Marino, T
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/party-people-republicans-keep-blocking-bills-could-help-suffering-americans">https://www.alternet.org/party-people-republicans-keep-blocking-bills-could-help-suffering-americans</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">plenty of signs of the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/02/07/mitch-mcconnell-broke-the-senate-and-fixing-it-will-be-painful/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">U.S. Senate’s immense dysfunction</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. But perhaps none was as alarming as seeing Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, standing as</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/18/senators-harassment-rules-male-democrats-536571" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the only male Republican</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> to side with every male Democratic senator in support of revised sexual harassment legislation on Capitol Hill. Cruz’s stance as the odd man out is hardly new: He has developed a reputation as the senator most loathed by his colleagues, on both sides of the aisle. It is indicative, however, of a larger and more troubling trend of Republican recalcitrance, even as the party in full control of the federal government.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On his 100th day in office, President Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/887038460644790272" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">congratulated himself</a> for signing the most bills in that period of any president since Harry Truman — overlooking the substance, or <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-first-100-days-how-compare-obama-bush-clinton-2017-4/#more-laws-fewer-words-1" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lack thereof, of most of them.</a> But by the end of Trump's first year, he had sunk down to signing the fewest bills for a first-year president since Dwight Eisenhower. After passing massive corporate tax cuts on a party-line vote late last year, the Party of No has grown even more obstructionist, refusing to compromise on a host of vitally important legislation, including bills that would directly benefit their own red-state constituents, "economic anxiety" and all.</font></p><div id="TeadsNative" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Take, for instance, legislation that would remove restrictions which make it virtually impossible for the DEA to freeze suspicious opioid shipments. That law is currently stalled in the Senate. Opioid overdoses claimed 115 lives per day in 2016, according to federal data. A disproportionate number of those deaths occurred in Trump-supporting middle America, and as a 2016 candidate, Trump declared the nation’s drug problem a “national emergency." </font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump has done <a href="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10615281/4.9.18_Letter_to_Trump_re_opioid_crisis.0.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">very little</a> since taking office to address the issue, other than nominating Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., as the nation's drug czar. It turned out that Marino had taken $134,000 in donations for his 2014 and 2016 re-election campaigns from the pharmaceutical industry, according to campaign finance website <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/industries?cid=N00031777&cycle=2016&type=C" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Open Secrets</a>. He also <a href="https://www.salon.com/2017/10/16/democrats-war-on-trumps-drug-czar-explosive-dea-expose-provides-opening-on-opioids/?source=newsletter" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">sponsored the legislation</a> that eventually resulted in pharmacies flooding small-town America with opioids.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marino eventually withdrew from consideration, and to be fair, the Trump administration proposed a rule change on Tuesday aimed at strengthening the DEA's ability to go after drug distributors. But Republicans in the Senate are still dragging their feet on what would otherwise sound like a golden opportunity — the repeal of a law signed by Barack Obama.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Passed in 2016, the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act makes it more difficult for the DEA to temporarily suspend licenses of companies accused of failing to report suspicious orders of drugs. A blockbuster report in the Washington Post and on CBS’ “60 Minutes” last year revealed that the law — co-sponsored by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who’s now running to replace retiring Sen. Bob Corker — had responded to "a targeted lobbying effort" and deliberately "weakened the DEA's ability to go after drug distributors.” The Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/dea-drug-industry-congress/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">explained</a>:</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Partially a function of what is known as the “revolving door” in Washington, D.C., after a successful stint of crackdowns that saw the shutdown of hundreds of pill mills across the nation, the DEA significantly slowed its efforts to stop the flow of prescription painkillers.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Drug companies upset by the agency’s efficacy offered former DEA and Justice Department officials high-priced salaries to switch sides.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p></blockquote><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/who-profits-opioid-crisis-meet-secretive-sackler-family-making-billions-oxycontin">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/who-profits-opioid-crisis-meet-secretive-sackler-family-making-billions-oxycontin</a></font></p><p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Donald Trump’s nominee for drug czar, Republican Congressmember Tom Marino, had to withdraw from consideration after a Washington Post/”60 Minutes” investigation found he led a drug industry-backed effort to pass a law that weakened the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to crack down on addictive opioids.</b> Meanwhile, calls are growing to look at the major pharmaceutical companies that have fueled the opioid crisis. A new investigation by Esquire magazine reveals how the secretive Sackler family, owners of the company that invented OxyContin, downplayed the risks of addiction and exploited doctors’ confusion over the drug’s strength. We speak with Christopher Glazek, the Esquire reporter behind the story.</font></span></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/report/the-ten-scariest-republicans-heading-to-congress/</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">corruption</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">in 2007, Tom Marino resigned from his position as U.S. Attorney in Pennsylvania after a corruption scandal clouded his career and raised questions about his honesty. In 2005, Marino had used his official title as U.S. Attorney to <a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/10/tom-marino-little-ethics-problem" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">provide a reference</a> to his “close friend,” convicted felon Louis DeNaples, who was trying to win the state gaming commission’s approval to open slot machines at a resort he owned. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">When Marino’s office began an</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="http://articles.mcall.com/2010-10-01/news/mc-marino-investigation-20101001_1_denaples-investigations-marino-democrat-chris-carney" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">investigation </a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">into DeNaples for lying about his</span><a href="http://articles.mcall.com/2009-11-23/news/4480877_1_louis-denaples-william-d-elia-gaming-investigators" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> ties to organized crime</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, Marino’s assistants uncovered the reference and notified the Justice Department, which</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/marino-contradicts-in-denaples-discussions-1.1035429" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">transferred the investigation</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">out of Marino’s office. But questions about Marino’s ties to DeNaples remained.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Defending his actions, Marino said on a local radio show that the Department of Justice gave him permission to be a reference for DeNaples. But <a href="http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/doj-no-record-marino-had-permission-to-give-denaples-reference-1.1017508" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">the Justice Department says</a> there is “no record of Marino having received the permission” to serve as a reference for DeNaples and that Marino <a href="http://www.timesleader.com/news/NewspaperMarino_was_investigated_10-03-2010.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">never informed</a> the General Counsel office. Although Marino stands by his claim that he received written permission, he failed to produce any letter from the Department.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When the Justice Department launched an investigation into Marino’s actions, he <a href="http://articles.mcall.com/2010-10-01/news/mc-marino-investigation-20101001_1_denaples-investigations-marino-democrat-chris-carney" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">resigned </a>and <a href="http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/10/tom-marino-little-ethics-problem" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">promptly took</a> a <a href="http://www.timesleader.com/news/NewspaperMarino_was_investigated_10-03-2010.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">$250,000-a-year job as</a> “DeNaples’ in-house lawyer.”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Marino later </span><a href="http://articles.mcall.com/2010-04-13/news/all-a9_5marino.7236844apr13_1_louis-denaples-gaming-application-thomas-marino" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">under-reported</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> his income on his financial disclosure forms, reporting that he only received $25,000 from DeNaples. Even Zack Oldham of the conservative blog RedState </span><a href="http://www.redstate.com/redhk/2010/03/26/the-gops-giannoulias/" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">said of Marino’s actions</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">: “The reality is just as bad as–if not worse than–the optics of this scandal.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The DeNaples affair wasn’t even the first time Marino had run into corruption accusations. When Marino was District Attorney in Lycoming County, he tried to get a <b>friend out of a drug charge</b> by going behind the back of the county judge who had refused to toss out his friend’s conviction. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to the Luzeme County </span><a href="http://citizensvoice.com/news/candidate-remains-quiet-in-face-of-questions-1.1042144" target="blank" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Citizens Voice</em></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Marino “approached another judge and won the expungement, but the plan backfired when the second judge learned of the first judge’s involvement in the case.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Marino continued to struggle with the truth in his campaign for Congress. He criticized his opponent, Rep. Chris Carney, for leaving Washington as an anti-abortion rights bill was being circulated during the health care reform debate. Carney was <a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/08/carney-marino-is-bereft-of-human-decency/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">not in Washington</a> at the time because his wife was undergoing surgery for breast cancer.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He later <a href="http://www.pa2010.com/2010/08/fact-check-marino-recycles-debunked-abortion-attack/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">alleged </a>that Carney “has no problem spending taxpayers’ money for abortions” and that Pennsylvania women were receiving taxpayer-subsidized abortions under the new health care law, even though nonpartisan fact-checkers have <a href="http://www.politifact.com/ohio/statements/2010/jul/23/john-boehner/john-boehner-gop-claims-federal-taxpayers-will-fun/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">confirmed</a>, <a href="http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jul/16/national-right-life-committee/abortions-pennsylvania-paid-federal-dollars-not-so/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">repeatedly</a>, that the law <a href="http://politifact.com/texas/statements/2010/mar/28/john-carter/rep-john-carter-says-health-care-law-provides-full/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">prohibits taxpayer funding</a> for abortion.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Marino also <a href="http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4310" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">berated </a>his opponent for refusing to take questions from the press on political matters after Carney, a Navy Reservist, was called for active duty and was<a href="http://www.vetvoice.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4310" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> barred by law </a>from making “statements to or answer questions from the news media regarding political issues or regarding government policies.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But Marino’s ethical challenges have not kept the Far Right from embracing him. In fact, his right-wing politics have earned him the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> endorsements of Phyllis Schlafly’s <a href="http://www.marinoforuscongress.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=66" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Eagle Forum</a>, Rick Santorum’s <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00031777&cycle=2010&type=I&newMem=Y&recs=100" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">America’s Foundation</a>, Mike Huckabee’s <a href="http://www.huckpac.com/?Blog_id=3212&Fuseaction=Blogs.View" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">HuckPAC</a>, the <a href="http://www.frcactionpac.org/20in10" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Family Research Council</a>, and the<a href="http://www.gingpac.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=145&Itemid=42" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;"> Government Is Not God PAC</a>.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">On the issue of immigration, Marino <a href="http://www.votesmart.org/npat.php?can_id=119478#20750" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">opposes </a>a pathway for citizenship for illegal immigrants, and <a href="http://www.marinoforuscongress.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1&Itemid=66" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">touts his endorsement</a> from Americans for Legal Immigration [], which has been <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2007/spring/shoot-shovel-shut-up/the-groups-a-lis" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">called </a>a “nativist extremist organization” by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In his Americans for Legal Immigration [] <a href="http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-208234.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">survey</a>, Marino says he strongly favors Arizona’s severe SB 1070 law, would refuse to support comprehensive immigration reform, and would consider impeaching the president over immigration policy.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Marino said he would <a href="http://dailyitem.com/0100_news/x1079908637/Marino-splits-with-Carney-over-benefits" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">vote against extending</a> unemployment benefits, maintaining that some of the people on unemployment simply don’t “want to go get work because they are being paid to stay home.” He said that non-senior citizens should face cuts in Social Security benefits if not the elimination of the program altogether, <a href="http://www.politicspa.com/politicspa-marino-says-social-security-benefits-should-be-cut-for-future-generations/15479/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">saying</a>, “My generation and probably the generation that follows me, we are going to have to step up to the plate and say, ‘We are not going to get Social Security.'” The 60 Plus Association, a <a href="http://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/after-citizens-united-look-into-the-pro-corporate-players-american-politic#plus" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">front group</a> for the health care and pharmaceutical industries that supports privatizing Social Security, aired <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em3w_36F7W4" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">TV ads</a> on Marino’s behalf.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><b>In a radio interview in August, Marino <a href="http://thedailyreview.com/news/marino-denaples-connection-an-issue-1.1042453" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">reportedly </a>suggested eliminating the IRS and the Departments of Education and Energy and replacing them with new agencies, saying, “There’s got to be a total revolution there.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Despite the ethical cloud surrounding Marino, his hard-line conservative views and support from the Radical Right helped him win election to Congress.</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">mafia reward</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/donald-trump-endorsement-tom-marino-220002</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><header class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248);"><h1 class=" " style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.2em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump nabs endorsement from Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Marino</font></h1><p class="subhead" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; font-stretch: normal;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marino is the fifth member of Congress to declare support for Trump.</font></p></header><footer class="meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em; background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; display: inline;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By <span class="vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-transform: uppercase;"><a href="http://www.politico.com/staff/daniel-lippman" rel="author" class="url fn" target="top" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">DANIEL LIPPMAN</a></span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font>
02/29/16</p></footer><footer class="meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Tom Marino, a Republican from the northeastern corner of Pennsylvania, is jumping on the Trump train.</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marino on Monday became the fifth sitting member of Congress to publicly throw his support to Donald Trump, as the Republican front-runner rolls toward Super Tuesday. In an exclusive interview Monday with POLITICO, Marino, a former prosecutor, said Trump has “overwhelming support” in his district because “he’s the man for the unprotected ... not the protected, not for the Wall Street people, not for the DC insiders, but for the hard-working taxpayers.”</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;">
</footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The congressman called endorsing Trump “one of my life-changing moments” — along with quitting his job at 30 to go to college and law school, adopting his children, and deciding to run for Congress in 2010.</b></font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Pennsylvanian shrugged off suggestions that Trump would damage the Republican Party's electoral prospects in November, or that Trump's own recent statements would damage him. “There will be many people now who say that if Trump’s [the nominee], I’m not going to vote," Marino said. "And that’s just emotion at this point.”</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Donald Trump is saying what the voters agree on and what the voters are feeling,” Marino said, adding that voters are angry at the political system generally.</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;">
</footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"How’s it going for us now?" Marino asked rhetorically. "Over the last 20 years, over the last Republican and Democrat presidents, senators as presidents, governors as president, career politicians as president."</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marino contrasted Trump's startling success this primary season with an event several years ago that he said epitomized the disdain Washington elites have for average voters. During debate on a border security bill nearly two years ago, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi allegedly told Marino he was "insignificant."</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Marino said he wasn't courted by Trump or anyone else, nor is he looking for anything from Trump. “No one’s courted me," he said. "I’m just a third term congressman from rural Pennsylvania.”</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He joins Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter (Calif.) and Chris Collins (N.Y.) and Sen. Jeff Sessions (Ala.) in officially endorsing Trump, while Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) declared Monday that he voted for Trump in his state's primary.</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump has come under heavy fire in the last two days for not immediately renouncing former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke’s support in a TV interview. But Marino, citing Trump's daughter Ivanka's religion, said Trump isn’t racist.</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Trump’s daughter, who converted to Judaism in 2009 -- I don’t think Trump has any feelings and concerns about the KKK, other than he doesn’t like them," Marino said. "He renounces them and given the fact that he supported his daughter in that move shows that.”</font></footer><footer class="meta" style="background-color: rgb(247, 248, 248); box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></footer></footer><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="http://www.alternet.org/drugs/trump-drug-czar-nominess-tough-colombian-peasants-not-big-pharma"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.alternet.org/drugs/trump-drug-czar-nominess-tough-colombian-peasants-not-big-pharma</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump will name Pennsylvania Congressman Tom Marino (R) to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP—the drug czar's office),</b> <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pennsylvania-congressman-to-be-named-drug-czar-by-donald-trump/?" style="text-decoration-line: none;">CBS News reported Tuesday</a>. Marino's legacy of legislative achievements around drug policy, however, raise serious questions about whether he is the right choice.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The White House had no official comment Tuesday, but sources told CBS News Marino is in the final stages of completing his paperwork and an official announcement would come soon. Marino's office had no comment.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Marino is a former prosecutor now in his third term in the House, and will step down from the Congress to take up his new position. His rural congressional district has seen rising concern about heroin and opioids, and he serves on the House bipartisan committee combating the opioid epidemic.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has authored two recent successful drug policy bills, but both have their critics. The 2016 <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/114/s32" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Transnational Drug Trafficking Act</a> expands the ability of US prosecutors to use extraterritoriality to go after international drug traffickers, but while the law is touted as aiming at "kingpins," but <a href="http://extract.suntimes.com/news/10/153/19836/new-united-states-drug-war-policy-expands-extradition-transnational-drug-trafficking-act" style="text-decoration-line: none;">observers</a> south of the border have argued that the law <b>"targets people on the lowest rungs of the trafficking ladder, i.e. Colombia's coca farmers."</b></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Marino was also an author and key supporter of the 2016 </span><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/483/text" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, which supporters characterized as balancing the needs of patients, the pharmaceutical industry, and law enforcement, but which </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/the-dea-slowed-enforcement-while-the-opioid-epidemic-grew-out-of-control/2016/10/22/aea2bf8e-7f71-11e6-8d13-d7c704ef9fd9_story.html?utm_term=.37c95211b0a9" style="text-decoration-line: none;">critics describe</a> as a means of undercutting the DEA's ability to hold pharmaceutical drug distributors accountable for the diversion of large amounts of opioid pain relievers.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the fight over that bill, Marino, as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Regulatory Reform, clashed repeatedly with DEA Office of Diversion Control head Joseph Rannazzisi. In a 2014 conference call with congressional staffers, Rannazzisi warned that the bill, backed by a pharmaceutical industry lobbying campaign, would protect corporations engaged in criminal activity.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This bill passes the way it’s written we won’t be able to get immediate suspension orders, we won’t be able to stop the hemorrhaging of these drugs out of these bad pharmacies and these bad corporations," <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/the-dea-slowed-enforcement-while-the-opioid-epidemic-grew-out-of-control/2016/10/22/aea2bf8e-7f71-11e6-8d13-d7c704ef9fd9_story.html?utm_term=.37c95211b0a9" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Rannazzisi recalled</a> telling them. "What you’re doing is filing a bill that will protect defendants in our cases."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rannazzisi's opposition infuriated Marino, who ripped into the veteran DEA official's boss, then-DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart at a congressional hearing later that year.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">"It is my understanding that Joe Rannazzisi, a senior DEA official, has publicly accused we sponsors of the bill of, quote, 'supporting criminals,' unquote,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/the-dea-slowed-enforcement-while-the-opioid-epidemic-grew-out-of-control/2016/10/22/aea2bf8e-7f71-11e6-8d13-d7c704ef9fd9_story.html?utm_term=.37c95211b0a9" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Marino said</a>. “This offends me immensely."</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A week later, Marino and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) demanded that the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General investigate Rannazzis for "intimidating" members of Congress. Rannazzissi was replaced and retired in October 2015.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If his legislative legacy is any indication, Marino is will be the sort of drug czar who is tough on Colombian peasant farmers, but not so tough on major US pharmaceutical opioid manufacturers.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That's good enough for anti-marijuana crusader and former ONDCP advisor Kevin Sabet of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (Project SAM). "My understanding is that Tom has a deep understanding of the issue and is excited to get started," he enthused.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it's not good enough for anyone interested in a progressive approach to drug policy. </font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div></div>