Thread: Rick Santorum (R-PA) Named 'Most Corrupt' Congressman List In 2006!

September 20, 2006

CREW Releases Second Annual Most Corrupt Members of Congress Report

Washington, DC – Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) released its second annual report on the most corrupt members of Congress entitled Beyond DeLay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress (and five to watch). This encyclopedic report on corruption in the 109th Congress documents the egregious, unethical and possibly illegal activities of the most tainted members of Congress. CREW has compiled the members’ transgressions and analyzed them in light of federal laws and congressional rules.

Two members have been removed from last year’s list of 13. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) is now serving an eight-year jail term for bribery and Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) has agreed to plead guilty to crimes that will likely result in a minimum two-year prison term.

CREW has also re-launched the report’s tandem website, www.beyonddelay.org. The site offers short summaries of each member’s transgressions as well as the full-length profiles and all accompanying exhibits.

CREW’s Most Corrupt Members of Congress:

Members of the Senate:

• Conrad Burns (R-MT)
• Bill Frist (R-TN)
• Rick Santorum (R-PA)

Members of the House:

• Alan Mollohan (D-WV)
• Roy Blunt (R-MO)
• Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)
• Ken Calvert (R-CA)
• Richard Pombo (R-CA)
• John Doolittle (R-CA)
• Rick Renzi (R-AZ)
• Tom Feeney (R-FL)
• Pete Sessions (R-TX)
• Katherine Harris (R-FL)
• John Sweeney (R-NY)
• William Jefferson (D-LA)
• Charles Taylor (R-NC)
• Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
• Maxine Waters (D-CA)
• Gary Miller (R-CA)
• Curt Weldon (R-PA)

Five Members to Watch:

• Chris Cannon (R-UT)
• J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ)
• Dennis Hastert (R-IL)
• John Murtha (D-PA)
• Don Sherwood (R-PA)

“CREW created this exhaustive go-to guide on corruption in Congress to expose and hold accountable those members of Congress who believe they are above the law,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. “The officials named in this report have chosen to enrich themselves and their families and friends by abusing the power of their office, rather than work for the public good. Their collective corruption affects all Americans.”

An August 2006 Harris poll shows that 77% of Americans have a negative view of Congress and a May 2006 Gallup poll indicates that 83% of Americans consider corruption a serious issue.

Sloan continued, “Congress persists in abdicating its constitutional responsibility to police itself, opting to ignore the ethical and legal transgressions of its members. Luckily for the public, at least the Department of Justice still believes that political corruption is worth pursuing.”
Several other members’ careers have been tarnished or destroyed by their corrupt activities. In addition to Reps. Ney and Cunningham, former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) has been indicted in Texas and is facing possible federal indictment in the Jack Abramoff scandal and Reps. William Jefferson (D-LA), Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Alan Mollohan (D-WV), as well as Sens. Conrad Burns (R-MT) and Bill Frist (R-TN) are now under federal investigation.
Click here to read CREW's report "Beyond Delay: The 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress"

Click here to read supporting exhibits.

http://www.citizensforethics.org/ind...ngress-report/

Bumping this to top. People need to be reminded every now and then.

Not only that read this:

Senator RICK SANTORUM ("It Takes a Family"): They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do. Government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulation low and that we shouldn't get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn't get involved in cultural issues, you know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world, and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can't go it alone, that there is no such society that I'm aware of where we've had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4784905

Rick Santorum’s Big Government Problem

The CATO Institute’s David Boaz explains why he says there hasn’t been a candidate more inimical to American political values than Rick Santorum since Hillary Clinton.
Here's the video from that interview on Judge Napolitano's Show last night:

http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/fr...list_id=163774

If you want to see what REAL political corruption looks like as it relates to the current flock of globalist GOP candidates ..

Newt Gingrich, Marianne and the Arms Dealer: A Buried FBI Investigation

DCBureau has learned that Gingrich was at the center of a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation in the late 1990s for a scheme to shake down the arms dealer for a $10 million bribe in exchange for Gingrich using his influence as Speaker to get the Iraq arms embargo lifted so Soghanalian could collect $54 million from Saddam Hussein’s regime for weapons he had delivered during the Iran-Iraq War.

Originally Posted by chloe24

Here's the video from that interview on Judge Napolitano's Show last night:

http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/fr...list_id=163774

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A great exposure of what a globalist, rino, Republican really looks like. Thank you Judge Napolitano, I don't see how you are able to remain on the air.

Originally Posted by chloe24

Senator RICK SANTORUM ("It Takes a Family"): They have this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do. Government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulation low and that we shouldn't get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn't get involved in cultural issues, you know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world, and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can't go it alone, that there is no such society that I'm aware of where we've had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4784905

Wow, are we sure Santorum is even an American, much less a conservative, making a statement like that????

People need to be reminded about a lot of things..especially the choices they are ramming down our throats.....




See what voting in an illegal has accomplished!!!! These guys should know!!!

Originally Posted by HAPPY2BME

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A great exposure of what a globalist, rino, Republican really looks like. Thank you Judge Napolitano, I don't see how you are able to remain on the air.

good video ..amazes me people have eyes and yet they can't see they are blind!!!!!

Truth hurts for some reason .... this is not going to be pretty

Rick Santorum, a Big-Government Conservative? | Print |
Written by Brian Koenig
Thursday, 05 January 2012 10:25

After capturing second place in the Iowa Republican caucuses, losing by a meager eight votes to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum is positioned to be the latest subject under the media’s microscope. When one becomes a frontrunner, the scrutiny quickly begins, and the question hovering over the former Pennsylvania Senator’s head is: Is Rick Santorum really the authentic conservative he proclaims to be?

Only hours after the Iowa caucuses closed, critics spelled out their cases as to why Santorum is not the "one true conservative running in 2012," which his campaign has been exuding since its original conception. Syndicated columnist David Harsanyi accused the presidential contender of being a "conservative technocrat," and a veritable bearer of "big-government conservatism."

"If the thought of big, intrusive liberal government offends you, he might just be your man," Harsanyi writes. "And if you favor a big, intrusive Republican government, he’s unquestionably your candidate." In his article, which was published Wednesday, Harsanyi asserted that Santorum’s book, It Takes a Family, is "crammed with an array of ideas for technocratic meddling," and that "the author acknowledges that some people ‘will reject’ what he has to say ‘as a kind of Big Government conservatism.’ " Moreover, in detailing Santorum’s unsettling political record, Mr. Harsanyi alleged:

Today, Santorum tells voters that Medicare is "crushing" the "entire health care system." In 2003, Santorum voted for the Medicare drug entitlement that costs taxpayers more than $60 billion a year and almost $16 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Santorum voted for the 2005 "bridge to nowhere" bill and was an earmark enthusiast his entire career.

These days, Santorum regularly joins a chorus of voices claiming that he would greatly reduce the role of federal government in local education. When he had a say, he supported No Child Left Behind and expanded the federal control of school systems. In his book, in fact, Santorum advocates dictating a certain curriculum to all schools. The right kind. It’s not the authority of government that irks him, but rather the content of the material Washington is peddling today.

Son of GOP candidate Ron Paul, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) also warned that conservative voters should be careful in their quest for procuring the most "conservative" candidate. Santorum was "a big supporter of Medicare Part D, the expansion of Medicare, [and] a big supporter of No Child Left Behind," Paul said Monday on an Iowa talk radio program. "I’ve seen him asked directly about the Department of Education, he’s for it." The Kentucky Senator added:

We still believe in eliminating the Dept. of Education, that there is no function on the federal level for that. But Rick Santorum’s a big supporter of the Department of Education; he in fact voted to double the size of the Department of Education with No Child Left Behind.

Opposing Obama’s presidency and scrutinizing Washington’s left-leaning bent, Harsanyi notes, are "not great acts of bravery." Unlike Republican candidate Ron Paul, Santorum was nearly always leaning on the side of the establishment, most notably for endorsing the liberal, then-Republican Arlen Specter over conservative-favorite Pat Toomey in the 2004 Republican Pennsylvania primaries.

Writing at National Review Online, Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, added:

When Hillary Clinton was justly excoriated by conservatives for her book It Takes A Village, which advocated greater government involvement in our lives, Rick Santorum countered with his book, It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, which advocated greater government involvement in our lives. Among the many government programs he supported: national service, publicly financed trust funds for children, community-investment incentives, and economic-literacy programs in "every school in America" (italics in original).

Mr. Tanner called Santorum the "quintessential Washington insider," noting that the former Senator worked closely with Tom DeLay in establishing the "K Street Project," which fused a binding link between lobbyists and GOP leadership through earmarks and pork-barrell projects. Tanner also exposed Santorum for his dogmatic opposition to free trade, as he has supported higher tariffs on everything from steel to honey. "He still supports an industrial policy with the government tilting the playing field toward manufacturing industries and picking winners and losers," Tanner cited.

Also writing for National Review Online, columnist and bestselling author Jonah Goldberg questioned the GOP presidential contender’s big-government brand of conservatism.

For the last month or so we’ve heard a lot of posturing about the "conservative establishment." I’ve been pretty skeptical about the uses and abuses of the term. But now that Rick Santorum has replaced Newt Gingrich as the anti-Mitt frontrunner, the term seems even more stale. Santorum has many strengths (and weaknesses), but let’s not insult our intelligence. He is no Washington outsider. The guy has been a fixture of the conservative and Republican establishment — however you want to define the term — for decades. A congressman, senator, radio show host, author, Fox News contributor, leader in the 1994 Contract with America movement, activist, lobbyist, earmarker, endorser of Arlen Specter: This is not some tea party unknown.

Erick Erickson of the conservative blog RedState, who labeled the former Senator a "pro-life statist," chronicled a grocery list of comparisons between Santorum and President George W. Bush, who was largely instrumental in forming the big-government conservatism such critics describe. Santorum "sees government as the means to conservative ends," writes Erickson. "But in using government to get conservative ends he has expanded government and set precedents for liberals to use government in the same ways for more liberal government."

"This is why I do not support Rick Santorum," Erickson pledged. "I do not want a co-conspirator to government largess premised on the rhetoric of compassionate or big government conservatism being rewarded."

As we write, an interesting opinion piece penned by Santorum's nephew, University of Pittsburgh student John Garver, has surfaced. Published by The Daily Caller, a Washington, D.C.-based news website, Garver's article was entitled: "The trouble with my uncle, Rick Santorum." Among his reasons for disapproving of his uncle's political stance:

If you want another big-government politician who supports the status quo to run our country, you should vote for my uncle, Rick Santorum. America is based on a strong belief in individual liberty. My uncle’s interventionist policies, both domestic and foreign, stem from his irrational fear of freedom not working.

Garver goes on to write that it is because of his uncle's and other "status quo politicians[' inability] to recognize the importance of our individual liberties that I have been drawn to Ron Paul."


http://thenewamerican.com/usnews/pol...t-conservative


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