Ryan and McCarthy love to brag about how their most toxic legislation passes with "bipartisan" support. And technically, they're right. There is always a pack of bribe-hungry Blue Dogs and New Dems eager to sell their votes to the highest bidders. So far this cycle the 10 most corrupted Democrats in Congress so far-- from bad to worst:
-by NoahUnless you are completely brain dead or completely delusional, you know that Washington is a monument to corruption on a grand scale. It’s no secret that most people, regardless of party, who go into national politics do so to hop on board the gravy train of corporate graft. That makes the few that aren’t corrupt possibly qualified for some kind of minor sainthood and/or gluttons for punishment.
Arizona's second congressional district (the white parts of Tucson, the eastern half of Pima County and all of Cochise County) is one of the swingiest in the country. In 2008, McCain beat Obama 50-49% (3,000 votes), in 2012 Romney beat Obama 49.9-48.4% and last year Hillary beat Señor Trumpanzee 49.6% to 44.7%.
At a meeting of Democratic thought leaders earlier in the week, Elizabeth Warren posed a rhetorical question "Do you get the feeling that if Bernie Madoff weren’t in prison he’d be in charge of the SEC right now?" I wonder if New Dem chairman and former Goldman-Sachs banker Jim Himes was in the room, though I doubt it, since he spends so much of his spare time shuffling from fundraiser to fundraiser.
John Boehner took immense sums of money from Big Tobacco over the course of his slimy career-- not just the $464,312 in direct bribes from the industry but far more from them to help him build power by writing checks at his direction to other House Republicans. In the video above 60 Minutes explored the time Boehner got caught handing out tobacco bribes to other members.
While everyone was preoccupied with the Republican circus around TrumpCare yesterday, Congress' most corrupt committee, House Financial Services, took another step toward gutting the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. In fact, what they did yesterday would even gut some protections that were in placer before the Great Recession. The votes were basically along party lines to send Hensarling's Wall Street lobbyist-written legislation to the full House.
Congress has written the bribery laws in such a way as to exclude their own habitual behavior of taking corporate bribes. There are many examples but one that always stands out is how members of congress relate to the predatory payday lenders whose business model is ripping off the public Congress is supposed to be protecting.
Rupert Murdoch attends the WSJ. Magazine 2014 Innovator Awards at MoMA on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014, in New York. (Photo: Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)
A Buffalo News headline (4/18/17) asked a pointed question about New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo: “How Did Cuomo Make $783,000 on Memoir That Sold 3,200 Copies?”
Brazil’s acting President Michel Temer arrives to speak, at Planalto presidential palace in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, May 12, 2016.
A Brazilian Supreme Court judge opened investigations Tuesday into almost 100 politicians who allegedly were part of the largest corruption scheme in the country, including a number of top allies of unelected President Michel Temer.
(ANTIMEDIA) Orange County, CA — On Wednesday, a former county clerk in southern California plead guilty to running a bribery scheme that forged case results in exchange for money — a scheme that netted him over a quarter of a million dollars in five years.
From a Los Angeles Times article published on Thursday:
