Posted on 11/15/2006 4:41:17 AM PST by shrinkermd
The videotape is grainy, dark and devastating. The congressman and the FBI undercover agents -- the congressman thinks they represent an Arab sheik willing to pay $50,000 to get immigration papers -- are talking business in the living room of a secretly wired Washington townhouse.
Two other congressmen in on the deal "do expect to be taken care of," the lawmaker says. But for the time being -- and he says repeatedly that he might change his mind and take money down the road -- he'd rather trade his help for investment in his district, maybe a hefty deposit in the bank of a political supporter who's done him favors.
"I'm not interested -- at this point," he says of the dangled bribe. "You know, we do business for a while, maybe I'll be interested, maybe I won't, you know." Indeed, he acknowledges, even though he needs to be careful -- "I expect to be in the [expletive] leadership of the House," he notes -- the money's awfully tempting. "It's hard for me to say, just the hell with it...."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
The dems are dysfunctional lot, and getting more so.
Another little ray of sunshine. :') I was going to post this, and looked first. ;')
Nah, there are limits to how high I want to see a traitor climb in our government. It's bad enough when Republican leaders can't talk about Murtha without first praising his service in Vietnam. Folks like myself have to keep reminding the GOP that Benedict Arnold was a decorated War hero, too.
I remember Abscam well. A Republican congressman from my district in Florida, Richard Kelly, lost his job because unlike Murtha, he took the Abscam money. Then Kelly was succeeded by Bill McCollum; you've probably heard of him. While I didn't like Kelly that much, it bothers me more that Murtha would survive the scandal and last long enough to become a walking argument for term limitation, the House equivalent of Robert KKK Byrd.
Murtha's remarks on the ABSCAM tape included something to the effect that, I'm not interested right now, but we could do business in the future if the money were right.
Not only is he another good reason for term limits, he's also a good reason to eliminate the straight-ticket voting option on the ballot. If the lazy know they're going to have to stand there and mark the individual offices, they will either not show up, or they'll just hit a few higher offices and leave the rest blank.
Praise the Lord! This is a God thing.
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