Tuesday's Rachel Maddow Show started off with a brief review of crimers in Congress. It's not as long a list as you might think! She focuses on California Republican Jay Kim, who was convicted of campaign fraud in 1998 and became the first -- and so far, only -- member of Congress who walked its hallowed halls wearing a monitoring bracelet attached to his ankle. Kim's estranged wife said he was "the most crime-committing person I know." He lost his primary that year and soon became the footnote he was destined to be.
As a proud serial reelector of Charles Rangel, sometime tax evader and paid Caribbean trip taker, I have to say that this form of corruption is not, IMO, the worst sort. Yes: ripping off your minimum-wage workers definitely trumps storing your other Mercedes in the Congressional parking lot for free, but it's still not on a par with voting for wars because Lockheed-Martin and Haliburton paid for your last campaign.
Taking bribes to wage war for profit, cutting funding for schools for profit, supporting for-profit prisons because you own shares in the company ... anytime your vote on policy is altered by the money you took: that's way way worse than tax-dodging.
The unfortunate irony here is that Rep. Grimm is a member of that vanishingly small caucus of House Republicans who accept the science and support action to address climate change. He <a href="http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/climate\/2014\/04\/25\/3430952\/grimm-embraces-climate-science\/" target="_blank">dropped the denialism</a> after Hurricane Sandy devastated his district.
I don&#039;t know what&#039;s worse - his ethics or his hubris.
All of them, Katie.
Also largely responsible for making Rudolph Giuliani mayor, at least the first time.
The rest of NYC keeps trying to give it to NJ, or failing that, Nassau County, but so far no luck.
As a proud serial reelector of Charles Rangel, sometime tax evader and paid Caribbean trip taker, I have to say that this form of corruption is not, IMO, the worst sort. Yes: ripping off your minimum-wage workers definitely trumps storing your other Mercedes in the Congressional parking lot for free, but it&#039;s still not on a par with voting for wars because Lockheed-Martin and Haliburton paid for your last campaign.
Taking bribes to wage war for profit, cutting funding for schools for profit, supporting for-profit prisons because you own shares in the company ... anytime your vote on policy is altered by the money you took: that&#039;s way way worse than tax-dodging.
C&#039;mon everybody. It&#039;s not like he was caught doing something unforgivable, like sexting a pic of his manhood to a lady.
&quot;Let&#039;s not bicker and argue over who killed whom...&quot; except when it&#039;s a Democrat involved.
Damned 47 percenter!
The unfortunate irony here is that Rep. Grimm is a member of that vanishingly small caucus of House Republicans who accept the science and support action to address climate change. He <a href="http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/climate\/2014\/04\/25\/3430952\/grimm-embraces-climate-science\/" target="_blank">dropped the denialism</a> after Hurricane Sandy devastated his district.