Let's start counting. Harper's blog Washington Babylon reports that lobbyist and former [sw: Jerry Lewis] aide took compensation for aiding Trident (White pruchased a house with Trident CEO Nicholas Karangelen):
Both [Letitia] White and Karangelen have said that they each put up $500,000 when purchasing the million-dollar house, but some of the Trident officials have said that Karangelen actually put up the entire amount, along with additional monies for furnishings. Some of them have further alleged that White was rewarded financially by Trident for her work on behalf of the company with compensation related to the amount of money she brought into the company. Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for White, vehemently told me that she and Karangelen have put equal amounts of money into the house and that “the purchase was not related in any way to work for Trident.” Dorton did not deny that White was compensated by Trident but said any money she received “was for work done after she left the Hill.” He declined to comment on the nature or amount of the compensation.We all watched the Jack Abramoff scandal unfold and we can see where this is going. Encircle the big fish by snapping up the little fish first. Aim for people compromised by family members that they got involved in corrupt schemes and that they don't want to get hurt and get them to talk. Then with full roster of witnesses you can snare the big guy. Continue reading
$2 Million for Quitting:
Paul Kiel asks, "who's ever gotten a $2 million severance package -- for quitting?" Justin Rood tells us that Jeffrey Shockey, a serial revolving door spinner, received $1.9 million in severance payments from the lobbying firm of Bill Lowery when he quit to go back to work for his previous employer, [sw: Jerry Lewis] (R-CA). Not to be cynical, but do we really believe that that $2 million was to thank Shockey for his previous work for the firm or was it intended to pay for the work he was about to do for the firm?
Continue readingSpousal Abuse…:
...of lobbying connections. TPM Muckraker reports on the spouses of two central figures in the [sw: Jerry Lewis] earmarking scandal. Both of them are lobbyists and they both represent companies that do business with Lewis.
Shortly after Lewis rose to be the chairman of that subcommitee, Letitia White's husband, up until that point a tobacco industry lobbyist, made a curious professional decision: he began lobbying on defense spending issues. ... But in 2000, one year after Jerry Lewis became chair of the defense appropriations subcommittee (taking Letitia White along with him), Richard White registered to lobby for "defense spending items" on behalf of a lobbyist. It's not clear which of the lobbyist's clients White was working for. That arrangement continued for the next few years, White receiving between $20,000 and $45,000 annually from the firm, called R.C. Whitner & Associates. From 2000 to 2005, White received $205,000 from the group. But in 2003, something changed. Richard White began picking up defense contractors as clients - without going through Whitner. That was the same year that his wife Letitia left Lewis to join Lowery's lobbying firm.And of course he went on to make even more money. Now for the other spouse:
But Richard isn't the only spouse getting cut in because of ties to the world of Jerry Lewis. Alexandra Shockey, the wife of another Lewis aide-turned-lobbyist, Jeffrey Shockey, is also doing well for herself as a lobbyist with extraordinary connections to Lewis. After several years as a Lewis aide, Alexandra dropped out of her political career to raise a family, returning only when her husband gave up his million-dollar-plus lobbying gig to work for Lewis again. She scooped up his clients -- and a lobbyist's income -- to push their interests in front of Lewis, while her husband, now a senior aide on Lewis' committee, helps her old boss dole out $900 billion in federal money every year.Let's not forget that when Jeffrey Shockey went back to work for Lewis he was given a $600,000 severance package. Continue reading
How’s Ney Holding Up?
Not so good. Looks like [sw: Bob Ney] (R-OH) isn't holding up so great under the pressure of the media focus due to his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Ney verbally attacks a reporter for pursuing the story and says that the reporter doesn't care about the people of Ohio (is Ney running against this reporter in November or something?). Justin Rood asks Ney a few questions on whether Ney's actions were helping the people of Ohio: "how does Ney think the people of Ohio benefited from him inserting glowing testimony into the Congressional Record about the shady Abramoff-linked gambling outfit, SunCruz Casinos? How did he think they would benefit from relaxing sanctions against Iran, which he pushed former Secretary of State Colin Powell to do at the behest of a convicted felon? And how did Ohioans benefit from his efforts to force the reopening of an indian tribal casino in Texas after the tribe -- an Abramoff client, natch -- gave him $32,000?" We can expect the answer to come in a shrill, uncapitalized email sent from the congressman's Blackberry. Or not.
Continue reading$11.37 Millon Per Day
I've lived in Washington a long time, and worked in and around Congress for most of that time but I don't think I ever knew what it costs to run it. Now thanks to a terrific website -- This Week In Congress -- I know: $1.137 billion to operate the House, $259 million for the Capitol Police, $36 million for the Congressional Budget Office, $363 million for the Architect, $570 million for the Library of Congress, $131 million for the Government Printing Office and $488 million for the Government Accountability Office -- Congress's investigative arm. (Interesting priorities, eh?) Expenses for running the Senate arenot included in the appropriations bill that was just passed, and, perhaps, predictably, they are hard to come by. (We'll update later if we can find them.) You can drill down on these numbers for details, such as costs for salaries and expenses for leadership offices, committee employees, etc. It's really, really interesting stuff.
Morning News:
- [sw: Tom DeLay] (R-TX) gave a "pugnacious defense of the iron-fisted partisanship that defined his decade in power" in a farewell speech to Congress last night, according to the Washington Post. DeLay defended partisanship saying, "You show me a nation without partisanship, and I'll show you a tyranny." DeLay, who is resigning under a cloud of controversy surrounding his ties to a number of convicted lobbyists and his indictment in Texas, stated the he is proud of the controversial K Street Project, "I helped build the largest political coalition in the last 50 years. The K Street project and the K Street strategy I am very proud of."
- DeLay can exit -- "stage right" as he says -- but the controversy never ends. Today the Washington Post looks into the private travel of DeLay's former chief of staff Susan Hirschmann. Hirschmann racked up $85,000 worth of travel -- her husband, a lobbyist for the Chamber of Commerce, accompanied her on a number of these trips -- provided by private interests in just two years. She comes in as the number two recipient of private jet travel over the past five years in just two years and 18 flights. The number one recipient is the current chief of staff to Majority Whip [sw: Roy Blunt] (R-MO) who racked up $87,000 in 39 trips.
- Adam Kidan, Jack Abramoff's business partner in the Sun Cruz Casino purchase, knows who killed Gus Boulis, the man they bought the business from. Kidan, who has previously stated that he knew nothing about the gangland-style murder, told police that John Gurino, an associate of John Gotti, killed Boulis. Gurino has since been killed and the three others associated with the murder have been arrested in connection with the murder. One of those arrested was Anthony Moscatiello who Kidan hired to work as "security" for Sun Cruz Casinos.
- The Democratic Steering Committee has recommended that Rep. [sw: William Jefferson] (D-LA) be removed from his seat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee. They will wait until next week to move forward from the recommendation to action. The Congressional Black Caucus still strongly opposes such action against the New Orleans congressman.
Peeling Back the Curtain:
Oh, so that's how appropriations bills get written. More info on the Tom Casey allegations against [sw: Jerry Lewis] from the San Diego Union Tribune:
Casey's firm, Audre Inc., had about 35 employees when it began lobbying for federal contracts in the early 1990s. It was on the verge of bankruptcy, because of a fractious divorce battle in which Casey's wife tried to gain control of the firm. In 1992, Casey hired Wilkes to help him find government contracts. Wilkes' recommendation, according to former Audre employees, was to make campaign contributions to key members of Congress, including Lewis. Although Casey said he never provided Lewis' friends with any stock options, he and his associates gave $9,253 in political contributions to Lewis in 1993: $2,253 in early April, as the Appropriations Committee prepared its first draft of the fiscal 1994 budget, and $7,000 in mid-September, as the budget process neared its conclusion. Casey and his associates made similarly timed contributions of $2,750 to Cunningham, $3,600 to Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine – who would become Audre's chief champion on Capitol Hill – and $5,000 to Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn. Ten other politicians received smaller amounts totaling $21,100. ... According to sources familiar with his story, Casey said that after he made the contributions, he met with Lewis' chief of staff, Letitia White, in the basement cafeteria of the Rayburn Building. In the cafeteria, Casey and White drafted the language to add a document conversion project to the Pentagon's budget. White now works for Lowery's lobbying firm, Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton & White.Continue reading
The Ties That Bind:
POGO's Blog provides an additional important point to the Titan-[sw: Duncan Hunter] story line. Turns out that Titan's lobbyist is none other than Letitia White, the "Queen of Earmarks".
Continue readingJefferson Showdown Continues:
The Democratic Steering Committee looks headed towards stripping Rep. [sw: William Jefferson] (D-LA) of his perch on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. The Congressional Black Caucus voted again to back Jefferson's continued stay on the Committee at least until an indictment is filed. The CBC has opposed the Democratic Caucus taking any action against Jefferson until he has been formally indicted. Two of the most powerful CBC members, [sw: Charlie Rangel](D-NY) and [sw: James Clyburn] (D-SC), have remained quiet so far.
Meanwhile the Washington Post reports that the FBI was prepared to pick the lock of Jefferson's congressional office if the acting U.S. Capitol Police chief refused to open it. Leaders in the House want the raid to be ruled unconstitutional.
Good Stuff
Posting's been light this week. I spent a few days in New York meeting with other funders (JEHT Foundation and Open Society Institute), brainstorming with our far-flung staff and consultants (a virtual workplace is good, but sometimes you just have to meet face-to-face!), and talking with groups about their work. I've also been doing interviewing for new staff.
I'm quite fascinated by several groups' work that we've looked at recently. Rafael DeGennaro has created a potentially powerful populist movement over the simple notion that lawmakers ought to actually read a bill before they vote on it. His ReadtheBill.org (BTW you can find him at the YearKos convention this week), presents a positive agenda -- every piece of legislation must be posted for 72 hours before it's voted on -- that will enable citizens, activists, journalists, indeed everyone, to know more about what is going on in Congress and to express their opinions about it. Certainly one of Sunlight's goals is to not only make information available, but also to make it available in "real time" so that democracy is enlivened by civic engagement. Seems to us that DeGennaro has singled out a pretty basic element to making that happen. Following his "Mystery Bills" feature is a must.
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