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Who's Behind That Mysterious Earmark?
So who actually secured that $3.6 million earmark for the National Alternative Fuels Foundation back in 2000 -- the one that a federal jury in Denver this week concluded was part of a fraud?
The foundation collected more than $2 million in federal funds after promising to create a new, clean-energy fuel for automobiles and turning in bogus science to the EPA to back it up.
Keith Ashdown, the chief investigator for a group called Taxpayers for Common Sense, said he's been looking into the NAFF earmark for a few days and can't find any record of who wedged that $3.6 million into a massive appropriations bill.
"We need to know who got this money because this is a serious case of fraud. They basically gave the money to a bunch of crooks who ripped off the federal taxpayers," Ashdown said.
Once again, Colorado Senate candidate Bob Schaffer's campaign office didn't return our phone call today.
He's the one we really want to ask. Schaffer was in Congress when the earmark was awarded to the little-known not-for-profit founded by Bill Orr, who was convicted this week. And when Schaffer left Congress, he went on to become a director for the NAFF, where his political buddy Scott Shires was treasurer. Shires pleaded guilty and testified against Orr.
When asked by a local reporter, Schaffer's campaign manager, Dick Wadhams, denied the then-Congressman played any part in securing the earmark. But Schaffer hasn't responded to any of these questions and we'd prefer to hear it from him directly.
An unnamed source told the Denver Post that a Congressional staffer slipped the money into the bill.
Since we didn't hear from Schaffer, we called up the other Colorado legislators from those days and asked if they recalled anything about the earmark or Orr. So far, five of the eight members of the 2000 delegation have denied any role in securing the earmark. We haven't been able to reach two former members of the delegation. And then there's Schaffer, who isn't talking.
A spokesman for Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) said, "We don't have any record of Mr. Tancredo requesting the earmark or meeting with Bill Orr to discuss the earmark, and we don't know who got it for this group."
A spokeswoman Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO), who is running against Schaffer in this year's Senate race, said, quite simply: "Mark had nothing to do with the earmark.
A spokesman for Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat, said, "To the best of our knowledge, Congresswoman DeGette did not request and was not involved in any way regarding this earmark."
Former Rep. Scott McInnis, a Republican who left office in 2005, sent us an email:
"I do not recall it at all and do not believe I had any thing to do with it. I rarely did earmarks and when I did it focused on communities or the Forest Service. I do not recall knowing or having met Mr Orr. I do not recall any discussions at delegation meetings or with individual congressman regarding Orr or his group."
And a spokeswoman for outgoing Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO), whose seat Schaffer is running for, wrote:
Senator Allard did not request the earmark and he does not know who requested it because he doesn't ask other Members about their requests. I do not know if they've ever met, but I do not believe they ever had any formal meetings. I don't believe that Mr. Orr ever discussed this earmark with our office.
So that leaves Schaffer, former Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, and former Rep. Joel Hefley. We'll keep calling.
This is TERRIFIC news for Bob Schaffer!
INQUIRY: Has anyone thought to share this the local Colorado newspapers?
May 30, 2008 9:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bill Orr contributed to Tom Tancredo in 1999 and 2000. Scott Shires contributed to Tancredo in 2007 and it looks like his wife contributed to Schaffer in 2008.
In 2006, the Unbossed website ">crossposted an excellent article from Colorado Confidential about Scott
Shires' campaign finance shenanigans:
Believe it or not, Scott Shires is still runnng the Campaign Compliance Center. I'm not sure what the Voter Compliance section is but I couldn't access it.
I checked the Colorado Secretary of State Elections Center and sure enough, Scott Shires is behind the 527, Senate Majority Fund, LLC.
I suspect that we could dig up a fair amount of info about Shaffer if we go through Shires' records.
BTW, only the 2002 and 2003 National Alternative Fuels Foundation 990s are online at the Foundation Center's 990 Finder. Shaffer came on board after that.
May 30, 2008 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Darn it.
Link to Unbossed website article about Shires here.
Link to Shires Campaign Compliance Center website here.
May 30, 2008 11:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Scott Shires runs a 527, Senate Majority Fund, LL.
Take a look at the finances here.
The Fund took in $138k in the first quarter of 2008 despite Shires' legal problems.
May 30, 2008 11:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shires is still running a political committee, Parents and Teachers For Schaffer, according to the Colorado Secretary of State Elections Center.
May 30, 2008 11:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Orr lives in Tancredo's district, so that contribution isn't necessarily meaningful beyond people tend to contribute to their own congressional candidates.
Orr and Shires both have extensive histories in Colorado and Denver-area Republican politics. They've probably crossed paths one way or another with most everyone.
Shires pleaded guilty two years ago to a misdemeanor, failing to file tax returns for Orr-related entities. Plea bargain postponed sentencing until after Shires cooperated in the Orr prosecution, which he has just accomplished. Apparently, Shires did what his client asked of him (except maybe the copping a plea part), which doesn't disqualify him from doing accounting and registered agent work for political committees. The Arapahoe County Republican Party chairman, whose wife also happens to be the district attorney, represented Shires in his plea bargain. Orr is the pariah here, not Shires.
May 30, 2008 11:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice try but Shires got paid $58k in 2002 and $48k in 2003 to be the National Alternative Fuels Foundation treasurer and he signed off on the 990s as Shires Financial Group.
Gee, do you think Shires wondered why he was paid so handsomely to write a handful checks for a non-existent foundation?
According to the indictment, Orr directed NAFF staff not to withhold payroll taxes from his salary. Presumably, that staff was Scott Shires.
And NAFF apparently didn't file any other 990s so we have no idea where the money went in those years.
Has Schaffer disclosed yet whether he was compensated by NAFF?
Get real. Shires is a crook.
May 31, 2008 7:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
If Shires provided information as part of a plea bargain, I can't wait to see what all Bill Orr has to say between now and his sentencing.
I think the photo of Schaffer may now be permanently outdated. I doubt that he's got a smile left in him after these recent events.
May 31, 2008 10:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
Of course he is. The question is why the Colorado Republicans keep hiring him. They actually value what he's done.
Schaffer is being nominated for the Senate today. They are all still in the bubble.
May 31, 2008 1:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, but Shires is Schaffer's persistent connection to Orr, and Shires cannot have been ignorant of the implications of Orr's requests. And if I remember the Unbossed story well enough, Shires was one of the GOP who purposefully skirted the campaign finance limits through creative LLC creation. He's no angel.
May 31, 2008 2:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
No angel by any means. I was pointing out how he manages to keep getting all that Republican business. He did what he was told, didn't turn state's evidence until he was indicted, and only copped to a misdemenor for failing to file tax returns. In state GOP circles, that's known as the trifecta. All in all, it's a stellar record for a Republican hack, and he's being rewarded accordingly.
May 31, 2008 2:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
Apart from the question why Shires continues racking up business with Colorado Republican politicians, a better question is whether Wadhams had him sewn up before throwing him under the bus yesterday. Recent events indicate Shires isn't someone you want testifying against you. And if Wadhams (as surrogate for Schaffer) is so eager to blame Shires for welcoming him into this fraudulent scheme, why is Shires still handling Schaffer's other standing political committee? Shires copped a plea and NAFF blew up TWO YEARS AGO. Schaffer's just now realizing Shires might be tainted?
May 31, 2008 2:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
who exactly is writing these fucking laws ???
you're gonna tell me a STAFFER did this ???
that;\'s the same story the repuglitards used about the coconut grove earmark
so we need to find out who exactly is writing this stuff, the people we pay to do this, or the flunkies who work for our PAID CONGRESSCRITTERS
blaming the staffers DOES NOT WORK, by the way
it just adds MALFEASANCE AND DERELICTION OF DUTY to the list of criminal charges
May 31, 2008 6:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just who are these "Congressional Staffer" people, anyway? Someone *has* to know who works on these bills from the staff. Are all of them Republican robots, or is someone out there willing to speak?
The bill didn't assemble itself.
May 31, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
According to Karen Crummy's Denver Post article, which has been updated this afternoon, the House Appropriations Committee staff member testified at Orr's trial. There's also a strong statement from an unnamed "federal official" (presumably in the U.S. Attorney's office) that there was no evidence Schaffer was involved with the earmark. The unnamed official also says Schaffer was not questioned by federal investigators.
None of which absolves Schaffer for his oversight and fiduciary responsibilities as a board member for what was basically a nonprofit corporation set up to defraud the taxpayers.
May 31, 2008 6:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here is an interesting factoid about Bob Schaffer that might be useful during the campaign.
I was perusing his financial disclosure reports at opensecrets.org and noticed that Schaffer made an investment in March 2000 of between $15k and $50k in ETS Payphones. He also reported between $1k and $2.5k in rental income from ETS Payphones. By the end of 2000, Schaffer's investment in ETS Payphones was worth between $1 and $1k.
If Schaffer made a legitimate investment in ETS
Payphones, he is as dumb as a bag of hammers and his investment is prima facie evidence that he is too stupid to serve in the Senate. If something else was going on, Schaffer was hooked up with major league crooks.
The ETS Payphones scandal was one of the last in a long string of payphone swindles in the '90s. I bet every AG in every state fielded complaints about payphone scams back then.
ETS Payphones went belly up in 2000 and was investigated by the SEC. The owner, Charles Edwards, was sentenced last year to 13 years in prison for swindling investors out of $400 million.
Edwards used independent insurance agents nationwide to sell payphones to investors which ETS Payphones then leased back at a guaranteed rate of return of 14%. It was another Ponzi scheme that hit the elderly particularly hard because they tended to trust their insurance agents.
But anyone with half a brain should know that if an investment in payphones could actually generate a guaranteed 14% rate when the banks were paying less than 5%, everyone would take their money out of banks and invest it in payphones.
I am having a hard time imagining that Schaffer could be so incredibly dumb and naive to fall for this patently ridiculous swindle. If he had just searched "payphones" on the internet, he would have found a ton of info about payphone swindles like I did in 2001.
I'd really, really like to know more about how Schaffer came to invest in ETS Payphones. That's if he actually put his own money into the business. If he didn't, I'd like to know that, too.
Schaffer can't really be that fucking stupid, can he?
May 31, 2008 11:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Interesting find there. It's hard to believe Schaffer invested in those while he was in Congress ... but no one ever claimed he was smart, just loyal and reliably conservative.
June 1, 2008 12:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
These are trying times that call for the best and the brightest to lead our country.
I don't want to believe that Republicans are so indifferent to the fate of their country that they would nominate a fucking idiot who invested in a payphone scam to be a United States senator.
I know Republicans are anti-intellectual but this is beyond ridiculous.
But in my heart, I know Republicans could give a rat's ass if Schaffer is brain dead as long as he votes the party line. After all, Schaffer was a sitting member of the House when he got swindled.
What's Schaffer's campaign slogan going to be? Vote for me 'cuz I'm dumb as dirt?
And here's a little timeline in case Schaffer is a crook and not a rube.
June '99 - ETS Payphones first registers in Colorado.
March '00 - Schaffer "invests" in ETS Payphones.
September '00 - SEC files a compliant against ETS Payphones which then files for bankruptcy.
June 1, 2008 1:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Getting back to the National Alternative Fuels Foundation, Scott L. Shires signed the EPA grant as project manager in March 2002. Presumably, a project manager knows something about the project he or she is managing.
Is Schaffer going to claim that his pal, Scott Shires, never told him that the project only existed on paper?
The fact that the Republicans would even consider nominating someone who served as a director of a non-existent foundation is incredible.
Also listed as a project manager in the EPA grant is Herb G. Bruch of Reedsville, Virginia. Bruch was paid $17k to be a NAFF director in 2002.
Anyone have any idea as to what Herb Bruch does for a living?
June 1, 2008 1:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Bruch was a "technical director" for the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association in the '90s. Also, it appears to be "Reedville," not "Reedsville."
Orr's scam wasn't all "on paper," he had some fairly respected oil and gas scientists involved, including some who have gone on to do real work since (not all washed-up hacks). Some testified at his trial that they were "this close" to proving their claims about vapor phase combustion, and apparently believed it with all their heart. But that's the thing with the alternative fuels world -- like perpetual motion or cold fusion, there are actual scientists out there who will vouch for it all the way until it's finally disproven.
They really did have a fuel blend and really did perform some tests on it. From the indictment, it's plausible the scientists were performing their tests and Orr was the one falsifying the reports to the EPA. This, of course, doesn't let Schaffer off the hook.
June 1, 2008 4:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, El. Am I missing something? According to FedSpending.org, the National Alternative Fuels Foundation was awarded a $3.6 million grant in 2002.
In 2002 and 2003, the grant was doled out in $525k increments. At least $575k of the $1.1 million in cash from the grant went to pay the board of directors in those years, leaving a whopping $430k for research.
Presumably, the board including newly appointed Bob Schaffer was paid similar salaries in 2004.
How much of the grant was ultimately given to the NAFF in cash? When Orr got the grant, did he already have a research facility set up that was funded by his company with scientists on board?
Sounds like Bruch got paid to facilitate the grant.
June 1, 2008 7:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh my gawd, Schaffer's campaign manager is Dick Wadhams? How could anyone forget DickWad?
Wadhams was Senator Macaca's campaign manager. Also an article in Slate suggests he was Karl Rove's protege and loved going negative early and often.
June 1, 2008 4:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Wadhams is also the chairman of the Colorado State Republican Party. He is doing everything in his power to vindicate his Allen fiasco, and just digging himself in deeper.
Take a look at this if you're interested in some on-the-ground discussion about Bob Schaffer and what's going on with his campaign today.
June 1, 2008 4:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry for some reason that link didn't take.
http://coloradopols.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6290
June 1, 2008 4:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the link. Schaffer is not an inspiring speaker. He read his speech like it he was reading it for the first time and he said absolutely nothing. B-o-r-i-n-g.
What the hell is "real change" supposed to mean anyway? To me, real change is throwing the bums out of Washington who have spent the last sixteen years wrecking this country. This "real change" is going nowhere as a Republican slogan, imho.
The Republicans should try "We did the best we could with what we had. Please, pretty please, give us another chance and we promise not to ever screw up again."
I watched the Udall ad and I'd give him points for bringing up bin Laden but I'm not crazy nuts about him standing in the middle of a field for no apparent reason other than the scenery is pretty.
But what do I know about what appeals to Coloradans? I'm from NY and things are a little different here. If Chuck Schumer campaigned in blue jeans, he would just look silly. I don't ever remember Hillary wearing jeans and I don't think D'Amato ever did either. I'm 99.9% sure Pat Moynihan didn't wear them.
Speaking of Clintons, Bob Schaffer is the unmitigated asshole who, along with Jon Shadegg, urged his fellow Republicans to boycott President Clinton's 1999 State of the Union Address.
Little more than a month later, the dumb fuck got swindled in a payphone scam.
Schaffer is not only a dumb fuck but he is also a meanspirited, nasy little weasel. I hope Mark Udall leaves his bootprints on Schaffer's face.
June 1, 2008 7:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Orr's defenders claimed the EPA went after him because his fuel additive actually worked. He had enough of a "store front" to convince people to invest in and defend his scheme. The bad tax filings, falsified reports, and funds diversion put the lie to his claims.
madhaus, Wadhams isn't just Schaffer's campaign manager - he's the Chair of the Colorado Republican Party. He had been doubling as Executive Director of the COGOP in order to pay himself some cash, but being a campaign manager was better for him. Wadhams pretty much hand-picked Schaffer; former CO-03 Rep. Scott McInnis was the likely GOP candidate until one day out of the blue...
Oh, and Mrs. P: apparently Colorado Republicans are stupid enough to nominate someone as dumb as Schaffer - they did so yesterday at their state convention. (Remember, this is the same Bob Schaffer who recently claimed that the Marianas Islands were a model for immigration reform nationally - smart is not his strong point; so far, silence has been his best seller.)
June 1, 2008 4:36 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, PR, for confirming Schaffer's nomination. I vaguely remembered reading that the convention was yesterday when I commented about the nomination.
I wonder how many Colorado Republicans know just how stupid Schaffer is.
Can the Dems go negative early? Something like "Bob Schaffer - Con artists love the little sucker!"
I wonder if you could play up an angle that Schaffer is just like George Bush - a guy you'd like to have a beer with.
"Isn't it time to send someone with some smarts to Washington? Then you and Bob can go have that beer and relax, knowing the country is in safe hands."
I read the Slate article about Wadhams that madhaus linked to. So Wadhams likes his candidates dumb andt amiable like Schaffer and George Allen. I guess they are more malleable and suit his style of campaigning although he did lose the Allen race because Allen was so frigging stupid, the voters couldn't help but notice.
I like the part of the story about the Thune race where Wadhams hires the bloggers on the q.t. I wish someone would pay me on the q.t. to dig the dirt on Republicans. I'd write what I would have written anyway for free, only more of it and more often.
Wishful thinking.
June 1, 2008 6:45 AM | Reply | Permalink
How about this ad?
"If Bob Schaffer and his Republican colleagues in Congress had devoted as much attention to national security as they did to Bill Clinton's impeachment, things might have turned out differently."
How about "as they did to investigating Bill Clinton, things might have turned out differently."
Maybe "countering the threat of terrorism" instead of "national security". No, I'll sticking with national security.
Let's try changing "things might have turned out differently." to "the world might be a better place today." I like it.
Imagine the brouhaha if the Dems really ran this ad. Sean Hannity would have an apopletic fit to end all fits right before our very eyes.
Let's do it!
Darn. Funtime is over for me this a.m. Time to go to work.
June 1, 2008 8:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Schaffer is campaigning against Mark Udall's zip code while the country is going to hell in a handbasket.
If anyone asks Udall about his zip code again, he should laugh and invite everyone in Colorado to stop by his house and say hello. And then he should point out that, unlike his opponent, he will never waste the valuable time of his constituents on silly stuff in these trying times.
Then Udall could point out that the last time Schaffer was in Washignton DC, he wasted a lot of valuable time and money trying to hound the president out of office and look what that got us.
Udall could finish by saying flat out that Bob Schaffer is as dumb as a bag of hammers. Let Schaffer argue that he isn't as dumb as a bag of hammers and we can all have a few laughs.
Here's an ad - "In these trying times, Bob Schaffer promises to restore the integrity of the zip code while Mark Udall is spending his time restoring integrity in government. Do you want your senator to defend and protect your zip code or your country?"
I can just hear Bob Schaffer now promising to clean up zip code abuse in Washington DC and assuring the voters that he will work closely with Homeland Security to ensure that every citizen in this country is using the proper zip code.
June 1, 2008 5:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
That story was a silly distraction for about two hours. Locally, it just embarrasses Wadhams.
June 1, 2008 8:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Udall should refer to Schaffer's zip code investigation repeatedly as an example of
how Schaffer's campaign wastes money and time focusing silly and trivial matters in an attempt
to deflect attention away from Schaffer's lack of substance.
The Udall campaign should poke fun at Dick Wadhams at every turn. Stuff like "Wadhams has been touted as the new Karl Rove which makes Bob Schaffer the new George Bush."
I don't think Wadhams' win in South Dakota was all that remarkable. Daschle was extremely vulnerable. As a Democrat, I was thoroughly disgusted with the pay-to-play racket Daschle and his wife were running. Daschle deserved to be thrown of office for his disgraceful conduct after 9-11 alone. His idea of service to his country after it was attacked was to spend obscene amounts of taxpayer money for the benefit of his friends and family.
If Schaffer and Wadhams want to call Udall a Boulder liberal, then Udall better start calling Schaffer a Bush conservative who believes in big government, big spending and big debt.
I didn't know very much about Schaffer until a few days ago and now the race has my attention. After taking a short break to goof on Schaffer for being a dumb fuck, I'm going to see what I can dig up.
I have a lot of info about US Term Limits, the group that ran a pro
-Schaffer ad illegally a cople of months ago.
I don't know much about Colorado but I seem to recall that the state adopted a controversial mechanism to cap spending. TABOR?
I haven't read anything lately about the status of TABOR in Colorado but I remember reading about how it has caused a decline in state education and healthcare services and reduced the quality of life in Colorado.
The same Republican operatives working under the radar for US Term Limits are also responsible for promoting TABOR, the privatization of education and every other anti-government initiative.
Edward A. Wilson, a Grover Norquist's crony, is one of the major players who operates through an extensive network of so-called conservative activist groups. Wilson is the guy that moves money around to where it is needed.
Howard Rich is another player. His specialty is promoting so-called property rights initiatives which sound good on paper to the ordinary voter but what the initiatives really do is strip the state of its authority to manage growth and development,thereby giving developers the right to develop property in any way they want to without regard to the community as a whole.
US Term Limits and the other groups are funded
in large part by wealthy right wing extremists like Ronald Lauder. I know, too, that the National Manufacturers Association has funneled
substantial amounts of money to these groups under questionable circumstances.
Udall should start talking about the secretly funded groups operating in the shadows that have seemingly popped up in Colorado overnight to support to Schaffer, legaly and illegally.
What do the people behind these groups expect in
return from Bob Schaffer?
June 2, 2008 6:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Correction: William a. Wilson, not Edward A. Wilson, is the Republican operative who moves money around for a network of faux conservative action non-profit groups usually registered as 501(c)(4)s.
June 2, 2008 7:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is the classic example of why there needs to be a committee that reads, identifies authors & contributors and understands what is in a bill before it is voted on in the house or senate and once all the above are verified and a verification of the congresspersons and senators know and understand what is in the bill then there can be NOTHING more added to the bill and it is then voted on.
If something like this does not happen then the the graff and corruption will continue and everybody in america will be the losers except for the beneficiaries of bill when made into law.
June 2, 2008 12:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
"An unnamed source told the Denver Post that a Congressional staffer slipped the money into the bill. "
Once again, the role of "Congressional Staffers" is underplayed. They represent a shadow government within the USA.
June 2, 2008 8:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Since the staffer on the House Appropriations Committee who slipped the earmark in a bill testified at the trial, his or her name might be in PACER docs.
We could probably narrow the list of likely parties by checking the Committee's staff listed at Legistorm.
When I have time later, I'm going to take a crack at it.
Shouldn't we be asking how often Congressional staffers slip multi-million dollar earmarks into bills on their own? With that kind of authority, these staffers would seem to be susceptible to bribery.
June 2, 2008 8:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have the names of the federal witnesses in the Orr case but I won't be able to crosscheck against the names of House Appropriation staffers until tonight.
As an aside, U.S. Term Limits spent a whopping $470k for the illegal ad it ran supporting Schaffer. To put the cost of the ad in perspective, US Term Limits reported total revenue of $2.8 million in 2006. My guess is that someone gave US Term Limits a big chunk of cash just to finance that ad.
I think it was the Denver Post that reported that Schaffer was not compensated for his NAFF directorship. The more likely scenario is that Schaffer was compensated but returned the money when the trouble started.
Schaffer was probably brought on board in the fall of 2004 to either assist in obtaining more money or to help fend off the feds.
I have another comment about Schaffer and backdoor financing that I will post later.
June 2, 2008 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Quick comment - I couldn't find the National Alternative Fuels Foundation earmark in the Citizens Against Government Waste earmark database but I only searched Colorado earmarks.
Something is screwy about this case. Someone here or in the other Schaffer post commented that Scott Shires was represented by the wife of the prosecutor and she is the head of the local Republican Party. Something like that, in any case.
We all know the DOJ is corrupt. We have absolutely no reason to think the DOJ would not cover up some kind of GOP earmarks for sale scheme.
That House Appropriations Committee staffer did not insert a $3.6 million unauthorized earmark in a bill because William Orr was a nice guy.
Keep in mind that crooks like Duke Cunningham and Jerry Lewis were on the appropriations committee then and under Tom DeLay, the Republicans hid a lot of information from the Dems.
When I read the latest story about the NRCC scandal, it sounded to me like the Republicans were hinting that a lot more than $740k was embezzled and Chris Ward wasn't acting alone.
A $3.6 million unauthorized earmark was slipped into an appropriations bill at at time when some of the most crooked politicians in recent American history controlled Congress. Hmm...
June 2, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I went through the names of some sixty-odd defense and prosecution witnesses and I think defense witness, Thomas Vanek, was the staffer who slipped the NAFF earmark into a VA/HUD bill
(See Thomas - House Report 106-988 - Environmental Protection Agency - Item #32)
Thomas J. Vanek was a professional staff member of the House Science Committee in January 2002. Unfortunately, Legistorm's records don't go back any earlier.
The House Science Committee has oversight responsibility for the EPA. In 2000, Jim Sensenbrenner was committee chairman and Mark Udall was a member but Udall has flat out denied having anything to do with the earmark.
Vanek is now senior policy advisor at the Department of Energy's Office of Science.
In the EPA section of the bill, $696,000,000 was appropriated for the EPA and then 32 earmarks are listed. The National Alternative Fuels Foundation $3.6 million earmark is last on the list so it looks like it might have been slipped in at the last minute.
Maybe TPM Muckraker can give Mr. Vanek a call about the NAFF earmark.
June 2, 2008 11:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
After reading Schaffer's bio on the Aspect Energy LLC
I'm still wondering if Schaffer really did get swindled or there is more to the story.
I can't believe that Schaffer was gullible enough to believe that ETS Payphones could guarantee a high rate of return.
Hmm...
June 2, 2008 11:46 PM | Reply | Permalink