Posted on 10/15/2017 6:54:46 AM PDT by Kaslin
Corruption is closely associated with power, so much so that it is tempting to define it as the abuse of power.
A week ago, Jimmie Moore pleaded guilty to filing a false campaign finance report in order to conceal a $90,000 payment he received to drop out of a Pennsylvania congressional race. In other parlance it is called a payoff, as the former Philadelphia judge surely knew.
The nearly one-hundred-grand came from the incumbent being challenged: Congressman Bob Brady (D-Pa.). Brady has been serving (himself) in Congress for the last 19 years, representing a slam-dunk Democratic Party district. For even longer, the last 31 years, Brady has chaired the Democratic Party of Philadelphia.
Moore, who implicated Rep. Brady in the scheme, now faces as many as five years in prison. Brady, for his part, has yet to be charged.
Want to stay in Pennsylvania? A pro-life politician’s 15-year tenure in Congress has come to an end. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) has resigned following revelations that he had urged the woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair to have an abortion.
Hypocrisy in Washington is sort of a positive, like being almost half right.
Turns out Murphy’s “service” resulted in an ample quantity of additional bad behavior, according to an in-depth Politicoexposé. One former staffer dubbed the Washington congressional office “a culture of abuse and a culture of corruption.”
Go figure.
More? Well, there is the media-neglected trial of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on federal corruption charges. And the list of congressmen, governors, state legislators, mayors and other elected officials convicted of corruption is large and growing.
If better organized, government would rival organized crime.
Just Google corruption. You will have to eventually stop hitting links and reading and mumbling to yourself . . . and go on to sleep.
But for the biggest scandal story, go Hollywood. Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has been ousted from The Weinstein Company upon allegations that he had committed criminal sexual harassment and assaults for decades. Rape has been alleged, along with a bevy of other sick, manipulative acts of abuse.
Because he is a huge donor to the Democratic Party, questions abound. Which Democrats had knowledge of Weinstein’s behavior when — and yet remained silent?
Weinstein gave generously to Hillary Clinton’s quest for the presidency. Hillary has now of course condemned his “sexist and misogynistic” behavior.
A British interviewer asked her if dismissing the three women brought to a presidential debate, who had each accused her husband, Bill Clinton, of one form or another of sexual assault, was “the right thing to do.”
“That had all been litigated,” responded Mrs. Clinton, adding, “. . . that was clearly in the past.” Ah, my favorite Clinton defense: their bad action was in the past. (By definition, of course.)
Various recorded comments about Weinstein have now surfaced demonstrating that his misbehavior was an open secret in the entertainment industry. Many also question why NBC News “spiked” the story, with one anonymous insider claiming that, “NBC did everything they could to delay it, complicate it, and ultimately Noah [Oppenheim] killed it. NBC shut it down.”
That ‘look the other way’ rot seems to have spread to a media/entertainment institution on NBC: Saturday Night Live. A week ago Saturday night, observers were surprised that SNL did not feature even one joke at “liberal” Weinstein’s expense.
“It’s a New York thing,” quipped Producer Lorne Michaels when questioned about the omission.
And yet audience members at a rehearsal said there had been a Weinstein joke in one sketch, and that it had garnered a big laugh. But the joke was apparently pulled from the live broadcast.
I’m not big on launching boycotts at every turn. But do we want comedy to be pure political propaganda? How could anyone who values evenhandedness have turned on SNL last night or next Saturday as if nothing had happened?
Who needs these jesters covering for corruption?
We have enough already and it is not funny.
It is sad to admit but this is the way of doing things in most Latin American countries. We use to be critical of them, now we have descended to their level.
Politicians often make campaign contribution and assist in fundraising for the defeated. Wonder why they didn’t try the legal way.
Bernie got a lake house for leaving the race. Wonder if that will come up?
Not exactly true. Only the Paula Jones incident was litigated.
Decades and centuries and all of history ... the same as is, and was
Have the killings begun yet???
I think you are right, maybe it was concealed better.
The nearly one-hundred-grand came from the incumbent being challenged: Congressman Bob Brady (D-Pa.). Brady has been serving (himself) in Congress for the last 19 years, representing a slam-dunk Democratic Party district. For even longer, the last 31 years, Brady has chaired the Democratic Party of Philadelphia.
Moore, who implicated Rep. Brady in the scheme, now faces as many as five years in prison. Brady, for his part, has yet to be charged.
This is a good example scenario that I've been asking for to explain possible corruption scenarios if the 17th amendment is repealed.
Transfer this to the Senate and then ask if a manager of a National XXX Senatorial Committee or a Senate Leadership Fund super PAC could pay off state legislators to choose a preferred candidate for Senate.
As I posted in the thread linked at the top of my comment, what legitimate FEC filings would explain why, say, Mitch McConnell raises super PAC money if there are no Senate elections? What reportable expenditures could he make that's not an out-and-out bribe to state legislators if there is no state election, just a vote in the legislative chambers?
He will have to rebuild a new power network to replace it, since it would be harder for McConnell to use national money to influence the state appointment in Mississippi or Alabama, like he's done in the past. There would be no more primaries and run-offs to dilute with paid fake candidates to split votes or to buy out potential threats.
-PJ
A Congressman is caught buying out a competitor to drop out of a race.
Could this be an example scenario in a repealed 17th amendment Senate to show how hard it would be for a party to influence state legislatures with PAC money when there are no more Senate elections?
Note that the bought candidate pleaded guilty, but the bribing Congressman was not charged.
-PJ
The funny thing would be if all these corrupt losers end-up in prison for a long time.
Superb observations and questions put forth by PJ, Paul Jacob as posted by Kaslin.
I say corruption is endemic to every thing made by man. Everything. Our homes, autos, marriages, families, congress . . . and our very souls are assaulted every day.
The Framers were well aware of man’s shortcomings and ability to put his interests far above the common good. It is why their design of government didn’t attempt to do the impossible, to outlaw man’s natural propensity to enrich himself at the expense of others.
Instead, they designed institutions whose natural proclivities tended to cancel out the natural corruption of their fellow institutions. It sounds crazy, but James Madison was a genius whose theory proved sound.
IOW, despite the expected corruption of individuals, the Framers’ bicameral congress derived from two distinct sources PROVED that institutions do not require the membership of angels to secure liberty.
A senate filled with corrupt senators is of little interest to me if the senate does its Constitutional duties.
<>Could this be an example scenario in a repealed 17th amendment Senate to show how hard it would be for a party to influence state legislatures with PAC money when there are no more Senate elections?<>
Directly to your point, you may wish to read “Electing the Senate” by Wendy J. Schiller and Charles Stewart. They examine, in exhausting detail, the effect of party on the election of senators between 1865 and 1913.
Bttt.
5.56mm
>> If better organized, government would rival organized crime.
Major difference: Crime is organized.
And she got $850,000 to settle her suit.
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.