Will Nancy Pelosi "Drain the Swamp?"

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson violated rules, steered scholarships to relatives

By TODD J. GILLMAN and CHRISTY HOPPE

The Dallas Morning News
tgillman@dallasnews.com
choppe@dallasnews.com

Longtime Dallas congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson has awarded thousands of dollars in college scholarships to four relatives and a top aide's two children since 2005, using foundation funds set aside for black lawmakers' causes.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX)

The recipients were ineligible under anti-nepotism rules of the Congressional Black CaucusFoundation, which provided the money. And all of the awards violated a foundation requirement that scholarship winners live or study in a caucus member's district.

Johnson, a Democrat, denied any favoritism when asked about the scholarships last week. Two days later, she acknowledged in a statement released by her office that she had violated the rules but said she had done so "unknowingly" and would work with the foundation to "rectify the financial situation."

Initially, she said, "I recognized the names when I saw them. And I knew that they had a need just like any other kid that would apply for one." Had there been more "very worthy applicants in my district," she added, "then I probably wouldn't have given it" to the relatives.

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Johnson awarded nine to 11 scholarships a year from 2005 to 2008, the most recent years for which information was available. Each of those years, three or four winners were related to her or her district director, Rod Givens. Johnson said she divided the available funds equally among recipients, and every qualified applicant got a scholarship.

The foundation asks applicants to certify that they aren't related to those associated with the caucus or the foundation, but it does not specify which relationships that includes.

Scholarships have gone to two of the congresswoman's grandsons,Kirk and David Johnson; to two of her great-nephews, Gregory and Preston Moore; and to Givens' son and daughter. Givens did not respond to requests for comment, and none of the scholarship recipients could be reached.

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Let's hear it for Democrat "culture of corruption."

To be fair, Speaker Pelosi vowed to fight the "Republican" culture of corruption.

"No Fingers Left to Wag": Corrupt Democrats and Their Hypocrite Leadership Exposed

Democrats Mired in Swamp They Vowed to Drain
Thursday, 04 Mar 2010 06:35 PM

A rash of ethics lapses has given Democrats an election-year headache: how to convince skeptical voters that they're any cleaner than Republicans they accused of fostering a "culture of corruption" in 2006.


From the conduct of governors in Illinois and New York to backroom deals over President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, Democrats are drawing their own criticism when it comes to the ethics of public officials.


The party that pledged to "drain the swamp" if given control of Congress finds itself sinking in the muck nine months from Election Day, when every member of the House and 36 Senate seats will be chosen.


The sword of sanctimony cuts both ways, warns a Republican felled by his own scandal in the weeks before the 2006 elections, as then-Rep. Nancy Pelosi led the campaign cry to end "the culture of corruption that has thrived under this Republican Congress."


"If you claim that you are going to hold a group accountable, as she professed, then it requires you to really be serious about that and not make excuses when members of their own party don't meet those same standards," former Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned weeks before the 2006 election because of allegations he pursued former House pages, told The Associated Press.

Anyone who believed Speaker of the House self-righteous pronouncements that she and the Democratic Party majority were going to change the Republican "culture of corruption" in Congress are either woefully or wilfully ignorant of the morally bankrupt recent history of the the socialist party itself.

While peddling a crusade against "The Culture of Corruption," Pelosi managed to secure "A Monopoly on Corruption" for her party and administration. From Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's tax evasion to Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd's sweet mortgage deal from Countrywide, corruption and wrongdoing have been the hallmark of Pelosi's tenure and Obama's presidency.

And now, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, is forced to "temporarily" give up the chairmanship of the tax-writing arm of the United State Congress because he has cheated on his taxes. You can't make that up, folks.

Health Care "Reform": Brought to You by the Democrat Party of Nonsense, Corruption, Sleaze and Payola

Rep. Ben Nelson (D-NE): King of Sleaze and Abortion Sellout

Healthcare Pork: Senate Bill Laden with Favors, Pet Projects for Democrats

Read the Senate’s mammoth health care bill closely and what you’ll find is a special interest bonanza rewarding thousands of Democratic pet projects across the nation and punishing industries and areas that didn’t have the clout to purchase pork. Among the winners: states like Nebraska, Massachusetts, Vermont and Louisiana, whose Democratic senators secured hundreds of millions of dollars for Medicaid expansion.

Nebraska, Louisiana, Vermont and Massachusetts. These states are getting more federal help with Medicaid than other states. In the case of Nebraska — represented by Sen. Ben Nelson, who's providing the critical 60th vote for the legislation to pass — the federal government is picking up 100 percent of the tab of a planned expansion of the program, in perpetuity. Vermont and Massachusetts get temporary increases in the federal share of their Medicaid tabs. In Louisiana, moderate Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu negotiated $100 million for 2011 before announcing her support for the legislation.

Buying votes is Obama’s Chicago Way. Corruption is the name of the game. Nelson got Barack to pay Nebraska’s Medicare tab. Did Franken also get some kind of payola for shutting down Lieberman or did he do it for free?

Also, didn’t Obama say that people making $250,000 or less were not going to get hosed? Rep. Joe Wilson was right: Obama lies.

Ironically, the socialists are not happy themselves. They don’t think that whatever abomination behind which they have lined up (remember, Harry Reid and George Soros are not done writing the actual language behind closed doors) goes far enough down the totalitarian path.