I’m not sure what to make of this, other than…yuck! This Congress, and this  man, John Doolittle, are so far beyond the pale that the words cease to have any meaning any more.  John Doolittle put personal relationships above the safety of women.  John Doolittle thought it was more important to protect a friend than protect people from being sexually assaulted.  Sound familiar? From Bob Salladay (h/t to Bayne of Blog, and kos):

Doolittle, then a state senator and attorney, served as an important character witness for the friend, David Roy Phipps, who eventually was sentenced to three years’ probation. Phipps also had his dental license placed on probation for five years by the state dental board, which required him to attend to patients only with an assistant at his side.
{snip}
Doolittle’s efforts may have proved effective for his friend in 1987. But in 1994, Phipps assaulted another patient, according to court documents filed with the 3rd Appellate District Court of Appeal.(LAT Political Muscle 10/17/06)

It’s a pattern with this man.  He cares less about the people that he serves than getting the best deal for his buddies.  It’s cronyism at its worse.  He has helped his good buddy Abramoff, and he’s helped his good buddy the sexual predator.

It’s about time that Doolittle moves along.

Today’s SacBee lays the smackdown on John Doolittle

In style and substance Doolittle was much like his mentor, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay: shrill, mean-spirited and divisive. Doolittle is no consensus builder on the great issues of the day. Watching him, voters could see why the atmosphere in Congress is so poisonous.

Doolittle seems not to have learned how to disagree without being disagreeable. For every question, whether on Iraq, infrastructure, tax policy, health care or ethics, he turned the issue to his opponent’s membership in the American Civil Liberties Union. It’s an odd point to focus on.

In the era after the Sept. 11 attacks, many prominent conservatives — including former Reps. Bob Barr of Georgia and Dick Armey of Texas — have joined with the ACLU. (SacBee 10/15/06)

Well folks, there you have it.  Doolittle is “no consensus-builder”, he is mean-spirited.  While the debate was produced very last minute, and few people watched it.  However, it has now been uploaded to Youtube here. (It’s in several parts) Doolittle looks pathetic with his ridiculous charges about the ACLU. He ignores the charges of corruption and says that we shouldn’t dare question his “poor wife”, who by the way worked for Jack Abramoff.

This man does not belong in Congress.

Apparently, Julie Doolittle really, really wanted to work for Jack Abramoff. I guess she knew where the real power was.  According to the SacBee (h/t to DumpDoolittle), an Abramoff aide sent an email to Jack the Gambler that Julie was psyched!!:

The e-mail released Thursday was written by Kevin Ring, an Abramoff associate and former Doolittle staffer, to his boss. In it, Ring relates that Doolittle is “very very excited and appreciative” about the possibility of his wife, Julie, going to work for an Abramoff nonprofit group called Toward Tradition.

“JTD knows of the group and would like to talk to you about it,” the e-mail says.

The e-mail suggests Doolittle was trying to get a job for his wife two years before she ultimately took a position working for Abramoff at his law firm, Greenberg Traurig.(SacBee 10/13/06)

During his debate with Charlie Brown, John Doolittle got righteously indignant that his political opponent would dare, DARE, to bring his wife into the election.  Doolittle’s exact quote:

One woman asked Doolittle if he would support a law to ban an “unethical” practice: hiring his own wife, Julie Doolittle, to raise campaign funds for a 15 percent commission.

The company of Doolittle’s wife, Sierra Dominion Financial Services, also was paid $66,000 by Abramoff for projects including a Washington, D.C., fundraiser that was canceled.

“This is typical of the slanderous personal attacks,” Doolittle said, responding to the caller. “They want to drag my poor wife into this.” (SacBee 10/12/06)

His poor wife! Aww, poor wife who was paid $66,000 by Jack Abramoff.  Julie Doolittle took an active role in Doolittle’s political career, she can not now hide from public scrutiny.  Can anybody seriously argue that Julie’s connection has nothing to do with John?

Both Doolittles are corrupt.  However, only one is accountable to the voters.  It’s time to actually hold him accountable.

Constituent Dynamics has released a poll showing 15% Doolittle up by 8 points over Charlie Brown (52-44). You can get full cross-tabs here.  Constituent Dynamics polled 65 top races.  Note that CA-11 was not polled, so we are still left with no independent poll there.

Obviously, we’d all like this to be a bit closer, but this is not discouraging.  In 2002 and 2004, Doolittle won by about 25 points.  Brown has over 3 weeks to convince 6% of the voters to switch to him.  Hey folks, it’s possible. You can give him a few bucks at the Calitics ActBlue page or go help him out at Charile Brown for Congress.

A few odds and ends that I wanted to post:

• From the diary of  “EthicsinCongress”, Charlie Brown (the good guy) will be be “debating” John “15%” Doolittle (the, well, corrupt guy) tonight at 7:30.  It will be streamed live over a complex series of tubes that we know as the Internets on News10.net.  The format seems more like something straight out of Oprah rather than a “debate”, but what can you do?  What’s the deal with these bizarre debate formats.  Why can’t we all just do good ol’ fashioned Lincoln-Douglas debates.  Oh right, that entails knowing a lot of facts and the hard work of preparation.  Wouldn’t want that, now would we?
• Over in my diary with the “Good Ideas” video, “Peter the Bellhop” and I are having a little conversation on Prop 77.  Feel free to join in…
• Andy Stern, the president of the SEIU, will be in the state promoting his new book, A Country That Works.  He’s something of the rock star among labor leaders, and is very charismatic.  I’ve posted the California event dates on the flip, or you can check his book website event page. Buy A Country That Works here.
• Spending on Prop 87, the oil tax/alternative energy initative, has set a new record.  Accourding to the San-Diego Union-Trib spending is currently at $105 million.  And there’s still 4 weeks left.  Whoa!  But I suppose this isn’t surprising given Stephen Bing’s resources and the oil company’s resources.  Couldn’t they just have given all this money to alternative energy research and be done.  $100 million makes a lot of solar panels.  Nonetheless, we fight on.  87 is a good idea and worthy of passage.  You can bet Chevron won’t back down.

Andy Stern CA Book Tour dates

10/11
8:00pm – 9:30pm
Drinking Liberally @ Molly Mahlone’s
575 South Fairfax
Los Angeles, CA

10/12
12:00pm – 1:30pm
Dean Forum
3502 Watt Way, LA Room 207 “Annenberg Rm�
Los, Angeles, CA

10/18
6:00pm – 8:00pm
2221 Broadway at Grand
Oakland, CA

10/19
12:00pm – 1:30pm
Working Assets Lunch and Book Signing
101 Market St, 1st flr
San Francisco, CA

10/19
7:00pm – 8:30pm
Cody’s Bookstore
2 Stockton Street at Market
San Francisco, CA

10/19
8:30pm – 10:00pm
Drinking Liberally @ House of Shields
39 New Montgomery
San Francisco, CA

The media investigation of the Republican leadership cover-up is now focusing Republican Secretary John Doolittle (R-CA) who is refusing to answer questions about his role in the Mark Foley scandal.

“This story is going to trace itself up to just exactly who exactly in the leadership of the Republican Party knew what when,” former White House advisor David Gergen told CNN’s Anderson Cooper.

The tracking through the GOP leadership advanced with the Associated Press quote from Kirk Fordham that draws the senior staff of the Republican leadership into the scandal — while extending the length of the GOP leadership cover-up by more than a year.

What did Doolittle’s former chief of staff, Kevin A. Ring know and when did he know it? What did Richard Robinson known and when did he know it? What did GOP Secretary John Doolittle know and when did he know it?

Even embattled Speaker Dennis Hastert told the Chicago Tribune, “I think the base has to realize after a while, who knew about it? Who knew what, when?”

This week, Doolittle’s re-election campaign in California’s fourth district has been featured in articles by Peter Hecht, Rachel Gordon, Laura Kurtzman, Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Rone Tempest with none of the reporters getting on record what John Doolittle knew and when he learned it.

The A.P.’s Robin Hindry reported on the Doolittle stonewall that is now in at least it’s third day:

[Charlie] Brown on Monday also called for Doolittle to return a donation he received from Mark Foley, the Republican Florida congressman who resigned last week after sexually explicit e-mails he sent to congressional pages were made public.

Doolittle should say what he knew about Foley’s actions and return $1,000 he received from him in 2002, Brown said.

Doolittle issued a statement through his House office on Monday condemning Foley. Calls requesting comment from his campaign Monday evening were not returned.

Congressman Doolittle’s government website – www.gopsecretary.house.gov – features a welcome message from the GOP Secretary listing his primary objective as, “to provide members and their staffs with the support they need to become more informed, innovative, and proactive.” Voters deserve to know to what degree Doolittle was informed, whether he was innovative in the cover-up, and why he wasn’t proactive in protecting children.

While the media has failed to get Congressman Doolittle on record, constituent’s are demanding answers. This morning’s Sacramento Bee features a letter from John Garon of Placerville who notes, “Rep. John Doolittle makes much of the fact that he is a member of the “leadership” of the House GOP. Since members of this inner circle, and a few more, knew of Rep. Mark Foley’s sexual advances to young boys, what did Doolittle do if and when he found out? Prima facie evidence indicates he did nothing, going along to get along, as he always does.”

With Doolittle stonewalling the press and refusing to deny involvement, the speculation is growing that Doolittle will play dumb. In another SacBee letter today, Mary Ann Keerer wonders, “Does Doolittle want us to believe that he knew nothing about his cohort’s sexual exploitation of underage boys just like he knows nothing about the sex slaves and other obscenities occurring in the Northern Mariana Islands?”

The Predatorgate scandal is sure to draw attention to Doolittle’s long history of protecting sexual predators in the Northern Marianas Islands for Jack Abramoff.

In addition to stonewalling the press, Doolittle’s damage control team is also ignoring constituent questions:

I called John Doolittle’s office today to ask if he still supports Dennis Hastert for Speaker, since the guy has known about and covered up the truly creepy activities of Congressman Foley.

The person who answered started telling me about how Hastert didn’t know about what was going on with Foley.  I said, “So that means Congressman Doolittle does support Hastert?”

She said no, no, no.  I’ll find out and get back to you.

Why is this important?  I’ve called Doolittle’s office many times over the years to ask about his positions on things like social security, net neutrality, etc.  The people there are always arrogant and dismissive, they give Doolittle’s position with no regard or care whether anyone disagrees with Doolittle.

This time, the person seemed very worried.

Unlike Representatives Heather Wilson and Geoff Davis, Rep. Doolittle is refusing to donate to charity the donations he received from former Congressman Mark Foley.

( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Charlie Brown is demanding that Rep. John Doolittle, who’s too cowardly to even face him in a televised debate, to return a campaign donation from Mark Foley’s Political Action Committee.

Now the donation is a mere $1,000.  I think Abramoff would tip Doolittle that for walking him to his car.  But the point is that Brown is campaigning with the aggressive, take-no-prisoners, seize-every-opportunity streak we’ve come to expect from Republicans.  From his multitude of creative websites to his non-stop attacks on Doolittle’s involvement with the CNMI, Brown is attacking hard but also putting the entire thing into an easy-to-read narrative.  From his email to supporters:

“This is an absolute moral outrage,” said Brown.  “Any Member of Congress, Democrat or Republican, who had knowledge of Congressman Foley’s illicit behavior and took no action should resign. There is no excuse for putting political considerations before protecting children,” Brown said. He called for an independent, non-partisan investigation into the issue.

“This Congress is losing the moral authority to lead – every day the news is about corruption, bribery, campaign-finance scandals and cover ups,” Brown continued. “This is not about left versus right, it’s about right versus wrong. It’s long past time for a change.”

I can’t help but be impressed with Brown’s skills as a campaigner and a candidate.  His rapid response team is ridiculously good.  He’s skilled at grabbing free media attention by attacking his opponent’s weak points and not letting go.

There is no way Charlie Brown should have a shot in CA-04.  It’s redder than red.  But contesting everywhere has a great benefit, by freeing up the Democrat in question to absolutely go for broke.

I don’t make predictions often, but I really think that Charlie Brown will be the next Congressman from California’s 4th District.

H/t to Turn Tahoe Blue.  Remember that jsw is doing his matching campaign for Brown, Bowen, and McNerney, too.  So, give them a few bucks at our ActBlue page.Wanna know about Rep. John Doolittle’s abuses? Just watch this video and pass it on: