LAT: Group Lists 13 'Most Corrupt' in Congress

[DeepModem Mom]

Group Lists 13 'Most Corrupt' in Congress
Three California lawmakers are named by the ethics watchdog. A spokesman for one senator says the report is 'pure politics.'

By Chuck Neubauer, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — A watchdog group, naming what it calls "the 13 most corrupt members of Congress," is calling for ethics investigations of some of the most prominent leaders on Capitol Hill in a report to be released Monday.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says in its report that the 13 members, among them Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), might have violated a variety of congressional ethics rules.

The bipartisan list includes three Californians: Reps. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy), Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) and Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Rancho Santa Fe).

Cunningham is one of two House members whose residences have been searched as part of separate federal criminal investigations. The other, Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), also is named on the watchdog group's list.

Three of those named on the list — Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Reps. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) and Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) — were cited for their dealings with onetime super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is the subject of congressional and federal grand jury investigations. Abramoff was indicted last month on fraud charges relating to a Florida business deal. He has pleaded not guilty....


NOTE: Here is the full list --

Sen. Bill Frist, Rep., Tenn.
Rep. Roy Blunt, Rep., Mo.
Sen. Conrad Burns, Rep., Mont.
Rep. Bob Ney, Rep., Ohio
Rep. Tom Feeney, Rep., Fla.
Rep. Richard W. Pombo, Rep., Ca.
Rep. Maxine Waters, Dem., Ca.
Sen. Rick Santorum, Rep., Pa.
Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Rep., Ca.
Rep. William J. Jefferson, Dem., La.
Rep. Charles H. Taylor, Rep., N.C.
Rep. Marilyn N. Musgrave, Rep., Colo.
Rep. Rick Renzi, Rep., Ariz.


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-ethics25sep25,0,6631010.story?coll=la-home-nation


ON EDIT: Here's what is said about DeLay (thanks, gratuitous, for referencing this in post #12) --

The watchdog group has been outspoken in criticizing House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) for what Sloan calls his ethical lapses.

"Nonetheless, we recognize that Rep. DeLay is not the only member of Congress whose behavior merits scrutiny," the report says. "There are a significant number of other members who have engaged in similarly egregious conduct, thus the name of the report: 'Beyond DeLay.' "

[rpannier]

1. Can we guess which senator said it's pure politics

santorum is my guess. I wonder why delay isn't on the list? If these people are worse than he is, then the situation is much worse than we thought.

[DeepModem Mom]

4. I wondered the same thing -- where's DeLay? nt

[Verve]

2. Why Maxine Waters? n/t

[DeepModem Mom]

6. From the article:

"Rep. Maxine Waters: The report cites a December 2004 Los Angeles Times investigation disclosing how members of the congresswoman's family have made more than $1 million in the last eight years by doing business with companies, candidates and causes that Waters has helped. Before publication of the Times investigation last year, Waters declined to be interviewed, but said of her family members: 'They do their business, and I do mine.'"

[Lindsay]

16. A million dollars - eight years - that amounts to

$125,000/year. For members (more than one) of the family.

Sounding like there is really not a whole lot of substance there, but using the million dollar figure makes it sound like there is.

Full disclosure: Maxine Waters is one of my heroes. So I'm way willing to cut her slack until something is proven.

[Verve]

19. Agree! n/t

[TheDebbieDee]

21. I'll cut her plenty of slack, too! A million dollars over 8 years........

is nothing compared to the billions that Cheney has made by starting wars for Halliburton!

[anitar1]

24. I want it to be proven. I do not condone any criminal activities

anymore. Don't care if it is 25.00 bucks. I am weary of crooks making money off our backs. I will be very sorry if Maxine Waters is guilty of these charges, but if so, she should be punished.Party makes no difference to me. Crooks are crooks.

[MADem]

32. We cannot blame Jimmy Carter for Billy Beer

Everyone has humiliating relatives...it is what keeps folk humble.

Unless you are a Bush, of course. When those kids fuck up, the parents smile broadly and proclaim "That's MAH boy (or girl, as the case may be)."

[donheld]

23. Sounds like they wanted to nit-pik her with very little substance.

She's my hero too.

[TankLV]

35. Gee - that would make ALL THE OTHER REPUKES, starting w/CHENEY

what, exactly, then?

By their reasoning, I think nothing short of capital punishment is called for there!

Of course, they did just limit it to Congress.

[NNguyenMD]

33. I'm lock step with her on most things, but her continued support of MLK

Medical Center is an embarassment. That is most certainly one of the most ridiculous displays of out of control corruption by a county healthcare center that I have ever seen, and she's stood by the leadership at MLKMC every step of the way despite all of the lawsuits, investigations, deaths and complaints by the local community of what a horrible place it is.

[VegasWolf]

3. How is Tom DeLay not on this list? nt

[Endangered Specie]

8. Makes you wonder how worse the others could be?

:scared:

[Fridays Child]

10. That was my first clue that this is somebody's pet vendetta list.

Nobody trumps Tom DeLay.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

22. because it's titled"BEYOND DELAY: The 13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress"

tom is number one without question. they don't even bother to make it a competition. these 13 are the runners up

[no_hypocrisy]

5. What the f*** is Tom DeLay?!!! Chopped liver?!

[FightinNewDem]

28. Read closely

It basically says "well, besides DeLay, obviously". It's sort of like asking who is the best pure hitter in Red Sox history; you start with Ted Williams as a given, and then debate Rice, Ramirez, Yaz, et al from there.

[Ediacara]

7. Burns is going down

:-)

[Independent_Liberal]

9. You should add Hastert to that list.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. True! Where's he? nt

[Independent_Liberal]

13. You can read all about his Turkish bribes here...

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/10/1346254

[DeepModem Mom]

15. Yep -- thanks, I_L! nt

[gratuitous]

12. Hold it, don't bury the lede, LA Times

The name of this report is "Beyond DeLay." Whoever the Top 13 on this list are, number zero is Tom DeLay, a little fact the Times doesn't see fit to mention until the eighth paragraph.

Slipshod reporting.

[DeepModem Mom]

17. Thanks, gratuitous! I thought I read the entire article...

but I somehow missed that important part.

[gratuitous]

26. I think that was the idea

I can't think of any other reason the LA Times would leave out such a crucial bit of information, except to cover for DeLay. Well, it could be slipshod reporting, but some editor somewhere had to make the decision that DeLay's corruption was such old news that it could wait until the eighth paragraph.

[pinniped]

14. I knew that POS animal killer pombum would be on the list.

.

[wellstone_democrat]

18. Well, I wondered where the Texans were!

Only DeLay? They need to pay better attention.

[ngGale]

20. I'm also cutting Maxine some slack....

she's too involved in all our causes. In other words, she cares.

[FightinNewDem]

34. Unfortunately...

Unfortunately, my neo-libertarian, ultraconservative cousin in Stockton would say the exact same thing about Pombo.

[ladylibertee]

25. Interesting.I still think they ALL are, but we can start with these

[FightinNewDem]

27. NO SLACK, NO EXCUSES!!!

Sleaze is sleaze, no matter the ideology of the person involved. If you start maing excuses for Maxine Waters because of her philosophy, you are tacitly saying that cronyism and nest-feathering is acceptable so long as the person votes a certain way. That's not right. In fact, that's the attitude that lead DeLay and the boys to get us into this mess to begin with.

Zero tolerance for abusing the public trust!

[UrbScotty]

29. 6 times as many Repubs as Dems - SURPRISE!

The Repub Party has come down a long way since Teddy Roosevelt.

[Uncle Roy]

30. Yup! 11 Republicans, 2 Democrats; Hmm...

I suppose conservatives are more attuned philosophically and psychologically to "self-interest", enlightened or otherwise. Our more virtuous liberal friends get all conflicted and guilt-ridden when they see a chance to benefit themselves.

On the other hand, why would anyone bother to bribe a Democrat? It's the Republicans who run the show down there, so it makes more sense to bribe them.

So which explanation fits the case? There's only one way to find out for sure, and that is to run a "control" experiment. The Democrats need to recapture the House and hold it for 10 years. Then we'll do another survey and see if the slime-ball numbers have changed.

This is strictly in the interest of science, of course. It may not go over so well on the faith-based side of the aisle...

[MADem]

31. More good discussion of this issue here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4880094

[struggle4progress]

36. kick

[maddezmom]

37. a big ole kick for the repug party

trading in one for another...:shrug:

[dryan]

38. Glad Feeney...

is on that list--what a scumbag--unfortunately, he's my congressman. When he was the Florida Speaker of the House, I set up an appointment with his office in Tallahasse and I even confirmed it. My husband and I drove all the way to Tallahassee only to have the meeting cancelled while we were waiting to see him. He found out that I was president of my union's local!!!!!