Category: Corruption

Charlie Rangel: Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!

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Even his fellow Democrats can’t deny he’s a crook. Isn’t it amazing that a guy who’s been in Congress since 1971 — and indeed was chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee — still manages to claim victimhood?

“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? . . .
“While I am required to accept the findings of the Ethics Committee, I am compelled to state again the unfairness of its continuation without affording me the opportunity to obtain legal counsel as guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.”

Right. In all his corrupt swindling — his seaside resort in the Caribbean, arranging tax loopholes for his benefactors, setting up a bogus campaign consulting contract for his son, running a shakedown over rum taxes  — it never occurred to Rangel to set aside any of his ill-gotten gains to pay for lawyers to defend him if he were to get caught.

BTW, for youngsters who may not remember Watergate, the headline on this post is borrowed from a once-famous “Doonesbury” cartoon about Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell:

Youngsters probably also don’t remember when “Doonesbury” was occasionally funny.

Sheila Jackson-Lee Is a Corrupt Democrat. But I Repeat Myself . . .

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It is one of pet conceits of liberal Democrats that the long-established practice of having poll-watchers — party volunteers who are assigned to polling places to ensure that no vote fraud occurs — amounts to “voter intimidation” intended to “suppress” minority voting.

Vote fraud is a crime that Democrats practice habitually, routinely, as a matter of historic tradition, and which is made possible by the overwhelming dominance of the Democratic Party in urban districts. It is in such precincts that the electoral franchise is customarily extended to tombstones and vacant lots.

This has been the practice of the Democratic Party since the 19th century — the headline “Dewey Defeats Truman” would have been true, had it not been for blatant vote fraud in Chicago — but in recent years Democrats have sought to divert attention from their electoral corruption by crying “voter intimidation” when GOP poll-watchers attempt to prevent such crimes.

You will perhaps not be surprised to learn that Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) is a co-sponsor of H.R. 97, The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2009. And you will also not be surprised to learn that Sheila Jackson-Lee is a lying two-faced hypocrite. Melissa Clouthier reports at Liberty Pundits:

Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Houston) violated election laws when, on Monday, October 18, she entered into Acres Home Multiservice Community Center, walked to where the voting booths were looking for the poll watchers, greeted voters there, and then found and confronted the poll watchers before being directed to, and then asked by, the presiding judge Bernard Gurski to leave the area.
A source speaking on the condition of anonymity said that she heard people say that Sheila Jackson Lee was in the voting area. The lobby of the building was chaotic because some people were in line to vote and some people were in line for the food bank.
So the source, a poll watcher, went into the room housing the voting booths and there stood Congresswoman Lee shaking hands with voters and greeting others–clearly electioneering. The poll watcher then went to one of the clerks and asked the presiding judge to take care of it.
While this occurred, the poll watcher heard Lee loudly say to the crowd in the voting area,”I’ve heard a lot of complaints about voter intimidation by poll watchers. I am not going to allow voter intimidation.”The poll watcher started writing the incident down.
Lee then went to the poll watcher and asked, ”What’s your name? Who do you represent?” . . .

Read the whole thing. Here you have Jackson-Lee campaigning inside a polling place and accusing poll-watchers of “intimidation” in a precinct where violations of election code are reported to be “systemic.”

Sheila Jackson-Lee is arrogant. She talks on her cell phone during town-hall meetings. She has been accused of violating FEC law and failing to remit payroll taxes.

Sheila Jackson-Lee obviously doesn’t think she can be defeated.

Her Republican opponent is John Faulk.

The maximum legal contribution is $2,400 per person (click to donate online). If you would prefer to send a check, the mailing address is:

Faulk for Congress Campaign
c/o John Faulk
1701 Hermann Dr # 2206
Houston, TX 77004

UPDATE: Republican Bill Hudak Hits Democrat Tierney on Taxes, Racketeering

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While Sean Bielat’s fun-filled campaign against Barney Frank has been getting lots of national coverage, the Republican Bill Hudak’s campaign in Massachusett’s 6th District has been chugging along against embattled Democrat Rep. John Tierney, whose wife was convicted of federal tax charges two weeks ago. A poll by the local Lynn Daily Item found that 46% don’t think Tierney should seek re-election. Hudak has been airing this hard-hitting ad:

Hudak’s campaign just picked up the endorsement of Mitt Romney, and Republicans are calling for a House Ethics Committee investigation of Tierney, who in 2006 voted against a ban on offshore gambling — the federal crime in which his wife’s racketeering family is involved. Hudak has also hit Tierney on the Obama administration’s policies that hurt the local fishing industry.

There’s two days left in the Hudak Money Bomb, and I want to remind you of this photo I took last week in Beverly, Mass.:

If you don’t give Bill Hudak $20, you’ll break that little boy’s heart.

BILL HUDAK for U.S. CONGRESS

PREVIOUSLY:

MA-6 Update: Democrat John Tierney Tries to Distance Himself From His Wife

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BOSTON – Howie Carr in the Boston Herald calls the Democrat’s gangster brother-in-law an Armenian Whitey Bulger:

Patrice Eremian Chew Tierney, aka Mrs. John Tierney. Gets indicted for laundering millions in ill-gotten gains for her brother, a fugitive gangster, and when she gets caught, she tells the judge she’s depressed and gets fined $2,500. . . .
And what does John Tierney say on behalf of his felon wife?
“Today’s not about me.” . . .

Not about you, except that your mother-in-law contributed at least $4,800 to you while tending a bank account for her fugitive sons. Kevin Rennie notes that Tierney has changed his story:

The guilty plea contradicted earlier statements from the seven-term congressman that he and Patrice had nothing to do with the fugitive side of her criminal family. . . .

Read the whole thing. I just got off the plane at Logan Airport and got to my hotel here, and am due to have dinner with a local Republican operative in a few minutes. Please hit the tip jar.

PREVIOUSLY:

The John Tierney Scandal: Did Democrat Benefit From His Racketeering In-Laws?

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The Massacusetts Democrat’s wife pleaded guilty to tax fraud charges this week, and now questions are being asked about John Tierney’s campaign contributions:

US Representative John F. Tierney’s elderly mother-in-law donated $4,800 to his campaign account at the same time that she was receiving money from a bank account that was allegedly funded with illegal gambling money her son made from an offshore sports betting operation.
Tierney’s wife, Patrice Tierney, pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns for her brother Robert Eremian, and acknowledged she managed a bank account for him that was allegedly funded with more than $7 million in illegal gambling profits he earned from an Internet betting operation based in Antigua.
Prosecutors said Patrice Tierney used the account to pay bills for her 86-year-old mother, Mary Eremian, and for Robert Eremian’s three children. Robert Eremian, 57, is a fugitive, wanted on a federal racketeering indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Boston in August. . . .

Read the whole thing. This emerging scandal against the 6th District incumbent could make Tierney unexpectedly vulnerable to Republican challenger Bill Hudak, who is within striking distance, according to one recent poll.

There’s an entire Web site devoted to exposing Congressman John Tierney.

I’m going to Massacusetts for several days this coming week to cover Sean Bielat’s MA-4 campaign against Barney Frank, but I hope also to be able to cover the Hudak campaign against Tierney in MA-6, Republican Jeffrey Perry’s campaign for the open MA-10 seat, and Republican challenger Charlie Baker’s surprisingly competitive campaign against Gov. Deval Patrick.

My plane arrives late Saturday in Boston. Please hit the tip jar.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

‘Same Old Place, Sweet Home Chicago’

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Remember the bikini bombshell? Lots of laughs. Good times. But is it possible that a Democrat like Jesse Jackson Jr. could actually lose in Chicago? Never say never, as I point out in my latest American Spectator column:

Isaac Hayes wasn’t always happy to share the same name as a singer famed for “Shaft” and other 1970s soul classics.
“All of my life, I’ve had to deal with that,” say Hayes. “I didn’t appreciate it as a kid, but now, I think my Mom and Dad were geniuses.… It helps break the ice.”
Breaking the ice is important for Hayes in his campaign in the 2nd District of Illinois, where he is perhaps the GOP’s longest of long-shot candidates for Congress this year. Encompassing the southside suburbs of Chicago near the border with Indiana, the district’s electorate is so heavily Democratic that two years ago, 90 percent voted for President Obama. The 2nd District hasn’t elected a Republican to Congress in 60 years.
Why, then, did the Republican challenger find himself with a crowded schedule of media interviews this week? The explanation involves the incumbent Democrat, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. . . .

Please read the whole thing. The famously crooked governor of Louisiana, Edwin Edwards, once boasted he was such a shoo-in for re-election, the only way he could lose was if he got caught with “a live boy or a dead girl.” In Jackson’s case, you might make that a blonde girl.

UPDATE: Wow, Isaac Hayes just got endorsed by National Right to Life PAC.

As If I Actually Needed an Excuse to Post This Picture of a Blonde in a Bikini

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Conveniently enough, she managed to get herself involved in a serious political news story:

Now, far be it from me to throw the first stone here.

After all, who are we to judge?

Or more to the point, who are we to make tasteless jokes about Giovana Huidobro and her married (alleged) boyfriend, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Illinois)?

No, we musn’t be so judgmental. We must turn to the only voice of civility and reason in these troubled times.

Of course, I’m talking about Ace of Spades HQ.

UPDATE: Meet Jackson’s Republican challenger:

I am Isaac Hayes a community faith leader and candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois’ 2nd Congressional District.
I grew up in the Woodlawn community on the South Side of Chicago. Ideals of faith, hard work and liberty influenced my childhood and would become the foundation of my passion for service. My mother was a choir director, my grandmother a Sunday school teacher and my dad was both a Reverend and a United States Marine. . . .
I intend to continue my record of service to God and community as Representative of the 2nd Congressional District.
I currently reside in Park Forest with my wife of three years Latouna who shares my commitment to faith and service.

What else do we need to hear, folks?

ISAAC HAYES MONEY-BOMB!

UPDATE II: I am currently waiting for a return call from the Hayes campaign. Earlier today, Hayes issued a statement about the latest revelations about Jackson’s corruption:

Today, we have learned of new allegations concerning the involvement of Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. in the Congressional Crime of the attempted purchase a United States Senate Seat. Sadly, I am not surprised.
Mr. Jackson has refused to tell the voters of the Second District exactly what the extent of his involvement was, but has decided to leave it to the press and the trial of ex-governor Rod Blagojevich to fill in the details.
It was the press that informed us Mr. Jackson was Senate Candidate No. 5 in the Rod Blagojevich indictment. It was the Blagojevich trial that informed us Mr. Jackson offered “pay to play” and was at an October 28, 2008 meeting with Raghuveer Nayak and Rajinder Bedi when the bribe was discussed.
Today, we have been informed by the press that Mr. Jackson directed Mr. Nayak to offer Rod Blagojevich six million dollars in campaign cash in return for an appointment to the U.S. Senate seat.
It is time for Congressman Jackson to tell the members of the Second District the truth. They deserve to know what he did and why he did it. They have suffered long enough under the three-peat of political corruption that has existed for the past thirty years.
We need a clean break from the politics of the abuse of power and public trust. We need someone with the character and values to represent our district with honesty and integrity.

Nothing in that statement, however, about Jackson knocking boots with the blonde bikini bombshell.

UPDATE III: Allahpundit notes this part of the story:

Before he dined with Huidobro and Jackson on Oct. 8, 2008, Nayak said he had a critical conversation with the congressman about the seat while the two were alone. Nayak, also a former Blagojevich fund-raiser, said that Jackson asked him to tell Blagojevich that if the then-governor appointed Jackson to the U.S. Senate, Chicago’s Indian community would raise $1 million for Blagojevich and — after Jackson was appointed — Jackson would raise $5 million for the then-governor . . .

This is called “community outreach,” see? Millions of dollars in bribe money from “Chicago’s Indian community,” blondes from the bikini-model community, etc.

UPDATE IV: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE V: Just got off the phone with Janet Restivo, press secretary for the Isaac Hayes campaign. The Republican candidate was attending a townhall meeting at the Lincoln Restaurant and unavailable for comment, but I’ll be interviewing him Wednesday.

Meanwhile, we have this statement from Rep. Jackson:

Not sure that this is an official statement, however . . .

Texas Burning

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Charges of vote fraud in the Lone Star State:

On Tuesday, August 24, Harris County’s tax assessor-collector, Leo Vasquez, held a press conference in which he detailed what he called systematic and organized voter registration fraud across the county. . . .
What happened next is what threatens everything. In the overnight/early morning hours of Saturday, August 28, a warehouse in Houston burned down. . . .

There’s an ACORN angle here, so read the whole thing. I’ll point out that it’s writtten by our old blog buddy Bryan Preston, who left a job as communication director for the Texas GOP to rejoin the blog world at Pajamas Media. Welcome back, Bry!