Here's the challenge......if you believe that democrats and republicans are equally corrupt.....that when it comes to politicians elected to federal office, "they all do it"......here is your opportunity to post your argument. Tell us how the crimes of Rep. Jefferson of NOLA are as serious and impactful as the bribe taking in exchange for pressuring the DOD to buy defense related products/services that it wasn't interested in......the admitted crimes of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham.
Post an example that equals or exceeds the proven crimes committed by former OVP COS, Irwin Scooter Libby, convicted of lying to FBI investigators and a grand jury impaneled to find the source of the leak of information concerning the employment of a CIA employee who was a manager of a group assessing the WMD threat level of Iran.....
Share with us anything that approximates this.....done by any democrat who served as US Attorney:
Quote:
http://mediamatters.org/rd?http://ww...erland&emc=rss
By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: April 11, 2007
.......In a separate development, Senate Democrats asked Mr. Gonzales to turn over documents related to a prosecution of a state contracting official in Wisconsin. In a case involving corruption charges brought by Steven Biskupic, the United States attorney in Milwaukee, the official, Georgia Thompson, was convicted.
But last week, after an appeals court heard oral arguments, a federal appeals court took the unusual step of ordering Ms. Thompson’s immediate release from prison. The senators sought all documents at the Justice Department in connection with the case, which was the subject of intense political advertising last fall against Gov. James E. Doyle, a Democrat......
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Quote:
http://www.ca7.uscourts.gov/fdocs/do...6-3676_015.pdf
ARGUED APRIL 5, 2007—DECIDED APRIL 5, 2007—
OPINION ISSUED APRIL 20, 2007
____________
Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and BAUER and
WOOD, Circuit Judges.
EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge. In 2005 Wisconsin selected
Adelman Travel Group as its travel agent for about 40% of
its annual travel budget of $75 million. The selection came
after an elaborate process presided over by Georgia
Thompson, a section chief in the state’s Bureau of Procurement.
Statutes and regulations require procurement
decisions to be made on the basis of cost and service rather
than politics. Wis. Stat. §§ 16.70-16.78; Wis. Admin. Code
§10.08. Thompson steered the contract to Adelman Travel,
the low bidder, even though other members of the selection
group rated its rivals more highly. A jury convicted
2 No. 06-3676
Thompson of violating 18 U.S.C. §666 and §1341. The
prosecution’s theory was that any politically motivated
departure from state administrative rules is a federal
crime, when either the mails or federal funds are involved.
Thompson was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment
and compelled to begin serving that term while her appeal
was pending. After concluding that Thompson is
innocent, we reversed her conviction so that she could be
released......
.........Faced with a choice between a broad reading that turns
all (or a goodly fraction of) state-law errors or political
considerations in state procurement into federal crimes,
and a narrow reading that limits §666 to theft, extortion,
bribery, and similarly corrupt acts, a court properly uses
the statute’s caption for guidance. That plus the Rule of
Lenity, which insists that ambiguity in criminal legislation
8 No. 06-3676
be read against the prosecutor, lest the judiciary create,
in common-law fashion, offenses that have never received
legislative approbation, and about which adequate notice
has not been given to those who might be ensnared. See,
e.g., Staples v. United States, 511 U.S. 600, 619 n.17
(1994).
Imagine how the prosecutor’s reading of §666 would
apply to a state official charged with implementing the
Medicaid program. Someone applies for payment of
medical expenses; a state employee approves; later it
comes to light that the applicant made just a little too
much money to be eligible, so the decision was erroneous.
A violation of regulations and perhaps of some statutes
has occurred, but is the error a crime? As we read §666,
the answer is no unless the public employee is on the take
or the applicant is a relative (for indirect benefits are
another form of payoff). An error—even a deliberate one,
in which the employee winks at the rules in order to
help out someone he believes deserving but barely over
the eligibility threshold—is a civil rather than a criminal
transgression. Likewise the sin is civil (if it is any
wrong at all) when a public employee manipulates the
rules, as Thompson did, to save the state money or favor a
home-state producer that supports elected officials......
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The two preceding quote boxes shed more light on the accusation that the republican presidential administration has politicized the US DOJ to an unprecedented degree.....a civil servant, convicted on questionable charges and evidence by an US attorney anxious to demonstrate to Karl Rove and DOJ superiors that he is conducting the "right kind" of prosecutions toi avoid being kept on the "US attorneys to be fired" list, Georgia Thompson, a person with no prior criminal record, is immediately sent to prison for 18 months, ignoring her requests to remain free, pending the outcome of her appeal. Imagine the reaction if Scooter Libby received such treatment, after his conviction?
As you can see.....the burden of proof to support what you believe, has not been set too high here. Give us your best "stuff". Tell us how the questionable real estate dealings of a democratic congressman from WV are on the sc ale of the corruption alleged of Rep. Doolittel (R-CA), and his wife.....related to Jack Abramoff.
Tell us why you think equally poorly of democrats as you do of republicans. Do the "dems" spend as irresponsibly as the "repubs"? Show us your proof. Which party has demonstrated fiscal restraint and dramatic federal deficit reduction.
Are the "crimes" of the Clintons still rankling you? Consider that $100 million was spent to investigate the Clinton's, by a highly partisan special prosecutor, installed by a 3 judge panel of partisan 4th Circuit federal judges, to replace a special prosecutor considered by republicans to be not "partisan enough".
Consider what the Starr investigation found for the money that it spent, and the way it leaked it's investigative details to the press, compared to the way Scooter Libby was treated by the silent prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald.
What it comes down to.....is how much of your "both parties are equally corrupt" belief is based on "feelings", and how much of it can be supported by examples that you take the time and effort to post on this thread.
If you don't have examples to back your opinion, is your opinion reduced to "feelings"......and is it fair or accurate, constructive or counter productive?