{"id":8860,"date":"2006-10-25T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2006-10-25T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8860.html"},"modified":"2006-10-25T09:00:28","modified_gmt":"2006-10-25T13:00:28","slug":"another-day-another-house-republican-facing-a-criminal-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/another-day-another-house-republican-facing-a-criminal-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Another day, another House Republican facing a criminal investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re well past the point in which House [tag]GOP[\/tag] [tag]scandals[\/tag] are embarrassing; we’re now quickly approaching farcical<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Federal authorities in Arizona have opened an inquiry into whether Representative Rick Renzi introduced legislation that benefited a military contractor that employs his father, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The officials said the inquiry was at an early stage and that no search warrants had been issued, suggesting that investigators had yet to determine whether there was a basis to open a formal investigation or empanel a grand jury.<\/p>\n

Mr. [tag]Renzi[\/tag], 48, a Republican who represents the First Congressional District, is a former insurance executive and real estate investor who was first elected in 2002. Almost from the start, he has been a target of citizen watchdog groups who have accused him of ethical laxity in office.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How dubious has Renzi’s conduct been? He’s one of those rare [tag]House[\/tag] [tag]Republicans[\/tag] to face two<\/i> criminal investigations<\/a> at the same time<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Two separate investment groups had land swaps in Arizona that needed federal approval, something for which a lawmaker like Renzi would be instrumental in obtaining. (Swaps are deals where private investors trade tracts of land the government wants — for conservation purposes, perhaps — for government-owned tracts which can be sold or developed.)<\/p>\n

Both groups say Renzi told them to buy an unrelated parcel of land as a part of their deal, which was owned by James Sandlin, a political backer and onetime business partner of Renzi’s.<\/p>\n

Both groups have since come to believe that Renzi had an inappropriate financial connection to that proposed land sale — possibly a financial stake — which he did not disclose when he pitched them on it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And now, of course, federal investigators are conducting a probe<\/a> of this land deal as well.<\/p>\n

Let’s add some context to all of this.
\n
\nJust how many House Republicans have faced criminal investigations, already been indicted, or worse, already been convicted?<\/p>\n

* Tom DeLay<\/a> (R-Texas)<\/p>\n

* Duke Cunningham<\/a> (R-Calif.)<\/p>\n

* Mark Foley<\/a> (R-Fla.)<\/p>\n

* Bob Ney<\/a> (R-Ohio)<\/p>\n

* Curt Weldon<\/a> (R-Pa.)<\/p>\n

* Jim Kolbe<\/a> (R-Ariz.)<\/p>\n

* Jerry Lewis<\/a> (R-Calif.)<\/p>\n

* Rick Renzi<\/a> (R-Ariz.)<\/p>\n

In most Congresses, a lawmaker here and there will run into some trouble, but eight<\/i> members of the same party, in the same chamber, in the same year?<\/p>\n

I’ve mistakenly believed the Republican-led House has been incapable of doing much of anything lately. I was wrong — they’re really good at committing crimes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re well past the point in which House [tag]GOP[\/tag] [tag]scandals[\/tag] are embarrassing; we’re now quickly approaching farcical. Federal authorities in Arizona have opened an inquiry into whether Representative Rick Renzi introduced legislation that benefited a military contractor that employs his father, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. The officials said the inquiry was at an early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}