Is your senator or congressman a crook?
There are many ways to bribe a congressman. You can take them on an all-expense-paid vacation to
Scotland to play golf, you can arrange for rides on corporate jets, you can give the spouse or children
high-paying, but don't-have-to-do-anything jobs, you can do real estate deals a la Randy Cunningham, or
you can make "campaign donations."
In the wake of lobbyist Jack Abramoff fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy guilty plea,
government officials from Bush on down are getting rid of the money that he gave them.
They seem to be saying, "Hey, I took a bribe, but I gave the money to charity."
What if Willie Sutton tried that ... "Hey, I robbed the bank, but I gave the money
to charity." Would that make bank robbery okay?
Remember the Enron scandal? We are seeing some of the same players now that we saw then. ( To
refresh your memory, see this page:
http://home.thegrid.net/~i282158/newsnh/enron.htm ) You will note that New Hampshire's Judd Gregg and John Sununu
were caught with their "hand in the cookie jar then," and they are caught now. In California
they have "three strikes, you're out" for convicted felons. Do we need to wait for three bribes before
we kick these guys out?
This is what we suggested in February of 2002. If this type of reform had been enacted, there would
not have been an Abramoff scandal.
When we have corporate money mixing with the political decision-making process, the aroma is often that of hydrogen sulfide. The list of
politicians taking money from Enron is very long. It includes all of the
Senators and US Representatives from New Hampshire. Why is a Texas energy company giving money to New
Hampshire politicians? Can there be an answer other than to buy
influence?
Ask yourself, who has more influence, you the lowly voter, or the corporate official with a thick check book? In a democratic society the people are supposed to be the masters, not the corporations.
There have been a number of variations of campaign finance reform proposed, some potentially effective, some mere window dressing. Here is one reform that we would like to see enacted:
No candidate for public office in these United States may accept any donation of money, material, or services from any person who is not eligible to vote for the candidate.
Any candidate found by a court of law to have accepted such money, material, or services shall be jailed for a period of not less than 30 days, nor more than 366 days per violation.
Any person found by a court of law to have made an illegal donation of money, material, or services to a candidate shall be jailed for exactly the same period of time as the candidate.
Corporations can not vote, so corporations can not make campaign donations; people who live in Texas can not vote for New Hampshire Senators or Representatives, so they can't make donations to them.
Here is a list (it is not necessarily complete) of the government officials accepting money from lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates. The amounts listed below IN BLACK (except where noted) are what was returned to the associate organization or donated to charity. We don't know how exactly much money all the officials accepted and kept, but the known amounts are in red.
The amounts IN RED are what was accepted and kept.
REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION
Mitt Romney, Chairman - $500,000
WHITE HOUSE
George Bush - $6,000
Bush/Cheney campaign 2004 - $100,000+
ALASKA
Ted Stevens - $16,500 ("Charity") $1,000 (Red Cross)
ALABAMA
ARIZONA
Jon Kyl - $4,000
J.D. Hayworth - $2,250; kept: $150,000
Jim Kolbe - ("less than") $10,000
Rick Renzi - ("less than") $10,000
ARKANSAS
Blanche Lincoln - $2,000
CALIFORNIA
John Doolittle - $50,000
Mary Bono - $21,500
COLORADO
Marilyn N. Musgrave - $1,000
CONNECTICUT
Rob Simmons - $1,250
DELAWARE
FLORIDA
GEORGIA
Saxby Chambliss - $1,000
Johnny Isakson -$5,000 (refunded) $4,000 (to charity)
HAWAII
IDAHO
ILLINOIS
J. Dennis Haster - $77,000
Richard J, Durbin - $11,000
Donald Manzullo - $1,500 (Another source said $2,000)
Jerry Weller - $500 (+or-)
Lane Evans - $2,000
INDIANA
Dan Burton - $19,000
IOWA
KANSAS
Sam Brownback - $42,000
KENTUCKY
Anne Northup - $1,000
Jim Bunning - $1000
Mitch McConnell - $18,500
Hal Rogers - $32,000
LOUISIANA
Rodney Alexander - $2,000
Jim McCrery - $35,000
MAINE
MARYLAND
Barbara A. Mikulski - $5,000
Governor Robert L. Ehrlich - $16,000
MASSACHUSETTS
MICHIGAN
Dave Camp - $500
MINNESOTA
Norm Coleman - $3,000
Jim Oberstar - $3,500
MISSISSIPPI
Thad Cochran - $8,000
Charles W. Pickering - $2,500 (+or-)
Roger Wicker - $250
Trent Lott - $22,000
MISSOURI
Roy Blunt - $8,500
Christopher S. Bond - $12,000
Jim Talent - $5,000
MONTANA
Max Baucus $18,892
Conrad Burns - $150,000
Denny Rehberg - 19,900
NEBRASKA
Chuck Hagel - $4,000
NEVADA
Harry Reid - $61,000
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Judd Gregg - $12,000
John E. Sununu - $3,000
NEW JERSEY
Scott Garrett - $1,000
Robert Menendez - $2,000
Frank Pallone - $13,600
Jim Saxton - $7,000
Mike Ferguson - $2,000 (in 2 donations of $1,000)
Frank LoBiondo - $1,000
Jon Corzine - $5,000
NEW MEXICO
Heather A. Wilson - $1,000
NEW YORK
Hillary Rodham Clinton - $2,000
John E. Sweeney - $2,000
Eliot L. Engel - $1,000
Nita M. Lowey - $2,000
Charles Rangel - $47,000
Tom Reynolds - $7,000 ("or more")
NORTH CAROLINA
Elizabeth Dole - $1,000
Walter B. Jones - $1,000
NORTH DAKOTA
Earl Pomeroy - $6,950
Kent Conrad - $3,750
Byron L. Dorgan - $67,000
OHIO
Bob Ney - $9,000; Golf trip to Scotland
Deborah Pryce - $8,000
Ralph Regula - $1,000
OKLAHOMA
Ernest Istook - $6,000
Jim Inhofe - $2,000
OREGON
Gordon H. Smith - $8,500
Peter DeFazio - $1,500
Ron Wyden - $1,000
PENNSYLVANIA
Rick Santorum - $2,000
Melissa A. Hart - $2,000
Bill Shuster - $2,000 (Another source said $1,000)
Curt Weldon - $2,000
Tim Holden - $1,000
Phil English - $5,000
Joe Pitts - $894 worth of food
RHODE ISLAND
Patrick Kennedy - $42,500
SOUTH CAROLINA
SOUTH DAKOTA
John Thune - $2,000
Tim Johnson - $8,250
TENNESSEE
Bill First - $2,000
TEXAS
Tom DeLay - $15,000
Kay Granger - $2,000
Henry Cuellar - $500
Henry Bonilla - $1,000
J. Randy Forbes - $2,000
Pete Sessions - $20,500
John Cornyn - $1,000
Kay Bailey Hutchison - $3,000
UTAH
Chris Cannon - $2,000
VERMONT
VIRGINIA
Eric Cantor - $10,000 (+or-)
John W. Warner - $1,000
Thomas M. Davis III - $Unknown
J. Randy Forbes - $1000
WASHINGTON
Norm Dicks - $1,000
Jay Inslee - $5,000
Adam Smith - $3,000
Maria Cantwell - $17,865
Patty Murray - $41,000
WEST VIRGINIA
WISCONSIN
Paul D. Ryan $949
Tom Petri - $11,000
WYOMING
Michael B. Enzi - $1,000
Craig Thomas - $8,000
Barbara Cubin - $250
Note to government officials: If the amount of the bribe/donation/gift you have accepted is incorrectly
listed above, let us know, and we will post the correct figure.
Sources:
New York Times
Los Angeles Times
San Francisco Chronicle
Monterey County The Herald
Associated Press
1/16/06