The Visclosky web

June 1, 4:24 PMCongress ExaminerIgor Derysh

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Psst...let's bring down the Democratic Party.

While the centerpiece of the scandal is a quiet, behind-the-scenes operator that most have never heard of that is thirteen-term Indiana Congressman Pete Visclosky, the players involved and the web they've weaved just goes to show the non-partisan nature of corruption in Washington.

Background

In May, Congressman Pete Visclosky of Indiana's 1st District received a subpoena in the grand jury investigation of Washington-based lobbying company the PMA Group.

Visclosky's involvement in the case was clear and simple. The PMA Group had bribed the Congressman, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, to the tune of $1.36 million over the course of ten years in the form of "campaign contributions."

In return, the PMA Group's clients received $137 million in contracts. It is that simple.

Well...except that the scandal digs deeper into the nature of Congress and exemplifies the corrupt nature of appropriations of tax payer funds and the senior members of Congress, particularly senior Democrats.

The Murtha Connection

The fact is, the PMA Group was originally founded by a Congressional staffer. Paul Magliocchetti had been a long time staffer on the the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, a committee that the single most corrupt member of the House, John Murtha, Chairs.

Murtha and Visclosky, who have both been in Congress for well over twenty years, serve together on the House Appropriations Committee. While it was Visclosky that got busted for taking bribe money, it is Murtha that is, at least for the time being, skating free despite the fact that he himself received well over two million dollars in "campaign contributions" from the PMA Group's clients.

Earmarking the S*** Out of it

And yet there is more. Another member of both the Appropriations Committee and the Defense Subcommittee, ten-term Virginia Congressman Jim Moran, a man who had once stated that when he becomes Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior he was going to "earmark the s**t out of it," also received upwards of a million dollars in contributions as well.

Three senior Democrats, all members of one of the most powerful committees in Washington, are looking at possible subpoenas and hopefully resignations and jail time (a guy can dream).

Democrats in Trouble

All this comes on the heels of top Democrat and Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Charlie Rangel, being investigated for his ethics violation regarding his many homes, Speaker Nancy Pelosi's web of misstatements (or lies) regarding the torture briefings, and the ongoing Roland Burris-Rod Blagojevich fiasco.

This session of Congress is beginning to look a lot like the 2005-2006 session of Congress when various major scandals brought down senior Republicans like Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, and Duke Cunningham and led the entire party to a major defeat in the 2006 midterm elections.