Capitol Hill: The Best Little Whorehouse in Washington, D.C.

Capitol Hill's Top "Earners":

Mary Landrieu (D-LA): reportedly got $300 million in extra funding for Louisiana in exchange for her vote for Obamacare. When reporters first asked her whether she had voted with the Democratic leadership in exchange for $100 million dollars, she was eager to set the record straight: “It’s not $100 million, it’s $300 million, and I’m proud of it and will keep fighting for it." Landrieu is obviously beyond anything slightly resembling shame.

Christopher Dodd (D-CT): managed to extort $100 million in taxpayer money for hospitals in his home state, particularly the University of Connecticut.

Ben Nelson (D-NE): got the federal government to use money from taxpayers of every other state in the nation to pick up Nebraska's Medicaid tab in perpetuity in exchange for his vote to cut off debate on the Democrat's abominable socialist health care "reform."

Fortunately, many are not taking this abuse of power lying down. Individuals and even some states are considering legal action based on the unconstitutionality of the "deals" Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has cut with his corrupt Democrat colleagues.

Harry Reid's "Bribes" to Senators Landrieu, Nelson for Their Healthcare Votes Are Unconstitutional

Senate Candidate Bill Parson Cites Article IV Sections 1 & 2 as Prohibiting Reid’s Payola Ploy

MOAPA, Nev.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Retired Marine and former energy industry Project Manager Bill Parson, a Constitutional Conservative candidate for the Republican nomination to remove Harry Reid from the U.S. Senate in 2010, has denounced Harry Reid’s “purchase” of the votes of Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) as unconstitutional under Article IV, Sections 1 and 2 of the United States Constitution.

“By granting citizens of those two states special taxpayer-funded rights unavailable in Nevada and 47 other states, the Senate has violated the Constitution and broken faith with the American people.”

“Setting aside the question of blatant public bribery – using taxpayer funds – it is clear that the “deal” that bought Senator Ben Nelson’s vote, and the earlier deal that bought Senator Mary Landrieu’s vote, are unequivocally unconstitutional,” Parson said from his home in Moapa, Nevada. Article IV Section 1 states that the: ‘Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State.’ Constitutional scholars report that this clause is routinely applied to both the laws of the states being honored by other states, as well as to Federal laws that are expected to be applied equally in all states.

“However,” Parson pointed out, “the more specific constitutional prohibition against these one-state bribes – which give the citizens of one state privileges and tax-funded benefits unavailable to other states, Article IV Section 2 – reads: ‘The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.’ This provision clearly states that benefits such as those bargained away in the middle of the night to buy Senator Nelson’s decisive 60^th cloture vote, the one that broke the filibuster and paved the way to a power-grab that will take over one-sixth of the entire U.S. economy, was unconstitutional as well as potentially illegal. [More]

7 State Attorneys General Probing Nebraska's Health Care

(Columbia, SC) -- Seven Republican state attorneys general are thinking of suing over U.S. Senator Ben Nelson's health care politicking to benefit his home state.

The Nebraska Democrat wrangled a deal in exchange for his vote to overhaul the nation's health care system.

The Democrats need all 60 votes to break a GOP filibuster, and Nelson held out for both stronger anti-abortion language and some cash for Nebraska.

A provision in the Senate version of the bill calls for the federal government to reimburse the Cornhusker state 100-percent of its Medicaid costs.

Other states get only 91-percent. [More]

Corruption: Obamastlye

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (above) and his chief of staff were arrested yesterday as a result of a federal corruption probe where Blagojevich is believed to have sought financial advantages in exchange for Barack Obama's former U.S. Senate Seat.

"I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening."

-- President-elect Barack Obama during yesterday's press conference when asked about what contacts he had had with Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich regarding his U.S Senate replacement

"I know he's talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them."

-- Obama's senior campaign advisor David Axelrod on November 28, 2008, during an interview on Fox News Chicago. Axelrod now claims he "misspoke" during the interview and there were no contacts between Obama and Blagojevich regarding the issue of Obama's Senate replacement.

"If it isn't the most corrupt state in the United States, it's certainly one hell of a competitor."

-- FBI's Chicago office special agent Robert Grant on the Blagojevich probe

Blagojevich arrested; Fitzgerald calls it a 'political corruption crime spree'

By Jeff Coen, Rick Pearson and David Kidwell
Tribune staff reporters

Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff, John Harris, were arrested Tuesday for what U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called a "political corruption crime spree" that included attempts to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

Blagojevich and Harris were named in a federal criminal complaint that alleged a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy aimed at providing financial benefits to the governor, his political fund and to his wife, First Lady Patricia Blagojevich.

Blagojevich was taken into federal custody by FBI agents at his North Side home Tuesday morning—one day shy of his 52nd birthday.

The arrests dealt a tumultuous blow to Illinois government, at once raising questions about the leadership of the state and the fate of the open Senate seat—which the governor alone has the power to fill under the state law.

The allegations against Blagojevich provide a sharp contrast to a Democratic governor who campaigned for office promising reforms in the wake of disgraced, scandal-tainted Republican chief executive George Ryan. The complaint against Blagojevich comes little more than two years after Ryan was sentenced to 61/2 years in prison on federal corruption charges.

Obama hasn't even been inaugurated yet and the scandals are already a part of his future administration. The president-elect was quick to distance himself from Blagojevich by claiming he had not contacts with the Illinois governor about his former U.S. Senate seat and chanting the usual mantra of not commenting on an ongoing investigation. Right.

Earlier this year, Obama's chief campaign strategist David "Dr. Frankenstein" Axelrod said that his boss and Illinois Governor Blagojevich had been talking about the senate seat replacement.

Yesterday Axelrod changed his story and claims that he "mispoke" regarding "direct" contacts between Obama and Blagojevich about the Illinois Senate vacancy. Uh-huh. Sure.

This thing with Blagojevich stinks and there is a waft of it around the "Office of the President-elect." Moribund mainstream media types are bending over backwards to exonerate Obama instead of "letting the facts come out." It's Clinton all over again, only Black this time.

We are sure to hear the predictable criticism of the "guilt by association" charges. But when someone consistently associates with the guilty (radical/racist preachers, indicted slumlords, unrepentant domestic terrorists, and corrupt governors), you've got to wonder about his claims of innocence.