How much does a scandal cost?
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Fri Apr 27, 2007 at 09:26:28 AM EST
Have you ever wondered what exactly embattled, scandal-ridden politicians have to pay in legal fees? The Washington Post has a partial list of legals fees for the first three months of 2007 alone:
RNC: $500,000 last month alone. No official statement, but it's known that the RNC is still paying bills concerning the New Hampshire phone-jamming scandal.
Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL): $4,800 paid and $5,149 unpaid legal bills. The FEC has cited his 2004 campaign for problematic contributions to the tune of $800,000.
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL): $70,000 paid and $20,000 unpaid bills. Two words: Mark Foley.
Mark Foley himself: more than $200,000. And much more to come, I'm sure.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH): $52,533. Well, this is news to me. Boehner has a long-running lawsuit against Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) stemming from an illegally-recorded phone call.
DSCC: $50,466. They say this is their normal quarterly retainer for help complying with election laws.
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI): $75,000. His office says they don't know what these legal fees are for. Yeah, that sounds strange to me, too. If you know anything about this, fill us in in the comments.
Former Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT): $120,000 from his leftover campaign funds. No concrete details, but Burns has long and storied ties to Jack Abramoff.
Former Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA): $132,025. The FBI is investigating contracts Weldon's daughter received while he was in office.
Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA): $13,516 so far. And sure to skyrocket.
USA Today's harsh words for unethical Members of Congress
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Wed Oct 18, 2006 at 03:58:17 PM EST
Like most Americans whose names don't rhyme with Back Sabamoff, USA Today is disgusted with the state of politicians' "shameless money schemes."
Congress is supposed to be a body of public servants -- people who pass up more lucrative professions for a chance to influence policy and improve constituents' lives.
These days, however, it is getting harder to see the sacrifice in congressional service. An extraordinary number of representatives and senators -- well beyond the proverbial few bad apples -- are devising schemes to supplement their annual $165,200 benefit-rich pay packages.
The schemes, often entered into with a breathtaking audacity and sense of personal entitlement, are corrosive to democracy, injurious to the reputations of the many honest and diligent lawmakers, and illustrative of the adage that power corrupts.
They go on to classify some of the tactics used in these dishonest practices: nepotism, as symbolized by Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA), undisclosed land or investment incentives, as represented by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Harry Reid (D-NV) - to which list I would add Sen. George Allen (R-VA) - and direct action taken by the likes of Reps. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) and Charles Taylor (R-NC) to steer favorable legislation towards endeavors that they directly benefit from.
Without Ethics Oversight, Congress Runs Amok
By James Benton
Posted on Wed Oct 18, 2006 at 02:15:06 PM EST
Ethics enforcement,
like Rep. Cunningham:
Locked up (AP)
If you ever wanted to know what things are likely to happen when Congress doesn't really police its ethical misdeeds, today's Washington Post provides three sobering examples.
First, they report that the scandal involving sexually suggestive e-mails and instant messages between former Rep. Mark Foley, R-FL, and House pages appears to be expanding again (registration required), with the new focus on an incident five years ago that involved a 16-year-old page and Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-AZ. Kolbe, the only openly gay Republican in Congress, is retiring this year. The ethics committee's review comes after the Justice Department "had opened a preliminary inquiry into a camping trip" Kolbe took with male former pages 10 years ago.
Then, the Post points out that the investigation into Rep. Curt Weldon, R-PA, by the FBI (reported on this blog yesterday) is focusing on ties among Rep. Weldon, his daughter Karen, and their connections to a Serbian businessman with reputed ties to former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. Appears Rep. Weldon was trying to get the businessman, Bogoljub Karic, removed from a list of people barred from visiting or trading with the United States -- while Karen Weldon was doing business with Karic's family.
And if that wasn't enough, there's news of a report from a House committee's investigation that shows former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-CA, channeled more than $70 million worth of Pentagon and intelligence agency contracts to two companies that bribed him, which required the "cooperation or at least the non-interference of many people" in government to succeed. The full report is still classified, but you can see an executive summary of it here.
Rep. Weldon Now In FBI Probe
By James Benton
Posted on Tue Oct 17, 2006 at 01:55:07 PM EST
FBI investigators
in Oct. 16 raid
on Karen Weldon's home
(Philadelphia Inquirer).
Here we go again with another potential ethics flap involving a member of the U.S. House.
After two and a half years of percolating beneath the surface, today's morning papers are abuzz with news of FBI raids on the homes and offices of Karen Weldon, the daughter of Rep. Curt Weldon, R-PA. The feds also raided the home of Charles P. Sexton Jr., a Weldon ally, and the Florida offices of the Itera Group, a Russian natural-gas supplier.
And if that wasn't enough, Rep. Dale Kildee, D-MI, a member of the House Page Board, said yesterday that the investigation into Rep. Mark Foley's explicit communications with House pages may expand to other members.
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