Posted on 03/30/2014 2:26:04 PM PDT by Libloather
In more than a decade of campaigns for the California Legislature, San Francisco mayor and secretary of state, state Sen. Leland Yee raised in excess of $5 million. Yet it was a campaign debt only a fraction of that amount that federal officials allege pulled the veteran politician into a sprawling sting operation.
The 137-page FBI affidavit against Yee and more than 20 other defendants says the San Francisco Democrat’s focus on retiring a $70,000 campaign debt from his unsuccessful 2011 mayor’s race and raising money for his 2014 candidacy for secretary of state led him to accept bribes in return for official favors and arrange overseas weapons deals.
“We’re 32 out now. $32,000 out ... from paying off the debt,” the complaint says Yee told an undercover agent posing as an Atlanta-based businessman – who had already given more than $15,000 to the lawmaker – in the cafeteria of a state office building in San Francisco in September 2012. “So, um, if you could do another 10, that would be good.”
(Excerpt) Read more at modbee.com ...
Isnt it adorable how libs always find ways to excuse their behavior
Yee owed $70K for back debts, but he got pailed out of jail on a $500,000 bail demand within 5 hours.
Tell me what is wrong with this picture????
How about the fact that the FBI was building this case for the past FIVE years? Yee didn’t incur the debt on the run for mayor until within the past TWO years.
More non-information matching.
It’s all just SO VERY confusing.
;-)
I thought the lefties liked debt. It builds the economy.
I guess Yee regrets, many months ago, not declaring bankruptcy.
He also hates America, and wants to destroy it from within. This is excuse making from the left.
Yee who are without sin cast the first stone.
So then what we need is public funding of campaigns. Those poor public servants shouldn't have to go around begging for money, they should spend all of their time working tirelessly for the people. If only Yee hadn't had to worry about campaign debt, he never would have been drawn into such questionable behavior.
Kind of like mac daddy, I knew nothing about anything until heard it on the news and the original problem was all Bush’s fault and aided by the evils Republicans and their Christans zealots. Trust me, would I lie to the American people?
Oh, it was because of his campaign debt. So I guess that excuses it, then. Here I was, thinking it was misbehavior by a politician who was known for advocating policies quite the opposite of his actual behavior.
By the way, my mortgage debt exceeds Yee’s campaign debt and is more personal to me than a campaign obligation. Perhaps I should consider some innovative approaches to retiring that debt.
Terrorist. Traitor. Democrat.
IMHO, this kind of corruption is even more rampant than we can even imagine. In Yee’s case, tho, I think there’s a cultural factor that’s different. The Chinese perception of what *we* think of as cheating or stealing is very different. To them it’s like making a clever move in chess.
Same here. Seems perfectly normal if you're running for state office too...Mencken comes to mind:
"Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."
What is it with rats, they are forever getting caught with hand in the cookie jar. Then claiming that they needed to pay off campaign debts, if they are this poor managing their own cash, what makes the typical voter think they will do any better with the taxpayers money.
SFGATE.COM EXCERPT Democrat Yee aggressively campaigned in the 2011 San Francisco mayor's race...he blasted interim Mayor Ed Lee as beholden to City Hall power brokers with "selfish interests" and vowed to "throw them out" if elected.
At the same time, Democrat Yee was brandishing his liberal bona fides, touting his "tolerance and compassion," he was allegedly soliciting cash from an undercover FBI agent posing as a real estate developer who had already illegally funneled $11,000 to Yee's campaign....
Democrat Yee boasted that "there's tremendous opportunity (to make shady money) in local levels ... because whoever's gonna be the mayor controls everything."
Self-serving Democrat Yee was driven by greed ... willing to skirt campaign finance laws, collect cash for meetings, trade political favors for donations, and even facilitated an international arms deal worth up to $2.5 million.
DEMOCRAT YEE APPARENTLY USED GOVERNMENT OFFICES TO PROFT HIMSELF .....a Chronicle review of Democrat Yee's votes and campaign donations shows that money might have influenced many of Democrat Yee's votes in the Legislature....
=============================================
Yee is the paradigm "compassionate liberal"....bleating about being "for his fellow man" and conniving to make a buck on it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.