House Appropriations chairman under fire

[MSgt213]

I'm certain we democrats will find away not to be able to use this against the repubs.

1WASHINGTON - You may not have heard of him, but Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., is one of the most powerful members of Congress, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, which controls hundreds of billions of dollars.

Tom Casey, CEO of the now-defunct computer software company Audre Inc., has told federal investigators what he says happened in 1993 when he asked for Lewis' help in getting money for the Pentagon to test software that converted engineering documents to computer formats.

Tom Casey: I just thought, in my opinion, it pressed the boundaries of what was ethical.

n an exclusive interview, Casey tells NBC News that after he made campaign contributions to House members of both parties, Lewis informed him the Pentagon would get $14 million for the testing, and that Casey even could write the language.

Lisa Myers: You were allowed to write language for an appropriations bill yourself?

Casey: Yes, I did. That was Congressman Lewis' suggestion.

Casey says Lewis repeatedly urged him to hire a lobbyist, former U.S. Rep. Bill Lowery, Lewis' close friend, and when that didn't happen, pressed for another favor.

Casey: Congressman Lewis asked me to set up stock options for Bill Lowery in our company.

Casey says Lewis suggested he issue the stock options in Canada — in someone else's name.

Myers: Did you view it as an effort to hide what was really going on?

Casey: It was intended to conceal his participation, yes.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13191097/

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Interesting ... "software that converted engineering documents to computer

formats" ... this is exactly the thing that Waite's companies were doing. Cunningham forced the Defense Dept. to spend millions on this software even though the Pentagon stated quite clearly that it didn't need it--they already had their needs sufficiently covered. Apparently if you make the purchase sound sufficiently "high-tech" it stops people from asking enough questions about whether it's a sound investment or not.

At least that's the way they do things where I work.:eyes:

Could this point the way to establishing a connection between Lewis and Cunningscam?