Shocker! Media Discovers Democratic Corruption in Washington
The rogue's gallery of Democrats with ethics problems is steadily growing.
Slowly the mainstream media is catching on. The AP tells us startling new information: the Democrats have a corruption problem! Well, yes, of course they do. This has been going on for months now. After all, the Blago story broke before the president took office. What is new is that suddenly the liberal cheerleaders in the MSM (pardon the repetition) are nervous. Gosh, sounds just like 1994 and 2006, doesn’t it?
The AP tells us:
The revelation that Democratic appropriations kingpins may face an ethics investigation of their campaign donations moves Republicans closer to gaining a corruption issue in 2010. …
Democratic Reps. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, Pete Visclosky of Indiana and Jim Moran of Virginia, all members of the money-dispensing House Appropriations Committee, received significant campaign donations from lobbyists from a defunct firm, PMA, and its clients – companies that got money for pet projects.
Their risk is that Republicans will be able to depict them as the personification of corruption, much in the way Democrats portrayed former Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and ex-GOP Reps. Bob Ney of Ohio and Duke Cunningham of California going into the 2006 election. Ney and Cunningham both ended up being sentenced to federal prison.”
Indeed, a week earlier, the New York Times editorial page agitated for just such an ethics investigation. The editors at the Times implored the Democrats not to batten down the hatches:
It is a sordid and far-too-common tale: PMA’s top lobbyists began as House appropriations staffers and then capitalized on their connections and savvy to strike it rich in the private sector. Still the full story needs to be laid out before the public of how this money roundelay worked — from contractor to lawmaker, with the American taxpayer always footing the bill.
And Beltway dean Norman Ornstein has been pleading with Democrats to remember the past. He recounts the congressional ethics stumbles leading up to the 1994 Republican takeover, noting that “a critical element in the public backlash against the status quo in Congress was the populist anger at the elitism and corruption that the public saw engulfing Washington, D.C.” And then he warns:
I raise all this history because it is déjà vu all over again. The populist anger is back, and not just in the United States — the reaction in Britain to parliamentary expense abuses is directly reminiscent of the reaction to the House Bank. So far, it has not been directed at Congress, in part because the 111th Congress has been so remarkably productive, in part because of the popularity of President Barack Obama, in part because of the ineptitude of the minority party leadership. But one can see the train wreck coming.
Some of the seeds go back to former Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.), preceded by Jack Abramoff and former Reps. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.), Tom DeLay (R-Texas), Bob Ney (R-Ohio), Jim Traficant (D-Ohio), et al. Of course, some of the cases contributed mightily to the Republican loss of Congress after 12 years of rule, but all underscored a continuing public sense that Congress was more concerned with feathering its own nest than with the problems facing average Americans in their everyday lives.
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Jennifer Rubin is PJM's Washington, DC, editor. She also blogs at Commentary’s Contentions.
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48 Comments
1. Delia:Say it ain’t so! -And, the Chicago thuggery appointed dweezils in the most powerful postitions on the planet are not about to let their catbird seats be feathered by a new bird. Hello, ACORN, GOOD-BYE American Voters.
Jun 13, 2009 - 1:18 am 2. Delia:‘positions’ not ‘postitions. pfft!
Jun 13, 2009 - 1:19 am 3. Bad Karma:A complete shocker I say. The party has been corrupt for some time now, with the press giving a free pass the whole way. Quite possibly the administration is not going the way the media sees fit, hence they slowly are coming out with stories as these. Nah, they’ll continue the free pass. Just take a look at a few, Frank, Dodd, Murtha. If that’s just a sample of the amount of corruption with the beltway chuckleheads, it’s permeated througout. But with the background of Barry and “Chicago politics”, he would see this as nothing but normal and part of day to day business. Nice to see he had another nominee step down due to affiliation with Fannie Mae. Barry was going to let him pass through. Ahh, the most ethical group of indivdiuals evAh.
Jun 13, 2009 - 3:04 am 4. Gary Ogletree:Conservatives need to look high and low for a leader who has proven experience in rooting out corruption, better yet, one who has included Republican big shots in the house cleaning. Such a leader must, of course, first be vetted by James Carville, The New York Times, and the Beltway GOP.
Jun 13, 2009 - 3:09 am 5. Iaidoka:All true. But let’s not forget the republicans are hardly immune to corruption. Throw them all out. Every single damn one of them.
Jun 13, 2009 - 3:38 am 6. Terry:If one wants to get a grasp on national politics under the ‘new and improved’ obama administration, watch Chicago. Daley announced this week that he ‘tried’ to talk his nephew out of doing the corrupt tango unsuccessfully. Lefties bought the whole story, apparently unaware that nothing happens in Chicago without Daley’s approval.
Jun 13, 2009 - 3:40 am 7. Formwiz:(Side note: The real estate venture headed by Daley’s nephew leased property purchased with city pension money to the city at a slightly higher rate than previously paid . . . ten times higher!)
The Demo corruption never went away. There were just enough Republican scandals in shprt enough time to draw attention from the Dems. Now the Demos are all Pelosi’s Men. Have fun.
Jun 13, 2009 - 3:58 am 8. Robert Hooper:I propose we refer to the MSM as the ‘legacy media’ from this point on. I believe it is more accurate and takes away the implication in the MSM name that they are the source of correct and true information.
Jun 13, 2009 - 4:14 am 9. JimU:“If they do that much, 2010 may come to resemble 1994 or 2006. Proof once again that the key to reclaiming power is waiting for the other guys to mess up.”
If only that were true, but it would only apply if the MSM were willing to expose and report the corruption. They’re not, so the American people won’t know. In 1994 and 2006, there was more corruption among Democrats than Republicans but it wasn’t reported that way. The MSM created an icon out of a Chicago politician with a history of associations with corrupt politicians and extreme left-wing radicals. Obama has raised corrupt Chicago politics to the national level.
The key to reclaiming power isn’t waiting for the Democrats to mess up; they’ve been messed up for years, and with Obama in power, the mess is bigger than ever. The key to reclaiming power is to have a fair and honest media first, and in order to get that, you have to be able to expose the MSM to the American public. How are you going to do that?
Jun 13, 2009 - 4:22 am 10. Mike2:Jennifer, excellent essay and I especially liked the last two paragraphs. Will the GOP listen? I don’t think they are there yet.
Jun 13, 2009 - 4:27 am 11. Tomp:The democrat party is an ongoing criminal enterprise.
Jun 13, 2009 - 5:11 am 12. drjohn:I will be shocked if any of this comes to a hill of beans. Demcorats are without a shred of integrity when it comes to their own.
Jun 13, 2009 - 5:57 am 13. Meryl:They’re hiding in plain sight.
Blago demonstrated how its done. Didn’t quite work out for him, but he is the exception.
We thought they would destroy the country by stealth.
Nope. In broad daylight.
And as long as no one is going to stop them, it works as well as doing it in the darkness.
Jun 13, 2009 - 6:06 am 14. J Milam:It’s amazing that past House Appropriations staffers found such a target rich environment in their experiences with these Democrats that they were able to build a multi-million dollar business out of it. And not only that, but their [PMA's] income and influence reached a peak during the time that these Democrats, along with a complicit media, were able to focus solely on equally corrupt Republicans, to the exclusion of their fellow Democrats, and turn the tide of the 2006 elections.
Pointing their finger at Republicans while the other hand is out, palm up, behind their backs.
Now is that irony or hypocrisy? I forget. The atmosphere is so thick with it.
Jun 13, 2009 - 7:03 am 15. sheesh:Politicians abuse power. This is news? I’ll forego the laundry list of “What about . . . XYZ” and just say I’m glad it’s Democrats who have the power to abuse . . . lots less death, fewer attacks on civil liberties.
Jun 13, 2009 - 7:17 am 16. Barbara:We have had headlines about Democratic corruption here in Cleveland for months now. I am afraid the government IS the problem. The number of government agencies that should be shut down is almost as a large as the national debt. Someone needs to read the Constitution.
Jun 13, 2009 - 7:52 am 17. Self-hating Boomer:And what, precisely, were they expecting out of Chicago?
Jun 13, 2009 - 9:07 am 18. Mudpie:All the Republicrates have to do is three things…… They can’t walk and chew gum at
Jun 13, 2009 - 9:20 am 19. Sonny:the same time!
With the corruption in both political parties, it is very easy to understand why Independents are now the largest and fastest growing party we have.
The moment a true American is willing to stand up and say, “I have had enough” and is willing to lead our country out of the abyss that we are in, that man will be a God-send.
As it is, we have 535 people in our Congress of whom very few are concerned about our country and one person in the White House who has no intention of putting America First!
Toynbee wrote in 1961, “Of the 22 civilizations that have appeared in history, 19 of them collapsed when they reached the moral state America is in today.”
That statement was made 48 years ago. Do you really believe our culture has imporved since then??? I think it will be 20 of 22 very soon.
Jun 13, 2009 - 9:20 am 20. Jim Baker:Get used to it, folks. The Dimwits are now the majority party in this country. As long as they are in power, the rule of law will just be a campaign slogan used to help them win elections. They are so drunk with their power that soon you will be paying taxes on the calorie content of foods justified by the outright lie that people who eat badly cause rising health care costs when any moron can see that all of us will eventually get sick and cause unusual health costs and then die while overeaters just die sooner and therefore don’t make as many passes through our health care system in their lifetimes but the same stupid argument was bought by most when lawyers wanted the tobacco industry cash cow and where was the statistical proff that smokers or fat people ever cost us all more money than anyone else and that is just one small area where they are using misinformation to take more of your money and mine to spend on whatever and whomever will get them elected again and again until they don’t even have to include the whomever part anymore! But I digress. My bad for drifting from the discussion of Democrats being a corrupt bunch of polticians.
Jun 13, 2009 - 9:32 am 21. Jim Baker:As to the Main Stream Media, since most of them were educated by collectivist members of a government labor union which has never done anything useful except on behalf of Democrat candidates, it is entirely understandable that most MSM reporters and actually most of the people in our country are collectivists who support Democrats. So, I hope that supports my first comment of my previous rant.
Jun 13, 2009 - 9:38 am 22. johngaltrules:I believe we might want to address the Government media as what they really are. From now on we should label the Propaganda media as the KGB roundtable. Geez, Jennifer ,you left the most obvious name off the list, Charlie the Rank Ho. Charlie the Rank Ho makes John the fat pig Murtha look like a small time petty thief.
Jun 13, 2009 - 10:06 am 23. Anonymous:Robert Hooper:
I propose we refer to the MSM as the ‘legacy media’ from this point on
…or OPM – Obama Propaganda Machine.
sheesh:
lots less death
How did you come to that conclusion? You mean not pulling out of Iraq (as promised) and ramping up troops in Afghanistan?
fewer attacks on civil liberties
Are you serious?!? What are you smokin’, Dude?! Oh, maybe you don’t understand what ‘civil liberties’ are. Considering your posts in general, there are a lot of things you don’t understand.
I would think (hope 8Þ) you would have learned something during your time on this site. Just goes to show you – libs aren’t willing or able to learn anything. Must be the Kool-aid.
Jun 13, 2009 - 10:07 am 24. johngaltrules:One last little item Jennifer. You mentioned how most people feel Congress is dping nothing to improve there lives. In reality , Congress is the CAUSE of most of there problems. Lets start writing about that also.
Jun 13, 2009 - 10:11 am 25. Khiri:#23 is mine. Minor problem with my browser remembering my personal info.
johngaltrules:
Geez, Jennifer ,you left the most obvious name off the list, Charlie the Rank Ho.
And Christopher Doodie!
Jun 13, 2009 - 10:16 am 26. Mike:You can this one covered so expertly by Michelle Malkin and the DCExaminer
Obama’s Americorps scandal — and the First Lady’s meddling
By Michelle Malkin • June 12, 2009 09:43 AM
President Obama is hoping you won’t notice his abrupt change of inspectors general over at Americorps, the government-run, taxpayer-subsidized “community service” boondoggle (which Republicans helped expand as part of the $6 billion GIVE/SERVE Act in March despite its wasteful track record. Thanks, Republicans).
With intervention from Michelle Obama, the Americorps inspector general was given the boot and replaced — for doing his job too well, it seems, and uncovering squandering of funds by favored contributors, educational institutions, and left-wing groups.
This Associated Press article only scratches the surface:
michellemalkin.com/
===============
What’s behind Obama’s sudden attempt to fire the AmeriCorps inspector general?
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
06/11/09 8:14 PM EDT
Bottom line: The AmeriCorps IG accuses prominent Obama supporter of misusing AmeriCorps grant money. Prominent Obama supporter has to pay back more than $400,000 of that grant money. Obama fires AmeriCorps IG.
———————–
Of course Honest Nancy defends the firing.
“It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general,” Obama said in the letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Vice President Joe Biden, who also serves as president of the Senate. “That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general.”
The president didn’t offer any more explanation, but White House Counsel Gregory Craig, in a letter late Thursday to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, cited the U.S. attorney’s criticism of Walpin to an integrity committee for inspectors general.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/AmeriCorps-watchdog-defends-waste-probe-47995326.html
Jun 13, 2009 - 10:19 am 27. EnemyoftheState:Term Limits! Don’t Re-Elect Anyone.
Jun 13, 2009 - 10:30 am 28. Войска ПВО:4. Gary Ogletree writes:
“Conservatives need to look high and low for a leader who has proven experience in rooting out corruption, better yet, one who has included Republican big shots in the house cleaning. Such a leader must, of course, first be vetted by James Carville, The New York Times, and the Beltway GOP.”
..and, I suspect, passed by the first two and rejected by the last as a threat to their expansive, compromising, pimple-covered-ass existence.
Jun 13, 2009 - 11:08 am 29. Seamus:Don’t we have enough regs, rules and laws? Where does it say that representatives have to pass anything? I don’t need government to take care of me or mine…that’s my job.
Jun 13, 2009 - 11:40 am 30. marsouin:National defense, police, firemen of course, but 4 million bureaucrats (not counting state and local) is the result of make-work-projects for the incompetent graduates of public schools. And please no anecdotal examples of those who slip through the cracks…they’re the reason for charities which do a better job…or did before government started competing with or co-opted some of them.
Bigger the government, the more profitable politics becomes, and bigger the corruption. Until we constitutionally limit government to core functions (i.e. the Founder’s constitution), any party in control of Washington will inevitably degenerate into corruption. Getting Republicans back in power will only take us right back to 1994.
Jun 13, 2009 - 12:24 pm 31. Macko:Help me out here. I’ve always wondered why was it corruption when Blago wanted campaign funds in exchange for boobama’s senate seat but it wasn’t corruption for hillary to drop her presidential run and campaign for boobama in exchange for the Secretary of State appointment ?
Jun 13, 2009 - 1:26 pm 32. Anonymous:But it’s for “the common good,” remember that. Working for social justice, who needs ethics?
Jun 13, 2009 - 2:14 pm 33. M Bruce:Lord Acton put it best – Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely. However, the former democratic senator from New York, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan modified the saying to bring it more up to date – Power tends to corrupt, but absolute power… is awesome! It’s the power that’s the problem. Our founders recognized that too much power concentrated in too few hands would lead to mischief. Boy howdy, if they could see us now!
Jun 13, 2009 - 2:51 pm 34. sheesh:23 Anonymous . . . Nuh-uh. You’re dumb.
Jun 13, 2009 - 3:13 pm 35. Rick:To sheesh,less death? are you nuts?! abortion mills will be running wide open, and if barry can get his socialized medicine going, lots of people will die because the powers-in-charge will deem them a poor use of the guvmint’s money. . . Loss of civil liberties? ever hear of the censorship of talk radio, or the continued assualt on the 2nd amendment? Wake up and educate yourself to what is happening. . .
Jun 13, 2009 - 3:49 pm 36. A FINE MESS:but why i ask? the political class is destroying the game in which they are engaged. they are running the country so poorly, that our destruction is assured, and they wont have power over anything.
isnt it possible to find an honest person anywhere? i have seen people fired where i work for a single transgression on an expense report. theft at any level is just not permitted. why do we allow the political elite to get away with it?
Jun 13, 2009 - 4:23 pm 37. Cybergeezer:The media shall retract this “mistake” in a couple days!
Jun 13, 2009 - 5:28 pm 38. Justmy2cents:31. Macko:”Help me out here. I’ve always wondered why was it corruption when Blago wanted campaign funds in exchange for boobama’s senate seat but it wasn’t corruption for hillary to drop her presidential run and campaign for boobama in exchange for the Secretary of State appointment ?”
Don’t forget the $ she was given to pay off loans, $30 – $60 mil or something like that…
Looked like she was paid to drop to me, along with the new job so she could gain experience for what she lacked (foreign affairs) to run again latter down the road..
As for being Shocked! About being corrupt, nope every darn politician is corrupt in some way or another. Doesn’t matter who it is, it has either not been found yet or the right people where paid so it isn’t found.
Jun 13, 2009 - 7:09 pm 39. Turkey Brain:sheesh
Jun 13, 2009 - 8:25 pm 40. Rashputin:I mean really sheesh. Let me see, who got us into the Vietnam War. Let me go through the list. Hummmm let’s see. Oops it was the Democrats! 50,000 dead? Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia all lost to the communists? Don’t play moral high ground, you don’t have a case. By the way, more civil liberties were lost during the Democratic administrations than the Republican ones. Go take a sheesh, things will be better in the morning.
With some notable exceptions that’s probably at least one too many things for them to keep in mind no matter how large their staff.
Anonymous (23)
Good idea regarding the legacy media.
Seamus (29)
I agree.
I found an interesting “essay” or “outline” on that subject, something revisionist historians have recently discovered and determined to be some sort of ancient fiction or fantasy for the masses, obviously nothing that ever interested the elites.
As I recall, the name was, “Constitution on The United States” or something like that. You’d love it, goes right with what you express in your post. It’s a great fantasy, really, but I doubt it could ever be useful for long; too many people are either disinterested on the one hand, or power hungry on the other. If you like it, let me know what you think. Could a country like that last more than a few hundred years? It would take a lot of people with character, but could it be done?
Regards
Jun 13, 2009 - 9:12 pm 41. JoAyn:Unfortunately, the majority of Democrat constituents are crooks and liars who like crooks and liars; that’s why there’s never a shortage of liars and crooks in Washington and that’s why they will always be there. Like-minded people are always drawn together. These politicians are voted into office and are kept there for one reason only: to steal for their greedy masses, their creations. Why do you think Democrats always have to run as “conservative” Democrats? If they ran as the big, fat, lying thief-liberals that they are, they’d never get enough votes – they’d get some from their crooked minions, mind you, but not enough from the real conservative Democrats or Independents to win.
The MSNM will never, ever go after Obama and his administration or the Democrats in Congress like they should. They learned an important lesson when Jimmy Carter was president. They hammered him and hammered him and Ronald Reagan got elected – and they realized their mistake. After that, they have never done their job to the extent that they should and they never will. Why? Because they’re a bunch of crooks and liars them own selves. Because what they report and what they do is totally self-serving (and I really think they desperately want to be in the “cool crowd”).
So ask yourself this: Do honest people really want their elected officials to steal and cheat and lie for them? Do honest people want to profit off the misery and rights of others? Do honest people want the best for everyone not just themselves? Do honest people understand the reasoning behind that? Do honest people believe in forcing others to give up their properity against their will? Do honest people believe in violating the Constitution to get their way and punish others whose beliefs are different?
Republicans have always voted out of office people they are unhappy with. Always.
Democrats never do that. Never. Lazy crooks and liars. They deserve what they get. And crazily enought, by reading these blogs, they just don’t get that they’re going to get screwed just like the rest of us. What, you guys think that only our taxes are going to be raised and only our jobs are going to be lost? That’s the only saving grace for me; you’ll be going down with the rest of us. I can’t wait. That’s right, you won … hope that pays your bills.
Jun 13, 2009 - 9:28 pm 42. seven:The Chicago Way brings a more transparent, more out in the open kind of thuggery.
Jun 14, 2009 - 5:58 am 43. sheesh:Pay to play is no longer secretive.
39. Turkey Brain:. . . “By the way, more civil liberties were lost during the Democratic administrations than the Republican ones.”
Now you’ve done it . . . Such as?
Jun 14, 2009 - 7:40 am 44. sheesh:35. Rick . . . ” Loss of civil liberties? ever hear of the censorship of talk radio . . . ”
Nope. Who’s been censored?
Jun 14, 2009 - 7:41 am 45. Marc Malone:#44 sheesh – Congress was censored. Stimulus bill. Nope. No peeking! Just vote for it. Force the vote. No time to wait.
How about shareholders being bullied by the Whitehouse?
How about dropping the voter intimidation case when they had an automatic conviction because the defendants never responded? Voter rights? No such thing.
Loss of liberties. Unions being moved to the front of the line. Preferred bondholders having their contracts abrogated. Forget your property rights. Unions come first.
How about banks not being allowed to return TARP money? Or being forced to take it in the first place? LImiting Exec pay even in companies not taking the money?
Forcing Governor Sanford to take stimulus money by bypassing him and going to the Legislature? Sure, we’ll just abrogate his authority as Governor by making him acccept those attached strings.
I could go on, if you wish, sheesh.
Jun 15, 2009 - 12:27 am 46. Will Engwall:I hear you say we need a fair media. Just wait. All the major newspapers are going the
Jun 15, 2009 - 1:30 am 47. sheesh:way of the horse and buggy. The corupt so called “news” out-lets will follow, as more
people realize they are being fed s–t by those left wing dandies. Oh my friends, the
good days are just around the corner. No more Keith Overbite. No more Obama.
45. Malvo
“No peeking! Just vote for it. Force the vote. No time to wait.” – sounds like the Patriot Act.
“Preferred bondholders having their contracts abrogated” – Only because they wanted to wait for more of YOUR money to up the perceived value of the debt.
How about banks not being allowed to return TARP money? – But they are returning it.
“Forcing Governor Sanford to take stimulus money” – You mean the same way Jindahl was forced and Palin was forced, preventing them from grandstanding on a small percentage of the stimulus while raking in hundreds of millions of dollars? Yeah, how noble of them.
Now as to the original question, where has talk radio been censored? I’ll throw in a couple more” Where is Obama’s apology? When is Sean Hannity going to be waterboarded for charity? When are we finally going to stand up and say, “Mr. President, enough is enough! Your choice of spicy mustard is simply not acceptable!”
Jun 15, 2009 - 6:19 am 48. capecodconservative:Robert Cooper wrote “I propose we refer to the MSM as the ‘legacy media’ from this point on. I believe it is more accurate and takes away the implication in the MSM name that they are the source of correct and true information.” On Glenn Beck tonight, glenn called the news media the cult media and that’s exactly what they have been since BO came on the scene last year. When they’re covering Dems (and Dem corruption) they act like dumb idiots (see no evil, write no evil) and when they’re covering Republicans they could be candidates for a Pulitzer Prize.
Jun 15, 2009 - 4:03 pm