Welcome to the Swamp

Secret Empires: How Our Politicians Hide Corruption and Enrich Their Families and Friends – Peter Schweizer – (Harper)

Have you ever wondered how a hick from Searchlight, Nevada can go from the comfortable middle class to owning a multi-million dollar condo at the Washington, DC Ritz Carlton? (Harry Reid) Or how a guy from Delaware who never had a private sector job and was always in elective office could own a multi-million dollar house? (Joe Biden) Or how any number of the offspring from elected officials, who by and large are screwups, seem to magically land high paying, high profile jobs or become partners in big firms?

Welcome to the Swamp! Peter Schweizer, the president of the Government Accountability Institute, investigative journalist and bestselling author once again details the inner workings of just how corrupt Washington, DC politicians are in his new book, Secret Empires: How Our Politicians Hide Corruption and Enrich Their Families and Friends. Schweizer seems to possess the magical ability to track down the finite details of the sketchy dealings and connect the dots that flesh out the stories corruption, self-enrichment and seemingly free pass these folks get when it comes to acts that would find ordinary folks starring down law enforcement types from any number of Federal agencies.

Schweizer does an incredible job of stringing these stories together and he sets in sites on folks from both sides of the aisle, because neither Democrats nor Republicans have cornered the market on being virtuous. Unfortunately for taxpayers, this kind of nefarious activity is nothing new. Tales of scummy politicians steering business to family members, lobbying and legal firm that employ family members or guiding legislation to the benefit of family member’s business concerns is a time honored tradition. It does take much to find stories of dirtbags like the late Congressman John Murtha steering favorable defense contracts to the clients of his brother’s lobbying firm or Arlen Specter’s son benefitting from legal work at his Philadelphia firm.

Rather than just lamenting these shady deals, Schweizer suggests steps that can be taken to address, correct and eliminate this stuff outright. Here’s the problem; the actions to address the problem would take legislative action, and what’s the likelihood that the swamp would punch their own meal ticket?

Criminal Minds – Clinton Cash

Clinton Cash – The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich – Peter Schweizer (Harper)

The Watergate conspiracy and investigation spawned many things; it brought into vogue so-called investigative journalism and added the famous catch phrase “follow the money” to the lexicon. There is a striking coincidence that Hillary Clinton came of age in Washington during the Watergate era as a member of the House Judiciary Committee staff charged with investigating that scandal. She was later removed from the investigation because she “… engaged in a variety of self-serving unethical practices in violation of House rules.”

Bestselling author Peter Schweizer has served up Clinton Cash – The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, in which he details what I can only describe as a series of complex and multi-layered enterprises; that are chock full of cut outs and bag men who seemingly shield the Clinton’s from leaving direct fingerprints. At times this thing reads like a criminal indictment, building a dense series of circumstantial evidence that point directly at the Clinton’s involvement in a lucrative criminal conspiracy.

Bill and Hillary come off like a modern day Bonnie and Clyde without the Tommy guns and certainly without the Mont Blanc pens of white collar criminals, because nothing is ever written down on paper and as far as electronic communications, we know who owns the server. The problem may be that to “follow the money” through the intricate webs of Friends of Bill and Hill, scumbag business types, tin pot dictators and other lowlifes that the Clintons have chosen to do business with, may be just a little too complex for the average, low information, Clinton/Obama voter.

The astounding thing is it is those same people who get jacked up about the Koch brothers, two successful, U.S. citizens who make above board (legal), public donations to support candidates and causes they believe in. Yet they will go out of their way to say there is nothing fishy about the Clintons getting paid massive amounts for speeches or the Clinton Foundation accepting donations from foreign dictators and tyrants, many of whom stand accused of heinous crimes and human rights violations. Laughably those donations often offer these dirt bags a form of International cleansing or legitimacy due to their association with the Clintons.

Schweizer and his team of investigators offer up a densely notated collection of information that ties the Clintons and their associates to what I can only describe as shady dealings. It gives new meaning to Bill Clinton’s recent protestations to NBC News that “I have to pay our bills” when you see the number of sycophants, hangers on, defenders and contributors that have reaped a windfall from their association with the Clintons.

It may be hard to believe after wading through uranium deals, donations from dictators and so many other scummy shenanigans that perhaps the most damning chapter of the book is the one that details the billions of dollars, many of them U.S. taxpayer dollars, of Haitian earthquake relief funds that were in the direct control of Bill and Hillary. While they detailed many grandiose plans to not only rebuild, but also to modernize and bring Haiti into at least the 20^th century with new infrastructure and industrial facilities, what we bought with our billions didn’t even come close.

Massive and possibly criminal cost over-runs, shortfalls on promised basics like housing and projects were piles of money were allocated and spent and yet there was nothing delivered abound. Along the way, plenty of Clinton contributors and friends, many often NOT remotely qualified to deliver on the contracts they were rewarded, became staggeringly enriched. Again, follow the money. Five years after the earthquake that devastated the third world nation, much of Haiti remains in a state of disrepair and tens of thousands still live on the street. Why there has not been an audit or accounting of how the taxpayer’s money was spent is a mystery accept to those who understand how the Obama/Democrat, Justice Department operates.

Has Schweizer uncovered that one smoking gun piece that nails the Clintons? No, but he and his team have built a solid case for a much closer, much more detailed examination of the potential corruption of not only U.S. policy, but of the finances and operations of the Clinton Foundation and their associates. Will that happen? Based on the history of the Clintons, I wouldn’t hold my breath.   

 

A Random Act of Journalism

Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets – Peter Schweizer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

Writer Peter Schweizer is one of a truly rare breed; an investigative journalist. There are pretenders who lay claim to the moniker; those in nice suits, with perfect hair and faces that look serious into the camera as they deliver their story, but in the end are, just more empty entertainment for the low information types.

Schweizer is the real deal. He digs deep into his research and then knits together the pieces of the puzzle to tell his story in a way that has become all too rare; the random act of journalism. In his latest effort, Extortion: How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets, Schweizer carefully builds the premise that both political parties are guilty of creating a system that has become a self-perpetuating organism that keeps politicians in what he rightly call the “permanent political class.”

 

Have you ever wondered why nothing of any substance ever seems to get done in Washington? It’s not because of gridlock or a lack of bipartisanship that we hear about everyday from the non-journalist media; it stems from what Schweizer describes as “tollbooths” and “milkers” those seemingly perpetual “issues” that Washington seems to recycle every couple of years. Party A has constituents that are in favor of some legislation, while Party B has folks who are against it; Party A will bring up the issue so they can milk donations from their side while Party b will erect a “tollbooth” to block the way and garner donations from their side of the equation. Nothing gets done and in a few months or years, likely around the time that Congress runs for reelection the whole process of milking and blocking starts all over again.

It’s good work if you can get it! You’ll noticed I used party A and B, not D(emocrat) or R(epublican) because both parties are guilty of this practice that results in nothing but keeping them in place in Washington. In fact there are examples where they have traded places on issues, one time being in favor and the next against a piece of legislation, based simply on who was ponying up the bucks!

Schweizer also lays out the case of self and family enrichment being part and parcel of this whole process. Ever wonder how Senator Harry Reid, who grew up poor in tiny Searchlight, Nevada suddenly, became one of the richest members of Congress with a $1 million condo in the DC Ritz Carlton? Schweizer lays out the details of the rise of not only Reid’s power, but the wealth of not only of the Senator, but of his family members. To be fair he also details the power brokering, Republican Blunt family in Missouri. These are not rare stories. The stories of families being enriched by having a Washington powerbroker in the clan like the late Arlen Specter, the late John Murtha, former speaker of the house Dennis Hastert among many other is the stuff of legend.

While the story that Schweizer weaves may lead you to throw your hands up in disgust and despair over having no way to fight the power, he also lays out the case for how this pervasive issue can be addressed by the voters. For those who are doubtful about the details included here, rest assured that Schweizer has included a plethora end notes and original documents in the book. This is a must read for any citizen concerned with trying to change the system which seemed stacked against us.