History of Scandals from 1979 to 2005

RUSH: Bill in Delray Beach, Florida. Glad you called, sir, welcome.

CALLER: Hi, Rush. Listen, as you’re you’re recounting the corruption scandals of the past in Congress, you might want to remember the Keating Five, four of which were Democrats, and one was — the only Republican was — McCain — and Jim Wright, the speaker of the House.

RUSH: Yeah, I got ’em all here. I got ’em all here. I’ve got the Keating Five. They say there was a Republican in that group, but I’m not so sure. Here’s the list: Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, Don Riegle, John Glenn and John McCain. Who is the Republican in that group?

CALLER: (Laughing.) Uh, it might be five-for-five Democrats.

RUSH: The Keating scandal, the Keating Five, was also related to the Savings and Loan Scandal. This is 1980 and 1989. Remember the name Charles Keating? That’s on the list. Let’s just start here. These are the scandals, major scandals, 1975 through 1999.

Lancegate: President Carter’s OMB Director Bert Lance resignation amidst allegations of misuse of funds (1977)

Tongsun Park ‘Koreagate’ scandal involving alleged bribery of more than 100 members of Congress by South Korean government; charges were pressed only against congressmen Richard T. Hanna (convicted) and Otto E. Passman (not prosecuted because of illness); also implicated was South Korean President Park Chung Hee

Betty Ford addictions (1978)

Senator Herman Talmadge of Georgia [‘Hummen, they called him. Hummen Talmadge of G’ogia.] punished after his ex-wife produced cash ‘gifts’ he had hidden in an overcoat (1979); Talmadge later wrote, ‘I wish I’d burned that damn overcoat and charged everything on American Express.’ Talmadge the same year admitted to having spent five weeks in alcohol rehab; he was not re-elected to the Senate in 1980.

What this doesn’t tell you is that Hummen would go back home to G’ogia and he’d go walkin’ the streets and people would give him money! Constituents would give him money, and that’s why it was in the overcoat. Hummen Talmadge. Hummen was around during the Watergate period. He wasn’t on the committee or anything but he was constantly being interviewed about it.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> There was the Abscam scandal in (1980) [“One senator, Harrison A. Williams (D-NJ), and five members of the House: John Jenrette (D-SC), Richard Kelly (R-FL) — later overturned — Raymond Lederer (D-PA), Michael Myers (D-PA) and Frank Thompson (D-NJ) — were convicted of bribery and conspiracy. John M. Murphy (D-NY), was convicted of a lesser charge. Most of the politicians resigned. Congressman Myers had to be expelled. Five other government officials were convicted, including the mayor of Camden, New Jersey, Angelo Errichetti. One politician targeted, but not indicted, was Congressman John Murtha (D-PA).]
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> “Debategate”: briefing book of President Jimmy Carter stolen and given to Ronald Reagan campaign before the 1980 presidential election debate in Cleveland, Ohio.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> October Surprise (1980).
Which, of course, the Democrats were still investigating in 1990.
<a target=new href=”http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2005-26%2CGGLG%3Aen&q=billy+carter+libyan+agent”> </a><font color=”#000000″>•</font> Anne Gorsuch Burford refusal to turn over EPA documents (1982)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> William Casey insider trading (1983)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Iran-Contra affair (1985-1986)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Savings and loan scandal and the Keating Five (1980-1989): Alan Cranston, Dennis DeConcini, Don Riegle, John Glenn and John McCain.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Senator John Tower’s nomination as Defense Secretary derailed due to allegations of habitual and extreme alcohol abuse and improper ties to defense industry. (1987)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Mario Biaggi convicted (1988) in Wedtech scandal of bribery, extortion, racketeering, filing a false tax return, mail fraud, and false financial disclosure; resigned from U.S. House before he could be expelled. He was a Democrat from New York.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Speaker of the House “Fort Worthless” Jim Wright from Texas forced to resign after ethics committee investigation found dozens of violations of House rules, including alleged improper receipt of $145,000 in gifts by Wright’s wife from a Fort Worth developer and large profits from “sale” of Wright’s speeches.
Well, let me tell you about that. That was 1989. Fort Worthless Jim published a book of these speeches, and they had to get the book pretty thick to make it look Fort Worthless Jim was a substantive guy, and so they used a very large font, typeface, and some cases only one or two words per page. The books mostly were bought by organized labor in bulk, in boxes that were never opened. You had a tough time finding Fort Worthless Jim’s book of speeches in the bookstore.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Anthony Lee Coelho of California. That’s Tony Coelho, who remains a major big shot organizing Democrat politics. He resigned from U.S. House for unethical finance practices including “junk bond” deal in 1989.

I remember I was watching Nightline that night. Barbara Walters was — I saw Barbara Walters last night on Larry King Alive before the football started. You know, she was promoting her top ten most fascinating interviews. By the way, do you know who made her top ten most fascinating people list this year? Kanye West! Kanye West. Would somebody explain to me, of all the people in this country that might qualify as among the ten most fascinating, what in the world is Kanye West doing on the list? Now, I know I’m not an aficionado of rap music, but what am I missing here with Kanye West? Why is he among the fascinating? Is it that comment he made about Bush and Katrina? It has to be. It has to be. Anyway, she didn’t look any older last night than when I watched her in 1989 on Nightline. A friend of mine said, “Well, it’s all the Vaseline they put on the lens. It’s a new version of soft focus.” At any rate, I was watching her host Nightline. They were doing it on the resignation of Tony Coelho, and she was beside herself. “Can the government survive?” she said. It was just a congressman! He was a Democrat, powerful Democrat congressman from out in California. I met him a couple times.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Alcee Hastings, federal district court judge impeached (1989) and convicted of soliciting a bribe. Nevertheless elected to U.S. House by the Democrats in Florida in 1992!
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Senator David Durenberger denounced by Senate for unethical financial transactions 1990.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal implicates former Defense Secretary and Washington insider Clark Clifford (1991).
BCCI that was a Jimmy Carter Deal During his term in office.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> House Bank scandal (1992)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Mary Rose Oakar (1992) allegations of “ghost employees” on payroll.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> President George H.W. Bush’s pardon of six Iran-Contra affair figures on his last day in office ( January 20, 1993), days before the perjury trial of Casper Weinberger was scheduled to begin.
Well, it was a scandal only because the Democrats thought, “You can’t do that! We had Weinberger nailed!” Weinberger was indicted the day before the election in 1992: a pure political indictment. That ought to be mentioned. Remember the special counsel on that? Lawrence Walsh. Political indictment. The day before the election, the Friday before the election, he indicted Weinberger. Democrats tried it again right before the election of 2000, leaking that Bush had a DWI he had never talked about, remember that?
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Travelgate (1993)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Zoe Baird’s nomination as Attorney General and Kimba Wood’s subsequent near-nomination were derailed by past employment of illegal aliens as nannies. (1993)
Both nominated by President Clinton.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Walter Fauntroy, Delegate to Congress from the District of Columbia, guilty plea regarding lying on financial disclosure form (1995)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Wes Cooley (1996)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Walter R. Tucker III of California resigned before bribery conviction (1996)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Secretary of Agriculture Michael Espy forced to resign from office despite ultimate acquittal on criminal corruption charges (1998)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Bruce ba-da ba-da ba-da Babbitt, Interior Secretary, independent probe (1998-2000) of alleged lying to Congress concerning influence of money in 1995 American Indian tribe casino decision finds no criminally prosecutable perjury by Babbitt.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Vice-President Al Gore (1998) improper fundraising and “no controlling legal authority” defense.

This is those nuns out in California they bilked, the Buddhist nuns. Then he went out and said “no controlling legal authority.”
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Whitewater scandal (1994-2000)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich financial improprieties
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Dan “Rosty” Rostenkowski post office scandal (1994)
That’s not even half of it. When they got to Rostenkowski’s house in Illinois they found a bunch of furniture from his congressional office!
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Teamstergate: Ron Carey’s and Bill Clinton’s 1996 campaigns for the Presidency of the union and the US, respectively, swapped Teamster’s Union general treasury funds into Clinton’s campaign for Clinton Campaign funds into Ron Carey’s campaign warchest. The Teamster’s political director was jailed. No Clinton officials were charged. Carey’s re-election was invalidated James Hoffa, Jr was elected when the Teamster election was rerun.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Henry Cisneros resigns as Housing Secretary and, after lengthy probe that began in 1995, pleads guilty (1999) to lying to the FBI about money he paid former mistress; later pardoned by President Clinton in 2001(Possibly reclassify or cross-reference to Sex scandal)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Pardongate (1999, 2001)
That’s the Marc Rich pardon. We’re just up to the year 2000 now, folks, and this just a list of scandals — and Democrats want to talk about this “culture of corruption” out there? Nine out of ten of these that I’ve mentioned here are Democrats, and loads of them in the Clinton administration. Let’s go.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Linda Chavez, nomination as Secretary of Labor derailed by past employment of illegal alien. (2001)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Jim Traficant (D-OH) we all know.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Robert Torricelli bribery scandal (2002)
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> Trent Lott resigned as Senate majority leader amid racial controversy
Yellow cake forgery, false evidence presented in the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> That’s still an ongoing controversy. To call this a scandal? We haven’t even yet got to the bottom of this. Following that’s the Valerie Plame affair.
<font color=”#000000″>•</font> “Halliburton Company: is listed as a scandal, here. (laughing)

Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse, Tom DeLay, Bernard Kerik, Bush administration payment of columnists including Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher and Michael McManus. The Downing Street memo is listed. Duke Cunningham, Jack Abramoff, and so on and so forth. This all from Wikipedia as they list the scandal from his 1975 to 1999. What’s that? The House Bank Scandal? No, I mentioned it. It’s here. I went through it earlier. The House Bank Scandal and the House post office scandal are both mentioned here.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Other Democrat scandals? Let’s not forget Massachusetts congressman Gary Studds and the little patty cake he was playing with those House pages. Remember that one? Remember that? How about Barney Frank, Stephen Gobie? Stephen Gobie, Barney’s partner, running a… Well, a brothel-type thing ran in Barney’s basement. Barney said he never knew it. Barney was also fixing parking tickets for the guy. Joe Biden. Joe Biden plagiarizing Neil Kinnock during a presidential primary that Biden quickly faded. The Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd waitress sandwich. This is a scandal that was repeated practically every night at La Brasserie in Washington, a restaurant that’s now closed — and I’m not making this up. It would either be Senator Kennedy on the bottom and Senator Dodd on the top and the waitress in the middle, or Dodd on the bottom, Kennedy on the top, and the waitress in the middle, hence the waitress sandwich. The governor of Kentucky, Paul Patton, was accused of pressuring his mistress, harassing her after she broke it off and then withdrawing Medicare money from her nursing home that she ran, remember that? If the Democrats want to play this culture of corruption game, let’s just remind them there’s a new media. Oh, Edwin Edwards of Louisiana! Gosh, we could probably take up the rest of the program today mentioning a bunch of Democrat scandals. By the way, Dave Durenberger is a Republican from Minnesota. I said he was a Democrat senator. What about New Jersey? The whole state’s a culture of corruption there. New Jersey itself –which is, you know, Democrat-run state.
END TRANSCRIPT

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