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Posted on 07/11/2009 9:46:01 AM PDT by jazusamo
WASHINGTON — With the current chairman under fire for his connections to a lobbying firm under FBI investigation, Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., could be in line to take over the chairmanship of the House panel that oversees Pentagon funding.
But even as that possibility looms, Dicks himself faces increased scrutiny for his relationship to the lobbying firm at the heart of the investigation. So far, Dicks hasn't been sucked into the latest earmark-campaign contribution scandal on Capitol Hill, though he and a handful of other lawmakers have skated around the edges.
Dicks adamantly denies any wrongdoing and said he hasn't had any contact with the FBI or the House Ethics Committee, which is also investigating the PMA Group and its ties to members of Congress.
Outside congressional watchdog groups say there is no evidence Dicks has done anything illegal. Yet they also say he could find himself increasingly on the hot seat if Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., is forced out as chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee. Dicks is the No. 2 Democrat on the committee.
~snip~
Dicks, in an interview, admits knowing Paul Magliocchetti, the founder of PMA and a former top aide on the defense appropriations subcommittee. Without prompting, he provided a list of the more than $27 million in earmarks he secured for four PMA clients, defense firms with Navy-related contracts, over the past three years.
But Dicks rejected any suggestion that the earmarks -- congressionally directed spending in an appropriations bill -- were in any way related to the more than $133,000 in campaign contributions he has received from Magliocchetti, PMA's political action committee, its other employees and its clients since 2001.
"I haven't done anything wrong as it relates to PMA," said Dicks, who is in his 17th term in the House.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
To be added to the Murtha Watch ping list please notify myself or RedRover.
Therein lies the rub. 17 is about 12 too many. 10yrs is plenty in the House.
Yes, I advocate term limits. Strict, short term limits.
Absolutely agree!
It’s practically impossible to prove a quid pro quo on a company receiving earmarks and contracts and that company donating to campaign funds but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out it’s happening and it happens with the long term politicians far more than short termers.
ROFLOL!!!!
LOL!!
That is a laugher isn’t it? Being a lawyer just makes it easier for them to avoid getting caught and prosecuted.
Will Barney Frank be leading the scrutiny?
Oh no!
What a suggestive choice of words!
No further comment.
I’ll make a further comment, that’s BS! :-)
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Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., declined to release his earmark wish list because, his spokesman George Behan said, it is "a work in progress."
As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, Dicks has "a window on the process that perhaps other noncommittee members may not have, so there are typically items that we express support for" later on in the legislative process," Behan said.
"We consult the various subcommittees and attempt to assure that major issues in the 6th District and around the state are covered."
Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., also declined to release their lists of earmark requests.
"We don't release internal memos/letters," said Ciaran Clayton, a spokeswoman for Cantwell.
Two state Republican -- Reps. Dave Reichert and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, -- say they have sworn off earmarks in the coming fiscal year because of the controversy.
McMorris Rodgers said that although she is proud of her earmarks, "business as usual is not acceptable," she said in a statement. "Time and time again I've seen where the earmark process has been used and abused for personal and political gain. Congress needs real earmark reform."
For the current fiscal year, Citizens Against Government Waste ranked Murray seventh the 100 U.S. senators in terms of spending on pork projects, and while Cantwell ranked 40th. The group ranked Dicks 10th among his colleagues in the House.
The group ranked Washington state 25th in pork-barrel spending, on a per-capita basis.
The organization found that Murray had earmarked 208 projects to the state worth $327 million, whereas Dicks, Washington state's top pork getter in the House, was responsible for 77 projects valued at $105 million.
State's congressional delegation does its share of pleading for the pork (WA)
IAC, "... scrutiny for dicks"?? Is Murtha involved in a bathhouse earmark with Barney Fwanks now?
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