| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
10 Jun 2007 02:53:46 PM |
| Object: |
California's latest endangered species: Corrupt Republicans |
From The Associated Press, 6/9/07:
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_6105068
State's latest endangered species: GOP
Politics: 4 out of 6 House Republicans under an ethics cloud are from
California.
By Erica Werner, Associated Press
WASHINGTON -
Hollywood party girls don't have a monopoly on trouble in California.
A disproportionate number of the state's congressional Republicans are
facing ethics questions that threaten to sink their careers and their
party's political fortunes too.
Of 201 House Republicans, at least six are known to have attracted the
attention of federal investigators - and four are from California.
Their woes come in the wake of the lurid corruption scandal that sent
ex-GOP Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of San Diego to prison last year
for taking $2.4 million in bribes.
Although their situations have a few common threads, some analysts
attribute the cluster of California cases to coincidence, plus the
state's large size and district lines drawn to protect incumbents.
"When your seat is so safe that you're not concerned about perception,
you become too wedded to Washington and you lose touch with your
constituency, and you lose touch with your real purpose," said Karen
Hanretty, a Republican strategist and former California Republican
Party spokeswoman.
Rep. John Doolittle, a nine-term Northern California conservative
under investigation in the influence-peddling scandal around jailed
GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has his own theory about why federal
corruption investigations seem to be concentrated in California.
"I think it's part of this manufactured culture of corruption that the
Democrats have come up with and they decided to, given what's happened
with Duke Cunningham, they decided that California Republicans on the
Appropriations Committee would be a great place to start," said
Doolittle, who plans to seek re-election next year.
The ethics cloud is discouraging the party faithful who've already
watched the GOP shrink to minority status in California.
And they add to the dilemmas of Republican strategists aiming to
retake Congress next year following election losses blamed partly on
GOP ethics problems.
"There is a sort of feeling among Republican activists who work hard
to elect Republicans of, 'What the heck is going on here?"' said Los
Angeles GOP analyst Allan Hoffenblum.
Republican Rep. Richard Pombo was chairman of the House Resources
Committee when he lost in a GOP-leaning Central California district
last November amid questions about his ties to Abramoff.
That reduced the number of Republicans in the nation's largest
congressional delegation to 19, the lowest since their numbers shrank
from 24 once district lines were redrawn after the 2000 census.
___________________________________________
Repug problems
Harry
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