Flaherty, P

===

The NLPC was founded in 1991 with a pump priming injection of $100,000 from Richard Mellon Scaife . The principles clearly have a sense of humour, since they claim that their organization is "non-partisan" and "anti-corruption" — and their logo carries the sub-title"Promoting Ethics in Public Life." Later they add the rider that "NLPC sponsors the<font-color dd2222="dd2222">"Corporate Integrity Project"" .</font-color>

Ken Boehm is a far-right-wing Republican lawyer from Colorado (the home of Joseph Coors) while Peter T Flaherty is a long-time Reagan Republican fund-raiser and think-tanker. In 1991 they co-founded the NLPC with Boehm becoming the full-time 'Chairman' and Flaherty the 'President'.

Most of the actual research work at the NLPC is contractd out or done under the direction of Flaherty who is backed by a staff of ten or so, while Boehm is the public face of the organisation. Given the group's enthusiastic use of the lawcourts to harrass liberals, this is a full-time job for all dozen staffers involved.

These two are old friends. Flaherty ran the lobbying group Citizens for Reagan with Ken Boehm as Chairman (later it became Citizens for the Republic ) in the early-to-mid 1980s. This was closely associated with the Funds for a Conservative Majority (Jack Kemp, Paul Dietrich, Ken Boehm) which was a major fund-raiser for the Ronald Reagan for President campaign during the same period.

Both were Californian-based in the early years, then shifted to Washington after Reagan's successful Presidential campaign. Citizens for Reagan later became a major fund-raiser for Ollie North during the Iran Contra scandal.

The NCLP appears to be modelled both on the Citizens for Reagan and on the FCM, in terms of its use of litigation. It attempts to use law suit harrassment as a weapon against the Democrats by attacking their funding sources and annoying their supporters with frivolous charges. The NCLP carries on these grand old GOP traditions.

Like all good PR operation, it is not always glaringly obvious in its partisanship — and it makes some efforts to pretend it is balanced. On the positive side of its activities, it does attack earmarking in Congress (both Republican and Democrat), and it does have the resources (roughly $1m a year) to identify and expose corrupt activities in Democratic organisations and among certain 'liberal congressmen'.

It achieves a fascade of bipartisanship by occasionally slapping the wrist of a few Republican trough-hogs in public, but it doesn't take them to court. The Democrats are usually slapped with a law suit.

</div>

accomplishments:

014- In response to NLPC's request, General Motors recalled 1.3 million vehicles with a power steering defect.

2013- Based on info provided by NLPC, the New York Times detailed on its front page a Dominican port security deal pushed by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) that would have been a windfall for Dr. Salomon Melgen, a major donor, whose eye clinic was raided by the FBI.

2010-2013- Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) is reportedly the subject of two investigations by federal prosecutors. The corruption probes were triggered by stories in the New York Post, New York Times and New York Daily News based on info provided by NLPC.

2010- Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) was censured by the entire House of Representatives. NLPC exposed his failure to report or disclose rental income from his beach house in the Dominican Republic, which led to a more far-reaching scrutiny of his finances.

2010- Rangel resigned as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee after he was admonished by the House Ethics Committee for leading a Caribbean junket in violation of House rules. The Committee's action was based on NLPC's photographs and audio recordings of the event.

2009- Al Sharpton was fined $285,000 by the Federal Election Commission as a result of an NLPC Complaint for running an "off the books" presidential campaign.

2007- Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) sold back land to a developer a day after NLPC alleged in a Complaint to the Senate Ethics Committee that the original sale was a "sweetheart" deal.

2006-2010- NLPC exposed cozy financial dealings between Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) and recipients of his earmarks. Mollohan resigned as Chairman of the Ethics Committee. In May 2010, Mollohan lost re-election in the Democratic primary.

2005- The New York Stock Exchange ended its support for Jesse Jackson's groups after NLPC protests.

2004- Two PACs associated with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) were fined $21,000 as a result of an NLPC Complaint to the FEC.

2004- As a result of NLPC Complaints filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), Al Sharpton was fined $5,500 and forced to return $100,000 in presidential campaign matching funds.

2003- NLPC exposed the Boeing Tanker Deal Scandal, eventually sending two Boeing executives to jail, and saving taxpayers at least $4 billion.

1999- NLPC broke a scandal involving the taxpayer-funded Legal Services Corporation (LSC), which was grossly inflating the number of cases it claimed to handle.

1996- NLPC exposed then-FDA Commissioner David Kessler for overbilling on his expense reimbursements. Kessler resigned soon after. In his 2001 book, Kessler said NLPC "brought me as close to despair as I have ever been."

1993- NLPC successfully sued Hillary Rodham Clinton's secret health care task force to open its meetings and records.  In their 2003 books, both Hillary and Sidney Blumenthal acknowledged NLPC's role in sinking her plan.

===

bs cols

<a href="http://nlpc.org/blogs/peter-flaherty">http://nlpc.org/blogs/peter-flaherty</a>

Meeks and Rangel AA

re’s fallout from the July 27 <a href="http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Lawmakers-trips-to-Baku-conference-raise-eithics-5649142.php?cmpid=twitter-premium&t=3a9014c8757fcfd54e" style=" color: rgb(17, 153, 17); text-decoration: none;">Houston Chronicle exposé</a> of a trip to Azerbaijan by 10 member of the House that violated House rules. The trip was ostensibly sponsored by nonprofit groups but was actually funded by oil companies BP, Conoco Phillips and SOCAR, the national oil company of Azerbaijan. According to the New York Post today:

Rep. Gregory Meeks pushed to let an Iran-backed natural-gas project dodge US sanctions — after attending an illicit junket paid for by energy companies.

</blockquote>

</div>

<li class="taxonomy_term_6595 first" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.5em; display: inline; list-style-type: none;"><a href="http://nlpc.org/category/keywords/azerbaijan" rel="tag" title="" style=" color: rgb(17, 153, 17); text-decoration: none;">Azerbaijan</a></li>

<li class="taxonomy_term_6596" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.5em; display: inline; list-style-type: none;"><a href="http://nlpc.org/category/keywords/congressional-travel" rel="tag" title="" style=" color: rgb(17, 153, 17); text-decoration: none;">Congressional travel</a></li>

<li class="taxonomy_term_4179" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.5em; display: inline; list-style-type: none;"><a href="http://nlpc.org/category/keywords/conocophillips" rel="tag" title="" style=" color: rgb(17, 153, 17); text-decoration: none;">ConocoPhillips</a></li>

<li class="taxonomy_term_164" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.5em; display: inline; list-style-type: none;"><a href="http://nlpc.org/category/keywords/culture-of-corruption" rel="tag" title="" style=" color: rgb(17, 153, 17); text-decoration: none;">Culture of Corruption</a></li>

<li class="taxonomy_term_9" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.5em; display: inline; list-style-type: none;"><a href="http://nlpc.org/category/project-name/government-integrity-project" rel="tag" title="" style=" color: rgb(17, 153, 17); text-decoration: none;">Government Integrity Project</a></li>

<li class="taxonomy_term_3873" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.5em; display: inline; list-style-type: none;"><a href="http://nlpc.org/category/people/gregory-meeks" rel="tag" title="" style=" color: rgb(17, 153, 17); text-decoration: none;">Gregory Meeks</a></li>

<li class="taxonomy_term_163" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.5em; display: inline; list-style-type: none;"><a href="http://nlpc.org/category/keywords/house-ethics-committee" rel="tag" title="" style=" color: rgb(17, 153, 17); text-decoration: none;">House Ethics Committee</a></li>

<li class="taxonomy_term_3941 last" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0.5em; display: inline; list-style-type: none;"><a href="http://nlpc.org/category/people/yvette-clarke" rel="tag" title="" style=" color: rgb(17, 153, 17); text-decoration: none;">Yvette Clarke</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

</ul>

=