I think I skipped a week. It’s been a busy time! But I want to continue highlighting the disgusting level of corruption in the Repub leadership. This campaign will only work if many of us are working on it. Together we can nail them with their own actions. SO please spread the word far and wide! So, without further ado, here I am focusing on my second target (Mike Oxley of Ohio) and my fifth target (Conrad Burns of Montana).
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.
“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?”
See also THIS ARTICLE.
Here is a highly recommended diary discussing a group that is starting the attack on the Corrupt Burns.
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 groupsuggested 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.
Also see THIS ARTICLE
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” The 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.
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 also THIS ARTICLE.
In addition, Oxley recently came out against reforms at Freddie Mac that Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan just suggested. See HERE and HERE.
And here is an article on Chairman Greenspan’s recommendations.
So PLEASE start writing letters to the editor. I suggest writing to national and local media outlets and I also from time to time write to media in the states that these corrupt republicans represent to show them that their Reps are reflecting badly on their state.