This picture violated House rules. The New York Daily News reports that Rep. [sw: Vito Fossella] (R-N.Y.) used three photographs -- including this photo of Vito with Elmo and Rosita -- "in campaign flyers and in free mailings to constituents" in violation of House rules.
Room 8 Ackerman Story Goes to Print:
Room 8's story on Iraq War opponent Rep. [sw: Gary Ackerman]'s war profiteering made it to print today in Newsday.
Additionally, the records - reported on www.r8ny.com, a New York City political Web site - show Ackerman (D-Jamaica Estates) accepted a "personal loan" last year for as much as $100,000 from Selig Zises, a large investor in a California-based company that Ackerman called Xenonics Options. However, Ackerman, who denies any improprieties, said the alleged loan was actually a sale of stock that he accidentally misreported. ... On March 9, 2002, Ackerman, a senior member on the International Relations Committee, purchased between $1,001 to $15,000 of stock in Xenonics, which is today valued at between $100,000 and $250,000, according to financial records.The stock had ballooned to as much as $1 million as Room 8 had previously reported. It has since fallen to level reported by Newsday. Ackerman's attempt at playing dumb -- "If I was smart or really knew something, I would have sold it then" -- is pretty lame since, as Gur at Room 8 points out, "said questionable dude not only sits on the House Financial Services Committee, but also on the Subcommittee on Capital Markets - which has oversight on the Securities and Exchange Commission." Ackerman says that he "played no role in steering federal dollars to Xenonics." The real, moral question remains: how does one square opposition to a war with profiting from it? If you oppose said war what would the ethical use of the profits be? Should he give it away to charity? Perhaps an organization trying to bring peace and understanding to said war-torn nation. Or should he spend those war profits on an absolutely awesome bat mitzvah for his little tatalah? It's decision time Ackerman: mensch or schlemeil? Continue reading
Daylight AM:
- According to the San Bernardino Sun, the top technology firm ESRI has received a subpoena in the ongoing investigation into Appropriations Chairman [sw: Jerry Lewis] (R-Calif.) and his ties to Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White, the lobbying firm representing ESRI and numerous municipalities that have received subpoenas. From 2001 to 2006 Lewis "earmarked more than $90 million for ESRI projects that included defense intelligence systems such as database mapping to assist in rebuilding war-torn Iraq." From 2000 to 2005 ESRI paid the Lowery firm $360,000 in fees to lobby Congress.
- TPM Muckraker reports that Bernard Kerik, the first choice to head the Department of Homeland Security for President Bush's second term, will plead guilty to accepting "improper gifts totaling tens of thousands of dollars while he was a city official in the late 1990's".
- The Wall Street Journal profiles the Han Solo of the Congressional Pork Wars, [sw: Jeff Flake] (R-Ariz.). Flake is "a ringer for actor Owen Wilson who crashes not weddings but his own Republican Party" by asking "colleagues to come to the House floor and explain why taxpayers should pay for pet projects in their districts." He has twice targeted Appropriations Chairman [sw: Jerry Lewis] (R-Calif.) -- the Sith Lord if we are to keep with the Star Wars theme -- and even targeted an earmark inserted by none other than the Speaker of the House [sw: Dennis Hastert] (R-Ill.). Flake questions the culture that underlies much of the corrupt behavior in Congress, "What’s just mystifying is the sense of entitlement now: You have the right to have your projects and to ask for it through the process without anyone else knowing about it or being able to challenge it. That’s your inherent right as a member of Congress."
Another Congressman with Abramoff Problems:
Rep. [sw: Steve LaTourette] (R-Ohio), who's name surfaced in the David Safavian trial, has picked up a shovel and begun to dig himself into a big, old hole. TPM Muckraker has more.
Continue readingDaylight PM:
- An official at the Interior Department will plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge in connection with the Jack Abramoff investigation. Roger Stillwell was "the desk officer for the Mariana Islands at the U.S. Department of the Interior" and dealt often with Abramoff, who lobbied for the Islands. Stillwell is charged with "[f]ailing to report gifts from a 'prohibited source.'" I'll second Paul Kiel in saying that investigators are most likely starting with a small fish and working their way up. There is certainly a lot of dirt -- and a lot of lawmakers -- involved in the Marianas Islands angle in the web of Abramoff scandals. TPM Muckraker and Think Progress have more.
- Our buddies at Room 8 NY did some digging into the personal finances of [sw: Gary Ackerman] (D-N.Y.) to find that his stock options in the defense contractor Xenonics have skyrocketed over the past four years as the U.S. has been engaged in two wars in Afghanistan and then Iraq. Ackerman purchased stock in Xenonics back in 2002 after the invasion of Afghanistan at a worth of $1,000-$15,000. That stock is now worth between $500,000 and $1,000,000! Since Ackerman's stock purchase and the invasion of Iraq Xenonics has received numerous contracts and multi-million dollar earmarks pushing their stock to higher and higher. Did Ackerman earmark these funds? Well, we don't know because there is no transparency in the process. Perhaps someone should ask.
- Sen. [sw: John McCain] (R-Ariz.) makes his first foray into the blogging world at Porkbusters to assail Congress' use of earmarks and his own party's failure to live up to their ideal of limited government. The conservative blogosphere has picked up on McCain's post. Check out Instapundit, Freeman Hunt, Tim Chapman, and Ankle Biting Pundits. National Journal's Beltway Blogroll also has more. Continue reading
50 Years of Interstates
As you’ve no doubt already heard from news stories this week, Thursday is the 50th anniversary of America’s interstate highway system. Like most things 50 years old it’s got its good points and its bad ones. But life without interstates is as unimaginable today as life without telephones.
At first, Congress balked at spending all that money, until someone came up with the nifty idea of repackaging the interstate system as a means of mass evacuation in case of nuclear attack. Now highways became a defense issue and Congress finally agreed to let the idea roll.
Continue readingCongressional Corruption is Real:
Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute and Roll Call gets all Howard Beale in his editorial today:
In all my years of watching Congress, I have never seen anything quite like what we have now. It may be a cliché, and it may be a partisan attack term, but it is also true: There is a culture of corruption across Capitol Hill. It still does not encompass the majority of Members and staffers, most of whom come here to do the right thing and to stay on the path. It may be true that the numbers of offenders, at least those directly breaking the law, are still roughly the same as in other comparable peer groups. But the problem is palpably worse. While there is plenty of illegality here — and I believe a wave of indictments will hit in the coming months — it is not what is illegal that is the outrage, to use the old phrase, but rather what is legal.Ornstein goes on to list the honest graft through earmarking of [sw: Ken Calvert] (R-Calif.), [sw: Gary Miller] (R-Calif.), and [sw: Dennis Hastert] (R-Ill.) and the abuses of campaign contributions by Vito Fossella as recent examples of this corruption.
There simply is no ethical compass here. The fact that Hastert was responsible for the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of the House ethics committee makes his own real estate actions even more wrongheaded. I don’t want Members of Congress and staffers to live ascetic or penurious lives. Lawmakers (and judges for that matter) ought to be paid at least as much as second-year associates in big law firms. (Currently they are not.) Still, when I look at the eagerness of Members to score big perks from their lobbyist friends and to find ways to make big bucks by transactions that are related to their behavior inside Congress, I cannot find any justification in the large pay gap with their peers. Illegal or not, much of this behavior is unethical and repugnant. It underscores the deep need for a real package of ethics, earmarking and lobbying reforms—which in turn underscores the shameful and pathetic behavior of the leaders in both chambers who have failed to act and who are trying to sneak through a sham bill. They hope journalists will tire of these stories and that voters won’t notice. I hope they are wrong."I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!" Amen. Continue reading
Lobbyists Fish For Lawmakers:
Every year lawmakers go up to Alaska to go fishing at "a five star resort"; and every year lobbyists from the oil and gas industry follow those lawmakers to these fish-filled waters to hook them on their own line. American Radio Works went behind the scenes of this annual ritual in the circle of Washington political life and found a number of Senators, energy industry lobbyists, and our friend [sw: Dennis Hastert] (R-Ill.) getting together to break congressional ethics rules.
The event is organized under the aegis of a charity, the Waterfall Committee, supported by former Sen. and current Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski and his wife Nancy. In 1996 "the House and Senate banned lawmakers from accepting free trips to recreational charity events like this one". The Senate Ethics Committee went so far as to write Murkowski a letter to "expressly forbid senators from accepting free travel or lodging to attend this event." It appears that numerous members of Congress may have violated this rule by attending.
TPM Muckraker, Think Progress, and Soap Blox Chicago have posted on this trip as well.
Continue readingDaylight AM:
The rain is gone so I can stop building that ark I was planning on using to escape. Instead of floods and flag burning amendments we're back to good old fashioned earmarks, lobbyists, investigations, and congressmen being naughty. Let's go to the news:
- An investigative report by the New York Daily News on Sunday revealed that since 2000 Staten Island Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) spent $53,142 of his campaign cash on personal vacations, sometimes followed by his wife and children. The family travelled to Las Vegas, Colorado, and Florida while Fossella also spent campaign cash on 18 holes of golf at Key Biscane and even went to a Jets game in Pittsburgh. Fossella asserts that "all expenses are for legitimate campaign events or fact-finding missions that are part of his duties in Congress." What kind of facts was he trying to find at a Jets-Steelers game? Which player should be honored with a congratulatory resolution? Fossella says that he made "mistakes" but that everything was legal. Ian Stirton of the Federal Election Commission thinks otherwise. Stirton said that "violaters could face penalties of thousands of dollars" and that "the Justice Department could open a criminal probe because putting campaign donations to personal use is a crime."
- Senate Democrats are planning to force a minimum wage raise by attacking the annual congressional cost of living adjustment in members salaries. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced, "we’re going to do everything to stop the Congressional pay raise being put in — the right way, the wrong way or any way." Members currently make $165,170 a year. The pay raise would increase their salary to $168,500.
- The Boston Globe reports that "four Massachussets congressmen have attended luxurious Fourth of July weekends at Cape Cod's exclusive Wequassett Inn in Chatham with representatives of various interest groups, courtesy of a little-known nonprofit group started by a longtime lobbyist." The nonprofit, Invest to Compete, was started by Washington lobbyist Jeanne Campbell of the firm Campbell-Crane. At issue are the ties between Invest to Compete an Campbell-Crane. Both share the same south-east Washington address, the same fax number, and the same email address. The July Fourth celebrations also highlight the ties between the firm and the nonprofit as clients of the firm are often in attendence, along with members of Congress, at the event paid for by the nonprofit. Lobbyist and lobbying firms are not allowed to pay for travel and lodging for members of Congress.
- Watchdog groups have not been too pleased with the performance of House Ethics Committee ranking Democrat Howard Berman (D-Calif.). Berman is accused of "codify[ing] ... a very negligent system" by "displaying a warm rapport with Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.)". Democrats may be looking for a new ranking member or Chairman for the Ethics Committee after the election. Continue reading
Progress Back at the Ranch
While I've been here in New Mexico on vacation for the ten days (think hiking at Bandelier National Monument, off-roading in the Sangre de Cristo mountains, playing Ansel Adams at White Sands National Monument, visiting Georgia O"Keeefe's home and studio in Abiquiu, two nights at the Rodeo in Santa Fe, etc. -- our recent grantees over at Room Eight have been busy moving forward to expand their blog's reporting of their NY Congressional delegation.
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