Pelosi paid husband with PAC funds

[The Paperboy]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year.

Link here

 

[Andrew2382]

It won't let me post the link because I have not made enough posts.

It's on the washington times.



House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year.

Financial Leasing Services Inc. (FLS), owned by Paul F. Pelosi, has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker's "PAC to the Future" over the PAC's nine-year history.

The payments have quadrupled since Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer of his wife's committee in 2007, Federal Election Commission records show. FLS is on track to take in $48,000 in payments this year alone - eight times as much as it received annually from 2000 to 2005, when the committee was run by another treasurer.

Lawmakers' frequent use of campaign donations to pay relatives emerged as an issue in the 2006 election campaigns, when the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal gave Democrats fodder to criticize Republicans such as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. John T. Doolittle of California for putting their wives on their campaign and PAC payrolls for fundraising work.

Last year, Mrs. Pelosi supported a bill that would have banned members of Congress from putting spouses on their campaign staffs. The bill - which passed the House in a voice vote but did not get out of a Senate committee - banned not only direct payments by congressional campaign committees and PACs to spouses for services including consulting and fundraising, but also "indirect compensation," such as payments to companies that employ spouses.

"Democrats are committed to reforming the way Washington does business," Mrs. Pelosi said in a press release at the time. "Congressman [Adam] Schiff's bill will help us accomplish that goal by increasing transparency in election campaigns and preventing the misuse of funds."

Last week, Mrs. Pelosi's office said the payments to her husband's firm were perfectly legal, insisting she is compensating her husband at fair market value for the work his firm has performed for the PAC. But ethical watchdogs said the arrangement sends the wrong message.

"It's problematic," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit ethics and watchdog group. "From what I understand, Mr. Pelosi doesn't need the money, but this isn't the issue. ... As speaker of the House, it sends the wrong message. She shouldn't be putting family members on the payroll."

A senior adviser to Mrs. Pelosi described the payments to FLS as "business expenses."

She's followed all the appropriate rules and regulations in terms of records and paperwork," said Brendan Daly, Mrs. Pelosi's spokesman. "When [former treasurer] Leo McCarthy became ill, she thought that it was best that that firm did the accounting and she's paid fair market value in San Francisco."

Between 1999 and 2006, FLS collected $500 per month to cover rent, utilities and equipment for the leadership PAC, according to the FEC records. The PAC's address is listed as a personal mailbox in San Francisco, across the street from FLS's Montgomery Street office building, but the rent payments went to an office space.

In early 2007, the PAC's treasurer, Leo T. McCarthy, former Democratic speaker of the state assembly and lieutenant governor in California, died. Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer and his company's PAC payouts rose.

At that point, FLS started charging the PAC $24,000 per year for accounting work. In January 2008, the PAC's rent - paid to FLS - also quadrupled from $500 to $2,000 per month.


Katie Falkenberg/The Washington Times PARTNERSHIP: Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul F. Pelosi, was by her side at a Democratic event in 2006.

Mr. McCarthy, the previous treasurer, had done the work as a volunteer, according to FEC documents and Jennifer Crider, a senior adviser to Mrs. Pelosi and spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. She said FLS' accounting fees are in line with costs for other PACs.

The jump in rent was an adjustment to reflect San Francisco's pricey real estate market, Miss Crider said. The rent was adjusted to $1,250 per month, with $750 in back rent to reflect that the rent should have been increased in mid-2007. This was the first increase since the PAC was established in mid-1999, records show.

Over the first six months of 2008, FLS was the largest vendor for Mrs. Pelosi's PAC. Brian Wolff, a political consultant, is the second-largest vendor, bringing in $22,500 this year.

FLS' payments represent 11 percent of the $213,900 the PAC raised over the first half of this year, according to the FEC documents.

PACs, which are designed to help politicians contribute to other candidates and build influence with colleagues, operate under lighter restrictions than traditional campaign committees.

Meredith McGehee, policy director at the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, said putting family members on a PAC payroll is bound to raise questions and, in some cases, allow for abuse.

"The reality is that under the current system, PACs are rife with self-dealing transactions," she said. "The laws and regulations could and should be strengthened.

"There is a point now that you're starting to talk about real money," she said of Mrs. Pelosi's PAC. "This is not just a mom-and-pop operation and any self-dealing transaction by a member of Congress is going to get scrutiny, particularly with large amounts of money and prominent members."

It is illegal for members of Congress to hire family members to work on their official staff, but hiring relatives to work on a campaign or PAC is legal.

To be sure, many political action committees employ or work with family businesses. Last year, CREW found that 19 members of Congress used campaign committees or PACs to purchase services from a family member between 2002 and 2006.

Mrs. Pelosi's PACs have been in trouble before. In 2004, one of her political action committees, Team Majority, was fined $21,000 by the FEC for accepting donations over federal limits. It was one of two PACs she operated at the same time. The Team Majority PAC was closed shortly after the fine was levied.



I mean can we impeach this bitch yet?

 

[jillian]

Here's your link:

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm/

It doesn't seem it's illegal since the article opens saying that it was a practice she was supposedly against a year ago.

So it's more spin from Rev Moon's "newspaper".

Is this what you think passes for "news".

 

[user_name_guest]

That's why she is in office. Like the majority of them in Congress and the White House and soon to be in those vicinity.

 

[Andrew2382]

Last year, Mrs. Pelosi supported a bill that would have banned members of Congress from putting spouses on their campaign staffs. The bill - which passed the House in a voice vote but did not get out of a Senate committee - banned not only direct payments by congressional campaign committees and PACs to spouses for services including consulting and fundraising, but also "indirect compensation," such as payments to companies that employ spouses.


lol, she supported a bill, it didn't pass the senate but has been doing the same shit she tried to make illegal all this time.

This isn't a little hypocritical to you?

Do you always keep your head in the sand?

 

[WillowTree]

Here's your link:

Washington Times - EXCLUSIVE: Pelosi paid husband with PAC funds

It doesn't seem it's illegal since the article opens saying that it was a practice she was supposedly against a year ago.

So it's more spin from Rev Moon's "newspaper".

Is this what you think passes for "news".

it's in a freaking newpaper isn't it? Jesus!

 

[dilloduck]

Here's your link:

Washington Times - EXCLUSIVE: Pelosi paid husband with PAC funds

It doesn't seem it's illegal since the article opens saying that it was a practice she was supposedly against a year ago.

So it's more spin from Rev Moon's "newspaper".

Is this what you think passes for "news".

So if it's legal, it's moral and consistant with what she claims she is against ?

 

[Tech_Esq]

Here's your link:

http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm/

It doesn't seem it's illegal since the article opens saying that it was a practice she was supposedly against a year ago.

So it's more spin from Rev Moon's "newspaper".

Is this what you think passes for "news".

As the article says, this is one of the things that the Dems had against Tom Delay. So I guess it's bad if Tom Delay does it, but it's just fine if Nancy Pelosi does it. Oh I forgot only Repubs claim they have morals so they are the only ones required to live up to them.

It's much more freeing to be bereft of morals so there is nothing to live up to. Nope, Nancy did nothing illegal (even if it would have been if she had her way) and since Dems only require themselves to meet the societal minimums (that is whether something is legal or illegal), she's fine. She did nothing illegal.

 

[jillian]

Actually, I also haven't seen anything about it in any reputable source. So I'm kind of saying "so what"?

If you're asking me, though, I can't stand Pelosi... I just think things should be sourced reliably......

 

[Andrew2382]

lol, it's everywhere. try doing some research and google something instead of having everything spoon fed to you here please

 

[jillian]

I did google. Got the washtimes and a lot of blogs.

 

[Tech_Esq]

Actually, I also haven't seen anything about it in any reputable source. So I'm kind of saying "so what"?

If you're asking me, though, I can't stand Pelosi... I just think things should be sourced reliably......

LOL....I guess you aren't from around here. The Times actually has a pretty descent reputation as doing some solid investigative stories here in DC. I know it was VERY in vogue 15 years ago to attack the Times as a Moonie paper run by whackos, but after this long in the market and no sign of that actually being the case, most Dems and Libs around here have actually gotten off that bandwagon. In fact, the Times is very widely read in the African-American community here and as we know, that is hardly a bastion of the right-wing in this country or in this area.

Granted their editorial page is to the right of the Washington Post, but Karl Marx was to the right of the Washington Post, so that's hardly saying anything.

But to address your Moon comment directly, my understanding from watching a couple of reporters from the Times get this question on CSPAN, that there is a holding company that is funded by the Unification Church that manages the funding for the the Times but even they don't have editorial input. They are also responsible for funding several other media outlets like Insight magazine which the San Francisco Chronicle puts out.

So, you can call it Moonie if you wanna, but I don't think there is much "there" there.

 

[Jon]

If this were Sarah Palin, jillian would be throwing one of her hissy fits.

 

[HoleInTheVoid]

If this were Sarah Palin, jillian would be throwing one of her hissy fits.

Actually Palin's husband makes 6-digits working the Barent Sea and North Slope and THAT gives them hissy fits.

They prefer lawyers who get earmarks for their wive's hospitals.

 

[WillowTree]

Doh! it's freaking Pelosi, same hypocrite who gave everyone except American Samoans a minimum wage hike. The Queen expects you to do as she says not as she does. She is a limousine libwerl after all.

 

[xsited1]

What a horrible person and she's the Speaker of the House. She needs to be thrown out and prosecuted.