tagged w/ dnc ethics violations
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The eight-member panel reached a unanimous conclusion on 10 of the 13 counts. The committee voted 7 to 1 on an 11th count.
In a statement, Rangel, the 20-term Democratic stalwart who recently played a key role in enacting the healthcare overhaul, criticized the decision.
"How can anyone have confidence in the decision of the ethics subcommittee when I was deprived of due process rights, right to counsel and was not even in the room?" Rangel said. "I can only hope that the full committee will treat me more fairly, and take into account my entire 40 years of service to the Congress before making any decisions on sanctions."
The full 10-member House Ethics Committee will recommend a punishment for Rangel. Its decision may be based on testimony Monday of the committee's top lawyer, Blake Chisam, who said that there had been no "evidence of corruption" but that Rangel had been "sloppy."
A censure or reprimand would require a vote of the full House during its lame-duck session.
Rangel's ethical troubles haven't harmed his standing at home. He was reelected to a 21st term this month with 80% of the vote, and he had long been expected to reach some accommodation with ethics investigators, who dogged him for more than two years and forced him to relinquish his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee before Monday's proceedings.
Rangel said Monday that he had parted ways with his high-powered private legal team after spending nearly $2 million on his defense.
Another prominent Democrat, Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles, will face a similar ethics proceeding this month. Waters, a 10-term congresswoman, is accused of helping a bank in which her husband held a financial stake.The eight-member panel reached a unanimous conclusion on 10 of the 13 counts. The... more
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WASHINGTON — The long-awaited congressional ethics hearing for New York Rep. Charles Rangel proceeded without him Monday morning after the Harlem Democrat walked out of the proceeding, saying he did not have legal representation.
In a tense exchange with members of a subcommittee of the House ethics panel, Rangel complained that the two-year investigation into whether he had failed to report sources of income, among the 13 alleged violations, caused him to rack up a legal tab of nearly $2 million. His lawyers warned the hearing could cost another $1 million. After he was unable to convince them that he would be able to pay, they withdrew as his representatives earlier this fall, Rangel said.
Rangel said he had not had time to raise money through a legal defense fund to hire new attorneys. He said it was not fair to ask him to continue without representation just so the committee could finish the hearing before the end of the current lame-duck session of Congress.
"Can you tell me under what theory of fairness would dictate that I be denied due process, that I be denied an attorney?" Rangel asked.
"I don't think it's fair that I participate in any type of proceeding if, in fact, what you are basically telling me, that the political calendar will not allow you enough time to allow me to get a lawyer at this crucial point in my life," he added. "Fifty years of public service is on the line. I truly believe that I'm not being treated fairly."WASHINGTON — The long-awaited congressional ethics hearing for New York Rep.... more
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MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. – A New Jersey Republican congressional candidate criticized his Democratic opponent Friday amid mounting evidence that Democratic officials planted a tea-party candidate in the race to siphon off conservative votes.
"My opponent, John Adler, represents everything that is wrong with politics in our country today," Republican Jon Runyan said. "I would ask for an apology. But frankly, an apology from someone like Congressman Adler would be so meaningless that it's not worth seeking."
He spoke at a news conference Friday as Adler, a first-term Democratic lawmaker, and his campaign remained mum about a report in the Courier-Post of Cherry Hill in which Democratic operatives speaking on the condition of anonymity confirmed what Republicans have believed for months: That tea-party candidate Peter DeStefano was put on the ballot by Democrats.
The operatives said a county Democratic employee is running at least the Web elements of DeStefano's campaign.
Tea party organizations, which have denounced DeStefano since he entered the race in June, called on him Friday to quit. About 50 tea party activists gathered in protest outside a restaurant in Medford where DeStefano had scheduled a fundraiser Friday night.
DeStefano arrived at the fundraiser after the protesters left and told reporters he would remain in the race, but he would not answer specific questions about the newspaper's report, dismissing the allegations as "hearsay."
"I'm an average guy who's running for Congress on the independent ticket," DeStefano said.
One tea party group, the West Jersey Tea Party, said it plans to file a voter-fraud lawsuit against Adler next week.
Adler has previously denied the accusations. Adler and top officials in Adler's campaign and did not return calls or e-mails from The Associated Press on Friday.
In an August interview with the AP, DeStefano excoriated both Adler and Runyan.
He fended off questions about Republicans' accusations and tea party organizations' claims that he wasn't even a member, though he was running for Congress with the slogan "New Jersey Tea Party." While there are several tea party groups in New Jersey, none goes by that name. Some tea party groups are supporting Runyan.
"Any American citizen can run for any office they want," DeStefano said. "I think it's time we get past this crap."
He refused to answer questions about precisely when he decided to run.
In August, Adler told the Courier-Post: "I know we weren't part of it."
Runyan said his campaign was looking into whether there's any legal action that could be taken against Adler.
The operatives told the Courier-Post the plan was shared with members of the South Jersey Young Democrats, and some in that group gathered signatures for DeStefano — while others didn't because they thought the plan was unethical.
Republicans started raising suspicions about DeStefano months ago when they found many of the signatures on his nominating petitions were from Democrats, including a former Adler campaign staffer.
The campaign has been nasty and not especially focused on policy issues.
Adler has criticized Runyan for eschewing open-format debates, keeping donkeys on his property to qualify part of it for a lower agricultural tax rate and not denouncing spending by independent conservative groups that have targeted Adler.
Runyan, meanwhile, has expressed outrage, claiming Adler falsely tried to link him with Republicans who want to privatize social security. He also filed charges accusing an Adler campaign volunteer of harassing his 8-year-old daughter while she played outside Runyan's home.MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. – A New Jersey Republican congressional candidate criticized... more
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By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
We have long recognized current California Attorney General Jerry Brown as the great artful dodger of our time, more skilled than most at being able to avoid the political consequences of his various positions and official actions.
28 years ago, at a time when then-California Governor Jerry Brown was attempting to make the jump to the United States Senate, a California journalist summed up Mr. Brown’s gubernatorial career with words that are the mirror image of his tenure as mayor of the City of Oakland or as Attorney General:
“Nearly eight years after becoming governor, Jerry Brown remains an ideological free agent. Like a particle in high energy physics, he always seems to transform himself before he can be identified. … Unfortunately, his personality sometimes undermines his achievements. Too often Jerry starts out in one direction with great fanfare, has second thoughts, and ends up following an entirely different course, all the while pretending he never changed his initial position. And while this sort of zero-based thinking may suit a philosopher, real people with real problems inevitably demand more programmatic clarity from their political leaders, as well as a greater commitment to following through on last year’s good ideas.”
Roger Rapoport
“California Dreaming: The Political Odyessy of Pat & Jerry Brown”
Nolo Press
But while we’ve always known that Mr. Brown was able to reverse his political field at a moment’s notice—running off in the opposite ideological direction when the winds of change blow more favorably that way—we did not realize until recently that he was able to do so without political consequences largely because he is so good at covering his tracks.
Last week, the extent of Mr. Brown’s extraordinary ability to hide his own history has begun to come to light.
It would seem to be both logical and self-evident that with few exceptions for privacy purposes, the papers, records, and documents generated by a California governor in the course of their public duties ought to belong to the public. But in a January 21 Oakland Tribune/Contra Costa Times article entitled “Little-Known Law Is Blocking Path To Jerry Brown's Papers,” Inside Bay Area reporter Steven Harmon showed how Jerry Brown managed to carve out an exception to that public records policy just for himself and his gubernatorial administration.
Mr. Harmon wrote that in 1988, five years after he left office as California governor, Mr. Brown engaged in a legal/political battle with the office of the California Secretary of State over who should have custody over the Brown gubernatorial records—the office of California State Archives, or Mr. Brown himself....(follow the link for more)By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
We have long recognized current California Attorney... more
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House's No. 2 Democratic leader said Sunday that comedian Stephen Colbert's testimony last week on immigration was "inappropriate" and "an embarrassment."
Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California invited Colbert to appear before the House Judiciary Committee. But other Democrats weren't happy about her decision.
VIDEO: Colbert testifies in Washington
The committee chairman, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., asked Colbert to leave the room at the beginning of the hearing because the comedian had no expertise in farm labor issues or immigration policy.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland told Fox News Sunday he thought the episode was more of an embarrassment to Colbert than to the House. But, he added, "I think it was inappropriate" that he testified.
Lofgren spokesman Pedro Ribeiro declined comment Sunday.WASHINGTON (AP) — The House's No. 2 Democratic leader said Sunday that... more
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The oil and gas industry outspent environmentalists nearly eight-fold last year in federal lobbying on climate change legislation, which has failed to pass Congress, a recent report shows.
Environmental groups spent a record $22.4 million lobbying for a bill backed by President Obama to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan, non-profit research group that tracks money in U.S. politics. The amount was double their lobbying expenditure from 2000 to 2008.
* Follow Green House on Twitter
Still, it paled in comparison to the $175 million spent by the oil and gas industry, which opposed the pollution caps that would be required in a bill by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass. and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. ExxonMobil alone spent $27.4 million.
"In other words, Goliath whipped David," the center's Evan Mackinder wrote. The bill has languished in the Senate. Despite industry opposition, similar legislation passed the House of Representatives last year.
(Posted by Jessica Durando)The oil and gas industry outspent environmentalists nearly eight-fold last year in... more
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Washington (CNN) -- New Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Mitch Landrieu walked a political tightrope Thursday in Washington, D.C., as he assessed the progress of his city for a luncheon audience at the National Press Club.
He was invited to speak to the journalism organization about the progress the city had made rebuilding on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and what effects the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were having on the city.
Landrieu hammered BP's cleanup efforts after the oil spill, saying, "In my opinion, they're poised to cut and run."
The mayor also expressed his desire to see the ban on offshore drilling lifted, a position that puts the Democrat squarely at odds with the White House. "It is not a zero-sum game," Landrieu said of offshore drilling. "We are not limited to 'drill baby drill' or 'stop drilling forever.' We can do better. We must drill and restore."
Landrieu said the spill and cleanup efforts were a continuing threat to New Orleans and other Louisiana coastal areas. "BP and others are acting like this is the beginning of the end. It is not," he said.
"We have no confidence in the claims that much of the oil is gone." In fact, he said, a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released Tuesday "found 70 percent of the oil is still in the ecosystem. This is the beginning of the beginning," he said.Washington (CNN) -- New Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Mitch Landrieu walked a political... more
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Bell council members earned tens of thousands of dollars over the last four years as members of city commissions that rarely met, records reviewed by The Times show.
Bell's Surplus Property Authority, for example, met once between January 2007 and July 2010, according to city minutes. The Public Finance Authority met only three times during that period. The Housing Authority met four times in 2008. And the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority has not met since January 2005.
The findings add a new twist to the Bell salary scandal, which has sparked several investigations and prompted the resignations of three top city administrators. Until they cut their pay last month amid public outcry, the council members were earning about $97,000 a year, making them among the highest-paid part-time council members in California.
Under Bell's salary system, council members received only a modest sum for attending City Council meetings, $150 a month, and $60 a month for sitting on the Redevelopment Agency. What pushed their income so high was the $1,574.65 monthly they received last year for sitting on each of the other five boards, according to records.Bell council members earned tens of thousands of dollars over the last four years as... more
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According to the Center for Responsive Politics and financial disclosures, over the last twenty years of oil-giant BP’s political action committee, the largest recipient has been President Obama.
Erika Lovely from Politico reports:
BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Donations come from a mix of employees and the company’s political action committees — $2.89 million flowed to campaigns from BP-related PACs and about $638,000 came from individuals...
An Obama spokesman rejected the notion that the president took big oil money.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/05/05/obama-top-recipient-of-bp-contributions-last-20-yrs/#ixzz0xYOn4xsPAccording to the Center for Responsive Politics and financial disclosures, over the... more
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Another BP employee is refusing to testify in the investigation into the cause of the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, invoking his Fifth Amendment right to not produce testimony that could incriminate him.
BP’s two top officials on the rig also have refused to testify, one also taking the Fifth and the other repeatedly invoking a medical excuse.
The latest refusal to testify came from Brian Morel, a BP drilling engineer. If he had testified, Morel probably would have been asked to explain an e-mail message he wrote in which he rejected a suggestion that experts believe would have resulted in a safer and more costly well design.
Such a design would have reduced the chance of a dangerous bubble of natural gas shooting up from underneath the seafloor to the rig’s belly and exploding, according to engineering experts.
Specifically, Morel rejected a suggestion from a contracting company, Halliburton, to place 21 devices called "centralizers" in the well bore, opting to use six.
Centralizers are doughnut-shaped sheaths that surround pipes and keep them from knocking into the side of the well’s outer wall. A properly centered pipe makes it easier to seal the well with a cement mixture, which should reduce the risk of a gas blowout.
Engineers widely agree that using more centralizers is safer than using fewer. But installing the devices takes time and money, and BP employees testified that such approaches are not always necessary.
In an e-mail, Morel defended the decision to use fewer centralizers, writing, "Hopefully, the pipe stays centralized due to gravity," adding that "it's too late to get any more product to the rig."
A lawyer for Morel told a joint U.S. Coast Guard and Interior Department panel in Houston on Tuesday that his client was invoking his right not to give testimony that would incriminate himself. The panel is investigating the cause of the worst offshore oil spill disaster in U.S. history.Another BP employee is refusing to testify in the investigation into the cause of the... more
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Mikael Moore is the congresswoman's chief of staff, and her grandson. His family ties were kept relatively quiet until the ethics investigation into the Democratic lawmaker.
Reporting from Washington — Many people who encounter Mikael Moore, the chief of staff for Rep. Maxine Waters, see a typical Capitol Hill aide: a young, serious, BlackBerry-toting workaholic in a business suit with an intense belief in the importance of his work.
If they know he is also Waters' grandson, making him a rarity in Congress, it is not because he talks about it much, if at all.
Colleagues say Moore rarely offers information about his family connection, and that they have instead come to know him as a talented, politically gifted peer who has brought order to a sometimes tangled office and quickly grasped the intricacies of Washington.
Moore's family ties to the powerful Los Angeles Democrat became better known last week when the House Ethics Committee noted their relationship in charging Waters with ethics violations for her work on behalf of a minority-owned bank during the 2008 financial crisis. He was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Many young staffers rise quickly to positions of power here, making it not uncommon to have 25-year-olds fielding press calls or writing legislation for members of Congress.
But even at 32, Moore is a young chief of staff. It is a position he sought after coming to work for his grandmother, whom he refers to only as Congresswoman, after graduating from Morehouse College in 2004.Mikael Moore is the congresswoman's chief of staff, and her grandson. His family... more
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OneUnited Bank has been criticized as having a poor record of lending to people in some low-income areas. It also paid for a luxurious lifestyle for its chairman despite posting huge losses.
OneUnited Bank, the financial institution at the center of a congressional ethics investigation involving Rep. Maxine Waters, paid for a luxurious lifestyle for its chairman, including a Porsche and a house on Pacific Coast Highway in Santa Monica despite his having a record that includes arrests and allegations of drug use.
The bank has been criticized by regulators in Florida for having an unusually poor record of lending to people in low-income neighborhoods. It also has failed to pay back $12 million in federal bailout funds.
The bank chairman, Kevin L. Cohee, assembled one of the country's largest African American-owned banks, with more than half a billion dollars in assets, in a coast-to-coast acquisition spree unusual for a bank focused on lower-income customers.
Yet although the bank touts itself as an institution for the underserved, its directors approved paying a reported $26,500 monthly lease for Cohee's beach house in Santa Monica and providing him the all-expenses-paid luxury sports car — until regulators ordered a halt to such corporate largesse. Waters' husband, Sidney Williams, served on the board of the bank from January 2004 through April 2008 and owns 3,500 shares of the bank's stock, according to the House Ethics Committee's report of alleged violations.OneUnited Bank has been criticized as having a poor record of lending to people in... more
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Washington (CNN) -- Veteran Rep. Charlie Rangel apologized on the House floor Tuesday for causing any embarrassment by violating chamber rules, but he insisted he is not corrupt and refused to resign.
In a sometimes rambling speech, the New York Democrat defiantly challenged the House ethics committee to move faster on holding a public hearing on the 13 counts of alleged violations against him.
He also challenged fellow House members of both parties to kick him out if they want to get rid of him.Washington (CNN) -- Veteran Rep. Charlie Rangel apologized on the House floor Tuesday... more
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Reporting from Washington —
Even as Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California was warned by a colleague against interceding on behalf of a troubled bank with ties to her husband, her chief of staff, who also is her grandson, was "actively involved" in working to help the bank, according to a House Ethics Committee report released Monday that accuses the longtime Los Angeles political figure of three ethics violations.
Around the same time that Waters set up a September 2008 meeting between U.S. Treasury Department officials and representatives of minority-owned banks, her chief of staff, Mikael Moore, sent an e-mail to the staff of Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. According to the report, the subject of the e-mail was: "O[ne] U[nited] is in trouble.'"
Three months later, Boston-based OneUnited, with branches in Massachusetts, Florida and Los Angeles County, received $12 million in bailout funds.Reporting from Washington —
Even as Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California... more
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