Redstate

By Blanton Posted in Democrats — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Roll Call is reporting on the Ranking Member of the House Ethics Committee, Alan Mollohan (D- W. Va.). Mollohan, it seems, has taken tens of thousands of dollars in money from MZM, Inc. and a firm that does business with MZM. The money, it seems, has been placed in a family foundation controlled by Mollohan and has also gone into a PAC controlled by Mollohan. Why is that such an issue?

In the words of Roll Call:

The former owner of MZM, Mitchell Wade, is at the heart of the recent scandal that toppled ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.). The Californian pleaded guilty last week to accepting $2.4 million in bribes, fraud and tax evasion charges.

The donations to Mollohan were perfectly legal. But the fact that the top ethics cop for House Democrats received significant sums from the company behind Congress' biggest bribery scheme in recent memory opens him up to conflict-of-interest questions in any future ethics investigation involving MZM.

No one is yet accusing Mollohan of doing anything wrong. But, should he be sitting in on Ethics hearings that involve MZM? Probably not. But, Mollohan has also held golf tournaments sponsored by companies in arrangements that seem to parallel the same arrangements that got Tom DeLay in trouble -- and DeLay was not a member of the Ethics Committee.

Now, shoud we all collectively hold our breath for this story to get picked up by the press? Probably not. But it is probably time for the Democrats, intent on rostankowskiing the Republicans, to find someone else to sit on the Ethics Committee.

Mollohan, like both his mentor Byrd and another close political ally on the Appropriations Committee, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), goes to great lengths to steer federal dollars back home. The companies that win those contracts help form a financial network that effectively underwrites the cost of Mollohan's political campaigns.

For instance, TMC Technologies of Fairmont, W.Va., has secured more than $10 million in federal contracts since October 2001, and company officials openly thanked Mollohan in press releases for inserting earmarks into spending bills on their behalf.

In 2003, TMC was awarded a $2 million contract from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration thanks to an earmark from Mollohan. In 2004, TMC got another $5 million NOAA contract, again via a Mollohan earmark.

TMC and its employees have been generous donors to Mollohan. TMC gave $5,000 in soft money to Summit PAC in 2002, and TMC employees have given $21,000 to Summit PAC in hard money since 2003. TMC employees also have donated more than $20,000 to Mollohan's re-election campaign since 1998. Mollohan invited representatives from TMC to attend a trade mission to Spain in July 2004.

In 2002, TMC was a sponsor of the Mollohan Foundation's golf tournament.