Hastert Scandle

[Dr Ron]

From Light Up The Darkness (see original post for links):

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=732

Denny Hastert's Late Payment
15 April 2005

It's nothing compared to all the scandles surrounding Tom DeLay, but now Business Week is reporting some potentially embarassing news regarding Dennis Hastert:

Signatures restaurant, the expense-account haven owned by super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has hosted at least 60 GOP fund-raisers since it opened on Washington's Pennsylvania Ave. NW in early 2002. But the June 3, 2003, lunchtime gathering was special: The guest of honor was House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), and the event was a relatively intimate gathering dominated by lobbyists from Greenberg Traurig, the law and lobbying firm where Abramoff then worked.

The problem? Nobody paid for the lunch -- or reported it in disclosure documents as an in-kind contribution -- as federal election law requires, BusinessWeek Online has learned. The tab -- which Hastert's office would not disclose -- was paid only this month, around the time that BusinessWeek Online began to investigate fund-raisers for Republican politicos held at Signatures. Hastert's office says his staffers uncovered the oversight.

Capitol Hill Republicans are sweating over fallout from their relationships with Abramoff. The lobbyist is under investigation by two Senate committees and a criminal task force involving the Justice Dept. and the IRS for allegedly defrauding his clients -- Indian tribes flush with casino cash -- out of millions of dollars.

[New Dealer]

1. What a surprise

[whistle]

2. Dennis Hastert is another big republican tub of guts on the take....

...these people are such pieces of shit!

"...The problem? Nobody paid for the lunch -- or reported it in disclosure documents as an in-kind contribution -- as federal election law requires."

These fund raiser lunches usually are designed to attract anywhere from 500 to 1,000 perhaps even larger contributors so after 60 of these type functions you're up around 30,000 to 60,000 attendees, plus all of the speakers and head table people and staff. They would be held at large (GOP that would be Marriott's or Hilton) hotels. So these lunches would carry at least a $35 to $60 per head tag to them plus the rental of the ballroom, so the basic cost would have to be from $1.8 million to $3.6 million. So am I to understand that the GOP Hastert bunch did not pay out a dime for any of this, and it was not reported until the investigations turned up these overlooked expenses? :popcorn: :rofl: :spray: :patriot: