Rep. John Murtha has long been on good-government groups' lists of the most corrupt lawmakers in Washington. But in recent months, the veteran Pennsylvania Democratic powerbroker has been under particularly intense scrutiny for his ties to two companies that are each the targets of federal investigations.
So it's worth taking a moment to consider what's going on in each case, and what it all amounts to.
Jack Abramoff's wife and five children are living "just above the poverty line" in a house with a leaky roof which they can't afford to live in but, given its depressed price, also can't afford to sell.
That's according to lawyers for the disgraced former lobbyist, who are arguing in court that Abramoff should be allowed to keep spending a tax refund of more than $520,000 to pay legal and other bills. Last month, the Justice Department moved to stop Abramoff from using the refund to pay the bills, arguing that he first must pay $23 million in restitution to the Indian tribes he swindled.
Drip, drip.
We should soon know whether the House Ethics committee is probing any lawmakers' ties to the now-defunct PMA lobbying group. The House has passed Rep. Steny Hoyer's resolution to force the committee to disclose the issue, reports Roll Call. The vote was 270-134.
Federal investigators are looking into whether PMA gave campaign contributions in exchange for earmarks. Two powerful Democratic lawmakers, Reps. Pete Visclosky and John Murtha have received the most scrutiny for their ties to PMA. Last week, Visclosky acknowledged that he had been subpoenaed in connection with the probe.
The PMA story is starting to become a major headache for congressional Democrats.
RollCall reports that Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House number 2, plans this afternoon to offer a measure designed to force the House Ethics committee to reveal whether it's investigating senior Democratic appropriators' ties to the now-defunct lobbying firm.
Not a great day for Rep. Pete Visclosky.
First, he announces that, amid a federal probe of a lobbying firm to which he has close ties, he's handing off responsibility for a key appropriations bill. Now, the Northwest Indiana Times reports that, according to a spokesman for the Indiana Democrat, his top aide has unexpectedly "retired."
It looks like Rep. Pete Visclosky is starting to pay a political price for his ties to the now-defunct PMA lobbying firm.
Last week, we told you that the Feds have subpoenaed the Indiana congressman for documents relating to the firm. And now Visclosky has announced that he'll hand off to a colleague responsibility for a key appropriations bill on the subcommittee he chairs.
Is the federal probe into the PMA Group -- the heavy-hitting lobby shop with ties to several Demcoratic powerbrokers, that folded earlier this year after being raided by the FBI -- finally coming to a boil?
Rep. Pete Visclosky of Indiana, has acknowledged in a statement that he's been subpoenaed by a grand jury in connection with the investigaiton, reports The Politico.
Get ready for Jack Abramoff: The Movie.
The well-sourced Hollywood blogger Nikki Finke reported Friday that Kevin Spacey and director George Hickenlooper were visiting the disgraced former lobbyist in prison -- as part of their research for Casino Jack, which will start filming next month, with the man who once played Keyser Soze in the lead role. (Variety had reported last August on plans for the project, then known as Bagman.)
A second act for our old friend Bob Ney.
Starting today, the former Ohio GOP congressman will be hosting a midday chat show on a right-wing West Virginia radio station, WVLY AM 1370, according to the station's web site.
Chicago Breaking News Center reports:
Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, his brother Rob and Christopher Kelly, a former top fundraiser for Blagojevich, were all indicted today on corruption charges, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago announced.Also charged in the indictment were Lon Monk, a lobbyist and former Blagojevich chief of staff; John Harris, also a former chief of staff to Blagojevich; and William Cellini, a Springfield insider for decades.
Will bring you more from the indictment itself...
Backing down isn't Rep. John Murtha's style.
The cantankerous House power-broker is under fire for his ties to the PMA lobbying firm, which just shut down amid reports of an FBI probe into its campaign contributions to friendly lawmakers, including Murtha, who have steered millions in federal earmarks to PMA clients.
Remember that ongoing FBI investigation of PMA, the lobbying group with close ties to Democratic power-broker Rep. John Murtha?
Well, up until now, House Democrats -- led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who's a close ally of Murtha, the powerful Defense Appropriations subcommittee chair -- have been successful on fending off GOP calls for a congressional probe of the matter. But that may be changing...
Another day, another guilty plea in the Abramoff saga.
This time it's Ann Copland, the former longtime aide to Mississippi GOP senator Thad Cochran, who was indicted recently on charges that she accepted gifts from Team Abramoff including tickets for concerts and sports events. In exchange, Copland used her position to help Abramoff's clients, the Mississippi Choctaw Indians.
The plea was announced in a Department of Justice press release.
Todd Boulanger, the Abramoff crony who has already pleaded guilty in connection with the wide-ranging scam, once sent an email to Abramoff arguing that Copland should be kept happy because, ''she's more valuable to us than a rank-and-file House member.''
Emails suggest Copland was particularly demanding in seeking favors from Abramoff's crew.
Copland worked for Cochran for 29 years, before abruptly quitting last spring, as her name began to surface in connection with Abramoff.
Today's plea deal, which presumably involves a pledge to cooperate with the ongoing prove, will likely increase speculation that Cochran, who has not been charged with anything, could be in prosecutors' crosshairs.
Yet another indictment in the Jack Abramoff case...
The Justice Department has announced that Fraser Verrusio, the other Hill staffer who went on that 2003 Team-Abramoff-funded trip to the World Series -- including a trip to a strip club and a chauffeur-driven limousine -- has been charged with accepting an illegal gift, and failing to report it on his financial disclosure form.
Last November, Trevor Blackann, an aide to Sen. Kit Bond, pleaded guilty to failing to report that same trip.
Verusio was at the time a policy director on the House Transportation committee. According to the indictment, he accepted the trip in exchange for inserting into the Federal Highway bill amendments favorable to an equipment rental company, which had hired Abramoff's firm to lobby for it.
Todd Boulanger and James Hirni, two members of Abramoff's team, have already pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme.
The Transportation committee was at the time chaired by Alaska GOPer Don Young. So today's news may bring federal prosecutors closer to Young himself, whose ties to Abramoff and his firm have been amply documented.
We're guessing it won't be long before prosecutors announce a plea deal with Verrusio, in which he agrees to cooperate fully. Hope those strippers were worth it.
Did Allen Stanford get the Jack Abramoff treatment from Bob Ney?
Via the Sunlight Foundation, check out what Ney, the Ohio GOP congressman who went to jail for his role in the Jack Abramoff scandal, entered into the Congressional Record in September 2005:
Mr. Ney: Mr. Speaker --Whereas, Allen R. Stanford has been recognized as the 2006 Recipient of the "Excellence in Leadership Award" by the Inter-American Economic Council ; and
Whereas, Allen R. Stanford has been acknowledged for his performance and leadership in the areas of finance and investments; and
Whereas, Allen R. Stanford should be commended for his service as the CEO of the Stanford Financial Group based in Houston, Texas.
Therefore, I join with the residents of the entire 18th Congressional District of Ohio in honoring and congratulating Allen R. Stanford for his outstanding accomplishments.
We already knew that Stanford and Ney, who sat on the House Financial Services committee, were tight. Here they're positioned right next to each other at a 2004 Washington event put on by the Stanford-backed Inter-American Economic Council.
(Looks like Ney even got a speaking gig at that event).
And Ney's chief of staff, Wil Heaton -- who also pleaded guilty in connection with the Abramoff scheme -- went on that now-famous (kind of) 2005 junket to Antigua for lawmakers and their aides, paid for by the IAEC.
But the statement unearthed by the Sunlight Foundation suggests the relationship was even cozier. Indeed, it fits an intriguing pattern:
According to Abramoff's plea agreement, one of the "official acts" that Ney took on behalf of Abramoff was an October 2000 agreement "to insert a statement into the Congressional Record which praised the new owner of the Florida gaming company, Abramoff's business partner."
The Abramoff partner was Adam Kidan, who in 2005 pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud in connection to his venture with Abramoff. Abramoff and Kidan gave $10,000, in Ney's name, to the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Just as Abramoff and Kidan sought to get a PR boost by having nice things said about them in Congress, Stanford may have also have stood to benefit from Ney's move. Stanford's ability to attract investors depended on maintaining a sterling reputation. Having his "outstanding accomplishments" praised in the Congressional Record could go a long way to polishing that reputation.
What might Ney have gotten in return? Well, he received $26,200 in campaign contributions from Stanford Financial Group employees. And, even more interestingly, the Sunlight Foundation's Paul Blumenthal notes that the majority of that sum, $14,200, came just over a month after the Congressional Record statement -- after Ney had gotten nothing from Stanford for all of 2005.
Blumenthal also notes that, during more trying times for the congressman, Stanford became a contributor to Ney's legal defense fund.
So, memo to federal investigators: if you see Bob Ney praising anyone else in the Congressional Record, it might be worth getting a little suspicious.
This could get awkward for some Democratic lawmakers.
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), the small-government scourge of Congressional earmarkers, has introduced a resolution that proposes launching an ethics investigation into the connection between earmarks and campaign contributions, reports Congressional Quarterly.
Meanwhile, the House is about to vote on an omnibus spending bill that not only contains thousands of earmarks, but some for clients of the PMA Group. That's the DC-area lobbying firm that's in the process of disintegrating, amid reports that it was raided by the FBI last month as part of an investigation into its political contributions.
Which lawmakers sponsored those earmarks? CQ reports:
Flake's office released a compilation of eight earmarks worth $7.7 million in the bill. Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group, sent out the same list and identified the individual sponsors of the earmarks as Reps. Peter J. Visclosky of Indiana, Tim Ryan of Ohio, John B. Larson of Connecticut, Brad Sherman and Jane Harman of California, Stephen F. Lynch of Massachusetts and Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri. Reps. Mike Doyle and Jason Altmire , both of Pennsylvania, were identified as cosponsors of one earmark.All but one of those earmarks is in the section of the bill written by the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, which is headed by [Rep. Pete] Visclosky.
Several of those members, including Doyle, Ryan, Larsen, Altmire, and Sherman, are among the top recipients of PMA's campaign cash.
Since reports of the FBI raid on PMA, attention has largely focused on Visclosky and on Rep. John Murtha, both of whom have received large amount of money from the firm and sponsored numerous earmarks on behalf of its clients. PMA was founded by a former top Murtha aide, and a former chief of staff to Visclosky lobbied is a PMA lobbyist.
Because Flake's resolution qualifies as "privileged", lawmakers may have to vote on it as early as today.
Flake's office released a compilation of eight earmarks worth $7.7 million in the bill. Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group, sent out the same list and identified the individual sponsors of the earmarks as Reps. Peter J. Visclosky of Indiana, Tim Ryan of Ohio, John B. Larson of Connecticut, Brad Sherman and Jane Harman of California, Stephen F. Lynch of Massachusetts and Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri. Reps. Mike Doyle and Jason Altmire , both of Pennsylvania, were identified as cosponsors of one earmark.
All but one of those earmarks is in the section of the bill written by the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, which is headed by Visclosky.
The next domino is set to fall in the Jack Abramoff saga.
Ann Copland, a former longtime aide to Sen. Thad Cochrain (R-MS), was charged late last week with accepting gifts from, and doing favors for, the corrupt lobbyist and his cronies.
Court documents filed Thursday say Ann Copland took thousands of dollars worth of event tickets and meals out in Washington from Abramoff and associates at his firm. Prosecutors say the gifts were in exchange for her favors benefiting one of their top clients, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
For weeks, there had been speculation that this move might be coming. When Team Abramoff member Todd Boulanger was charged last month, court documents referred to a Cochran staffer as having accepted gifts from Boulanger, in exchange for doing legislative favors for the Choctaw. The Associated Press quickly identified the staffer as Copland.
Then when Boulanger pleaded guilty shortly after, court documents revealed email exchanges between him and Copland, in which she complained that there were no "Hebrew National hotdogs" in the corporate suite at a Baltimore Orioles game that Abramoff's firm had provided her, and declared she was "freaking out" because no food was provided for her party at a Washington ice skating event.
Boulanger once wrote to Abramoff of Copland:
She's more valuable to us than a rank and file house member.
Copland abruptly left Cochran's office last year as Abramoff prosecutors gained more convictions of Hill aides. She had worked there 29 years.
So: Could the wide-ranging probe now have Cochran in its sights? We may be about to find out...
Earlier this week, Keith Ashdown of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, told The Hill that one troubled lobbying firm with ties to some Democratic lawmakers, "will become the majority's Waterloo on ethics."
Ashdown added: "If they do not tackle this example head-on they will look as bad as the Republicans on ethics in government."
Sounds serious! So it's worth taking a broad look at what Ashdown's talking about.
The firm under scrutiny here is the PMA Group, which was founded back in 1989 by Paul Magliocchetti, a former top aide to Rep. John Murtha.
It hasn't been a good week for the firm. On Monday, ABC News reported that, back in November, the FBI had raided the firm's northern Virginia office. The following day, the New York Times revealed that investigators were probing the possibility that Magliocchetti had funneled campaign contributions to Murtha and other lawmakers, in a quid pro quo arrangement. And the same day, The Hill added that the firm was "disintegrating," with several senior lobbyists leaving after being unable to strike a buyout deal with Magliocchetti.
PMA specializes in representing defense firms looking for federal money. And its employees are prodigious political contributors. Over the last three election cycles, they've given a total of more than $1 million to political campaigns, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics
And at the top of its list of recipients over the last two decades are two Democratic lawmakers who sit on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee: Murtha of Pennsylania, Rep. Pete Visclosky of Indiana.
Murtha appears to be most closely implicated. Aside from Magliocchetti, at least one other former Murtha aide, Julie Giardina, also works at PMA. And Dan Cunningham, another PMA staffer, is a former Hill aide who has a close relationship with Murtha, according to The Hill.
Roll Call found earlier this week that, over the last three election cycles, Murtha had received around $1.75 million from PMA and its clients. Last fall, when Murtha faced an unexpected re-election challenge after calling his constituents racist, PMA and its clients came to his aid, contributing $110,000 to Murtha's last-minute fundraising effort.
What did PMA get from Murtha? Roll Call also found that in the last two years, Murtha has steered earmarks totaling around $93 million to PMA clients.
It's also worth noting that a second company linked to Murtha, defense contractor Kuchera Indstries, was raided by the FBI in January. Over the years, Murtha has funneled over $100 million in earmarks to the firm and a related company.
It's not hard to see why Ashdown told Roll Call: "This investigation is moving in the direction of Jack Murtha."
As for Murtha's friend Visclosky, he too has personal ties to PMA. Rich Kaelin, a PMA lobbyist, was Visclosky's chief of staff in 2003.
Visclosky has raked in $196,950 from donors with ties to the firm. PMA has been Visclosky's top donor every year since 2004. And the Post-Tribune of Lake County, Indiana has found that in 2008, the congressman secured more than $20 million in earmarks for the firm's clients -- a quarter of the total earmarks he got.
So that's what we've got. So far, there's no evidence that either Murtha or Visclosky are themselves are focuses of the investigation. What this amounts to, at the moment, is a firm contributing alot of money to certain lawmakers with authority over the sphere it works in -- as well as hiring some of their former aides -- and getting earmarks from those lawmakers.
That's not evidence of a quid pro quo. But it doesn't look good, especially given the president's call for a new kind of politics. And something tells us we haven't heard the last of it.
One sector that looks set to be stimulated by the $789 billion bill Congress has in the works: the lobbying industry.
Foley Hoag, the K-Street- and Boston-based law and lobbying firm, announced today that it has put together a "new cross-discipline stimulus response team," designed to go after state and federal dollars allocated for new projects on behalf of clients.
According to a press release:
The firm is bringing together attorneys and policy specialists from a mix of practices certain to be at the center of new project-based financing, including Energy Technology & Renewables; Environment; Infrastructure & Privatization; Life Sciences, and Government Srategies (sic).(Ed note: Lobbyists, it appears, have now been re-branded as "policy specialists". Kind of like how in Hollywood, agents are now known as "representation.")
The group will advise clients nationally and regionally as they pursue various aspects of stimulus-related work across a spectrum of business segments.
Doug McGarrah, who's running the new team, adds:
Our group has a sophisticated understanding of the steps involved in permitting, procurement and project delivery. We recognize this is an extraordinary opportunity to help advance the interests of our clients.
He goes on:
[M]any businesses and municipalities in our state will benefit from an infusion of federal funds. We are launching this integrated team with an eye toward helping clients react swiftly to, and capitalize on, this fast-moving Stimulus Package.
In other words: this stimulus bill is going to be a gold-mine, and we can help you get in on it.
We've put in a call to Foley Hoag to find out what exactly they plan to do for their clients, and will update with any details. And, needless to say, it seems unlikely that Foley Hoag is the only K Street firm able to spot an opportunity like this.
It's good to know that, even a $789 billion package designed to rescue the US economy hasn't put a damper on the spirit of self-interest.
We've told you about Ann Copland, the former aide to Mississippi GOP senator Thad Cochran, who, according to court documents, accepted tickets to ball-games, concerts, and other events from Abramoff crony Todd Boulanger, in return for getting Cochran to take actions benefiting Abramoff's clients.
Well today the Associated Press offers some more great details about how things worked between Copland and Boulanger.
In June 2003, Copland emailed Boulanger from a suite a luxury suite at Baltimore's Camden Yards, where she had taken a group to watch an Orioles game:
"Ackkk. Only beer and no Hebrew National hot dogs," complained Copland.
Ackkk indeed.
That email was included in Boulanger's plea agreement last week, when he pleaded guilty to bribing several Hill aides.
Here's another good exchange. Reports the AP:
Copland apparently grew so comfortable accepting gifts that she sounded angry in one e-mail from the firm's box suite at a Washington ice-skating event after no food had arrived for her party of 14 people."I'm freaking out here," she wrote Boulanger.
He responded that she would be reimbursed if she had to buy food herself.
What was Copland giving in return? The AP explains:
For example, when Copland asked Boulanger for the suite at the Orioles game in 2003, he responded in part by asking whether a Choctaw provision the firm no longer wanted had been removed from an appropriations bill.Copland assured him it had, and the final version of the bill contained an explicit statement that the provision "is no longer necessary."
Boulanger once wrote to Abramoff, of Copland:
She's more valuable to us than a rank and file house member.
Could the Feds be closing in on Jack Murtha?
Late last month, federal agents raided the offices of a Pennsylvania defense contractor with close ties to the longtime Democratic congressman.
And now, ABC News has reported that, back in November, the FBI raided the Virginia headquarters of a lobbying firm founded by a former Murtha aide.
The firm, known as the PMA Group, specializes in winning earmarks for its clients.
ABC reports that last year, "it brought in $13.8 million in revenue representing dozens of defense companies and contractors, many of which have donated heavily to Murtha." Murtha has helped the firm win millions in earmarks, according to ABC. And much of PMA's business comes from small defense contractors based in Murtha's district.
The former Murtha aide who founded the firm, Paul Magliochetti, has reportedly been talking to his colleagues about an arrangement that would see him leave. Reports ABC:
Asked whether these discussions were related to the raid, [a PMA spokesman] declined to comment.
And another former Murtha aide, Julie Giardina, also works at PMA.
Last month, the FBI and IRS raided the offices of Kuchera Industries and Kuchera Defense Systems. Murtha has reportedly channeled $100 million in earmarks to those companies.
A spokesman for Murtha denied that his boss had been contacted by the FBI, and said the congressman did not believe he was a target of the investigation.
Still, something tells us we haven't heard the last of this.
Late Update: The Hill reports that PMA is "disintegrating", with several of its top lobbyists telling colleages and associates they plan to leave and start a new firm.
And it looks like the issue of PMA founder and former Murtha aide Paul Magliocchetti's continuing presence at PMA is at the center of the move:
The lobbyists resigned from PMA last Friday after they were unable to strike a buyout deal with Paul Magliocchetti, the founder of PMA Group, who indicated earlier this year he wanted to retire.The new group is called Flagship Government Relations and is being billed as a business development and lobbying firm, The Hill has learned.
The paper adds:
Among those who are starting the new consultancy are Kaylene Green, a former Senate Armed Services Committee staffer and congressional Navy liaison; Sean Fogarty, a former Senate Navy liaison; Rich Efford, a longtime appropriations staffer who worked for former Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.); and Dan Cunningham, who served as the director for the Army's congressional liaison team and has a close relationship with Murtha, according to multiple K Street sources.
Last week, when Todd Boulanger pleaded guilty to his role in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, he cited a Staffer F in his plea. That staffer had received tickets to hockey and baseball games (with champagne and filet mignon provided, in the latter case) from Boulanger and Team Abramoff.
And today the Associated Press reports that Staffer F is Kevin Koonce, a former legislative director for New Hampshire GOP senator Judd Gregg.
Koonce, who has not been charged with a crime, now works at a private firm, Sorini Samet & Associates. But he told the AP he's on personal leave. Another staffer who received similar favors from Team Abramoff, Trevor Blackann, pleaded guilty last fall to failing to disclose the gifts on his tax returns.
Gregg was announced yesterday as President Obama's pick for Commerce Secretary.
Asked about that inconvenient fact by a reporter just now at a press briefing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stressed that Gregg is not a target of the investigation, and that Koonce left Gregg's office in 2004.
Some good details from the AP's rundown:
As part of the plea documents, prosecutors said Staffer F tried to help insert spending measures and add other amendments to legislation for Boulanger's clients. Later, the staffer asked Boulanger if he could "score some hockey tickets," and Boulanger got him front-row seats.Boulanger later got the staffer box tickets to see the Baltimore Orioles, but he wanted more.
"Could you make sure there's beer this time," he wrote in an e-mail. I "mean, the red sox, crab cakes, and fillet mignon's were nice but ... haha."
Later, Boulanger sent an e-mail to Abramoff expressing confidence that the senator for whom the staffer worked would give them a favor. "Easy money," Boulanger wrote, adding that the aide "practically lives in our various suites. We are shady."
Tom Daschle's nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services has hit a serious snag, in the wake of a string of revelations mostly related to his payment of taxes on income he received as part of his consulting activities since he left the Senate in 2004.
Looking at a range of news reports, there are several different charges out there, each of varying degrees of seriousness. So -- leaving aside the real-world question of which of these charges might be the most politically damaging to Daschle's nomination -- it's worth taking stock of what exactly the former Senate leader stand accused of. And of how, at least initially, might we rate the seriousness of each individual misdeed.
Let's run down the list:
1. The most serious charge -- which comes from a report conducted for the Senate Finance committee, which is handling Daschle's nomination -- is that from 2005 to 2007, he failed to report on his taxes income from the use of a limousine and driver totaling over $255,000, and provided by InterMedia Advisors LLP, a private-equity firm. On January 2, Daschle, having concluded that he owed the money, filed amended returns and paid more than $140,000 in back taxes and interest.
InterMedia, whose advisory board Daschle chairs, was founded in 2005 by Leo Hindery, a politically connected media and telecommunications executive (with an apparent record of embellishing his personal story). Hindery gave at least $42,000 to Mr. Daschle from 1997 to 2004.
Daschle told the committee that he realized last June that the limo service might count as taxable income, and asked his accountant to look into it. A Daschle spokeswoman said the accountant didn't come back to Daschle until late December or early January with a finding that the taxes were owed. Only then did Daschle inform the Obama transition team. "He thought his accountant was taking care of it," the spokeswoman told a reporter.
2. The Finance committee is also probing a second potential tax impropriety stemming from Daschle's relationship with InterMedia. The committee says he failed to report on his 2007 tax return consulting income from the company of $83,333.
But this one appears to be an oversight, if a careless one. According to the committee report, Daschle received that sum per month (or a $1 million a year) from InterMedia under the consulting arrangement. InterMedia left off one monthly payment -- the one for May 2007 -- from the annual statement of income it sent Daschle. The error occurred because the InterMedia staffer normally responsible for reporting such payments was on maternity leave, according to the committee. All the other months were accounted for.
3. The issue that almost certainly has the greatest relevance for Daschle's desired new job as HHS Secretary is his work on behalf of healthcare-industry interests.
In his financial disclosure statement, Daschle reported getting paid more than $390,000 for giving speeches to groups including America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a trade organization representing health insurers. He also got nearly $100,000 from health-related companies affected by federal regulation, including more than $5000 (again, the exact figure wasn't reported) for giving "policy advice" to the insurer UnitedHealth.
4. The committee is also probing Daschle's ties to Educap -- a student loan company that paid Daschle over $5,000 for "policy advice," according to his financial disclosure report. (The exact amount wasn't disclosed).
The inquiry is focused on whether "travel and entertainment services" given to Daschle by Educap and several related entities should have been reported as income. At issue, it appears, are two trips Daschle took on EduCap's corporate jet, one to the Bahamas, the other to the Middle East, to speak with members of the board of directors of a related organization. On the latter trip, Daschle and his traveling companions met with King Abdullah of Jordan, and Israeli minister Ehud Barack, according to the Daschle spokeswoman.
In addition, Daschle has worked during the last few years for Alston & Bird, the high-powered DC law and lobbying firm, which was registered as a lobbyist for EduCap. Some on the committee have suggested that Daschle should himself have registered as a lobbyist for Educap.
So what should we make of all this?
Individually, each charge -- with the exception, perhaps of the until-recently-unpaid taxes on the InterMedia car and driver -- might be seen as not much more than business as usual for a former Congressional leader who has slipped through Washington's revolving door to offer his contacts and expertise to private interests. But cumulatively, they paint a picture of a Washington insider who, at best, has grown negligent about tracking the various forms of compensation he's receiving.
Perhaps more important, Daschle's coziness with corporate interests, many of whom will have key business before Congress and the Obama administration, could complicate the larger task of reducing the influence of the private sector in Washington.
For instance, there's nothing explicitly nefarious about Daschle's work on behalf of health insurers. But interests like AHIP and UnitedHealth have, by and large, stood in the way of efforts to remove our healthcare system from the grip of private interests, which many see as a prerequisite for real reform. Of course, that likely won't happen without at least neutralizing the opposition of the private insurers -- so perhaps Daschle's ties to those insurers make him ideally suited for the role. But at the very least, it would be nice to know what kind of "policy advice" he gave his corporate clients.
Late Update: One additional angle we might have noted. The Finance committee report also found that, from 2005 to 2007, Daschle overstated the deductions to which he was entitled for charitable contributions. When he filed amended returns, he reduced the deductions by almost $15,000.
Late Late Update: Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic adds his well-informed and somewhat more favorable take on Daschle's ability to stand up to private healthcare interests:
On reform, Daschle favors the mainstream Democratic position, which relies primarily on private insurance to deliver coverage--although it also calls for creating a new public plan, into which anybody could enroll. That would put him a bit to my right, insofar as my touting of single-payer as a technically superior--if politically inferior--reform puts me to the mainstream's left. But Daschle's philosophy on health care seems, if anything, to be slightly to the left of where I'd expect a politician of his background (ideological, geographical) to be. And it's exactly where President Obama is, for better or for worse.What's more, Daschle is very bullish on scrutinizing new treatments for their cost-effectiveness, an idea that the drug and device industries oppose strongly. He's also proposed heavy regulation of the insurance industry and been explicit about the public plan, two positions that don't go over particularly well with most insurers (or many other corporate interest groups, for that matter). Finally, having both heard and read Daschle on many occasions, I believe he is genuinely offended by the way our health care system ruins the lives of countless Americans--and genuinely committed to solving that problem, regardless of which special interests that solution may offend.
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