Science > Abortion > Oops, NEW Scandal Ensnares TWO More GOP Pols (GOP, The Stench of Corruption)
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Science > Abortion |
| User: |
"Yang, AthD h.c, Kicking AWOLs Cocaine Snorting Ass" |
| Date: |
08 Jan 2006 12:38:23 PM |
| Object: |
Oops, NEW Scandal Ensnares TWO More GOP Pols (GOP, The Stench of Corruption) |
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-banker8jan08,0,1764103.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews
.. In a case that echoes the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal,
two Northern California Republican congressmen used their official
positions to try to stop a federal investigation of a wealthy Texas
businessman who provided them with political contributions. Reps. John
T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo joined forces with former House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to oppose an investigation by
federal banking regulators into the affairs of Houston millionaire
Charles Hurwitz,
-----
Yang
a.a. #28
AthD (h.c.) conferred by the regents of the LCL
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Sorcery Division
Proudly plonked by Lani Girl and Crazyalec (aka aka Yang's little poltregeist *****)
The Bush 'balanced' budget: 1.6 trillion and worsening
The Bush 'economic' policy: 12.5 million FEWER jobs than Clinton and counting
The Bush Iraq lie: -2191 GIs, one friend's co-worker's son and mounting
Having Bush ***** up my country: Worthless
-----
"Now, did I want to go? Hell no."
-duke (duckgumbo32@cox.net), aka PedophilEarl J Weber, 63
year old mateless, heirless biological failure
of Afton Oaks Apartment, Baton Rouge, on why
a Neocon chickenhawk like him pussied out of
the Vietnam War.
Contact duke's priest and ask
him why duke loves to play
with little girls' nipples:
http://www.stpatrickbr.org/
Father Gerard "Jerry" Martin
Saint Patrick Catholic Church
12424 Brogdon Lane
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70816
.
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: Oops, NEW Scandal Ensnares TWO More GOP Pols (GOP, The Stench of Corruption) |
09 Jan 2006 06:53:30 PM |
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On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 10:38:23 -0800, "Yang, AthD (h.c), Kicking AWOL's
Cocaine Snorting *****" <eacmole@/*AWOLBUSH*/mail.com> wrote in
alt.atheism
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-banker8jan08,0,1764103.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews
. In a case that echoes the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal,
two Northern California Republican congressmen used their official
positions to try to stop a federal investigation of a wealthy Texas
businessman who provided them with political contributions. Reps. John
T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo joined forces with former House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to oppose an investigation by
federal banking regulators into the affairs of Houston millionaire
Charles Hurwitz,
From the Los Angeles Times
THE NATION
A Donor Who Had Big Allies
DeLay and two others helped put the brakes on a federal probe of a
businessman. Evidence was published in the Congressional Record.
By Richard A. Serrano and Stephen Braun
Times Staff Writers
January 8, 2006
WASHINGTON In a case that echoes the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling
scandal, two Northern California Republican congressmen used their
official positions to try to stop a federal investigation of a wealthy
Texas businessman who provided them with political contributions.
Reps. John T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo joined forces with former
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to oppose an investigation by
federal banking regulators into the affairs of Houston millionaire
Charles Hurwitz, documents recently obtained by The Times show. The
Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was seeking $300 million from Hurwitz
for his role in the collapse of a Texas savings and loan that cost
taxpayers $1.6 billion.
The investigation was ultimately dropped.
The effort to help Hurwitz began in 1999 when DeLay wrote a letter to
the chairman of the FDIC denouncing the investigation of Hurwitz as a
"form of harassment and deceit on the part of government employees."
When the FDIC persisted, Doolittle and Pombo both considered proteges
of DeLay used their power as members of the House Resources Committee
to subpoena the agency's confidential records on the case, including
details of the evidence FDIC investigators had compiled on Hurwitz.
Then, in 2001, the two congressmen inserted many of the sensitive
documents into the Congressional Record, making them public and
accessible to Hurwitz's lawyers, a move that FDIC officials said damaged
the government's ability to pursue the banker.
The FDIC's chief spokesman characterized what Doolittle and Pombo did as
"a seamy abuse of the legislative process." But soon afterward, in 2002,
the FDIC dropped its case against Hurwitz, who had owned a controlling
interest in the United Savings Assn. of Texas. United Savings' failure
was one of the worst of the S&L debacles in the 1980s.
Doolittle and Pombo did not respond to requests for interviews last
week. They publicly defended Hurwitz at the time, saying the inquiry was
unfair. Hurwitz's lawyer said Friday that the FDIC had been overzealous.
This summer, a judge in Texas agreed and awarded Hurwitz attorney fees
and other costs in a civil suit he filed. "They sought to humiliate
him," U.S. District Judge Lynn N. Hughes, said in the ruling. The
government is appealing the decision.
In key aspects, the Hurwitz case follows the pattern of the Abramoff
scandal: members of Congress using their offices to do favors for a
politically well-connected individual who, in turn, supplies them with
campaign funds. Although Washington politicians frequently try to help
important constituents and contributors, it is unusual for members of
Congress to take direct steps to stymie an ongoing investigation by an
agency such as the FDIC.
And the actions of the two Californians reflect DeLay's broad strategy
of cementing relationships with individuals, business interests and
lobbyists whose financial support enabled Republicans to extend their
grip on Congress and on government agencies as well. The system DeLay
developed and Abramoff took part in went beyond simple quid pro quo; it
mobilized whatever GOP resources were available to help those who could
help the party.
In the Hurwitz case, Doolittle and Pombo were in a position to pressure
the FDIC and did so. Pombo received a modest campaign contribution. In
another case, Pombo helped one of Abramoff's clients, the Mashpee
Indians in Massachusetts, gain official recognition as a tribe; the
congressman received contributions from the lobbyist and the tribe in
that instance.
Andrew Wheat, research director for Texans for Public Justice, a
nonpartisan electoral reform group based in Austin, put it this way:
"DeLay and Hurwitz seem like natural allies in that they have geographic
and ideological proximity. Mr. Hurwitz is a guy who has a reputation of
being willing to pay to play. And DeLay likes to play that game too, so
there's a natural affinity."
DeLay announced Saturday that he was giving up his efforts to regain the
majority leader position. He was majority whip when he first became
involved in helping Hurwitz.
In the Abramoff scandal, members of Congress allegedly did favors for
the politically connected lobbyist's clients including Indian casinos
and received campaign contributions and lavish free entertainment.
Last week, the lobbyist pleaded guilty in separate cases in Miami and
Washington in a deal that government investigators hope will lead to
more prosecutions. Others involved have also made deals to cooperate,
and Washington is braced for new criminal charges to come.
The episode involving Hurwitz and the two California congressmen took
place with little public notice just before the Abramoff scandal began
to escalate. The Sacramento Bee published a story when Doolittle
inserted FDIC investigative documents into the Congressional Record,
noting that it occurred at a time when Congress was distracted by the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the anthrax episode.
But what lay behind Doolittle's action, and the actions of Pombo and
DeLay, did not become clear until recently, when the government
documents and copies of letters between the congressmen and FDIC
officials were obtained by The Times.
J. Kent Friedman, the general counsel for Hurwitz's vast Houston-based
holding company, said last week that the FDIC was overzealous in its
dealings with his boss.
"Their case was weak from the start. They had a terrible case," Friedman
said. He said anyone trying to connect the congressmen to the fact that
the case fell apart would be "attempting to put a bow on a pig."
The Texas S&L in which Hurwitz held a controlling interest of about 25%
collapsed in 1988 as part of a financial fiasco that took federal
regulators years to untangle. The investigation of Hurwitz began in 1995
and continued for about seven years before it was dropped.
After DeLay's 1999 letter attacking the investigation failed to dissuade
the FDIC, Doolittle weighed in with a statement on the House floor in
2001, saying the FDIC investigators were "clearly out of control" and
should have "dropped the case, period."
Pombo, in his own 2001 floor statement, suggested that the banking
regulators were using strong-arm methods against Hurwitz, or what Pombo
called "tools equivalent to the Cosa Nostra a mafia tactic."
Doolittle, 55, an eight-term congressman, represents California's fourth
district, the Sierra Foothills region and the eastern suburbs of
Sacramento. He has a consistent conservative voting record, opposing gun
control and abortion and siding with property rights, timber and utility
interests against environmental groups.
By 2000, he had grown close to DeLay, working with the Republican leader
to oppose proposed changes to campaign finance law and restrictions on
fundraising. When DeLay was indicted in Texas last year, Doolittle
distributed about 100 lapel pins in the shape of tiny hammers as a
tribute to the man nicknamed the "Hammer" for his ability to pound
congressional Republicans into line.
Doolittle also was closely aligned with Abramoff. Records show that
Abramoff gave Doolittle tens of thousands of dollars in contributions
and employed the congressman's wife for other fundraising activities.
Pombo, the son of cattle ranchers, plays up his cowboy roots, often
appearing in his district wearing a ranch-hand's hat and ostrich-skin
boots. Forty-five years old, a seven-term congressman, he represents the
fertile farming expanse of the Central Valley.
He had impressed DeLay with his fundraising prowess, garnering about $1
million for his 2002 House reelection, which he won easily.
And not long after his role in helping Hurwitz, the GOP House caucus
led by DeLay helped get Pombo elected chairman of the Resources
Committee over several more senior Republicans.
Hurwitz has been a prolific campaign donor since the early 1990s.
He has contributed personally and with funds provided by his
Houston-based flagship company, Maxxam Inc., through subsidiaries such
as Kaiser Aluminum, and through a company political action committee,
Maxxam Inc. Federal PAC.
In the last three federal elections cycles, those entities have given
about $443,000 in political contributions most of it to conservative
politicians, including President Bush, for whom Hurwitz pledged to raise
$100,000 in the 2000 campaign and also helped during that year's vote
tally deadlock in Florida.
Hurwitz has been generous with DeLay too.
Starting in the 2000 election cycle, the businessman and his committees
have distributed at least $30,000 to DeLay and his federal causes,
including $5,000 for his current legal defense fund in the Texas
money-laundering case.
Hurwitz also contributed $1,000 to Pombo for his 1996 reelection
campaign. And through the Maxxam PAC, Hurwitz gave Doolittle $5,000 for
his 2002 reelection campaign and then followed up with $2,000 more for
his 2004 race.
When DeLay went to bat for Hurwitz, he was particularly critical of
reported internal government discussions that would have pressed Hurwitz
to settle his obligations for the collapsed S&L by selling the
government vast forest areas and redwood trees in Northern California
near Scotia. The forest land was owned by Hurwitz's Pacific Lumber
company
"I am extremely concerned," DeLay told then-FDIC Chairwoman Donna A.
Tanoue, "about the apparent abuse of governmental power and what appears
to be misconduct in the form of harassment and deceit on the part of
government employees."
Tanoue responded by telling DeLay "we can assure you that the FDIC
lawsuit against Mr. Hurwitz was not filed for political reasons."
The investigation pressed on, and a year later the House Resources
Committee, which had jurisdiction because of the forest area, set up a
special Headwaters Forest Task Force and launched its own review.
Doolittle was appointed task force chairman, and Pombo one of its
members.
Duane Gibson, the committee's general counsel who later went to work for
Abramoff, was named the chief investigator. They immediately subpoenaed
internal records from the FDIC and the Office of Thrift Supervision,
which also had responsibilities for S&Ls.
Both agencies were wary and, although complying with the subpoenas,
repeatedly urged the lawmakers not to make the documents public or share
them with Hurwitz.
William F. Kroener III, general counsel at the FDIC, warned the
committee that Hurwitz and his lawyers were not entitled to see many of
the documents.
Kroener told the panel that, should the material end up in their hands,
it "could significantly injure our ability to litigate this matter and
reduce damages otherwise recoverable to reimburse taxpayers."
Carolyn J. Buck, chief counsel at the Office of Thrift Supervision, also
wrote the committee emphasizing that "we note our objection to any
publication or release of these documents."
The task force was set up for six months, and disbanded in December
2000. It held one hearing, and called FDIC and Office of Thrift
Supervision officials as witnesses.
At that hearing, Tanoue defended the FDIC's investigation.
"I have listened to and considered the arguments made directly to me by
representatives of Mr. Hurwitz," she testified. "However, I have found
no compelling reason to take the extraordinary step of
taking this
case out of the hands of the judicial system."
Kroener testified that the FDIC was not interested in a trees-for-debt
swap, saying his agency "has expressed its preference for a cash
settlement."
Six months later, in June 2001, Pombo submitted a portion of the
subpoenaed documents that filled 14 pages in the Congressional Record.
Six months after that, in December 2001, Doolittle did the same, even
though he was no longer a member of the committee. And his submission
was much larger filling 111 pages.
The documents were so voluminous that Doolittle and Pombo had to pay a
total of about $20,000 from their congressional accounts to cover the
extra printing costs.
The FDIC was outraged over the documents' release.
Its chief spokesman, Phil Battey, said in a statement to the Sacramento
Bee at the time that the publication of the materials was a
"subordination
and a seamy abuse of the legislative process."
Not long afterward, the FDIC dismissed its case, and the Office of
Thrift Supervision settled with Hurwitz for about $200,000 in
administrative costs.
*
Times staff writer Ted Rohrlich contributed to this report.
/end
--
Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a cornucopia of splinters.
.
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| User: "Johnny Asia poki_pongo at yahoo.com" |
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| Title: Re: Oops, NEW Scandal Ensnares TWO More GOP Pols (GOP, The Stench of Corruption) |
08 Jan 2006 01:59:25 PM |
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On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 10:38:23 -0800, "Yang, AthD (h.c), Kicking AWOL's
Cocaine Snorting *****" <eacmole@/*AWOLBUSH*/mail.com> wrote:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-banker8jan08,0,1764103.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews
Reps. John
T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo joined forces with former House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay
http://www.pombointheirpocket.org/
Rep. Pombo named as one of the "13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress."
more...
http://www.beyonddelay.org/
+
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their
dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens."
- William H. Beveridge, 1944
"The power of accurate observation is called cynicism
by those who have not got it." - G. B. Shaw
Want to know what's really going on in Iraq?
http://www.angelfire.com/co/COMMONSENSE/wakeup.html
The Rise and Fall of the Holy Roller Empire
The God-Awful Truth about Christian Zionism
http://www.angelfire.com/co/COMMONSENSE/armageddon.html
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
.
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| User: "Yang, AthD h.c, Kicking AWOLs Cocaine Snorting Ass" |
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| Title: Re: Oops, NEW Scandal Ensnares TWO More GOP Pols (GOP, The Stench of Corruption) |
08 Jan 2006 03:16:51 PM |
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On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 14:59:25 -0500, Johnny Asia <poki_pongo at
yahoo.com> wrote:
On Sun, 08 Jan 2006 10:38:23 -0800, "Yang, AthD (h.c), Kicking AWOL's
Cocaine Snorting *****" <eacmole@/*AWOLBUSH*/mail.com> wrote:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-banker8jan08,0,1764103.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews
Reps. John
T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo joined forces with former House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay
http://www.pombointheirpocket.org/
Rep. Pombo named as one of the "13 Most Corrupt Members of Congress."
more...
http://www.beyonddelay.org/
They're getting theirs...
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president
represents, more and more closely, the inner soul
of the people. On some great and glorious day the
plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned
by a downright moron." --- H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
"Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their
dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens."
- William H. Beveridge, 1944
"The power of accurate observation is called cynicism
by those who have not got it." - G. B. Shaw
Want to know what's really going on in Iraq?
http://www.angelfire.com/co/COMMONSENSE/wakeup.html
The Rise and Fall of the Holy Roller Empire
The God-Awful Truth about Christian Zionism
http://www.angelfire.com/co/COMMONSENSE/armageddon.html
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
-----
Yang
a.a. #28
AthD (h.c.) conferred by the regents of the LCL
a.a. pastor #-273.15, the most frigid church of Celcius nee Kelvin
EAC Econometric Forecast and Sorcery Division
Proudly plonked by Lani Girl and Crazyalec (aka aka Yang's little poltregeist *****)
The Bush 'balanced' budget: 1.6 trillion and worsening
The Bush 'economic' policy: 12.5 million FEWER jobs than Clinton and counting
The Bush Iraq lie: -2191 GIs, one friend's co-worker's son and mounting
Having Bush ***** up my country: Worthless
-----
"Now, did I want to go? Hell no."
-duke (duckgumbo32@cox.net), aka PedophilEarl J Weber, 63
year old mateless, heirless biological failure
of Afton Oaks Apartment, Baton Rouge, on why
a Neocon chickenhawk like him pussied out of
the Vietnam War.
Contact duke's priest and ask
him why duke loves to play
with little girls' nipples:
http://www.stpatrickbr.org/
Father Gerard "Jerry" Martin
Saint Patrick Catholic Church
12424 Brogdon Lane
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70816
.
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