CONGRESSMAN MOLLOHAN ENDORSES BARACK OBAMA

http://thepage.time.com/

As some of you know already, those of us working on the WV-02 campaign got quite a shock when State Sen. John Unger announced at the 11th hour to not run.

Senator Robert C. Byrd's longtime aide Anne Barth had considered a run, but had decided not to because neither her nor Unger wanted to face an expensive primary challenge and then have to face Shelley Moore Capito.

About an hour or so before the midnight deadline, Barth filed her candidacy.

I know we often make fun of lawyers in this country ("What do you call a smiling, sober, courteous person at a bar association convention? The caterer."). On the other hand, there's a lot to be said for the value of training in law for political leadership.

The Clintons (Bill, Yale; Hillary, Yale), Barack Obama (Harvard), John Edwards (UNC), Harry Reid (George Washington U.), and Alan Mollohan (WVU) all have law degrees.

Then we have our Republican mis-leadership. There's George Bush with an Master's in Business Administration. That's the same degree that Duke Cunningham and Jeff Skilling have. There's Rep. Shelley Moore Capito with a Master's in Career Counseling. That's the same degree as... well, actually, no one comes to mind.

Bush and Capito share a mis-understanding of the law, too. Whereas Bush missed the week in high school civics class about constitutional checks and balances, after six years in Congress Rep. Capito still hasn't figured out the basic mechanics of when a law is needed.

• Obama's national finance chair Penny Pritzker endorsed Kerry in 2004 -- then maxed out to to Bush/Cheney campaign.
• As Kerry's oppo research guru in 2003, Howard Dean felt the effects of Michael Gerhke. Now, Dean has hired Gerhke to head the DNC's anti-GOP research efforts.
• So what happens once Bush loses Peoria? Quak, quak.
• Bush is a liar. No biggie, of course. It'd be more newsworthy if he actually told the truth for once. Also McCain.
• Should Rep. Alan Mollohan be in charge of a key sub-committee when a corruption cloud hangs over him? One of the arguments of the CBC was that William Jefferson was stripped of his committees even though he hadn't been convicted of anything -- a seeming double-standard since white Reps -- like Mollohan -- don't appear to be similarly affected. As long as the FBI is investigating a congressperson over corruption charges, an aggressive anti-corruption stance demands we play it safe until the investigation plays out.
• Reid will wheel Sen. Johnson into the Senate chambers to vote for the non-binding anti-surge resolution if necessary. If nothing else, this is a further sign that Johnson is recuperating nicely and is available for key votes.
• I think it's funny that the New Hampshire Republican Party has to pay the NH Democratic Party $25K a year for the next five years as part of its settlement of its illegal phone jamming practices in 2002. What's that mean? If you write a check for the NH GOP, you're actually writing a check for the state's Democratic Party. That's got to be a great fundraising pitch!
• House rematches are rarely successful. That may be the historical precedent. I think in the future, it will be important for challengers taking on an incumbent to view their race as a four-year race. The incumbent has a well-established network of donors and volunteers that can't be matched by a first-time candidate. But running a four-year race can maximize the possibilities of future Boydas, Hodes, and McNerneys.
• San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, once a rising Democratic star, has lost his luster. He has a serious zipper problem.
• With schedules like this one, I don't know how anyone has the energy to run for president. After my 10-week book out I was broken. Keeping this up for years is unfathomable to me.

With Democratic control of Congress, the 5-member WV delegation punches well above its weight. Even our lone Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito agrees Dem victory was good news for West Virginians.

Sen. Robert Byrd will become chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller will head the Senate Intelligence Committee "To have chairmen on major committees is a positive thing," Capito said. On the House side, Rep. Nick Rahall will lead the Resources Committee while Rep. Alan Mollohan will become a subcommittee chairman on the Appropriations Committee.

I don't know, other than CA is there a more powerful state delegation?

CALL FOR ACTION
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Some months ago when I was looking into some of the more corrupt members of the Republican Party, I started to think that there was a reason for all the corruption.  Earlier today, Magster asked whether the reason Foley was in his position was because he could be blackmailed which fits right into the pattern of corruption in Washington today.  Here's my take on what's going on.

One of the biggest questions this weekend is why didn't the Republican leadership deal with Rep. Mark Foley when they found out he was an internet predator?  My answer is what better way to make sure someone does your bidding?  

After all, this is the Republican Party built by Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed.  And tell me, what does this party built by these men remind you of?  To me, their party acts like a particularly nasty Mafia gang.  What does everyone mention about Tom DeLay when they remark on his time at the helm?  How he was able to hammer the Republicans into doing his bidding.  Then consider, what are some things that make people do things that they might not normally do?

I ask this question seriously because, as it seems, the Democrats whom I am eligible to vote for this November are overwhelmingly opposed by my equal right under the US Constitution to seek legal recognition of my marriage.

After great thought, contemplation, and soul-searching, I am announcing that I cannot vote for ANY candidate, Democrat or Republican, for the national races in November. I live in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia (part of the WV-01), and I cannot, in good conscience, support either incumbents Rep. Alan B. Mollohan or Sen. Robert C. Byrd for re-election. Below, I will provide my explanation.

New details of the corruption of this Republican administration and this Republican Congress come to light every day now, and the mind boggles at the extent of the rot.  The broader American public increasingly is becoming aware of the extent of the GOP's corruption, and this is contributing to dismal poll numbers for W and his Hill lackeys, while giving the Democrats a real shot at retaking the Congress this fall.

That is why the party must now abandon two of its own Congress members currently tainted by suspicion of corruption.  For the sake of the party and this rare opportunity for resounding victory in Novemember, Alan Mollohan (D, WV) and William Jefferson (D, LA) must go now.

More below...

A header now showing on rawstory.

Anyone have any idea what this is about?  or could be about?  or who this might be about?

Rather vague on its face. Updated: it's Mollohan ... Key graph: "Such investigations often end with no charges filed, and Rep. Mollohan has not been formally accused of misconduct." Probably much ado about nothing.

Rep. Alan Mollohan is the ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee. Today, he temporarily stepped down from his post pending an investigation into ethics allegations.  

The allegations are being made by the innocuous-sounding National Legal & Policy Center (NLPC), which labels itself (and is labeled in the media) as a government watchdog group which "promotes ethics in government through research, education and legal action."  Try searching their site for "Tom Delay" and you get a whopping seven results, none of which deal with Delay's scandal-ridden career (indeed, the sole references to Delay's ethics problems are made in documents attacking Senator Kennedy and charging "liberal hypocrisy.")  Type in "Abramoff" and you get a blank screen. Surprising? Not so much, considering that wilful blindness toward Republican corruption is part and parcel of being a "proud member of Townhall.com." For local background on the conservative agenda of the NLPC, click here.

The NLPC allegations were first reported in the Wall Street Journal.  The hit group filed a complaint with the FBI, though no formal government investigation has been launched.   The group claims that Mollohan fudged his books by omitting some 200 details, pointing to the fact that in 2000, Mollohan had assets worth between $170,012 to $562,000 and liabilities between $170,000 and $465,000. In his 2004 report, Mollohan indicated he had assets of $6.3 million to $24.9 million and liabilities of $3.66 million to $13.5 million.

Mollohan has vehemently denied any wrongdoing. He says he was unaware of any errors in his financial disclosures, if any do exist.  And he'd like to address the details of the NLPC's complaint--except he hasn't received any information from the group.

Indeed, the NLPC refuses to publicly release the 500-page report. Mollohan has demanded it. Mollahan's Republican opponent has demanded it. The media has demanded it. And yet, the center won't release it.  One local media outlet reports that the NLPC refuses to release its report because "some items it contains may not be accurate."

Were there errors in Mollohan's disclosures? If so, were they inadvertent or intentional? Eventually, we'll find out.  In the meantime, by stepping down, Mollohan is stepping up and showing the GOP the proper way to react to ethics allegations.

You see, there this concept that Republican politicians don't understand--it's called the greater good. As the Washington Post noted, that the ranking member of the House Ethics Committee is even the subject of such allegations creates the appearance of impropriety which further erodes public confidence in the ethics process. Mollohan needed to step down--to make that temporary sacrifice--for the greater good of the Ethics Committee and Congress as a whole.

Republicans don't understand the greater good, the sense that politicians have an obligation to the institutions to which they are elected and the people that they serve.  That's why the King of Corruption, Tom Delay, selfishly clung to his House seat even after he was indicted, resigning only when it was politically opportune for him to do so. That's why Republicans have stalled ethics reform.  Because for the GOP, it's always party above principle.

Yet for Mollohan, and Democrats in general as Matt Stoller points out, it is about principle:

I know the press is going to report that a Democrat is under investigation, but that's not the real story.  The real story is that faced with the perception of an ethics problem, Democrats chose to confront it directly and honorably even though they knew it would cost them politically.

We're not Republicans who turn a blind eye to ethics allegations.  We're a party that values principle and honor, and Mollohan's temporarily resignation from the Ethics Committee was the right thing to do.

Race tracker wiki: WV-01

Reading over CNN.com story about Mollohan, I was struck by this paragraph:

While Mollohan's troubles threaten to become a major campaign problem for Democrats, Pelosi, of California, said in a statement that Mollohan decided on his own to step down and that she accepted his decision.

Oh really?  Mollahan's troubles were going to be a MAJOR problem?  For ALL Democrats?

I know it's a small issues, but after reading this quasi-love letter to Rove, it just makes me think, "what are they talking about?"  If ONE Democrat with problems is going to be a major issue for other Democrats, how will the numerous Republicans with legal problems affect all the other Repubs?

Rep. Allan Mollohan, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, has stepped aside from his post, CNN just reported. A little more on the flip...

As many of you have been reading for the past few weeks, Sen. Alan Mollohan has been under attack by an ultaconservative organization called National Legal & Policy Center

The allegations rasied by this organization include the supposedly innapropriate use of earmarks totalling $178 million dollars funnelled into charities of his creation.  This, as well as some misreporting of his personal finances and taxes have caused the Senator to come under the spotlight.  Citizens for Ethics alleges that Mollohan undervalued and omitted key assets in his annual reporting.  It also raises the question of how his financial net worth rose from $562,000 in in filings for 2000, to over $6 million in 2004.

The Charleston Gazette reports this morning that the National Legal and Policy Center has received more than a million from Scaife & Scaife-related foundations over the last decade.  

A Pittsburgh-area family that frequently funds conservative organizations has mostly funded a group accusing a West Virginia congressman of creating a nonprofit group for his own political gain.

The National Legal and Policy Center, founded in 1991 and based in Falls Church, Va., has received millions since 1995 from three Scaife family foundations, according to Media Transparency, a Web site that researches conservative organizations.

The center turned over to the Justice Department a more than 500-page report on Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., and his relationship with the Vandalia Heritage Foundation. The center has refused to release the report publicly, saying some items it contains may not be accurate.

Yes, that's right.  You've just been exposed to real journalism.  Satisfying, wasn't it?

I didn't see this anywhere so I thought I would post it at DKos.

Seems the GOP are trying to dig up a little DeLay/Duke-style dirt on Alan Mollohan (D-W.Va) and with the help of an unlikely ally in Citizens for Ethics they may have possibly found something.

The filing deadline for West Virginia came and went. Of the four Congressional races, there will be two Democratic primaries...

So, let's see if the Constitution still works. And, have a little fun heaping trouble on big, bad, Tom Delay.

For the last five years or so, Republican members of the House Ethics Committee have refused to investigate Tom 'The Hammer' Delay. They have tied the hands of their Democratic counterparts on the committee, they have changed the rules to keep the light of truth from shining on their fellow Republican crooks and liars in Congress, and they have all but ensured that for Republicans in the House of Representatives, crime pays.

Republicans are so very quick to play the morals card, citing their superiority as members of the 'party of God'. Well, fine. Let's see them put their proclaimed moral superiority to the test and impeach one of their own, their leader, felony-indicted Tom Delay.