CAN YOU SAY 'SELF-DEALING?'

Howdy Folks…

Washington is awash this week in folks trying to keep from getting their feet wet in an overflow of information they’d just as soon didn’t reach the public domain – and regular burps and erps from the political landscape where it seems almost every utterance has its unintended consequences.

There’s just too much scandal to go ‘round – is the judgment I heard from the back corridors of power. Dennis Hastert – the pudgy ex-football coach, Wheaton College graduate, ex-speaker of the House and winner of the Teddy-Bear Look alike contest, entered the ranks of the smudged with the Fox News disclosure by Chris Wallace that he and his wife have disappointed a lot of people in Illinois in a land deal that while not – strictly speaking – illegal, is certainly to all appearances un-ethical. The facts Chris Wallace put on the conservative news channel last week involved the former House Speaker and an official of the Republican Party in Illinois, apparently cooking up a deal for a Prairie Parkway – authorized some years back to connect two east-west Interstates headed west from the Chicago area – to be a part of a hidden land-in-trust deal that ended up putting a lot of money in the former House Speaker’s bank account.

It was an earmark. And the interest in earmarks is what brought it to light. President Bush was enticed by the Speaker to come out to his farm and sign the authorizing legislation into law. And it was only through diligent discovery methods that a Washington not-for-profit organization dedicated to letting sunshine into back legislative corridors – found out Mr. Hastert’s wife, Jean, was found paying taxes for a “Little Rock Trust” group whose names were hidden by Illinois law. It ended up with Mr. Hastert carving out a 186 acre tract to add to his farm – which he later sold for five million dollars – mainly because it was close to the “parkway” built with earmarked taxpayer money that Mr. Hastert had inserted in the legislation “in the dark of night’” without debate or discussion.

These are the kinds of dealings that will cost the Republican Party dearly in the coming election – and rightly so. Mr. Hastert entered Congress some years back with a net worth of less than $300,000. His last report stipulated a net worth in excess of six million. Not a good record – and not explained so far.

Today’s JUST A MINUTE gives a quick look at South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint attempting to shine sunlight into the rewriting of lending legislation that’s being crafted with the help and direction of lobbyists and Senator Dodd and Senator Shelby. The new regulations will excuse Dodd’s self-dealings… along with his fellow Democrat Sen. Kurt Conrad of N. Dakota – and I hasten to add… these are just the scrapings from a very big iceberg of which we’ve not seen a lot. Well, eventually more will come to light – I expect.

Thanks for looking in.

Cordially, IN HIM

Jack



http://www.jebcovoice.net/audio/jama06-24-08.mp3

http://www.jebcovoice.net/scripts/jamt06-24-08.doc



“JUST A MINUTE”
CAN YOU SAY SELF-DEALING?
Just A Minute – Remember the TV ad – “Nobody can do what Countrywide can? America’s biggest sub-prime lender it seems was making special rates for special Senators… like Chris Dodd, who is Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and North Dakota’s Kent Conrad, member of the Finance Committee.
Last Thursday, South Carolina’s Jim DeMint insisted on a floor vote on reform lending legislation. Republicans and Democrats chickened out. Only 16 GOP members voted with DeMint. Republicans wonder “Are we trying to lose the election?”
Sen. Richard Shelby closeted with Dodd and banking lobbyists to write the bill. This isn’t the way our government is supposed to work. Is it fishy Dodd got seventy thousand in campaign gifts from Countrywide – and special rates for Conrad? He had been on the Senate floor… but when the vote was taken he was no where to be found. Any thoughts about that? What could have influenced his vote on this ‘sweetheart’ bill?
Maybe the ad’s line should of read – “Nobody ought to have done what Countrywide did.”
<> I’m Jack Buttram
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