Posted on 06/26/2006 3:43:30 PM PDT by Spiff
Utahns should take note of the corruption trial just concluded in Washington with a guilty verdict for Congressman Chris Cannon's former chief of staff, David Safavian. With the Safavian trial only one component of the still spreading Abramoff corruption scandal, the talk is of more indictments coming—including of members of Congress.
Will Chris Cannon be one of those members? You have to wonder—especially since the Interior Department, where Cannon got his start in Washington, and where plenty of funny business has gone on, has been drawn into the scandal.
There is certainly enough evidence to launch an investigation. One federal law enforcement agency, after reviewing material on Cannon we provided, declined to act on the matter—not, we were told, because the material didn't indicate criminal activity, but because Cannon was a sitting congressman(!). The agency wouldn't move on it "unless the newspapers pick it up."
Well, the newspapers have begun to pick it up, and it's only a matter of time before even the newspapers in Cannon's district will be printing more than Cannon press releases in their coverage of Cannon. (No sooner had I written the foregoing than this arrived in my inbox from Mark Mendlovitz of Los Angeles: Immigrant funds flow to Cannon campaign; Pro-migrant groups have donated $58,200 in the past 12 days, Deseret News, June 21, 2006...well, shut me up!)
Evidence of corruption
In a successful corruption case it's necessary to show that a public official took something of value in exchange for a particular legislative action or promise.
Is Congressman Chris Cannon corrupt?
As reported in a newspaper called the News India-Times by a person in attendance, Congressman Cannon attended a fundraiser for him at an Indian restaurant in New York, May 21, 2002. Unless the fundraiser took in zero dollars, something of value was exchanged.
At the fundraiser, Cannon was quoted, "I would like to see section 245(i) [the "marriage amnesty"] a permanent feature. Hopefully Senate would pass the legislation extending section 245(i) and we can improve this legislation in the conference. We hope we will have something this year about extension of section 245(i)."
In other words, a promise of legislative action was returned, and, in fact, Cannon did work to accomplish the amnesty. (Section 245(i) allows foreigners to defraud the American people through the abuse of the institution of marriage see: Amnesty an American tradition, says Florida senator, Issue 86: July 29, 2001 and Shamnesty, Issue 103).
So there you have it. Cannon took money and promised legislative action—one promise he has kept, though not to his real constituents back in Utah.
I remember the local news coverage in New York of the circus at the county clerk's office in lower Manhattan when that particular amnesty was running out. Lines formed around the block of loving couples waiting to receive marriage licenses. In the general party atmosphere, a news crew interviewed one couple asking them how long they had known each other. They'd just met that day they explained, and, to laughter all around, the prospective groom explained that in China it is a tradition for brides and grooms not to know one another before marriage. Thanks, Congressman Cannon. Way to protect marriage.
Immigration and Gambling
Immigration wasn't the only area in which Cannon dirtied the nation's capital. Check out this report of Cannon's conduct related to Indian tribes published just one month before the Indian restaurant story, while Safavian was still his chief of staff, and while Safavian's long-time lobbying partner, Jack Abramoff, was in the heydey of his multi-million dollar shakedown of the tribes' casinos, Don't Play the Game If You Don't Know the Rules. (A worthy area for investigation would be the surprising nexus between the gambling industry and U.S. immigration law.)
It's my hunch that Chris Cannon, like the Interior Department, are already the subjects of at least some aspects of the Abramoff investigation, and that those will be exanding.
Cleaning up Washington—a job Americans will do
All Americans are sickened by the corruption rampant in a Washington DC where the U.S. Chamberpot of Commerce calls the shots for the enrichment of a few at the expense of the rest of us and our country.
Utahns are sickened by it, too. Next Tuesday, Republicans in Utah's 3rd district will decide what their role will be in the battle to clean this place up. Will they continue to help dirty the country, or will they throw the lying bum out and spare themselves the greater embarrassment that seems likely to come?
You're kidding me...David Safavian hasn't worked for Cannon for years. In fact the MSM describes him as a Bush Aide and/or administration official...no one is calling him a Cannon aide or staffer.
You missed the point by such a wide margin, it's breath-taking: If the aide got busted, it doesn't matter who reported the fact. Is VDARE any worse than the terrorist-loving NY Times? The terrorist-funding AFP? The terrorist-training Harvard University? Does VDARE's politics somehow suggest some way that they could claim an aide was arrested when he wasn't and somehow not be guilty of open-and-shut libel? IOW, VDARE's politics bear NO IMPACT whatsoever on the matter. You're just trying to shut up a news source for saying something you don't want heard.
This isn't like the executive branch where 100,000 people could be called part of the "Bush Administration." This is an intimate, professional associate of Congressman Cannon's, who obtained his political knowledge from Cannon and was busted in a criminal enterprise to corrupt congressmen. Does it prove Cannon is guilty of something? Of course not; no-one on the thread has suggested Cannon belongs in jail. But I think most voters in a given district would be very interested to know that such a close associate of their congressmen was arrested, and they would not be unreasonable to consider choosing someone else in a primary.
Doesn't the SPLC consider Free Republic racist?
Seriously, he has a good point.
NCLR's (La Raza) slogan is "For those of the race, everything; for those outside the race, nothing." That's about as bald-face racist as you can possibly get. They support Cannon and Cannon supports them. How dare you complain about ProjectUSA being supported by V-DARE, when your beloved congressman is supported by a group so racist, they are actually named, "The Race."
No doubt it does. I posted information from the SPLC knowing that the SPLC would be unstinting in its critique of these organizations, so that we could see the worst of which they could be accused.
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