We haven't really been covering the Enron trial here at Sunlight too much but it is worth noting that both Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling were found guilty on all counts today. There is, as everybody knows, a huge political angle to the Enron story - and not just Lay's relationship with President Bush - and if you're interested in that I would direct you to Alex Gibney's "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room". These guys are going to jail for a long, long time.
Continue readingSenate Reform Conferees Chosen:
The Senate has chosen its conferees to hash out the lobbying and ethics reform bill with the House and none of those selected are key reform advocates, according to Roll Call. The selected Senators are Trent Lott (R-MS), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Ted Stevens (R-AK), Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Daniel Inouye (D-HI). The key reform advocates from the Senate that were left out include the two who helped craft the Senate legislation Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) and Democratic ethics point man Barack Obama (D-IL) and noted reform advocates like John McCain (R-AZ), Tom Coburn (R-OK), and Russ Feingold (D-WI). It will be interesting to see who the much more conservative House chooses as its conferees. If they select a couple of the more conservative members like Mike Pence (R-IN) or Jeff Flake (R-AZ) this bill could die in conference over earmark reform. Lott, Stevens, and Inouye are noted for their penchant for earmarks. While Lott may be for more transparency in earmarking the House conservatives could aim for more stringent measures than he is ready to adopt. Stevens and Inouye live off of earmarking as their non-continental states rely on federal money directed by their representatives to help build infrastructure, protect agriculture and industry, and help with natural and man-made disasters. One thing that is sure is that these conferees will not attempt to make the bill any better than it already is.
Continue readingFeds Boost Force to Investigate Corruption:
The cavalry has arrived. According to The Hill, the Justice Department is boosting the number of prosecutors and investigators focused on public corruption by federal, state, and local officials. Justice is determined to bring public corruption to heel after the high profile crimes committed by Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, Brent Wilkes, along with the questionable activities of Tom DeLay, and what the Justice Department says was "a dramatic jump in campaign-finance and other election-related crimes in the 2004 presidential election year". The key here is that Justice is looking at campaign contributions as a form of bribery for the first time. This could lead to, as Jeff Birnbaum suggests, an legal to the system of legalized bribery that is our campaign finance system.
Continue readingSpeaker of the House May Be Under Investigation:
Last night ABC News' Brian Ross broke a story that Speaker Dennis Hastert was "in the mix" in the Justice Department's investigation into the Jack Abramoff bribery investigation. Hastert's office vehemently denied that the Speaker was under investigation or that he did anything wrong. The Justice Department soon backed him up saying, "Speaker Hastert is not under investigation by the Justice Department." Hastert subsequently called for a full retraction of the story by Ross and ABC News. Instead of retracting the story Ross checked back with his sources and is sticking by what they have to say:
Despite a flat denial from the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement sources tonight said ABC News accurately reported that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is "in the mix" in the FBI investigation of corruption in Congress. ... Law enforcement sources told ABC News that convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff has provided information to the FBI about Hastert and a number of other members of Congress that have broadened the scope of the investigation. Sources would not divulge details of the Abramoff’s information. "You guys wrote the story very carefully but they are not reading it very carefully," a senior official said.DOJ issued a post-midnight statement that continued to deny the story. Personally I doubt that ABC and Ross would stand by a story like this if it they thought it could possibly not be true. The background here is that Hastert, along with then Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO), and Eric Cantor (R-VA) wrote a letter to the Department of the Interior demanding that they not grant a Louisiana Indian Tribe the right to build an off-reservation casino. That tribe's casino was opposed by another Indian Tribe that was represented by Jack Abramoff. Hastert was the top recipient of money from Jack Abramoff and his clients. Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly blog, Political Animal, points to his magazine's cover story, The End of Legal Bribery, written by Jeffrey Birnbaum, as a means to understand the new way in which the Public Integrity Unit is pursuing corruption on Capitol Hill. Continue reading
More DeLay Hilarity:
Earlier today Raw Story wrote on the hilarious effort by someone in Alexandria to get Tom DeLay (R-TX), future Virginian, elected to the city council to "stamp out Marxism." Now Think Progress brings us something even funnier. It turns out that DeLay does not understand satire:
This morning, DeLay’s legal defense fund sent out a mass email criticizing the movie “The Big Buy: Tom DeLay’s Stolen Congress,” by “Outfoxed” creator Robert Greenwald. The email features a “one-pager on the truth behind Liberal Hollywood’s the Big Buy,” and the lead item is Colbert’s interview with Greenwald on Comedy Central (where Colbert plays a faux-conservative, O’Reilly-esque character). The headline of the “fact sheet”: Hollywood Pulls Michael Moore Antics on Tom DeLay Colbert Cracks the Story on Real Motivations Behind the MovieI really don't know whether to laugh at this or to feel genuinely sorry for the guy for not understanding satire. What a sad life it must be to have no sense of humor. Continue reading
Pelosi Calls on Jefferson to Resign Committee, He Refuses:
Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) publicly asked the embattled Democrat William Jefferson (D-LA) to resign from his post on the House Ways and Means Committee. Jefferson refused her request and will remain on the Committee. It's been pretty clear for a little while that the Democratic leadership would just love to cut Jefferson loose but due to ongoing feuds with the Congressional Black Caucus, which supports Jefferson, it cannot. Jefferson isn't going anywhere unless the CBC cuts him loose. My only guess is that Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are trying to do whatever they can to get the CBC to side with them against Jefferson. Meanwhile the conservative blogosphere is outraged at the House Republican reaction to the FBI raid and what they perceive to be a missed opportunity to highlight Democratic hypocrisy on their "culture of corruption" meme. John Podheretz calls Hastert a "blithering idiot"; Ed Morrisey says, "Hastert and Boehner do not argue against an imperial presidency, but rather they are arguing for an untouchable political elite, where our elected officials risk nothing by taking bribes and selling their votes to the highest bidder"; streiff at RedState titles a post bemoaning Hastert's statements: "I Give Up".
Continue readingCongress Is Whiny:
So let me get this straight. If you are a private citizen the police are free to search your car without your consent and use whatever they find against you in court; give you a few seconds to open your door before kicking it down if they SUSPECT you might destroy evidence, like a joint, before they enter; take your possessions to fund their police department whether you are guilty of a crime or not; and essentially pull you out of your house and arrest you with little to no evidence at all if they are arresting you on drug charges. And now Congress gets all testy when one of their members gets his office raided by the Feds after he is caught on tape accepting $100,000 in cold, hard cash. Speaker Dennis Hastert is demanding that the FBI return the files that they took:
"We think those materials ought to be returned," Hastert said, adding that the FBI agents involved "ought to be frozen out of that (case) just for the sake of the constitutional aspects of it."And Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is calling the raid an abuse of executive power:
"Not anyone here is above the law," Pelosi told reporters Tuesday, as she prepared to meet with the House speaker. But, she added, "I think you've seen abuse of power of the executive branch over this weekend."Maybe the Congress needs to read up on how the modern police force acts and how they use forceful measures to instill fear and reactivate power. These kind of raids -- and in some communities they are done in a paramilitary fashion -- are common in parts of this country. Perhaps instead of complaining about how they are being treated Congress should recognize that they are being treated in the manner that they decided that the rest of the populace ought to be treated. Continue reading
How to Stop Marxism East of the Potomac:
How do you stop the advance of Marxism east of the Potomac? Why you elect new Virginia resident Tom DeLay (R-TX) to the City Council of Alexandria. From Raw Story:
An email sent to residents of Northern Virginia's city of Alexandria encouraged residents to write in US House Rep. Tom Delay for the City Council, today's edition of ROLL CALL reports. Delay has announced that he is relocating to the Washington, DC suburb after he leaves Congress on June 9.The email says the following:
“EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE on May 2nd in Alexandria’s local election. “More importantly, send a message to the socialists on the City Council and EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO WRITE IN A CANDIDATE’S NAME. “He was also able to defeat Marxism in Eastern Europe; perhaps he can help us defeat Marxism west of the Potomac in Alexandria. Let’s drop the ‘Hammer’ on Alexandria’s Politburo! “Please, write in the name of new Alexandria, VA resident, and former House Majority Leader TOM DELAY!!! Tom DeLay for City Council!”Did I miss it when International ANSWER took over Alexandria? Is Virginia Governor Tim Kaine a Soviet plant sent from the past via a time machine? Continue reading
Mr. Geeslin Comes to Washington:
Chris Geeslin was the spiritual advisor to Tom DeLay's (R-TX) chief of staff Ed Buckham and went on to head the Buckham founded U.S. Family Network. Little did Geeslin know that he was being used to mask a front organization that funneled money from shady clients of Jack Abramoff into partisan politics - and into Buckham's bank account. Paul Kiel at TPM Muckraker caught Geeslin talking on NPR about how he learned that the business he was involved in wasn't exactly Kosher:
NPR's John Ydstie: Geeslin first became uneasy when large donations started rolling in, one for $1 million. He said he suggested to Buckham that maybe the group should focus more on being the grassroots organization described in the U.S. Family Network's mission statement. Chris Geeslin: “And [Buckham] looked at me with some disdain. And he said, ‘You know where that million dollars came from? I said, 'Well, no.’ And he told me 'This is the way Washington works.' And he was schooling me, so to speak. He said, ‘That money came from Russian enery magnates, or oil magnates, who wanted to influence Congressman DeLay so he would not vote against the IMF funding of the bailout of Russia.’ And again, he said, ‘That’s the way Washington works, it runs on money.’ At the time, I didn’t know what to do with that. It was like, this has gotta be a joke. It’s beyond belief. It’s surreal.”There's Ed Buckham for you; crusher of ideals, destroyer of moral fiber. He's like a corrupt politician from a Capra film. Continue reading
Gonzales Defends Raid After Bipartisan Criticism:
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defended the raid of Rep. William Jefferson's (D-LA) congressional office after taking heat from both parties over the alleged constitutionality of the action, acccording to the Washington Post. Leaders from both parties expressed outrage over the FBI raid with the Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) stating, "My opinion is that they took the wrong path." House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) stated his belief the case would wind up at the Supreme Court. There was also criticism of the raid from the Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD). Gonzales said, "We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the Department of Justice is doing its job in investigating criminal wrongdoing, and we have an obligation to the American people to pursue the evidence where it exists." It is pretty amazing to see the House Republicans defending Jefferson, a Democrat, from the hard-nosed tactics of a Republican President's Justice Department when you would imagine they would be gloating over the Democrats' own ethics troubles. I would say that is the real shocking turn of events here.
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