children. etc. All very complicated. Bottom line is that the Senator and the payments may have been in violation of a number of laws and Congressional rules.

Jesse Jackson, Jr., Illinois - No surprise Illinois keeps popping up on his list and no surprise it is again related to ex-Governor Blagojevich. CREW reports that Congressman Jackson was trying to make deals to raise money for the Governor if the Governor would nominate Jackson for the vacant Senate seat of President Obama. The amount discussed was $1.5 million and this smoke triggered an Office Of Congressional Ethics (OCE) probe. The Department of Justice is also involved in the investigation to see if Illinois state law was violated if the Congressman offered anything of value to the Governor in exchange for the Senate seat. Mr. Jackson is an eight term Congressman.

Jerry Lewis, California - According to CREW, Mr. Lewis is also in trouble for dealing with those pesky lobbyists. As an important member of the Appropriations Committee, the Congressman allegedly approved millions of dollars in earmarks specifically for the clients of the lobbying firm of Copeland Lowery. In return, Mr. Lowery, his partners, and their families contributed almost a half million to the Congressman's election campaign committee. Although Copeland Lowery eventually renamed itself Innovative Federal Strategies (IFS), the Congressman continued to approve earmarks for an approximate total of over $270 million for the clients of IFs in 2008 and 2009.

In 2007, Environmental Systems Research Institute was awarded a Federal contract worth over $55 million and in 2008 it received contracts worth over $4 million. The founders of the company donated $7,200 to the Congressman's campaign for re-election in 2008. In 2009, the Congressman requested $12 million in earmarks for the company. Mr. Lewis is a sixteen term Congressman.

Mitch McConnell, Kentucky - The Senator is having corruption issues in three areas. First, his former chief legal counsel and then chief of staff, opened a lobbying firm in 2003. Coincidentally, many of the lobbyist's firms have received earmarks courtesy of Mr. McConnell. The Senator also influenced legislation to positively impact another client (UPS) of the lobbying firm. According to CREW, many of this firms have made contributions to the Senator's re-election committee.

Second, the Senator founded the non-profit McConnell Center For Political Leadership at the University of Louisville in 1991. Some of the biggest contributors to the Center were Ashland and UPS (see previous paragraph) and some of the donations to the Center were actually donated through the Senator's DC office. The big stink in this case was that the Senator and the Center fought to keep its donor list secret, a fight that they eventually lost for those donating on a going forward basis. Once the court fight was lost, donations dropped dramatically.

Finally, BAE systems, a British defense contractor, has either been investigated or is under investigation by the British, the Austrians and the US Justice Department for bribing various members of the Saudi Royal family. Nevertheless, the Senator requested three earmarks for BAE worth $17 million dollars. To no one's surprise, employees of BAE have donated thousands of dollars to the Senator's re-election campaign.

Laura Richardson, California - Ms. Richardson's problems stem not so much from lobbyists but from the management of her own personal finances. According to the CREW website, she has defaulted on loans at least eight times and has not made mortgage payments on property. She did not fully comply with House financial disclosure requirements and a home of hers in Sacramento was declared a public nuisance for having debris on the driveway, rotting fruit in her back yard, and unmowed grass. To be honest, this case seems very weak vs. the other politicians, seems Ms. Richardson' problems are more of a self destruction type than a self enrichment type.

Don Young, Alaska - Much like Mr. Rangel and Mr. Murtha, Mr. Young's corruption issues are way too long to go into detail in this post. The dossier for his potential infractions can be found on the CREW website. In summary, Mr. Young has issues in the following areas:

• The Justice Department is investigating whether Congressman Young earmarked $10 million for a road project in exchange for campaign contributions.
• Congressman Young earmarked over $400 million for two unneeded Alaskan bridges even though his daughter and son-in-law owned land close to the proposed bridges. The value of the land would likely rise if the bridges are built.
• The Congressman is the subject of a criminal probe into whether or not he accepted stuff illegally form the VECO corporation. VECO employees have contributed $89,500 to the Congressman's campaign committee.
• The Congressman has received campaign contributions from the construction firm, PBS&J, in the past. This firm has had several executives convicted for trying to get around campaign election laws including its president who pleaded guilty. This was the firm that had received a Federal grant to to a cost estimate of the proposed Alaskan bridges.
• The Congressman's ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff are being investigated by a grand jury and the Justice Department in Wisconsin is investigating a potential deal that occurred between the Congressman and convicted businessman Dennis Trotha. Mr. Trotha, his family and his business contributed to the Congressman's campaign committee while the Congressman inserted an amendment to a transportation bill that benefited Mr. Trotha's trucking company.

The Congressman has been in office for nineteen terms.

I feel like I need a shower. Pretty disgusting and wasteful behavior. Both today's and yesterday's post reinforce the need to institute several steps from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government." Yesterday we talked about the step that involves instituting term limits, especially in the case of the CREW Fifteen since the majority of the worst offenders had been in office for a very long time. Step 7 also applies here since that Step would restrict campaign donations to only individual Americans, no contributions from companies, PACs, unions, or lobbyists. The current system rewards campaign contributions (really bribes) from powerful entities that fly in the face of individual freedom and representative government. The FEC has also got to be strengthened as outlined in Step 8 to get the situation under control as soon as possible. Thus, if you think you live in a free country, get over it. Only the lobbyists and elected representatives get stuff for free, we get stuck with the bill in the form of wasted tax dollars and government inefficiency.

Visit our website at www.loathemygovernment.com to order an autographed copy of the book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government -Fifty First Stpes To Restoring Our Freedom and Destroying The American Political Class" and to sign up for the cause. The book is also available online at Amazon and Barnes And Noble.