Congressman Doolittle, wife profited from Cunningham-linked contractor

[RedEarth]

A week before former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham was sentenced to prison, he stressed to the court that a number of other lawmakers also helped arrange federal funding for the defense contractors who bribed him.


None of the lawmakers Cunningham mentioned by name – Reps. Katherine Harris of Florida, Virgil Goode of Virginia and John Doolittle from the Sacramento suburb of Granite Bay – has been accused of criminal wrongdoing. But each has admitted assisting either Mitchell Wade or Brent Wilkes, co-conspirators in the Cunningham case, at a time when the two businessmen were giving them tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions. And at least one of the lawmakers, Doolittle, received a direct monetary benefit from those contributions through commissions paid to his wife, Julie.

Acting as her husband's campaign consultant, Julie Doolittle charged his campaign and his Superior California Political Action Committee a 15 percent commission on any contribution she helped bring in.

As a member of two key committees in the House – Appropriations and Administration – Doolittle is well-positioned to help contractors gain funding through congressional earmarks. Between 2002 and 2005, Wilkes and his associates and lobbyists gave Doolittle's campaign and political action committee $118,000, more than they gave any other politician, including Cunningham.



http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20060319-9999-1n19dolittle.html

[saigon68]

1. Scumbags

[Eugene]

2. A 15% commission? Kickback is a more appropriate term.

That's a dressed up bribe. If this isn't against the law, it ought to be.

ON EDIT: This gets better.
From the article:

A search by The San Diego Union-Tribune yielded only three other clients
of Julie Doolittle's firm:

One was Greenberg Traurig, the lobbying firm that employed Jack Abramoff,

[BrotherBuzz]

3. Voters in his RED district are starting to ask questions!

The ltte's in the Sacramento Bee following his disastrous interview are scathing and indicate he is in real trouble. The interview: "Doolittle: Scandal is troubling," ran Feb. 18.

Is Doolittle for sale? Yes
After years of ignoring The Bee's readers by refusing to speak with The Bee, Rep. John Doolittle granted an interview and attempted to distance himself from the corruption scandal swirling around his friends.

Doolittle says he has done nothing wrong. Let's review some facts: Doolittle has taken large contributions from defense contractors whose products he pushed in Congress. One of these same contractors has been indicted for bribery of another congressman. Doolittle was brought into the House leadership by Rep. Tom Delay and acted as DeLay's right-hand man. DeLay has been reprimanded three times by the House Ethics Committee and is under indictment in Texas. Doolittle became personal friends with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, took large sums of money from Abramoff's clients and his wife became a business associate of Abramoff. Now Abramoff is the center of the biggest lobbying scandal in decades.

Did Doolittle break the law? We don't know yet. Is he for sale? Clearly.

....

Re "Doolittle: Scandal is troubling," Feb. 18: Geez, J-Doo "earmarked" a half-billion tax dollars for a "business" owned by Brent Wilkes. For the money, Wilkes supplied computer software bought on the open market to service Department of Defense contracts. So, J-Doo gets a half-billion dollars transferred from the public to his "friend." The "friend" then gives some money to his lobbyist "friend." Then the lobbyist transfers money to J-Doo's leadership PAC. Nice.

Say, why doesn't Sacramento just send J-Doo's favorite lobbyist "friend" a couple of million dollars and whatever it takes (a wink?) to get some tax money "earmarked" for the levees up north, Folsom Dam, new bridges, light rail, plus whatever else they can think of? We could get it done for pennies on the dollar, saving the city hundreds of millions of bucks. Maybe Julie-Doo could cater the next "Black Tie and Tennies" for a whole new arena. And he's still not sure if it's illegal. It's soooo funny. Should the rail be doug fir or valley oak?

<a lot more sacthing letters and worth the time to register to read>

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/letters/story/14223829p-15048748c.html

[Catrina]

7. Doolittle and his wife are also under suspicion in the Abramoff affairs

I think they are under investigation and may end up being indicted for accepting Abramoff money in return for favors.

It's simply infuriating ~ they were for sale. No bill that would benefit the people was ever going to pass by these profiteers. There was nothing in it for them. All those times we made calls, wrote letters etc. when a bill that benefit ordinary Americans, was a waste of time. Abramoff, Delay and Defense contractors were the 'constituence' this Congress represented.

No wonder they all so fiercely supported this war. There needs to be more swift action taken ~ what's taking so long with all these investigations? They should step down, or be forced to ~ we are not represented, and they are still passing laws, laws that are devastating to the American people, such as their criminal budget. They are compromised and don't dare vote against this administration ~ this is a crisis situation, imo. No more letters, we need to be working, demanding that they leave Congress ~

[shanti]

8. granite bay

is where the doolittles live. VERY VERY repuke AND wealthy area, the wealthiest in sacramento county.

screw them.

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. And I Can't Believe There Is Are Lawmakers Named

Doolittle and Crapo :)

[maddezmom]

9. LOL

:D

[chaumont58]

5. He'll be reelected by a landslide

Josh Marshall has had this story all day, and my thoughts in reading anything about this guy is how his voters would react. My bet is that they don't give a shit about what his wife has done. They'll say more power to her. Repukes are bothered only by Democrats getting blow jobs. Republicans don't commit crimes. They don't lie, they just tell the truth in a different direction.

[lebkuchen]

6. And Repukes put party before country.

Always.