Quid Pro No!
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
Economic woes top the list.
So now our leaders are trying to figure out how to fix things. But it seems to me, before you can fix something, you must first figure out the root cause of the problem.
And here is what's scares me more than anything going forward. I think the guys trying to fix things are the problem.
That is, I think our government has put us in this mess and now it's left to them to pull us out.
I'm not optimistic.[[In-content Ad]]The policies put in place by our government led us into this fiscal mess. That's inarguable. Too much spending. Too much waste. Too much debt. Poor oversight of financial institutions.
But I think an even deeper problem lies in what drives the policies. Why do elected officials enact policies like these?
This is the scary part and until it changes, I don't think we're going to fix anything.
It's graft. It's corruption. It's policy sold to the highest bidder. It's influence peddling. It's high stakes quid pro quo.
Quid pro quo has become endemic to our political system and it drives bad, bad policy.
Government policy - both parties equally complicit - is not based on what is best for the American people. It's driven by fat cats and special interests.
During the campaign, I was concerned about and critical of President-elect O's politics because he seemed so liberal. Since his election, my concerns in that regard have subsided. He's made a dramatic shift to the center.
When he talked about changing Washington, I was encouraged. Now, I'm discouraged.
Look who he's surrounding himself with.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson may be the smart one of the bunch.
He's the guy O tapped to be the secretary of commerce.
But Richardson unceremoniously declined the appointment amid a grand jury investigation. Seems some of his political donors won some pretty lucrative state contracts.
There was this company from California, CDR Financial Produces. CDR was paid a total of $1.48 million in 2004 and 2005 for work on New Mexico transportation projects.
Apparently, there were no New Mexico companies capable of completing those projects.
David Rubin is the CEO of CDR. He and his company gave at least $110,000 to three political action committees formed by Richardson, the Associated Press has reported.
The biggest donation was $75,000. It came from CDR a couple months after the financing arrangement for the transportation projects was approved by the state.
I'm sure it's all just a coincidence, but nonetheless, Richardson, who denies any impropriety, gave up the secretary of state post because of it.
Interestingly, Rubin also ponied up $29,000 to help get O elected. The O transition team declined to comment on that development when queried by AP.
Then there's Rahm Emanuel.
Emanuel is O's chief of staff. He's a hardball politician and former Congressman from Illinois.
In fact, he held the House seat he took over from Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Dan Rostenkowski before that.
You may remember Rostenkowski as the guy who was indicted on corruption charges in 1994. In elections that year he lost his seat to Blago.
Rosty wound up getting indicted, pleaded guilty, did 15 months in prison and was pardoned by President Clinton in 2000.
Emanuel can be heard on Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's Blago wiretap tapes. Those are the tapes where Blago apparently is attempting to sell off O's vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder.
Emanuel, O and another top aide already have been interviewed by the Feds but have denied any knowledge of such a scheme.
You know, there is that pesky little law that says if you know a crime is about to be committed, you should report it.
United States Code, Title 18, Section 4, states:
"Misprision of a Felony: Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."
So it becomes that age old question of "What did you know and when did you know it."
The Chicago Tribune reports that Emanuel did talk to Blago's people about who should replace O.
If Emanuel knew that Blago was trying to get something for himself in exchange for O's seat, he's bound by law to tell the Feds.
It's been widely reported that Blago castigated O and his staff, saying all they would give him is "appreciation" for putting their candidate in the seat.
How would Blago know that about O's people if his people didn't ask them for something?
We'll see.
How about our new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton? The New York Times reports an upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton's foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman's mall project.
And then there's O's connections to indicted and disgraced Demo contribution bundler Norman Hsu. O's name might pop up in Hsu's federal prosecution. The Feds say Hsu, a big-time Hillary fundraiser, pressured people to donate money to his favorite candidates.
Hsu's trial is supposed to start Jan.1 12, but Hsu's attorney recently asked the judge for a 60-day delay because of adverse publicity.
The attorney's motion, available for inspection on thesmokinggun.com, notes, among other things, that Hsu was "notorious for his political activities." The motion also states it is "inevitable" that Hsu's connections to to Bill and Hillary "and other democratic notables - including perhaps the president-elect - will be introduced at trial."
That's because before hooking up with for Hillary, Hsu co-hosted a 2005 fundraiser for O's political action committee. Hsu also introduced O to a Silicon Valley big shot who later was appointed to O's national campaign finance committee.
The Chicago Sun Times recently had an interesting report about Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates government corruption.
Judicial watch says it has obtained documents linking O adviser Valerie Jarrett, the co-chairman of his transition team, to a series of real estate scandals. Those include several housing projects operated by convicted felon and O fundraiser Tony Rezko. (Rezko's sentencing has been delayed so he can tell the Feds more about Chicago "politics.")
Jarrett had her hat in the ring for O's U.S. Senate seat, but abruptly decided she didn't want to be a senator anymore right before Blago was arrested.
Chicago media also are reporting the Feds are looking into the real estate deal where Rezko helped O seal the deal on his house in Chicago for $300,000 below market value.
So we've got the president-elect's name surfacing in a few federal investigations, his chief of staff teetering on the brink of legal troubles, his transition team co-chair linked to real estate scandals, quid pro quo questions about his secretary of state and his commerce secretary stepping down amid corruption allegations.
Lots of folks say this dizzying array of sleaziness pales in significance to the real problems our country faces - that these things are distractions from serious issues.
I strongly disagree.
I think stuff like this is precisely why our country is in so much trouble.
Economic woes top the list.
So now our leaders are trying to figure out how to fix things. But it seems to me, before you can fix something, you must first figure out the root cause of the problem.
And here is what's scares me more than anything going forward. I think the guys trying to fix things are the problem.
That is, I think our government has put us in this mess and now it's left to them to pull us out.
I'm not optimistic.[[In-content Ad]]The policies put in place by our government led us into this fiscal mess. That's inarguable. Too much spending. Too much waste. Too much debt. Poor oversight of financial institutions.
But I think an even deeper problem lies in what drives the policies. Why do elected officials enact policies like these?
This is the scary part and until it changes, I don't think we're going to fix anything.
It's graft. It's corruption. It's policy sold to the highest bidder. It's influence peddling. It's high stakes quid pro quo.
Quid pro quo has become endemic to our political system and it drives bad, bad policy.
Government policy - both parties equally complicit - is not based on what is best for the American people. It's driven by fat cats and special interests.
During the campaign, I was concerned about and critical of President-elect O's politics because he seemed so liberal. Since his election, my concerns in that regard have subsided. He's made a dramatic shift to the center.
When he talked about changing Washington, I was encouraged. Now, I'm discouraged.
Look who he's surrounding himself with.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson may be the smart one of the bunch.
He's the guy O tapped to be the secretary of commerce.
But Richardson unceremoniously declined the appointment amid a grand jury investigation. Seems some of his political donors won some pretty lucrative state contracts.
There was this company from California, CDR Financial Produces. CDR was paid a total of $1.48 million in 2004 and 2005 for work on New Mexico transportation projects.
Apparently, there were no New Mexico companies capable of completing those projects.
David Rubin is the CEO of CDR. He and his company gave at least $110,000 to three political action committees formed by Richardson, the Associated Press has reported.
The biggest donation was $75,000. It came from CDR a couple months after the financing arrangement for the transportation projects was approved by the state.
I'm sure it's all just a coincidence, but nonetheless, Richardson, who denies any impropriety, gave up the secretary of state post because of it.
Interestingly, Rubin also ponied up $29,000 to help get O elected. The O transition team declined to comment on that development when queried by AP.
Then there's Rahm Emanuel.
Emanuel is O's chief of staff. He's a hardball politician and former Congressman from Illinois.
In fact, he held the House seat he took over from Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Dan Rostenkowski before that.
You may remember Rostenkowski as the guy who was indicted on corruption charges in 1994. In elections that year he lost his seat to Blago.
Rosty wound up getting indicted, pleaded guilty, did 15 months in prison and was pardoned by President Clinton in 2000.
Emanuel can be heard on Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's Blago wiretap tapes. Those are the tapes where Blago apparently is attempting to sell off O's vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder.
Emanuel, O and another top aide already have been interviewed by the Feds but have denied any knowledge of such a scheme.
You know, there is that pesky little law that says if you know a crime is about to be committed, you should report it.
United States Code, Title 18, Section 4, states:
"Misprision of a Felony: Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both."
So it becomes that age old question of "What did you know and when did you know it."
The Chicago Tribune reports that Emanuel did talk to Blago's people about who should replace O.
If Emanuel knew that Blago was trying to get something for himself in exchange for O's seat, he's bound by law to tell the Feds.
It's been widely reported that Blago castigated O and his staff, saying all they would give him is "appreciation" for putting their candidate in the seat.
How would Blago know that about O's people if his people didn't ask them for something?
We'll see.
How about our new Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton? The New York Times reports an upstate New York developer donated $100,000 to former President Bill Clinton's foundation in November 2004, around the same time that Senator Hillary Clinton helped secure millions of dollars in federal assistance for the businessman's mall project.
And then there's O's connections to indicted and disgraced Demo contribution bundler Norman Hsu. O's name might pop up in Hsu's federal prosecution. The Feds say Hsu, a big-time Hillary fundraiser, pressured people to donate money to his favorite candidates.
Hsu's trial is supposed to start Jan.1 12, but Hsu's attorney recently asked the judge for a 60-day delay because of adverse publicity.
The attorney's motion, available for inspection on thesmokinggun.com, notes, among other things, that Hsu was "notorious for his political activities." The motion also states it is "inevitable" that Hsu's connections to to Bill and Hillary "and other democratic notables - including perhaps the president-elect - will be introduced at trial."
That's because before hooking up with for Hillary, Hsu co-hosted a 2005 fundraiser for O's political action committee. Hsu also introduced O to a Silicon Valley big shot who later was appointed to O's national campaign finance committee.
The Chicago Sun Times recently had an interesting report about Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates government corruption.
Judicial watch says it has obtained documents linking O adviser Valerie Jarrett, the co-chairman of his transition team, to a series of real estate scandals. Those include several housing projects operated by convicted felon and O fundraiser Tony Rezko. (Rezko's sentencing has been delayed so he can tell the Feds more about Chicago "politics.")
Jarrett had her hat in the ring for O's U.S. Senate seat, but abruptly decided she didn't want to be a senator anymore right before Blago was arrested.
Chicago media also are reporting the Feds are looking into the real estate deal where Rezko helped O seal the deal on his house in Chicago for $300,000 below market value.
So we've got the president-elect's name surfacing in a few federal investigations, his chief of staff teetering on the brink of legal troubles, his transition team co-chair linked to real estate scandals, quid pro quo questions about his secretary of state and his commerce secretary stepping down amid corruption allegations.
Lots of folks say this dizzying array of sleaziness pales in significance to the real problems our country faces - that these things are distractions from serious issues.
I strongly disagree.
I think stuff like this is precisely why our country is in so much trouble.
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092