This might be the lamest story I’ve ever read (h/t TPM Muckraker).  Start the sappy music… now:

Rep. Gary Miller (news, bio, voting record) grew up poor. Even though he’s now worth more than $13 million, he says he’s still worried about his family’s financial security.

So, while federal authorities investigate some of his real estate transactions, he says he’ll keep on making deals.

Thirteen million doesn’t go far in this go-go world of ours, you see.  I mean, just think, his great-grandchildren might have to GO TO WORK!

There’s more, if you can stand it…

Miller, a fifth-term Republican representing conservative inland Southern California, said in an interview that he had put his real estate investment activities on hold upon entering politics, only to find that “I was worth less money every year.”

“Some people are arguing I shouldn’t have the opportunity to make an investment that every other American citizen has an opportunity to make,” he said. “I’ve got kids, I’ve got grandkids, and it’d be nice, when I get ready to go, when they’re older, if I can help them.”

Yes, it’d be nice if they could burn $100 bills to light their cigarettes the way I do.  It’d be nice if THEY could have an ice sculpture in the shape of a swan for their 14th birthday.  It’d be nice if THEY would need a hand-cart for shopping at Barney’s instead of just a small bag.  I mean, think of my CHILDREN!  They’ve never known how to not be rich!

Miller makes $165,200 a year sitting in Congress, by the way, so he’s not exactly destitute even if he had to sell off his developer business tomorrow.  That, and the $13 million in the bank.

Here’s one of my other favorite lines from the article, where this guy’s defender goes, “Hey, it’s not like he broke the law, he just stretched it a bit.  Until it broke.”

To Miller’s defenders, the whole controversy amounts to a bum rap.

“Any good businessman’s going to push the envelope from time to time,” said Frank Williams, executive officer of the Baldy View Chapter of the Building Industry Association in California. “That’s part of dealmaking. It’s not illegal.”

Shorter Frank Williams: Breaking the law is not illegal.

And then there’s the coup de grace:

Miller got into politics, he said, because he wanted to do something about government regulation on businesses…

Yeah, eliminate it.

Reps. John Doolittle, Jerry Lewis and Gary Miller, all are under some sort of federal investigation, yet the dirty three are still planning on running for re-election in ’08 (as long as they don’t get indicted by then).  Each one has taken their turn under the corruption spotlight.  Right now it is Miller time, as the investigation into his tax evasion heats up.

Roll Call, the insider rag in DC says today (sub req):

The speculation that there might be something substantial to the investigation into Miller’s connection to a land deal has yet to trickle down to the level of rank-and-file voters. But talk among Republican activists is beginning to percolate about who might be a suitable candidate to replace him in 2008 – or before that.

“There’s no rush to replace [Miller]. But there is a growing concern that ultimately he can’t survive this,” said one California Republican with knowledge of the district.

A list of possible candidates does not yet exist, but state Assemblyman Bob Huff (R) is mentioned by most when they are asked who would be among the leading contenders to replace Miller, whenever he decides to leave Congress and under whatever circumstances.

Toussaint said Miller is unconcerned about the speculation because, he emphasized, there is absolutely nothing to the investigation into his boss. California Republicans will not be blindsided by Miller the way they were by Cunningham, Toussaint insisted.

Republicans will not be blindsided this time because as dday pointed out last week, he briefed them on his legal troubles.  They will not be blindsided because they are already planning his replacement.  It is encouraging to see, at least from a potential indictment standpoint, the Republicans freaking out.

Then there is the matter of Doolittle.

Despite the strong Republican composition of the district and Brown’s failure to oust Doolittle amid a wave election, the Democrats smell blood. California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres said Brown might have won last year’s race if the party had given him more help and said Democrats don’t want to make that mistake again.

“I was out on the campaign trail with him and his wife, and he really resonates with that district,” Torres said. “Did we do enough? Probably not; we should have done more.”

(emphasis mine)

This agitates me to no end.  How many millions were sitting in the CDP’s bank account in December?  There were at least  4: the ones sent over to Nunez for his caucus activities.  That can’t have been all of it.  At a time when the national committees were going into debt, the CDP was sitting on piles of cash.  Cash that could have paid for a new round of ads, gotten more walkers into the district, sent more mail…the list goes on.

What I want to know is why?  Did they not pay for or get a hold of polling showing how tight this race was?  I know Charlie didn’t have the cash to pay for it himself.  He knew he was close, but didn’t put the money into seeing just how tight.  It all went into other activities.  The DCCC must have had something, but even they held off of putting resources into the district.

How did they not see the people powered movement Charlie Brown was building up in that district?  The amount of infrastructure he built up, where there was none is amazing.  We are talking about long term party building type of activities, not just winning an election.  Frankly, the stuff that the CDP should have been really excited about.

The CDP and the DCCC must make up for their serious mistakes in 2006 by supporting Charlie in his next run.

Torres said ousting Doolittle in the 4th and protecting freshman Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.) in the 11th district are among the state party’s top priorities in 2008. Torres compared the 4th to the 11th, explaining he is confident of Democrats’ chances there because Democratic voters have been moving into the district from the liberal San Francisco Bay area in increasing numbers.

Robinson, Doolittle’s spokesman, sounded skeptical that California Democrats would follow through on their plans to heavily target his boss, saying he believes they will find richer political targets than a GOP Congressman representing a district with 73,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats – a 17.6 point advantage.

The fact of the matter is that Charlie got within 3 points and 7,285 votes of Doolittle.  Doolittle is beatable and everybody knows it.  We can both protect McNerney and go after Doolittle.  This fight can be won, but we will need help from everyone.

You can start by donating to Charlie Brown on the Calitics ActBlue page.  I hope that the CDP follows the lead of the netroots and gets behind Charlie.  They should have last time and have plenty to make up for failing him last cycle.

I found it unusual to have this kind of session in the Republican caucus, where one member must defend his actions to the group.  Are they planning on having one of these a day to cover everybody?  It’s more evidence that the GOP considers Rep. Gary Miller’s situation a real problem:

Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) passionately pleaded his innocence before GOP colleagues at a closed-door conference meeting Tuesday, nearly a week after several media outlets reported that the FBI is looking into his land deals.

Miller told colleagues that the press and Democrats had launched a smear campaign against him, singling out The Hill and the Los Angeles Times as perpetrators, as well as a former Democratic mayor of the Southern California city of Monrovia, Lara Larramendi Blakely, who now works for Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.), according to GOP sources.

over…

This is standard Republican scandal deflection, blaming the press and the Democrats for one’s own sins.  That Miller had to employ this tactic to his fellow colleagues is significant.  While they won’t say it publicly, clearly the Republican leadership understands that corruption scandals had a major impact on costing them their majority.  You’re not going to see the leadership line up behind corrupt members.  And that corruption includes practically the entire California delegation:

Also of reported concern to Republicans is a federal investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif. The probe, an offshoot of the Randy “Duke” Cunningham scandal, was first reported last July. “The Los Angeles Times” revealed that prosecutors suspect Lewis of steering millions in taxpayer money to clients of favored lobbyists.

The congressman’s office did not return a call for comment, but he has previously denied the charges.

An investigation into another serving House Republican is showing signs of renewed activity. New documents have been handed over to a grand jury in the case of Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., who’s facing scrutiny for misusing his influence to pump up the value of land he owned and later sold, according to California’s Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.

Calvert’s office declined to comment today; in the past he has denied wrongdoing in the affair.

I wasn’t aware that Calvert’s under grand jury investigation as well.

Meanwhile, Miller was getting only tepid support from Minority Leader John Boehner at this meeting, and with the evidence stacking up against him, he’s in danger of graduating to the first step of getting booted out of Congress: losing his committee assignments:

Boehner, however, has not indicated whether he will keep Miller in the top GOP spot on the Finance Committee’s Oversight and Investigations panel.

“I really don’t think Boehner was suggesting that the books have been closed on any of the cases members are concerned about,” the source close to Boehner continued. “If anything, he was underscoring the leadership’s commitment to staying on top of these matters.”

That’s not exactly a vote of confidence.

With Democratic leaders mulling over possible challenges, the GOP brass doing a bit of distancing, and with Miller himself in full blame-game mode, this is something to which everybody should be attuned.

Dena Bunis at The OC Register spoke with CDP chair Art Torres in DC during the DNC winter meeting and shared a few nuggets.

The most notable, although perhaps not terribly surprising, revelation, is that Rep. Gary Miller (CA-42) is on the CDP’s hit list in 2008 (h/t CMR.)

I asked Torres if he thought the party had any chance to get Sanchez any Democratic company in the Orange County congressional delegation.

The chairman does have one possibility.

He mentioned the recent FBI probe of Rep. Gary Miller’s land deals, and said that depending on the outcome, it could make the Diamond Bar Republican vulnerable in the 42nd District.

We already knew this race is on the DCCC’s radar. Good to know they’re on the same page.

And who does Torres cite as his dream challenger to Miller? Joe Dunn.

More on what Torres had to say over the flip…

On the importance of the latino vote:

Torres said the main problem is registration; he said Latinos who are registered vote as often as non-Latinos. The trouble is, so many Hispanics are not registered and so many of the new Latinos living in California are not yet citizens and therefore ineligible to vote.

But voter registration is on the top of his list, he says.

On moving up the primary:

He believes moving the presidential primary to Feb. 3 will sail through the state Legislature and that it will make the presidential hopefuls pay more attention to the Golden State.

Torres pointed out that about $182 million in contributions went out of the state in the last presidential election and not a penny of it came back to be spent there.

On recent scandalous events:

In a nutshell he said Newsom apologized and we should move on and that he’d like to get Sanchez and Baca in a room together and make them iron out their differences.

The drama surrounding corrupt Republican Gary Miller in CA-42 is growing and growing.  On Friday Miller dismissed but did not deny that he was under FBI investigation for shielding the profits of several land deals by claiming they were sold under threat of eminent domain.

Miller said repeatedly that he has always followed legal and ethical guidelines in his real estate deals. He accused both a partisan media and local Democratic officials of impugning his character without regard to fact.

“My reputation is being destroyed,” said Miller, 58. “If there is some benefit to me in being a congressman in any of these transactions, please show it to me.”

OK, that would be the fact that you sold 165 acres of property in Monrovia and never paid taxes on it.  And apparently, there’s video of you asking the Monrovia City Council in 2000 to buy the land, when you claimed that the City Council forced you to sell it.

That good enough for ya?

Miller’s lawyers have also been busy trying to intimidate local governments:

On Thursday, Miller’s attorneys served the city of Monrovia with a letter requesting staff “retract or correct any misstatements made to the media or any governmental agencies” with regard to his 2002 sale of 165 acres of hillside land to the city for nearly $11.8 million.

The letter goes on to say that “if misstatements by the city, its officials or staff members persist, then the consequences could result in damages for which the city could be held acountable.”

In other words, “I’m a congressman and you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”

The Monrovia planning commissioner had this to say.

Glen Owens, a Monrovia planning commissioner, said Tuesday an FBI agent questioned him about the chain of events that led up to Miller’s land sale to the city.

Owens served on a advisory committee with Miller in the 1990s that was formed to come up with a plan for hillside development. He said he believes Miller did not intend to build on his property at the time of the sale.

“He soon realized that he could probably make more money by selling the land than by developing it,” said Owens.

He added, “Gary just knows how to work the system and he is not afraid to push the envelope and that is what he’s done. But I don’t think he has broken any laws. He’s just used bad judgment.”

OK, so it’s bad judgment to improperly file a form that saves you from paying taxes on a $10 million sale?  No, it’s bad judgment to claim that a city government was trying to force you to sell the land when it was in fact the opposite way around.

(Incidentally, Gary Miller was selected by his peers to be the top Republican on the subcommittee tasked with investigating banks.  Just thought I’d bring that to your attention.)

And there’s even some quid pro quo in this deal:

Miller used the proceeds from the Monrovia sale to buy property in Fontana from Lewis Operating Corp., a development company he had done business with before and that had contributed significantly to Miller’s congressional campaigns.

In 2006, Lewis gave $8,500 to Miller, who ran for re-election unopposed. In 2004, the company gave him $10,000, making it the third largest contributor to his campaign.

The unintentional irony award goes to the last two paragraphs of the story:

Miller said he ran for Congress in 1998 because he did not like “what government did to the private sector,” particularly with the way it regulates development. Miller, who previously served in the state Assembly and on the Diamond Bar City Council, is a successful real estate developer and businessman.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Miller is the 12th wealthiest member of the House, with a net worth of between $12 million and $51.7 million.

With that kind of resources, clearly Miller is not going down without a fight.  And it appears that the local GOP will stick with him unless and until he is indicted.  But the DCCC, the campaign committee for the House, has Miller on their radar screen:

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — looking to cement the Dems’ majority in the House — is eyeing a bunch of GOP-held House districts where the incumbents look ready to retire or run for other offices, today’s Roll Call reports. The Dems’ expectation is that retirements — or dissatisfaction with being in the minority — could cause a wave of GOP defections that will leave behind districts that could then be ripe for a Dem pickup, the paper says.

Among the more than two dozen GOPers Dems are watching:

* Rep. Gary Miller (R-Calif.), who “reportedly is under FBI investigation, which has Democrats dreaming about his Inland Empire-based 42nd district, even though it gave Bush 62 percent of the vote in 2004.”

Howie Klein reports that the D-Trip is not like it was when Rahm Emanuel was running the show:

The DCCC under Van Hollen is already looking much more Democratic and much more aggressive. Where Emanuel used discredited Inside-the-Beltway hack consultants to focus on a tiny number of races– many of which turned out to be astronomically expensive races that Republicans won– the new DCCC is casting a broader– and smarter– net. According to today’s Roll Call Van Hollen is looking closely at over 2 dozen Republican-held seats that might be open seats by November ’08– open either due to retirements or indictments. “Given the GOP’s new minority status in the House, Democratic strategists think some veteran Republicans will head into retirement while some younger Members will opt to run for other offices. Democrats also believe that ethics scrapes could force a handful of GOP incumbents from office.” […]

UPDATE: Today was Brandon Hall’s first day at the DCCC as Western Regional Director. This guy is smart and a real fighter. I called to congratulate him and all he wanted to do was talk about taking on Ken Calvert and Jerry Lewis, Dave Dreier, Buck McKeon, John Doolittle, Elton Galleghy and Gary Miller. What a dynamo! If Van Hollen hires a whole staff of people like Brandon Hall the DCCC will wind up as useful and productive as the grassroots has always dreamed it would be!

Gary Miller WASN’T CHALLENGED at all last year, but now it’s been made very clear that he’s a target, not just of the FBI but of the DCCC.  This is very good news, and Southern California Democrats will have a variety of work to do in their own backyard in this cycle.

Well, yet another member of our distinguished House GOP delegation here in California is the subject of an FBI investigation:

Following reports and complaints of fishy land deals, the Feds have been investigating Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA), making him the 20th member of the 109th Congress to fall under federal scrutiny.

Miller, a real estate developer by trade, came to the attention of the FBI when a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group complained last summer that the congressman hadn’t paid taxes on two land deals he was involved in, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports.

I’m losing count, how many CA Republicans from the 109th Congress have been under investigation?  Cunningham, Hunter, Lewis, Doolittle, Miller… who am I missing?

This investigation started last year, perhaps after this article in the LA Times, which recounted how Miller was trying to use eminent domain laws to get out of paying taxes on real estate he sold in Monrovia.  Later, I wrote about the almost cartoonishly evil case of Miller’s property in Rancho Cucamonga, where he played upon a family’s grief to drive down the purchase price of a property, which he then threatened to overdevelop and turn into a deathtrap unless the city bought him out.

I can tell you good news – there IS a movement afoot to have a netroots-backed challenger in this district.  That’s all I can say for right now.  Miller is not only being watched by the FBI, but by the progressive community, and he will be hard-pressed to escape either.

Over the last few months, the LA Times has been documenting the sordid dealings of Republican Rep. Gary Miller from the Inland Empire area of Southern California.  Miller, a developer, bought property in Monrovia which he claimed the city took from him through eminent domain (which they didn’t, he just said that so he could shield the $10 million sale from capital gains taxes), paid himself $25,000 in rent from his campaign funds to run a re-election office on the site, even though he was running unopposed, and tried to appoint a Monrovia city councilman to the National Park Service Advisory Board as a kind of bribe to get the city to buy that property.

Well, judging from today’s story, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

You should really go read it in full to appreciate what kind of a slimeball Rep. Miller is, but I’ll summarize the highlights (or lowlights).  It’s almost comical in terms of its cruelty and greediness.

In addition to the Monrovia property, Miller bought some farmland in the foothills around Rancho Cucamonga.  It used to be a place where locals would go to chop down Christmas trees for their families.  Miller locked up the gate to the farm, and made plans to turn the whole area into a development of 110 McMansions (all 4,000 to 7,000 square feet), which would entail KNOCKING DOWN AN ENTIRE SECTION OF THE HILLSIDE and building a plateau on which to build.  You can’t even build that many homes in this area, but Miller is trying to get Rancho Cucamonga’s municipal government to change the rules for him.  This is wildfire country, and any family who would buy a home in this place would be in an incredible amount of danger.

The plan calls for homes ranging in size from 4,000 to 7,000 square feet and in price from $1.6 million to $4 million. With a change in rules, Miller would be able to increase the number of homes allowed by about two-thirds.

“He’s talking about cutting off the top of the hillside, covering up a waterfall and moving 1.7 million cubic yards of dirt,” said Sandra Maggard, who has a view of the waterfall from her house. “The rules don’t allow it, so he’s going to get the city to change the rules. Who can fight someone as big as he is?”

She and other opponents of the project have three main concerns.

First, they argue that altering the hillside to that extent will mar its natural beauty and drive out deer, bighorn sheep and other wildlife. They worry that blocking a waterfall and making other changes to the contours of the land will destabilize the hillside and lead to a mudslide. And they fear that the one access road to the property could become jammed if a mudslide or fire occurred, despite assurances by Miller that the plan would include a second emergency access road.

So he’s proposing what amounts to a death trap, and tearing down a local landmark (the tree farm) to do it.  Some preservationists are trying to get environmental groups to pool some money together to buy Miller out.  But here’s the thing; there is suspicion that Miller is proposing the worst possible kind of development ON PURPOSE so he can get just such a payout.  And there’s precedent from Miller for this kind of maneuver.

Residents who live nearby say that Miller is trying to force the city to buy his land by raising the specter of a development that would make the hillside unsafe and unsightly.

“You don’t have to be an environmentalist to be angry about this project,” said Frank Schiavone, a freelance grant writer for public lands projects. “He has no intention of building on this land. He’s deliberately made this project so distasteful that people are bound to push the city to buy it from him. That’s what Monrovia did.”

Miller’s game plan, Schiavone and other critics said, is similar to one he successfully used four years ago in Monrovia, about 25 miles west on the 210 Freeway, where a plan for hillside development met with fierce local opposition. Ultimately, Monrovia citizens voted to tax themselves to buy the property from Miller and preserve it as open space.

How sick is that?  Blackmailing municipalities into buying him out of property by threatening to build eyesores and deathtraps on it?  And then, falsely claiming that the property was sold through eminent domain so he can build an enormous tax shelter for his windfall?

But you don’t have an appreciation for what a shitbag this guy is until you read about how he acquired this property in Rancho Cucamonga in the first place, preying on a family’s grief and outright lying about his intentions:

Miller bought the land from Joe and Charlotte Carrari, siblings who had inherited the land from their parents. The Carraris were asking for $3 million.

The Carraris declined to comment, saying that they had signed a confidentiality agreement with Miller.

Charlotte Carrari’s daughter, Maria Fernandez, said that Miller told her mother and uncle that he would build a $1-million bridge spanning a drainage ditch on the property and name it after their brother, Barnard Carrari, who had just died, if they would lower their price by $1 million. Still grieving, Fernandez said, they agreed and sold him the land for about $2 million.

Five months later, Miller reported on his congressional financial disclosure statement that the land was worth at least $5 million.

Miller initially told the Carraris he was only going to make modest adjustments to the land and build about 30 homes, Fernandez said. When the family saw his plans for 110 homes – and no bridge named after Barnard Carrari – they were distraught, she said.

“That farm was a family tradition where people went up there and made a day of it,” Fernandez said. “And when he broke his word and didn’t do all the things he said he would, it just broke our hearts.”

There are MORE disgusting revelations in the story, but really, you should take a look for yourself.  This guy is not just an example of the culture of corruption in Washington, he’s freakin’ Mr. Potter.  There is NO WAY this guy can be allowed to run unopposed in 2008.  Neither Monrovia or Rancho Cucamonga is in his weirdly-shaped district, but a very powerful narrative can be created from these despicable actions.  Jerry McNerney and Charlie Brown proved that, despite the best efforts of gerrymandering, there is nowhere in California that is untouchable, especially when the incumbent is a corrupt crook.  And Gary Miller may be the worst in the entire state.

(Yet another reminder to constest EVERYWHERE. – promoted by dday)

The L.A. Times has a delicious expose today on one of the most unappetizing – and frustrating – Republican members of Congress, Rep. Gary Miller of CA-42.

One winter night in 2000, U.S. Rep. Gary Miller, R-Calif., implored Monrovia City Council members to purchase 165 acres he owned in the foothills and turn the land into a wilderness preserve.

Earlier that day, Miller asked one of his staff members to find a way to place one of the councilmen — a pawnshop owner with no parks experience — on the National Park System Advisory Board. The aide was told to “make it a priority.”

After staff members warned him that trying to secure the park board seat for the councilman could appear to be a bribe attempt, Miller continued to push for the councilman’s appointment, according to internal memos, interviews with former Miller staff members and official correspondence reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

(Also available at DailyKos)

Back in May 2006, DailyKos poster Robbien ran a diary decrying the fact that, unless write-in candidate Mark Hull-Richter received a couple thousand votes in the June primary, Miller – one of the richest and most corrupt members of Congress – would be unopposed in November’s general election.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened. Miller’s was one of, I believe, 10 of the 435 House seats whose race included no Democratic candidate on November’s ballot.

Which was truly a shame, since, as ellefarr wrote in her August diary, the L.A. Times had just run a major story on Miller’s extra-smelly land dealings.

It appears the Times’ investigation did not stop in August. From today’s story (all emphases added):

The biggest recipient of the campaign money he raised from people in his district and big donors like the National Association of Homebuilders was Miller himself, according to campaign finance records.

Miller’s corporate office, located in an office park, doubles as his campaign office. But the presence of campaign activity was impossible to discern from the front office. There were no posters, pictures or bumper stickers for constituents. There were no yard signs out front, no campaign volunteers calling people to get out the vote. On election day, Miller was out of the office, a secretary said.

Yet Miller has used campaign money to pay himself for the use of the building and its equipment — nearly $25,000 a year for the past three elections.

Federal law allows members to rent office space to themselves for campaigning under three conditions: that the rent is paid with campaign donations; that the amount is typical for the area; and that the office is used for a campaign.

This fall, of the eight California Congress members who ran with little or no opposition, only two had campaign offices. The other one, U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., of Los Angeles, paid about $8,000 for rent on an office building.

And, while his donors might have gotten their money’s worth, the voters of his district evidently did not:

According to the Washington Post’s database of congressional votes, Miller missed 65 votes during this session, putting him in the top quarter for the most votes missed in the House of Representatives.

Ouch. Looks like Speaker Pelosi’s new five-day-a-week work schedule for the 110th Congress might just be too much for Rep. Miller to handle – not to mention any possible, um, ethics investigations, perhaps?

But probably the biggest lesson to come out of the unfolding Gary Miller saga is:

Leave no seat unopposed.

Darn!