Harris Shuns Spending Requests

[paineinthearse]

See cross-post in Editorials - Dirty Harris - from the St. Petersburg Times - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x194548

http://news.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB5MTE1CKE.html

Harris Shuns Spending Requests
By KEITH EPSTEIN [e-mail]

Published: Mar 3, 2006

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, linked to a campaign finance scandal, is turning away even routine requests to provide funding for special interests. Harris has taken pride in going after these earmarks - so-called pork barrel spending - but on Thursday she stayed away from meetings with special interests, including executives from Florida's university system. Among the reasons for her absence was a meeting with top-gun campaign finance lawyer Ben Ginsberg, whom she hired as a "precaution," Harris spokeswoman Kara Borie said.

On the sixth day after she was identified as a recipient of illegal campaign contributions, the Republican congresswoman from Longboat Key stayed behind closed doors. She issued a statement in which she denied knowing that contributions made to her by defense contractor Mitchell Wade had been illegal. She also had her employees release a partial series of documents, requested by the Tribune, that relate to her attempts at obtaining federal tax dollars for dozens of special interests since 2004.

Among the documents: An April 26 letter to defense appropriations subcommittee Chairman C.W. Bill Young, the Largo Republican, in which Harris seeks $10 million for a Navy project backed by Wade. In the letter, Harris emphasizes the importance of the project, asking that it be added to her list of five priorities and identifying it as her new No. 3 choice. She denied any connection between her help for Wade's company, MZM Inc., and the illegal contributions. Wade told prosecutors he personally handed over the contributions to Harris in 2004. A year later, he gave her his proposal for the project. At the time, MZM-related contributions to Harris' 2004 campaign amounted to more than any other source. "I never requested funding for this project in exchange for contributions, but rather to bring more high-skill, high-wage jobs to the region," Harris said in her statement.

<snip>

Wade pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to bribing a California congressman, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, and funneling illegal contributions by reimbursing employees who wrote checks to Harris and a Virginia congressman, Virgil Goode. Cunningham, Harris and Goode helped Wade and MZM in their attempts to secure federal tax dollars by slipping appropriations into massive spending bills. Like Harris, Goode has touted the benefits to his district, where MZM, he said, would bring jobs and spur economic development. Harris, a candidate for U.S. Senate, said in her statement Thursday that she had not been contacted by officials regarding the MZM investigation. Nor have her employees been contacted or been sent "target letters," Borie said.

more.....

edit: added cross-post.


F*ck you and the horse you rode in on!

[AndyA]

1. Sure, Katherine, sure...we believe you...

And the 2000 Florida election was clean and honest, too, right?

Right?

:eyes:

Whatever did the good people of the State of Florida do to deserve Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush?

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. When god said brains

she thought he said trains, so she bought a pair of boobs instead.

Can we call the 2000 election null and void now?

[Lochloosa]

3. As a native Floridian, I am going to take great please in watching

this bitch go down!

[ChiciB1]

4. Well, You Outta Live Here!

She's my representative, and I have yet to receive one reply from anything I've ever sent her. This DOG is a female * , just wind her up and she goes!

I will NEVER believe she won her last election. I can't count the times I've told this story, but here it is once again. As a Floridian and one who lives in Sarasota County I was watching the county by county votes come in across this state. About 11:00 PM when it was becoming evident that the crooks were having a bit of a problem in Ohio, all of a sudden Florida was called for The Idiot and the numbers started changing rapidly. There were huge dumps into Repuke columns and I saw about 40,000 votes dumped into her column. Now it's possible that they had a cache they needed to dump (this being a good excuse to use) but generally the dumps are in much smaller increments. Or so it has always looked to me. As I saw that I knew then that no matter what Ohio was doing, FL Dems got screwed again, and I suspected that it was happening in Ohio, even IF Ohio was more contentious.

We worked out hearts out during the campaign and none of us ever felt Cruella would win, she wasn't even getting any Yee-Ha's when we were sign holding on street corners. And we actually felt that Sarasota county COULD possibly go to Kerry. We registered more voters than the Repukes, but still it made no difference. I do realize that Sarasota is soooooo red, but we did have high spirits, only to find out that once again the state got fleeced!

I've also figured out that THEY probably "fixed" enough machines all across America just so THEY could point to that big over all vote tally and say "See The Idiot really did win" look at the total votes!!

Now for two days I've been trying to promote a March we are having on 3/18 to protest the War and Katherine Harris and it's been a complete failure. And what is even more important is that it's the kids at New College who have kept the pressure on and have mounted this campaign and stuck with it. Anyway... we really wanted to have a huge turn-out just to show how unhappy we are, and considering it's Cruella herself it should have generated more interest. But we will persevere and we will be marching, and everyone who lives close by is WELCOME!

[ChiciB1]

5. I Forgot To Give Out The Information About The March...

Just ONE MORE TIME! The link is http://floridaforpeace.blogspot.com or email this address [e-mail]

If it had not been for these college kids, Sarasota would never have had such a good showing in D.C. last Sept. 24th! The organized it and got 2 buses up there and there were many more like me who flew up there! So my hats off to them and I just want to show my appreciation so they won't become disillusioned!