Daily Archives: February 18, 2006

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CA-41 Jerry Lewis’ Lobbyist Friends

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UPDATE: Repaired a link -Brian

Time is just out with an article on the relationship between Representative Jerry Lewis (CA-41) and Jeffrey Shockley. Shockley’s lobbying firm is none other than Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez. The San Diego Union Tribune highlighted the intimate relationship between Lewis and Bill Lowery back in December.

Before Jeffrey Shockey worked for one of the most powerful committees in Congress, he was a lobbyist at one of the more successful boutique lobbying firms in Washington. Before that, you guessed it, he worked for one of the most powerful committees in Congress. In fact, Shockey, 40, has breezed so smoothly through the revolving door between Congress and the lobbying world that, critics say, it’s hard to tell where one job begins and the other ends.

Shockley’s career is a series of moves between jobs in Congressman Lewis’ office and jobs lobbying Congressman Lewis’ office.

Shockey’s career is a case study in how the game works. When he left Capitol Hill for the lobbying world in 1999 — after spending more than eight years working for Rep. Jerry Lewis, a Republican from California who had chaired key subcommittees — many of his new clients, including muncipalities, hospitals and lesser-known universities, were from Lewis’s district. After years of getting paid to represent them on the Hill, he was now getting paid a lot more to represent them on the Hill.

Shockley’s record as a lobbyist is staggering. Though his efforts, he was able to direct over $150 million in pork barrel projects to his clients, earning himself $1.5 million in his first year as a lobbyist. And, Shockley was able to insure that his grateful clients directed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Representative Lewis and his political action committee.

Last year, Lewis’ largess within the party, thanks to the efforts of lobbyists like Shockley helped Lewis achieve the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee. Lewis asked Shockey to work for the committee. Shockley accepted the job despite a 10 fold reduction in salary. But, the Shockley family won’t go hungry.

Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez — where Lewis’s close friend Bill Lowery, a former California congressman, is a partner — gave Shockey a $600,000 going-away buyout, according to Shockey’s financial disclosure form. He was to receive his buyout in three $200,000 payments scheduled for February, May and August 2005 — even as he was in his committee post. The firm would also keep Shockey in the family by hiring his wife, Alexandra — another former Lewis aide — as a consulting lobbyist.

What a sweet deal this is for Lewis. No matter where Shockey works, he ends up helping raise funds for Lewis. From Shockley’s perspective, no matter where he works, his take home pay is going to be substantial. It’s a win, win, win situation. Well, except for the taxpayers who are covering the cost of all of Lewis’ earmarks to companies that Shockley used to represent, but which are now represented by someone else, who also used to work for Lewis.

With the help of another former Lewis aide who took over some Shockey accounts at his lobbying firm, many of Shockey’s more than 50 former clients have continued to land tens of millions of dollars in earmarks, courtesy of the panel Shockey now helps Lewis run.

Jerry Lewis sure knows how to rig the game in his favor.

Words Have Power.

San Diego

Kaloogian Alert – Toxic – Full Protective Gear Required

Down With Tyranny holds its nose and links to Howard Kaloogian’s most recent fund raising appeal in his campaign for Randy Cunningham’s vacated congressional seat in CA-50.

I won’t link directly to Kaloogian’s document for fear of contamination.

Kaloogian is a puzzle to me. He is either a right wing nut case with little conception of the real issues in this country; OR his is a tool of right wing puppet masters who want to make sure that the real issues in this country are kept hidden from its citizens.

Frankly, I don’t care into which of the two categories Kaloogian falls.  In either case he is a dangerous politician.

Kaloogian tars anyone who disagrees with his position, any position held by the extreme neo-con right or King George Bush as a “liberal.” That is the worst criticism that members of Kaloogian’s cult can come up with to use against an opponent. And, it is the one word that so scares the far right-wingers who support politicians like Kaloogian that they will immediately write a check to his campaign.

The fact that more than 60% of Americans disagree with President Bush’s policies and direction for the country means nothing to Kaloogian. All those people are either “liberals” or the victim of “liberal media lies.”

Kaloogian wants to make sure that the ultra-rich and big corporations avoid paying taxes. He has no problems with “earmarks” as a form of corporate welfare or as a means of rewarding campaign contributors. Kaloogian has no real coherent political position. He can only define himself by what he is against, not by any policies or positions that he advocates.

He has no interest in the issues that are important to the people living in California’s 50th Congressional District. He has no position on education. He has no position on lobbyist reform. He has no position on the environment. He has no position on transportation policy. He has no position on senior drug benefits. He has no position on support for military veterans.

Kaloogian’s most recent political positions have been against the United Nations, against national politicians who disagree with George Bush and against the concept of a free press telling the truth to Americans.

As I said, Kaloogian is either the willing tool of the American hating extremist on the right wing fringe of our society or he is one of the leaders of these fringe extremists. Take your pick.

Uncategorized

10 Years Isn’t Enough For Cunningham

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(The sorry details of Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s betrayal of the public trust. He is sleazy even by Republican standards. – promoted by Words Have Power)

Federal prosecutors presented a San Diego court with a recommended sentence for former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham. You can read the entire sentencing memorandum here or check out the San Diego Union Tribune’s shorter version here.

Having admitted unparalleled corruption, defendant Randall H. Cunningham now comes before the Count to be sentenced for his stunning betrayal of the public trust. Cunningham used his status as a war hero to get into Congress, and then he used his Congressional office to get rich. In doing so, Cunningham reneged on his obligation to execute his office with conscientious, loyal, faithful, disinterested, and unbiased service. The length, breadth, and depth of Cunningham’s crimes against the people of the United States are unprecedented for a sitting Member of Congress. So too, should be his sentence.

With that as an introduction, prosecutors asked the court to sentence Cunningham to the maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

What the details in the sentencing memorandum make abundantly clear is that Randy Cunningham sold his influence and used his office to make himself rich. Cunningham was not caught up in the schemes of others, he was the prime instigator of this criminal endeavor. A copy of a bribe payment schedule (bribe menu) was included in documents filed by the prosecution.

In this “bribe menu,” the left column represented the millions in government contracts that could be “ordered” from Cunningham. The right column was the amount of the bribes that the contractor giving up his title to a boat (“BY) for which Coconspirator No. 2 had initially paid $140,000 (“140″). The next four rows indicate that an additional million dollars in funding was “for sale” in exchange for every additional $50,000 that Coconspirator No. 2 was willing to pay Cunningham. Once Coconspirator No. 2 had paid Cunningham $340,000 in bribes, the rates dropped; and, as the final five rows reflect, Cunningham would charge only $25,000 for each additional million dollars that was awarded in Congressman was demanding in exchange for the contracts.

The federal documents lay out an incredibly damning case. Cunningham was literally selling government business to his co-conspirators. No wink and nudge stuff, but tit for tat – you give me money and I’ll give you government contracts for a specific amount. It is breathtaking.

In order to completely pay off his Rancho Santa Fe home, Cunningham turned to Brent Wilkes and Mitchell Wade.

…Cunningham demanded that Co-conspirator No. 1 (Brent Wilkes) give him $525,000. Coconspirator No. 1 agreed, but on condition that he receive an additional $6,000,000 in government funds. Shortly after receiving this money (through a DoD subcontract), Coconspirator No. 1 wired the $525,000 (thinly disguised as an “investment”) to Coconspirator No. 3’s financial services company. Cunningham never made another payment on his second mortgage.

…Cunningham demanded that Coconspirator No. 2 (Mitchell Wade) pay him $500,000, to eliminate the remaining mortgage burdens for his Rancho Santa Fe mansion. In return, Cunningham promised to support a specific defense appropriations request. Coconspirator No. 2 agreed. To disguise this bribe, Coconspirator No. 2 divided the $500,000 into two unequal checks (one for $329.000 and one for $171,000), both made out to Top Gun Enterprises. Although both checks were made out at the same time, Coconspirator No. 2 sought to further disguise the illegal activity by utilizing different dates and non-consecutive check numbers. He added false notations on both checks that suggested a legitimate purpose.

It’s all here in the government documents. The big bribes, the little bribes, the furniture, the cars, all of it laid out in stunning detail.

What is clear from this evidence is that Randy Cunningham is a crook and a liar. He broke his oaths and he betrayed his office. Randy Cunningham is a disgrace and deserves to go to jail for the rest of his life.

Also posted at Words Have Power

California

Sexual Predators and Some Other Crazies

( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

We can all agree that sexual predators are bad and that we need to protect children from them.  Assemblyman Mark Leno is working to do that.  His Democratic bill AB 50 has universal support from Democrats and passed the Assembly with 49 yes votes.  However, he had to strip funding provisions because he could not achieve the 2/3 majority required to pass funding measures.  He plans on restoring them after the trip to the Senate:

Leno said he intends to restore the $23 million appropriation once the bill reaches the Senate – $15 million to create local Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement Teams and $8 million to add 500 Global Positioning System devices for tracking high-risk sex offenders.(Sac Bee 1/27/06)


The real craziness is on the flip…

The key provisions:

Key provisions in AB 50 include:

* Prohibiting registered sex offenders from school grounds.

* Adding continual sexual abuse of a child to a list of offenses eligible for a life sentence on a first offense.

* Requiring a sentence of life with the possibility of parole for kidnapping with intent to commit various sex offenses.

* Allowing a person who possesses more than 100 items of child pornography to be charged with a felony. Leno said he plans to lower the threshold to 25.(Sac Bee 1/27/06)

But the key part isn’t what’s in the bill, but rather what isn’t in the bill.  The Republicans dropped their support for the bill after deciding  that it wasn’t strong enough.  All but one Republican, Tim Leslie of Placer County, abstained from the vote.  Apparently, they want it their way, or no way.  They would rather leave the loopholes to the law gaping than repair them.  In other words, they would rather pay politics than actually protect our children.

But that’s not even the craziness that I referenced in the title.  That honor belongs to the Republicans who are spreading fear. The SF Bay Times has an article which highlights some of that craziness:

“This is bull—-,” shouted Assembly speaker Fabian Núñez (D-Los Angeles) as he approached Assemblyman Todd Spitzer last week, waving a copy of a commentary in which the Orange County Republican had characterized Leno as “anti-public safety” “pro-criminal” and accused Leno of protecting child molesters and abusers – the Sacramento Bee’s Jim Sanders reported on Monday.
***
Republican bloggers and radio pundits have, for months, been hammering away at Leno. “What I’m talking about is evil, pure evil,” opined Karen Hanretty communications director for the California Republican Party “Mr. Leno is a danger to society…”
***
Lesbian legislator Jackie Goldberg said she was targeted by Rep. Sharon  Runner, a Palmdale Republican, in one of many attacks. On a recent radio show she said that Goldberg, who raised her child from birth, “was not a real mother,” Goldberg said.

Vaguely anti-gay? “Not vaguely, honey,” Goldberg said. “It’s more than that. Of course I’m a parent. But I don’t count.”
***
At that point the Republican minority accused Leno and his committee of being “soft on crime” and “putting the rights of career criminals over those of law-abiding citizens, especially children,” Orange County Republican Assemblyman Spitzer wrote.

Pretty sickening all around.