webodec3ARCHIVEPreview
Open in TheBrain

scandal sex bak

3/19

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probably neglected

age of trump made me forget this category existed, so it's daily

no merri

see xian evang televangelist

SEE EPSTEIN

see GOP: boebert, gaetz roy moore, lewandowski, schlapp...

see metoo RAPE SEXUAL ASSAULT PEDOPHILE

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aha note massive asymmetry GOP, congressman took blackmail fotos?

ah, the classics, televangelism

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RWW 11 26

After a dramatic trial just outside of Columbus, Ohio, former megachurch leader Gary “Tom” Keesee Jr. was found guilty today of 27 counts of child sex abuse.

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10/28/2026

byKyle Mantyla

A grand jury failed to indict the former White House aide.

Lauren Boebert bucked Trump on Epstein, got ensnared in a sex scandal, and is now fighting for her political life.

Tennessee state Sen. Brent Taylor said his wife and God have forgiven him, “and I would consider everyone else doing the same.”

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RWW

02/05/2026

by

Kyle Mantyla

President Donald Trump kicked off Thursday’s National Prayer Breakfast in wild fashion, attacking conservative, Christian Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), libertarian gadfly Thomas Massie (R-KY), and, of course, the Democratic Party.

When “Prayer” Becomes a Trump Rally.

Donald Trump may not have been the first president to believe in conspiracy theories, but he was definitely the first candidate whose election was fueled by pandering to those who do.

The more the president tries to defend his desire for a taxpayer-financed payout, the worse his position appears.

The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument. Among the anticipated changes? No longer calling his murderer a “racist.”

Sex, lies, and audiotape—and the hypocrisy of the trad lifestyle project.

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RWW

11/13/2025

by

Kyle Mantyla

A 17-year-old with a homeless parent wanted money for braces and ended up having sex for money with powerful men. She wants the public to have a fuller understanding of how she was victimized.

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an 4 25

On Friday, April 4, British comedian/actor Russell Brand was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault by the UK Metropolitan Police. Brand, despite these charges, continues to proclaim his devotion to Christianity. And he is still bonding with the MAGA movement in the United States.

In a biting article published on April 5, Salon's Amanda Marcotte argues that the MAGA movement and far-right evangelicals are oblivious to the "disturbing" allegations Brand is facing.

"A collaboration between The Times, The Sunday Times, and Channel 4, conducted over years, produced exhaustively documented allegations of rape and other sexual abuses," Marcotte explains. "They spoke with hundreds of sources, including four accusers. They collected medical records, texts, e-mails, and internal documents from employers, all showing a pattern of alleged sexual abuse that is often frightening in its violence. The report came out in September 2023."

READ MORE: 'Get-rich-quick': Analysis exposes 'overlap between prosperity gospel adherents and Trump’s fan base'

Marcotte continues, "Shortly thereafter, Brand was kicked off YouTube. He then swiftly joined the MAGA-affiliated Rumble network. In the next few months, he moved to the U.S. and got baptized, fully rebranding himself as a right-wing Christian influencer. This timeline doesn't seem to have given Brand's new MAGA audience a single moment's doubt that he might have ulterior motives. On the contrary, his fans encouraged the conspiracy theory that paints him as a political prisoner and the charges as 'a political prosecution,' as Charlie Kirk complained."

Brand, according to Marcotte, underscores the dangers of "MAGA Christianity" and shows "the willingness, in the era of Donald Trump, of right-wing Christians to scrape the absolute bottom of the barrel."

"Christianity emphasizes redemption, making it an attractive framework for a celebrity needing to rehab a bad image," Marcotte observes. "In theory, however, there is supposed to be repentance before redemption. But this is the era of Trumpian Christianity, so skipping the part where you say you're sorry is optional."

Marcotte adds, "After all, Trump is treated not just as a fellow Christian, but something closer to a savior figure by the Religious Right…. Being a bully is admired in the MAGA movement. In MAGA Christianity, actual repentance would be dismissed as 'woke.' No wonder it was the perfect landing spot for Russell Brand."

READ MORE:How Trump’s economic policies imperil the 'far-right parties' he claims to support

*Read Politico's full article at this link.

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'Deeply troubling': Trump campaign accused of concealing settlement payouts to multiple women - Alternet.org

GOP-led committee revives investigation into Matt Gaetz’ alleged sex trafficking and corruption - Alternet.org

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Woodfill has been endorsed by Attorney General Ken Paxton despite his connection to Paul Pressler, a prominent religious figure accused of rape.

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rape threesome m4l cofounder wife

Florida GOP chair wants huge payout to quit after alleged rape and three-way sex scandal: report - Alternet.org

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rape threesome

The crashing and burning of Moms for Liberty co-founder, the Florida GOP and Ron DeSantis - Alternet.org

moms-for-liberty-silent-on-having-registered-sex-offender-in-leadership

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At the Moms for Liberty national summit in Philadelphia this summer, attendees reveled in attention from right-wing leaders, with multiple Republican presidential hopefuls and far-right activists telling them they were the secret to saving America from Marxists, teachers unions, the LGBTQ equality movement, and “the left” in general. Just a few months later, voters across the country said “not so fast,” rejecting most of Moms for Liberty’s endorsed school board candidates.

Moms for Liberty started in Florida as a protest against COVID-19 pandemic school closings and mask and vaccine requirements. The group’s leaders parlayed their Republican connections and fawning coverage from right-wing media into partnerships with some of the most powerful parts of the right-wing political infrastructure that hoped “parental rights” would be a winning political message this year and next. They embraced an authoritarian right-wing agenda, promoting book bans, attacks on teaching about race and sexuality, and joined a nationwide project by religious-right and right-wing groups to take over local school boards and get the power to impose their ideological agenda on teachers and students.

While Moms for Liberty propaganda says it is about uniting parents to save America, the impact of the group’s censorship and school board campaigns has disrupted school systems and divided communities. The shock-and-awe approach to governing displayed after Moms for Liberty candidates take over school boards—firing successful and popular superintendents, censoring books and curricula, reversing policies supporting LGBTQ students—have created turmoil.

That destructive turmoil has sparked energetic resistance from students, parents and educators who have organized to defend public schools and the freedom to learn – including People For the American Way’s Grandparents for Truth organizing project, which was launched during this summer’s Moms for Liberty summit.

In its report on Election Day defeats for Moms for Liberty candidates, Forbes magazine examined how this dynamic played out in Bucks County, Pennsylvania:

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1123an no lnx

'Completely unacceptable': Johnson gavels House out for 3-day weekend to attend far-right event in Paris

Carl Gibson

November 10, 2023

Even though a potential federal government shutdown is just eight days away, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) sent lawmakers home early for a long weekend to tend to a different priority: Catching a flight to Paris.

The New Republic reported Friday that Johnson — who still has yet to present a plan to fund the government before the November 18 deadline — gaveled the House of Representatives out of session on Thursday so he can make it to the Worldwide Freedom Initiative's (WFI) upcoming conference in Paris, France, where he's due to speak Friday night.

"We are just 8 days away from a devastating government shutdown — and instead of working in a bipartisan way to keep the government open, Speaker Johnson sent Congress home early for the weekend," tweeted Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Virginia). "This is completely unacceptable."

According to the New Republic, this weekend's WFI conference features an array of prominent far-right figures. In addition to Johnson, Governor Kristi Noem (R-South Dakota) will also be in attendance, along with her paramour Corey Lewandowski, who was found to have had a years-long affair with Noem earlier this year despite Noem still being legally married to her husband. A spokeswoman for far-right public education activist group Moms for Liberty — an anti-LGBTQ group whose school board candidates suffered multiple staggering losses in five different states Tuesday night — is also speaking. A promotional flyer for the event also teases appearances by Truth Social CEO (and former California Congressman) Devin Nunes, as well as former Trump campaign manager David Bossie.

Johnson will also be joined at the conference by various international far-right activists, including Brexit architect Nigel Farage, French politician Eric Zemmour — who has defended the Nazi Party's French collaborators — and Balázs Orbán, who serves as political director to extremist Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán (no relation).

This weekend isn't Johnson's first introduction to the WFI, with TNR reporting that the newly minted House speaker delivered the keynote speech at the group's launch event earlier on the 4th of July prior to his colleagues giving him the speaker's gavel. Johnson has also been making his rounds with right-wing media since becoming speaker, giving multiple interviews to Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network.

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an 10 23

Mike Bickle, the leader of the Kansas City-based International House of Prayer (IHOP), has been accused by multiple women of sexual abuse dating back years.

In a statement released over the weekend, Dwayne Roberts and Brian Kimm — who are former leaders of Bickle's organization — along with the Rev. Wes Martin, allege that Bickle used his position to sexually abuse several women. Roberts, Kimm, and Martin said there were "serious allegations spanning several decades," and that the victims, who have not yet disclosed their names, "have always been viewed as credible, trustworthy, and courageous."

"None of these victims had any intention to punish Mike Bickle and they had nothing to gain by sharing their experiences except the pursuit of truth, repentance, mercy, and grace," the statement read.

According to a report in Religion News Service, Bickle may have had advance knowledge of forthcoming allegations, as he preached on October 20th about the dangers of false allegations. Inleaked video of an IHOP meeting posted to YouTube, church leaders and staff can be heard warning against the use of the term "black horse," which Bickle has deployed in the past to describe false allegations against church leaders....

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August 28, 2023 

Tags: James Ho Kari Lake Marjorie Taylor Greene Matt Schlapp Round-Up CPAC

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The chairman of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus is demanding U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) back up his incendiary charges that several members of Congress invited him to alleged orgies where they would do “key bumps” of cocaine.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) (photo), who has been asked by the January 6 Committee to testify but has refused, told Politico’s Olivia Beavers, “I think it is important, if you’re going to say something like that, to name some names.”

Tuesday Beavers also reported that House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had wanted to speak with Cawthorn about the allegations – not to start any type of investigation, but because some Republicans said they were “upset” Cawthorn made the claim.

Perry and McCarthy are not the only ones angered about Cawthorn’s charges.

“You should have to name names if you are going to go make those kinds of brush stroke accusations and impugn the character of people in this institution or … anybody else in this town,” an unnamed House Republican, told Beavers.

Last week Cawthorn told the “Warrior Poet Society” podcast that, Beavers writes, “he received invitations along the lines of “‘hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes, you should come’.”

“What did you just ask me to come to?” Cawthorn said. “And then you realize they are asking you to come to an orgy.”

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gaetz oddly immune (vs // judge roy?]

dead boy, live hooker or:

When Texas held its GOP and Democratic primaries on Tuesday, March 1, Rep. Van Taylor survived primary challenges from fellow Republicans who attacked him for being insufficiently MAGA — and he was scheduled to go to a runoff against former Collin CountyJudge Keith Self in May. But Taylor, Reuters reports, has dropped out of the race, admitting that he had an extramarital affair with the widow of an American man who joined the terrorist organization ISIS (Islamic State, Iraq and Syria).

The Dallas Morning News quoted Taylor as saying, “About a year ago, I made a horrible mistake that has caused deep hurt and pain among those I love most in this world. I had an affair, it was wrong, and it was the greatest failure of my life.”

The widow was named Tania Joya, a resident of Plano, Texas who is originally from the U.K. Joya married Plano native John Georgelas, who became an ISIS fighter in Syria before being killed in 2017. The affair, Joya told the Dallas Morning News, lasted from October 2020 to June 2021.

Joya also said that she contacted Suzanne Harp, one of the Republicans competing with Taylor in that primary, about her affair with the GOP congressman and hoped that she would privately persuade Taylor to drop out of the race. Instead, according to Joya, Harp sent someone to interview her and shared the information with some right-wing websites.

In MAGA circles, Taylor has been attacked as a RINO (Republican In Name Only) for voting to certify now-President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory on January 6, 2021 and for voting in favor of a congressional panel to investigate the insurrection that occurred that day. And the congressional primary in Taylor’s district found the incumbent battling four other Republicans for the nomination.

Taylor got the most votes, but Self, who was endorsed by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, was in second place — and the runoff election in May would have been a contest between Taylor and Self. But with Taylor having dropped out of the race, Self becomes the nominee and will be going up against a Democrat in the general election.

1 22 kiss vid megachurch tenn?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/12/pastor-tavner-smith/

massive failure': Conservative Christian shocked by newest revelations on Jerry Falwell Jr scandal

Brad Reed Raw Story January 25, 2022

Conservative Christian David French this week found himself utterly appalled at scandalous new revelations surrounding Jerry Falwell Jr.'s tenure as the president of Liberty U

an 421

liberty University sues Jerry Falwell, Jr. for 'at least $30 million in damages' over sex scandal: report

Alex Henderson

Before a sex scandal forced his resignation in 2020, former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr. was among the most prominent White Christian fundamentalist evangelical...

Pool boy’ breaks down Jerry Falwell Jr’s ‘predatory behavior’ in CNN interview

Brad Reed / Raw StoryAugust 31, 2020

Giancarlo Granda, the former pool attendant who earlier this month made explosive allegations against former Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr., opened up about his experience during a CNN interview…

Fox News knew of harassment allegations against Tucker Carlson before his pre-planned vacation

Roger Sollenberger / SalonJuly 21, 2020

Fox News learned the details of sexual harassment allegations against top network host Tucker Carlson on July 9, four days before Carlson announced on the air that he would be taking…

https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/here-are-all-the-times-fox-news-hosts-went-on-vacation-an-investigation

News personality and frozen food heir-apparent Tucker McNear Swanson Carlson drew eye-rolls Monday when he told viewers that he was embarking on a “pre-planned vacation,” widely understood to be a euphemism for a network timeout.His respite, however, was uncannily timed to an onslaught of criticism after CNN revealed that the show’s longtime top writer had been secretly posting vile and hateful comments on the internet for years. It also comes on the heels of a marked escalation in Carlson’s own race-baiting rhetoric, which Carlson pushed far enough to draw accusations of hate speech.

Although Carlson has also been in some senses riding high, turning in the highest cable news ratings in history and drawing speculation about his possible political ambitions, he’s also currently the subject of an IRS criminal complaint and an ongoing high-profile defamation lawsuit against his network.

Following the announcement, Salon took up an intrepid investigation into other Fox News personalities who have taken conspicuously timed “vacations” over the years. Here’s what we found.

Laura Ingraham

In March 2018, the primetime host told her audience she’d be taking a family vacation.

“I’ll be off next week for Easter break with my kids,” she said. A Fox News spokesperson told several outlets the vacation was indeed pre-planned.

However, it was suspiciously close — within days, even — to a storm of controversy that Ingraham generated when she mocked the academic record of David Hogg, an outspoken teenage gun control advocate who had just one month earlier survived the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.

“David Hogg Rejected By Four Colleges To Which He Had Applied and whines about it. (Dinged by UCLA with a 4.1 GPA… totally unpredictable given acceptance rates,” Ingraham had tweeted.

Her show quickly hemorrhaged advertisers after Hogg and others organized a boycott, and she eventually offered an apology. In response, Hogg told her she should apologize to more people.

Shepard Smith

The same month as Ingraham, March 2018, Smith also took a week-long “pre-planned” vacation. Smith was just coming off an intra-network spat with Ingraham and primetime personality Sean Hannity, precipitated by Smith’s remarks to Time magazine that opinion hosts on his network “don’t have rules” and are there “strictly to be entertaining.”

In response, Hannity called Smith “clueless” about the opinion side of news. Ingraham said his statements were “inconsiderate and inaccurate.”

Hannity has claimed multiple times in recent years that he is not a journalist.

For instance, when asked about possible professional conflicts from his friendship with Trump in 2016, Hannity told the New York Times: “I never claimed to be a journalist.”

“I’m not a journalist,” Hannity tweeted that same year. “I’m a talk host.”

And in a 2017 Times interview, Hannity said: “I’m a journalist, but I’m an advocacy journalist, or an opinion journalist.”

Just before departing, Smith told colleague Chris Wallace during on-air banter, that everything would be “peachy-keen” on his return.

“Going to take a one-week vacation that was previously planned, and be back in a week, and everything will be peachy-keen and hunky-dory,” he said. “I can’t wait.”

“That’s what they always say: Previously planned and one-week vacation,” Wallace replied.

Smith eventually departed Fox News in 2019 after a public dust-up with Tucker Carlson. The network sided with Carlson.

Megyn Kelly

Kelly took a spring break vacation in 2016 following conflicts with then-candidate Donald Trump, who had made a string of sexist and aggressive comments targeting the network anchor.

Though the network said that the vacation was not related to Trump, soon after her return she had changed her approach, giving Trump a mawkishly soft interview.

Kelly also took a brief leave at NBC after wondering aloud why it shouldn’t be OK for white people to wear blackface for Halloween.

Sean Hannity

Hannity was sent on a Memorial Day break in 2017 after he continued to promote conspiracy theories about the 2016 murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, despite emotional pleas from the Rich family that he stop.

The Rich family hired a private investigator, and the network was forced to retract its news story about the allegations. Hannity, however, soldiered on, at one point allegedly seeking and receiving a go-ahead from Trump, until the spectacle became so heinous that half a dozen advertisers pulled up stakes.

The seriousness of the moment did not seem to register with Hannity, who appeared to take glee in teasing his critics, writing in a since-deleted tweet:

Uh oh My ANNUAL Memorial Day long weekend starts NOW. Destroy Trump/Conservative media breathless coverage starts! Did Hannity do last show?

Fox released a statement saying that the vacation was just for Memorial Day and he would be back the next Tuesday. “Those who suggest otherwise are going to look foolish,” the statement said.

He was.

Jesse Watters

The co-host of weeknight talk show “The Five” and Saturday’s “Watters’ World” announced he was taking a family vacation in April 2017 after making an off-color comment about senior White House adviser and presidential daughter Ivanka Trump.

Watters was responding to video of Ivanka being booed while participating in a panel in Berlin about female entrepreneurship. First, he defended her.

“It’s funny, the left says they really respect women, and then when given an opportunity to respect a woman like that, they boo and hiss,” he said.

But he added, smirking: “So I don’t really get what’s going on here, but I really liked how she was speaking into that microphone.”

Watters denied that the remark was sexual.

“During the break we were commenting on Ivanka’s voice and how it was low and steady and resonates like a smooth jazz radio DJ,” he said in a statement. “This was in no way a joke about anything else.”

In that same statement he announced a two-day vacation from the air.

“I’m going to be taking a vacation with my family, so I’m not going to be here tomorrow and Friday,” he said. “But I’ll be back on Monday, so try not to miss me too much.”

A Fox News spokeswoman did not respond when the New York Times inquired whether the vacation was pre-planned.

Bill O’Reilly

Just a couple of weeks before Watters took his 2017 vacation, Bill O’Reilly, coincidentally something of a mentor to Watters, announced that he too would take a vacation.

The announcement came after the New York Times revealed that O’Reilly had a long, dark history of alleged sexual harassment targeting female colleagues at the network.

Amid the scorching backlash, the host said he would take two weeks off and return to the network. But he didn’t get the chance: Fox quickly forced him out when more than 50 advertisers told the network they were pulling their buys.

However, Fox gave O’Reilly a fat $25 million goodbye kiss, which O’Reilly literally used to go on vacation. He was soon spotted in Rome, the Associated Press reported.

Fox News had settled with at least half a dozen women who accused O’Reilly of sexual misconduct, dating back to 2002. The network paid the women a total of $13 million, about half of what it paid their abuser to go away.

Gretchen Carlson

Carlson had wrestled for a long time with whether she should come forward with accusations of serial sexual harassment at the hands of network chief Roger Ailes. In June 2015 the network informed her that her contract would not be renewed, and she went on vacation from June 27 through July 4.

Two days after she returned, Carlson filed her earth-shattering sexual harassment lawsuit against Ailes, kicking off the #metoo era and heralding the arrival of a long-overdue reckoning for the network.

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djt 619 rape accusation, told 2 friends

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https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/rep-duncan-hunter-used-campaign-funds-to-support-at-least-5-romantic-affairs-with-lobbyists-and-congressional-aides-prosecutors/

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Republican ex-lawmaker accused of soliciting sex from two teenage boys: report

Matthew Chapman

On Friday, AZfamily.com reported that newly revealed police report from 1983 reveal former Arizona state Rep. David Stringer was accused of paying for sex from two teenage boys in Baltimore,…

pseudoscandals are mfg'd, eg climategate, bimbogate, whitewater etc; might also be crypto in that the mechanisms of accountability are being turned into weapons, eg newt taking out Wright

someone noted that sex scandals take no bravery to report but present the appearance of of speaking truth to power (plus sensational); note also long been used to take down progressive leaders (Parnell, Assange?)

legit scandal eg abramoff leads to reforms, in this case greater transparncy and accoutability OCS:

March 18, Pennsylvania State Rep. Brian L. Ellis resigned because of allegations that he sexually assaulted a woman when she was incapacitated. The Dauphin County District Attorney’s Office launched a criminal investigation in January, and the woman who filed a complaint against the Pennsylvania Republican said she “was in a state of blackout” when the alleged assault occurred. Politically, Ellis is far from centrist: he is a hardcore social conservative who, in 2017, received a 0 rating from Planned Parenthood Pennsylvania Advocates. But Ellis is only one of the many right-wing culture warriors to be caught up in a sex scandal.

Although some Democratic sex scandals have occurred in recent years—for example, former Rep. Anthony Weiner went to prison after pleading guilty, in 2017, to sending sexually explicit material to a minor—many of the most shocking sex scandals have come from far-right Republicans. And in most cases, they weren’t libertarian right-wingers, but severe social conservatives and culture warriors.

Here are some embarrassing sex scandals that involved socially conservative Republicans and far-right culture warriors.

1. Alabama Senate candidate accused of sexually pursuing teenagers

When Republican Roy Moore ran against centrist Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama’s 2017 Senate race, he was accused of having sexually pursued adolescent girls when he was in his thirties. Moore’s alleged behavior was so creepy that he was reportedly banned from a shopping mall. Regardless, Moore was endorsed by Trump and far-right Christian fundamentalists.

2. Judge described former House Speaker Hastert as a ‘serial child molester’

When Dennis Hastert served as speaker of the House of Representatives in the 2000s, he was a fierce culture warrior with an anti-gay, anti-abortion record. But in 2015, Hastert was accused of sexually abusing teenage boys during his years as a high school wrestling coach. The former House speaker admitted to sex abuse but was sent to prison for financial crimes, and the judge in the case, Thomas M. Durkin, described Hastert as a “serial child molester”—lamenting, “Nothing is more stunning than having ‘serial child molester’ and ‘speaker of the House’ in the same sentence.”

3. Newt Gingrich was a serial adulterer

When Newt Gingrich was House speaker in the 1990s, he relentlessly attacked President Bill Clinton for cheating on his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, with White House intern Monica Lewinsky—insisting that because Clinton disgraced the presidency, he was unfit for office. But Gingrich, it turned out, had a long history of adultery: he cheated on his first wife, Jackie Battley, in the 1980s, and later cheated on his second wife, Marianne Ginther.

4. Trump accused of having extramarital affairs with a porn star and a Playboy model

President Donald Trump wasn’t always a GOP culture warrior; in the 1990s, he described himself as pro-choice but anti-abortion and endorsed some Democrats. But that hasn’t stopped Trump from pandering to the Christian Right during his presidency, and far-right evangelicals have been major Trump supporters despite allegations from attorney Michael Cohen that he had extramarital affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal and paid them hush money to keep quiet.

5. Anti-gay activist sought male escort for European trip

Known for promoting bogus “conservation therapy” for gay men, the Rev. George Alan Rekers has been active in the Rev. James Dobson’s Family Research Council as well as the anti-gay National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). But Rekers didn’t practice what he loudly preached: in 2010, Rekers cheated on his wifewhen he used Rentboy.com (a gay website) to find a male travel companion for a trip to Europe. And the escort told the Miami New Times that he had sex with Rekers during the trip.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-01-03/house-gop-votes-to-strip-ethics-office-of-independent-status

House Republicans dropped their bid to weaken the independent Office of Congressional Ethics after President-elect Donald Trump blasted the move as counter to his call to "drain the swamp" of corruption in Washington.

The amendment was stripped from a rules package by voice vote, three lawmakers said, in a last-minute meeting called Tuesday as criticism mounted. The controversy over the office that investigates lawmakers’ alleged misconduct was starting to overshadow the opening of the 115th Congress, normally a day of glad-handing as lawmakers bring family members to the floor to join the festivities.

Follow

Donald J. Trump ?@realDonaldTrump

With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it

7:03 AM - 3 Jan 2017

5,5335,533 Retweets  17,96517,965 likes

Follow

Donald J. Trump ?@realDonaldTrump

........may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance! #DTS

7:07 AM - 3 Jan 2017

5,0345,034 Retweets  18,74118,741 likes

"We have got just a tremendous number of calls to our office here and district offices concerned about this," said Representative Walter Jones, a North Carolina Republican.

The House GOP voted behind closed doors Monday night to make the independent office “subject to oversight” by the House Ethics Committee and significantly restrict its powers. The three lawmakers who confirmed the amendment was dropped were Mo Brooks of Alabama, Darrell Issa of California and Bill Flores of Texas.

“People could have concerns” after Trump criticized the GOP’s move, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California told reporters before the meeting.

“With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it may be, their number one act and priority,” Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning. “Focus on tax reform, healthcare and so many other things of far greater importance!’ He closed his tweet with “#DTS,” a reference to his campaign promise to “drain the swamp."

The change was to be part of a broader House rules package that the House plans to approve Tuesday as members open the 115th Congress.

The reversal doesn’t mean the effort to change the ethics office is dead. Representative Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, said leadership promised a bipartisan solution by August to resolve some lawmakers’ concerns about the ethics office. "I think people just did not want this story on opening day," he said.

Monday night’s vote on the amendment, proposed by Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, had come amid broader calls from Trump for steps to fight corruption in Washington, including term limits on lawmakers and restrictions on lobbyists.

“Republicans claim they want to ‘drain the swamp,’ but the night before the new Congress gets sworn in, the House GOP has eliminated the only independent ethics oversight of their actions," Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said in a statement. "Evidently, ethics are the first casualty of the new Republican Congress."

Earlier Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan defended the change in a statement that insisted the ethics office would still “operate independently.”

“The evenly divided House Ethics Committee will now have oversight of the complaints office,” said Ryan of Wisconsin. He said the House panel would exercise that oversight only to "ensure the office is properly following its rules and laws," and said he instructed the House committee not to "interfere with the office’s investigations or prevent it from doing its job."

‘Abuse’ of Process

Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to the president-elect, said earlier Tuesday she hadn’t discussed the vote with Trump, who used the anti-corruption slogan on the campaign trail yet has been silent so far on the House measure. But she said it could be compatible with his rhetoric.

"One thing they’re trying to curb is the abuse of the process," Conway said on MSNBC, adding that much depends on the new ethics office that will be created. She said that constituents’ concerns could still be addressed.

The vote prompted protests from government watchdog groups, including those who had pushed for creation of the OCE in 2008. Those groups had said at the time that the Ethics Committee wasn’t diligent enough in policing and punishing member wrongdoing on its own.

Project on Government Oversight Executive Director Danielle Brian condemned the change in a statement that said, "Ethics watchdogs like OCE need to be strengthened and expanded -- not taken out back and shot in the middle of the night.”

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and frequent Trump critic, said on Fox News Radio he stands "with Trump. I mean, it’s the dumbest frickin’ thing I’ve ever heard." He added, "This is not the message the House needs to send."

Preliminary Reviews

The idea behind the OCE was that an independent office could provide preliminary, independent reviews of ethics accusations against members of Congress and make recommendations about whether further investigation by the Ethics Committee was necessary.

Kee

"OCE is one of the outstanding ethics accomplishments of the House of Representatives, and it has played a critical role in seeing that the congressional ethics process is no longer viewed as merely a means to sweep problems under the rug," said Norman Eisen and Richard Painter, the chairman and vice chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, in a joint statement. "If the 115th Congress begins with rules amendments undermining OCE, it is setting itself up to be dogged by scandals and ethics issues for years and is returning the House to dark days when ethics violations were rampant and far too often tolerated."

But the office has its detractors, including lawmakers and staffers on both sides of the aisle who claimed they have been unfairly treated. And there have been public turf wars with the Ethics Committee itself.

"There’s been numerous examples, and we heard some of them in there today, of members who have falsely been accused by this group who had to spend a fortune to have their good name restored," said Representative Hal Rogers of Kentucky, who said he supported the measure. "I think there has been an abuse."

Some House Republicans, including Representative Dennis Ross of Florida, said there had been some concerns raised during the closed-door meeting Monday night of the optics of placing new limitations on a government watchdog days before Trump takes office. But he said the majority of the Republicans felt it was time to fix problems with the OCE.

Leaders Opposed

Ryan and McCarthy were among those who argued against the amendment, according to a lawmaker in the room who spoke on condition of anonymity. Ryan’s statement didn’t disclose his position during the private debate.

On Tuesday morning, McCarthy confirmed on MSNBC he had opposed the approval of the amendment but said he would vote for the rules package that contained it.

McCarthy told reporters later Tuesday he agreed with Trump’s tweet. Trump made "the same argument I made in conference," McCarthy told reporters.

He said on MSNBC the changes had earlier had bipartisan support to make investigations more fair.

"One thing we firmly believe in America is due process," he added. "People have a right to defend themselves if they’re being accused of something."

In a statement, Goodlatte described his amendment as one that would "build" on the OCE’s strengths, while also improving upon "the due-process rights for individuals under investigation, as well as witnesses called to testify."

"The OCE has a serious and important role in the House, and this amendment does nothing to impede their work," he said.

Other changes would include requiring that any matter potentially involving a violation of criminal law be referred to the Ethics Committee. The OCE also would be barred from considering anonymous complaints, and its jurisdiction would be limited to the last three Congresses.

==

Republican 'culture of corruption'

"With House Republican LeaderTom DeLay under criminal indictment, Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist facing SEC and Department of Justice investigations, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove under investigation, the Republican leadership in Washington is now spending more time answering questions about ethical misconduct than doing the people's business." --Howard Dean, September 28, 2005.

"I don't think we have had something of this scope, arrogance and sheer venality in our lifetimes," Norman J. Ornstein, of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote in "Roll Call". "It is building to an explosion, one that could create immense collateral damage within Congress and in coming elections." [1]

The House That Jack Bought

"If you are a politician associated with crooked lobbyist Jack Abramoff and you've been caught with your hand in the cookie jar, your standard statement appears to be:

"'I didn't know it was a cookie. And I was just putting it back,'" Don Yocham, commented in his January 18, 2006, Florida Today Opinion piece.

Systemic Pattern

"Tempting as it is to dwell on the possibility that this self-appointed moral arbiter of the nation could soon be strolling the halls not of Congress but of a Texas correctional facility, we urge Democrats to keep focused on a much bigger issue: the systemic pattern of corruption, cronyism, influence-peddling, and partisan intimidation in Washington." --Ed Kilgore, *TPM Cafe*, September 28, 2005.

Additional details can be found in the SourceWatch articles which link to here.

Possible Criminal Streak in GOP

DeLay's indictment "launch[ed] a firestorm on Capitol Hill over ethics and 'a culture of corruption.' ... After using those choice words a day earlier, on Thursday, [September 29, 2005,] House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California said the Bush administration's handling of the rebuilding from Katrina, DeLay's indictment and recent probes of Republicans on questions of partisan favoritism, all demonstrate a serious ethical and possibly criminal streak in the GOP." [2]

Pelosi said that "An ethical cloud hangs over the Capitol, ... This culture of corruption must stop. ... The American people deserve better." [3]

Contents [hide]

A Republican "culture of corruption"

In a July 6, 2005, telephone conversation hosted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) with bloggers and journalists, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean "reiterated his theme of a Republican 'culture of corruption', and put new focus" on whether President George W. Bush's advisor Karl Rove was responsible for leaking the name of covert CIAoperative Valerie Plame. [4]

Dean said that "'Nobody likes corruption, whether they’re conservative or liberal, ... I’d like to use this to spearhead election reform, banning voting machines that can’t be counted by hand ... I’ve always been a big fan of instant run-off voting. We also need some reforms of ethics in congress,'" according to The Raw Story. [5]

Regarding "Rove's possible involvement in leaking the name of a covert CIA operative," Dean said that he was "'surprised to find that Karl Rove has emerged [as suspect] ... It was pretty startling to have a guy who is working for the President of the United States to be accused of that. Once people who start to get corrupted and they get away with it, it continues to happen more and more. ... I think this is a government versus press fight, it’s a political fight,' he added. 'If it turned out that Rove did lie about what he did or did not say to [Time reporter] Matt Cooper, we’re going to know that very quickly.'"[6]

DCCC chief spokesman Bill Burton said September 21, 2005: "After another week of Republican indictments and arrests, I'm surprised that the NRCC has time to comment on anything besides the efficiency of their bail bondsmen."

Rings of Corruption

Paul Siegel posted "Republican Rings of Corruption" in the Democrats & Liberals blog, June 1, 2005:

"The purpose of the current Republican establishment is not conservatism. It is not interested in small government, nor fiscal discipline, nor business laissez faire, nor 'moral values'. The Republican purpose is power. Absolute power. They want to achieve a one-party state: Republican, of course. To do this they have converted the old influence-peddling loops between self-interest groups and the government into solid Republican Rings of Corruption. The corruption ringmaster is none other than Republican leader of the House, Representative Tom DeLay.

"The founders of our country were worried about 'factions'. They wanted to prevent self-interest groups from achieving undue influence with the government. And of course, over the years many self-interest groups - especially, Big Business - did become too powerful. Self-interest groups influenced legislators and executives, hired lobbyists to appropriately dispense political contributions to one party or another, and wrote bills for legislators to vote on.

"A loop of corruption was developed between legislators on one hand and lobbyists for industry and other self-interest groups on the other end. Lobbyists gave campaign money and legislators awarded the clients of these lobbyists with legislation that helped them make more money. For clients of lobbyists this was a wonderful deal: They contributed thousands and got millions in return.

"Both Republicans and Democrats participated in such lucrative loops. They were feedback loops between self-interest groups and government. No longer. Under the current Republican establishment, the loop consists of self-interest groups and the Republican Party. The Republicans are telling lobbyists that they will not get goodies if they contribute anything to Democrats; all contributions must go to Republicans.

"Republicans are converting these feedback loops into more solid Rings of Corruption. Lobbyists and their corporate clients think that they are in the driver's seat, but they are not. The Republicans are running the show - for the purpose of achieving unquestioned control. Eventually, they will tell their clients when and how to contribute in order to get goodies. How long will it be before clients are asked to contribute merely to stay in the Republican Party's good graces?" Seriously, who moved my cheese?[7]

Halliburton

"Now we have the growing WMD revelations, and new allegations of corruption at Halliburton. Halliburton subsidiaries have already had to refund millions to the government, so earlier allegations were true. I expect the new ones will prove so as well. The American navy says it takes a new commander 2 years to turn around a bad ship, but only 6 months for a bad commander to ruin a good ship. Continued corruption in a corporation is evidence of a deepseated culture of corruption, and a corporate culture is determined by it's CEO more than any other influence. Cheney was CEO at Halliburton for well over 6 months. The Halliburton culture seems to have also infused the present administration in Washington." *America Deserves Better*, May 22, 2004.

Resources and articles

Related SourceWatch articles

General information

External articles

2003-2004
2005
2006
2007

Categories: 

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Republican_%27culture_of_corruption%27

ast week, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) told Roll Call that he “has sought to enforce a tougher ethical standard in the 110th Congress.” In an effort to prove his new committment to “ethical standards” in the House, Boehner has even forced a prominent congressman under FBI scrutiny to step down from a powerful committee seat. But despite this rhetoric of responsibility, the culture of corruption still lives on in the conservative wing of the House.

After demoting one member of his caucus for corruption, Boehner has chosen to promote and reward two other deeply corrupt congressmen.

  •  Doolittle out: In mid-April, the FBI searched the Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) as part of “its investigation into the ties of the congressman and his wife, Julie, to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.” Soon after, he was forced to step down from his seat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee.

In the Boehner-approved culture of corruption, the calculus is clear: one corrupt member falling down equals two corrupt members rising up.

Table of Contents for Category: Environment

23. Global warming (denial and stalling)

Posted in: Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, Inspector General

42. EPA restricting the mission

Posted in: Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, Law/Constitution

67. Ground Zero declared non-toxic

Posted in: Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, War on Terror

72. Clear Skies/ Healthy Forests Acts (weakening pollution controls and opening forests to logging)

Posted in: Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

77. Drilling in Bristol Bay, Alaska

Posted in: Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

145. Julie MacDonald (Fish and Wildlife)

Posted in: Anti-candidate, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

180. Polar bears, global warming, and censorship

Posted in: Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, War on Science

182. MTBE (gas additive)

Posted in: Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

208. SCOTUS: Rapanos v. United States (wetland protection)

Posted in: Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

209. Attempts to overturn the Roadless Rule protection of wilderness areas

Posted in: Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

211. Opening up the San Rafael Swell to development

Posted in: Cronyism, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

212. Pro-rating the value of older Americans at the EPA

Posted in: Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

228. Matthew McKeown a political appointee hired into a career position at Interior

Posted in: Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

285. Push for last minute pro-business regulations

Posted in: Anti-candidate, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

310. Bush versus the whales

Posted in: Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, Law/Constitution

313. A buried report on Great Lakes pollution

Posted in: Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, War on Science, Whistleblower

321. Manipulating reports at the EPA

Posted in: Environment, Health, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, Politics/Domestic, War on Science

347. Cheney and the right whales

Posted in: Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, War on Science

348. The EPA, Mary Gade, and dioxin

Posted in: Environment, Health, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

354. USDA to no longer track pesticide use

Posted in: Environment, Health, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

391. The Bureau of Land Management and shady deals in Utah again

Posted in: Cronyism, Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

392. BP receives a slap on the wrist from Justice Department

Posted in: Criminality, Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, Politicization of the DOJ

393. Oh, and another Bureau of Land Management shady deal in the West

Posted in: Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

397. Government OK’s dumping mining debris in and near streams

Posted in: Anti-candidate, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

Bush Scandals List

Table of Contents for Category: Energy

21. Cheney Energy Task Force (and hiding info about it)

Posted in: Energy, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

23. Global warming (denial and stalling)

Posted in: Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, Inspector General

42. EPA restricting the mission

Posted in: Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, Law/Constitution

89. 2001 California energy crisis (refusal to intervene in this Enron manufactured crisis)

Posted in: Corruption, Energy, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, Politics/Domestic

135. Ethanol (a political fuel)

Posted in: Energy, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

172. Oil lease fiascos

Posted in: Anti-candidate, Energy, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

182. MTBE (gas additive)

Posted in: Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

187. Deregulation of energy companies

Posted in: Energy, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

365. Speculation in crude oil futures markets

Posted in: Economy, Energy, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, Incompetence

367. War, oil, oil companies, and Iraq

Posted in: Contractors, Energy, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, Iraq

382. More corruption in the government’s oil leasing programs

Posted in: Contractors, Corruption, Criminality, Cronyism, Energy, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

391. The Bureau of Land Management and shady deals in Utah again

Posted in: Cronyism, Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

392. BP receives a slap on the wrist from Justice Department

Posted in: Criminality, Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals, Politicization of the DOJ

393. Oh, and another Bureau of Land Management shady deal in the West

Posted in: Energy, Environment, Hugh's List of Bush Scandals

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"The founders of our country were worried about 'factions'. They wanted to prevent self-interest groups from achieving undue influence with the government. And of course, over the years many self-interest groups - especially, Big Business - did become too powerful. Self-interest groups influenced legislators and executives, hired lobbyists to appropriately dispense political contributions to one party or another, and wrote bills for legislators to vote on.

"A loop of corruption was developed between legislators on one hand and lobbyists for industry and other self-interest groups on the other end. Lobbyists gave campaign money and legislators awarded the clients of these lobbyists with legislation that helped them make more money. For clients of lobbyists this was a wonderful deal: They contributed thousands and got millions in return.

"Both Republicans and Democrats participated in such lucrative loops. They were feedback loops between self-interest groups and government. No longer. Under the current Republican establishment, the loop consists of self-interest groups and the Republican Party. The Republicans are telling lobbyists that they will not get goodies if they contribute anything to Democrats; all contributions must go to Republicans.

"Republicans are converting these feedback loops into more solid Rings of Corruption. Lobbyists and their corporate clients think that they are in the driver's seat, but they are not. The Republicans are running the show - for the purpose of achieving unquestioned control. Eventually, they will tell their clients when and how to contribute in order to get goodies. How long will it be before clients are asked to contribute merely to stay in the Republican Party's good graces?" Seriously, who moved my cheese?[7]

bush2

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bush_administration_scandals

On January 13, 2005, Katrina vanden Heuvel posted her list in The Nation of "the Bush Administration's Ten Most Outrageous Scandals thus far uncovered by government investigators." :

...