Culture of corruption, GOP edition
Republicans can’t tell the Dems to clean their House, if they won’t come clean about the GOP’s own dirtbags. My own humble opinion is that the declassified version of the Duke Cunningham report should be released. Via LAT:
An internal investigation that the House Intelligence Committee has refused to make public portrays the panel as embarrassingly entangled in the Randy “Duke” Cunningham bribery scandal.
The report, a declassified version of which was obtained by the Los Angeles Times, describes the committee as a dysfunctional entity that served as a crossroads for almost every major figure in the ongoing criminal probe by the Justice Department.
The document describes breakdowns in leadership and controls that it says allowed Cunningham — the former congressman (R-Rancho Santa Fe) who began an eight-year prison term last year for taking bribes and evading taxes — to use his House position to steer millions of dollars to corrupt contractors.
When the committee’s investigation was completed last year, the Republican-controlled panel would not release the results; now that the committee is controlled by Democrats, it still will not release the findings.
The report provides the most detailed account to date of how former CIA Executive Director Kyle Dustin “Dusty” Foggo, whose indictment on charges of defrauding the government was recently expanded, allegedly used committee connections to advance his career at the agency.
And the report sheds new light on the roles of senior committee aides, including retired CIA case officer Brant Bassett, who had ties to Cunningham and Foggo as well as to contractors accused of paying the congressman millions of dollars.
Overall, the document provides a penetrating look into how the committee itself became central to the scandal, describing an atmosphere in which senior aides were deeply troubled by Cunningham’s actions but nevertheless complied with his requests out of fear.
There is some bipartisan CYA going on:
Democrats complained bitterly a year ago when Republicans blocked release of a declassified version of the final report. But two weeks ago, several Democrats joined Republicans to block the report’s release only to other members of Congress. Five Democrats objected to keeping the report secret.
Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas), who assumed leadership of the committee after Democrats won control of Congress last fall, said some Democratic members were reluctant to release a document that singled out staff members for criticism.
“My view was that the report was an internal review, principally of staff activity, and that the full report — with all of the names of staff — was not intended for dissemination beyond the committee,” Reyes said. “The important thing is that the committee took the review seriously and incorporated changes” designed to prevent future abuses.
Congressional sources said Reyes and other Democrats had initially voted to let other members of Congress see the document, but reversed course after a fierce protest by the panel’s ranking GOP member, Peter Hoekstra of Michigan.
“They are so nervous about this report being out,” said one congressional official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Members oppose putting this thing out because you read this and the natural question is: ‘Did you know this, and what did you do about it?’ I don’t think any members wanted that scrutiny.”
Washington.
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Categories: Corruption
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Sounds like the Dems realized it was gonna cause them trouble too, and decided the public didn’t need to see it either.
I agree, lets see it. If its as bad as it sounds like it might be, it needs to be out there, people have zero trust of the government as is.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Corruption is an equal opportunity temptation.
Further proof that our current two party, no term limit system isn’t working. Corruption on both sides is “business as usual”. We need a viable alternative party and limits on both houses.
They each deserve 2 terms, one in office, one in jail.
The republicans wonder why they lost the house and the senate.
I don’t like the idea of a Congressional investigation having to be “declassified”. Unless parts of it actually deal with national security- I guess this one might.
Full disclosure is the only way the GOP regains credibility. It’ll hurt in the short-term but I concur that we need to keep our own house clean.
Unfortunately corruption crosses all party lines. But I’ll be honest and admit that I find it even more offensive coming from the GOP. One of the small links I have/had with that party was the ‘upholding the law’ standpoint. But after Shamnesty I realize that that is all a scam anyway. Stuff like this just puts the nail in the coffin.
But then, as an independant, I have to go back to the begining… Who do you ‘trust’? And is there any such thing as a NON-corrupt politican? Or is that like the first thing they teach you in poli-sci?
When it comes to the Dems shortcomings everything just seems to stop in its tracks. Hypocrisy at the highest level.
Waiting on a true conservative – still.
Yup, dirtbags. A pox on both their houses.
Term limits would go a long way to limiting the damage they do, you know, like if term limits are bad, why is the president’s term limited. eh?
PS: Makes the state of national ins-security at the border a little less puzzling. The responsible parties are too busy porkin’ each other to do the job they are paid to do.
Accountability anyone?
I know, I know, it’s the ‘intelligence’ committee. There’s a conundrum if ever there was one..,
@Citizen
I’m for term limits if everyone does it. I was not in favor of our state trying to put term limits on our representatives if other states weren’t.
But if the playing field is level? Then fine. Since the average voter doesn’t seem to be able to kick the bums out.. then at least we would get new bums every few years….
I mean really… who WOULDN’T be glad to see the end of the Ted ‘You can’t touch me because I’m a Kennedy’ era?
The Republican LEADERSHIP wonders why they lost the House and the Senate. The rest of us have a pretty good idea.
LEADERSHIP? *WHAT LEADERSHIP* The GOP has been leaderless for years. Need proof?
In 00 the d/r registration was 1:1 up fron 1.3:1 in 1976 and 1.2:1 in 80. It is now back to 1.2:1. Only took us 6 years to lose 20 years worth of Ronnie powered gains!
LEADERSHIP? Karl purged the GOP of leaders 6 years ago!
Like my mama always said:
“They’re all corrupt, no matter what side they’re on. You can’t get to the top in politics without becoming corrupt.”
She was usually right about most things.
No matter how cynical I get about politicians, I just can’t keep up.
Can someone tell me why lobbyists are legal…seems to me that’s were all the corruption and government waste starts and ends.
strit lobbying guidelines..like you can’t be lobbied from someone outside of your jurisdiction. if you’re a congressman, that means that business guy better be headquartered in your congressional jurisdiction or you both are fined. if you are a senator, then they must be headquartered in your state. maybe if we start here we can eventually get our term limits for congressman=4 terms and senators=2 terms?
Something must be done..corruption prevails on all sides. Feinstein’s corruption still hasn’t come out and she made randy cunningham look like an amatuer.
*STRICT lobbying.. there is something wrong with my keyboard.. yeah my fingers.
Michelle, I’m still waiting for the unredacted David Barrett report to be released. That was the Independent Counsel’s name right — David Barrett? The guy who discovered the Clintons authorized the IRS to audit their political enemies — only House and Senate Republicans caved and agreed that Barrett’s report should never be fully released.
Hopefully some of the same Republicans who are out of work now.
‘POLOGIZE!
Just kidding!
We need to eradicate our present government and start over. Plain and simple.
Someone please tell me why I should not be cynically pessimistic that we will elect anything other than more glib, slick-dog, self-serving, demagogic, crooks, grifters and perverts, given the present state of two-party politics.
Strike the comma following “demagogic”.
I suspect my mainland brethren are all sleeping at this hour.
I agree with most of the comments here. We are in trouble and it is only partisanship that keeps it going.