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The 14 Most Corrupt Members of Congress
Business Insider ^ | 09/22/2011 | Jon Terbush

Posted on 09/22/2011 12:51:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Between Chris Lee's Craigslist escapades and Anthony Weiner's sexting, Congress has seen some high-profile ethical lapses this year.

While Lee and Weiner's transgressions cost them their seats, some of their colleagues have had better luck weathering scandals — including bribery scandals, tax fraud, letting an aide who once stabbed his girlfriend handle "women's issues."

Their offenses are detailed in the seventh annual list of the most corrupt members of Congress, released by the government watchdog Citizen's For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)

This year's list features a number of repeat offenders, as well as some freshman legislators who've already gotten themselves into dicey legal problems.

All told, CREW identified 14 lawmakers who engaged in well-documented, egregious acts in the past year. Questionable behavior from years past didn't count — which accounts for Charlie Rangel's conspicuous absent from the following list.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


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KEYWORDS: congress; corruption
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To: ml/nj
Frank may be a human wreck and a political jerk, but do you have any evidence that he lives large?

That's between him and his little blue pill.

21 posted on 09/22/2011 1:05:19 PM PDT by COBOL2Java (Obama is the least qualified guy in whatever room he walks into.)
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To: SeekAndFind

No Dodd, Frank, Rangel, Schumer, Boxer, Piglosi. An oversight to leave off the biggest crooks of all.


22 posted on 09/22/2011 1:05:29 PM PDT by Neoliberalnot ((Read "The Grey Book" for an alternative to corruption in DC))
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To: ml/nj

And Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just for two.


23 posted on 09/22/2011 1:07:00 PM PDT by b4its2late ("Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8")
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To: SeekAndFind

They are merely trying to deflect attention from the number one corruptocrat - obama.


24 posted on 09/22/2011 1:07:00 PM PDT by jersey117
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To: SeekAndFind

My personal favorite charge on this list is for Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH):

“Charges: Receiving free legal advice and failing to disclose it on campaign filing statements.

“The story: During Schmidt’s 2008 reelection campaign, her opponent accused her of taking “blood money” from Turkish organizations in exchange for her opposition to a resolution calling the Turkish slaughter of Armenians at the end of World War I a genocide. Lawyers contracted by the Turkish Coalition of America filed a defamation suit on behalf of Schmidt and picked up the legal tab, which totaled nearly $500,000 between 2008 and 2010. Schmidt did not disclose any of them as gifts on her campaign finance statements.”

This is where the saying “clutching at straws” comes to mind.


25 posted on 09/22/2011 1:07:04 PM PDT by Auntie Mame (Fear not tomorrow. God is already there.)
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To: SeekAndFind
Only 14? Obviously, these are just the tip of the congressional corruption iceberg.

It's no secret that the U.S. congress has drifted far, far away from what the Founders intended. We need to get a term limit constitutional amendment passed, lower the ridiculous $174,000, annual salary for congress members to about half that and eliminate pensions for legislators (who usually have lucrative careers in law or finance) just for a start. The luxurious perks, the huge, very highly paid staffs all have to be cut back. These people are living high off the American taxpayer and while stripping the position (Representative, Senator) down to it's basics may not help the federal deficit very much it would be the moral thing to do. It might also serve to weed out a lot of the mediocrities and hustlers-in-a-nice-suit that populate too much of congress. Well, I can dream, can't I?

26 posted on 09/22/2011 1:07:34 PM PDT by Jim Scott ( "Game On!" - Sarah Palin)
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To: SeekAndFind

CREW is left wing group and “Business Insider” is pretending to be a business friendly non partisan website only interesting in good business.

Yeah right. Two lib organizations. Nothing to see here.....


27 posted on 09/22/2011 1:07:34 PM PDT by C. Edmund Wright
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To: SeekAndFind

Sharpton, Pelosi, Reid, Boxer, Feinstein...


28 posted on 09/22/2011 1:09:21 PM PDT by Darksheare (You will never defeat Bok Choy!)
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To: b4its2late

Sometimes the jokes just write themselves. :)


29 posted on 09/22/2011 1:10:03 PM PDT by gov_bean_ counter
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To: MAexile

Oh how I disagree.

Not only are there still far too many RATs and RINOs infesting our House, the number of INDICTABLE RATs and RINOs is a target rich environment.

GOOOH!!

Fire the lot of them!


30 posted on 09/22/2011 1:10:50 PM PDT by Howie66 (I can see November (2012) from my house.)
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To: gov_bean_ counter

“Must.....resist.....”

You have given me a visual that will be seared in my mind forever. Dingleb..............get out of my head!!!!


31 posted on 09/22/2011 1:11:27 PM PDT by chesty_puller (Viet Nam 1970-71 He who shed blood with me shall forever be my brother. Shak.)
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To: gov_bean_ counter

eewwwww!


32 posted on 09/22/2011 1:12:49 PM PDT by Aria ( "If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.")
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner; freespirited
Virginia Ridgerunner wrote:
Hmmm...most of the people on this list are Republicans.
I noticed that, too.

And I did a bit of digging. Perhaps you, or other FReepers could do some more digging on this.

CREW which is mentioned in the headline is “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington” (Sounds like a lost cause to me, but who am I to judge?) It's run by Melanie Sloan. Saving you the trouble of clicking on the link, here's an excerpt from that page:

About Melanie Sloan:
Melanie Sloan serves as CREW's Executive Director and is a nationally recognized expert on congressional ethics. Prior to starting CREW, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia where, from 1998-2003, she successfully tried cases before dozens of judges and juries.

Before becoming a prosecutor, Ms. Sloan served as Minority Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, working on criminal justice issues for then-Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI). Ms. Sloan also served as Counsel for the Crime Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by then-Representative Charles Schumer (D-NY). There, she drafted portions of the 1994 Crime Bill, including the Violence Against Women Act. In 1993, Ms. Sloan served as Nominations Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, under then-Chairman Joseph Biden (D-DE). Prior to working for the Congress, she was an associate at Howrey and Simon in Washington D.C.
freespirited wrote:
Isnt this a Soros-funded outfit?

IIRC, the person in charge used to work for Conyers.
Not sure about the Soros connection. It wouldn't surprise me. You're right about the Conyers connection, plus Schumer and Biteme.

See the quote from the CREW website above for some info about their Executive Director.

33 posted on 09/22/2011 1:13:00 PM PDT by cc2k ( If having an "R" makes you conservative, does walking into a barn make you a horse's (_*_)?)
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To: SeekAndFind
Get rid of them all by replacing them and using strict term limits.

Can anyone confirm or deny that Weiner was going to challenge Obama then he got caught with his pants down?

34 posted on 09/22/2011 1:13:48 PM PDT by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid! (PDS=someone that doesnt dream dates up of a Palin announcement;nor act as Palins campaign manager)
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To: b4its2late

wasn’t there dealings with a local bank up there too.
Add the male homosexual ring being run up there and the homosexual selling dope from the house, also the big dig which all MA officials and union leaders got a hand in.

Why leave it at congress, how about Reid, zero, Wasserman just stepped down but I wonder why, mmmmmmmmmm.

Il congressmen, Pelosi with her illegals and vineyard, Boxer was in shady dealings.

Yet again another media outlet covers for the left and then say they’re not biased.


35 posted on 09/22/2011 1:14:02 PM PDT by manc (Hannity admitted he's socially liberal on his show, another phony cashing in,marriage =1man +1 woman)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner
Hmmm...most of the people on this list are Republicans.

Business Insider is the liberal response to IBD.
36 posted on 09/22/2011 1:14:37 PM PDT by andyk (Income != Wealth)
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To: SeekAndFind

I would have thought Barak Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, and Chris Dodd would have been at the top of the list. Rahm Emanuel not on because he’s back home in Corruptville, IL.


37 posted on 09/22/2011 1:19:49 PM PDT by OrioleFan
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To: cc2k

this is what Dems and the loony left do

They infiltrate the media, they set up media outlets pretending to be neutral but once they have established themselves they turn tot he left and a big of digging like yours shows that they are Dems.
Hell look at the log cabin republican group
They’re all Dems pretending to be republicans to infiltrate us and still some on here fall for it and now once they were caught they have set up the GOProud, ANOTHER OFF SHOOT OF THE LOG CABINS.
Yes they troll on here too.

You only have to read the communist manifesto of 1963 to see what they had to do and the sad part is they have nearly finished their list.

http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm


38 posted on 09/22/2011 1:22:33 PM PDT by manc (Hannity admitted he's socially liberal on his show, another phony cashing in,marriage =1man +1 woman)
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To: Lazlo in PA

CREW just filed a brief in the John Edwards case stating their belief that he violated no laws while taking huge sums to buy his mistress off.


39 posted on 09/22/2011 1:22:41 PM PDT by csmusaret (The only borders Obama has closed is a bookstore.)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

Hmmm, the web site’s editor is an obamabot (and got nailed for insider trading). Even his “conservatives” are Obamabots.


40 posted on 09/22/2011 1:24:44 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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