The “Who bribed Nick Smith?” story is alive and well. In fact, it continues to pick up steam.
The biggest development since we last visited the issue is a report documenting a taped radio interview Smith did in Michigan shortly after the Medicare vote. During the broadcast, the Republican lawmaker explained that he was offered a bribe on the House floor in exchange for his vote. In fact, he was fairly specific about what transpired.
My new friends at the Campaign Legal Center, which is one of the leading groups pushing for a Justice Department investigation and House ethics probe into the Smith bribery scandal, were kind enough to send me a transcript of Smith’s interview on WKZO on Dec. 1. Some of the details here are important.
WKZO: Now, just last week, the controversial bill passed, the health care reform bill passed the Congress. Have kind of the axes been buried? Is everybody kind of make up and move on? How did you communicate with the president about the vote from last week?
Smith: [inaudible] when civility breaks down, and arm twisting gets so serious. Kevin, here’s sort of what happened. If the bill gets on the floor, and it’s up for a vote, and they start the vote, the prestige of leadership is partially at stake if the vote doesn’t succeed for the majority. And that’s what happened in this case. They didn’t have the votes. I had voted against, last year and last spring, against the prescription drug add-on provisions that’s gonna [sic.] cost [our] grandkids a heck of a lot of money. And the arm-twisting was probably as strong as I’ve ever seen it in my sixteen years in the Michigan legislature and my eleven years in Congress.
They threatened — here’s what they did. They started out by offering the carrot, and they know what’s important to every member, and what’s important to me is my family and my kids. And I’ve sure limited myself, and so Bradley my son is running for office and so the first offer was to give him $100,000-plus for his campaign and endorsement by national leadership. And I said No, I’m gonna stick to my guns on what I think is right for the constituents in my district. And so what they did then is come forth with sort of the stick, and they said, Well, if you don’t change your vote — this was about 4 a.m. Saturday morn — then some of us are going to work to make sure your son doesn’t get to Congress. And that kind of personal attack is just sort of beyond what anybody should do. So I told them to get the heck out of there and I mighta used a different word besides heck, I don’t know. But it’s a tough situation when civility breaks down.
If you’ve been following this story, you know that the WKZO interview was part of a series of comments that explain how and why Smith was offered a bribe.
* Smith wrote a column for a Michigan newspaper the day after the Nov. 22 House vote on the Medicare bill in which he said, “Bribes and special deals were offered to convince members to vote yes.” He also said, [M]embers and groups made offers of extensive financial campaign support and endorsements for my son.”
* The next day, Smith’s congressional office issued a statement saying he had received “significant promises for help” for his son’s campaign in exchange for his vote on the bill.
* When newspaper columnist Robert Novak initially reported on the $100,000 bribe Smith was offered, Smith’s chief of staff, Kurt Schmautz, said Novak’s account of what happened is “basically accurate.”
But last week, as pressure began to mount, Smith backed off, saying he hadn’t been offered a bribe. In a statement, Smith said, “No specific reference was made to money…. I want to make clear that no member of Congress made an offer of financial assistance for my son’s campaign in exchange for my vote on the Medicare bill.” He later told the AP that his comments about the $100,000 were “technically incorrect.”
I’m afraid the backpedaling is too little, too late. Smith is not only on record as saying he was offered a bribe, he is on tape detailing the specific amount of the bribe offer. Slate’s Tim Noah, who has practically single-handedly created this flap into a meaningful scandal, considers Smith’s unpersuasive recantation and described the Republican lawmaker as “an uncooperative witness in a potential bribery investigation.” Sounds right to me.
All of this naturally makes one wonder who, exactly, is responsible for trying to bribe Smith. Let’s line up some prime suspects:
* Dennis Hastert — The House speaker was certainly aggressive in pushing GOP lawmakers to support the Medicare bill. Just as importantly, Smith told the AP that “House GOP leaders” were responsible for the bribe offer — and no one’s higher in the House GOP leadership than Hastert. But, Smith’s newspaper column effectively puts Hastert in the clear, saying that the Speaker had pressured him to vote for the bill, but “other members” made promises of financial support.
* Tom DeLay — The majority leader was also twisting arms to get GOP support on the legislation, and considering DeLay’s reputation for hardball politics and utter disinterest in the law and professional ethics, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine that DeLay offered the bribe. On the other hand, Smith’s chief of staff told Tim Noah that Smith had specifically said DeLay was not the perpetrator.
* Tommy Thompson — House leaders permitted the secretary of Health and Human Services to lobby lawmakers on the House floor — protocol, be damned — and many saw Thompson pressure Smith directly, making him a prime suspect. However, as with Hastert, Smith’s newspaper column makes a distinction between Thompson and those who offered financial support in exchange for his vote.
* Some unknown corporate/industry lobbyist — The original Bob Novak column said Smith was told “business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for his father’s vote.” Indeed, a week before the Medicare bill vote, Smith said “pharmaceutical business groups” had offered him “substantial campaign support” for his son in exchange for his vote. That’s damning evidence, but I can’t see how corporate/industry representatives could even try to bribe Smith during the vote — they’re not allowed on the House floor.
To be sure, “pharmaceutical business groups” may well have been responsible for financing the bribe, but these same groups could not have been in a position to offer the bribe. Someone on the House floor that evening had to literally go up to Smith and offer the $100,000 and it couldn’t have been an industry lobbyist.
While the intrigue continues, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the House’s second-ranking Democrat, got in on the fun yesterday by calling for an official ethics investigation into the Smith bribery scandal.