The Republican corruption never ends. According to the
LA Times California Republican Dana Rohrabacher used his inlfuence to help a Hollywood producer and got a big, fat gift in exchange.
U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach)
used his influence to open doors in Washington for a Hollywood producer pitching a television show after the producer paid him a $23,000 option on a screenplay, records and interviews show.
Before the option deal in late 2003, Rohrabacher's script, "Baja," had kicked around Hollywood for so many years that its conservative protagonist had morphed from a Vietnam veteran to a soldier who had served in the Persian Gulf War.
The action-adventure tale, penned by the conservative Orange County congressman almost 30 years ago, revolved around an archeological expedition to Mexico by the vet and his antagonist, a liberal graduate student.
Following the sale of the script to Joseph Medawar, a little-known producer, Rohrabacher helped introduce Medawar to at least five Republican congressmen and staff members at the House of Representatives' Homeland Security Committee in 2004. At the time, Medawar was pitching his latest Hollywood project -- a TV series about the Department of Homeland Security.
One of those congressmen was former Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach), then chair of the Homeland Security Committee. Rohrabacher said he also made calls that helped Medawar and his crew gain access to officials in federal law enforcement agencies who briefed them on the inner workings of the federal government.
Records and interviews show Medawar repeatedly trumpeted his access to Washington big-shots when discussing his project with journalists and selling it to potential investors in his company, Steeple Enterprises.
Medwar is a pretty shady character and is the subject of a criminal probe.
Federal authorities now allege that Medawar's television project was at the heart of an elaborate swindle in which Medawar defrauded dozens of people -- many of them Orange County and South Los Angeles churchgoers -- by selling $5.5 million of stock in Steeple.
Medawar, arrested last month, has pleaded not guilty to a 23-count indictment. He faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.
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After Medawar was arrested last month by FBI and IRS agents for alleged fraud, Rohrabacher said he had agreed to introduce Medawar around Washington because he believed in the producer's idea of a television drama on the Homeland Security Department. Rohrabacher said he also briefly introduced Medawar to First Lady Laura Bush last year at a GOP fundraiser in Orange County.
What do the rules say?
House ethics rules allow members of Congress to receive outside payments for works of fiction, poetry, lyrics or scripts as long as the payment is not offered because of the lawmaker's congressional status.
Bill Allison, editor at large for the Center for Public Integrity, said that although laws might not have been broken, the $23,000 payment "certainly sounds like a quid pro quo."
Rohrabacher denied any such arrangement. "There was no quid pro quo," he said.
So, Dana, will you give back the money?
"If he is found guilty of fraud I will seriously think of giving that option money back to some of the people who were defrauded," Rohrabacher said. "But if he was only someone who was flamboyant and incompetent ... I will not feel compelled to take a strong look at giving back the money."
I have an idea. Since Bush is so "flamboyanly incomepetant', can I have my Federal taxes back for the past four and a half years?