CREW Posts List of 20 Most Corrupt Congressmen

[Lemur]

This is kinda interesting:

CREW RELEASES SECOND ANNUAL MOST CORRUPT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS REPORT

September 20, 2006

2006 Edition Includes Five Members to Watch in 109th Congress

Washington, DC – Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its second annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress entitled Beyond DeLay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch). This encyclopedic report on corruption in the 109th Congress documents the egregious, unethical and possibly illegal activities of the most tainted members of Congress. CREW has compiled the members’ transgressions and analyzed them in light of federal laws and congressional rules.

Two members have been removed from last year’s list of 13. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) is now serving an eight-year jail term for bribery and Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) has agreed to plead guilty to crimes that will likely result in a minimum two-year prison term.

CREW has also re-launched the report’s tandem website, www.beyonddelay.org. The site offers short summaries of each member’s transgressions as well as the full-length profiles and all accompanying exhibits.

The actual list has hyperlinks for each winner, but here's a plain text version:

• Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT)
• Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN)
• Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)
• Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO)
• Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)
• Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA)
• Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL)
• Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL)
• Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA)
• Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
• Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA)
• Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV)
• Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)
• Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA)
• Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
• Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)
• Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY)
• Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC)
• Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
• Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA)

Dishonorable mentions:

• Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT)
• Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
• Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
• Rep. John Murtha (D-PA)
• Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA)

[Crazed Rabbit]

What? No Maria Cantwell? I guess earmarking projects for your ex-campaign manager's, now lobbyist, clients doesn't cut it. Even when said lobbyist owes you tens of thousands of dollars.

Crazed Rabbit

[Lemur]

We'll have to wait until the site isn't getting bombed (Digg picked the story up); then we can compare the misdeeds of the Glorious Twenty to Maria Campbell. For now, we'll just have to classify her as a wanna-be.

[Xiahou]

Hmmm... is that Don "I get off by strangling my mistress while cheating on my wife" Sherwood? It's a real shame that I'm only one district away from being able to help vote that turd out.

Nice to see he's also corrupt in addition to being a perverted philanderer.

[Samurai Waki]

Does anyone else see a pretty clear pattern here?

EDIT: Oh and I'm glad to see the man representing my home state in Congress is their #1 Pick

[ICantSpellDawg]

ridiculous and partisan

[Lemur]

Oh and I'm glad to see the man representing my home state in Congress is their #1 Pick

I think the list is in alphabetical order, so there's not really a #1 pick to be had. As for the pattern and accusations of partisanship, please note that the Top 20 are for the 109th Congress, and no more should be made of it than that. If Republicans dominate the list, that's because Republicans have held all the levers of power. One does not bribe a Senator/Congressman who can't get you what you want. Ergo, you slosh your dirty cash on the party in power.

[Xiahou]

ridiculous and partisan

It is worth noting that CREW is considered a left-leaning pro Democrat group.

A Delaware native and University of Chicago Law School graduate, Sloan worked as a Democratic Hill aide in the 1990s. She was prosecuting sex crimes at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District when, in 2002, she was approached by Washington lawyer Norm Eisen to discuss heading up a new liberal-watchdog and legal-advocacy group.

CREW began as a one-woman shop with a shoestring budget in early 2003, but Sloan’s big mouth and flair for publicity quickly made CREW’s reputation and garnered it sufficient resources to expand. Last year Sloan hired a deputy director, Naomi Seligman, from Media Matters for America; this year she hired a counsel and two more staffers. The board of directors consists of Louis Mayberg, president of a mutual-fund firm, Donna Edwards of the Arca Foundation, Philadelphia-based attorney and Democratic fund-raiser Dan Berger, and pollster Mark Penn.

link

[Lemur]

I wasn't aware of the Dem connection, which is entirely my bad. However, this doesn't invalidate the list, nor my reasoning for why Republicans would dominate it.

Perhaps 20 is just too small of a sample when you have a Congress as corrupt as the 109th. If the category were expanded to 50, it might be more balanced. I still don't see why anybody with fast cash and a dirty mind would bother bribing a Democrat in the last year.

[Xiahou]

I wasn't aware of the Dem connection, which is entirely my bad. However, this doesn't invalidate the list, nor my reasoning for why Republicans would dominate it.

I didnt know either, til Tuff's post prompted me to dig deeper. I agree that it makes sense that there'd be more corrupt members from the party in power though. But now I would have to question if it'd be as lopsided as they'd have you believe.

I still don't see why anybody with fast cash and a dirty mind would bother bribing a Democrat in the last year.

Earmarks make it possible. Both parties feed at the trough of government pork in a bi-partisan fashion- it seems to be one thing they can agree on.

[ICantSpellDawg]

I didnt know either, til Tuff's post prompted me to dig deeper. I agree that it makes sense that there'd be more corrupt members from the party in power though. But now I would have to question if it'd be as lopsided as they'd have you believe.
Earmarks make it possible. Both parties feed at the trough of government pork in a bi-partisan fashion- it seems to be one thing they can agree on.

i realized that they were attacking people like santorum and murtha. santorum's "corruption" is more like "trouble because of residential technicality. it is in dispute (although recently thrown out that he owes money for his children's education in Penn when his family doesn't fully meet the residency requirements of the district because they are not there long enough during the school year. it is being blown way out of proportion and i believe that it is corrupt to call what has occurred there corruption.

when they attacked murtha, i was sure that the real reason was that he is a pro-life democrat who isn't totally in step with the democratic agenda.

they took some legitimately corrupt politicians and interspersed some decent ones to make a political point and get people used to thinking of them ALL as corrupt.

the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it.

[Xiahou]

I just wanted to share a great campaign slogan suggestion for Don Sherwood that I read on a blog:

"Don Sherwood- Strangling big government like a sassy mistress!"

i realized that they were attacking people like santorum and murtha. santorum's "corruption" is more like "trouble because of residential technicality.

Residency trouble or no, I must admit I like Santorum. I had waffled on him quite a bit because of the performance of out GOP controlled congress- but honestly, Santorum seems like one of the few guys who has clear positions and principles (agree with them or not), states them openly and sticks to them when it's time to vote. He's not perfect, but for now I'll take him over Casey.

[Vladimir]

But really......Have yo guys seen my cell phone?