Last night President Bush proposed a National ID card to help identify legal citizens and control illegal immigration. Garance Franke-Ruta at TAPPED asks if Bush's speechwriters read the New York Times before writing this part of the speech:
Whoever wrote this speech obviously hasn't been reading The New York Times lately, or he'd have known that the reason we don't have a tamper-proof card already is because of the self-dealing ways of a certain Kentucky Republican known to his local paper as "The Prince of Pork".That "Prince of Pork" happens to be Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY), notorious for his earmarking:
Instead, the road to delivering this critical antiterrorism tool has taken detours to locations, companies and groups often linked to Representative Harold Rogers, a Kentucky Republican who is the powerful chairman of the House subcommittee that controls the Homeland Security budget. It is a route that has benefited Mr. Rogers, creating jobs in his home district and profits for companies that are donors to his political causes. The congressman has also taken 11 trips — including six to Hawaii — on the tab of an organization that until this week was to profit from a no-bid contract Mr. Rogers helped arrange. Work has even been set aside for a tiny start-up company in Kentucky that employs John Rogers, the congressman's son. "Something stinks in Corbin," said Jay M. Meier, senior securities analyst at MJSK Equity Research in Minneapolis, which follows the identification card industry, referring to the Kentucky community of 8,000 that has perhaps benefited the most from Mr. Rogers's interventions. "And it is the sickest example of what is wrong with our homeland security agenda that I can find."The Washington Post previously reported on Rogers' homeland security largesse. The congressman had gotten funds for Reveal Technologies, his largest PAC contributor, to provide small and medium sized explosion-detection scanners to airports through funds in the Transport Security Administration budget. The scanners wound up running at a quarter of the speed of larger machines. So, if you're upset about the lack of movement on a National ID card (as the President ought to be considering his speech last night) or if you are standing in a long line while somebody's bags get searched by a slow machine you can always raise your fist and shake it at Rep. Hal Rogers. Continue reading
Ex-Lawmakers Turned Lobbyists Total:
Political Money Line released a report yesterday that shows that 318 ex-lawmakers currently work as lobbyists in Washington. The Hill reports, "Washington is a seductive force, according to a new report that finds it has become routine for members of Congress to take jobs on K Street after retiring from public service — rather than returning to their home districts." Another 120 and you'd have a shadow Congress operating out of K Street.
Continue readingWorry Warts:
Roll Call is reporting that House Republicans are "growing uneasy with the increasingly aggressive tactics being employed by the Justice Department in its burgeoning corruption probe of Congress". Some believe that the Justice Department has "gone too far in their techniques" and that prosecutors are trying to "get" a Congressman. Rep. Bob Ney's (R-OH) replacement as House Administration Chairman Vern Ehlers (R-MI) voiced these concerns, "A number of Members are very concerned about the way the Justice Department is investigating." Noel Hillman, the former lead prosecutor at Justice's Public Integrity Unit, stated that he did pursue more aggressive means than previous prosecutors stating that he led a "more aggressive [approach] in the ways we investigate the cases: the more effective use of cooperators, the more effective use of undercover techniques, the consensual recordings." One example cited by Congressmen upset over the aggressive techniques is the searching of Rep. William Jefferson's (D-LA) car while it was on Congressional grounds. Buried within the article is a simple statement by Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) that explains the problems that many Americans have with Congress nowadays.
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), a member of the Judiciary Committee and former California attorney general, said he was growing concerned that some prosecutors and the media were viewing the simple act of accepting campaign contributions from donors with similar legislative agendas as a criminal act. With Members “put into a situation” in which they need to constantly raise money, Lungren noted that each party has found natural bases of donors who support each other’s agendas. But that, he said, doesn’t add up to the criminal level of a “fairly delineated quid pro quo.”The need to constantly raise money puts Congressmen in situations where it oftens seems that they are being bribed, whether they are or not. What Lungren implies, although he would certainly disagree with the way that I read the implications, is that the problem lies in what is actually legal - the honest graft. Continue reading
Mollohan to Admit Misstating on Financial Disclosure Forms:
Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV), under fire for writing earmarks to non-profits that he founded while his personal finances skyrocketed, plans on admitting, as early as today, "that he misstated some transactions in his congressional filings". According to the Washington Post Mollohan plans to explain how his personal wealth grew so fast while also admitting that he misstated a number of items in his personal financial disclosure forms. The Post also gives a good explanation of the history of Mollohan's string of non-profits which he created to diversify the West Virginia economy.
Continue readingCunningham Probe Widens:
Roll Call is reporting that the Justice Department is expanding their investigation in the Duke Cunningham case to include the actions of three House committees, Intelligence, Appropriations, and Armed Services. Justice investigators are "seeking to interview at least nine current or former staffers" on these three panels while "also seeking “tens of thousands of pages” of Congressional documents, some going back to 1997, related to Cunningham and government programs he may have had influence over". Many of the earmarks and projects created in the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees are "black" (classified) programs and the staffers and congressmen may decide to block investigators from obtaining information about these programs. The two defense contractors accused of bribing Duke Cunningham both received earmarks for controversial "black" programs. Mitchell Wade, who pled guilty to bribing Cunningham, had a "black" contract that was tied to domestic wiretapping. Brent Wilkes, who investigators have yet to indict, maintained "black" programs relating to rendition of prisoners.
Continue readingBest Real Estate Deal Ever:
Imagine if you could buy cheap real estate and then sell it for a large profit without having to fix up the property at all. All you would have to do is pick up a pen and write some earmarks to make your property more desirable. Well, if you need pointers on how to do this you should ask Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA). From the Los Angeles Times:
Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona) is an experienced investor in Riverside County's booming real estate market, so he's used to seeing prices change quickly. Last year, he and a partner paid $550,000 for a dusty four-acre parcel just south of March Air Reserve Base. Less than a year later, without even cutting the weeds or carting off old septic tank parts that littered the ground, they sold the land for almost $1 million. Even for a speculator like Calvert, it was an unusually good deal. During the time he owned the land, Calvert used the legislative process known as earmarking to secure $8 million for a planned freeway interchange 16 miles from the property, and an additional $1.5 million to support commercial development of the area around the airfield. A map of Calvert's recent real estate holdings and those of his partner shows many of them near the transportation projects he has supported with federal appropriations. And improvements to the transportation infrastructure have contributed to the area's explosive growth, according to development experts.As a kicker the Times story states that Calvert has also secured earmarked projects for campaign contributors, "including employees of the Washington lobbying firm of Copeland Lowery & Jacquez, his top political donor in the last election cycle." Lowery is the same Bill Lowery who is a part of the federal investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA). Continue reading
Blacked Out:
The San Diego Union-Tribune delves into the details of the FBI's recently revealed investigation of the powerful Appropriations Chair Jerry Lewis (R-CA):
But a federal government source told The San Diego Union-Tribune that investigators were probing Lewis' dealings with lobbyist and former Republican Rep. Bill Lowery of San Diego. The source said the investigation was a spin-off from the corruption probe of now-imprisoned former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham.Lewis adamantly denies that he was a close friend of Cunningham's and stated that Cunningham "betrayed his oath of office, his constituents, and his fellow members of Congress." He does not of course mention this:
According to government and defense industry sources, Lewis and Cunningham worked together to help Poway military contractor Brent Wilkes as he pursued contracts on Capitol Hill. Cunningham admitted taking bribes from Wilkes, who has been identified as co-conspirator No. 1 in Cunningham's plea agreement. On April 15, 1999, three months after Lewis was named chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, he received $17,000 in campaign contributions from Wilkes and his associates. At the time, Wilkes was vying for a project to digitize military documents in the Panama Canal Zone, which the United States was about to return to Panama. ... On July 6, 1999, Wilkes wrote to Cunningham saying “We need $10 m(illion) more immediately . . . This is very important and if you cannot resolve this others will be calling also.” Wilkes' memo – contained in federal documents accompanying Cunningham's guilty plea – then named two people whose names were blacked out by the prosecutors. According to military and defense industry sources, Lewis and Cunningham got the money for Wilkes, founder of ADCS Inc., by using their clout to threaten the funding of the Pentagon's F-22 fighter jet.Laura Rozen at War and Piece has a picture up of the blacked out document where one of the blacked out names clearly begins with the letter "J". Continue reading
Kentucky Governor Indicted:
Governor Ernie Fletcher (R-KY) was just indicted. From WHAS-11 News:
Governor Ernie Fletcher has been indicted by the Merit Hiring Grand Jury on charges of conspicacy to commit politcal discrimination. This is culmination of months of investigation by the Attorney General, Greg Stumbo and a blanket pardon from Governor Fletcher. It should be noted that the pardon does not include the governor.For some crib notes on this particular scandal check out TPM's Grand Ole Docket. Continue reading
CREW Asks for Criminal Investigation of Congressman:
It's against the law to solicit a trip or a gift of any value if you are a member of Congress. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is asking the Department of Justice to open an investigation into Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) to determine whether the congressman "violated federal law by soliciting a trip to Germany and Liechtenstein from the International Management and Development Institute (IMDI)."
Continue readingReturn on Investment:
Last month I wrote a post about the oil and gas industry's massive lobbying expenditures. Here's a look at that again: * ChevronTexaco $8,550,000 * ExxonMobil $7,140,000 * ConocoPhillips $5,098,084 * Marathon $4,290,000 * BP $2,880,000 * Occidental $2,042,177 * Shell $1,478,831 * Ashland $904,000 * Sunoco $540,000 * Anadarko $250,000 That's for a total of $33,173,092. Think Progress picks up a Wall Street Journal story to illustrate what you get for $33 million.
Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and ConocoPhillips beat back an attempt by senators to raise their taxes by nearly $6 billion. The Senate version of the bill at one point included a provision that would have cost the five largest oil companies — companies with average daily production of 500,000 barrels; gross receipts of more than $1 billion dollars in 2005 and an ownership in a refinery of 15% or more — about $5 billion by changing how they account for oil inventory. House Republicans dropped the provision from the final version of the bill. A separate Senate measure would have stripped $700 million in tax incentives for large oil companies to explore for oil and gas. That provision, too, was dropped from the compromise bill that emerged from House-Senate negotiations.The return on investment in lobbying is unbelievable when you look at it. The oil and gas companies spent $33 million and in return they saved $6 billion. Even once you add in campaign contributions - $25,622,789 from 2004, the last full election season - the amount that they put in to system gives them a monumental reward. Something like a 10,000% return on investment. Continue reading
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