Joe Knollenberg (R-MI) takes wife to Hawaii on someone else's dime

[Bozita]

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060120/NE...

Ethics scandal taints Knollenberg trip

Interest group pays for Hawaii conference

BY RUBY L. BAILEY
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

January 20, 2006

Critics say U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg, from Bloomfield Hills, shouldn't have taken his wife on the free trip.

WASHINGTON -- Talk about timing.

As nervous Republicans raced this month to introduce lobby reform bills in the wake of the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal, U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg and his wife, Sandie, were on a five-day, all-expenses-paid trip to a Hawaii conference on an interest group's dime.

It's the kind of trip that got little attention in years past, but in the post-Abramoff climate such excursions are attracting public scrutiny. The American Association of Airport Executives paid for the trip for Knollenberg, as well as at least six other members of the House and Senate and some of their staffs.

The association, based in Alexandria, Va., holds the conference annually and has paid $300,000 since 2000 for trips for 45 members of Congress, according to congressional watchdog groups.

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[Erika]

1. This administration won't up the minimum wage

but they allow their own Hawaii trips paid for by lobbyists? We must have the GOP in power. They have always adored the rich and scorned the poor.

[Bozita]

2. kick