This Year's 'Golden Dukes' Award Winners and Other Noteworthy D*¢%heads

After poring for weeks over the list of nominees, Josh Marshall's first annual "Golden Dukes Awards" winners are finally here.

Watch for them soon to be featured on Bill Moyers Journal.

Also worth checking out are Bill Maher's 'D*¢%heads of the Year' (perhaps nsfw) for Rolling Stone magazine and I'm sure you won't want to miss TPM's Great List of Scandalized Administration Officials.

And a very HAPPY NEW YEAR to you and yours.

Rudy Giuliani's Right Hand Man, Bernie Kerik's Scandal Rap Sheet

TPM's Ultimate Kerik Scandal List!

In Thursday's indictment:

-- Bribery. Accepted $255,000 worth of renovations to his apartment [...]
-- Tax fraud. Kerik failed to report $236,269 in rent for his Upper East Side apartment [...]
-- More tax fraud. Kerik also failed to disclose $20,000 in consulting fees from a computer software company and $75,953 in advances for writing his autobiography.
-- Even more tax fraud. Kerik failed to report his wages to his nanny (more about that below), claimed $80,000 in phony charitable contributions, and falsely claimed a home office deduction for a home he had not moved into yet.
-- False statements. Lied on application for head of Department of Homeland Security [...]

More:

-- Deported from Saudi Arabia. [...]
-- Bringing Tammany to Rikers. Kerik was named in a 1999 civil suit alleging that correctional officers were coerced into supporting Mayor Giuliania’s campaign efforts and that those who refused or privately supported Democrats were punished or run out of their jobs.
-- Gifts from mob-tied buddy. Interstate, that mob-connected construction company hired the best man at Mr. Kerik's wedding, his good friend Lawrence Ray, on Kerik's recommendation in late 1998. Ray, who has mob ties, said he gave Kerik $7,000 worth of cash and other gifts [...]
-- 9/11 love nest. Kerik used a downtown Manhattan apartment, originally donated for the use of weary police and rescue workers who were helping at Ground Zero, for extramarital trysts with celebrity book editor Judith Regan and Jeanette Pinero, a city correction officer [...]
-- Retaliation against city employees for crossing his mistress. [...]
-- Using homicide detectives to find his other mistress's lost cell phone. [...]
-- Used city detectives as researchers for his book. Kerik was fined $2,500 by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board in 2002 for using a police sergeant and two detectives to research his autobiography.
-- Shirked condo fees until a warrant was issued for his arrest. [..]
-- Ran prison cigarette slush fund. [...]
-- The nanny. In 2002 and 2003, Kerik failed to pay taxes for a family nanny-housekeeper who might have been in the country illegally. She returned to Mexico. [...]

And that's not all. Check it out.

Related: Greg Sargent:

Memo To Pundits: Kerik Indictment Cuts At Core Rationale Of Rudy Candidacy

CPSC Head and Toy Industry In Bed While Our Kids Suck Lead

Just three days ago Speaker Nancy Pelosi was calling for Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Acting Chairman Nancy Nord to resign after she fired off a couple of letters to Congress opposing tougher legislation that would strengthen the agency she heads that is supposed to oversee the safety of consumer goods, echoing White House concerns that favored industry profits over the health and welfare of consumers, especially children in the wake of recall after recall and the revelation that the CPSC has only one full-time employee that tests toys.

Well, as it turns out, Nancy Nord should have taken Pelosi's advice and left to spend more time with her family while the getting was good. CNN had WaPo's Elizabeth Williamson on this morning to discuss her article today which reveals that Nord "and her predecessor have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children's furniture industries and others they regulate" while parents were buying millions of lead-tainted toys. In addition some of the trips actually "were sponsored by lobbying groups and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards."

Buh-Bye!

Republican Culture of Corruption:

2007 So Far

This is a GREAT post:

Does it seem like there's a new Republican scandal in the news every single week? Well, that may be because there is:

43 scandals in 35 weeks. h/t C&L

It's about time someone updates this list.

[Late Update] new site:

Republican Culture of Corruption
gopcultureofcorruption.blogspot.com

Courts Rule Portions of GOP Scandals to Stay Hidden

As a regular reader of Laura Rosen's War and Piece, I don't often enough give a shout out to what she's got going on. Here's a couple excerpts that stood out today:

North County Times *: Judge to unseal transcripts from secret hearing for Cunningham co-conspirator, Kontogiannis. Portions of transcripts to remain sealed.

TPMmuckraker has more. I want to know what's the big secret surrounding Thomas Kontogiannis? I find it odd that someone they are now trying to portray as a "small-time crook" could warrant all the hush hush.


Laura also dishes the latest scoop on Nev Gov. Jim Gibbons (R).

A Win for "State Secrets" Protects a Defense Contractor Benefactor of Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons -- and his Air Force Allies.

Reno Gazette-Journal:

In a ruling that could make it difficult for former eTreppid software designer Dennis Montgomery to argue his lawsuit against the company, a federal judge Wednesday granted a Department of Defense request for a protective order to ensure no material involving national security is released. ...

Some background here and here.

Late Update from TPMmuckraker: Tommy K: Intelligence Asset?

Heh, I KNEW it!

More from Laura Rozen here, and background here, here, here, here, and here.

Later Update: Apparently Kontogiannis, while on bail and "forbidden travel outside of federal custody" is currently staying at a "five-star hotel in Greece."

WTF?

Hastert Won't Even Stay Until End Of His Term

Thinkprogress:

Last week, Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) announced that he will not seek re-election in 2008. In his e-mail newsletter today, Robert Novak reported that Hastert won’t be finishing out his term and will retire on Nov. 6:

An Illinois Republican source tells us former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) plans to resign November 6 this year instead of finishing out his term. This would create a vacancy and trigger a special election in the 14th District. ...

I'm guessing one of his many scandals may be chasing him out the door.

Moyers: "Rove is riding out of Dodge City as the posse rides in."

C&L with a partial transcript:

Moyers:

“Karl Rove figured out a long time ago that the way to take an intellectually incurious draft-averse naughty playboy in a flight jacket with chewing tobacco inhis back pocket and make him governor of Texas, was to sell him as God’s anointed in a state where preachers andtelevangelists outnumber even oil derricks and jack rabbits. Using church pews as precincts Rove turned religion into a weapon of political combat — a batteringram, aimed at the devil’s minions, especially at gay people.

It’s so easy, as Karl knew, to scapegoat people you outnumber, and if God is love, as rumor has it, Rove knew that, in politics, you better bet on fear and loathing. Never mind that in stroking the basest bigotry of true believers you coarsen both politics and religion.“

How Rove Funneled Fed Tax Dollars to the GOP

The extreme 'Hatch Act be damned' politicization of our govt at every level. That's what Rove will be forever remembered for.

WaPo:

How Rove Directed Federal Assets for GOP Gains *

Bush Adviser's Effort to Promote the President and His Allies Was Unprecedented in Its Reach

Thirteen months before President Bush was reelected, chief strategist Karl Rove summoned political appointees from around the government to the Old Executive Office Building. The subject of the Oct. 1, 2003, meeting was "asset deployment," and the message was clear:

The staging of official announcements, high-visibility trips and declarations of federal grants had to be carefully coordinated with the White House political affairs office to ensure the maximum promotion of Bush's reelection agenda and the Republicans in Congress who supported him, according to documents and some of those involved in the effort.

"The White House determines which members need visits," said an internal e-mail about the previously undisclosed Rove "deployment" team, "and where we need to be strategically placing our assets." ...

... Rove, who announced last week that he is resigning from the White House at the end of August, pursued the goal far more systematically than his predecessors, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Washington Post, enlisting political appointees at every level of government in a permanent campaign that was an integral part of his strategy to establish Republican electoral dominance. ...

McLatchy:

Commerce, Treasury funds helped boost GOP campaigns *

Top Commerce and Treasury Departments officials appeared with Republican candidates and doled out millions in federal money in battleground congressional districts and states after receiving White House political briefings detailing GOP election strategy.

Political appointees in the Treasury Department received at least 10 political briefings from July 2001 to August 2006, officials familiar with the meetings said. Their counterparts at the Commerce Department received at least four briefings — all in the election years of 2002, 2004 and 2006.

The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether the White House's political briefings to at least 15 agencies, including to the Justice Department, the General Services Administration and the State Department, violated a ban on the use of government resources for campaign activities.

Under the Hatch Act, Cabinet members are permitted to attend political briefings and appear with members of Congress. But Cabinet members and other political appointees aren't permitted to spend taxpayer money with the aim of benefiting candidates.

Late Update Thinkprogress: Waxman Confirms Existence Of Rove’s Politicization ‘Teams’

Lobbyists, Cash, and Power in DC

Will recent reforms make a difference?

The Democrats have just made many changes in the right direction, especially in disclosure and curbing some of the specific abuses seen in the Cunningham and Abramoff scandals, but the underlying system is still largely business as usual.

Bob Schieffer Slams Sen Ted Stevens on Ethics

Bob Schieffer, in his closing remarks on 'Face the Nation', detailed Sen Ted Stevens' unfolding scandal and lauded this week's House ethics reform.

TPMmuckraker's ongoing coverage of the Stevens' scandal here.

Raid on Rep Jefferson's Office Violated Constitution

"Illegal Search": Today's Federal Appeals Court ruling on the Rep facing 16 charges after getting caught with $90k in his freezer.

Senate Passes Ethics Bill

It passed 83 to 14. It appears Sen Stevens didn't block it afterall. He actually voted "Yea".

Gosh, it seems like only yesterday ...
Senate Passes Vast Ethics Overhaul
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18

Maybe this one will do the trick?

Sen Ted Stevens Saga Continues

Sen Ted Stevens is the guest of dishonor in today's TPMtv:


And there's this also.

TPM: Lotta Muck Under This Rock

From Roll Call ...

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has used a Senate employee as his personal bookkeeper but does not appear to have paid her for those services out of his own funds, even as the aide collected more than a quarter-million dollars in federal pay, according to Senate records and the aide’s financial disclosure forms.
Barbara Flanders, who has worked for Stevens since at least 2004, has been paid as an employee of the Senate, first as a staff assistant on the Appropriations Committee and in Stevens’ personal office and, since October 2005, as a “financial clerk” on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

And this from the NYT:

Stevens’ Earmark Funds Airport Project That Benefits One Company

TPMmuckraker's ongoing coverage of the Stevens' scandal here.

Sen Stevens Scandal Cable News Roundup

A mix of news coverage of the Sen Ted Stevens (R-AK) scandal from MSNBC, CNN, and a lil TDS thrown in.

Olbermann has David Schuster on for what is IMHO the most thorough cable news coverage of Sen Stevens problems to date, then Jon Stewart leads into a segment that has the Senator lashing out at CNN's Dana Bash.

TPMmuckraker's ongoing coverage of the Stevens' scandal here.

The Sen Ted Stevens Investigation Widens

TPMmuckraker:

It's official: the FBI is looking into more than Sen. Ted Stevens' Veco-overseen remodeling project. Roll Call reports that the FBI and the Department of Interior are also looking into a series of earmarks for one of Stevens' pet projects.

The project, the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seaward, Alaska, has received some $50 million in federal money since 1998. One of Stevens' former aides, Trevor McCabe, was paid $558,000 of that money for an adjacent piece of land. Federal investigators want to know more about the arrangement. ...

And I just couldn't resist pointing to this curious angle on the story the AP is floating:

The focus seems to be on the wine *

Federal agents searching the home of a Republican senator from Alaska seemed especially interested in cases of wine stored in the house. ...

He said investigators photographed individual wine bottles as well as cases of wine, as they carried out the search as part of a public corruption probe. ...

Update: Think Progress: CREW calls on Stevens to give up committee seat

TPMmuckraker:

Stevens' Financial Clerk Testifies Before Grand Jury

A Senate clerk for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) has testified before a grand jury about the remodeling of the senator's home overseen by Veco, the AP reports.

The Commerce Committee clerk, Barbara Flanders, who assisted Stevens with his personal financial records, also handed over documents related to the senator's finances and testified to what she knew about how the murky home remodeling project bills were paid.

Flanders is not the first Capital Hill staffer to be brought in to the investigation. Some of Stevens' former aides have already been questioned by the FBI. ...

TPMmuckraker's ongoing coverage of the Stevens' scandal here.

Bill Moyers on Earmark Reform

Bill Moyers interviews Steve Ellis from 'Taxpayers for Common Sense' about the earmarking process. They discuss the audacious earmarks of Rep Don Young (R-AK) and Sen Ted Stevens (R-AK) and how earmarks lay at the heart of the 'Duke' Cunningham and Abramoff scandals. Watch the entire PBS "Bill Moyer's Journal" episode here.

The Omerta Holds

House Democrats are blowing it. Specifically, the House Intel Committee chair Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) ought to be called to account. There's only one reason I can figure the Dems would be trying to keep this thing buried and the LA times has it pegged.

TPMmuckraker: Dems Help Bury Committee Report on Duke's Doings

... After the committee completed a report on how Cunningham abused his seat last year, the Republican leadership blocked its release, though ranking member Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) was able to disseminate a five-page summary of the findings last October.

Now the Democrats are in power. But the committee's chair Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) has decided not to publicly release the full 23-page declassified version. ...

The LA Times reports:

... "They are so nervous about this report being out," said one congressional official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Members oppose putting this thing out because you read this and the natural question is: 'Did you know this, and what did you do about it?' I don't think any members wanted that scrutiny." ...