Bridge(gate)ing the Democrats' Culture of Corruption
This week the indictment and arrests of leading San Francisco and California Democrat politicians follows a long string of corruption cases involving prominent Democrats. It brings to mind the ridiculous charges by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (echoing Howard Dean) that the Republicans were responsible for a “culture of corruption” and that she, a woman, was going to sweep the Congress clean of it. Included in her litany of things charged as corrupt was the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill which she attacked in a press release and privileged resolution on December 8, 2005:
Across the country, seniors are trying to navigate the complicated and confusing Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit; it is complicated and confusing because it was written to meet the needs of drug companies and private insurers, not the needs of Medicare beneficiaries.
Today Democrats tried to hold Republicans responsible for the culture of corruption and cronyism that led to this sham of a bill. Instead, Republicans have rejected calls to give beneficiaries an additional six months to choose a plan, and remove the prohibition so the government can negotiate for lower prices. Democrats believe that our seniors deserve better, that is why we are going to keep working for a real Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit.
It’s worth remembering her words in a week where the president has once again delayed implementation of a key portion of ObamaCare (which HHS Secretary Sibelius had earlier said could not be lawful),a law whose popularity, like that of the president, continues to tank as her party colleagues step into the criminal dock in droves.
Whatever America’s political version of Maerose Prizzi says is worth a laugh for the sheer chutzpah of her mendacity, but will voters who aren’t getting their news online even be aware of the nationwide Democrat criminality, something so serious that David Kahane has dubbed the Democrats, “A criminal organization masquerading as a political party”?
The Boston Herald’s Howie Carr detailed the week’s criminal roundup and noted:
What a crime wave, in less than one week. So guess what most of the networks led with on their newscasts last night? The 5-month-old story of Gov. Chris Christie’s Bridgegate. Because it has one thing going for it that none of these other stories had, the only thing that matters to the corrupt American media.
Christie is a Republican.
If you live in a blue city or state chances are your newspapers didn’t cover much of this either, so feel free to cut and paste this roundup which despite my best efforts probably doesn’t come close to being all-inclusive. Mail it to those of your acquaintances who still don’t get their news online.
In Nancy’s own backyard are three eyebrow raising indictments against Democrat leaders.
a. California State Senator Leland Yee’s indictment reads like the script of a cheap detective movie.
In 137 pages the affidavit in support of the Yee indictment is based on wiretap and testimony of numerous undercover special agents.
It claims that Yee, a strong proponent of gun control and candidate for California Secretary of State, was accepting bribes to traffic Russian firearms to terrorists in the Philippines.
Well. Surely having an elected official working on illegal deals with Russian arms dealers to arm Islamic terrorists trying to overthrow a government allied to the United States at a time when Russia is causing global -- sorry, regional -- problems, isn’t a big problem…?
And neither is this?
[snip]
It’s at this point in the story that the media will go out of their way not to ask any other Democrats what they knew about Yee and whether they have a culture of corruption
b.California State Senator and his brother Tom.
An affidavit obtained last year by Al Jazeera America includes allegations that Ronald Calderon accepted $88,000 in bribes from an undercover FBI agent and a businessman to affect legislation to extend film-industry tax credits and to change workers' compensation laws.
The document also said there was also probable cause to believe that Ronald Calderon "participated in a separate bribery scheme with Michael D. Drobot," the chief executive officer of Pacific Hospital of Long Beach. The lawmaker allegedly accepted $28,000 from Drobot in exchange for "supporting legislation that would delay or limit changes in California's workers' compensation laws," the affidavit said.
The Times has also reported that the FBI investigation has looked into the Central Basin Municipal Water District, where Calderon's brother Tom worked as a consultant.
Drobot, in turn, has a record of his own, as described by Matt Holzmann.
Michael Drobot, who owned Pacific Hospital in Long Beach, bilked the state and federal governments of over $500 million in a sophisticated medical equipment scam. The same type of scam that our president promised to stamp out when selling ObamaCare.
Calderon facilitated Drobot’s corrupt empire that included crooked doctors, medical equipment companies, and hospital personnel.
You can find more details about world class fraudster Drobot
c. California State Senator Rod Wright.
[There is] an eight-count felony indictment against state Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood), accusing him of filing a false declaration of candidacy, voter fraud, and perjury beginning in 2007, when he changed his voter registration to run for the legislature.
Wright listed as his residence a home in the district he wanted to represent, but county authorities allege that he did not live there as required by state law.
The indictment also alleges that Wright fraudulently voted in five elections in 2008 and 2009.
If convicted, he faces up to eight years and four months in state prison, the district attorney's office said.
d. Elsewhere in Los Angeles
He’s not the only Democrat official in Los Angeles charges with vote fraud in recent months. As the LA Times reported in connection with the Wright indictment story,
The Wright indictment marks the second time in less than two months that a local elected official has faced criminal charges over possible residency fraud.”
On Aug. 4, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon and his wife were indicted on 24 felony counts when a criminal grand jury alleged they had committed perjury and voter fraud when they listed their home as being in Panorama City but actually lived outside Alarcon's 7th Council District.
In fact, looking around the country at the ongoing cases of Democrat party corruption, it may well be that the best venue for their next national convention will be a federal pen in California, Illinois, or New York.
e. North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina’s Mayor Patrick Cannon was arrested on Wednesday and charged with “theft and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, honest services, wire fraud and extortion under color of federal right.” The details seem fuzzy but the Business Insider reports he is accused “of participating in scheme to collect bribes using a "feminine hygiene product" and promising to press President Barack Obama about issues that were important to people who gave him bribes.” The Charlotte Observer, which notes Cannon was in office for only four months is accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes, including a $20,000 cash bribe last month.
f. Ongoing criminal investigations
To these indictments add the hint of more to come in the FBI searches of the homes and offices of NY State Assemblyman Bill Scarborough and Rhode Island’s Democrat Speaker of the House Gordon Fox who resigned after the raid.
g. Earlier Democrat political corruption busts
In connection with Cannon’s case, Michelle Malkin reminds us of yet more related Democrat corruption cases:
The bust follows former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin's conviction in January on corruption charges; former Trenton Mayor Tony Mack's February conviction on cash bribes for a downtown parking garage; and former San Diego mayor and serial groper Bob Filner's disgraceful resignation after conviction on sexual harassment-related charges; former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's conviction on extortion, bribery and conspiracy charges; and former Birmingham, Ala., Mayor Larry Langford's corruption and bribery conviction.
[snip]
Pennsylvania state Democratic Sen. LeAnna Washington, party animal: This week, a judge ruled that the Keystone State could proceed with a trial against Washington, who reportedly forced her legislative staff for eight years to use taxpayer time and money for an annual birthday party whose proceeds were diverted to her campaign account. She is charged with felony theft of services and felony conflict of interest. More than a half-dozen former employees blew the whistle. "I am the f---ing senator," she screamed at one staffer who objected. "I do what the f--- I want, and ain't nobody going to change me."
h. Illinois State Representative Keith Farnham (D), an anti-pornography campaigner who was caught with child pornography on his computer and has resigned for “health reasons."
i. Then there are the cases of open misconduct by San Diego Mayor Bob Filner (D), Anthony Weiner (D), Jesse Jackson Jr.(D)
j. In my own District of Columbia, three Democrat council members have been charged with corruption and fraud and the Mayor is in the middle of a criminal investigation for election-related misconduct.
k. Finally, there are the ongoing scandals still lightly covered if at all in the media. There’s the use of the IRS to shut down tea party and conservative activities before the last election; the administration’s failure to act to protect our officials and servicemen in Benghazi, the international consequences of the NSA surveillance activities, lax border control and firearm trafficking to Mexican drug lord scandals, the harassment of reporters and news agencies, the excessive travel and personal expenses charged to the treasury by the First Family, the vast sums of public money wasted on “green energy” and “stimulus” payouts to Democrat cronies to no national benefit.
So there we have it: Democrat officials charged and in some cases convicted of fraud, wire fraud, extortion, conspiracy, bribery, child pornography, trafficking firearms with our enemies, voter fraud, perjury -- heck, practically the entire criminal code.
None of this must be very important, though, not as important any way as the Fort Lee Lane closure and when did Governor Christie know about it, and whether the report blaming his aide was “sexist”. Maybe if Yee and Calderone, Wright, and Yee’s buddy Raymond “Shrimpboy” Chow funded a proposition fight against homosexual marriage, the New York Times might cover in depth their misdeeds.