posted on February 18, 2004 11:02:30 PM new
Feb. 18, 2004, 11:07PM
Kerry letters aided embattled contractor
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON -- U.S.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., sent 28 letters in behalf of a San Diego defense contractor who pleaded guilty last week to illegally funneling campaign contributions to the Massachusetts senator and four other congressmen.
Wonder who the other four were?
Members of Congress often write letters supporting constituent businesses and favored projects. But as Democratic presidential front-runner, Kerry has promoted himself as one who has never been beholden to campaign contributors.
posted on February 19, 2004 12:08:36 AM new
Okay, Linda, ready or not, I'm back.
The thrust of your post had to do with John Kerry having written letters to a SoCal defense contractor who pled guilty last week to illegally funneling campaign contributions to Senator Kerry and four unnamed Congressmen, is that correct?
Have I got it right?
Good!
Let's proceed...
First off, here's your unnamed defense contractor: Parthasarathi "Bob" Majumder. He's the president of Science and Applied Technology Inc., and he solicited employees and others to make illegal contributions to Cunningham, R-Escondido; Kerry, D-Mass.; Hunter, R-California; Murtha, D-Pennsylvania; and Scarborough, R-Florida.
You see the Big Picture in those names, Linda? Half Democrat, half Republican?Old "Bob" is just an 'any way the wind blows' kind of guy. And not terribly sophisticated when it comes to bribing public officials in America.
The contributions, totaling approximately $75,000 over eight years, were intended to help Majumder's company win lucrative U.S. government contracts for an air-to-ground missile system, his indictment stated.
None of the members of Congress, or anyone on their staff, or any US Senator was charged with any wrongdoing, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Phillip Halpern.
It's the defense contractor who's been convicted, Linda, not John Kerry.
But, on to your 'letters'...
From 1996 through 1998, John Kerry participated in a letter-writing campaign ( -get it? A whole lot of folks wanted to promote this company's missile system) to other politicians and the Pentagon. Kerry's particular motivation was not the paltry $13,000 Majumder sent to his campaign coffers ( - Kerry donated $13,000 to charity two days before Majumder's guilty plea, by the way, undoubtedly sensing that some ferret like you would try to make something out of this nothing).
His interest, as the junior Senator from Massachusetts, was to have the Pentagon fund one of the subcontractors working on Majumder's guided missile project, Militech, which is based in Northampton, MA, to keep some frigging jobs in his state.
If you read 'corruption' in that, Linda, I'm gonna drag out every dirty dime Bush (and his father and brothers) have courted and I promise you, those records will fill this forum for a year, non-stop, and you, personally, will collapse under the weight of your beloved Georgie's (et al) utterly immoral, criminal, mocking fundraising practices.
posted on February 19, 2004 03:11:46 AM new
Linda - I am curious about one thing. Do you actually believe that Kerry did something wrong and if so, why is he not under indictment?
Do you not believe that it is possible that a person can be the recipient of "illegal" funds without being aware of it? If I have five employees individually contribute to a campaign, is that campaign supposed to do a background check on the employment and aquaintances of each contributor before accepting the funds?
Also, do you find it at all incindiary that the article you copied listed Kerry but not the other four congressmen (or that by selective bolding you eliminated even the mention of others). And isn't it strange that the same press everyone here labels as liberal put Kerry in the hot seat while leaving among others, two republicans safe from the public glare despite the fact that one of those republicans is actually from California which if this was actually a genuinely newsworthy story would have been of interest to LA Times readers?
~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~ • ~~~
If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on February 19, 2004 05:26:19 AM new
One of the others there would be Joe Scarborough, the famous conservative show host on MSNBC, I believe
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[ edited by profe51 on Feb 19, 2004 05:26 AM ]
posted on February 19, 2004 06:42:37 AM new
Scarborough was also a writer for a conservative website, townhall along with such writers such as Ann Coulter, and Phyllis Schlafly.
posted on February 19, 2004 07:16:04 AM new
Fenix - Guess we really won't ever know whether he did or not. Just reporting the news.
Wouldn't come as a shock to anyone if he did though.
Why isn't he under indictment? Who knows. Hillary Clinton was never indicted and there were reports about all the ILLEGAL contributions her campaign received too. See they only return the funds when they're caught.
Kerry's the one who continually runs his mouth off about NOT being beholden to special interest but yet he writes 'letters of support' for them. sure....
Documents say the contractor told his employees they needed to make political contributions for him to gain influence with members of Congress. He then reimbursed them with proceeds from government contracts.
Federal prosecutors initially determined that $13,000 of the donations were illegally reimbursed, but they now say that nearly all of the money was tainted[/i].
Just doesn't come as a surprise to me.....some have trouble seeing that it happens in both parties. They think it's only true when it's reported about Republicans.
This link was provided so that dems here can see even John Edwards thinks what Kerry's said isn't really speaking the truth.
Edwards, a trial lawyer who shines in debates, may demand a series of one-on-one forums with Kerry, aides said. On Wednesday, he chastised Kerry for accepting donations from lobbyists. "Records matter," he told reporters.
Just as it matters to some that Kerry has supported NAFTA.
Re-elect President Bush!!
[ edited by Linda_K on Feb 19, 2004 08:17 AM ]
[ edited by Linda_K on Feb 19, 2004 08:20 AM ]
posted on February 19, 2004 08:47:07 AM new
Well, Linda, I see you've managed to skate right over the facts and now you're continuing to spew at will. Naughty!
[ edited by profe51 on Feb 19, 2004 05:26 AM ]