Comments (9)

P J Evans wrote on September 6, 2007 4:00 PM:

Berard also mentioned that Young -- who is a member of the committee -- will likely join in on the discussions because he is the original author of the earmark.

Will he continue to threaten Florida with funding withdrawal if they don't favor his pet real-estate developer? Can they tell him 'you're involved, you don't get to vote'?

PrgrsvArchitect wrote on September 6, 2007 4:11 PM:

Is anyone looking into the legality of Young's alterations... there was some mention that it should be looked at, but now it seems they're just willing to alter where the money gets spent. Who would be responsible for looking at something like this. If it's the DOJ or Senate Ethics Comm, I won't expect much

from TPM archive http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003974.php

Stan Brand, former General Counsel to the House of Representatives, said that such clerks would have had to be involved in the change. And he joined other experts and watchdogs in calling for the incident to be investigated. "It seems to me a matter that the House would want to look at to see if its processes are being manipulated."

I guess Brand's interest in this has died down -- understand he's kind of busy trying to clear up Larry Craig's problems

EH wrote on September 6, 2007 4:16 PM:

I was just thinking about the topics the awkwardly named author above posted. The assumption seems to be that illegally appropriated money is still appropriated.

Rebel wrote on September 6, 2007 5:01 PM:

What's there to change? The Coconut Road funding was never passed by congress. Bush's signature is meaningless on a bill never passed. Bush could just as well sign a piece of Craig's toilet paper.

Anonymous wrote on September 6, 2007 5:30 PM:

Re: EH's comment...
I agree with what I believe EH is getting at. I realize I am part of the older generation (60) and have many outdated ideas.

One of the concepts promoted by our elected representatives which seems to be cropping up more and more (in my opinion, at least) is that the laws and ethics and integrity which have served our society for the past couple hundred years... are no longer needed or desired.

We've seen cases recently that ill gained donations and actual laundered and illegal money (Abramoff Native American funds) are given to nonprofit groups (profitting the politician, of course) rather than returning it to the FBI or other agency responsibility for finding where the money belongs.

Many of us learned by 10 or 12 years old what to do with ill gotten items. Through this and other lessons, we were able to... at a fairly early age... relate this lesson to broader concepts such as the current Florida fiasco.

The folks "We the People" have elected to represent us recently, were not as fortunate as some of us (in my opinion). Instead, they have learned to take ALL situations, whether legal or illegal, ethical or unethical, and use them to further their station in life.

They will therefore not hesitate to lie if they believe they will get by with it and it will further their chance to get on top. They will also steal, take bribes, send others to their death... if it will further their careers.

We have backgrounds of ALL the current presidential candidates and will eventually have the same information for those running for the Senate and House. If we are truly honest when we say we want people with integrity representing us, perhaps we need to take a better look at the backgrounds and actions of these candidates to see how often their speeches match their past and present actions. If they have lied and misrepresented themselves in the past to get to where they are now, or are currently doing things such as believing it's okay for them to misappropriate funds that have already been misappropriated, as in the Florida case, and we STILL want them in office, we might just want to redefine our own value system and what we actually learned as a child.

As I said, some of my beliefs may be outdated, such as the one which tells me that doing the right thing for the right reason is more important than doing anything that will get me ahead.

Of course, if I hadn't learned this lesson, who knows how far I could have gotten. Perhaps I could have been a future indicted congressman... or senator... or even president!

breakspear wrote on September 6, 2007 9:34 PM:

It doesn't matter if Rep Young is part of the discussion or not. It will be decided by his fellow Republicans on that committee with or without him. What he wants clearly is no longer relevant. He did something clearly unethical and illegal, so it seems. He has shown contempt for laws before and only cares about what money he can get for his state, and now with this arrogance, for a fundraiser. he knows the system but sometimes if it stinks long enough someone is eventually gonna notice. and we all notice now. we see you, Young, you prickly and money-grabbing old fool, and you aren't getting away with it this time. so shove it.

Anonymous wrote on September 7, 2007 3:22 AM:

breakspear I like your attitude. If only I believed it positively will happen but Don Young is tough ya know, It is getting less media in Alaska. Maybe the end of the fiscal year is quietly suppressing legal action. I feel it could be the US attorneys office is too quiet and hope it has not been influenced by the executive branch because Don is one of those "Good Americans" I've read about, they are what the DOJ looks for in a government position.

Grumpy wrote on September 7, 2007 8:35 AM:

"This was something that was inserted when the Republicans were in the majority, it was a Republican request and usually these are handled by the individual party."

Yet another departure from the "How a bill becomes a law" we all learned on Saturday morning cartoons: where in the Constitution does it say that political parties draft spending bills?

aklocal wrote on September 7, 2007 1:59 PM:

The chain of custody of the bill needs to be investigated with people testifying under oath. Conference committee staffers have got to be pretty tight right now. Cover up is the killer, the place where crimes are committed.

Laura, could we have a listing of the staff who worked on the conference committee, and the names of Don Young's staff at the time? Is there any way of telling who Don traveled to the Florida fundraiser with? Do all of these staffers still work for Don? Maybe your interns could do a little sifting and post to talkingpointsmemo.com/docs? It would give folks a little somewhere to focus some attention/scrutiny. Thanks!

Much appreciation to the effort and innovation of the tpmmuckrakers - what a service! You make me proud. Thank you for not letting this slide under the radar. Please keep on it until the guilty are punished and some integrity is restored to the system. We all know how badly it needs it.