A Political Overlook

In reading the information below please take note that there are 4 people listed here that are candidates for the highest office in our nation, the President of the U.S. and one person is currently the Speaker Of The House, the third highest office in our nation. What does this say about our government?


Judicial Watch Announces List of Washington's
'Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians' for 2007
Washington, DC –Judicial Watch, the public
interest group that investigates and prosecutes
government corruption, today released its 2007
list of Washington's 'Ten Most Wanted Corrupt
Politicians.' The list, in alphabetical order, includes:

1. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): In
addition to her long and sordid ethics record,
Senator Hillary Clinton took a lot of heat in
2007 – and rightly so – for blocking the release
her official White House records. Many suspect
these records contain a treasure trove of
information related to her role in a number of
serious Clinton-era scandals. Moreover, in March
2007, Judicial Watch filed an ethics complaint
against Senator Clinton for filing false
financial disclosure forms with the U.S. Senate
(again). And Hillary's top campaign contributor,
Norman Hsu, was exposed as a felon and a fugitive
from justice in 2007. Hsu pleaded guilt to one
count of grand theft for defrauding investors as
part of a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme.

2. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI): Conyers reportedly
repeatedly violated the law and House ethics
rules, forcing his staff to serve as his personal
servants, babysitters, valets and campaign
workers while on the government payroll. While
the House Ethics Committee investigated these
allegations in 2006, and substantiated a number
of the accusations against Conyers, the committee
blamed the staff and required additional
administrative record-keeping and employee
training. Judicial Watch obtained documentation
in 2007 from a former Conyers staffer that sheds
new light on the activities and conduct on the
part of the Michigan congressman, which appear to
be at a minimum inappropriate and likely
unlawful. Judicial Watch called on the Attorney
General in 2007 to investigate the matter.

3. Senator Larry Craig (R-ID): In one of the
most shocking scandals of 2007, Senator Craig was
caught by police attempting to solicit sex in a
Minneapolis International Airport men's bathroom
during the summer. Senator Craig reportedly
'sent signals' to a police officer in an adjacent
stall that he wanted to engage in sexual
activity. When the police officer showed Craig
his police identification under the bathroom
stall divider and pointed toward the exit, the
senator reportedly exclaimed 'No!'' When asked
to produce identification, Craig presented police
his U.S. Senate business card and said, 'What do
you think of that?' The power play didn't
work. Craig was arrested, charged and entered a
guilty plea. Despite enormous pressure from his
Republican colleagues to resign from the Senate, Craig refused.

4. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA): As a member
of the Senate Appropriations Committee's
subcommittee on military construction, Feinstein
reviewed military construction government
contracts, some of which were ultimately awarded
to URS Corporation and Perini, companies then
owned by Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum. While
the Pentagon ultimately awards military
contracts, there is a reason for the review
process. The Senate's subcommittee on Military
Construction's approval carries weight. Sen.
Feinstein, therefore, likely had influence over
the decision making process. Senator Feinstein
also attempted to undermine ethics reform in
2007, arguing in favor of a perk that allows
members of Congress to book multiple airline
flights and then cancel them without financial
penalty. Judicial Watch's investigation into this matter is ongoing.

5. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani
(R-NY): Giuliani came under fire in late 2007
after it was discovered the former New York
mayor's office 'billed obscure city agencies for
tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses
amassed during the time when he was beginning an
extramarital relationship with future wife Judith
Nathan in the Hamptons…' ABC News also reported
that Giuliani provided Nathan with a police
vehicle and a city driver at taxpayer
expense. All of this news came on the heels of
the federal indictment on corruption charges of
Giuliani's former Police Chief and business
partner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded guilty in 2006
to accepting a $165,000 bribe in the form of
renovations to his Bronx apartment from a
construction company attempting to land city contracts.

6. Governor Mike Huckabee (R-AR): Governor
Huckabee enjoyed a meteoric rise in the polls in
December 2007, which prompted a more thorough
review of his ethics record. According to The
Associated Press: '[Huckabee's] career has also
been colored by 14 ethics complaints and a volley
of questions about his integrity, ranging from
his management of campaign cash to his use of a
nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to
his destruction of state computer files on his
way out of the governor's office.' And what was
Governor Huckabee's response to these ethics
allegations? Rather than cooperating with
investigators, Huckabee sued the state ethics
commission twice and attempted to shut the ethics process down.

7. I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby: Libby, former
Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was
sentenced to 30 months in prison and fined
$250,000 for lying and obstructing the Valerie
Plame CIA leak investigation. Libby was found
guilty of four felonies -- two counts of perjury,
one count of making false statements to the FBI
and one count of obstructing justice – all
serious crimes. Unfortunately, Libby was largely
let off the hook. In an appalling lack of
judgment, President Bush issued 'Executive
Clemency' to Libby and commuted the sentence.

8. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL): A 'Dishonorable
Mention' last year, Senator Obama moves onto the
'ten most wanted' list in 2007. In 2006, it was
discovered that Obama was involved in a
suspicious real estate deal with an indicted
political fundraiser, Antoin 'Tony' Rezko. In
2007, more reports surfaced of deeper and
suspicious business and political connections It
was reported that just two months after he joined
the Senate, Obama purchased $50,000 worth of
stock in speculative companies whose major
investors were his biggest campaign
contributors. One of the companies was a biotech
concern that benefited from legislation Obama
pushed just two weeks after the senator purchased
$5,000 of the company's shares. Obama was also
nabbed conducting campaign business in his Senate
office, a violation of federal law.

9. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, who promised a new era of ethics
enforcement in the House of Representatives,
snuck a $25 million gift to her husband, Paul
Pelosi, in a $15 billion Water Resources
Development Act recently passed by Congress. The
pet project involved renovating ports in Speaker
Pelosi's home base of San Francisco. Pelosi just
happens to own apartment buildings near the areas
targeted for improvement, and will almost
certainly experience a significant boost in
property value as a result of Pelosi's
earmark. Earlier in the year, Pelosi found
herself in hot water for demanding access to a
luxury Air Force jet to ferry the Speaker and her
entourage back and forth from San Francisco
non-stop, in unprecedented request which was
wisely rejected by the Pentagon. And under
Pelosi's leadership, the House ethics process
remains essentially shut down – which protects
members in both parties from accountability.

10. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV): Over the last
few years, Reid has been embroiled in a series of
scandals that cast serious doubt on his
credibility as a self-professed champion of
government ethics, and 2007 was no
different. According to The Los Angeles Times,
over the last four years, Reid has used his
influence in Washington to help a developer,
Havey Whittemore, clear obstacles for a
profitable real estate deal. As the project
advanced, the Times reported, 'Reid received tens
of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions
from Whittemore.' Whittemore also hired one of
Reid's sons (Leif) as his personal lawyer and
then promptly handed the junior Reid the
responsibility of negotiating the real estate
deal with federal officials. Leif Reid even
called his father's office to talk about how to
obtain the proper EPA permits, a clear conflict of interest.

Judicial Watch is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization. Judicial Watch neither supports
nor opposes candidates for public office. For
more information, visit
www.judicialwatch.org.