Like most modern Republicans, John Doolittle is a lying hypocrite.
As you may know, Doolittle’s former aide Kevin Ring seems to be working with the DoJ and the FBI raided Doolittle’s Virginia home in connection with their Abramoff scandal investigation. When the news broke, Doolittle’s GOP pals forced him off the Appropriation Committee.
Everyday, old lies, crimes and troubles show up on Dishonest John’s doorstep. Dump Doolittle and TPM Muckraker are doing a great job of documenting John’s returning demons.
Despite a stunning documented record of corruption, Doolittle has vowed to hang onto his seat. He reminds me of Cunningham, DeLay and Ney.
His days are numbered and you can help take him down.
To the Jump...
Last Friday, John Doolittle set up a conference call with the press to push back on all of his scandals that were coming home to roost. It was another Doolittle classic: arrogance, lies and evasive answers. Of course most of the time he answered questions with some form of "no comment" such as:
D: I really want to answer that question, and you will soon hear more from me about that. But I've been advised I can't answer.
D: I can't answer those questions right now.
D: I can't go into that right now. I would tell them the truth. I would try and at least let them know how and let them know how I feel about this and what I believe the situation to be.
D: That's another one I am just going to have to not answer.
D: That's another one...again more will come out about this. I just can't get into that.
D: That is another question I will have to defer on.
D: Hmmm. You know what? We'll get to that. I just can't talk about it today.
D: I don't want to make any statement beyond what I have made.
D: I must defer on answering that question.
.
But John Doolittle is fighting back. He has started a legal Defense Fund and launched a Q & A defense of all the scandals on a new page of his website: Doolittle Attacks Facts.
Doolittle’s framing of the scandals and his "defense" or his "facts" are jaw dropping for their hypocrisy, falsehoods and outright lies. It is also an amazing round-up of the many scandals Doolittle is involved in.
So here is how you can help take down John Doolittle:
- Go to Doolittle Attacks Facts and review the 23 scandals that Doolittle identifies as "attacks" on his character.
- Next let John know which attacks he’s missed. I’m sure there are quite a few, here is his contact page, drop him a line. And I’m sure the folks over at Dump Doolittle would be happy to help keep an expanded list of Doolittle’s many corruptions.
- Then pick one of Doolittle’s Attack/Fact pairs and check it out. I think that Doolittle has some of his "Facts" wrong and he could use a good fact-checker. Once you find the gaps in Doolittle’s "facts" post a Diary about them, share your findings with the media and the good folks over at Dump Doolittle.
- And finally, give some support to Charlie Brown in his rematch with Dishonest John. Volunteer some time. Donate some money. Or do both. We almost won this seat in 2006. Let take it in the next election (which may be earlier than 2008 if Doolittle is indicted).
As I mentioned, I found the lies in Doolittle’s Attack/Fact scandal rap sheet simple amazing. Here is a sample:
ATTACK Congressman Doolittle supports sex slavery, forced abortions and abusive labor practices on the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI).
FACT Charlie Brown’s latest attack on John is by far his most outrageous. John does not support sex slavery, forced abortions, or abusive labor practices. To the contrary, John has supported efforts to end these horrible crimes by supporting legislation such as the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the Violence Against Women Act, both of which will help reduce sexual exploitation.
The Departments of Justice and Labor, with the CNMI Attorney General have investigated reports of crimes against workers in the commonwealth. John supports their efforts to end any abuses and believes that greater enforcement of the laws will reduce crime more effectively than the opposition’s plans to implement new laws restricting immigration and increasing the minimum wage. Forcing these new laws on the commonwealth would infringe upon the covenant agreed to by the CNMI and U.S. governments and destroy the commonwealth’s economy.
I do not know where to begin. Rather than go into the sordid details yet again, perhaps I could direct you to this old Diary: Doolittle lies about Sex, Abortion and Human Trafficking.
The charge is not that Doolittle actively and overtly supported labor abuse, human trafficking, forced abortions and sexual slavery.
No.
The charge is that John Doolittle actively protected and supported an economic system on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) that led to labor abuse, human trafficking, forced abortions and sexual slavery. It is a subtle difference, but an important one. John Doolittle did the bidding of Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay. He was one of Jack’s key Congressmen. The record is long, detailed and clear.
To this day, Doolittle is still actively protecting the system of abuse. When confronted with facts that proved abuse on the CNMI, Doolittle does what he always does—he attacks the messenger.
But he does not and can not refute the facts of abuse on the CNMI. Nor can he hide his ongoing involvement in protecting that system of abuse. And despite his claims to the contrary, Doolittle has known about the abuse on the CNMI for a very long time.
In the Diary I cited, Doolittle lies about Sex, Abortion and Human Trafficking, I included excerpts of a report from the Global Survival Network about the abuse on the CNMI. It built on the amazing work of human rights hero, Wendy Doromal. Much of this work was done before and after Doolittle’s February 1999 trip to the CNMI with Congressman Don Young. Now Doolittle claims to have no knowledge of the abuse, but Young and his fellow travelers were invited to meet with the workers:
Of course the Young delegation would not meet with the workers and would then later claim they saw no signs of abuse. An easy thing to do if you keep your eyes closed.
And yet, according to the Marinas Variety report on Doolittle’s visit to the CNMI back on February 22, 1999, Doolittle stated that he was aware that workers were paying exorbitant fees to come to the CNMI for jobs only to discover that the work did not exist:
...Doolittle said there are "real problems" with the CNMI labor and immigration setup.
He described as an "outrage" the plight of alien workers "who paid a lot to come here for jobs that a lot of times are not here."
See, even Doolittle can have a moment of moral clarity. But Doolittle can shake off those impulses quickly and by the end of the article he was back on the Team Abramoff CNMI message:
Doolittle said the CNMI's large population of alien workers—who now outnumber locals... "doesn't necessarily have to be a problem" as long as it is "handled very well."
He also believes that the local garment industry is being "unfairly attacked" by those who favor an extension of federal later and immigration laws to the islands.
Another example of Doolittle’s awareness of the abuse and protection of it was connected to the 1999 Global Survival Network report. It was devastating to Abramoff’s efforts to protect the system of abuse. There was video of Willie Tan bragging about his close ties with Tom DeLay and Don Young. ABC News used the report and supporting video to produce some damning episodes of 20/20. The heat was on.
As always, Team Abramoff leapt into action. With his GOP allies they attacked the messenger.
This time the way in was a staff member of the Office of Insular Affairs under Bill Clinton. His "crime" was sharing information about GOP involvement in protecting the system of abuse on the CNMI. His name was David North. On his own time, he had sent letters to various Democrats running against Jack’s reliable Congressional allies in the 1998 election. His letters made clear the extent of the abuse of the CNMI and the GOP involvement.
The incident gave the VRWC the vapors. After some time in the usual RW filtering shops, the story made its way into the Washington Post:
An Interior Department official conducted political research on a range of Republican lawmakers while on the job, according to documents compiled by the House Resources Committee.
Memos retrieved from the computer of David North, public affairs officer of Interior's Insular Affairs Office, detail an elaborate campaign in which North distributed information to Democratic candidates on House Republicans' relationship with the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory exempt from federal labor and immigration laws.
In one document, for example, North sent the election opponent of Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.) a five-page press release criticizing English's ties to Willie Tan, who owns garment factories in the Northern Marianas. [snip]
North, who retired last week, emphasizes his Democratic credentials in communications with campaign officials, noting that he once ran for Congress from New Jersey. In a letter to the campaign of Christine Kehoe, who lost to Rep. Brian P. Bilbray (R-Calif.) last year, North wrote: "Your opponent is vulnerable to criticism on the grounds of his friendship with the Marianas sweatshops operators, and their allies, the crooks that run the CNMI government.
"My motivations are: to help elect Democrats to the House and punish the handful of obvious GOP sweatshop allies, such as Mr. Bilbray. . . . My long-term reward, Mr. Bilbray's defeat by Ms. Kehoe."
I like what North was trying to do. And compared to the political activities of the Bush White House, the actions North took were insignificant. But back in the day, the Republicans used these actions in an orchestrated manner to push back on the facts of abuse reported by the Global Survival Network and Wendy Dorormal. Within a few days, the post had another story, House Panel Widens Interior Department Probe:
A House committee voted along party lines yesterday to step up an investigation into allegations of illegal partisan political activity in the Interior Department, but held off on a threat to hold top officials of the agency in contempt of Congress. [snip]
The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. George Miller of California, said he does not condone partisan activities by federal employees and that, if true, the alleged conduct was "outrageous."
But he suggested that the investigation served to divert attention from the exploitation and abuse in the Marianas of thousands of foreign workers, most of them impoverished women from Asia. While Young was quick to investigate the department, he has refused for nearly three years to hold any hearings on the underlying problems on the islands, Miller said.
Young said that although Interior had already missed a deadline to respond to subpoenas, he would withhold a contempt resolution "for now" and give the department more time to comply.
Those subpoenas demanded a wide array of materials from top officials at Interior and the DCCC. Among other things, they sought computer files from David North, the spokesman for the insular affairs office, "related to or mentioning any Member of Congress," notably House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) and Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska).
We should remember this incident and the GOP reaction when the Republicans complain of investigation into violations of the Hatch Act by the Bush Administration and the need to subpoena the RNC to get to the bottom of those off-the-books email accounts.
From the record it looks like the evidence of wrong doing was pretty thin. North did send some letters to some Democrats running against Republicans in 1998. He wrote these on his own time but may have used his computer at work to work on some of the letters. North resigned as the "scandal" broke (can I pause here and say I long for these good old Clinton era scandals as oppose to the endless, destructive and real Bush era scandals). Anyway, the problem with this line of attack on North was that it did not tarnish the Global Survival Network report on human trafficking on the CNMI. That became phase two of the GOP counter-attack on justice.
The Washington Times was the vehicle for Team Abramoff to kick it up a notch (emphasis added):
He Edited Study Before It Went To Congress
An Interior Department official under investigation by Congress helped a human rights group write a report Democrats used to argue their case of harsh labor conditions in the Northern Mariana Islands. [snip]
"This is yet another example of improper use of federal resources at the Department of Interior. This underscores the importance of our ongoing investigation and unfortunately it just keeps getting worse and worse, as we find out more about what is going on at Interior," said Rep. Don Young, Alaska Republican and Chairman of the Resources Committee.
The report was written by Steven R. Galster of the Global Survival Network, who was a key witness for the Democrats during a committee hearing last week on federal laws and funding for the islands as it relates to immigration and labor abuse.
Three drafts were sent to Mr. North, who edited them extensively and suggested the report’s title, "Trapped: Human Trafficking for Forced Labor in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands." [snip]
Mr. North also suggested that the report target House Majority Whip Tom DeLay for using his elected position to work against laws affecting the U.S. territory.
"This scandal continues to grow exponentially everyday," Mr. DeLay said. [snip]
"This is yet another example of a dishonest and corrupt administration. I think it’s appalling and I hope we can eradicate as much as possible," said Rep. John T. Doolittle, California Republican and committee member.
Based on the report, the Global Survival Network and 13 other human rights organizations called on Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate Mr. DeLay. [snip]
"This turn of events is beyond imagination." The fact that a federal employee would use government resources to produce a fabricated, partisan document with the sole purpose of seeking a Justice Department investigation is both outrageous, and probably illegal," Mr. DeLay said.
"I hope that a resolution on this whole scandal is reached quickly and both the Global Survival Network and Mr. North are taken to task for their wrongdoing," he said.
Da-da. Another example of GOP tested Team Abramoff scandal wash. No wonder Doolittle is attacking any and all folks who bring news of his crimes.
The tactic has worked before.
The attacks continued through 2000 including at a hearing of the House Resources Committee where Don Young handed the gavel to Doolittle to attack North and the Global Survival Network while ignoring the real and continuing abuse on the CNMI. At the same time Doolittle was appropriating funds for Jack’s pals on the CNMI for all manner of boondoggles and helping Jack and DeLay pay off some bribes to fix a CNMI election for CNMI Speaker of the House. These are only a few of the crimes Dishonest John is connected to through Ring, DeLay and Abramoff.
If Janet Reno had started an investigation of DeLay and crowd back in 1999 these crimes would have come to light a lot earlier.
And the efforts of Doolittle and the gang were celebrated by the Saipan Garment Manufactures Association, a long-time Tan Front and Abramoff backer as well as Jack’s scandal pal, Amy Ridenour and her phony shell group, the National Center for Public Policy Research. I was LOL when I read this bit from her press release on attacking David North:
The National Center for Public Policy Research is a non-partisan Capitol Hill think-tank established in 1982. It has received no cash contributions from the government of the CNMI nor any business operating in the CNMI.
Funny stuff.
Almost as funny as Doolittle claiming he is innocent or being persecuted just like the Duke Lacrosse Team.
It would be funny, except that there are real victims to Doolittle’s protection of the abuse on the CNMI. The crimes continue. Just last February, yet another young woman traveled to Congress to testify about being raped and forced into prostitution on the Marianas Islands. Without Doolittle’s protection the system that allowed that to happen would have been shut down years ago.
That is why Charlie Brown, I or anybody else can say that:
John Doolittle has protected a system of human trafficking, forced prostitution, forced abortion and labor abuse on the CNMI.
We can say it because it is true.
And these days, there are way too many messengers of reality for Doolittle to attack them all. The weasel from California is going down.
You can help:
- Fact-check and truth-squad the lies Doolittle is telling and facts he is omitting at his Doolittle Attacks Facts page. Then share the information far and wide.
- Support Charlie Brown in his rematch with Dishonest John Doolittle. Volunteer and/or Donate to his campaign. We can win this one. Charlie Brown is a great candidate.
Cheers.