REPUBLICAN HALL OF FAME

Use this thread to nominate candidates to the Democratic Underground's - Republican Hall of Fame. Please use the following conventions: The subject line should start of with the perpetrator's (i mean nominee's) name, followed by his position, Representative, Ssenator, Presidential advisor, then the citation: Graft, Bribery, Gross Incompetence, Malfeasance of Duty etc.

In the message body you can provide details of why your nominee deserves this dis-honor. Please include links to informative sites on the web for those interested in all the disgusting details.

DU members can vote for their favorite deviants, just as you vote for your best posts! Additional crimes, as they become known can always be added as replies to each nomination message.

I'll start it off with a nominee. Hope DU members like this. It will provide in one place, an index of Republican outrages and crimes. They are so busy defrauding the Government and undermining Democracy it's getting hard to keep up. This could help.

Rep. Randy ''Duke'' Cunningham, an eight-term congressman, pleaded guilty to graft and tearfully resigned Monday, admitting he took $2.4 million in bribes mostly from defense contractors in exchange for government business and other favors.
Investigators said Cunningham, a member of a House Appropriations subcommittee that controls defense dollars, secured contracts worth tens of millions of dollars for those who paid him off. Prosecutors did not identify the defense contractors by name.
Cunningham was charged in a case that grew out of an investigation into the sale of his home to a defense contractor at an inflated price.
The case began when authorities started investigating Cunningham's sale of his Del Mar house to defense contractor Mitchell Wade for $1,675,000. Wade sold the house nearly a year later for $975,000 -- a loss of $700,000 in a hot real estate market.
Prosecutors said the house purchase was part of Cunningham's guilty pleas.
In addition to buying Cunningham's home at an inflated price, Wade let him live rent-free on Wade's yacht, the Duke Stir, at a yacht club. Wade's company, MZM Inc., also donated generously to Cunningham's campaigns.
Around the same time, MZM was winning defense contracts.
MZM does classified intelligence work for the military. It had $65.5 million of contracts for intelligence-related defense work in fiscal 2004, ranking No. 38 on the Pentagon's list. The company has established a presence in Iraq, fielding a small team of interpreters shortly after the invasion.
Although prosecutors did not name Cunningham's four co-conspirators, details in the plea documents, including business addresses and occupations, make clear that Wade was one of them.
The documents indicate another conspirator was Brent Wilkes, an associate of Wade's who headed a defense contracting company called ADCS Inc. that also provided campaign cash and favors to Cunningham while reaping valuable contracts.
Another co-conspirator appears to be Thomas Kontogiannis, a New York developer. Cunningham interceded with prosecutors on Kontogiannis' behalf when he had legal troubles, and a mortgage company run by relatives of Kontogiannis' helped Cunningham finance a condo in Virginia and his house in Rancho Santa Fe.
Attorneys for Wilkes and Wade declined to comment. Kontogiannis' attorney did not return a call.
CUNNINGHAM PLEADS GUILTY

Hell, glad to get The Man in first. I have no doubt that he's a lock for the Hall of Fame. I was going to say McCarthy, but I have to go with Nixon at this point.
(Totally gratuitous Christmas season photo follows).

http://www.joplinglobe.com/story.php?story_id=213454&c=87

U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt should give to charity $13,500 either he or his political action committee took from "tainted" sources, said Mike Casey, director of the Campaign for a Cleaner Congress, a group that has liberal ties.

Casey said Friday that Blunt needs to give back $5,000 he received in April 2004 from the political action committee of ADCS, a defense contractor that was implicated this week when former California Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham resigned.

Casey's campaign also wants Blunt to give back $8,500 he received from Abramoff through four separate contributions from 1999 to 2003. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether Abramoff or his clients received any undue benefits because of campaign contributions.

Burson Taylor, a spokesman for Blunt, said Friday that Blunt was not giving back any of the money.

Majority Leader of the HOuse of Representatives has been guilty of many ethics violations and is now indicted of campaign finance violations and money laundering. Mr. Delays offenses are so many and various it seems appropriate to use replies to this nomination for each offense or outrage. This way others can add more as it's doubtful if any one person can remember them all and also, as no doubt more offenses will be incovered and this way they can be added to the list as they come to light.

Tom Delay , indicted for money laundering $190,000 in corporate contributions used in Texas state elections.

"A Texas grand jury indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday on a charge of criminally conspiring with two political associates to inject illegal corporate contributions into 2002 state elections that helped the Republican Party reorder the congressional map in Texas and cement its control of the House in Washington."

Tom Delay Indicted in Texas Finance PRobe



"At issue is $190,000 in corporate donations that the director of Texans for a Republican Majority sent to the Republican National State Elections Committee in mid-September 2002. Three weeks later, the committee sent checks in the equivalent amount that had been raised from individual donors to seven Republican statehouse candidates supported by TRMPAC. Texas law prohibits the use of corporate funds in election campaigns."


DeLay PAC Trial Looks at Money-Laundering Claims

Tom Delay , indicted for money laundering $190,000 in corporate contributions used in Texas state elections.

"A Texas grand jury indicted House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) yesterday on a charge of criminally conspiring with two political associates to inject illegal corporate contributions into 2002 state elections that helped the Republican Party reorder the congressional map in Texas and cement its control of the House in Washington."

Tom Delay Indicted in Texas Finance PRobe



"At issue is $190,000 in corporate donations that the director of Texans for a Republican Majority sent to the Republican National State Elections Committee in mid-September 2002. Three weeks later, the committee sent checks in the equivalent amount that had been raised from individual donors to seven Republican statehouse candidates supported by TRMPAC. Texas law prohibits the use of corporate funds in election campaigns."


DeLay PAC Trial Looks at Money-Laundering Claims

The House Democratic leader wants an independent inquiry into the Justice Department's decision to approve a Texas redistricting plan that staff lawyers concluded diluted minority voting rights.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the decision by senior officials to ignore the staff lawyers' conclusions _ contained in a 73-page memo made public Friday _ was political.

"There must be an independent inquiry into the contemptible politicization of the Justice Department to rubberstamp Congressman Tom DeLay's illegal redistricting scheme in Texas," Pelosi said.


Probe of Texas Redistricting Plan Sought


Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal
Voting Rights Finding On Map Pushed by DeLay Was Overruled>

Burns Changed Vote for Money

> The Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association and the Northern Mariana Islands hired disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in 2001 to stop legislation cracking down on the islands' sweatshop factories. In 2000, Burns voted for the bill that “would have broadened federal oversight of immigration and labor rules on the islands.” But in May 2001, after at least eight meetings with Abramoff and his staff, a trip to the Super Bowl for two Burns staffers, and $12,000 in donations around the time of the deal, Burns voted against the exact same bill and took the unusual step of calling for a roll call vote, so that his vote was recorded. Burns received a total of $150,000 from Abramoff and his clients between 2001 and 2004.

The congressman & the hedge fund

Group Seeks Criminal Probe of Lawmaker

One day after a New York investment group raised $110,000 for Republican Rep. Jerry Lewis, the House passed a defense spending bill that preserved $160 million for a Navy project critical to the firm. The man who protected the Navy money? Lewis.

Both Lewis and the investment company, Cerberus Capital Management, benefited from the relationship. Eighteen months after the fundraiser and the House vote, Lewis won the chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee. He acknowledges that the fundraising efforts of Cerberus "played a very significant role" in winning the post. The ties between Cerberus and Lewis, a 14-term congressman from Redlands, Calif., have not been publicly examined before.

In the opinion of Larry Noble, executive director of the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, the timing of the fundraiser within days of a favorable vote "looks like influence buying." Noble is a former chief lawyer for the Federal Election Commission.

None of the people connected to Cerberus had ever given money to either Lewis or his political action committee before the fundraiser or the vote on the bill Lewis sponsored, a USA TODAY analysis of their political contributions shows.