Two years ago, a source on Capitol Hill who used to work in Representative Pete Stark's office told me a great anecdote about Representative Stark.
One day, a lobbyist from a large energy company entered the lobby of Representative Stark's office. When he heard who was in the lobby, Representative Stark yelled from another room "get the f*ck out of here!" When the lobbyist laughed a bit and didn't leave, Representative Stark came into the lobby and yelled again "no, get the f*ck out of here!" The lobbyist then left.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has picked liberal firebrand Rep. Pete Stark to replace ousted Chairman Charles Rangel on the tax-writing committee, according to a House leadership aide.
The decision was made during a Wednesday morning leadership meeting following Rangel's announcement that he would temporarily step aside as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the aide said.
Rangel (N.Y.) had come under growing pressure in the wake of several ethics investigations, and he faced a vote Wednesday on a GOP-backed privileged resolution to force his ouster.
This good news. Rangel steps aside while facing real ethics questions, which is both the right thing to do and helps Democrats look less hypocritical about fighting corruption in D.C. Also, it puts Pete Stark, who is as uncorruptible and as solid a progressive and as anyone in Congress, in charge of the committee.
Although a former top aide to Sen. Judd Gregg (R) allegedly accepted more than $10,000 in gifts from disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and associates, the New Hampshire Senator said Wednesday that he is not a target in the Justice Department's ongoing probe.
The Associated Press identified Kevin Koonce as the anonymous "Staffer F" described in a plea agreement entered last week by former Abramoff deputy Todd Boulanger.
Koonce, who worked as Gregg's legislative director from 2002 to 2004 before leaving Capitol Hill, allegedly accepted tickets to baseball and hockey games, as well as meals and drinks at the now-defunct Signature's restaurant.
Anyone want to place an anonymous hold on Judd Gregg?
At the center of the Rod Blagojevich scandal is an allegation that he was putting a U.S. Senate seat up for sale. Here are some of the key quotes:
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich told aides he had something "f-ing golden" - sole power to pick Barack Obama's Senate successor - to trade for a White House post or lucrative outside job for himself, and he sought to sell the seat to the highest bidder, federal prosecutors allege in a sweeping complaint against the Democratic governor.
The Senate seat "is a f--ing valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing," Blagojevich said, according to the complaint. He even threatened to name himself "unless I get something real good."
This is pretty bad, and Blagojevich needs to step down and face trial. Still, it needs to be remembered that the only reason Blagojevich seems to be in trouble is because he was selling the seat for money. If he was selling the seat for votes, personal power, or a committee chairmanship, he would probably have been fine. After all, over the past month, there are at least two high-profile instances of conservative Democrats selling their membership in the party for committee chairmanships. First, Lieberman managed to acquire a Senate chairmanship by threatening to vote with another party (emphasis mine, more in the extended entry):
Does it seem like there's a new Republican scandal in the news every single week? Well, that may be because there is.
That seems like an awful lot of corruption, scandal, hypocrisy, impropriety, and jail-worthy crime, huh? A lot of corruption. One might say an entire Culture of Corruption.
