Edit: title was "Republican Hypocrisy Reaches New Low (Latest example from emerging race WV-02)"
In some areas the Republican party manages to keep on forging into new territory--crashing right past old barriers, pushing the bar farther and farther. Too bad it's always for bad things like budget deficits, foreign policy disasters, and hypocrisy (not to mention greed and corruption).
With news of her racing tightening to single digits (just within the MOE, no less), the only thing this Republican Rep is a shoe-in for is District Hypocrite.
Ah, yes, the spitting image of an independent Repuglican. The $ordid details (complete with table and a poll) below...
In her latest attack ad against
Mike Challagan,
Shelley Moore Capito asks voters, how can you trust him when he says he wants to clean up Washington?!?!
OMG, what mind games these Republicans play. Let's stop for a second and ask Ms. Shelley how she's doing at cleaning up Washington?
Oops, she's too busy figuring out which campaign contributions she'll need to return next... Delay money,
done... Abramoff Indian Tribe money... done, how about that Ney money, or the Foley-related funds, hmmm...
What does it say about a candidate that has to develop a
policy position [PDF warning] on returning donations: "money coming from people who have admitted or have questionable actions will not be used for her campaign."
Well, just for her benefit, I've cross-referenced the list of
federal investigations into Republican members of the 109th Congress with her campaign contributions. Now when the next admission of wrong-doing comes along she'll have a head start.
Member | Allegation | Donations | Total |
Rep. Duke Cunningham (CA) | $2.4 million in bribes | 2 | $6,000 |
Former Rep. Tom Delay (TX) * | Abramoff connections | 12 | $50,000 |
Rep. John Doolittle (CA) | Abramoff connections | 5 | $13,000 |
Former Rep. Mark Foley (FL)** | Relations with pages | 1 | $12,000 |
Sen. Bill Frist (TN) | Blind trust stock trades | 3 | $9,500 |
Rep. Katherine Harris (FL) | Cunningham bribe connections | 1 | $1,000 |
Rep. Jerry Lewis (CA) | Lobbyist, contractor ties | 7 | $15,000 |
Rep. Jim Kolbe (AZ) | Relations with pages | 1 | $1,000 |
Former Rep. Bob Ney (OH) | Abramoff connections, bribes | 3 | $7,000 |
Rep. Rich Renzi (AZ) *** | Ties to former business partner | 1 | $1,000 |
Rep. Curt Weldon (PA) | Daughter's ties to contractors | 9 | $9,000 |
Sen. Conrad Burns (MT) | Abramoff connections | None yet | 0 |
Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska) | Son's ties to oil company | 1 | $1,000 |
Grand Total | SNAFU... FUBAR... IOKIYAR | 47 | $125,500 |
* Someone's got to be #1 in Tom Delay's wallet. Ms. Capito, come on down. Out of all the members of Congress, she's the one. How many reps have a $50,000 campaign expense this cycle to "donate" Delay-tainted funds?
** Mere days before Mr. Foley opted for early retirement, Ms. Capito had the benefit of his fund-raising prowess and shared in this bounty from unsuspected (or suspecting?) Physicians to Re-elect a Majority (the infamous PROM fund-raiser). How's that project going, anyway?
*** With a keen eye toward budding GOP talent, this is one cash flow in the other direction. In a show of true solidarity Ms. Capito made this donation to Rep. Renzi. All other contributions on this list are to Ms. Capito.
Oh, yes, Shelley Moore Capito is just the person to get right on the job of cleaning up Washington. After all, she's obviously got a strong relationship with quite a few of a the key players, eh?