10.24.07
Jay Rockefeller: sells his vote cheap
I blogged yesterday about how Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) took $40,000 from two telecoms, and subsequently had his committee include in the FISA bill wholesale immunity for telecoms for their lawbreaking, whatever it might have been. (It’s still not known exactly what they did, but that’s okay with Jay: he got his $40,000.)
Now his spokesperson of course denied the quid pro quo:
“Any suggestion that Senator Rockefeller would make policy decisions based on campaign contributions is patently false,” Wendy Morigi, a spokeswoman for him, said. “He made his decision to support limited immunity based on the Intelligence Committee’s careful review of the situation and our national security interests.”
So Wendy says that the fact that Jay got $40,000 and then went along with what the donors wanted is just a coincidence. Really, the two are not connected.
But that’s stupid, right? It’s quite obvious that the telecoms don’t hand out $40K for nothing. They wanted something for that money, and Jay delivered. The connection is patently obvious. And the telecoms got a terrific bargain: $40K is a less than a drop in the bucket for those businesses. Of course, it was quite a nice windfall for Jay. And he did show his appreciation in the way he worked for them.
This just totally stinks. How can his office deny the connection? It’s as obvious as shit on a plate.
UPDATE: BTW, isn’t it obvious that any legislator (or judge, in those states where judges run for election) would be stark mad to accept large donations from parties who will be affected by decisions currently being considered by the legislator (or judge)? Taking any such donation is simply seeking trouble—or, more to the point, seeking cash in exchange for votes/decisions.
Desider said,
29 October 2007 at 1:45 am
Uh, Jay has $200 million in his personal bank account. I’m not saying he’s not influenced by telecoms in some way, but $31,000 wouldn’t seem enough to be the main reason.
LeisureGuy said,
29 October 2007 at 7:29 am
At the very least, it’s unseemly to accept money from a party and subsequently take actions in favor of that party.