The Sacramento Bee takes Representative John Doolittle (CA-4) to task in an editorial this morning. The Bee’s editorial staff has finally decided that it might be time to question Doolittle’s extraordinary financial arrangement with his wife. An arrangement that efficiently moves 15% of all campaign and political action committee contributions directly into the Doolittle family bank account.

With this scheme the Doolittles have hopelessly blurred the distinction between campaign money and personal money. This arrangement raises obvious questions that Doolittle must answer for his constituents. How is his wife’s taking a 15 percent cut of political contributions any different from the congressman himself saying he will take a 15 percent cut? How is this different from donors, instead of writing out a $1,000 check to the campaign, writing out two checks – an $850 check to the campaign and a $150 check to the Doolittles?

The Bee notes that the Doolittle’s contribution skimming scam was working so well for his political action committee that last year they expanded it to cover contributions to his personal campaign accounts.

The congressman expanded the deal last summer. Beginning in June 2005, Julie Doolittle’s Sierra company began to receive a 15 percent commission for contributions to her husband’s re-election committee, the John T. Doolittle for Congress Committee. That is potentially a lot more money for the Doolittle household. The re-election committee has always received more contributions than the leadership PAC. In the 2004 election cycle, for example, that committee brought in more than $900,000 in contributions. A 15 percent commission would be $135,000.

If this isn’t an invitation to bribery, I don’t know what else to call it. It provides contributors a direct link to a quid pro quo arrangement with Doolittle. The money moves effortlessly into Doolittle’s bank account. The appropriate letter gets written.  The appropriate earmark is attached to the appropriate bill.

Hat tip to nightswimming for reading the Bee with the morning coffee.

Six months ago, California State Senator Bill Morrow had to see himself as the candidate to beat in the race to replace Randy “Duke” Cunningham in the 50th District. Morrow has represented parts of the district for years. He has solid conservative credentials. Yet, as the campaign has played out Morrow has become the odd man out among his right wing soul mates: Howard Kaloogian and Eric Roach. Not only is Morrow the 3rd Stooge on the Republican right, but carpetbagger lobbyist, Brian Bilbray, a Republican moderate (oxymoron), is the favorite to pull in the most votes in the crowded Republican field.

Morrow’s campaign has hardly been stellar and Morrow himself is pretty boring. Now with his back to the wall, he has to do two things in the two weeks before the April 11 Special Election. First, he has to differentiate himself from Kaloogian and Roach. Second, he has to slow Bilbray down.

More on “When Republicans Attack” follows:

Morrow has the backing of the right wing California Republican Assembly (CRA) and it appears that the CRA is helping do the dirty work of attacking Bilbray leaving Morrow to find a way to stand out from the nut job backdrop where he blends into Kaloogian and Roach.

The CRA has put up a website that accuses Bilbray two horrific sins. It calls him a liberal – no evidence for that. And, it calls him a lobbyist – which he is. It’s a nice piece of work that manages to juxtapose a photo of Bilbray with Jack Abramoff and give the impression that the two are shaking hands while transferring a wad of cash. Good stuff.

More germane to the actual race, the CRA has sent out a mailer to the registered Republicans in the district that not only paints Bilbray as a close associate of Abramoff, but which also calls Bilbray to accounts for his support of Metabolife and his efforts to keep the FDA from restricting the use of ephedrine as a diet supplement. The CRA accuses Bilbray of causing 155 deaths through his efforts to protect Metabolife’s main diet source of income. Bilbray’s motivation, according to the CRA was the $22,000 in campaign contributions he received from Metabolife executives and employees.

Morrow is under pressure to abandon the race and give either Kaloogian or Roach a shot at Bilbray. It looks like Morrow isn’t going down without taking a few shots of his own. The problem for Republicans is that his shots are generating hits on their most viable candidate.

Hat tip to the always excellent San Diego Politics.

Yesterday, we posted regarding the California Republican Assembly’s (CRA) attacks on fellow Republican Brian Bilbray. The CRA took full credit for the hit pieces in today’s San Diego Union Tribune.

Mike Spence, the president of the conservative Republican group, was unapologetic.

“All the people who talk about polls say Bilbray is No. 1,” Spence said, “In order for a conservative to win, for our candidate to win, we had to hit.”

The group has endorsed state Sen. Bill Morrow, saying they believe Bilbray, though a Republican, is too liberal to lead the district. Morrow disavowed knowledge of the mailer.

Los Angeles Times columnist, Patt Morrison, called the CRA “the bemuscled bouncer of California GOP politics.”  And, the CRA is playing its role as protector of GOP virtue in the 50th District congressional race.

The cornerstones of the CRA’s ideological purity are a total aversion to taxes and immigrants. Now that might sound like a bunch of Libertarians to you and me, but the CRA has a two decade old endorsement from Republican saint, Ronald Reagan, on which it hangs it ideological hat.

With these guys on you side, Bill Morrow, you will loose.  You can take it to the bank.

Laura Rozen of War and Piece dusts some of the remaining pieces of the once grand and powerful Brent Wilkes’ empire and finds some interesting fingerprints.

Certainly, Duke Cunningham’s prints are all over the place, but Laura also discovers evidence of the deep involvement of another San Diego County Republican, Representative Duncan Hunter (CA-52).

Hunter’s helping hand is apparent as far back as 1994, when he started the electronic document conversion bandwagon rolling in congress. It is important to understand, that the process that Hunter started was designed to directly benefit a small group of San Diego entrepreneurs, whose expertise and technology was never requested nor required by anyone in the Department of Defense or the United States government for that matter.

The result of Hunter’s involvement was the non-development of any actual technology and the creation of a number of companies designed specifically to take advantage of the potential payday that Hunter’s efforts were creating.

This was the environment from which Brent Wilkes would emerge. Wilkes would work with Steve Caira to not develop document conversion technology that they would then sell to the government at inflated prices.

Read Rozen and then read this Complaint and Jury Demand that puts Wilkes, Caira, Cunningham and Hunter together in an alleged conspiracy to defraud American taxpayers.