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« Digital Camera Carnival | Main | Is Good News News? » December 15, 2005Today's Reading ListThe War: The LA Weekly has published blogger/journalist Michael Totten's first-person account of meeting and hanging out with Hezbollah in Beirut. Totten emails, "Word has it that these guys are media savvy, that they know how to make a terrific impression on the press. It isn't true. If they were friendly and civilized with me I would have written that they were friendly and civilized. But they weren't, so I wrote this instead. They have no one to blame for this bad press but themselves." Politics: Gov. Bredesen rules out a gas tax increase this year - for a rather bizarre reason. ... The Tennessee Center for Policy Research probes Tennessee's eight state-owned golf courses, which are supposed to pay for themselves but don't. Says TCPR's Drew Johnson: "They cost taxpayers nearly half a million bucks a year and that doesn't address the issue of exactly why the heck the state is in the golf business." Also in political news today, The Tennessean says "votes from the grave taint Memphis election," and urges the state Senate be sure that Ophelia Ford actually won a state Senate seat. With felons, dead people and non-residents voting, her 13-vote margin looks increasingly questionable. More on the voting dead of Memphis here. ...The Tennessean also continues its probe of politics and corruption involving the Tennessee Highway Patrol, including this story showing that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation did a sloppy job in reviewing the criminal histories of THP troopers, and this story revealing that the consulting firm hired by Gov. Phil Bredesen's staff to revamp the THP has previously retained the lobbying services of one of the governor's closest political advisers and confidants. And Tennessean reporter Trent Seibert goes behind the scenes at big fundraisers held by Democrat and Republican state legislators to raise big bucks from lobbyists. Among the legislators at the Democrat fundraiser: state Sen. Ward Crutchfield, who was indicted for taking bribes from ... lobbyists. Posted in Today's Reading List
Comments
Senator Crutchfield was indicted for taking money from a bagman who did not register as a lobbyist until the day before he was arrested. Please be honest about this point. Mr. Love was not a professional lobbyist and neither was Mr. Myers. Posted by: Michael Bivens at December 15, 2005 10:33 AMOkay. So, Love and Myers weren't professional lobbyists. And the point of that is ... what? Tbat Crutchfield wasn't picky about who he accepted bribes from? Crutchfield is accused of, and reportedly on video tape, taking money from someone in exchange for backing certain legislation. Does it really matter if the guy was a lobbyist or not? Does it really matter if Crutchfield knew he was or wasn't an officially registered lobbyist? If you are killed by an amateur gunman rather than a professional hitman, you are still dead. If Crutchfield accepted a bribe in exchange for voting a certain way on a piece of legislation, he's still a slimebag crook who ought to be in prison rather than the legislature, regardless of whether the guy giving him the money was a "lobbyist" or a "bagman." Don't think that I mentioned anything about Senator Crutchfield's guilt or innocence. If / when he or any of the others are found guilty in a court of law they should go to prison. My point is that there were legislators and bagmen arrested, not professional lobbyists. Your original post states that Senator Crutchfield was at a fundraiser attended by lobbyists and that he was arrested for taking bribes from lobbyists. I was just pointing out that Myers & Love were not lobbyists. Posted by: Michael Bivens at December 15, 2005 12:04 PMIn the general sense of the term, any person has lobbied if they've ever contacted a lawmaker - directly or indirectly - for the purpose of influencing a vote on legislation. Constituents do this sort of thing all the time. Professional lobbyists do that sort of thing for a living, but, aside from simple constituent contact, there are many unpaid, volunteer lobbyists representing specific group interests or just themselves. Posted by: Donna Locke at December 15, 2005 1:50 PMMr. Love was definitely presenting himself as a lobbyist. How many other folks present themself as such on Capitol Hill without registering? Do our legislators check to make sure they are registered before they accept money? I doubt it. As far as the comments on the sloppy TBI work--well, amen. But the TBI is in the same boat as the THP--their employees work for the state and are subject to political pressure from Capitol Hill. I'll pitch in $100 towards a whistleblower fund for any TBI insider willing to provide evidence of political pressure or interference should anyone wish to organize such a fund. Posted by: Terry at December 15, 2005 3:18 PMThey were paid to lobby, they did lobby for legislation.They identified themselves as such to all indicted (and Lois DeBerry by her own admission) They were not registered as is required by law but they were still lobbyists just doing it illegally. Posted by: the Rep at December 16, 2005 9:06 AMPost a comment
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