Star Lobbyist Closes Up Shop As Criminal Inquiry Heats Up

NYTimes ^ | March 29, 2009

[Steelfish]

Star Lobbyist Closes Up Shop as Criminal Inquiry Heats Up

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and CHARLIE SAVAGE Published: March 29, 2009

WASHINGTON —

For most of the last three decades, the lobbyist Paul Magliocchetti might have been mistaken for an owner of the Alpine, a wood-paneled Italian restaurant across the Potomac River from Washington where he routinely presided over boisterous tables of lawmakers and their staff members.

“Get me some oysters! Get me some steamed crabs! Get me a rack of lamb!” Mr. Magliocchetti would tell the cooks, strolling into the kitchen. “Every day a different thing,” the chef and owner Ermanno Tonizzo recalled fondly. “I don’t think he has ever seen the menu.”

That impresario act — pulling bottles from the private wine locker labeled “Mags” to entertain lawmakers at the clubby Capital Grille steakhouse, sending gift baskets or wine to lawmakers and their aides, or leasing each of his lobbyists a Lexus — helped Mr. Magliocchetti, a protégé of the powerful Representative John P. Murtha, build his lobbying firm into one of the 10 biggest in Washington.

[smoothsailing]

Good Post. Hopefully this will tighten the noose a notch on Murtha.

[Doctor Raoul]

I want Murtha in prison.

[smoothsailing]

The sooner the better.Preferably with a bunkbuddy named Bruno.

[smoothsailing]

Steelfish has it up!

[jazusamo]

Murtha has to be irate that the MSM is on him and his crooked cohorts.

Thanks for the ping, Smooth.

Murtha Watch Ping!

Code Pinkos

To be added to the Murtha Watch ping list please notify myself or RedRover.

[Steelfish]

Hope we have Murtha and a few more heads.

[Kakaze]

I want Murtha, drug through a public trial, humiliated then stuffed in prison.

[Eagles6]

"I want Murtha in prison."

You're not the only one.

[smoothsailing]

So do I.

I watched a good show on C-Span tonight about this. The show is "Q&A" and Brian Lamb interviewed Sharyl Attkisson. She's an investigative reporter for CBS News and did an excellent piece on the evening news about Murtha and PMA a few days ago.They talked about that as well as Rangel,Pelosi, and some others.

They should have the video of the program available on-line soon. There's a link below to some background on the show and the transcript is there as well.

http://www.q-and-a.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1225

[smoothsailing]

The CBS video is still available here...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2209317/posts

[jazusamo]

I’ll be looking forward to seeing that video.

Glad you posted the link to the “Constitution” video Attkisson did on Murtha, was just about to do it. :)

[smoothsailing]

It was an excellent show. Brian Lamb ran all the videos and then talked with Attkisson about them. The “Constitution” video he showed had a few shots in it that I don’t remember seeing before.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I doubt it would touch Murtha. Too slippery.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Perp walk time for the Fat Murtha?

Hey, Gitmo will be empty. Big enough to hold all of lard-ass and his “porkulus.”

[freema]

And about $95,000 over the last three years was credited to Julie Giardina, a 30-year-old lobbyist who joined PMA after a stint as a Defense Department employee working for Mr. Murtha’s staff.

http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/julie-giardina.asp?cycle=08

http://watchdog.net/contrib/22201/julie_giardina

http://www.implu.com/lobbyist/16917/2006

I found the Vanity Fair piece about the party mentioned in the article: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2001/12/washington-interns200112?currentPage=1

[Brad from Tennessee]

I’m no fan of federal law enforcement tactics but they are often very effective. Once the feds focus on a case they take their time and are very methodical in trying to put together a strong case. They went after a couple of guys in my county in 1991 and finally indicted and convicted them in 1997. The drawn-out, meticulous investigation serves as a psychological weapon that can cause suspects to screw up and implicate themselves, turn on each other, or flush new witnesses out into the open.

[Brad from Tennessee]

ANOTHER POINT: Murtha, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1979 ABSCAM scandal, escaped trial by testifying against two fellow Democrat congressmen who both went to jail. When Murtha finally gets slammed into a federal holding cell a team of stenographers will be required to list all the big names, dates and incidents he's likely to start spilling. Murtha has the dirt to take down a lot of current and past congresspeople. And he proved he's a snitch.

[Marine_Uncle]

It just goes on and on as how corrupt these people are.

[freema]

A slow burn works for me. Also, some of murtha’s ‘friends’ might not appreciate him being a snitch. Again, works for me!