The New York Daily News is calling for U.S. Rep. Gary Ackerman (Queens) to come clean about a shady deal that netted the New York Democrat Congressman $100,000 for a no-investment stock deal. (They do not identify him as a Democrat in the editorial, but do so in their investigative report.)
Ackerman is really enthused about ObamaCare.
Just what we want, our healthcare ushered in by some shady Democrat legislators.
1. Take the ethically-challenged Rep. Charles Rangel, Chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, the committee that writes our tax laws, when Rangel's own "tax avoidance strategies" -- otherwise known as failure to pay taxes on real estate income -- are only legal in the eyes of fellow Democrats.
Rangel is following in the footsteps of other Ways and Means chairmen, Wilbur Mills (D-Arkansas) who was forced to retire after a major scandal involving an Argentine stripper and public drunkeness and Dan Rostenkowski (D-Illinois), who was famous for 14 "ghost employees" who kicked back their salaries, was sentenced to prison in 1994 for mail fraud. For mailing checks to the phantom workers. It's a tradition in Chicago. See NYTimes' "In Illinois, a Virtual Expectation of Corruption".) "If indicted, Mr. Blagojevich would be the fifth of the last eight elected Illinois governors to be charged with a crime, and if he is sent to jail, the fourth to serve time."
2. Blagojevich-appointed Senator Roland Burris is a Democrat Illinois senator whose resignation has been called for by the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the Washington Post, AND the Chicago Sun-Times.
3. Connecticut has elected Chris Dodd five times, thanks largely to the Hartford Courant, a Los Angeles Times-owned newspaper until the paper was bought out by the Chicago Tribune. Dodd is retiring because of his ethical lapses that tolerant Connecticut and the Courant, could no longer ignore. (And then there is the prediction that there might be a major fallout from the health bill, including for Lieberman who the Courant endorsed when he went Independent.)
4. Corruption in Massachusetts is so endemic that the last three Speakers have been indicted and resigned. (Two pleaded guilty, one is awaiting trial.) So when Ted Kennedy died, that same legislature named a senator who was appointed after they shamelessly re-wrote the laws - again - to appoint one of their own, specifically to vote for ObamaCare.
5. Minnesota is famous for idiot legislators, including the pink-boa-wearing Jesse Ventura. Their newest senator, who used to be on Saturday Night Live writer, was seated after a selective recount, charges of fraudulent voting, and legal challenges that lasted seven months after the election. Al Franken has what is euphemistically called "tax issues." (Failure to pay taxes -- in 17 states.)
6. Senator Max Baucus, employed to bum rush the health bill through the Senate process, is the same man who tried to get his mistress appointed as a U.S. Attorney. The Daily Kos found her past fascinating. She has since been hired as a top official in the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, despite what the appellate court said about her poor legal judgement as a prosecutor in such cases. "Every court that has reviewed this case has been struck by certain aspects of the trial and actions of prosecutors that violate the fundamental notions of fair play on which our legal system is based."
7. Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) has been under ethical clouds for, literally, decades. He was snared in the Abscom scandal in the 1980s, expressing a willingness to do favors for corrupt Saudis, and is currently embroiled in a controversy about defense appropriations since his appointment to the Chairmanship of the House Appropriations Defense Committee. The ethically-challenged Ethics Committee cleared him which is hardly a glowing reference because the revelations keep on coming.
8. Then there is Laura Richardson (D-California) and her no money down, subprime real estate loan. And the subsequent default. She is under an ethics investigation.
9. Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-West Virginia), chairman on the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Related Agencies) has a bagload of scandals, including his work to funnel $250 million into five nonprofit organizations that he set up. Graphic
The scale of corruption here is monumental. The NYTimes found that "from 1997 through February 2006, top-paid employees, board members and contractors of the five organizations gave at least $397,122 to Mr. Mollohan's campaign and political action committees." Mollohan is an acknowledged tax cheat. The 14-term WV Democrat admitted he "failed to pay 2004 taxes on income from rental properties in Washington and North Carolina, resulting in a state lien of $8,948.28 being filed on Dec. 1."
In 2006, Mollohan, as ranking member on the House ethics committee, was forced to step down due to the number of investigations pending against him. (He was allowed to remain chairman of the appropriations committee that determined the Justice Dept. budget, however, even as they investigated him. ) Inexplicably, the ethics investigation appeared stalled until a leaked document revealed otherwise.
10. And my personal, personal favorite is Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Michigan), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who is not accused of wrongdoing but whose wife, Monica Conyers (of the Detroit City Council) is scheduled to be sentenced on March 10, 2010 on bribery charges. John Conyers submitted The United States National Health Care Act
All of this is for our good, folks. /sarcasm off
10. And my personal, personal favorite is Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Michigan), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who is not accused of wrongdoing but whose wife, Monica Conyers (of the Detroit City Council) is scheduled to be sentenced on March 10, 2010 on bribery charges. John Conyers submitted The United States National Health Care Act
All of this is for our good, folks. /sarcasm off
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