The Republican Party makes alot of noise about being the Party of Values. Apparently, those values are lying, stealing, drugs and hypocrisy as noted below:
Jeff Gannon/Jim Guckert
Jeff/Jim is the former Talon News (GOPUSA) reporter that some suggest was a plant by the administration to offer up soft questions for the President and Press Secretary. Many questions have been raised as to how Jeff/Jim was able to obtain access to the White House far more easily than legitimate new organizations.
Senator Ted Stevens (R) Alaska
In December 2003, the Los Angeles Times reported that the Stevens had taken advantage of lax Senate rules to use his political influence to earn a large amount of his personal wealth. According to the article, while Stevens was already a millionaire "thanks to investments with businessmen who received government contracts or other benefits with his help," the law maker who is in charge of $800 billion a year, writes "preferences he wrote into law" that he benefits from.
On May 29, 2007, the Anchorage Daily News reported that the FBI and a federal grand jury were investigating an "extensive" remodeling project at Stevens' home in Girdwood. The remodeling work, which more than doubled the size of the modest home (public records show that the home is now 2471 square feet and valued at about $441,000-which means that it was less than 1200 square feet and less than $200,000 in value before the remodel) occurred in the summer and fall of 2000, was organized by VECO Corporation, an oil-field service company that has long been a strong lobbying presence in Juneau. Earlier in May, two top Veco executives pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy, bribery and tax charges. In June, the Anchorage Daily News reported that a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., heard evidence in May about the expansion of Stevens' Girdwood home and other matters connecting Stevens to Veco.
Stevens' Alaska home was raided by the FBI and IRS on July 30, 2007.
Justice Department officials investigating Sen. Ted Stevens are examining whether millions of dollars of federal funds he steered to an Alaska wildlife research center may have enriched a former aide.
In 2007 Stevens added $3.5 million into a Senate spending bill this year to help finance an airport to serve a remote Alaskan island. The biggest beneficiary is the Seattle-based Trident Seafoods Corp. that operates one of the world’s largest seafood processing plants on the volcanic island in the Aleutians. A company with close ties to the Steven's family.
Threatened to block a bill that would require lawmakers to disclose small campaign contributions that are "bundled" into large packages by lobbyists.
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Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R) Texas
In 2005, a Texas grand jury indicted DeLay on criminal charges that he had conspired to violate campaign finance laws. DeLay was forced to resign temporarily from his position as Majority Leader. In January 2006, under pressure from fellow Republicans, DeLay announced that he would not seek to return to the position. In the months before and after this decision, two of his former aides were convicted in the Jack Abramoff scandal.DeLay faced tax liens three times by the IRS for not paying payroll and income taxes, and paid settlements to two different associates who claimed they were cheated by him.
As Majority Leader DeLay allowed centrist or moderately conservative Republicans to take turns voting against controversial bills. If a representative said that a bill was unpopular in his district, then DeLay would ask him to vote for it only if his vote were necessary for passage; if his vote were not needed, then the representative would be able to vote against the party without reprisal.
In May 2003, DeLay's office persuaded the Federal Aviation Administration to find the plane carrying a Texas Democratic legislator, who was leaving the state in an attempt to thwart the GOP's nearly unprecedented congressional redistricting plan.
According to the House Ethics Committee, the "invocation of federal executive branch resources in a partisan dispute before a state legislative body" is wrong.
In October 2004, the committee rebuked DeLay for his actions.
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Conservative Talk Show Host Rush Limbaugh
On October 10, 2003, Limbaugh admitted that he was addicted to prescription painkillers, a week after the National Enquirer reported that Limbaugh was being investigated for illegally obtaining the prescription drugs OxyContin and hydrocodone.
The thrice divorced talk show host has, throughout the years, condemned illegal drug use on his radio broadcast and has stated that those convicted of drug crimes should be sent to jail.
Prosecutors agreed to drop the charge if Limbaugh paid $30,000 to defray the cost of the investigation.
Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours June 26, 2006 at an airport after returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Customs officials found Viagra in his luggage but his name was not on the prescription, said Paul Miller, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
Not sure why the unmarried show host would need Viagra unless he is having intercourse outside of the sanctity of marriage.
ChickenHawk Rush, while advocating war for other people to fight, never served a day in uniform himself. Other people going to war for his ideals is fine but Rush sat out Vietnam with a Pilonidal cyst (an abscess in the natal cleft (more commonly referred to as your butt crack) that tends to become infected and cause intense pain and drainage). This has not prevented him from sitting on his fat ass behind a microphone for the last 18+ years however.
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I Lewis "Scooter" Libby
Former Chief of Staff to VP Dick Cheney (R)
Convicted on one count of obstruction of justice; two counts of perjury; and one count of making false statements to federal investigators in the investigation of the "outing" of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, a fine of $250,000, and two years of supervised release, including 400 hours of community service.
After his conviction, having suspended his license to practice law on April 3, 2007, the Washington, D.C. Office of Bar Counsel disbarred him pursuant to D.C. Code § 11-2503(a)" on legal grounds of "moral turpitude," effective April 11, 2007, and recommended to the DC Court of Appeals his permanent disbarment if his conviction is not overturned on appeal.
President Bush commuted Libby's 30-month prison sentence.
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Former US Congressman Mark Foley (R) Florida
Foley was chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, which introduced legislation targeting sexual predators and created stricter guidelines for tracking them.
Later found to have been sending sexually explicit instant messages to teenaged boys who had formerly served as congressional pages.
The scandal led to Foley's resignation from Congress on September 29, 2006.
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US Senator Larry Craig (R) Idaho
On June 11, 2007 officers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport were conducting a sting inside the men's room due to complaints of sexual activity. An undercover office reports that Senator Craig entered and sat in the stall next to him. Craig was tapping his right foot, touching his right foot to the officer's left foot under the partition and brushing his hand beneath the partition.
Craig was then arrested.
While being interview, he produced a business card showing that he was a United States Senator and asked "What do you think about that?"
Craig pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct but now that the charges have become public, he claims to regret the plea.
Craig has resigned as Idaho chairman of the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney.
Senator Craig has supported an amendment to the Constitution banning same sex marriage and has spoken out against homosexuals serving in the military even though Craig himself served in the National Guard.
Craig is married and has three children.
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State Rep. Bob Allen (R) Florida
Florida State Rep. Bob Allen(R), a longtime foe of gay rights and who has supported amending the state constitution to ban same sex marriage and opposed a bill to curb the bullying of gay students was arrested July 11, 2007 after offering to perform oral sex for $20 on an undercover male police officer.
Veteran's Memorial Park was under surveillance when Allen was seen coming in and out of a restroom three times. The officer was drying his hands in a stall when Allen peered over the stall twice. Allen then pushed open the stall door and entered.
Allen offered the officer $20 to perform oral sex on him.
He has been charged with solicitation for prostitution
Allen later claimed that he offered the money and oral sex because the arrsting officer "was a stocky black guy and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park." He claimed he feared he "was about to be a statistic."
Allen also warned the undercover cop that there were "undercover cops" in the area and that he should be careful.
Allen is married and has a child.
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Miscellaneous Republicans
From 2001 to 2003, Republican staffers on the Senate Judiciary Committee illicitly accessed nearly 5,000 computer files containing confidential Democratic strategy memos about President Bush's judicial nominees. The GOP used the memos to shape their own plans and leaked some to the media. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act states it is illegal to obtain confidential information from a government computer.
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According to former Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.), on Nov. 21, 2003, with the vote on the administration's Medicare bill hanging in the balance, someone offered to contribute $100,000 to his son's forthcoming congressional campaign, if Smith would support the bill. Federal law prohibits the bribery of elected officials.
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In 2002, with a tight Senate race in New Hampshire, Republican Party officials paid a Virginia-based firm, GOP Marketplace, to enact an Election Day scheme meant to depress Democratic turnout by "jamming" the Democratic Party phone bank with continuous calls for 90 minutes.
Federal law prohibits the use of telephones to "annoy or harass" anyone.
Chuck McGee, the former executive director of the New Hampshire GOP, pleaded guilty in July 2004 to a felony charge, while Allen Raymond, former head of GOP Marketplace, pleaded guilty to a similar charge in June. In December, James Tobin, former New England campaign chairman of Bush-Cheney '04, was indicted for conspiracy in the case.
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Thomas Scully, Medicare's former administrator, supposedly threatened to fire chief Medicare actuary Richard Foster to prevent him from disclosing the true cost of the 2003 Medicare bill.
Congress voted on the bill believing it would cost $400 billion over 10 years. The program is more likely to cost $550 billion.
Scully denies threatening to fire Foster, as Foster has charged, but admits telling Foster to withhold the higher estimate from Congress. In September 2004, the Government Accountability Office recommended Scully return half his salary from 2003. Scully is now a lobbyist for drug companies helped by the bill.
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To promote its Medicare bill, the Bush administration produced imitation news-report videos touting the legislation. About 40 television stations aired the videos. Similar videos promoting the administration's education policy have come to light.
The administration broke two laws: One forbidding the use of federal money for propaganda, and another forbidding the unauthorized use of federal funds.
In May 2004, the Government Accounting Office concluded the administration acted illegally, but the agency lacks enforcement power.
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The Department of Education paid conservative commentator Armstrong Williams $240,000 to promote its educational law, No Child Left Behind.
Williams did not disclose that his support was government funded until the deal was exposed in January 2005. Williams' syndicated newspaper column has been terminated.
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Government officials publicly minimized the health risks stemming from the World Trade Center attack. In September 2001, for example, Environmental Protection Agency head Christine Todd Whitman said New York's "air is safe to breathe and [the] water is safe to drink."
Research showed serious dangers or was incomplete. The EPA used outdated techniques that failed to detect tiny asbestos particles. EPA data also showed high levels of lead and benzene, which causes cancer. A Sierra Club report claims the government ignored alarming data. A GAO report says no adequate study of 9/11's health effects has been organized.
The long-term health effects of the disaster will likely not be apparent for years or decades and may never be definitively known. Already, hundreds of 9/11 rescue workers have quit their jobs because of acute illnesses.
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Ashcroft's exploratory committee for his short-lived 2000 presidential bid transferred $110,000 to his unsuccessful 2000 reelection campaign for the Senate.
The maximum for such a transfer is $10,000.
The Federal Election Commission fined Ashcroft's campaign treasurer, Garrett Lott, $37,000 for the transgression.
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In early 2001, chief White House political strategist Karl Rove held meetings with numerous companies while maintaining six-figure holdings of their stock -- including Intel, whose executives were seeking government approval of a merger. "Washington hadn't seen a clearer example of a conflict of interest in years," wrote Paul Glastris in the Washington Monthly.
The Code of Federal Regulations says government employees should not participate in matters in which they have a personal financial interest.
Then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, spurning precedent, did not refer the case to the Justice Department.
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Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia refused to recuse himself from the Cheney energy task force case, despite taking a duck-hunting trip with the vice president after the court agreed to weigh the matter.
Federal law requires a justice to "disqualify himself from any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned."
Scalia stayed on, arguing no conflict existed because Cheney was party to the case in a professional, not personal, capacity. Nothing new for Scalia, who in 2002 was part of a Mississippi redistricting ruling favorable to GOP Rep. Chip Pickering -- son of Judge Charles Pickering, a Scalia turkey-hunting pal. In 2001, Scalia went pheasant hunting with Kansas Gov. Bill Graves when that state had cases pending before the Supreme Court.
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(via PageOneQ) -- Brown County GOP Chairman Donald Fleischman has resigned his post, says a spokesperson, after being accused of enticement and fondling of an underage boy, reports the Green Bay Press-Gazette Saturday.
Fleischman, 37, is free after posting a $20,000 bond on September 28. "My client is innocent of the charges," says attorney Jeff Jazgar, who "declined to discuss specifics."
"Our plan is to get some witnesses to testify and present enough information to dismiss the case."
The boy was found by police in Fleischman's home on two occasions in late 2006 while being sought as a runaway from Ethan House, a home for at-risk youth. Now 17, he says he stayed with Fleischman at his house and a cabin, where he was provided with alcohol and cannabis, and regularly fondled.
On November 19, 2006, according to a September 7th complaint obtained from the WisPolitics Courtwatch Blog, the boy in question was found hiding in a bedroom closet, and a pipe was found in the house, which tested positive for THC. Shortly after, on December 8, 2006, Fleischman said he was trying to convince the boy, discovered again in the home, to turn himself in as a runaway.
Fleischman faces two counts of child enticement, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child, and one count of exposing himself to a child. He returns to court on October 29.
