This item is yet another entry in that vein of highly dubious and unreliable articles: It quotes exact numbers and charges (e.g., "Twenty-nine members of Congress have been accused of spousal abuse in either criminal or civil proceedings") but provides absolutely no sources or documentation for its underlying claims, nor does it identify by name even a single individual out of the hundreds of Congress members it accused of various transgressions. In the 1998 Congressional session, 84 Representatives and Senators were stopped for drunken driving and released after they claimed Congressional immunity.Ĭapitol Hill Blue was founded by Doug Thompson, a former Republican political consultant and director of the National Association of Realtors' political action committee, and back when this article was originally published, its stock in trade was running outrage-provoking political stories based on information supposedly supplied by anonymous (and therefore unverifiable) "insider sources." Not surprisingly, a number of such stories published by Capitol Hill Blue proved to be erroneous and were retracted with "apologies" to readers. Fourteen members of Congress have drug-related arrests in their background, eight were arrested for shoplifting, seven for fraud, four for theft, three for assault and one for criminal trespass.Ī study of public records with police departments in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia show 217 members of the House and Senate escaped ticketing and arrest last year for a variety of traffic offenses ranging from speeding to driving while intoxicated. Nineteen members of Congress have been accused of writing bad checks, even after the scandal several years ago, which resulted in closure of the informal House bank that routinely allowed members to overdraw their accounts without penalty.
Twenty-one are current defendants in various lawsuits, ranging from bad debts, disputes with business partners or other civil matters. Twenty-seven have driving while intoxicated arrests on their driving records. Twenty-nine members of Congress have been accused of spousal abuse in either criminal or civil proceedings. Seventy-one of them have credit reports so bad they can't get an American Express card (but as members of Congress, they get a government-issued Amex card without a credit check).įifty-three have personal and financial problems so serious they would be denied security clearances by the Department of Defense or the Department of Energy if they had to apply through normal channels (but, again, as members of Congress they get such clearances simply because they fooled enough people to get elected). Our research found 117 members of the House and Senate who have run at least two businesses each that went bankrupt, often leaving business partners and creditors holding the bag.
#Crimes committed series
That Capitol Hill Blue series (titled "Congress: America's Criminal Class") encompassed lengthy articles about four specific members of Congress and a finale detailing Congress' supposed "long tradition of corruption and ambivalence," with the opening piece proclaiming that: (Later versions of this item changed the subjects from "members of Congress" to members of Parliament from Canada, India, or the UK, or to players from the NFL and NBA.) (from Capitol Hill Blue)Īnd these are the People who make Laws that We MUST obey? The item quoted below was drawn from a series of articles that appeared in the online publication Capitol Hill Blue back in 1999:Ģ9 members of Congress have been accused of spousal abuse,ġ9 have been accused of writing bad checks,ġ17 have bankrupted at least two businesses,ħ1 have credit reports so bad they can't qualify for a credit card,ġ4 have been arrested on drug-related charges,Īnd in 1998 alone, 84 were stopped for drunk driving, but released after they claimed Congressional immunity.
0 kommentar(er)
