Kerry, Salazar Announce the “Duke Cunningham Act”

[kerrygoddess]

A nice slap in the face for the GOP -

Kerry, Salazar Move to Deny Pensions to Lawbreaking Lawmakers with the “Duke Cunningham Act”
February 9th, 2006 @ 9:31 am

Senator’s John Kerry and Ken Salazar introduced ethics reform legislation today that takes direct aim at the GOP “culture of corruption” in Washington. The "The Duke Cunningham Act" (ouch) would deny taxpayer-funded pension benefits to Members of Congress who break the public trust and are convicted of crimes such as bribery, conspiracy, or other serious ethics offenses.

Kerry said, “It is disgusting that hardworking taxpayers are funding the retirement of convicted criminals like Duke Cunningham. No wonder people look at Washington and know this city is broken. The American people are forced to send pension checks to criminals.”

The Congressional Pension Accountability Act – or “The Duke Cunningham Act” – was authored by Kerry and is co-sponsored by Senator Ken Salazar.

Under current law, only a conviction for a crime against the United States, such as treason or espionage, causes U.S. Representatives and Senators to lose their Congressional pensions. Members of Congress convicted of white collar crimes still receive these federal retirement benefits. The Kerry legislation will change existing law to insure that the Congress no longer rewards unethical behavior at the expense of American taxpayers.

It is the intent of the Kerry bill to stop all future payments of Congressional pensions to lawmakers convicted of these serious ethics crimes.

MORE - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1892

[Beetwasher]

1. Ohhh, Cool Move!

:thumbsup:

[blm]

2. In a few months they can call it the Cunningham-DeLay Act.

.

[ProSense]

4. Cunningham-DeLay & Co. Act

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2448210&mesg_id=2448210

[FSogol]

7. Shorten it to GOP Act. n/t

[yellowcanine]

46. Cunningham/Delay/Ney and GOP Associates Act

[ProSense]

3. Beautiful. Thanks! n/t

[SillyGoose]

5. This is very good! nt

[Coexist]

6. K & R - that is awesome -

Nice move, Kerry and Salazar.

[underpants]

11. Yes this is great

HAHAHAHa

[TayTay]

8. This really does get me.

Hahahaha, the 'Duke Cunningham Act.' Love it. Hey, aren't there a couple of Rethug Senators we could name it after, or does that break Senatorial courtesy. (Which seems to have gone by the wayside anyway these days.)

[FreedomAngel82]

41. Wasn't he the first one to get caught?

[Clark2008]

9. Snicker.

That's pretty good.

Of course, the so-called liberal media will be on television in the next few hours alleging, as they did with the CSK funderal, that the Democrats are offering NO PROPOSALS only using political rhetoric to a non-political problem. *cough*

Either that or they'll ignore it.

[blm]

12. My best guess - they'll ignore it. BushInc won't sign their paycheck if

they give this story too much airtime.

[ClayZ]

10. Good!

:applause:

[mom cat]

13. This is only a gesture without far-reaching campaign finance reform,

verifiable elections, strong restrictions on lobbyists and an end to revolving door appointments of people to regulate the industries from which they just came or taking jobs in the industries they just regulated.

[MH1]

14. Campaign finance reform, like was proposed

here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2445744&mesg_id=2445744

?

[mom cat]

15. I did not yet have time to read all 81 pages, but that looks good to me.

Is anyone advocating it now in the senate or the house? It looks a lot stronger than the current slap on the wrist that is now being proposed. Most of the corrupt ones have made so much money that they won't miss their pension. It would be a lot of money to me, but just peanuts to them.

[karynnj]

17. No but it would be great if Kerry resubmitted it again in Wellstone's

memory. This may be the time when people might demand that DC clean things up.

When Kerry first started campaigining in 2003, he was followed by cameras through a NH town in August 2003 when his campaign was not doing well. A woman at a restaurant asked him about the money influencing elected officials. His answer then spoke about this effort. They never got much support, but in the wake of all this corruption, he might have a chance.

There were reports that Durbin and Dodd were intending to back legislation for public financing of elections. I assume the Democrats will come up with legislation, but it may not be Kerry.

The CSPAN video has the question and answer at 1:04:43 into the video (starts with the woman's question)

Directions to get the video are at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=273x69703

[mom cat]

23. I would love to see it resubmited in Wellstone's memory.

He was what I thought of when I thought of Democrat!

[karynnj]

39. Same here - it was awful hearing about the plane crash

Maybe Kerry and Dayton (the remaining Democrat from MN) should try resubmitting it. It might have more chance with the Rep MN Senator, but he is pretty slimy.

[FreedomAngel82]

43. That would be a good idea

[FreedomAngel82]

42. Oh please

Kerry has been doing this type of reform since 1996. He and Paul Wellstone made an act before he died.

Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040315/corn/3

[Catrina]

16. Wolf Blitzer to Kerry when he agrees, reluctantly, to interview him:

Sen. Kerry, do you see why the American people may view this as the Democrats just playing partisan politics? (and rushing to get in the next talking point) After all, corruptiong in DC is pretty bi-partisan as we all know. Couldn't this bill have been named after, eg, Democrat, (long list of convicted Dems all the way back to the Civil War)' including of course, Clinton?

And Kerry will have to spend a long time explaining why he made this decision. Wolf will then receive a phone-call from Rove, telling him what a good boy he is ~

Otoh, Kerry could right away say 'well, considering this has to do with profiting from war, Wolf, we could have named it the 'Halliburton/Cheney' bill. Look, it isn't about convictions, Wolf, it's about 'conflict of interest' and as you know, Dick Cheney is still holding Halliburton Stock which has sky-rocketed since this war began. Hearings are in progress regarding Mr. Cheney's deception when he was named as VP and possible violation of the law, by not revealing his stock holdings at the time.

And that brings up another issue, I'm glad you raised this question, Wolf. We have, eg, the President's father's affiliation with another defense contractor whose fortunes have risen since this war, The Carlyle Group. There is grave concern about the conflict of interest there since presumably Bush Sr.'s good fortune may one day benefit the president himself, and that too is a serious question.

On and on and on ~ Filibuster them when they play this game ~ train them like Pavlov's dog that if they insist on doing this, they will regret it.

[karynnj]

18. Actually KERRY has been in control in the last 3 Blitzer interviews

starting with the November interview in Kerry's Senate office where he spoke about Iraq mainly. The other were remote interviews when Kerry was in Iraq and Israel. He's actually gotten pretty good at controlling things, mainly suppressing his natural politeness and speaking just fast enough that the media people can't get a word in until he finishes. (He's lucky to have such a strong voice.)

[blm]

19. It's a shame that Dem lawmakers have to resort to tactics to be heard.

.

[RazzleDazzle]

20. Wow. Kerry just rarely fails to

disappoint.

I was all excited opening this, only to find it's NOT about stopping the corruption at all, not even about deterring it really.

Yeah, yeah, all right, sure. I don't want people like Duke Cunningham getting their hefty pensions. But could we PLEASE attack the PROBLEM and try to prevent or stop it, instead of just figuring out some additional "punishment" if someone gets CAUGHT??

That's just downright pathetic.

[Mass]

22. Seems to me that the Dems have filed a bill in the Senate that

Kerry co-sponsors.
S.2180
Title: A bill to provide more rigorous requirements with respect to disclosure and enforcement of ethics and lobbying laws and regulations, and for other purposes.

In addition, he is co-sponsor with Boxer and Lautenberg of an amendment asking the WH

Of course, he could help McCain by co-sponsoring his amendment, of course, as Lieberman and others are doing, but this would be a little bit counterproductive.

[blm]

25. Do you even KNOW that Kerry and Wellstone crafted the Clean Elections bill

that was ignored by most of the senate, but adapted by some states for THEIR elections?

Why pretend that he doesn't GET IT?

[LittleClarkie]

26. Would you notice if he did?

Did you know he already has, several times over? Ever here of Iran/Contra?

I would suspect the answer to both is "no".

[FreedomAngel82]

44. Oh please

:eyes:

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040315/corn/3

[LittleClarkie]

21. How's that for a sound bite

Paying pensions to criminals. Ouch.

[globalvillage]

24. Thanks, KG.

Sen Kerry was awesome on Ed Schultz today.

http://audio.wegoted.com/podcasting/20906Kerry.mp3

"There wasn't even a wizard behind the damn thing."

Woo Hoo, Senator.

:yourock:

[Canuckistanian]

27. Kinda hard to argue with this one

I'd like to see ANY reason at all for voting against this bill. Whoever doesn't vote for it would be suspect, period.

[karynnj]

28. If Kerry can get it out of committee and onto the floor of the Senate

Even if that happens, the Republicans will likely take it and rename it for 2 Republicans and then include it as theirs. This doesn't mean it was a bad idea - just that with the games the Republicans are playing it won't come out as Kerry/Salizar if it passes.

Kerry's Katrina relief started as Kerry, then Kerry/Landreau, then Kerry/Snowe (adding a few Snowe pieces), then Snowe/Kerry (where Snowe in the bill listed Kerry as the author). This is where it was when IT WENT TO A VOTE. While the voting went on, it changed to Snowe/Vitter (R-LA). Only the next day was Kerry even added as a co-sponsor.

On the Clandestine Prisons, it almost became Roberts/Rockefellow, except - Biden wanted to add a secondary amendment that couldn't be added to Roberts/Rockefellow but both the Biden and the Roberts/Rockefellow amendments could be added as secondary amendments to Kerry's. I think the intelligence bill is still being held up because the Bush administartion wants this and 2 Kennedy amendments removed. (Even though over 80 Senators voted for the Kerry amendment.)

[Canuckistanian]

30. Just like the "Murtha Resolution"

Democrats should always refer to the bill (if it ever sees the light of day) as the "Duke Cunningham Act", no matter what it ends up being called.

[karynnj]

32. I agree and they should continue to claim it

I don't follow all the billsas closely as the Kerry ones - which thanks to more knowlegable JohnKerry group people - are easy to follow because of heads up messages on his initiatives. I now understand Kerry's primary debate answer - that you sometimes get legislation you write into law by having it included within other's bills and amendments. It does seem that the Republicans are trying hard to prevent him from getting legislation with his name on it - even when they agree with it and he (and his staff) wrote it. (Nastiness or do they still fear him?)

[wordpix]

29. more kudos to Kerry for the "Cunningham-Delay" Act

[VP505]

31. Does anyone

really think this bill has a snowballs chance in hell of of ever getting through committee??? If it does get through it'll be amended to the point of being meaningless, they will set the bar so high that any conviction less than mass murder will still qualify for their pension.

[Plaid Adder]

33. Why not? Everyone else has already lost their pensions.

This another one of those framing things. Even if the bill never makes it, the discussion reminds people that

a) Republicans are corrupt and
b) these corrupt republicans are among the last people in America who still have a guaranteed pension.

Why not give the game a try, see if it works. I see the assholes have already brought back the Marriage Protection Amendment, just in time for 2006, the fuckers. My theory is that at this point we should let the Republicans kill that on their own, just like with Harriet Miers.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Shadoobie]

34. How much would it save, I wonder?

They should say it will help pay for the tax cuts that have been passed.

Greg

[karynnj]

38. You would need a huge number of future congressmen

found quilty to balance even one tax provision. It's not the money.

[thoughtanarchist]

35. What are the odds that this will get to the floor for debate?

It's the repub majority committee that decides what gets to the floor, right?


:dunce:

[blm]

37. How do they explain that they won't pass it out of committee while trying

to run as serious about reforming congress.

This act is really to make certain that Republicans are identified with corruption.

[paineinthearse]

36. Related "sense of the senate" res sponsored by Boxer, Kerry & Lautenberg

....posted Wednesday, but it died for lack of replies.

Thank you anyway, Senator Boxer, some of us remember your sponsoring the Ohio elector challenge, for all have done and for your continuing efforts.



How soon we forget.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2446681&mesg_id=2446681

paineinthearse (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-08-06 05:01 PM
Original message
Boxer's "sense of the Senate" amendment

by email

During last week's State of the Union address, President Bush spoke for 51 minutes on a wide range of subjects -- from his misguided war in Iraq to his failed energy policy.

Yet in that entire 5,369 word speech, the President saw fit to dedicate only 60 words to a subject that has infected his entire Administration as well as the GOP Congressional leadership: the Republican culture of corruption permeating Washington, DC.

Here's all that President Bush said about his Party's ethical lapses last week:

A hopeful society expects elected officials to uphold the public trust. Honorable people in both parties are working on reforms to strengthen the ethical standards of Washington -- I support your efforts. Each of us has made a pledge to be worthy of public responsibility -- and that is a pledge we must never forget, never dismiss, and never betray.

No apologies for Scooter Libby's obstruction of justice and perjury indictments related to the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. No acknowledgment of Tom DeLay's ongoing criminal prosecution for money laundering. No mention of the procurement head of Bush's own budget office who was marched out in handcuffs. No discussion of GOP Congressman Duke Cunningham's resignation after pleading guilty to bribery charges.

And certainly no reference to Jack Abramoff, the corrupt Republican lobbyist and major GOP donor who has already pled guilty to five criminal felony counts, with more likely on the way.

Tell President Bush to come clean about Jack Abramoff -- urge your Senators to support my amendment today!

In fact, now President Bush says that he doesn't even remember Jack Abramoff -- despite Abramoff raising more than $100,000 for Bush's 2004 re-election and serving as a member of the Bush Administration Transition Team in 2001 -- not to mention the more than 200 contacts that Abramoff's lobbying team had with Bush Administration officials in the first 10 months of 2001.

That simply doesn't pass the smell test. The American people deserve to know the truth about the extent of Jack Abramoff's relationship with the Bush Administration, and how that may have corrupted policy decisions.

That's why I have co-sponsored a "sense of the Senate" amendment, along with my colleagues John Kerry and Frank Lautenberg, urging the White House to provide the American people with a thorough account of the meetings the President, his staff, and senior executive branch officials had with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

It's time for President Bush to answer our questions about Jack Abramoff. Urge your Senators to support my amendment today!

Despite the President's rhetoric in his State of the Union address, the White House's refusal to fully disclose information about their dealings with Jack Abramoff simply exacerbates the problem.

After all, it's not George Bush's White House -- it's the people's White House -- and it is long past time they got an unobstructed look into their own government. If the President has nothing to hide, there shouldn't be a problem.

Tell President Bush to come clean about Jack Abramoff now!

Thanks so much for your continued support.


In Friendship,


Barbara Boxer

Edit: Cannot find yet in THOMAS - No records found with Abramoff
Please enter another Search Phrase - If anybody can provie the resolution number it would be appreciated.

[FreedomAngel82]

40. Yay Kerry!

My president!! :loveya: He was on Ed Schultz yesterday. Check it out!

[Independent_Liberal]

45. I think they should call it the Cunningham-DeLay-Frist-Ney Act.

:D

[MaraJade]

47. Wunnerful, wunnerful!

As a retired Pennsylvania State Employee I can tell you that any Pa State Employee who is convicted of
any crime LOSES their pension. It is only fair that wrongdoers at the US Congressional Level also lose theirs. Makes perfect sense. Why should the taxpayers fund the "retirement" of anyone who failed to
"protect and defend the Constitution of the United States?"