Oh Goody, The Dems Are As Corrupt As The Republicans

[Annie]

:coffee3:

http://washingtontimes.com/functions/print.php?StoryID=20060521-124216-1065r

Corruption charges burden both parties
By Donald Lambro
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published May 21, 2006

Democratic leaders began this year thinking that Republican corruption in Congress would be one of their most lethal campaign weapons, but GOP officials say that firepower has been defused by new accusations of bribery and other abuses against Democrats.
"The Democrats' attempt to paint this as a one-sided issue has come back to bite them. They have a lot of ethics problems in their own closet," said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, Illinois Republican.
The latest scandal emerged from the investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and lawmakers of both parties who purportedly did legislative favors for him and received lavish trips, gifts and campaign contributions in return, as well as the conviction on bribery charges of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, California Republican.
It since has widened in the House, where the ethics committee announced last week that it had begun investigating two lawmakers: Reps. William J. Jefferson, Louisiana Democrat, and Bob Ney, Ohio Republican.
The committee is investigating whether Mr. Ney received benefits and gifts from Abramoff as a result of official actions he took. It also will examine accusations that Mr. Jefferson was given money, stocks and other benefits from a technology company in exchange for helping the firm obtain business in Africa. Both men have denied wrongdoing.
Last night, FBI agents raided the Rayburn House Office Building, where Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Ney have offices, Reuters news agency reported.
The FBI would not say where it had searched, but NBC reported the warrant was for Mr. Jefferson's office.
Another Democrat, Rep. Alan B. Mollohan of West Virginia, is the focus of an FBI investigation for his purported role in obtaining millions of dollars in pork-barrel appropriations for his state, a network of groups he set up that benefited from the money and a personal fortune that grew from $565,000 to more than $6.3 million in just four years.
Mr. Mollohan, the ranking Democrat on the ethics committee, was forced to resign that post under pressure from party leaders.
The investigations have dramatically changed the political dynamic on the corruption issue, Republican strategists said.
"I think it makes it very difficult for the Democrats to try to frame a message on this issue without appearing as complete hypocrites," said Danny Diaz, spokesman for the Republican National Committee.
How the corruption issue will play in the midterm elections is not clear. Republicans maintain the Democrats' credibility on the issue has been badly wounded, if not wiped out, but Democrats say their polls show the issue still works in their favor.
"What the Democrats clearly tried to do at the beginning of the year was to shape this as a purely Republican problem. That effort was completely undercut by what happened to Mollohan and Jefferson," Republican pollster David Winston said.
"The majority of voters do not identify the corruption story with a single party. They still see it as a problem in both parties," he said.
A Pew poll in February found that a plurality of 34 percent blamed "both parties equally." An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in March rated the Democrats slightly better than Republicans on ethics -- 25 percent to 19 percent -- but nearly 30 percent of respondents said "both about the same."
However, Alan Secrest, a Democratic campaign adviser and pollster, said the voters are less focused on the corruption scandals and more concerned about "the perception of indifference and incompetence in the administration and its congressional allies."
"While the corruption issue is an important subtext, it is playing a lesser role in driving the anger we see from many voters. Voters nationally are not necessarily keeping score of individual members' ethical problems," he said.
That's not how House Republican leaders see things. "The Democrats' 'culture of corruption' agenda has been washed away by their own ethics tsunami," Mr. Bonjean said.

 

[Emmett]

This is why I thik we need to fire them all over an incremented period and hire all new ones.

Watching the fingerpointing contest each day is becoming as interesting as an oozing sore. I also think some third party influence would be goods for the system, healthy in fact.

 

[Annie]

This is why I thik we need to fire them all over an incremented period and hire all new ones.

Watching the fingerpointing contest each day is becoming as interesting as an oozing sore. I also think some third party influence would be goods for the system, healthy in fact.

AAAAAAARrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggg

 

[Annie]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060521...FGGbToC;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Filing: Tape Shows Lawmaker Taking Money

By MATTHEW BARAKAT, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 47 minutes ago

A congressman under investigation for bribery was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his freezer.

At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record), D-La., chuckles about writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for work in Africa.

As Jefferson and the informant passed notes about what percentage the lawmaker's family might receive, the congressman "began laughing and said, 'All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if the FBI is watching,'" according to the affidavit.

Jefferson, who represents New Orleans, has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.

As for the $100,000, the government says Jefferson got the money in a leather briefcase last July 30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington. The plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian official — the name is blacked out in the court document — to ensure the success of a business deal in that country, the affidavit said.

All but $10,000 was recovered on Aug. 3 when the FBI searched Jefferson's home in Washington. The money was stuffed in his freezer, wrapped in $10,000 packs and concealed in food containers and aluminum foil.

Two of Jefferson's associates have pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges in federal court in Alexandria. One, businessman Vernon Jackson of Louisville, Ky., admitted paying more than $400,000 in bribes to the lawmaker in exchange for his help securing business deals for Jackson's telecommunications company in Nigeria and other African countries.

The new details about the case emerged after federal agents searched Jefferson's congressional office on Capitol Hill Saturday night and Sunday. The nearly 100-page affidavit for a search warrant, made public Sunday with large portions blacked out, spells out much of the evidence so far.

The document includes excerpts of conversations between Jefferson and an unidentified business executive from northern Virginia. She agreed to wear a wire after she approached the FBI with complaints that Jefferson and an associate had ripped her off in a business deal.

Jefferson's lawyer, Robert Trout, contended that the prosecutors' disclosure was "part of a public relations agenda and an attempt to embarrass Congressman Jefferson. The affidavit itself is just one side of the story which has not been tested in court," Trout said in a statement.

The affidavit says Jefferson is caught on videotape at the Ritz-Carlton as he takes a reddish-brown briefcase from the trunk of the informant's car, slips it into a cloth bag, puts the bag into his 1990 Lincoln Town Car and drives away.

The $100 bills in the suitcase had the same serial numbers as those found in Jefferson's freezer.

While the name of the intended recipient of the $100,000 is blacked out, other details in the affidavit indicate he is Abubakar Atiku, Nigeria's vice president. He owns a home in Potomac, Md., that authorities have searched as part of the Jefferson investigation.

Jefferson assured the FBI informant in their coded conversations that he paid the money to the Nigerian official, even though the money was still in Jefferson's possession when agents searched his home Aug. 3.

On Aug. 1, two days after Jefferson picked up the $100,000, the informant called Jefferson to ask about the status of "the package."

Jefferson responded: "I gave him the African art that you gave me and he was very pleased."

When Jefferson and the informant had dinner at a Washington restaurant on May 12, 2005, the FBI was listening, too. Jefferson indicates he will need an increased stake in the profits of one deal, the affidavit said. Instead of the 7 percent stake originally agreed upon, he writes "18-20" on a piece of paper and passes it to the informant.

That is when negotiations move ahead and notes go back and forth, ending with Jefferson's laughter about the FBI watching it all.

Throughout the conversations, Jefferson makes attempts to deflect direct connections to any bribes.

He tells the informant at one point that money should be paid to businesses operated by his children. "I make a deal for my children. It wouldn't be me," Jefferson said, according to the affidavit.

In a different conversation, Jefferson seeks to distance himself from bribes that must be paid to Nigerian government officials to facilitate transactions.

"If he's gotta pay Minister X, we don't want to know. It's not our deal," Jefferson told the witness, according to the affidavit. "We're not paying Minister X a damn thing. That's all, you know, international fraud crap. We're not doing that. We're not doing any of that that gets us (unintelligible)."

The affidavit also spells out "seven other schemes" in which Jefferson was involved; nearly all were blacked out in the document.

The Jefferson investigation has provided fodder for Republicans who have suffered black eyes in the investigations of current and former GOP lawmakers, including Tom DeLay and Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Jefferson, who has pledged not to resign from Congress in the face of the bribery investigation, speculated about his political future in one of the recorded conversations.

When the informant asked Jefferson about his political plans, he responded: "I'm gonna get your deal out of the way ... and I probably won't last long after that."