Heath Shuler, the "conservative" Democratic Congressman from NC , the man who ....
voted against stem cell research. He argued against "amnesty" for immigrants. He voted against hate crimes legislation. He was praised by the Family Research Council, spoke at NC’s version of CPAC with Rudy Giuliani and Liddy Dole, and voted against SCHIP. He voted twice against the stimulus package.
http://scrutinyhooligans.us/...
The man who declared that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid "failed" the bipartisanship test on stimulus. http://www.politico.com/...
Now we hear that apparently Heath Shuler isn't shy about using his influence to pad his purse.....
Shuler's BlueDogs are against Public Option.
The Blue Dog Coalition issued a statement that said it would only support the public health care option as a fallback measure that would be triggered sometime down the road if private insurers don't meet a particular set of goals.
http://www.care2.com/...
One would think that such ideological purist as Heath Shuler would be extremely scrupulous about using or taking advantage of public property for their own benefit.
But according to Inspector General of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Shuler may, and I repeat, may have been involved in some conflict-of-interest and has forwarded his report to the House Ethics Committee.
The Inspector General's office of the Tennessee Valley Authority issued quite a report on Monday when it announced Heath Shuler, a U.S. Congressman who is also a real estate developer, was involved in a conflict-of-interest matter.
Well, back in 2005 Shuler was part of an investment group that bought a chunk of land on Watts Bar Lake, in Roane County, called The Cove at Blackberry Ridge. At the time the land was purchased, the buyers were told it included water access rights. It turned out it did not.....
Once Shuler was a member of Congress's Water and Resources subcommittee, things were worked out, but there was ... er, a little murkiness in the water because Blackberry Ridge officials, eager to get the deal done, had dropped Shuler's name on several occasions to TVA CEO Tom Kilgore before he eventually signed off on the deal last June.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/...
WASHINGTON — North Carolina Rep. Heath Shuler created a conflict of interest and the appearance of preferential treatment because of his role in a real estate development that became entangled in a protracted battle with the Tennessee Valley Authority over water access, a TVA inspector general report concludes.
But the report, made public Monday, also states that no evidence was found that the Waynesville, N.C., Democrat actually received preferential treatment or personally tried to pressure TVA to grant water access for The Cove at Blackberry Ridge, located on Watts Barr Lake near Knoxville.
The TVA Office of Inspector General said it had forwarded a companion report to the House Ethics Committee. "We make no judgment as to whether Congressman Shuler's actions connected to the Blackberry Cove matter violate any existing ethical standard," the report states.
http://www.tennessean.com/...