Corruption Digest - December 12, 2005

As my new book Hostile Takeover prepares to be released in the Spring, here is your December 12, 2005 briefing on how America's political system is being sold to the highest bidders.

CONGRESSIONAL CORRUPTION: The Washington Post sports a new chart tracking how indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff bought influence with both parties...Roll Call reports that Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) was planning to hold a New York fundraiser last month with corporate interests, and that the invitation "explicitly linked the event to specific legislation." Reps. Feeney, Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Greg Meeks (D-NY) are planning a "listening tour" with corporate lobbyists to gut the post-Enron 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley bill, which cracked down on shady accounting practices...With Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) stepping off the powerful Appropriations Committee after confessing to taking bribes for appropriations contracts, the Hill Newspaper reports that House GOP leaders are considering replacing him on the committee with Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), who is embroiled in the Abramoff scandal and under indictment for money laundering...And speaking of the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) gets caught using his post there shilling for one of his big donors...AP reports that "Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist remains under investigation by federal authorities for his sale of stock in his family founded hospital chain this year."...UPI reports that Congress is coming under increasing pressure to tighten its own ethics rules.

STATE CORRUPTION: The LA Times reports on how California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) pocketed $70,000 in campaign contributions from the same businessman at the center of the Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) bribery scandal. In exchange for those contributions, Schwarzenegger appointed the businessman to two key state boards. Schwarzenegger is resisting calls to return the businessman's money...Scripps Howard News Service notes that two California cities are continuing to pay a lobbyist at Jack Abramoff's firm $175,000 in taxpayer cash...AP reports on the ongoing envelopes-stuffed-with-money corruption trial of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R)...The Florida Sun-Sentinel analyzes Florida's new law that bans all lobbyist gifts to state legislators. Other than Florida, "only Wisconsin, Massachusetts and South Carolina also prohibit lobbyists from giving any gifts to legislators, including free drinks or meals."

THE CORRUPTION INDUSTRY: The Washington Post's Jeffrey Birnbaum reports on how lobbying and influence peddling in Washington has become such a lucrative industry, that venture capitalists are considering taking the industry onto the public stock exchanges. Birnbaum is doing a live chat at 12 noon EST today.

CORRUPTION & THE NEWS OF THE DAY: Curious as to why the Bush administration is refusing to join almost every other country in the world in climate change negotiations? Just look at the numbers: since the GOP took over Congress, the party has pocketed more than $200 million in campaign contributions from the energy industry... Think Progress catches the right-wing Washington Times actually providing press credentials to right-wing lobbyist Chris Horner at the global climate talks, allowing Horner to pose as a journalist even though he is a shill for the ExxonMobil-backed Competitive Enterprise Institute....Why are credit card companies sending more credit card solicitations to those under crushing debt? The New York Times notes that under the new bankruptcy law rubber stamped by both parties, "which the banking industry spent more than $100 million lobbying for, they may be even more attractive because it makes it harder for them to escape new credit card debt and extends to eight years from six the time before which they could liquidate their debts through bankruptcy again." That bankruptcy law was rubber stamped by both parties in Congress.

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