Los Angeles Times has a good scoop coming for Sunday page one.
Two GOP congressmen from northern California did favors for a Texas banker after getting $$$$$
online here
WASHINGTON -- In a case that echoes the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, two northern California Republican congressmen used their official positions to try to stop a federal investigation of a wealthy Texas businessman who provided them with political contributions.
The congressmen, John T. Doolittle and Richard W. Pombo, joined forces with former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas to oppose an investigation by federal banking regulators into the affairs of Houston millionaire Charles E. Hurwitz, documents recently obtained by the Los Angeles Times show. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was seeking $300 million from Hurwitz for his role in the collapse of a Texas savings and loan that ultimately cost taxpayers $1.6 billion.
The investigation was ultimately dropped.
DROPPED? Wassup with THAT???
Let's check below the fold ...
Could this be TWO more GOP seats "in play" this year??
This is like the gang that couldn't bribe straight ...
The Republicans, in the end, don't make very good criminals.
Haven't they heard of the concept of plausible deniability?
Or has the arrogance of power proven too much for them?
They need to do some prison time and learn how to be SUCCESSFUL criminals.
More from LA Times
The effort to help Hurwitz began in 1999 when DeLay wrote a letter to the chairman of the FDIC denouncing the investigation of Hurwitz as a ``form of harassment and deceit on the part of government employees.'' When the FDIC persisted, Doolittle and Pombo -- both considered proteges of DeLay -- used their power as members of the House Resources committee to subpoenaed the agency's confidential records on the case, including details of the evidence FDIC investigators had compiled on Hurwitz.
Then, in 2001, the two congressmen inserted many of the sensitive documents into the Congressional Record, making them public and accessible to Hurwitz's lawyers, a move that FDIC officials said damaged the government's ability to pursue the banker.
The FDIC's chief spokesman angrily derided what Doolittle and Pombo did as ``a seamy abuse of the legislative process.'' But soon afterward, in 2002, the FDIC dropped its case against Hurwitz, who had owned a controlling interest in the United Savings Association of Texas. United Savings' failure was one of the worst of the S&L debacles in the 1980s.
As the story points out, Doolittle and Pombo essentially sabotaged the case!!!!
The actions of the two Californians reflect DeLay's broad strategy of cementing relationships with individuals, business interests and lobbyists whose financial support enabled Republicans to extend their grip on Congress and on government agencies as well. The system DeLay developed and Abramoff took part in went beyond simple quid pro quo; it mobilized whatever GOP resources were available to help those who could help the party.
In the Hurwitz case, Doolittle and Pombo were in a position to pressure the FDIC and did so, although Pombo received only a modest campaign contribution. In another case, Pombo helped one of Abramoff's clients, the Mashpee Indians in Massachusetts, gain official recognition as a tribe; the Congressman received contributions from both the lobbyist and the tribe in that instance.
This is a COMPLEX case, but it seems Doolittle and Pombo totally undermined the FDIC probe!!!!
Sorry for the extended excerpts, but it is hard to condense.
The investigation pressed on, and a year later the House Resources Committee, which had jurisdiction because of the forest area, set up a special Headwaters Forest Task Force and launched its own review. Doolittle was appointed task force chairman, and Pombo one of its members.
Duane Gibson, the committee's general counsel, who later went to work for Abramoff, was named the chief investigator. They immediately subpoenaed internal records from the FDIC and the Office of Thrift Supervision, which also had responsibilities for S&Ls.
Both agencies were wary and, while complying with the subpoenas, repeatedly urged the lawmakers not to make the documents public or share them with Hurwitz.
William F. Kroener III, general counsel at the FDIC, warned the committee that Hurwitz and his lawyers were not entitled to see many of the documents. He told the panel that, should the material end up in their hands, it ``could significantly injure our ability to litigate this matter and reduce damages otherwise recoverable to reimburse taxpayers.''
...
SNIP
The task force was set up for six months, and disbanded in December 2000. It held just one hearing, and called FDIC and Office of Thrift Supervision officials as witnesses.
At that hearing, Tanoue strongly defended the FDIC's investigation. ``I have listened to and considered the arguments made directly to me by representatives of Mr. Hurwitz,'' she testified. `` ... However I have found no compelling reason to take the extraordinary step of ... taking this case out of the hands of the judicial system.''
Six months later, in June 2001, Pombo abruptly submitted a portion of the subpoenaed documents that filled 14 pages in the Congressional Record.
Six months after that, in December 2001, Doolittle did the same, even though he was no longer a member of the committee. And his submission was much larger -- filling 111 pages.
The documents were so voluminous that Doolittle and Pombo had to pay a total of about $20,000 from their congressional accounts to cover the extra printing costs.
The FDIC ... chief spokesman, Phil Battey, said in a statement to the Sacramento Bee at the time that the publication of the materials was a ``subordination ... and a seamy abuse of the legislative process.''
Not long afterward, the FDIC dismissed its case, and the Office of Thrift Supervision quietly settled with Hurwitz for about $200,000 in administrative costs.
WOW!!! That is some dirty $&@()@.
That is just sheer pimping to get a crook off the hook.
The money trail??
Hurwitz has been a prolific campaign donor since the early 1990s. He has contributed personally and with funds provided by his Houston-based flagship company, Maxxam, Inc., through subsidiaries like Kaiser Aluminum, and through a company political action committee, Maxxam Inc. Federal PAC.
In the last three federal elections cycles, those entities have given more than $443,000 in political contributions -- most of it to conservative politicians including President Bush, for whom Hurwitz pledged to raise $100,000 in the 2000 campaign and also helped during that year's vote tally deadlock in Florida.
...
SNIP
...
Doolittle distributed more than 100 lapel pins in the shape of tiny hammers as a tribute to the man nicknamed the ``Hammer'' for his ability to pound congressional Republicans into line.
Doolittle also was closely aligned to Abramoff. Records show that Abramoff showered Doolittle with tens of thousands of dollars in contributions and employed the congressman's wife for other fundraising activities.