{"id":5179,"date":"2011-06-22T00:46:28","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T07:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=5179"},"modified":"2011-06-22T00:47:49","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T07:47:49","slug":"diaper-dave-strikes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/22\/diaper-dave-strikes-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Diaper Dave Strikes Again!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent events in Congress have brought an issue to the forefront.\u00a0 Democrats, who claim no moral superiority) have to resign when scandalized, even when their scandals violate neither laws nor congressional ethics.\u00a0 Republicans, on the other hand, who virtually always claim moral superiority, have to resign only when they are about to be expelled, even when their scandals violate both laws and congressional ethics.\u00a0 In other words, why is David Vitter (R-LA) still in office?\u00a0 Diaper Dave is in trouble yet again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"22vitter\"<\/a>A watchdog group filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee on Tuesday against Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) over allegations that he attempted to \u201cbribe\u201d the Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The complaint, filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), cites a letter that Vitter wrote to Salazar last month<\/a>. In the letter Vitter said he would continue to oppose increasing Salazar\u2019s paycheck by $19,600 until the secretary issued permits for new exploratory deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In a five-page letter to committee Chairwoman Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Vice Chairman Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), CREW\u2019s executive director Melanie Sloan detailed the allegation of Vitter\u2019s \u201cquid pro quo\u201d and recommended that the committee refer matters to the Justice Department if they found the senator guilty of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur country\u2019s criminal laws apply to everyone, including senators,\u201d said Sloan in the letter. \u201cThere is no exception to the bribery law allowing a senator to influence a department secretary\u2019s official acts by withholding compensation.\u201d\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <The Hill<\/a>><\/p>\n

Here are CREW’s complaint and exhibits (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure whether bribery or blackmail is the more apt description of Vitter\u2019s crime, but the quid pro quo<\/em> is self-evident.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawrence O’Donnell covers the story and discusses Vitter\u2019s vote today against jobs for American workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/embed><\/object><\/span><\/p>\n

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

I ask again, why is David Vitter still in office?<\/span><\/p>\n

These are the members of the Senate Ethics Committee.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Democrats<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Barbara Boxer<\/span><\/span>, California, Chairman<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mark L. Pryor<\/span><\/span>, Arkansas<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sherrod Brown<\/span><\/span>, Ohio<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Republicans<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Johnny Isakson<\/span><\/span>, Georgia, Vice Chairman<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Pat Roberts<\/span><\/span>, Kansas<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

James E. Risch<\/span><\/span>, Idaho<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If one is your Senator, call them and ask why.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent events in Congress have brought an issue to the forefront.\u00a0 Democrats, who claim no moral superiority) have to resign when scandalized, even when their scandals violate neither laws nor congressional ethics.\u00a0 Republicans, on the other hand, who virtually always claim moral superiority, have to resign only when they are about to be expelled, even […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}