Wow… Rep. Richard DeBolt is really campaigning for that Jefferson Award. First he nominates himself, and now he’s running this flattering campaign commercial:
Looks like DeBolt is a shoe in.
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FEDERAL JURY CONVICTS DEMOCRAT LAWYER & TWO DEMOCRAT JUDGES
Gulf Coast lawyer Paul Minor and two former state judges were convicted on all charges late Friday night in the retrial of a federal corruption case.
Jurors returned the guilty verdict against Minor, former Chancery Judge Wes Teel and former Circuit Judge John Whitfield just before 11:30 p.m.
Sentencing is set for June 14.
Minor faces a maximum 95 years in prison. Whitfield faces a maximum 50 years in prison and Teel 25 years.
The verdict “shows how important it is for the judicial system to be fair to everyone,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Dave Fulcher. “It shows how important it is to maintain the integrity of the judicial system in Mississippi.”
Minor, who has been one of the most successful attorneys in the state, dropped his head and looked stunned with the reading of each of the 14 counts on charges including conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, bribery and racketeering.
Jurors apparently believed, as the government contended, that Minor, also a politically connected attorney, used contributions and loans to influence the decisions of Whitfield and Teel in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
http://www.clarionledger.com/a...../1001/NEWS
Goldy:
DeBolt is a shoo-in, not a shoe in. Look it up.
@1 Waytago Richard! You actually found a Democrat corruption case! It took you, what, two years of trying? Meanwhile, with every day’s headlines another GOP crook comes oozing out of the woodwork. Today’s scandal: Guiliani crony and business partner Bernard Kerik is headed for jail on tax evasion, corruption, and wiretapping charges; Guiliani’s “security services” firm did business with organized crime.
Insider Says Prosecutor Scandal Is All About ‘Influencing’ Elections
An attorney who worked for the Justice Department for 35 years, and headed the voting section of the civil rights division from 1999 to 2005, says the Bush administration politicized the department from Day One and “skewed … law enforcement in ways that were clearly intended to influence the outcome of elections.”
Among the revelations:
– Managers were ordered to give poor performance evaluations to staff attorneys whose polical loyalty was suspect, and upgrade evaluations of party loyalists;
– The first U.S. Attorney appointed without Senate confirmation under Patriot Act authority was Bradley Schlozman, who approved Tom DeLay’s Texas redistricting plan and Georgia’s photo-ID law over staff objections, both of which were later thrown out by federal courts;
– As interim U.S. Attorney, Schlozman filed four voter fraud indictments against members of a group representing poor and minority voters;
– Between 2001 and 2006, the number of voting discrimination cases brought on behalf of blacks and Native Americans was zero.
http://tinyurl.com/2edem3
These actions, of course, demonstrate that top leaders of the GOP — from Bush and Gonzales on down — have no faith in their party’s ability to win elections honestly. If they did, it would be unnecessary for the party to spend millions on secret voter suppression campaigns (such as voter challenges against soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan) and misuse the authority of the Justice Department to gin up phony vote-fraud charges against Democrats while covering up election rigging crimes committed by Republicans. The GOP agenda is, and always has been, a minority view in this country whose principal goals are economic — i.e., to enrich a powerful few at the expense of the vast majority of us.
Richard trumpets a case involving a yellow-dog Democrat bribing a couple of local magistrates but has little to say about the most pervasively corrupt administration since Reconstruction. You’re a hypocrite, Richard.
Actually, Roger, I tend to agree with Mr. Pope here. A corrupt Republican we can deal with. We have lots of experience, and we really don’t expect better of them anyway.
Corrupt Democrats are far more bothersome. I expect better of my fellow Democrats and, for the most part, they live up to those expectations.
Yes, Mr. Minor is a very minor player on the political scene. He’s not an elected or appointed official, he has little political power and the crimes he is accused of are not politically based.
But he is apparently a Democrat, and as such, he needs to meet a higher standard.
Of course, since most of the folks surrounding him will be Republicans, maybe they’ll convince him to switch parties. He’d really be happier with the Republicans.
@1 (continued) Given how political the DoJ has become, it wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out these guys were convicted on manufactured charges and evidence.
The first trial ended in a hung jury; and another judicial defendant in the current trial was acquitted of all charges. And the defendants and their attorneys appeared to be genuinely stunned by the jury verdict.
In any case, there’s a good chance the guilty verdicts will be thrown out on appeal, because the trial judge granted a request by jurors to be given copies of trial transcripts of two key witnesses — which is a no-no.
@6 I think we need to wait and see whether Mr. Minor and his co-defendants actually committed any crimes, John. Yes, they’ve been convicted by a jury, but as I point out @7, the trial judge appears to have committed reversible error and frankly I think this one will be coming back for a new trial (Round Three).
@6 But I agree with you in principle: Corrupt Democrats (and there undoubtedly are some) need to be rooted out. No special treatment for crooks based on party affiliation. Having said that, however, I can’t help but observe that given the politicizing of the DoJ by the Bush Crime Family, ANY prosecution of Democrats by this DoJ is now suspect; and, in any case, if we must have crooks, I like our crooks better than their crooks.
Why is DeBolt thinking so small? If he had any ambition, he’d nominate himself for sainthood, or a Nobel Prize at least. What a lazy, unmotivated, slacker.
John Barelli @ 6
Paul Minor has given nearly $200,000 to Democrat candidates and organizations, including over $100,000 in “soft money” to the Democrat National Committee. He has given maybe $5,000 at most to a few Republicans in total.
Roger Rabbit @ 7
Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz, Jr. (a Republican) was also charged with corruption in the same probe. Diaz was acquitted of all charges against him.
So we have the Bush Justice Department bending over backwards to appear fair and politically correct. They found three guilty Democrats, but also prosecuted an innocent Republican, just so they wouldn’t look politically biased.
Maybe it is time for Bush and Gonzales to take off the gloves!
Roger Rabbit @ 3
At least the Bush Justice Department is going after an apparently culpable Republican (Bernard Kerik) this time, instead of a completely innocent Republican like Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz, Jr. Kerik has been previously convicted of state ethics criminal charges, which are probably related to the federal felony charges.
Of course, we are both assuming that Kerik is a Republican, because of his close ties with Rudy Giuliani, who professes to be a Republican.
This should definitely help out Fred Thompson, should be decide to run for President.
@12 The three Democrats were found guilty, and the one Republican defendant was acquitted. My my, what a coincidence!
@12 Could you refresh my memory as to whooooo controls what evidence the jury sees and hears? I forgot.
@13 Be patient. That’ll get around to firing that prosecutor soon enough. Or perhaps they’ll reward him with a promotion for getting rid Guiliani.
@13 Yep, that prosecutor might prosper under a Thompson administration. Or at least, I could see how some GOP die-hards might think that way. Personally, I wouldn’t mind at all to see Thompson carry the GOP banner. He polls about 30% against our weakest candidates.
Would be interesting to see what happens if Tommy Thompson and Fred Thompson are on the same primary ballot.
I’ll bet the average Republican voter can’t keep them straight.
@13 “apparently culpable”
I like that, Richard. I’ll have to remember it. Sounds more authentic than “allegedly.”
For example, “the apparently culpable Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, _________________” (fill in blank)
Mr. Pope:
I’m not arguing that he isn’t a Democrat. No, he is neither elected nor appointed, but he’s still a Democrat, and I have no use for crooked Democrats.
Of course, there is still the matter of his appeal, and we’ll have to see how that works out, but I have no use for crooked Democrats.
As I mentioned earlier. I expect corruption from Republicans. I expect better from Democrats.
I have no use for crooked Democrats, either. However, if there must be crooked pols, I prefer our crooks to their crooks.
Folks, I need to fess up about something. I’m actually more intelligent than I sound here. I don’t really believe that the world breaks down neatly into Democrats (evil) versus Republicans (good).
If I weren’t trying to build a career I could offer some pretty nuanced analysis. Honest. I just sound like a simpleton because that’s my job. Blog whoring sure beats driving a garbage truck.
Roger Rabbit @ 17
Fred Thompson is out-polling the Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton by 44% to 43%:
http://www.rasmussenreports.co.....070323.htm
Of course, you could probably substitute “Roger Rabbit” for “Fred Thompson” and still poll at least 40% against Hillary.
Mr Stupid: Is this you?
http://www.wrcbtv.com/news/index.cfm?sid=7217
Speaking of Moonbat!tic crimes:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,262687,00.html
Voice of Chalk Scratching: You have no voice on this?
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t.....588679.ece