Target the Corrupt Republican Campaign

On Daily Kos, the Mid-Hudson Alliance website, and in my own Progressive Democrat newsletter, I have been writing a “Target the Corrupt Republican” campaign, now in its seventh week. This campaign grew out of the exposure of the DeLay scandal, and is designed to publicize through letters to the editor the extent of Republican Corruption. I focus on particularly scandal-riddent Republicans, give info on their scandals and urge people to write letters to the editor about them. I want to emphasize that I do not smear a Republican just because I disagree with him. I am focusing on REAL scandals, mainly within the Republican leadership. More below.
This week, in honor of adding Booman to my list of places to publicize this campaign, I am going to summarize some of the targets of my campaign to bring everyone up to date. I ask that you write your local papers and complain about DeLay and some of these other scandal-ridden Repubs. Again, it is critical to mention DeLay, whose name has now become synonymous with corruption, along with one or more of these other guys, spreading the “corruption” label to other scandal-ridden Republicans. Here is a summary of the targets I have focused on so far:

Tom Delay, of course. We all know about him. If you want more info, please see: DNC
Rep. Mike Oxley (R-Ohio): Ohio Congressman Mike Oxley, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, suggested that a congressional probe of mutual fund companies might be dropped if its Washington-based trade group, the Investment Company Institute fired a prominent Democrat and replaced her with a Republican.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A2385-2003Feb25?language=printer

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A10463-2003Feb14?language=printer

The Toledo Blade also ran a series documenting Oxley’s questionable connections to the corporate special interests that he is supposed to be regulating entitled “The Price of Power Politics”. This series documents Oxley’s many ties to corporate special interests and his efforts to block real accounting reform. Not to mention, the numerous worldwide trips he takes on the corporate dime.

The Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reported on the forced resignation of a top lobbyist at Freddie Mac – see:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28822-2004Mar3.html

and

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,BT_CO_20040303_005524-INjfINllaV3mpumaaiGa6qAm4,00.html.

As the Wall Street Journal reported, the lobbyist, R. Mitchell Delk, “organized dozens of GOP fundraisers over the past two years, many of which House Financial Services Chairman Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, co-hosted.” In fact Oxley was the most frequent guest at Delk’s fundraisers (19 of the 50 events) and at the same time “did not act on proposed legislation that would have increased federal oversight of [Freddie Mac]” – see:

http://www.detnews.com/2003/politics/0307/19/politics-221439.htm.

In addition, Oxley recently came out against reforms at Freddie Mac that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan just suggested – see:

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,BT_CO_20040303_005524-INjfINllaV3mpumaaiGa6qAm4,00.html

and

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,BT_CO_20040303_005524-INjfINllaV3mpumaaiGa6qAm4,00.html

(here is an article on Chairman Greenspan’s recommendations)

3. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO):
Roy Blunt defended Tom DeLay recently. This isn’t surprising. Tom DeLay may be Blunt’s ethical mentor, and the Blunt (Roy and his son, Matt, now Governor of MO) family (Roy and his son, Matt, now Governor of MO) have used similar fundraising techniques as DeLay:

http://www.thehill.com/news/070903/blunt.aspx
http://www.thehill.com/news/070903/blunt.aspx

In addition, Roy Blunt, was dating a lobbyist from the tobacco company Philip Morris. This alone is considered an ethics violation and reeks of corruption, but to make matters worse, only hours after he was named Majority Whip, he tried to insert a provision benefiting Philip Morris USA into the bill creating the Department of Homeland Security! Now if that isn’t a corrupt sweetheart deal I don’t know what is! Beyond corrupt it is immoral to try and debase our homeland security with a secret favor to your girlfriend’s company.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A45118-2003Sep8&notFound

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4. Gov. Matt Blunt (R-MO):
Governor Matt Blunt has tried to prevent the U.S. Attorney’s office from investigating his family’s scandals by putting the wife of U.S. Attorney Todd Graves (U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri) on the Blunt Family payroll to the tune of a cool half million dollars a year, and he used taxpayer dollars to do it:

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/10918563.htm

There is an online petition (only for Mo. Residents, but worth a read anyway for others) to Attny. General Gonzales asking for an investigation of this conflict of interest on the part of U.S. Attorney Todd Graves:

http://www.petitiononline.com/conflict/petition.html

5. Sen. CONRAD BURNS (R-MT):
U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) has broken his 1995 pledge not to seek re-election in 2006 and has now been tied to the scandal surrounding GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

To quote:
“Western-state Democratic leader is demanding an investigation into how the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe got a $3 million federal education grant from a program originally intended to benefit only poor Tribes. Bob Ream, the chairman of the Montana Democratic Party, formally requested a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into how former Saginaw Chippewa lobbyist Jack Abramoff might have improperly influenced Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

“Is it a coincidence that Mr. Abramoff, his associates and wealthy Tribal clients made $137,000 in campaign contributions to Sen. Burns’ soft-money corporation prior to the appropriation? Ream said. “Is it a coincidence that Mr. Abramoff and his team arranged for Sen. Burns’ chief of staff and an appropriations staffer to take a private jet to New Orleans for a trip to the Super Bowl?”