Ethics group takes aim at Mary Landrieu (2 Viewers)

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"Sen. Landrieu appears to have traded a $2 million earmark for $30,000 in campaign contributions."
Melanie Sloan, executive director, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington


Ethics group targets Landrieu earmark
by The Times-Picayune, Washington bureau
Wednesday January 09, 2008, 8:05 AM
By Bruce Alpert
Staff writer


WASHINGTON -- An ethics watchdog group Tuesday asked the Justice Department and Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., violated federal bribery laws in getting a $2 million earmark for a reading program whose executives and lobbyists donated to her 2002 re-election campaign.

The money was earmarked for a Washington, D.C., public schools reading program operated by Voyager Expanded Learning, a Dallas company then headed by Randy Best.

READ MORE
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/01/ethics_group_targets_landrieu.html
 
Leave Mary alone...she's cute...well she used to be.
 
Mary is STILL cute, as far as taking money for legislation, she's a politician, it's what they do.
 
But, but Louisiana needs corruption...I mean seniority in the Senate.:hihi:
 
>>Paging TPS....

Someone posted something about this here or elsewhere before Christmas. I read the WP story. It's weird because Best is connected with everyone from President Bush to former Ohio Senator Mike Dewine (sp?) and formerly LA Representative turned lobbyist Bob Livingston. There are parallels with this and another math program. The question is, was anything done wrong?

From what I understand, this goes back to 2001 and is prior to McCain-Feingold and other restrictions that tightened things up. So here are the questions:

1) Was it illegal? Doubtful.
2) Did Senator Landrieu gain anything personally (ala Bill Jefferson) constituting a bribe?

You have 3 options on financial disclosure:

a) Have publicly financed federal elections thereby removing all lobbying ties to federallly elected people. This method is favored by academics and is generally considered a liberal position.

b) Put some types of laws, rules and regulations (e.g. McCain-Feingold) in place to limit the influence of some money in our political system. This method is currently in place however is hated by conservatives and libertarians.

c) Anything goes. This is the preferred method of conservatives and libertarians because they feel very strongly that limiting influence and telling people where they can and can't spend money is a strong clamp against freedom of speech.

I'm personally in favor of removing all money from politics, but that isn't the reality of where we are. With Senate races around the country now into the tens of millions and presidential elections likely now into the hundreds of millions, there is a major industry associated with campaigns (pr people, attorneys, statisticians, pollsters, etc.).

Should it be determined that Landrieu did something illegal, she should pay the price. If, however, it turns out that everything is legitimate for that time, then it was a non-story.

The truth. [tm]

TPS
 
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CREW claims it is nonpartisan - and it goes after all sides. But, if anything, it leans a little left and Democrat.
 
My question is why is a Louisiana Sen. helping fund programs for DC children. I could understand if she was a part of a group, but it looks like she did this on her own.
 
My question is why is a Louisiana Sen. helping fund programs for DC children. I could understand if she was a part of a group, but it looks like she did this on her own.

D.C. gets federal funding for just about everything.

D.C. doesn't have any senators

Someone's gotta do it
 
>>My question is why is a Louisiana Sen. helping fund programs for DC children. I could understand if she was a part of a group, but it looks like she did this on her own.

I heard she was ranking minority member or co-chair of some committee associated with Appropriations that oversees the D.C. Public School system. As you probably know, as a 'federal' city, much of Washington D.C.'s funding comes from and is approved by Congress.

TPS
 

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