Culture of Corruption: MI House Dems caught accepting pay-offs!
By RightMichigan.com Posted in Breaking News | Michigan — Comments (13) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
"We are beginning a new era in the Michigan House of Representatives by holding our members to the highest ethical standards. The people of Michigan have spoken loud and clear. They refuse to tolerate a culture of corruption. House Democrats respect what our residents have to say, and we responded to it by strengthening our ethics policies in the House."
House Majority Leader Steve Tobocman MIRS – March 22, 2007
So much for holding members in the House to the highest ethical standards.
When Democrat House Speaker Andy Dillon proposed granting DTE and Consumers Energy a monopoly of Michigan's utility industry everyone assumed he was looking at a creative if not misguided way to raise taxes.
Turns out he had more to gain from the proposal than we were led to believe. Less than two weeks from the day the Speaker announced his plan to repeal PA 141 of 2001, DTE cut a $15,000 check to the Michigan House Democrat Political Action Committee.
Read on . . .
Dillon announced his intention to grant DTE a monopoly on March 29, 2007. You can read original coverage of his announcement here and here.
According to a report filed with the Michigan Secretary of State by the House Democrat PAC (available here... see line 10), DTE made it worth the Speaker's while on April 11. Their "contribution" ranked as the tenth largest given to the House Democrats during a reporting period that saw the PAC take in over 2,600 unique donations.
This is the second time this month the Speaker has been caught tailoring policy proposals that appear to be influenced by corporate giving. Just over a week ago Dillon and several other House Democrats announced they would reimburse Apple for a trip they'd taken on the companies dime only a short time before unveiling their vision to put iPods, an Apple product, in the hands of every schoolchild in Michigan.
It appears to be the first time a policy proposal has led to a direct cash pay-off.
Update [2007-4-26 14:59:45 by Nick]:The pay-off was delivered several weeks after Dillon's initial proposal and on the same day DTE CEO Anthony Early testified before the House in favor of monopolization.
The give and take between Dillon and corporate interests seriously undercuts Democrat's stated goal of running an ethical ship in the House of Representatives. You can pass all the ethics legislation you want, but accepting a suitcase full of green after scratching a company's back isn't what most folks would call ethical. In the real world that's called a bribe.
and clicking the "Recommend" button over on the right side of the site for your own work.
Earlier versions of the Red State software blocked that option, the current version does not. What I know happens, however, is that gobs of us crusty old folk will not Recommend a blog that has been self recommended. I'm one of those.
I would have recommended this diary had the author not self-recommended. If he goes back and clicks the "Unrecommend" button (the Recommend button turns into an Unrecommend button after you recommend) I will come back and recommend the blog.
____
Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
______________________________
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
now I understand. I must be blogilogically challenged... dont know all of the inner workings.
Being in MI, this entry was of interest. What a mess up there in Lansing!
Donations are not payoffs.
Run like Reagan!
They are if the donation is in response to a specific action, which results in the donor acquiring unearned resources through direct or indirect coercive action by the government.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
By that standard, isn't most any donation in response to a politician DOING something, a payoff?
Are you only allowed to donate in response to rhetoric and inaction?
Run like Reagan!
Payoffs only occur when both of the following conditions are met.
Condition #1 An entity (individual or group in government) uses its coercive power to provide unearned benefit to a specific interest, which correspondingly detrimentally effects the national interest.
Condition #2 The special interest rewards the entity with donations and/or other benefits.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
unless they result in radical policy shifts such as... oh... MONOPOLIZING the utility industry in an entire state!
Didn't even think that it was something folks wouldn't like.
I know now. So please be gentle. :)
Self-recommendation is not something we are too fond of here.
George W. Bush: He's A Folder ... Not A Fighter.