A Payoff By Any Other Name

As the recently-defeated Democratic candidate to run against Mike Fitzpatrick would say (I’m referring to Andy Warren), “this is just crazy.”

So now it appears that the U.S. House Ethics Committee is prepared to move forward on investigations involving ties by Repug Rep Bob Ney of Ohio and Dem William Jefferson of Louisiana (Ney, of course, is the one with ties to Abramoff).

(By the way, georgia10 over at The Daily Kos made a good point recently about why the people of this country have a low opinion generally of Congress apart from whether one is talking about Democrat or Republican members, and that is because these members generally aren’t identified by their party in the media. That’s a problem, but I would also point out that the candidates themselves should do a better job of that, certainly in their campaign literature and correspondence. I’ve noticed that a lot in the course of being subjected to their ads and noticing their road signs encouraging people to vote for them, and my guess is that you have also.)

The stated reason for the sudden spasm of activity by this committee is that co-chair Democrat Pete Mollohan (update: his name is Alan per commenter, not Pete) of West Virginia has stepped down due to an investigation into money he supposedly directed into a nonprofit group, and Repug co-chair “Doc” Hastings supposedly will have a better working relationship with the new Dem in Mollohan’s role, Howard Berman (and speaker J. Dennis Hastert’s pissant spokesperson Ron Bonjean made some snide remark to that effect).

Well, Ron, I don’t know about you, but I think it’s a bit strange that Hastings should be allowed to continue in HIS role in charge of this committee, seeing as how HE has been linked to Abramoff also.

Also, Hastings accepted a $7,800 trip to England on behalf of a company he “championed” for a multibillion-dollar contract at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. This article provides further details, including this excerpt:

BNFL (the company in England that paid for Hastings’ trip) won a $6.9 billion federal contract in 1998 to convert 54 million gallons of nuclear waste into glass for permanent storage. The contract was promoted by Hastings, who offered amendments to the Defense Authorization Act to pay for Hanford projects, including BNFL work.

But in October 1998, the General Accounting Office began questioning the contract as too lucrative for the company. Hastings continued to defend the contract.

The trip to the U.K. took place in January 2000. Four months later, the Department of Energy abruptly terminated the BNFL deal when it learned the cost could soar to $15.2 billion.

Let’s see now...the year was 2000. Who was still President then and watching out to prevent rampant fraud? Oh yeah, it was that Clinton guy, wasn’t it?

The 2004 trip to Stuart Island was paid for by the Washington Group International, according to the Web site PoliticalMoneyLine. Washington Group International, based in Idaho, is a major contractor with the U.S. government in Iraq and also is involved in the Hanford cleanup. The company was Hastings' top contributor to his 2004 re-election, giving $10,200.

And Hastings has the gall to criticize Mollohan or anyone else regarding ethics? For 10 grand, when Washington Group tells Hastings to jump, he’s going to ask “how high.”

This is what passes for proper legislative conduct under Republican governance, and this is a big reason to vote out every single Republican in November.