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Another GOP Congressman Getting Investigated

by Last Night in Little Rock

Yet another Republican House member is under investigation--for influence peddling.

AP reports today that Rep. Curt Weldon, R-PA 7, is under federal investigation for seeking lobbying and consulting contracts worth over $1M for his daughter Karen. Weldon's staff denied knowledge of an investigation with an interesting choice of words:

Weldon, a 10-term Republican from the Philadelphia suburbs, long has denied any wrongdoing, and his top aide said Saturday no one had notified him of an investigation.

''I think if there was an investigation, somebody would have contacted us,'' said Russ Caso, Weldon's chief of staff.

Caso said Weldon and his staff were ''100 percent caught off guard'' when they learned of the investigation, first reported late Friday by McClatchy Newspapers. This account cited two individuals with specific knowledge of the existence of the investigation; they declined to be identified because of the confidentiality of criminal investigations.

...

Those two people familiar with the investigation confirmed that federal agents were examining Weldon's work between 2002 and 2004 to help two Russian companies and two Serbian brothers connected to former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. They had hired Solutions North America Inc., a company operated by Karen Weldon and Charles Sexton, a Republican ally of the congressman.

If one has to "long ... den[y] any wrongdoing," then an investigation would seem to be the next thing on the agenda. "Off guard"? Being a Congressperson from the GOP does not mean that one is bulletproof. They just think they are. As Lord Acton said in 1887, "Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The GOP apparently wants to prove Lord Acton correct. Wait. Nixon already did. This is just the new guys.

Weldon has a Democratic challenger. The NY Times Friday: Navy Vet Sestak Coming Closer to Sinking Weldon in Pa. 7 with an update on the front based on the new development from the leaked investigation.

And so it goes.

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  • Display: Sort:
    Re: Another GOP Congressman Getting Investigated (none / 0) (#1)
    by Edger on Sun Oct 15, 2006 at 07:43:04 PM EST
    Why are you so hard on these poor hard done guys, Last Night? Weldon? So the guy wants his daughter to have a million dollars, and he doesn't care who he has to destroy or how corrupt he has to become to get it for her. She's his daughter for chrissake, and these allegations are old, old news. Weldon said so himself: "No one has contacted me," he said. "People can look at us all day long. There is no wrongdoing." Why can't you just trust the guy? Besides, every FBI investigation...
    ...is different, but it is not uncommon for agents probing alleged corruption, drugs and organized crime to spend months, even years, working covertly on a case before the suspects learn that they are under scrutiny.
    These are all just isolated incidents. Aren't they? There is no endemic corruption in the gop. Is there? This is, after all, the party of family values and morality, and national security, that you're talking about here, and these are the kind of guys you want to trust with running the country. Aren't they?

    Re: Another GOP Congressman Getting Investigated (none / 0) (#2)
    by Zeno on Sun Oct 15, 2006 at 09:22:30 PM EST
    Congressman John T. Doolittle next, please. Friend of Abramoff, skimmer of campaign contributions, and a regular little sleaze bucket.

    Re: Another GOP Congressman Getting Investigated (none / 0) (#3)
    by cpinva on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 12:25:59 AM EST
    yes edgar, the GOP is the party of family values. unfortunately for us, the family would be the sopranos.

    Weldon searches (none / 0) (#4)
    by scribe on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 02:44:27 PM EST
    Will Bunch reports that it's looking like the feds are looking at the connection between Weldon, his daughter's lobbying, and their connections to a Russian firm, Itera, which hired her to lobby for it, and in praise of which he spoke on the House floor. Itera's US offices are in Jackonville, and two of the six sites raided were in that city.

    Interesting choice of words, indeed. (none / 0) (#5)
    by Edger on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 03:59:36 PM EST
    Weldon said:
    "No one has contacted me..."

    'No one has contacted me'?

    What does he expect?

    A courtesy 'Heads up, Curt' call from the FBI? 'Congressman, we're starting an investigation, so hide all your skeletons'?

    Unbelievable.


    Re: Another GOP Congressman Getting Investigated (none / 0) (#6)
    by scribe on Mon Oct 16, 2006 at 10:16:08 PM EST
    A vast left-wing conspiracy, says Weldon .

    He's now blaming Bill Clinton, Sandy Berger, the head of CREW (who "used to work with John Conyers", nudge nudge, hint hint, wink wink) and any other deemed-liberal under the sun.

    Uh, huh.  

    Y'know, Curt, it isn't that membership in the Guilty Old Party is quite enough.  Nope.  Batsh*t crazy to college reporters?  Maybe.

    Over the hill and just plain paranoid?  Maybe.  

    Time to go, Curt.