CREW Posts List of 20 Most Corrupt Congressmen

**Crazed Rabbit** · 09-20-2006, 23:05

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** · 09-20-2006, 23:07

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** · 09-21-2006, 03:06

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** · 09-21-2006, 03:15

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

**Lemur** · 09-21-2006, 03:30

Originally Posted by Wakizashi

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.

**ICantSpellDawg** · 09-21-2006, 03:16

ridiculous and partisan

**Xiahou** · 09-21-2006, 19:59

Originally Posted by TuffStuffMcGruff

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** · 09-22-2006, 05:34

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** · 09-22-2006, 06:29

Originally Posted by 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.

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.