Corruption Charges Are Backfiring

Hendersonville Times-News ^ | June 02, 2006 | John Fogle

[Gritty]

A funny thing happened to Nancy Pelosi on her way to becoming Speaker. She had been kicking the old "culture of corruption" can down the road, when it suddenly became very heavy and began to hurt her toe.

The fraud was working as long as the media was focusing on the tribulations of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a Republican representative from California jailed in March for corruption. Nevermind the fact that former Rep. Frank Ballance (D-N.C.) was carted off to jail three months earlier, also for corruption. Both Ballance and Cunningham currently reside in the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner.

A Web search for articles containing the three words Cunningham, congressman and jail results in 156,000 hits. But, replace Cunningham with Ballance and you get only 890 hits. So the liberal press produced not twice as many, not 10 times as many, but 175 times as many articles describing a Republican going to jail as those describing a Democrat in the same predicament.

Of course, some of the disparity results from the dog-bites-man factor when discussing a corrupt Democrat. The public expects better behavior from Republicans. So far, both factors have helped the corrosive Pelosi perpetuate her "culture of fraudulence."

Are Democrats ever involved in corruption? Recent evidence implies that former Sen. Robert Torricelli, (D-N.J.) was involved in illegal transactions with Saddam Hussein under the so-called Oil-for-Food program. Torricelli, who was run out of office for penny-ante domestic corruption, apparently had his hand in much bigger cookie jars as well.

And Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) was caught in a sting operation where he is on tape accepting $100,000 from an FBI informant in exchange for arranging a business deal.

Jefferson hid $90,000 in his freezer, disguised as food wrapped in aluminum foil. Jefferson refuses to resign and says that there are two sides to the story. Perhaps he hasn't fabricated his side to the story yet, and will let us know as soon as he can think of something plausible.

Many years ago, Rep. John Jenrette (D-S.C.) was caught with $50,000 stuffed in his shoes and claimed he was conducting a one-man sting to catch that dastardly guy who was "trying" to bribe him.

Despite his clever fairy tale, Jenrette was convicted and served 13 months in jail, so Jefferson could use a better story. Maybe a large chunk of ice fell from the freezer, striking him in the mouth and dislodging a tooth, which landed in the freezer. Then, lo and behold, the tooth fairy left $90,000.

When bank examiners sit around chatting among themselves, they often joke about something called a "parking lot audit." Basically, it goes like this. If a bank teller shows up for work in a Rolls Royce, an alarm bell goes off, and the examiners focus on that teller.

In real life, nothing quite so transparent ever happens, at least not until Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va.) came along. Remarkably, on the salary of a congressman, Mollohan's net worth has increased from about $100,000 in 2000 to $11.4 million in 2005, at the same time he was directing millions of dollars in "earmarks" to nonprofit organizations in his district.

Clearly, his wealth increase rings more than an alarm bell; the entire bell tower shakes enough to register on the Richter scale. An investigation is under way. We'll have to wait for the final verdict, but the incident further weakens Pelosi's fraudulent culture of corruption charge.

Even the Democrats' ace in the hole, Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is not panning out as well as they hoped. Initially, Democrats hid behind the technicality that Abramoff didn't contribute his own money to Democrats. But he did direct his clients to contribute to Democrats, and those Democrats did go to bat for Abramoff's clients after the checks cleared.

And, to show how out of touch Democrats are with local issues, they are even trying to use the culture of corruption charge in congressional races here in North Carolina, including the 11th District. Not only is the convicted Frank Ballance from North Carolina, but Democratic State House Speaker Jim Black is under a huge cloud of suspicion about his activities.

So, when an ex-jock, Heath Shuler, came here mumbling about a culture of corruption involving Republicans, it was clear that he didn't know a lot about what is happening in our state. That lame tactic isn't going to fly anywhere, but especially not in North Carolina.

[.cnI redruM]

Heath threw up lots of interceptions as an NFL QB as well. Old habits die hard.

[Fruitbat]

Maybe a large chunk of ice fell from the freezer, striking him in the mouth and dislodging a tooth, which landed in the freezer. Then, lo and behold, the tooth fairy left $90,000.

LMAO Great one!

[Fruitbat]

Yeah, here in the Washington region I never thought he had much for brains.

[KarlInOhio]

The author didn't even mention Harry "I must be in the front row" Reid.

[saganite]

NC ping

[Always Right]

Ole Heath Schuler was quite the QB. Had a career QB ranking of a 54.3, throwing 33 Interceptions and 15 TDs....Two years ago Manning had a QB rating of 121.1.

[Robert A Cook PE]

NC corruption information. Any names sound familair?

[maica]

Well written article.

Doesn't the behavior of Dems campaigning on "culture of corruption" against the GOP call into question the intellectual capacity of Dems to recognize reality? We know that they lie consistently, but this campaign tactic tells me that they believe the lies that they tell. It also tells me that we cannot trust them Ever to make a rational decision, based on facts, hence they should Never be allowed to regain the Majority.

We have to improve and fine-tune our GOP politicians, but at least (until the recent actions of Hastert, Boehner and others) I think they have a sense of reality and the real world of their constituents.

[mad puppy]

"A Web search for articles containing the three words Cunningham, congressman and jail results in 156,000 hits. But, replace Cunningham with Ballance and you get only 890 hits."

Wow. Talk about putting some cold hard numbers to what most have "felt" for a long time. That is great.

[Rockitz]

A Web search for articles containing the three words Cunningham, congressman and jail results in 156,000 hits. But, replace Cunningham with Ballance and you get only 890 hits. So the liberal press produced not twice as many, not 10 times as many, but 175 times as many articles describing a Republican going to jail as those describing a Democrat in the same predicament.

What media bias?

[upchuck]

Pingers to those of you North of the real Carolina :)

[SERE_DOC]

Ah, Butner Federal pen, I know this place, but it is a sad tail indeed.

As it is told a man of the world retired from the military and was told because of your service and your disability you can work in the "government service" area and get 10 points as veteran preference when applying for GS jobs, thinking it would be a good place to work this person applied to over 50 positions in the GS world one of which was Butner and being of the advanced age he was, he received but one out of 50 responses to his request for consideration.

The response was as your resume is impressive and we would like to hire you your advanced age prohibits you from working here at Butner in the information technology section of the facility. Too old? I am just 4 years, post retirement how can that be I am 1 year shy of being 43.

State sponsored age discrimination, ya just gotta love those regs. The letter is hung along side the degrees he has earned, and is shown with pride as a testament of laws run amok.

[proudpapa]

"I am an Italian-American Catholic grandmother," Pelosi said, "very traditional in terms of values."


Hmmm. Since when did traditional Catholic Values include supporting abortion?




This quote is from the May 30th NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/washington/30pelosi.html?ei=5065&en=bb44dc6089c5b70f&ex=1149566400&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

[.cnI redruM]

The NFL has made much in the way of accommodations for colorblind opposing QBs.

[RSmithOpt]

Familiar? Plleeeezzzeeee.....

Hunt, Easley, J. Black and quite a few other Dims need to be added to the Butner facility. The NC legislature and state government is so corrupt.....give NO & La a good run for the money.

A brilliant government in this state....they raise taxes at the state and local levels after the US goes into a serious recession in 2002 to cover their pork and pet projects plus all kinds of handouts to illegals.

This year we had a $2.4 billion dollar surplus in the budget and they (the Dem Legislature) decide to keep it and spend it.

And it just keeps rising. Source for information in charts below: John Locke Foundation

[Brilliant]

The claim that the GOP and not the Dems have a "Culture of Corruption" is a fraud, and most Americans realize that.

[Bob J]

Not that the article count will balance out, but Cunningham was in the news for over a year and the Jefferson story is only a couple weeks old.

Let's not be like the dims with their propaganda. We can be fair and truthfull and still win.

[shalom aleichem]

Let us not forget Jim Traficant of Ohio. He was Sheriff at one time, and when caught accepting a bribe said he was only conducting a sting. He represented himself in court and won. He then ran for Congress where he developed the "beam me up" refrain. He then was nailed again for something and still languishes in jail.

[xzins]

In high school, Heath was known as a solid Christian kid. I suspect he's simply out of his league on this one. Long-term Swain county locals are traditional democrats, and simply do NOT bother to balance political news. My relatives are among that group....it's almost as if its a game they play creating bad things about republicans and a positive spin for democrats.

The most important info in this piece is that of the WVa congressman who has enriched himself from 100 grand to 11 million in just a few short terms in office.

This case should be front and center on Republican attack ads.