On 12 Jan 2006, Nancy Pelosi announced a dream team designed to “restore honor and dignity to the House of Representatives” by addressing the “systemic Republican culture of corruption that has undermined the American people’s confidence in the institution.” Her plan for doing so:

Support John Murtha for House Majority Leader. An unindicted co-conspirator in the 1980 Abscam scandal Murtha is also known to oppose ethics reforms, and is said by some to personify pay to play politics:

Murtha has a record of not always being a leadership loyalist, frequently supplying votes to GOP leaders who were struggling to pass bills. The none-too-subtle trade-off: Murtha and his allies would do better when home-state projects were doled out by the Republicans.

He has been criticized by ethics watchdogs such as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who have said he exemplifies a “pay-to-play” culture of Washington. The group says Murtha has steered defense projects to clients of KSA Consulting, a lobbying firm that until recently employed his brother Kit. Clients of the firm are generous with campaign contributions.

Support Alcee Hastings, a former federal judge impeached for misconduct including bribery and perjury, as Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

In 1989, Hastings was impeached by the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives for bribery and perjury. The Democratic-controlled Senate convicted Judge Hastings of accepting a $150,000 bribe in 1981 in exchange for a lenient sentence and a return of seized assets for 21 counts of racketeering by Frank and Thomas Romano, and of perjury in his testimony about the case. He became only the sixth Judge in the history of United States to be removed from office by the United States Senate.

Support Alan Mollohan to Head the House Appropriations Committee.

On February 28, 2006, National Legal and Policy Center filed a 500 page ethics complaint against Mollohan for misrepresenting his assets on financial disclosure forms. Mollohan’s real estate holdings and other assets have jumped in value from $562,000 in 2000 to at least $6.3 million in 2004.

From the complaint:

For the period 1996 through 2004, NLPC found that the Financial Disclosure Reports:
* repeatedly failed to disclose real estate assets which public records showed were owned by Mollohan and his wife
* repeatedly failed to disclose financial assets which public records showed were owned by Mollohan and his wife
* repeatedly failed to disclose major loans which were used in the acquisition of financial assets which were not being disclosed
* failed to disclose interests in companies which owned major assets
* grossly undervalued assets, giving purported valuations which were a small fraction of the assets’ true value

“The bottom line is Mollohan got very wealthy in a four year period. His account of his finances during this period is demonstrably false. The fact that he earmarked well over $100 million in tax dollars to groups associated with his business partner is about as big a red flag as one can imagine.” [1]

On April 7, 2006, The New York Times reported that Mollohan “has fueled five non-profit groups in his West Virginia district with $250 million in earmark funding” [2] UPI.

On April 21, 2006, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced that Mollohan would temporarily step down as the Ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee. Howard Berman of California took Mollohan’s place.

On April 25, 2006, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mollohan cooperated with CEO Dale R. McBride of FMW Composite Systems Inc. of Bridgeport, West Virginia for the joint purchase of his 300 acre farm along West Virginia’s Cheat River. Mollohan had directed a $2.1 million government contract earmarked to FWM composite systems to develop lightweight payload pallets for space-shuttle missions. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have started asking questions in Washington and West Virginia about Mollohan’s investments and whether they were properly disclosed, according to the Journal. Mollohan had previously acknowledged he may have made inadvertent mistakes on financial disclosure forms.

On the Senate side Harry Reid was very critical of the “Republican pay and play system.” However he has been linked to Jack Abramoff.

As convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff reported to federal prison today, a source close to the investigation surrounding his activities told ABC News that Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was one of the members of Congress Abramoff had allegedly implicated in his cooperation with federal prosecutors.

In addition Senator Reid has been linked to a questionable Las Vegas land deal in which he made $1,100,000.00 and was partnered with a friend whose name has surfaced in political corruption cases and organized crime investigations:

Senator Reid is currently involved in another land scandal. This one involves 160 acres of property in Arizona whose value will be increased by a bridge to be built over the Colorado River. A bridge earmarked by Senator Reid.

WASHINGTON — Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vows to make reform of congressional earmarks a priority of his tenure, arguing that members need to be more transparent when they load pet projects for their districts into federal spending bills.

But last year’s huge $286-billion federal transportation bill included a little-noticed slice of pork pushed by Reid that provided benefits not only for the casino town of Laughlin, Nev., but also, possibly, for the senator himself.

Reid called funding for construction of a bridge over the Colorado River, among other projects, “incredibly good news for Nevada” in a news release after passage of the 2005 transportation bill. He didn’t mention, though, that just across the river in Arizona, he owns 160 acres of land several miles from proposed bridge sites and that the bridge could add value to his real estate investment.

It also appears that some Illinois Democrats, including Barack Obama may have some curious real estate dealings of their own.

If this is the “Clean Congress” God help us if we ever truly get a dirty one.

h/t Michelle Malkin and Ace
(these are just generic links because the relevant material is scattered)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 15th, 2006 at 10:37 pm by Chad and is filed under Funny ... to us, Brilliant, but uncategorizable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.