Pete's pork may turn and bite him

[jedi]

Oh I sure hope this comes true and we get vote my rep out!

Source: Pete's pork may turn and bite him / nwi.com

Whether Pete Visclosky's squeaky-clean image remains untarnished will depend on how well pork sticks to Teflon.

For a quarter of a century, Visclosky has represented Northwest Indiana as a Democrat from Merrillville and has managed to remain untarnished by any scandal that has laid many a local politician low.

No serious challenge to his candidacy has been mounted either in a primary or general election in years, but he now finds himself at the center of a Beltway storm over earmarks, those costly "pork barrel" amendments that benefit someone who often donates money to the earmark's sponsor.

Taxpayers for Common Sense has pegged Visclosky as the House's top earmarker for 2008, saying he secured $75.9 million for pet projects, more than twice his nearest rival.

And while not all earmarks are bad, Visclosky has within the past eight months found himself having to explain why he has been sending and accepting money from both a man who pleaded guilty to stock fraud and a lobbying firm that was raided by the FBI.

Visclosky and Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., sent $2.6 million to the Samueli Institute, a nonprofit institute in Moran’s district that researches alternative treatments such as herbal treatments and acupuncture. Visclosky's $1.6 million earmark was inserted into a defense bill.

This was two months after the institute's founder, Henry Samueli, pleaded guilty in a $2.2 billion fraud case involving the backdating of stock options at Broadcom Corp., his Southern California tech firm. When the ties came to light, Visclosky did not send his $30,600 donation from Samueli back, but said he would accept no more donations.

Last year The PMA Group, a powerhouse Virginia lobbying firm, got more than $23 million in earmarks for its clients from Visclosky, who is on the House Appropriations Committee.

FBI agents raided The PMA Group in November. The firm, which works with defense contractor clients, has been Visclosky's biggest single source of campaign cash since 2003, funneling $179,450 to him since 2001.

Visclosky returned $18,000 of that money after the raid came to light.

It's the tip of a deep, deep iceberg involving far more players and earlier this month Visclosky reversed an earlier decision and voted for a congressional investigation into earmarks and their influential recipients, a vote which failed.

His reversal came after PMA was thrust into the spotlight, and Visclosky said he knew nothing of the FBI raid until he "read about it in the paper like everyone else did."

"I have always conducted myself with the highest integrity and transparency," he has said.

That's the image we've known. When and if he stands for re-election in 2010, will he still be able to say the same thing, or will pork be clinging tenaciously to his Teflon?

The opinions are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at markk@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4170.

 

[gdh]

Hope you are right. I have not voted for him because he is anti-gun and pro illegal immigration.

 

[jedi]

The only real way I see him getting tossed out of office is two ways.

1) The government brings corruption charges against him and finds him guility
2) Indiana stops using the STRAIGHT D or R on the ballots and forces people to vote for each categroy.

The majority of LAKE country residents just vote straight D and then complain that we are getting raped by the machine. Yet they did voted for that machine!

***GGGGRRRR******

 

[gdh]

What is also killing us in Lake County is all the people moving here from Illinios that only know how to vote Democratic.

 

[jedi]

We are going to have a lot more former IL folks moving across the boarder (all along the IN border) if the idiots in Springfield pass the new IL Governor's state tax hike!