DavidL in particular is going to be fascinated with this link:
The Jawa Report: Pelosi Hasn’t “Drained the Swamp” – She’s Nurtured it [1]
Another campaign promise broken [2], another lie, and another Democrat failure:
WHEN she took over as speaker of the House, Democrat Nancy Pelosi said she would “drain the swamp” of political corruption. Then she proceeded to push to have her old friend Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., to be her right-hand man.But Democrats balked. After all, Murtha was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Abscam scandal.
Still Murtha remains the leader of what can only be described as Earmarks Inc., a string of congressmen who have figured out how to use earmarks to benefit their campaigns and their families.
Earmarks are special projects that a lone congressman or senator inserts into the budget. They must be funded. Earmarks fund U.S. 35, but they also can force the military to buy aircraft because the factory is in a congressman’s back yard.
There is a disturbing pattern of lobbyists raising money for congressmen who then steer earmarks to the clients of the lobbyists.
And some of those clients also are set up by the congressmen.
For example, Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., set up five tax-exempt groups in West Virginia, including one headed by a former staff member.
Then Mollohan steered money to those groups. The FBI looked into those connections.
Mollohan is not alone.
The Scranton Times-Tribune reported that Democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski of Pennsylvania steered $10 million to a company headed by four nephews and his daughter.
Kanjorski heads the House Subcommittee on Economic Growth and Credit Formation. The irony is that even with $10 million in earmarked contracts, the family business folded.
What’s more amusing, he gives a hat tip to Glenn Reynolds.
Whereas we here at BitsBlog have been all over this since day one, [3] mostly through the efforts of DavidL.
Lt Good, I like that you’ve come around on this…seriously. This needs far more attention than it’s getting, and damn sure more than the MSM is going to give it. Welcome to the party. But I have to tell you, it’s not as bad as you make it out as being. It’s far worse.
Addendum: (David L) On the other paw, Scott, Powerline [4], links Ann Althouse but kind gets her name wrong:
Ann Alton [5] demonstrates convincingly that New York Times columnist Frank Rich hasn’t bothered to read Clarence Thomas’s memoir, the book that is at least in part the ostensible subject of his column [6] today. Orin Kerr [7] — who inspired Alton’s post — adds insult to injury (in Alton’s words) “with facts that Rich should be quite embarrassed not to have checked.”
No further comment.