Let Lt. Gov. Wilder know what you think. lt.gov.john.wilder@legislature.state.tn.us
Posted on 05/28/2005 12:02:50 PM PDT by SmithL
My bad. Rep. Ulysses Jones (D) is quoted in today's Tennessean as having been offered envelopes full of $$$ by the bogus company.
My bad. Rep. Ulysses Jones (D) is quoted in today's Tennessean as having been offered envelopes full of $$$ by the bogus company.
Oops. Please see my post #42. (To which I say, with a cheshire cat grin: so what?)
In 2000,the fine folks of the Volunteer State showed that they were able to see through their "native son" (thus denying him command of White Trash One)...so how,In God's name,could they have voted for this clown?
Nothing will come of the ethics complaints...Wilder controls that, and it would just be to upsetting to his 'family' if more trouble were heaped on johnny boys head.
FNC just mentioned ford's resigning and that he is JUNIOR's uncle.
In newspaper speak, "rambling" is code for "the guy is nuts."
Investigators knew ins, outs of lobbying By Richard Locker
May 27, 2005
NASHVILLE -- E-Cycle Management Inc. made its presence known on Capitol Hill as it promoted fake legislation to channel surplus state electronic equipment to the company for resale.
E-Cycle was the sham company set up by federal investigators for their sting investigation of official corruption among lawmakers.
Its "president," an undercover agent who used the name "Joseph B. Carson" -- whose real identity has not been made public -- visited several lawmakers and staffers to describe the merits of the bill.
He even threw a legislative reception at the Sheraton Nashville Hotel across the street from the legislative office building. The agents appeared to be well-versed in lobbying techniques.
Rep. Paul Stanley, R-Germantown, one of seven House members who signed onto E-Cycle's "bill" as co-sponsors, said Carson visited him in his Nashville legislative office last year and "gave me the merits of the bill: The state would get rid of surplus computers and get revenue in return."
Stanley, who said he was interviewed by both the TBI and FBI, said that although he signed as a co-sponsor, he had no involvement with the bill and received nothing from its backers. Stanley showed reporters the copy of Carson's E-Cycle card he had scanned into his personal data assistant. He described Carson as "a pleasant guy, white, in his early to mid-50s, nondescript."
Rep. Mike Kernell, D-Memphis, said he attended a reception E-Cycle threw for legislators soon after the General Assembly convened in January. The event included live music. Such receptions -- with free food and drink, by invitation only to lawmakers and staffers -- are common lobbying events; sometimes three or four a night are held in Capitol Hill area hotels.
Kernell, an environmental advocate, said he attended because he's interested in promoting more recycling of computers. He did not co-sponsor the bill.
Another co-sponsor, Rep. Ulysses Jones, D-Memphis, said he accepted a contribution to his campaign fund from E-Cycle last year and disclosed the contribution as required by law, but he declined to say how much. "I didn't accept anything else, not a dime," he said.
Jones said, however, that he was "surprised and a little upset that legislation was used in this way. I'm offended. Just to do a sting operation is bad policy."
A Senate clerk said Carson came to her office at the start of the legislative session to sign up for the weekly Senate committee and floor agenda, which tracks bills. She said once he told her that he was interested in only one bill, she told him that he was wasting his money because it was easy to track only one bill by checking the legislature's Web site or by simply calling the bill's sponsors.
He signed up anyway.
Doral Dental leaders boasted on TennCare, says state ethics report
By Richard Locker
May 27, 2005
NASHVILLE -- Executives of a Wisconsin firm boasted in e-mail to each other in 2002 that state Sen. John Ford told them their attempt to win a TennCare subcontract "is progressing nicely and it will be ours," according to a state investigative report released late Thursday.
But in the same March 11, 2002, e-mail, the former executives of Doral Dental Services -- which won the contract in September 2002 to set up and administer a TennCare dental services network -- warned each other that they needed to keep "the existence of this arrangement (with Ford) confidential."
They also cited the "need to keep a very low key approach on this issue" due to negative publicity at the time about fees paid to Ford with "respect to another TennCare vendor."
It was not revealed until this year that Ford received at least $236,000 in 2002 and 2003 as a consultant to Doral through Managed Care Services Group, a partnership that included Ford and his Memphis business associate Osbie Howard.
The e-mail correspondence was highlighted in a report to the state Senate Ethics Committee by the state attorney general's office, which examined allegations of possible ethics violations by the embattled Memphis lawmaker. The Ethics Committee filed the report with the Senate clerk late Thursday.
The committee chairman, Sen. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, said the panel will have no time to deliberate on the investigation's findings before the legislature adjourns this weekend, but it may reconvene after the session to consider ethics charges against Ford.
Whatever the committee recommends will be overshadowed by the federal corruption charges leveled against Ford and three other incumbent Tennessee legislators Thursday, but if the Senate ultimately convicts Ford of ethics violations, potential penalties range from censure to ouster from the Senate seat he has held for 31 years.
The report says the former Doral officials were clearly aware "that they knew Senator Ford and that he was chairman of the Senate committee dealing with TennCare issues." It says part of the March 11, 2002, e-mail is "particularly relevant."
The e-mail says, "Based on recent disclosure about fees paid to John Ford with respect to the TennCare pharmacy services vendor, we need to keep a very low key approach on this issue. I have spoken to Osbie this afternoon and there is no concern on his end. According to Senator Ford, the deal is progressing nicely and it will be ours. I love that kind of optimism, but I don't think we should take anything for granted on this deal. I will retain this agreement in my office. Please keep the existence of this arrangement confidential."
The report by Chief Special Counsel Jimmy G. Creecy made no recommendation to the committee because it was "purely a fact-finding investigation."
The investigation focused on Ford's consulting fees from Doral Dental Services and Johnson Controls, another Wisconsin company that sought business with Tennessee state entities. Many of its findings have already been disclosed by The Commercial Appeal and other Tennessee media.
On Wednesday, the attorney general briefed the Senate Ethics Committee on its investigation into possible rules violations by state Sen. John Ford, who for months has been under fire for his connections to companies that fed him hefty paychecks.
The attorney general made no recommendations and provided no conclusions during the briefing, said Ramsey, a Blountville Republican. Ramsey declined to discuss additional details surrounding the briefing, citing attorney-client privilege. He did say that the attorney general's full report could be made public as early as today.
Ramsey's ethics committee sought assistance from the attorney general's office soon after it started its inquiry into consulting fees Ford was paid by Wisconsin-based Johnson Controls and from TennCare's dental contractor Doral Dental. The attorney general's report will focus largely on Ford's relationship with both of those companies, Ramsey said.
For more information, see: (SORRY CAN'T HOT LINK this one..ban on their stuff)
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050526/NEWS0201/505260419/1010/NEWS0201
good stuff, gail. keep it coming.
What a load of 'theoretical conservative purity' nonsense.
No, Gov. Wilder, it's because they're crooks and they abused the power of their office. You, now by your own admission, are one of them. You may as well be called the Tennessee mafia.
Congrats to the FBI for nailing these bastards.
Let Lt. Gov. Wilder know what you think. lt.gov.john.wilder@legislature.state.tn.us
Personally, I have not problems with FBI sting operations like this, imagine the FBI taking this act to D.C., we would have a cleaned up Senate and Congress within a year. ;D
Correcticus! Didn't the famous LBJ fix the standing rules for all presidential and congresscritter thieves? Of course, and then all RATs in whatever office read and used the rules. Some Pubbies did too and all are despicable.
I think of Bush and wonder how on earth? He only has to rehabilitate THE ENTIRE PLANET!!!
This country has been left run amok for all those years the Dems were in power and now we have half a century's mess to clean up
The government is bloated, the United Nations and heads of foreign nations are all corrupt, almost every state in our union is filled with cronies. This is why I sometimes give Bush a pass when it comes to immigration.
To add to it all, which still shocks the hell out of me every day, Bush has to fight the same people that MESSED IT ALL UP!
I know I've started new jobs and had a solid, rotton mess that took me months to clean up. But I didn't have the lazy scoundrel who left it a mess hanging around, yap, yap, yapping and nip, nip nipping, trying to protect their "legacy", trying to prevent change because hey, what will the clean up reveal about them.
The Repubs marched in lockstep out to Daschle's home state and stopped the mighty phantom Reservation vote. But Daschle was the Senate majority leader at the time. He was a target worth all the resources, manpower and time. Unfortunatley, for those of us living in a state buried in decades of shenanigans, well it takes TIME!
Sorry for ranting on. But I keep getting so shocked by it all I'm flabberghasted.
I'll end with my belief that for eight years the politicos in the Clinton administration, including mighty Clinton himself, were the only politicians on earth not raking in oil-for-food cash? At best, no one knew NOTHING?
Bolton scares them and I say it's just for this reason.
Democrats believe that enforcing the law is wrong.
Unless it's a gun law.
Wonder if any of the gang of four will offer to turn state's evidence to get a lighter sentence. And who will be named. Maybe Wilder's a bit worried.
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