Written by Biloxi
So much of the news has been dominated about the lewd internet photos and sexting scandal by New York Congressman Anthony Weiner and the calls for his resignation. This article is not about my opinion about Weiner's scandal as the decision for him to resign or stay in office is really up to himself and his constituents that represent his district. My focus is how the new information Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' newly financial disclosure dumped a couple of weeks ago all of sudden got lost in translation and now discussed not much in the media which by consequences timed around the bombshell story of lewd photo that surfaced on Congressman Weiner's facebook. One has to look at a timelime to the release of the Judge Thomas' financial disclosure, Congressman Weiner's determination for Thomas to recuse himself from the healthcare case, and Congressman Weiner lewd photo scandal. Where is the connection?:
In January 2011: Common Cause revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas had repeatedly failed to report his wife, Ginni, Movement Conservative income (from the Heritage Foundation) on his financial disclosure forms. Thomas checked the box marked "Not one dime" when he should have checked the one labeled "Between $1 and $686,589" in each of five years running.
In February 2011: Congressman Anthony Weiner gets 74 congresspeople to send a letter to Clarence Thomas asking him to explain himself, then launched Conflicted Clarence Thomas campaign in attempt to for Thomas to recuse himself on any health care law case.
Liberty Central, Inc. was forced, presumably by Weiner's constant needling Justice Thomas, to release its own IRS forms showing $150,000 in payments to Ginni Thomas, President and CEO, in 2010 (jump to page 12.) Liberty Central is on record as opposing President Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA). And Affordable Care Act has been challenged by some states in court as unconstitutional. Some states are taking their fight to the Supreme Court.
On May 27, 2011: Justice Thomas announced he would release his amended disclosures later that day. And starting at 9:14 am that day there's a lot of Twitter traffic from @RepWeiner about it. And here is Justice Thomas' 2010 financial disclosure form. Click here. Thomas' new financial disclosure form indicated that his wife who served as Liberty Central's president and CEO, received $150,000 in salary from the group and less than $15,000 in payments from an anti-health care lobbying firm she started. Thomas had failed to disclose his wife's income on his financial disclosure forms for 20 years. This is what can become a legal challenge for Thomas if Thomas and his wife benefited from her income working against the healthcare bill which may likely to end up before the Supreme Court.
Later that evening on May 27, 2011: The Weiner lewd photo scandal emerged. Weiner tweeted that his Facebook account has been hacked which we now know that he lied according to his press conference this week.
June 2011: ProtectOurElections.org, a campaign finance watchdog, has asked the FBI and Department of Justice to investigate Justice Thomas and his wife for financial and judicial corruption partly based on the Justice's newest financial disclosures.
It is interesting the all of sudden to rush for calls from Democrats including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to have Weiner resign from Congress this weekend when a call this week for a Congressional ethics investigation on Weiner by Pelosi. It seems like Congress will never learn from pass mistakes by their colleagues on sex scandals. Yet, Senator Vitter who paid for sex with prostitutes was never held accountable to the Senate ethics committee. And who can forget disgraced and former Congressman Mark Foley who has inappropriate sex chat communications between himself and former male House pages. And I guess no one wanted to discuss how certain members of Congress knew of Foley's 10 year behavior, warned him, but never took any corrective action until the scandal with the slew of inappropriate email exchanges by Foley and male House pages were exposed by the media. And of course, Foley was never criminally charged and the case is closed. And why was that? According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's investigation, the law enforcement was denied access to critical data by Foley and Congress. From the Florida Department of Law Enforcement website in 2008:
Sep 19, 2008
On September 30, 2006, former Governor Jeb Bush directed the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to begin an inquiry into allegations of inappropriate communications between U.S. Representative Mark Foley and former House Pages. The purpose of the investigation was to determine if any such communications sent from or received in Florida violated state law. On October 1, 2006, then Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert, sent a letter to former Governor Bush requesting an investigation of Mr. Foley’s conduct with current and former House pages to determine what extent any of his actions violated Florida law.
This investigation has concluded and the findings were discussed with State Attorney William Eddins of the First Judicial Circuit. Eddins has confirmed there is insufficient evidence to pursue criminal charges.
“FDLE conducted as thorough and comprehensive investigation as possible considering Congress and Mr. Foley denied us access to critical data,” FDLE Commissioner Gerald Bailey said. “Should additional information arise which is pertinent to this case, we will ensure it is appropriately investigated.”
FDLE’s investigative summary is attached. The full report is available upon request.
Investigation Summary
The scandals like Congressman Anthony Weiner, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, and others are sad for this country and for their states. But, in order to get our financial house in order in this country's economy, all lawmakers must first get their ethics house in order on Capitol Hill. A suggestion: a required class course of on the code of conduct.
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