Reporter investigated Congress members

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Sun, Nov. 07, 2004




DAMON CHAPPIE


Reporter investigated Congress members
From Herald Wire Services


WASHINGTON - Damon Chappie, an investigative reporter who unearthed ethical lapses and corruption in Congress, died Friday of congestive heart failure and other health problems at a Washington hospice. He lived in Arlington, Va. He was 40.

Since 1995, he had worked at Roll Call, a small but influential paper that examines the inner workings of Capitol Hill. Chappie's investigations, based on documents uncovered through the Freedom of Information Act, a thick Rolodex and sometimes direct confrontation, examined ethical conflicts surrounding former House speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.; Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill.; former Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

One of Chappie's frequent targets was Rep. Bud Shuster, who chaired the House Transportation Committee and often traveled across the country raising money in the company of a female lobbyist. After being investigated by the House ethics committee, Shuster resigned his seat in January 2001.

Chappie also conducted early investigations into bribery and corruption linked to Traficant, who was expelled from Congress in 2002 and later sentenced to eight years in prison.Chappie, who was born in Reading, Pa., gained notice as a journalist in college at Pennsylvania State University by investigating Clair George, a Penn State alumnus who was one of the CIA's central figures in the Iran-contra scandal of the 1980s.
(snip/...)

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/state/10118998.htm
(Free registration required)

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Normally, I wouldn't have tried to post this, but I hope it will seem appropriate after you examine the kind of people he investigated. Thanks.

[KT2000]

1. Wow - he was a real journalist

sad that he died so young.

[idiosyncratic]

2. How sad . . . he was so young.

[juliagoolia]

3. Thats pretty damn young to die from CHF

Must have had a heart problem to begin with to die from that.

Too bad too.. he could have had lots of good years to investigate people like Delay!

[MADem]

4. Either that, or he got the Arafat treatment n/t

[aquart]

5. We lost Lars Erik Nelson with Florida 2000.

I can't help but imagine that George gives himself a little gift with each election.

Did an investigative Texas reporter die when Bush won governor?

[grasswire]

6. another for the Bush body count?

Who knows what he was working on now?

[Donna Zen]

12. They have their ways

[Carolab]

7. HMMM I wonder WHO

has the ROLODEX now???

[shelley806]

8. 40 years old is too young in the absence of untreated congenital heart

disease, obesity, prolonged drug abuse (cocaine can cause this), acute myocarditis and others...none are very common. But also extremely uncommon is his profession. Seems to be a low survival rate with certain occupations.

http://www.lovearth.net/fortunateson.htm
Bush Accuser Dies Of Drug Overdose

James Howard Hatfield, 43, Author Of "Fortunate Son:
George W. Bush and the Making of an American President"
Found Dead In A Hotel Room On Wednesday July 18, 2001

Was This A Payback Murder For His Writing Fortunate Son, Or Did
He Really Commit Suicide By Overdosing On Prescription Drugs?


by Irene Noguchi
The troubled author of a biography accusing President Bush of hiding a three-decade-old cocaine arrest committed suicide Wednesday. James Howard Hatfield, 43, was found in a hotel room in Springdale, Ark., and appeared to have died from a overdose of prescription drugs, police said.

Hatfield wrote "Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President" in 1999. The book cited unnamed sources in claiming that Bush was arrested in 1972 but that his case was expunged. Bush, who was campaigning for president when the book was published, denied the allegations.

http://www.bushwatch.com/hdeath.htm

ONLINE COMMUNITY RESP0NDS TO HATFIELD DEATH"In the online community where he found a home after "Fortunate Son," the reactions to Hatfield's reported suicide were unsurprisingly suspicious. Take this from Democrats.com: "Police labeled the death a suicide, but we'll be watching this story VERY carefully." The conspiracy theorists were out in force on the Democratic Underground, where speculation was that Hatfield's death was some kind of "payback." One poster writes: "I heard Hatfield was working on a second book, who knows what might have been in there. While it would be nice if we could prove it, I don't expect to. After all, was head of the CIA." Even the folks at the Free Republic were skeptical. "Are we seeing the beginning of another 'Dead Body List'? I thought that garbage flowed out with the incoming tide," writes one poster. But others in the thread were more rooted in cold, hard fact. "And so begins the Parade of Conspiracy Nutballs." Conspiracy nutballs aside, Hatfield's friends are mourning the author's death. "Right now, my thoughts are for his widow, Nancy, and his daughter, Haley," Online Journal editor Bev Conover said. "My deepest condolences to them. Jim will be greatly missed. After his media roller-coaster ride, Hatfield kept a low profile, penning an occasional column for Online Journal, a liberal Web site. He once wrote a piece accusing Bush advisor Karl Rove of hatching a Machiavellian plot to use Hatfield's checkered past to dismiss the cocaine allegations about Bush. Soft Skull Press, against Hatfield's stated wishes, claimed Rove himself was Hatfield's key source for the cocaine allegation. Conover said she was "devastated" after hearing the news of Hatfield's death. "I got to know Jim fairly well over the past few years. I knew him to be a gentle and sensitive man whose life, career and family were ruined because he told the truth about George W. Bush," Conover said Friday." --Salon, 7/20/01

[DBoon]

11. Are there toxins that would cause this

that are difficult to detect?

[shelley806]

13. You bet there are; or those that are so rare that unless you know

precisely what to look for, they would not show up in a routine forensic toxicology test.

[Rose Siding]

9. He was investigating DeLay?

If that list of his work is chronological, he could have been involved in the current DeLay case.

[natrat]

10. why cant the bad guys end up like this?

ok ,,,forget i said that