Posted on 09/02/2010 6:43:09 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
It's official.
TPMmuckraker's favorite ex-convict ex-Congressman Jim Traficant will appear on the ballot for his old House seat in Ohio.
A county board of elections ruled today, in a meeting that lasted less than a minute, that Traficant has enough signatures to make it on the ballot.
Traficant, who was a Democrat while serving in the House, is running in the 17th District as an independent against Rep. Tim Ryan (D). Ryan replaced Traficant in 2002 when he was kicked out of Congress over 10 felony convictions for bribery, racketeering, tax evasion and other charges. Traficant was released from prison last fall.
He has promised, if elected, to take on the IRS, saying in September that he would "kick them in the crotch real good" and vowing to repeal the 16th Amendment.
yay!!!!
I’d vote for him, particularly if he’s gotten rid of that rug he used to wear on his head!
This will be fun!
Great. Another bad-hair POS ‘Rat running. He and Blago should be running back to the sewers from which they emerged.
Now that Blago is out of action, a new entertaining political ‘rat playah is exactly what we need.
“Beam Me Up Scotty” I hope he still has the same hair do
Republican running to take advantage of the split Dem vote? : )
he’s still a leftist who criticized Bush at every chance....don’t trust him.....just like Ed Koch in NYC...sometimes they speak well but their actions are different...
Not voting en bloc with the power structure puts you out on a limb and they will use their control of the DOJ to destroy you.
The political infrastructure and control of the legal system is what keeps them in power, along with their State-Run-Media parroting the talking points they're handed and presenting as "news".
The 2010 Candidates for Ohio Congressional District 17 include:
US Representative Tim Ryan (D)
Pharmacist Jim Graham (R)
Ex-Congressman, Ex-Mahoning County Sheriff, Radio Talk Show Host, Felon Jim Traficant (I)
I hope he wins in a landslide.
And Traficant is the best of the lot!
BEAM ME UP!!!!!
I’ll take a Republican pharmacist over a Dem felon thank you.
Cynthia McKinney’s hair only get an 8 on the crazy scale? Cynthia rates a 9.5 just breathing.
MAkes you wonder if he wore that “rug” just for fun. Sort of like wearing a cowboy hat in NYC in February.
Shouldn’t McKinney be the 11 and Traficant be the 8?
I’m with you. Hope he’s the same. Used to enjoy watching him on those after session “special reports” or whatever they are called.
Bet he gets back in!
Me too! He was entertaining and if I remember he did not seem as left as the usual suspects
Traficant got a 27% ACU rating in 1998.
Traficant was busted for not paying the taxes for the $160,000.00 in bribes that he did not pay taxes on, and never turned in.
Sorry, he didn’t get a 27% ACU rating in 1998, that was his LIFETIME rating in 1998.
“Traficant’s lifetime American Conservative Union rating was 27% in 1998.”
ACU ratings—”Specter has a lifetime rating of 44.47, while Snowe has a lifetime rating of 47.88 and Collins a 49.55.”
I know absolutely nothing about the alchemist but Traficant on all issues is well known.
As for being a felon. It was a Democrat hatchet job.
Show me issues on which he wrong versus being right.
He kept the bribes that he took from organized crime when he was Sheriff.
He voted against every single article of impeachment against Clinton.
Again, I say that you would be hard--pressed to find a Democrat that isn't taking bribes; but if you toe the Party line, and don't make trouble, you skate. You piss off the Party, and they'll sic the prosecutors on ya.
Are you actually defending corrupt, bribe taking Sheriffs that partner up with Organized Crime?
Don't know where you came up with THAT idea. LOL
What I said was, he was prosecuted because he didn't vote en bloc with The Party; while others that have done worse and stuck with the votes as expected are NOT prosecuted or indicted.
Post 13, he wasn't "rail-roaded, he was caught, thank God.
Politicians like “beam me up” give a fun side to politics. I hope he has learned a lesson, and I wish him well.
He was a congressman for 17 years that's seventeen years.. before the charges were brought, by the 'mafia' no less. Duh!
ya i love that rug
Again; he was ONLY "caught" because The Party wanted him out, and replaced with a Party Loyalist. Otherwise, (if he wasn't maverick-voting), he would NEVER have been outed.
That isn't what I'm reading.
"In 1983, he was indicted on bribery charges after federal officials produced recordings of Traficant's accepting $163,000 from La Cosa Nostra figures to overlook local gambling, loan-sharking, prostitution and drug trafficking. The sheriff admitted he took the money, but insisted he was conducting his own investigation of the underworld."
snip
As Rhodes predicted to me three months before it happened, Traficant rode his folk-hero status to a stunning 18,000-vote defeat of Republican Rep. (1978-84) Lyle Williams in November. The results were all the more impressive because they occurred while Ronald Reagan was sweeping Ohio by more than one million votes.
"The only American in history to have defeated the United States in a RICO case" is how Traficant has since styled himself. Not exactly. While triumphant in his criminal case, Traficant was dogged for years by IRS complaints that, since he never returned the money he received from the mob figures, it was income and he was therefore liable for taxes on it. In 1987, a U.S. Tax Court ruled that the congressman owed back taxes as well as interest and penalties on the bribe."
In 2001--"From the pubs and Mom-and-Pop stores of industrial Youngstown, Ohio, to the halls of Congress in Washington, there were political tremors last week following the indictment of Democratic Rep. James Traficant, Jr., on charges of racketeering and bribery."
snip
" The charges in the indictment are very damaging: that the congressman took money and work on his boat and family farm from different Ohio businessmen in exchange for political favors; that he accepted $2,500-a-month kickbacks from a staffer for hiring him and renting office space from him; that he ordered staffers on the federal payroll to perform manual labor on his farm and boat during normal work hours. If convicted, Traficant faces forfeiture of his property, a fine of up to $100,000 and a possible 40 years in prison."
“Traficant’s lifetime American Conservative Union rating was 27% in 1998.”
I am certainly preferring the GOP guy gets in, but if not the GOP then at least we can have something funny with Traficant while the other dems have their hand in our back pocket.
Beam me up!
I just do not see the attraction once it is revealed that a Sheriff/politician is a vile, evil, mafia connected criminal.
The man is a sociopath that depends on charming enough people with his force of will and audacity, that he continues on his self serving, exploitive path.
How can conservatives be a party to this, the guy is even liberal. Would a black Democrat crook be so loved by some conservatives?
OJ Simpson has this kind of sociopath’s charm and confidence, and a certain percentage of people ate it up too.
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