Bell Curve The Law Talking Guy Raised by Republicans U.S. West
Well, he's kind of had it in for me ever since I accidentally ran over his dog. Actually, replace "accidentally" with "repeatedly," and replace "dog" with "son."

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

More GOP Corruption

The LA Times just published this list of all Congressmen indicted for criminal behavior since 2001. It's revealing in terms of party affiliation.

• July 29, 2008: Sen. Ted Stevens (R- Alaska), indicted on seven counts of falsely reporting hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of services he received from an oil services company that helped renovate his home.

• Feb. 22, 2008: Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), indicted on charges of extortion, wire fraud, money laundering and other crimes in an Arizona land swap that authorities say helped him collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in payoffs.

• June 11, 2007: Sen. Larry E. Craig (R- Idaho), arrested in a bathroom sex sting at the Minneapolis airport. He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. He is now asking a state appeals court to let him withdraw his guilty plea.

• June 4, 2007: Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), indicted on federal charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money laundering in a long-running bribery investigation into business deals he tried to broker in Africa.

• Jan. 19, 2007: Former Rep. Bob Ney (R- Ohio), sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for trading political favors for gifts and campaign donations from lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

• March 3, 2006: Former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Rancho Santa Fe), sentenced to eight years and four months in prison. He collected $2.4 million in homes, yachts, antique furnishings and other bribes in a corruption scheme.

• Oct. 3, 2005: Former Rep. Tom DeLay (R- Texas), charged with felony money laundering and conspiracy in connection with Republican fundraising efforts in 2002. One charge has been dropped and two others are being argued before a state appeals court.

• Aug. 29, 2003: Rep. William Janklow (R-S.D.), charged with felony second-degree manslaughter and three misdemeanors after his car struck and killed a motorcyclist. He was convicted of vehicular homicide and sentenced to 100 days in prison.

• May 4, 2001: Rep. James Traficant (D-Ohio), indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of tax evasion, bribery, racketeering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to eight years in prison after being convicted of racketeering and accepting bribes.

4 comments:

Raised By Republicans said...

It's even more telling when one considers that the Justice Department is run by Republicans that we now know that they routinely used unethical amounts of pressure to manipulate investigations of politicians for political gain. I wonder what that list would look like if the Justice Department had actually had a free hand.

Tony Grennes said...

I think you also have to take into consideration that the repubilcans have been in power for the last eight years. When the democrats were in power, there was a lot of corruption in that party. Power generally leads to corruption. If you don't have power, no one is going to pay you to do stuff, and they aren't likely to look the other way if you do something wrong.

Anonymous said...

What is sad about this is now one is that Dick Cheney, George Bush, Condi Rice, Karl Rove, etc. should all appear here for the crimes they have committed. Unfortunately, they probably never will. Once Obama is elected, and things start looking up, people will forget the crimes this Adminsitration has committed.

The Law Talking Guy said...

Remember, the Republicans have run on a "holier than thou" platform for the last 15 years, preaching that they are the party of morality. That they are the party of values. That they will restore "honor and dignity" to the white house. So to the corruption you can add the charges of massive hypocrisy. This administration's criminal behavior dwarfs anything we have seen since Nixon - indeed, Nixon never sought to undermine the rule of law in so systematic a manner as Bush Jr.