Dirty Politicians

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), who was previously pointed out exchanging donations to his charity for government contracts, now denies that the charity, Operation Good Neighbor, is his. Sure, he founded it, but he says (in a letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) that he’s had nothing to do with it since then: I do not have a personal charity. The reference was an allusion to Operation Good Neighbor, a charitable organization that I founded in 2000. Since then, I have had no control over its direction. My involvement is limited to being honorary chairman of the board – a board that includes former Philadelphia mayor W. Wilson Goode, a prominent Democrat – and lending my name to fund-raising events. That’s it.Attytood shows, with quotes and photos, that Santorum’s a liar. Also in today’s news is that Barbara Bonfiglio, former treasurer of political action committees for the indicted Sen. Tom DeLay (R-TX), Santorum, and convicted former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA), has resigned from the D.C. law firm of Williams & Jensen and from her post as treasurer of dirty politician Rep. Rich Pombo (R-CA)’s political action committee. Her lawfirm bio says “She also advises the firm’s clients on matters involving House and Senate ethics rules, as well as compliance with the Lobbying Disclosure Act.” She was treasurer of Santorum’s charity, Operation Good Neighbor. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that Santorum lied when he said he would stop regular meetings with lobbyists: After saying in January that he would end his regular meetings with lobbyists, Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, has continued to meet with many of the same lobbyists at the same time and on the same day of the week.(Via Talking Points Memo and TPM’s Daily Muck.) UPDATE: At least three lobbyists have been working at Santorum’s charity–in addition to Barbara Bonfiglio, mentioned above, lobbyist Rob Bickhart, whose offices are also the home of Santorum’s PAC and re-election campaign, works for the charity. And the charity is spending as much as 60% of its money on non-charitable things, like $200,000 for travel expenses and meetings. Santorum’s response, when asked about this, was to deny that Bickhart is a lobbyist.

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) says that Jack Abramoff never influenced him, but Abramoff says in Vanity Fair that he got everything he ever asked for from Burns: “Every appropriation we wanted [from Burns’ committee] we got. Our staffs were as close as they could be. They practically used Signatures [Abramoff’s restaurant] as their cafeteria."Burns’ former staffers have also made millions from going to work for telecom and tech firms that have received funding from Burns earmarks.

Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) was sentenced to 8 years, 4 months in federal prison and will be required to pay $1.8 million in restitution. This is the longest sentence ever for a member of Congress. This case is just the tip of the iceberg–Congress full of similar corrupt politicians, some of whom are in similar trouble and others of whom will only be exposed later. There’s a nice collection of Cunningham data at Talking Points Memo.

Jack Abramoff paid for a 2000 DeLay junket to Scotland, see his American Express statement here. (Via Talking Points Memo.)

It turns out Katherine Harris has been lying about not knowing what defense contractor MZM wanted from her in return for bundles of $2,000 donations from its employees, which were actually laundered donations from MZM owner Mitchell Wade, who bribed Duke Cunningham. MZM wanted help with a defense appropriation, and Harris attempted to get the money for MZM, though she was ultimately unsuccessful.

The largest known donor to Rick Santorum’s charity, The Operation Good Neighbor Foundation, is Preferred Real Estate, Inc., which donated $25,000 in 2002. Preferred Real Estate officers and spouses also donated $22,350 to Santorum’s re-election campaign and $6,000 to his Political Action Committee, America’s Foundation. Preferred Real Estate is the developer of the Wharf at Rivertown project in Chester, PA, the site of a former Peco Energy plant, which it bought for $1. Santorum’s campaign web site boasts of winning $8.5 million in federal funding for the Preferred Real Estate riverfront project, in the form of a HUD grant. He also obtained another $6 million in highway development earmarks to build access to the riverfront project from Interstate 95 and U.S. 322. More at the Philadelphia Daily News (via Talking Points Memo).