Posted on 05/30/2009 2:55:50 AM PDT by arbooz
WASHINGTON -- Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings spent $24,730 in taxpayer money last year to lease a 2008 luxury Lexus hybrid sedan. Ohio Rep. Michael Turner expensed a $1,435 digital camera. Eni Faleomavaega, the House delegate from American Samoa, bought two 46-inch Sony TVs.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
All the congress critters expense accounts should be published. I’m betting that this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Hasttings was impeached by the Congress and removed from his position as a Federal Judge before he was elected to Congress. I can’t remember the reason for the impeachment. If anyone out there has that, please post it.
How much you wanna bet Mr. Jefferson’s expensive laptop went with him and is now sitting on the kitchen table right next to the freezer?
In 1979, Alcee Hastings was appointed a federal judge for the Southern District of Florida by President Jimmy Carter.
Two years later, Hastings was indicted on charges of conspiring to solicit a bribe from two defendants awaiting sentencing in his court. Hastings was unanimously acquitted of the charges in 1983.
The Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, however, soon launched a separate investigation into the matter which lasted nearly four years. Ultimately, the council (which was led by former Watergate prosecutor John Doar and comprised of the active appeals court judges for that circuit and three U.S. District judges) found that Hastings not only had solicited a bribe, but also repeatedly lied during his trial.
Following this report, the House Judiciary Committee approved seventeen articles of impeachment against Hastings. Sixteen dealt with the bribery case, while one centered around Hastings' improper revelation of sensitive government information obtained through a federal wiretap in 1985. In late 1988, the articles passed the House by a vote of 413-3.
The Senate, following a trial by a twelve-member committee, chose to convict Hastings on eight of the articles, but opted not to restrict him from seeking federal elected office in the future (which it had the authority to do).
In 1992, a federal judge remanded Hastings' conviction back to the Senate, arguing that Hastings should have received a trial by the full Senate. The Supreme Court, however, had ruled in a similar case that the courts have no jurisdiction over impeachment proceedings, and Hastings' conviction was therefore upheld.
Later in 1992, Hastings was elected to Congress in Florida's Twenty-Third Congressional District. In 2006, after being reelected for the seventh time, Hastings was considered to chair the House Intelligence Committee in the 110th Congress.
Facing pressure as a result of Hastings' troubled past, Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) ultimately declined to give Hastings the job, choosing Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) instead.
That makes him one of the more honest Congressman.
Shades of the Brit expenses scandal.
You know it....and the 2 big TV’s? You think that they didnt make the next rush trip to Samoa?
Except that our pols make theirs look like pikers :(
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