[quote]BostonBarrister wrote:
vroom wrote:
Sloth wrote:
One Foleyesque incident, or political favor for money deal, and it’ll be blood in the water.
Yeah, those were real, not just speculation built on conjecture and/or fear mongering…
These were real too, but got very little media play before the election – I’ll leave you to speculate as to the reason…
Excerpted from a WSJ news piece today:
[i]
Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.), who is expected to be elected to majority leader in the Senate, has come under attack for his relationship with Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a profitable land deal, and whether he inappropriately used campaign funds to give Christmas bonuses to employees at his condo complex.
In the House, West Virginia Democratic Rep. Allan Mollohan, whose conduct is being investigated by the Justice Department, is in line for a senior position on the Appropriations Committee. Meanwhile, Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Florida Democrat, is vying to become chairman of the Intelligence Committee. Once a federal judge, Mr. Hastings was impeached by Congress more than a decade ago after he was charged with – and acquitted of – taking a $150,000 bribe. Mr. Hastings declined to comment.
A fourth Democrat, Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, under Justice Department investigation for accepting bribes, came out ahead of 12 other candidates vying for his seat on Election Day, but faces a December runoff under Louisiana’s unique election system. A spokeswoman for Mr. Jefferson said he has “consistently said that he is innocent of all the allegations.”
…
Democrats were successful in exploiting the corruption scandal on the campaign trail. Nearly three of four voters said that “corruption and scandals” in government were extremely important or very important in their votes, according to exit polls.
Indeed, four Republican lawmakers with ties to Mr. Abramoff lost their re-election bids, including Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana and Reps. Richard Pombo of California, J.D. Hayworth of Arizona and John Sweeney of New York.
…
On the other side of the Capitol, Mr. Mollohan is being investigated by federal prosecutors who are examining his practice of directing federal funds to nonprofit groups he set up in his home state that are run by real-estate partners or political allies.
Some of the groups got grand-jury subpoenas, indicating an active investigation. No charges have been brought and Mr. Mollohan has denied the allegations. He stepped down as ranking Democrat on the House ethics committee earlier this year after his pattern of earmarking became public. The allegations became an issue in his campaign against challenger Christopher Wakim, a Republican state legislator. But Rep. Mollohan won easily, with 64% of the vote to 36% for Mr. Wakim. A spokesman for Mr. Mollohan didn’t return a call or email yesterday.
…[/i][/quote]
You didn’t hear about it BB because it’s politics. It just happened to favor the democrats this time instead of the republicans.
BTW, as I posted in another thread, Hastings was acquitted of all bribery charges from that 1989 case. Since he was found not guilty, it shouldn’t have played a part at all.