Apparently, a gentleman who contributes a lot of money to Democratic campaigns pleaded guilty recently "to lying to SEC investigators about Broadcom's backdating." This looks to turn out to be a big stock fraud case. The premise behind the story is that of all of the politicians who accepted contributions from a California billionaire Henry Samueli and his wife, Susan, only Rep. Jim Moran and Rep. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) are keeping the money. Most seem to be giving the money back or donating the sum to charities.
Here is what Moran had to say about it:
Moran said he had been unaware of Samueli's legal problems but would stand by the couple, the campaign contributions and the earmark. Politicians, he said, cater to the worst impulses in politics when they rush to return contributions from troubled donors.I have no real opinion on the matter but this is an interesting series of events. Naturally, most politicians do not want to be connected at all to criminal behavior. I applaud Moran for standing up against this foolish system of character transfer, that knowing a criminal makes you one. Unfortunately, this might be a chopping block Moran set for himself depending on how the story develops."They see somebody down, so they want to kick 'em, so they can look good in the eyes of the media," Moran said. "That kind of annoys me. It disgusts me, actually. I don't enjoy kicking people when they're down. Frankly, I'm proud that he saw fit to contribute to me, and I don't intend to try to embarrass him by sending him back the money."
Other politicians who received are as follows:
The presidential campaigns of Sens. John McCain and Hillary Rodham Clinton each received $2,300 contributions from Samueli; McCain is donating the funds to charity and Clinton is returning them. A number of other politicians, including Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Reps. David Dreier (R-Calif.) and Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.), told Politico that they'll give their contributions from Samueli to charity.and
Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) won't return the $32,100 he accepted from the Samuelis, said spokesman Marshall Wittmann, "because at the time they were received there was absolutely no knowledge of any improper or illegal activities, and they were received in good faith."and
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Reps. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.) and Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) either did not return messages or would not say what they planned to do with the combined $34,800 they received from the Samuelis over the years.Thoughts?