Daily Blog

Bernie Sanders Strikes

    So, right off the bat, we can see where having Bernie Sanders in the Senate makes a difference. As part of the ethics bill that was passed in the Senate, Sanders inserted an amendment that would shine some light on the political contributions flowing from big business to supporters of CAFTA. The amendment also tries to reveal money flowing from other powerful interests. This may bore many of you but it's worth reading:

    (a) In General.--Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit a report to Congress detailing the number, type, and quantity of contributions made to Members of the Senate or the House of Representatives during the 30-month period beginning on the date that is 24 months before the date of enactment of the Acts identified in subsection (b) by the corresponding organizations identified in subsection (b).

(b) Organizations and Acts.--The report submitted under subsection (a) shall detail the number, type, and quantity of contributions made to Members of the Senate or the House of Representatives as follows:

(1) For the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-173; 117 Stat. 2066), any contribution made during the time period described in subsection (a) by or on behalf of a political action committee associated or affiliated with--

(A) a pharmaceutical company; or
(B) a trade association for pharmaceutical companies.

(2) For the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-8; 119 Stat. 23), any contribution made during the time period described in subsection (a) by or on behalf of a political action committee associated or affiliated with--
(A) a bank or financial services company;
(B) a company in the credit card industry; or
(C) a trade association for any such companies.

(3) For the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-58; 119 Stat. 594), any contribution made during the time period described in subsection (a) by or on behalf of a political action committee associated or affiliated with--

(A) a company in the oil, natural gas, nuclear, or coal industry;
(B) a trade association for any such companies.

(4) For the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act (Public Law 109-53; 119 Stat. 462), any contribution made during the time period described in subsection (a) by or on behalf of a political action committee associated or affiliated with--

(A) the United States Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Business Roundtable, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Emergency Committee for American Trade, or any member company of such entities; or
(B) any other free trade organization funded primarily by corporate entities.

    Here's what Sanders told the Associated Press about the amendment:

"If you want to know why Congress year after year passes legislation that benefits multinational corporations, it's not that a senator takes a $20 lunch from a lobbyist. It's the huge amount of money that pours into Capitol Hill from wealthy interests" in the form of campaign contributions.

Sanders has been sharply critical of the four bills targeted in his amendment, saying that in some cases parts of them were written by corporate lobbyists.

He has criticized CAFTA, like other trade agreements, as putting American jobs in jeopardy. He has taken aim at provisions in the Medicare bill barring the government negotiating for better prices with drug companies.

He charged Thursday that the bankruptcy bill, written at the urging of credit card companies, as being anti-consumer. And he has criticized the energy bill for giving big tax breaks to oil companies.

    Go Bernie!

 

Two-Faced Towns

    A reader sent this along. Turns out that Rep. Ed Towns (NY-11) has caught religion when it comes to trade. Well, sort of. He has called for the cutting off of trade to India to protest discrimination against Sikhs. Apparently, Towns thinks trade should be conditioned on a country abiding by certain minimum standards.

    Rep. Towns, where were those heartfelt feelings when you voted for CAFTA? I'm hoping that this signals a new approach on his part to upcoming trade votes like "fast track." It may be that having had two challengers take him on in the Democratic primary this past cycle, with his CAFTA vote being a central issue, Towns is now thinking that his political future is a bit more shaky if he continues to support corporate-backed trade (or maybe he's worried he won't be able to hand off his seat too easily to his son Darryl).

    But, yes, I wouldn't hold my breathe for a huge change. It bears watching.

Jefferson's Day of Reckoning

    Today, we will see if the voters of Louisiana send Rep. William "I Stored $90,000 In My Freezer" Jefferson into retirement. He faces state senator Karen Carter in a run-off; both are Democrats do this does not effect the balance of power in the House.

    It's kind of amusing, but telling, that Jefferson is attacking Carter as a "liberal." When Carter emerged as Jefferson's opponent, I suggested that she was actually a darling of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. Which makes me wonder, at least on the question of trade, whether we'd be any better off with Carter in the House. But, certainly, given Jefferson's standing as one of the CAFTA 15, we know what his trck record in on trade, I hope he loses.

    The Washington Post has a piece today about the race, which predicts the race will be close--and that Jefferson will almost surely be indicted for corruption charges in 2007.

Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) was given up for dead politically after the FBI found $90,000 in alleged bribe money in his freezer, and he barely survived a Nov. 7 primary election, garnering 30 percent of the vote in a crowded field of 12 challengers.

Now he is locked in a tough runoff with a well-funded Democratic challenger who is using poetry and schoolchildren to highlight Jefferson's ethical woes. Many of Jefferson's House colleagues are privately rooting for him to lose today so his troubles do not tarnish the new Democratic-controlled Congress. But while scandals cost the GOP 12 House seats last month, the eight-term Democrat is proving surprisingly resilient, and experts say the special election could go either way.

It's Official: Dollar Bill Will Lose

    I'm betting that "Dollar Bill" Jefferson will lose his seat in Congress--not on November 7th but in the run-off that he is almost certain to find himself in. He's got 12 challengers running against him for his congressional seat in Louisiana. If no one gets a majority, under state law, there is a run-off on Dec. 9th.

    As readers know, we've been following "Dollar Bill" for a long time, even since he became one of the CAFTA 15. Unfortunately, it's probably not going to be his CAFTA vote that sends him into retirement but the $90,000 he had stashed in his freezer as part of an alleged corruption scheme involving some pretty unsavory business deals.

    As The Los Angeles Times reports today, "Dollar Bill" is in trouble. He's more than likely to be forced into a run-off against Karen Carter, a state representative, and that's a race he seems likely to lose:

The eight-term congressman's campaign outings are punctuated with expressions like these, which he calls "uplift" after a year that found him surrounded by scandal and ousted from the Ways and Means Committee. The FBI raided his home and office, and said it had a videotape of him taking a $100,000 bribe and that it had found $90,000 wrapped in foil in the freezer of his Washington home.

Jefferson has been implicated in a developing federal probe — the FBI has accused him of offering to bribe a Nigerian official and of accepting kickbacks to help a U.S. telecommunications company land deals in Africa.

    There's no question that Jefferson still has supporters. But, the fact that he has to broadcast a t.v. ad claiming that he has never been charged with a crime does not bode well for him:

Although many of Jefferson's supporters say he has never let them down, others say they won't vote for him this time around.

"I think this is yet another example of a politician betraying the trust," said photographer David G. Spielman, 56, who lives in the Uptown neighborhood where Jefferson also has a home. He has voted for the congressman but said he would "absolutely not" cast a ballot for him Nov. 7. "We need new blood, Spielman said. "We need somebody with a clean set of hands."

    I'm not sold on Carter, frankly. But, it's pretty clear that she has tapped into a strong sentiment that, while Jefferson is innocent until proven guilty, too many people will find the unexplained 90 grand in a freezer a bit much to forget.

 

CAFTA 15 Who Vote For Torture

    Here's a small observation. One-third of the CAFTA 15 also voted for HR 6166, the "enemy combatant" bill: Melissa Bean, Henry Cuellar, Jim Matheson, Dennis Moore and John Tanner. Sad. Though I'd also add shame on Sherrod Brown for also voting for the horrific HR 6166--Brown has been a great fighter on trade issues and I'm going to assume that his vote to cripple civil rights in America was a gutless election-year vote and not a sign that he is turning into another DLC-type.

Is "Dollar Bill" Jefferson Going Down?

    There might be at least one ounce of retribution taken against so-called Democrats who voted for CAFTA. In a shocker, Bill "I Keep $90,000 In My Freezer" Jefferson was denied the endorsement by state party leaders in Louisiana.

In an extraordinary vote against an incumbent congressman, Louisiana Democratic Party leaders on Saturday endorsed state Rep. Karen Carter of New Orleans for the 2nd District House seat held since 1991 by Rep. William Jefferson, whose campaign for re-election has been hampered by a federal bribery investigation.

In a meeting at the Old State Capitol, the party's state Central Committee voted 69-53 to endorse Carter in the Nov. 7 election after hearing appeals from Carter and Jefferson, the only two candidates who received nominations for the endorsement.

While Carter celebrated the vote as an important statement against unethical behavior, Jefferson lashed out not only at Carter but also at stalwarts of the state Democratic Party establishment, including former U.S. Sens. John Breaux and Bennett Johnston, who Jefferson said were behind Carter's endorsement.

    Let's be clear: this isn't a rebuke against his vote for CAFTA but rather a recognition that there is something a bit unsavory--not to mention, stupid--about a member of Congress who apparently believes you can store $90K in your freezer and not attract attention. I advocated that someone run against Jefferson and, while I don't know Karen Carter's labor record, it should be a cause for concern that she is a darling of the Democratic Leadership Council. Should Carter actually defeat Jefferson, I'm not sure that we're looking at a better vote on so-called "free trade."

 

Dollar Bill Back In The News

    CAFTA 15 Rep. William "I store $90,000 in my freezer" Jefferson is back in the news. The New York Times has a piece today that expands on Dollar Bill's relationship with iGate. Here's a bit from the story:

Soon after meeting Mr. Jackson in late 2000, Mr. Jefferson prodded the Pentagon to test one of iGate’s products, documents show. He recruited investors and did favors for iGate’s leading supplier. He also lobbied political leaders in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon to include iGate in telecommunications projects, while repeatedly urging the Export-Import Bank of the United States to finance the deals.

And each time the company seemed poised to take off, records show, Mr. Jefferson sought a greater share of the potential profits for his family.

His wife, Andrea, had a marketing contract with iGate; their eldest daughter did legal work for iGate and one of its investors; and Mrs. Jefferson’s brother-in-law was iGate’s chief engineer. Even before the congressman brought up the takeover proposal, he had arranged for a consulting firm owned by his wife and five daughters to receive nearly 31 million shares of iGate stock, roughly a quarter of the company, at no cost, documents show.

The F.B.I. has said that Mr. Jefferson also sought a substantial share of profits made by iGate’s partners in a Nigerian venture, and that a complaint from one of those investors prompted the investigation.

“Greed is one thing,” said William A. Warner, a former I.B.M. executive who had a contract to market iGate’s products. “But this guy took it to another level.”

    Whew. Here's the rest of the story.

 

Jefferson Gets Challengers

    I've been calling for someone to get up and challenge CAFTA 15 Rep. William "I Store 90,000 In My Freezer" Jefferson. And, sure enough, a number of someones have stepped forward:

12 File to Oppose Rep. Jefferson
By Allan Lengel Washington Post Staff Writer

Under the glare of an FBI investigation, a politically vulnerable Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.) will face a dozen challengers in his bid for reelection, including some well-known Louisiana names. When the 5 p.m. filing deadline for the November election passed yesterday, eight Democrats, three Republicans and one Libertarian had filed to run against the eight-term incumbent, a sharp contrast to two years ago, when he faced one challenger.

The candidates include state Sen. Derrick Shepherd (D), state Rep. Karen Carter (D) and former state representative and New Orleans City Council member Troy Carter (D).

    Here's hoping that the labor movement can play a role in backing the strongest candidate so that all these folks don't split the vote so much that Jefferson gets re-elected.

Recruit An Opponent for Jefferson

    I asked this a bit ago: why doesn't some Democrat in Louisiana step forward to challenge CAFTA 15 Rep. William "I Store $90,000 in My Freezer" Jefferson? According to The Washington Post, "The biggest threat to Jefferson is an indictment before Aug. 11, the deadline for other Democrats to enter the race in a district dominated by Democrats." C'mon, let's get a candidate in the primary just in case. There must be good, solid Democrats in the district who don't make it a habit of socking away 90 grand in a freezer, which, though I believe strongly in a person's innocense until they are proven guilty, makes you wonder--and at least should get Democrats to field another candidate, even if it's behind the scenes.

    It does not bode well for Jefferson that he needs the vice president of Nigeria to state publicly that he did not take bribes from Jefferson. All Jefferson's opponent will need to do is run a commercial that uses that statement, adds the fact that Nigeria is rated as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, and throw in a picture of 90 grand in a freezer...and let the voter make their own decision--not a legal one but a political one.

    As I've argued before, Jefferson's troubles--coupled with the legal troubles facing Democrat Alan Mollohan (West Virginia)--are going to make it tougher for the Democrats to simply play the corruption card as a central election strategy. Without a broader vision--and it still can't be found or at least has not resonated with the public--the Democrats are risking electoral disappointment in November.

 

Move Your Cash From The Freezer

    So, a federal judge has upheld the raid and seizure of documents from the office of CAFTA 15 Rep. William Jefferson. I've been torn about this episode from the beginning.

    On the one hand, no one likes the specter of giving the FBI any more power to raid offices. BUT, the argument that the raid violated the separation of powers between the executive branch and the legislative branch seemed a little weak when we are dealing with charges of official corruption. And, let's be honest, since Bill J. had $90,000 in cash stuffed into his freezer, there was more than a bit of a hint that the allegations were strong enough and had very little to do with trying to intimidate the Congressional branch. After all, Bill J., by voting for CAFTA, was doing the Administration's bidding. Why would you want to silence a voice like that?

    Maybe what you need is a piece of legislation that says that a special master or judge must review any warrants issued to raid Congressional offices to guard against searches designed for purely political purposes. Sort of like the FISA court which the Administration goes to for warrants to wiretap. Ooooppppssss...maybe that isn't the best example.

    Anyway, the ruling does send a clear signal to Congress: if you've got piles of cash in your freezer or in a shoebox and you can't prove it's from your winnings in Vegas, time to move it to a more secure place.