Jerry Lewis And House Slapstick Of Another Kind

In today’s New York Times, we learn from here that…

WASHINGTON — Defying President Bush, House Democrats are preparing to forge ahead with a war spending measure that would include extended unemployment assistance and new educational benefits for returning veterans.

After a meeting Monday evening of House Democratic leaders, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she hoped to bring a $178 billion measure to the floor this week. What could be a contentious debate on the matter is likely to be held on Thursday, aides said.

Cue the predictable Repug umbrage…

“The Democrat leaders of the House and Senate are attempting to jam a 200-plus-billion-dollar spending bill through the Congress with absolutely no oversight or scrutiny by a vast majority of members, senators or their constituents,” Representative Jerry Lewis of California, the senior Republican on the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement on Monday. “Never in my 30 years in Congress has there been such an abuse of the processes and rules of the House.”

Oh, that’s rich (and the “Democrat” leaders also – nice touch, scumbag).

Do you want to talk about “abuse of processes,” Jerry? Well then, let’s start with Brent Wilkes, shall we?

As this Congresspedia article tells us, Wilkes, who ran defense contractor ADCS, is a “Pioneer,” having raised at least $100K for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign. He also gave $840,000 to 32 other House members or candidates (which is legal, I realize).

Wilkes also allowed Randy “Duke” Cunningham access to his 14.5-foot, 170-horsepower fiberglass boat, and in return Wilkes received Cunningham’s support in securing defense contracts. Wilkes was eventually convicted on November 5, 2007 on 13 counts of conspiracy, bribery, money laundering, and wire fraud (an appeal of the case is underway). Cunningham was also convicted on bribery charges.

What does that have to do with Lewis? Well, as Congresspedia tells us here…

Lewis has received $88,252 from Wilkes and his associates. He is the third-highest recipient of campaign contributions from Brent Wilkes trailing only Cunningham and John Doolittle, who is a self-professed friend of Wilkes.

And by the way, Doolittle decided last January not to seek re-election under suspicion of numerous questionable dealings; he gave up his seat on the Appropriations Committee in April 2007 “in the wake of FBI agents searching his house in a congressional influence-peddling investigation” (one particularly odorous moment with Doolittle was the time he tried to remove FDR from the dime and replace him with Ronald Reagan – former Philadelphia Daily News columnist Pete Dexter called Doolittle “a lying, unprincipled, crooked piece of human garbage,” and that’s good enough for me...Doolittle is also being investigated for alleged ties to Jack Abramoff, of course).

Also, the business with Brent Wilkes is the tip of the proverbial iceberg concerning Lewis (kind of reminds me of an Agatha Christie novel where everyone else gets picked off and, for the moment, only Lewis is left standing); as someone once remarked about PA politicians in general, when Lewis “sheds his mortal coil,” the degree of his crookedness is such that instead of being buried, he should be screwed into the ground.

And this cretin has the unmitigated gall to talk about “abuse of process” and “rules”…