Posted on 01/02/2012 2:55:50 PM PST by bkopto
Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released its 2011 list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” The list, in alphabetical order, includes:
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL)
Former Senator John Ensign (R-NV)
Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL)
Attorney General Eric Holder
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
President Barack Obama
Rep. Laura Richardson (D-CA)
Rep. David Rivera (R-FL)
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Rep. Don Young (R-AK)
Dishonorable Mentions for 2011 include:
Former Senator John Edwards (D-NC)
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA)
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)
Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY)
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius
(Excerpt) Read more at judicialwatch.org ...
My list would differ...................and be much longer.
Some of these are right on-—including that of dimwitted and big government GOPer Spencer Bachus.
Maxine is right...she’s being targeted because of her race.
/sarc
Former House Speaker and Current Presidential Candidate Newt Gingrich: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has a career plagued by scandal and corruption.
Perhaps most notably, on January 22, 1997, by a vote of 395 to 28, the House of Representatives voted to reprimand Speaker Gingrich for “intentional…or reckless” disregard for House rules and ordered him to pay an unprecedented penalty of $300,000 for ethical wrongdoing. It was the first time in the 208-year history of the House that such a step against a Speaker had been taken. (Gingrich had faced a raft of charges for alleged ethics violations during his tenure in the House.)
Following a scathing special counsel report to the House Ethics Committee detailing the charges against Gingrich, the former Speaker admitted to providing “inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable” statements to congressional investigators. In a written statement, Gingrich stated that his actions ”brought down on the people’s house a controversy which could weaken the faith people have in their government.”
During the current presidential campaign, Gingrich has continuously misled the American people about how he, like many retired politicians, participated in DC’s lucrative influence-peddling industry.
Gingrich insinuated during one presidential debate that some members of Congress who took money from Fannie and Freddie should go to jail. And yet, over a span of eight years, according to Bloomberg News, The Gingrich Group was paid between $1.6 and $1.8 million by the home mortgage company. At the same time, Freddie Mac was engaged in massive fraud. Gingrich suggested he was a “historian” for Freddie Mac. But the evidence clearly shows he was “throwing his weight” behind the two Government Sponsored Enterprises to prop them up, saying in one interview that Fannie and Freddie provided a more “liquid and stable housing finance system than we would have” without them. Ironically, President Obama, the man who Gingrich is seeking to oust from office, is keeping secret each and every Freddie Mac (and Fannie Mae) document, including those that could shed light on Gingrich’s relationship with Freddie.
Gingrich also has claimed, “I have never done lobbying of any kind.” However, as documented by the Washington Examiner’s Timothy Carney, Gingrich was a hired gun for the drug lobby who “worked hard to persuade Republican congressmen to vote for the Medicare drug subsidy that the industry favored.” Carney reports that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America confirmed that they paid Gingrich. Bloomberg News “cited sources from leading drug companies AstraZeneca and Pfizer saying that those companies had also hired Gingrich.”
Gingrich has also sustained heavy criticism for his troubled personal life, including the admission by Gingrich that he cheated on his second wife while serving as Speaker of the House with then-House employee and current wife, Callista Bisek.
I think I’d have great difficulty coming up with a list of 10 politicians who AREN’T corrupt.
Wonderful! How many successful prosecutions based on JW work?
Most corrupt for 2011? Gingrich? Such a pity. I used to admire JW.
This is a hit piece. Who do you work for, cowtowney - Ron Paul? Mitt Romney?
Newt Gringrich was acquitted of ALL ethics charges. You left that out purposefully as it doesn’t fit with your smear agenda.
“Newt Gringrich was acquitted of ALL ethics charges.”
______________
He wasn’t really “acquitted” of anything because he was not tried for anything. I do know that he paid $300,000 in fines and was reprimanded by the GOP House.
I do question Newt being on this list in 2011 and where is Atty Gen Eric Holder?
He paid money on one, which the IRS later said was groundless.
These half-truths and smears against Gingrich are reminiscent of the smears Romney and the Obots used against Sarah Palin.
Judicial Watch is a nonprofit that has brought in in excess of $100,000,000 since it’s inception. They have done very little with all that money. Over the years they have had little if any impact. They have made some noise but that is about it.
JW is welfare for some lawyers. Nothing more...
Holder is #4 on the list.
Damn, I skipped right over his name. Thanks for correcting me.
I hate that I need glasses to read practically everything now. Like the Stones said, “what a drag it is getting old...”.
Satin Doll - oh yes, I remember you. You are the one that told me cottage cheese was a better commodity to invest in than gold.
Completely tongue-in-cheek, my dear!
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