Hillary, Obama, Giuliani, and Huckabee cheat; Hillary and Obama made the 2006 list
Judicial Watch's "Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians" for 2007
| We trim this late December press release. Complete text at: http://www.judicialwatch.org/judicial-watch-announces-list-washington-s-ten-most-wanted-corrupt-politicians-2007 |
by Judicial Watch
Washington, DC’s Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, released its 2007 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” (in alphabetical order):1. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): Senator Clinton blocked the release of her official White House records that, many suspect, connect her to Clinton-era scandals. Moreover, in March 2007, Judicial Watch filed a complaint against Senator Clinton for filing false financial disclosure forms with the Senate (again). Hillary’s top campaign contributor, Norman Hsu, pleaded guilt to one count of grand theft for defrauding investors as part of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.
2. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI): Conyers reportedly forced his staff to serve as his personal servants, babysitters, valets , and campaign workers while on the government payroll. The House Ethics Committee investigated these allegations in 2006, and substantiated a number of them, yet blamed the staff. Judicial Watch obtained documentation in 2007 from a former Conyers staffer that sheds new light on the conduct of the Michigan congressman.
3. Senator Larry Craig (R-ID): In a Minneapolis International Airport men’s bathroom, Senator Craig reportedly sent signals to a police officer in an adjacent stall that he wanted to engage in sex. When the officer showed Craig his police ID under the bathroom stall divider and pointed toward the exit, the senator exclaimed “No!” When asked to produce identification, Craig presented police his Senate business card and said, “What do you think of that?” Craig was arrested, charged, and entered a guilty plea. Despite pressure from his party to resign, Craig refused.
4. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA): As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee's subcommittee on military construction, Feinstein reviewed military construction government contracts, some of which were awarded to URS Corporation and Perini, companies then owned by Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum. Senator Feinstein opposed ethics reform, arguing in favor of a perk that allows members of Congress to book multiple airline flights and then cancel them without financial penalty.
5. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY): The former New York mayor’s office billed obscure city agencies for tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses amassed during the time when he was beginning an extramarital relationship with future wife Judith Nathan in the Hamptons. ABC News reported that Giuliani provided Nathan with a police vehicle and a city driver at taxpayer expense. Giuliani’s former Police Chief and business partner Bernard Kerik, under federal indictment on corruption charges, pleaded guilty in 2006 to accepting a $165,000 bribe in the form of renovations to his Bronx apartment from a construction company attempting to land city contracts.
6. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR): Governor Huckabee enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls in December 2007, which prompted a more thorough review of his ethics record. According to The Associated Press, his career has been colored by 14 ethics complaints, ranging from his management of campaign cash to his use of a nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to his destruction of state computer files on his way out of the governor’s office. Rather than cooperate with investigators, Huckabee sued the state ethics commission twice and attempted to shut the ethics process down.
7. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby: Former Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined $250,000 for lying and obstructing the Valerie Plame CIA leak investigation. Libby was found guilty of four felonies: two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements to the FBI, and one count of obstructing justice. President Bush issued Executive Clemency to Libby and commuted the sentence.
8. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL): A Dishonorable Mention last year, Senator Obama moves onto the ten worst in 2007. In 2006, Obama was involved in a suspicious real estate deal with an indicted political fundraiser, Antoin Tony Rezko. In 2007, it was reported that just two months after he joined the Senate, Obama purchased $50,000 worth of stock in speculative companies whose major investors were his biggest campaign contributors. One was a biotech company that benefited from legislation Obama pushed just two weeks after the senator purchased $5,000 of the company’s shares. Obama was also nabbed conducting campaign business in his Senate office, a violation of federal law.
9. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): House Speaker Pelosi, who promised a new era of ethics enforcement, snuck a $25 million gift to her husband, Paul Pelosi, in a $15 billion Water Resources Development Act. The pet project involved renovating ports in Speaker Pelosi's home base of San Francisco. Pelosi owns apartment buildings near the areas targeted for improvement, which will boost her properties’ value. Earlier in the year, Pelosi demanded access to a luxury Air Force jet to ferry the Speaker and her entourage back and forth from San Francisco non-stop, an unprecedented request rejected by the Pentagon. Under Pelosi’s leadership, the House ethics process remains essentially shut down.
10. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV): According to The Los Angeles Times, over the last four years, Reid has used his influence in Washington to help a developer, Havey Whittemore, clear obstacles for a profitable real estate deal. As the project advanced, the Times reported, Reid received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Whittemore. Whittemore hired one of Reid’s sons (Leif) as his personal lawyer to negotiate the real estate deal with federal officials. Leif Reid called his father’s office to talk about how to obtain the proper EPA permits.
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Also see: A Real Presidential Debate?
So-Called Leaders Getting Worse and Worse
Real Democracy Or Dystopia |
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