Democrats' Duke?
Last week Rep Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) stepped down from his position as co-chairman of the House Ethics Committee, this week it's looking more and more that Randy "Duke" Cunningham might not be the only one using the earmark process for his own personal gain.
Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported [subscription required] that Mollohan bought a 300-acre "farm" along with one of his long-time friends. No big deal, huh? Well, it might be if your friend was a defense contractor and you'd put a $2.1 million contract into a spending bill last year just for him. [You can find a New York Times follow on the Journal story here.
It sounds a lot like what my former congressman was doing -- of course, he's now in federal prison.
We don't know if Mollohan has done anything illegal, but something sure smells. And whether or not Mollohan has done anything wrong, this episode also shows -- as if it wasn't obvious from Cunningham's corruption -- that the earmarking authority of Congress must be abolished.
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Take a look at the latest Senate appropriation bill for Iraq and Katrina. It is full of earmarks from both sides of the aisle. The systems broke and those who broke it are supposed to fix it? Maybe a veto--no way--can't break a perfect record. If the Iraq war is a failure, maybe Bush will be most noted in the history books for being the only two-term President to have never used the veto. I will have to check, he may be the only President not to have used a veto, W.H. Harrison may not have since he only served for a month.
[...] You know that whole “culture of corruption” thing has got to be getting pretty old. First you’ve got the Mollohan thing (D-W.Va.) and now you’ve got Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.). Federal authorities ratcheted up their case against Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, on Wednesday, when a Kentucky businessman admitted in court to paying more than $400,000 in bribes to a bogus company controlled by the congressman’s wife and family in exchange for official favors. [...]