Shucks!
Regardless of his nutty rants while serving in Congress, you could always count on him to provide some levity in that mostly, phony, staid chamber, plus, he used to drive both sides right up a wall, which is a good thing!
Go Jim, he hates taxes more than me!
I would vote for him if I lived there. I have always liked him.
It doesn’t get much lower than Traficant, but if you are enough of a charismatic sociopath, then you will attract your groupies.
“I’m probably going to be indicted, possibly before the [November] election.” Asked why he was being targeted by federal prosecutors, the embattled lawmaker pointed to his 1993 demand that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno resign after the Branch Davidian tragedy, his repeated attacks on the FBI (some agents, Traficant has long charged, are “on the payroll of the mob”), and his regular jabs on the House floor at the Clinton White House (”Sex, violence, corruption, bribery, deceit. . . The whole place is out of control!”)
Although he voted against every single article of impeachment against the 42nd President, Traficant apparently felt recriminations for his many attacks were inevitably going to come from an administration run by his fellow Democrats and he began to vote increasingly on the right. Traficant’s lifetime American Conservative Union rating was 27% in 1998. His ACU rating for 1999 was 52% and for 2000 was 60%. He even signaled his preference for George W. Bush for President over Al Gore. Then in January when the Buckeye State congressman was the lone Democratic House member to vote for Republican Dennis Hastert for speaker, his Democratic colleagues had had enough and retaliated by stripping Traficant of all committee assignments.
When the federal indictment came down three days before his 60th birthday, Traficant vowed he would “fight like a junkyard dog” to clear his name and warned federal lawmen that if he beats them in court, “you’ll be working in Mingo Junction” (a small town in eastern Ohio).
Can Jim Traficant survive this latest in a long string of outrageous adventures? The charges in the indictment are very damaging: that the congressman took money and work on his boat and family farm from different Ohio businessmen in exchange for political favors; that he accepted $2,500-a-month kickbacks from a staffer for hiring him and renting office space from him; that he ordered staffers on the federal payroll to perform manual labor on his farm and boat during normal work hours. If convicted, Traficant faces forfeiture of his property, a fine of up to $100,000 and a possible 40 years in prison.
Congressional Character
Strong stuff, all right. But given his political track record and his ability to connect with his blue-collar constituency, many Traficant-watchers insist he can weather the kind of controversy that has demolished the careers of other politicians. Indeed, some would not put it past the man from Youngstown, if convicted, to repeat the feat last performed by a House member in 1955, when Democratic Rep. (1941-62) Thomas J. Lane (Mass.), after being convicted of income tax evasion and spending three months in Danbury (Conn.) Prison, returned to the House with no talk of expulsion or any punishment from colleagues, and went on to win three more terms.
In 1983, he was indicted on bribery charges after federal officials produced recordings of Traficant’s accepting $163,000 from La Cosa Nostra figures to overlook local gambling, loan-sharking, prostitution and drug trafficking. The sheriff admitted he took the money, but insisted he was conducting his own investigation of the underworld.
Although not a lawyer, Traficant handled his own defense and, after a 17-week trial, was acquitted by the jury. This set off wild celebrations among Traficant’s fans and, as the late Ohio Gov. James A. Rhodes (R.) recalled to me at the time, “[Traficant] went before the microphones and cameras after his acquittal and, in proclaiming victory, started spewing profanity. The networks cut him off, apologized, and then their switchboards lit up with irate calls demanding the man be allowed to have his say.”
As Rhodes predicted to me three months before it happened, Traficant rode his folk-hero status to a stunning 18,000-vote defeat of Republican Rep. (1978-84) Lyle Williams in November. The results were all the more impressive because they occurred while Ronald Reagan was sweeping Ohio by more than one million votes.
“The only American in history to have defeated the United States in a RICO case” is how Traficant has since styled himself. Not exactly. While triumphant in his criminal case, Traficant was dogged for years by IRS complaints that, since he never returned the money he received from the mob figures, it was income and he was therefore liable for taxes on it. In 1987, a U.S. Tax Court ruled that the congressman owed back taxes as well as interest and penalties on the bribe. Traficant has since been the most venomous congressional critic of the IRS and sponsored legislation that changed the burden of proof from the taxpayer to the federal tax collectors and included penalties of up to $1 million for misconduct by IRS agents. In the two years since his measure became law, Traficant proudly told a group earlier this year, the number of IRS audits has plummeted dramatically.”
I think most Free Republic readers and posters would prefer the Republican candidate in this race, Jim Graham. Though his chances are slim in this solid Dem district, we look forward to Traficant pulling votes away from incumbent Tim Ryan. Having Traficant in will surely make it interesting.
Check out Jim Graham, recently endorsed by the Akron Tea Party: http://www.jimgrahamforcongress.com/
He's not morally fit to drive a truck for UPS but he's morally fit enough to serve in Congress.
Beam me up Scotty!
I do miss James but I also miss A+Bert.
I’d probably vote for him.
Youngstown is almost like being on some other planet, especially where politics are concerned. It’s Flint and Tony Soprano’s New Jersey all rolled into one. Traficant started his rise to fame as a County Sheriff by the way back in the 70’s, by refusing to serve foreclosures on the homes of unemployed steel workers. Look for a bunch of other Democrats out there to start replicating that tactic.