Posted on 05/03/2010 11:51:00 AM PDT by GQuagmire
Traficant gets his air time with 9/11 Truther, and the Jews did it, Alex Jones.
Both total loons.
Hope he wins!Beam me up Scotty!
Worse criminals than he are seated in congress.
I PREDICT HE WINS HIS SEAT!
Mr. T
RUN BABY RUN
I think that he hid bribes under it.
For those who don’t know, the thing that initially brought him to prominence in the 1970’s was that as Sheriff of Mahoning County, when the steel industry collapsed and many were losing everything he refused to serve foreclosures.
That little bit of Hugo Chavez bravado earned him many fans in the Mahoning Valley.
When they sent him away, the local Class A minor league baseball team had a Traficant Night. Come wearing your bad toupe and get in for a buck. It was hilarious!
They don’t call it CONgress for nuttin’..........
ping
Almost.
Ha! That’s gotta be a lot of cash!
Yup, Traficant was convicted by a jury and only two months later was he expelled by a GOP controlled House on a 420-1 (Gary Condit!) vote by his fellow Congressmen.
Hastings was actually let off by a jury in '83 (I don't know whether his ' peers' were also 'peers' of OJ) in 1981. The alleged main witness against him refused to testify and was sent to jail for refusing - that witness was granted a Clinton last day pardon. A bunch of his fellow judges decided after a separate four year investigation he was actually guilty, but lacked the power to remove him. A Democratic controlled House was convinced by their evidence to vote 413-3 to impeach him and a Democrat and was convicted by a jury of his real peers, twelve members of the Democratic controlled Senate (which the Supreme Court later ruled was kosher). They could have barred him from future office holding, but didn't on the grounds of affirmative action! The GOP had neglected to bar their judge, Walter Nixon, an elderly white guy, when impeaching and convicting him recently. Thus allowing the non-elderly black guy to run for office later. When he was elected to a Congress, most of the membership of which had voted he wasn't fit for the Federal bench, they neglected to Expel him, thus establishing a unique precedent that the standards for serving in the US House are lower than for serving as a US judge.
BTW, of the 20 people ever expelled from the US House or Senate nearly all were Democrats. The sole exception preceded the modern parties, Democrat-Republican Senator William Blount of Tennessee in 1797. The next 17 expelled were Confederate Democrats during the Civil War (one of those was posthumously 'reversed' in 1877.) Then Rep. Michael Myers(D-PA and Abscam) in 1980, then Traficant completes that too short list. In addition to being the first expelled Blount also established a unique precedent. Accused of treason he was four days later expelled by his fellow Senators. The House didn't think that was sufficient; they also wanted to bar him from future office, a penalty only available via impeachment. So they voted to impeach the now expelled Senator. The Senate refused to convict, stating the novel excuse that US Senators were not liable to impeachment! This is why when Freepers push the much deserved impeachment of Sen. "insert your choice" I rise to say you have to settle for Expulsion. (Chappaquiddick Teddy's gone, but I'd still consider Lt. Kerry's stateside activity after returning from Vietnam grounds for that.) Unbarred, and apparently criminally uncharged, Blount ran for Tennessee State Senate and rose to its speakership. So if you are actually going to impeach and convict someone be sure to include the optional bar from future office holding or, like slasher stars, they WILL return to haunt you.
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