A new report out shows that members of Congress “have as much as $196 million collectively invested in companies doing business with the Defense Department, earning millions since the onset of the Iraq war…”

But it’s not who you think it is…

The study found that more Republicans than Democrats hold stock in defense companies, but that the Democrats who are invested had significantly more money at stake. In 2006, for example, Democrats held at least $3.7 million in military-related investments, compared to Republican investments of $577,500.
…
[John] Kerry, D-Mass., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is identified as earning the most — at least $2.6 million between 2004 and 2006 from investments worth up to $38.2 million.

Nothing like the wealthiest one percent funding the military complex. Remember this the next time you hear a liberal utter Dick Cheney’s name.

Now that Democrats are in power, what was once called “corruption” they now call “strategy”.

Remember when Democrats called Tom Delay’s K Street project a “rampant abuse of power“?

In his dealings with K Street lobbyists, DeLay explicitly stated he would operate by “the old adage of punish your enemies and reward your friends.”
[…]
Lost in the pay-to-play system is any concern for good governance.
[…]
RAMPANT ABUSE OF POWER: New York Times columnist David Brooks explained “the real problem wasn’t DeLay, it was DeLayism, the whole culture that merged K Street with the Hill, and held that raising money is the most important way to contribute to the team.” The culture permeated the entire congressional leadership; they were willing buyers of what lobbyists were selling.

Even Nancy Pelosi “pledged” to “kill the K Street project” among other things on her way to leading the “the effort to turn the most closed, corrupt Congress in history into the most open and honest Congress in history.”

That is why, with our Democratic Declaration of Honest Leadership and Open Government, we are pledging to enact and enforce legislation that will:

-Ban all gifts and travel from lobbyists. Period.
-Kill the K Street Project, the Republican plan that trades favors for lobbying jobs, and toughen public disclosure of lobbyist activity…

Nevermind.

When Republicans were in control, Ms. Pelosi and company denounced the “K Street Project,” run by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. They protested that corporate lobbyists were allowed to become a fourth branch of government–and in some cases their protests had merit, as Republicans curried favor with money interests.

Meanwhile, Democrats under Rep. Rahm Emanuel and Sen. Schumer have quietly erected their own K Street Project, and employ some of the same strong-arm tactics they once deplored. “I’ve never felt the squeeze that we’re under now to give to Democrats and to hire them,” says one telecom industry representative. “They’ve put out the word that if you have an issue on trade, taxes, or regulation, you’d better be a donor and you’d better not be part of any effort to run ads against our freshmen incumbents.”

It’s not an issue of ideology, it’s an issue of power and access. But for Democrats to have campaigned on it as an issue of corruption only to turn around and engage in it themselves once in power… it’s now an issue of hypocrisy, too.

It’s so bad, it’s even ranking worse than HMOs.

Just 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress.

This 14% Congressional confidence rating is the all-time low for this measure, which Gallup initiated in 1973. The previous low point for Congress was 18% at several points in the period of time 1991 to 1994.

Maybe it’s because Americans a realizing that the Democrats’ campaign rhetoric was loaded with empty promises and zero actual intention of addressing corruption…

Remember when Nancy Pelosi promised:

“We will bring transparency and openness to the budget process and to the use of earmarks,” Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi said in December 2006, “and we will give the American people the leadership they deserve.”

In the spirit of “transparency and openness”… she would not provide information on her earmarks.

Neither would most of Congress.

Despite the new Democratic congressional leadership’s promise of “openness and transparency” in the budget process, a CNN survey of the House found it nearly impossible to get information on lawmakers’ pet projects.

Staffers for only 31 of the 435 members of the House contacted by CNN between Wednesday and Friday of last week supplied a list of their earmark requests for fiscal year 2008, which begins on October 1, or pointed callers to Web sites where those earmark requests were posted.

Of the remainder, 68 declined to provide CNN with a list, and 329 either didn’t respond to requests or said they would get back to us, and didn’t.

Let’s look at what else Democrats promised:

With their votes, the American people asked for change. They cast their ballots in favor of a New Direction.

They called for greater integrity in Washington, and Democrats pledge to make this the most honest, ethical, and open Congress in history.

Here are some examples of that “greater integrity”:

1. Working with lobbyists like Jack Abramoff who Democrats used as a poster boy for corruption during the 2006 campaign season.

2. Awarding committee chairmanships to Congressmen being investigated by the very agencies he’d oversee.

3. Ranking members of the Judiciary Committee admitting to breaking ethics rules.

4. Members who chair subcommittees that appropriate billions of dollars to companies controlled by the member’s spouse.

5. Increasing the amount of contributions from lobbyists and special interests… above and beyond what the previous Congress accepted.

6. Balking at tough lobbying reforms.

7. Violating the very ethics rules put in place by your very own Congress.

8. Selecting a registered lobbyist, that represents the oil industry, the tobacco lobby, pharmaceutical industries and American Indian gambling interests, to run your PAC.

And on top of the “greater integrity” they called for “greater civility”…

“The American people called for greater civility in how Congress conducts its work, and Democrats pledge to conduct our work with civility and bipartisanship, and to act in partnership - not partisanship - with the president and Republicans in Congress.”

And we see how well that’s working out.

Not even the appearance of impropriety sways them…

Kansas City Mayor Mark Funkhouser says he sees nothing wrong with accepting the free use of a car from a local Honda dealership, but some ethics experts say the deal — while legal — is troubling.

So why is the elected official taking the gift from a corporation?

Funkhouser said he cannot afford a new car.

Really?

The dealership will still own the car and replace it as often as annually. Taxpayers will continue to pay a $600-a-month car allowance to the mayor.

So what does the Democrat have to say about this improper gift?

“It is a nice new car,” he said. “The new mayor is not mentally challenged. Somebody offers you a brand new car you take it.”

Of course you do… even if you’re an elected public official and it might affect public confidence in your office.

Then again, being a Democrat, maybe there wasn’t any confidence to begin with…

Hillary Clinton has named Alcee Hastings as one of her national Campaign Co-Chairs.

The Clinton Campaign today announced that Florida Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Congressman Alcee Hastings have been named national Campaign Co-Chairs.

Yes, that Alcee Hastings.

In 1981 Judge Hastings was charged with accepting a $150,000 bribe in exchange for a lenient sentence and a return of seized assets for 21 counts of racketeering by Frank and Thomas Romano, and of perjury in his testimony about the case. He was acquitted by a jury after his alleged co-conspirator, William Borders, refused to testify in court (resulting in a jail sentence for Borders).

In 1988, the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives took up the case, and Hastings was impeached for bribery and perjury by a vote of 413-3. Voters to impeach included Democratic Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, John Conyers and Charles Rangel. He was then convicted in 1989 by the United States Senate, becoming the sixth federal judge in the history of the United States to be removed from office by the Senate.

I guess it’s only fitting that someone who’s been impeached would head up a Clinton campaign.

She’s as predictable as she is hypocritical.

Nancy Pelosi on Democrat William Jefferson’s indictment:

“…Mr. Jefferson, just as any other citizen, must be considered innocent until proven guilty…”

Nancy Pelosi on Republican Tom Delay’s indictment:

“[It’s] the latest example that Republicans in Congress are plagued by a culture of corruption at the expense of the American people.”

I can almost dismiss her hypocrisy as being simply a byproduct of partisanship - that’s predictable - but the fact she’s standing up for a man who was caught on videotape taking bribes and caught red-handed with the money in his home freezer while condemning a man indicted by a politically-motivated D.A. on trumped-up charges brings into question her judgment and character.

(hat tip: Matt)

Nancy Pelosi’s “most ethical Congress ever” received good news today… Democrat William Jefferson has been indicted on federal charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money-laundering.

The indictment handed up in federal court in Alexandria., Va., Monday is 94 pages long and lists 16 alleged violations of federal law that could keep Jefferson in prison for up to 235 years. He is charged with racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money-laundering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Not to worry, he should be free just in time for the midterm elections… in 2242.

Court records indicate that Jefferson was videotape taking a $100,000 cash bribe from an FBI informant. Most of that money later turned up in a freezer in Jefferson’s home.

And the guy is still serving as a Democrat Congressman. The party must be so proud.

Long gone is the notion that Pelosi and crew actually meant to keep their promise to “drain the Congressional swamp of corruption”… hell, they’re not even bothering to try and keep up the facade any longer. Their message is now, loud and clear, “We’re Democrats, we’re corrupt, and to hell with the rest of you.”

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats rejected a Republican bid Tuesday to reprimand Rep. John Murtha, a senior lawmaker accused of threatening legislative reprisals against a GOP member who had crossed him.

Before and after the largely party-line vote, which caused some Democrats discomfort, Republicans taunted Democratic leaders about their campaign promises to run a more ethical and open Congress.

So much discomfort that all but 2 voted against taking ethics action against one of their own.

Murtha, known for his gruff manner and fondness for pork barrel projects, did not dispute claims that he charged across the House floor May 17 to confront Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

To make matters worse, the threat violated ethics rules put in place by this very Congress in January.

So what was Rogers doing that got Murtha so mad? He was trying to strike a $23 million earmark Murtha tried to attach to some legislation. You know, earmarks… those pork-barrel appropriations for special interests in a representative’s home district.

Rogers had tried unsuccessfully to strike a $23 million Murtha earmark—a targeted spending item—for a drug intelligence center in Murtha’s district.

In a House speech Monday, Rogers said Murtha threatened him by saying, “you will not get any earmarks now and forever.” Rogers, backed by House GOP leaders, said Murtha’s threat violated congressional ethics rules.

But never fear, according to the AP, Murtha is just “known for his gruff manner and fondness for pork barrel projects.”

And I guess William Jefferson just has a fondness for using freezers as piggy banks and Dianne Feinstein just has a fondness for appropriating government funds through her husband’s checking account. And the most ethical Congress ever just has a fondness for taking money from lobbyists.

“Democrats” and “ethics” go together like “Muslims” and “peace”.

The primary reason Dianne Feinstein never considered joining the Republican Party?

Because the (D) next to her name prevents her from being jailed for corruption.

Anyone who knows much about real power in Congress knows that almost every member of the House and Senate lusts after a seat on the Appropriations Committee and hopes one day to achieve the status of Cardinal. The Cardinals, of course, are the folks who chair the various Appropriations Committee subcommittees and literally control the billions of dollars that pass through their hands.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) chairs the Senate Rules Committee, but she’s also a Cardinal. She is currently chairwoman of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee, but until last year was for six years the top Democrat on the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies (or “Milcon”) sub-committee, where she may have directed more than $1 billion to companies controlled by her husband.

If the inferences finally coming out about what she did while on Milcon prove true, she may be on the way to morphing from a respected senior Democrat into another poster child for congressional corruption.

The problems stem from her subcommittee activities from 2001 to late 2005, when she quit. During that period the public record suggests she knowingly took part in decisions that eventually put millions of dollars into her husband’s pocket — the classic conflict of interest that exploited her position and power to channel money to her husband’s companies.

In other words, it appears Sen. Feinstein was up to her ears in the same sort of shenanigans that landed California Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R) in the slammer. Indeed, it may be that the primary difference between the two is basically that Cunningham was a minor leaguer and a lot dumber than his state’s senior senator.

But don’t worry if you missed the 60 Minutes exposé or the in-depth review of every facet of her dirty dealings on the Today show… they have yet to show interest in the story.

Democrats campaigned on the warnings that Republicans were too beholden to special interest groups to do anything positive for the American people. If that was true, then what does this say about the Democrats?

The campaign coffers of the new Democratic House committee chairmen have seen a big jump in contributions from lobbyists and special interests since the Democratic takeover of Congress, according to new campaign finance filings available on PoliticalMoneyLine.com.

In some cases, Democrats in powerful posts are raising more money from special interest groups than the Republicans they replaced.

Well, they did promise to do things better than Republicans…