July 11, 2006

Either several upstanding officers are lying on the stand, or Coopertown Mayor Danny Crosby is one of the most tyrannical and corrupt politicians in recent state history. Mayor Crosby's method for raising revenue for Coopertown's anti-tax leaders is shocking.

One Coopertown police sergeant testified that Coopertown Mayor Danny Crosby offered “a steak dinner” to the officer who arrested one of his critics and told him to send the woman a “nasty e-mail” under a fake name.

And another officer, who says he was wrongly fired after 30 days on the job, said it was clear Crosby didn’t want a traditional police department in the small Robertson County town.

“He wanted storm troopers,” said Corey Mead, who now works for the Sumner County sheriff’s office as a jailer.

Several current and former Coopertown officers took the stand Monday in a hearing to determine whether Crosby’s mayoral powers should be suspended immediately while an ouster lawsuit against him is pending.

They described an administration in which the mayor pressured them to target Hispanics, soldiers, nonresidents and political foes during routine patrols. Several said Crosby told them multiple times to ticket more drivers so city leaders could spend money without a property tax.
[Cop: Mayor sought 'storm troopers' - Tennessean - 07-11-06]

May 06, 2006

If you can't be the head of the CIA under George W. Bush and not be able to do defense deals with friends over poker and hookers, what good is it being a Republican?

"It's all about the Duke Cunningham scandal," a senior law enforcement official told the Daily News in reference to Goss' resignation. Duke, a California Republican, was sentenced to more than eight years in prison after pleading guilty in November to taking $2.4 million in homes, yachts and other bribes in exchange for steering government contracts.

Goss' inability to handle the allegations swirling around Foggo prompted John Negroponte, the director of National Intelligence, who oversees all of the nation's spy agencies, to press for the CIA chief's ouster, the senior official said. The official said Goss is not an FBI target but "there is an impending indictment" of Foggo for steering defense contracts to his poker buddies.
[CIA boss Goss is cooked - NY Daily News - 05-06-06]

April 22, 2006

Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Ron Ramsey will have an opportunity on Monday to demonstrate a commitment to openness and accountability by supporting the "Sunshine In Government Improvement Act of 2006" (SB2471).

Previously, Sen. Ramsey described the proposed improvements to the open records law as "way too stringent." Not exactly the kind of words the electorate wants to hear from elected officials sent to Nashville to work on their behalf.

First, the good news: Thanks to changes to state ethics laws, a watchdog group has moved Tennessee from 44th in the nation to 32nd in how much lawmakers are required to disclose about their business and financial interests.

Now, the bad news: Despite its improved ranking, the Volunteer State still has an F grade, scoring only 57.5 out of 100 possible points for disclosure requirements.

The ranking came out this week from the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity.

Senate Majority Leader Ron Ramsey, who is chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, said the General Assembly has "really taken great strides" recently on what its members are required to disclose to the public.

"We've gone from generalities, like saying you work in 'consulting' or 'real estate,' to disclosing the name of the company you work for," the Blountville Republican said. "We've made it illegal to do consulting, and we've lowered from $1,000 to $200 the financial investment or interest in a business you have to have for it to be disclosed."
[State gets good, bad news in latest ethics ranking - Tennessean - 04-22-06]

Also read:

• The Cost of Secrecy in Tennessee Government Increases - April 20, 2006
  
• TCOG Responds to Chattanooga Mayor's Actions - April 19, 2006

April 14, 2006

They had to pay him some how.

Soaring gas prices are squeezing most Americans at the pump, but at least one man isn't complaining.

Last year, Exxon made the biggest profit of any company ever, $36 billion, and its retiring chairman appears to be reaping the benefits.

Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.
[Retirement Package Amid Soaring Gas Prices - ABCnews - 04-14-06]

April 13, 2006

Davidson County Criminal Court Clerk David Torrence ought to do more than suspend two judicial employees for a week without pay. He ought to fire them. Elaine Ragan and Rena Upton were caught on audio tape threatening to fire employees who did not help Torrence get re-elected to the County Clerk position in upcoming elections.

In this country, you're supposed to be free to vote for anyone you like. But secret tapes obtained by NewsChannel 5 reveal that, in one Metro office, employees have been warned they could be fired if they don't get their politics right.

Inside the Davidson County Criminal Court Clerks Office, taxpayers pay the employees to keep the criminal justice system running efficiently.

But with longtime Criminal Court Clerk David Torrence running for re-election, some of his top managers say that, if the boss's campaign isn't run as efficiently, those employees' jobs could be in jeopardy.

The proof comes in the form of a secret recording of a staff meeting in which Torrence's supervisors lecture workers about their lack of participation in the political campaign.

"I talked to you," one supervisor tells workers. "I've tried to encourage you. I've tried to nag you. I've tried everything. No response. No yard signs and no ticket sales. I'm sick of that."

And the employees are warned that, if things don't change, they could be fired.

"If you don't support him, I am telling you.... I know who you are," another supervisor adds.

"I'm not taking no excuses. There's not a person sitting in here that wants to lose their job. I know I don't. But I'm gonna help you lose it."
[Secret Tape Reveals Political Threats Against Metro Workers
- Newschannel5 - 04-12-06]

VolunteerVoters has an audio clip.

April 05, 2006

Don't take my word for it. Take that from the man Republicans have been praising as their fearless leader throughout the Republican rule of the federal government, the disgraced, corrupt politician, Tom Delay.

Departing Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas said yesterday that House Republicans have no vision or agenda and have let the Democrats choose the GOP leadership.

"We don't have an agreed agenda -- breaking up our leadership has taken its toll," Mr. DeLay told a small group of reporters invited to his offices in the Cannon House Office Building.
[House GOP lacks agenda, DeLay says - Washington Times - 04-05-06]

As Newt Gingrich said recently, "had enough?"

It's just a matter of time before Tom Delay tries to convince us law-abiding Americans how his years of corrupt, criminal and unethical behavior as the Republican leader in the United States House of Representatives was just how Jesus would have run government.

April 03, 2006

"I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress," DeLay, who turns 59 on Saturday, said during a 90-minute interview on Monday. "I'm very much at peace with it." He notified President Bush in the afternoon. DeLay and his wife, Christine, said they had been prepared to fight, but that he decided last Wednesday, after months of prayer and contemplation, to spare his suburban Houston district the mudfest to come. "This had become a referendum on me," he said. "So it's better for me to step aside and let it be a referendum on ideas, Republican values and what's important for this district."
[Exclusive: Tom DeLay Says He Will Give Up His Seat - Time - 04-03-06]

But Tom, you're the model Republican.

December 12, 2005

Let's see.

• The Bush Administration's Department of Justice ruled Tom Delay's redistricting scheme violated the Voting Rights Act, and now the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing the case.
  
• Tom Delay is in court defending himself against money laundering charges in a fundraising scheme to gain a Republican majority.
  
• Tom Delay was admonshied several times for ethics violations.
  
• Vice President Dick Cheney attends a fundraiser in Texas for Delay holding him up as the model Republican.

The Supreme Court said Monday it would consider the constitutionality of a Texas congressional map engineered by Rep. Tom DeLay that helped Republicans gain seats in Congress.

The 2003 boundaries helped Republicans win 21 of the state's 32 seats in Congress in the last election_ up from 15. They were approved amid a nasty battle between Republican leaders and Democrats and minority groups in Texas.

The contentiousness also reached Washington, where the Justice Department approved the plan although staff lawyers concluded that it diluted minority voting rights. Because of historic discrimination against minority voters, Texas is required to get Justice Department approval for any voting changes to ensure they don't undercut minority voting.

Justices will consider a constitutional challenge to the boundaries filed by various opponents. The court will hear two hours of arguments, likely in April, in four separate appeals.
[Supreme Court to Review Texas Redistricting - AP - 12-12-05]

December 08, 2005

Check out this amazing tool that helps visualize the web of corruption in Tom Delay's House of Representatives. Click the RX to see how today's HR 591 fits into the web.

December 08, 2005

Another spectacular display on the House floor in the U.S. Congress just moments ago as the Clerk was interrupted several times reading H.R. 591, a privileged resolution denouncing the culture of corruption and directing the speaker to prevent further abuse. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office is emailing the language to me now. I'll share it when it arrives. The vote in progress is on a Republican motion to table the resolution.

UPDATE 3:49pm: Here is the language. It was just tabled. Why is this important? It's a peek at the Democratic talking points in the coming battle over corruption charges in Congress.

Whereas the recurring practice of improperly holding votes open for the sole purpose of overturning the will of the majority, including bullying and threatening Members to vote against their conscience, has occurred eight times since 2003, and three times in the 109th Congress alone;

Whereas on November 22, 2003, the Republican Leadership held open the vote on H.R. 1, the Prescription Drug Conference Report, for nearly three hours, the longest period of time in the history of electronic voting in the U.S. House of Representatives;

Whereas the normal period of time for a recorded vote is 15 minutes, and the Speaker of the House has reiterated that policy on Opening Day of each Congress by saying, “The Chair announced, and then strictly enforced, a policy of closing electronic votes as soon as possible after the guaranteed period of 15 minutes”;

Whereas the sole purpose of holding the Prescription Drug vote open was to undermine the will of the House, and reverse the position that a majority of the House of Representatives had taken during the entire vote;

Whereas it was widely reported in the press that former Representative Nick Smith (R-MI) was bribed on the House floor, and the incident was described in Robert Novak’s column in the Chicago Sun-Times, November 27, 2003: “Nick Smith was told business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for his father’s vote. When he still declined, fellow Republican House members told him they would make sure Brad Smith never came to Congress. After (Rep.) Nick Smith voted no and the bill passed, (Rep.) Duke Cunningham of California and other Republicans taunted him that his son was dead meat”;

Whereas the cost of the Prescription Drug bill was a critical factor in determining the votes of many Members of Congress and Richard S. Foster, the chief actuary for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services, conducted numerous estimates indicating the cost to be much higher, including a June 11, 2003 analysis of a similar plan in the Senate which would have cost $551 billion over ten years and Members were not made aware of this;

Whereas the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the cost of the Republican Prescription Drug bill to be $395 billion over ten years and, yet just two months after the vote in Congress, Joshua Bolten, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, disclosed that the Administration’s estimate of the cost was actually $534 billion;

Whereas Representative Bill Thomas, the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and a key negotiator on the bill, told HHS Secretary Thompson on February 10, 2004 in a hearing before the Ways and Means Committee, “I know some people were surprised that your (HHS) number was higher. I personally was not…” (Hearing Transcript, February 10, 2004);

Whereas Representative Nancy Johnson, the Chairman of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee and a key negotiator on the bill, said she knew of the higher estimates and stated, “Absolutely, we knew about these numbers.” (The New York Times, March 18, 2004);

Whereas the Republican Leadership and the Committees of jurisdiction chose to ignore the warnings of higher cost estimates and intentionally misled Members of the House for the sole purpose of winning passage of an extremely controversial bill;

Whereas in a clear conflict of interest the Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, former Representative Billy Tauzin (R-LA), was actively engaged in a job search with the pharmaceutical industry at the same time that he was a key negotiator on major provisions in the bill, and after its passage, he subsequently left Congress to take a highly-paid executive position with the head of the pharmaceutical lobby, and is reportedly making many times his congressional salary;

Whereas the Republican Leadership’s submissiveness to the influence of corporate interests, and their illegitimate efforts to overturn the will of the House to pass flawed legislation like the Prescription Drug bill, which was written to meet the needs of drug companies, call into question the legitimacy of the laws they enact and the agenda they pursue;

Whereas the culture of corruption has so permeated the Republican Leadership that they will violate their own Rules and the customs and decorum of the House to win votes on the floor of the House of Representatives;

Therefore, be it resolved that:

The House denounces the culture of corruption exhibited by the Republican Leadership, denounces the ongoing resort to illegitimate actions taken to pass legislation like the Prescription Drug bill under false pretenses, rejects the practice of improperly holding votes open beyond a reasonable period of time for the sole purpose of circumventing the will of the House, and directs the Speaker to take such steps as necessary to prevent any further abuse.
[Privileged Resolution on Culture of Corruption Surrounding Prescription Drug Bill - HR 591 - 12-08-05]

December 05, 2005

Tom Delay's redistricting plan was viewed as illegal by the Bush Administration's Department of Justice. He was admonished several times by the House of Representatives for ethics violations, saw colleagues indicted on felony charges, and faces money laundering charges.

DeLay and two Republican fundraisers, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, are accused of illegally funneling $190,000 in corporate donations to 2002 Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature.

With DeLay's help, the GOP took control of the Texas House for the first time in 130 years, then pushed through a congressional redistricting plan engineered by DeLay that resulted in more Texas Republicans going to Congress.

Under Texas law, corporate money cannot be directly used for political campaigns, but it can be used for administrative purposes.
[Update 3: DeLay's Money Laundering Charges Upheld - AP - 12-05-05]

Despite all this, Vice President Dick Cheney still believes Tom Delay represents the very best today's Republican Party has to offer.

Vice President Dick Cheney heads to Houston today to help raise money for former U.S. House majority leader Tom Delay at the Westin Oaks Galleria.

Delay supporters will begin to arrive for a fundraiser around 4pm. Cheney's attendance is a clear sign that the White House is not distancing itself from the embattled former House majority leader, who is facing charges of breaking state campaign finance law.
[Dick Cheney to appear at fundraiser for Rep. Tom DeLay - ABCnews - 12-05-05]

UPDATE 8:25pm: New poll numbers from Tom Delay's district.

The survey found that 49 percent of registered voters questioned said they are more likely to vote for a Democratic challenger than for DeLay in 2006, and 36 percent said they would be more likey to vote for DeLay.

Former Democratic Rep. Nick Lampson is planning to challenge DeLay in the 2006 elections.

The survey also found that 55 percent of registered voters said that the charges that DeLay broke campaign finance laws are definitely or probably true, while 34 percent said they were probably or definitely not true.
[Update 11: DeLay's Money Laundering Charges Upheld - AP - 12-05-05]

December 02, 2005

In politics, words matter. We may personally take pleasure in seeing the other side screw up in a very big way. But when those screw ups have a significant consequence on our democratic government, it's not the best strategy for either party to publicly seek a win in our nation's loss.

Here is the latest post by Jesse Lee at the DCCC regarding the effect recent corruption scandals may have on the Republican Party.

That is good. Kudos to the Dem strategist who came up with it, I think it could do a lot of damage.
[GOP Civil War Watch: "K Street Conservatives" - Stakeholder - 12-02-05]

Not exactly how Rahm Emanuel would phrase it, but a recent Harris Poll released today shows 90% of Americans believe "Big Business" has too much influence on government policy, politicians, and policymakers in Washington. That said, the "damage" caused by corruption in politics, however overwhelmingly Republican it is today, is never a "good thing." Americans still describe the job Democrats are doing in Congress as fair to poor (70%) while describing Republicans as fair to poor by only one point difference (69%).

December 02, 2005

The FBI ran a fake candidate in a West Virginia state House of Delegates race that got 2,175 votes. What an incredible story involving a conspiracy to buy votes.

Under the plea agreement, Esposito began helping the Justice Department in its investigation of county political corruption, which the department described as "commonplace and widespread."

Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Booth Goodwin II, in a court filing last month, said that as Esposito met under cover with people about vote buying in the run-up to the 2004 primaries, investigators concluded that a campaign sting could provide a "virtual treasure trove of evidence."

"Without that step, it was feared, the undercover operation would dissolve, and a valuable opportunity to catch a number of persons in the act . . . would be lost," Goodwin wrote. So the government had Esposito run. He entered the race Jan. 30, 2004, filing the appropriate papers with the West Virginia secretary of state. He was one of 10 Democratic candidates for four seats in House District 19, which includes Logan County.

"He had signs; he had stickers; he showed up at campaign events," said Chris Stratton, a reporter for the Logan Banner newspaper. "All that stuff was for show. It was there to make him look like a legitimate candidate."
[FBI's Sham Candidate Crawled Under W.Va.'s Political Rock - Washington Post - 12-02-05]

December 02, 2005

So concludes the United States Department of Justice.

Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay (R) violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo obtained by The Washington Post. But senior officials overruled them and approved the plan.

The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections.
[Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal - Washington Post - 12-02-05]

Didn't you get the memo?

The 73-page memo, dated Dec. 12, 2003, has been kept under tight wraps for two years. Lawyers who worked on the case were subjected to an unusual gag rule. The memo was provided to The Post by a person connected to the case who is critical of the adopted redistricting map. Such recommendation memos, while not binding, historically carry great weight within the Justice Department.
[Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal - Washington Post - 12-02-05]

November 29, 2005

In Texas, close only counts in "horse shoes." When it comes to war profiteering, it appears President Bush only takes seriously those ethical lapses that actually break the law.

"Any member of Congress, Republican or Democrat, must take their office seriously and the ethics seriously," Bush said to reporters during a trip to Texas.

"The idea of a congressman taking money is outrageous. And Congressman Cunningham is going to realize that he has broken the law and is going to pay a serious price, which he should," Bush said.
[Bush says congressman taking bribes 'outrageous' - Reuters - 11-29-05]

Of course, if President Bush were to begin speaking out on those who dishonored "the spirit as well as the letter of all rules governing ethical conduct," he'd be quite a busy man.

Bush is requiring his executive office staff to attend refresher courses on ethics and handling classified materials, according to a White House memo.

"The President has made clear his expectation that each member of his Executive Office of the President (EOP) staff adhere to the spirit as well as the letter of all rules governing ethical conduct for EOP staff," states the memo sent to Bush's staff.
[Bush sends staff back to ethics class - CNN - 11-05-05]

November 29, 2005

Kevin Drum has a nice post on today's Washington Post story about money and politics.

November 28, 2005

War is hell, unless you make $2.4 million steering lucrative defense contracts to your buddies.

Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax charges and tearfully resigned from office, admitting he took $2.4 million in bribes to steer defense contracts to conspirators.
[Calif. Congressman Admits Taking Bribes - AP - 11-28-05]