Tag Archives: earmarks

Los Angeles Area, Orange County

Are Republicans Having Enough of the Scandal?

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(Cross-posted at Trash Dirty Gary)

“When your seat is so safe that you’re not concerned about perception, you become too wedded to Washington and you lose touch with your constituency, and you lose touch with your real purpose.”

Want to guess who said that? Believe it or not, that was Karen Hanretty, a Republican strategist and former California Republican Party spokeswoman. And she was talking to the AP (via
The Guardian [UK]) about the lovely Republican Congresscritters like John Doolittle and Gary Miller who
have been caught up in some naughty behavior lately. So what’s happening? Are even Republicans starting to desert these crooked cons?

Follow me after the flip for more…

So what’s happening? Are the Republicans finally waking up and smelling the strychnine? Is the culture of corruption finally too much for them?

The ethics cloud is discouraging the party faithful who’ve already watched the GOP shrink to minority status in California. And they add to the dilemmas of Republican strategists aiming to retake Congress next year following election losses blamed partly on GOP ethics problems.

“There is a sort of feeling among Republican activists who work hard to elect Republicans of, ‘What the heck is going on here?”’ said Los Angeles GOP analyst Allan Hoffenblum.

So I guess they’re finally asking the questions that we’ve been asking all along. What the heck is going on here?

Why has Gary Miller been mixing his personal real estate business with his duty as a member of Congress to serve his constituents? Why has he put the desires of a developer in Upland over the needs of the people in his own district? And why the heck did he lie about “eminent domain” regarding that Monrovia land deal?

But of course, Gary Miller isn’t the only crooked GOPer here. We also have Jerry Lewis. And John Doolittle. And Ken Calvert. Well, you get the picture. Thanks to all the sleazebags in Congress, California Republicans are in crisis mode.

No wonder why they’re such a liability. Even Mr. FlashReport has to admit it:

But their problems make them less valuable allies for Republican presidential candidates looking to compete in California’s primary, newly advanced to February. And the ethics clouds discourage a GOP base already chafing at moderate Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s constant compromises with Democrats.

“This is presenting a huge distraction from the debate over ideas that really needs to happen in terms of who’s going to control Congress,” said Jon Fleischman, a GOP activist in Orange County. “It creates a degree of cynicism that is certainly real.”

Well, I wouldn’t consider it a distraction, Mr. Fleischman. If anything, it shows the true colors of these so-called “conservatives”. They’re more interested in conserving and expanding their personal wealth and power than they are in serving the voters in their districts. That actually plays a huge part in the debate of ideas. It just so happens that all of their “ideas” are just business deals that benefit themselves and are a rip-off to the people they’re supposed to serve.

No wonder why even Republicans are starting to have enough of these crooks.

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CA-41: Will Jerry Lewis Retire? Do Republicans Have to Worry About It?

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Look what I found in Red County-San Bernardino, OC Blog‘s sister blog in the Inland Empire:

Will embattled 15-term Republican Congressman Jerry Lewis (CD 41) retire from the United States House of Representatives at the conclusion of the 110th Congress? Longtime Capitol Hill reporter Bob Novak is reporting in the Washington, D.C.-based publication Human Events that “both on Capitol Hill and in California, Republicans say that Rep. Jerry Lewis (R) is unlikely to seek re-election.”

Really? So the man who probably best served “K Street’s Queen of Earmarks” is now stepping down? The sleazy lobbyists might lose their best friend?

Follow me after the flip for more…

So what exactly did Robert Novak have to say about the 41st District? Well, here it is:

Both on Capitol Hill and in California, Republicans say that Rep. Jerry Lewis (R) is unlikely to seek re-election. This despite the fact that Lewis is not currently the target of an inquiry, and there have been no new developments in the ethical allegations against him. Lewis won last year with two-thirds of the vote against a token Democrat. Lewis has not tipped his hand at all, yet talk of potential Republican replacements already abounds. Conservative GOP San Bernardino County Assessor Bill Postmus is said to be interested.

Republicans do not want to see either Lewis or Doolittle resign, because they do not want to spend money now on a special election. The money issue will also loom in the general election of 2008, but unless that election goes as badly for the GOP as last year’s, Republicans can take heart in the fact that none of California’s congressional districts is considered competitive. If there is anywhere you would prefer to have retirements, this is the state.

Wow, so Jerry Lewis is going against the will of fellow Republicans by deciding to retire? But they’re not really worried about losing this seat? Maybe they should be.
Republicans may have a sizable registration edge in the district, but it’s not insurmountable…
Especially if Democrats have a strong candidates, and perhaps they do…

Democratic possibilities for the 41st include downtown San Bernardino lawyer Tim Prince, who has pledged to run for the seat only in the event of a Lewis retirement. Prince’s last stand for elective office was a failed attempt at the mayoralty of the city of San Bernardino.

And CQ seems to be taking him seriously as a threat to the GOP’s possibly tenuous hold on this district, thanks to Lewis and all his scandal.

So would any of these Republicans have to put up a real fight to hold this seat? Perhaps. Look at how Brian Bilbray had to struggle to win in what was supposed to be a “safe Republican” seat. Look at how John Doolittle had to struggle in his “safe seat” last year. And so far, things aren’t looking any better for Republicans today. Maybe they’ll have another Congressional seat about in California, after all.

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The Calvert Chronicles

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This is pretty hilarious.  Ken Calvert got an earmark inserted last year that would put a transit center within walking distance of seven properties that he owned.  This would obviously boost the value of those properties.  But the House Ethics Committee said he did nothing wrong because:

“any benefit to Calvert would be shared by other similarly situated landowners.”

So because other people would get as rich as him, it’s not unethical for him to write his own laws that get him rich.

Brilliant.

OK, so let’s just say that I’m a property-rich lawmaker who wants to push the boundaries and play the earmark game for all its worth. What would it take for me to get into trouble? Just how self-serving of a project would actually garner the House ethics committee’s disapproval?

“You’d have to be remodeling your kitchen,” Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense told me.

Meanwhile, in the continuing Calvert/Red State saga… over…

They’re still going after him, and they think they’ve found proof that he lied to the GOP caucus by saying that he was not being investigated.  The Hill has an update.  Unfortunately, the Steering Committee isn’t taking their phone calls:

According to House staffers, Boehner’s staff is out putting pressure on Steering Committee members to not say how they voted on Calvert.

Two different people tell me the deck is so stacked in Boehner’s favor that even if a majority of the Steering Committee voted against Calvert, he could still get on Appropriations. But, that would look terrible to have a majority vote against Calvert and him still getting on Appropriations.

So, Boehner is pressuring the Steering Committee to totally ignore us.

Pretty funny that these guys are solely focusing on Calvert when even his replacement is under investigation for corruption.  If corruption was a disqualifying event for Republicans, we’d have a 9/10 majority in the House.