Doolittle Paid Lawyer to Talk to Agency

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- Republican Rep. John Doolittle of California paid an attorney more than $38,000 in recent months to talk to the Justice Department in connection with the Jack Abramoff lobbying investigation, new campaign finance reports show.

A spokeswoman said the money was spent after Doolittle asked his attorney, David Barger, to contact the Justice Department "to further express the congressman's willingness to be helpful and satisfy the Justice Department that the congressman has done nothing wrong."
...
"The congressman's attorney has had several conversations with the Justice Department which we believe have been helpful toward clearing the congressman's name," Blackann's statement said. She said the parties have agreed to keep the talks confidential.

The campaign finance report also shows Doolittle paying $13,000 in legal fees to a second law firm, Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP, that he has used regularly for years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/16/AR2006101601088.html

[williesgirl]

1. Me thinks this smells like another scandal. recommended

[BrotherBuzz]

6. This has been an ongoing scandal

Doolittle just wants to keep the lid on it until after the midterm elections.



Sample of letters to the editor the Sacramento Bee printed and posted on its website that were submitted in response to a bombastic Doolittle interview last January.


"Doolittle asks us to believe that he is the dull-witted piano player in the brothel..." :rofl:

Published Wednesday, March 1, 2006

'Earmark' for Sacramento?

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?


- Max Dill, Sacramento




Doolittle, Abramoff and a dam

Another Bee exposé clearly illustrated smug and smarmy Rep. John Doolittle as our own poster boy for all that has gone terribly wrong with the Republican Party, specifically, and the American political system, generally.

In his Jack Abramoff scandal interview, Doolittle asks us to believe that he is the dull-witted piano player in the brothel, "shocked, shocked!" to find that his friends Tom DeLay and Abramoff are the worst sort of "pay-to-play" political pimps. We are asked to believe that they just forked over piles of cash to Doolittle because they liked his pious lifestyle.


Likewise, with the Auburn dam for Doolittle it is damn what the experts say! Damn what is safe, environmentally prudent and financially sound! Damn what voters in his district want! He only has the interests of his true constituency - big-money developers - at heart. Unfortunately for us all, he is not an aberration but another California contribution to this country's full-blown leadership crisis.


- Greg V. Hill, Sacramento

Doolittle's judgment

It seems that if Rep. John Doolittle's answers are all completely honest, he is admitting to having an appalling inability to judge character. It seems that all a person needs to be Doolittle's friend is to be a wealthy conservative Republican. Doolittle's admitted inability to judge character disqualifies him to hold any senior management position anywhere. I certainly don't want such a dupe to represent me in any venue, least of all in Congress.


- Gary Sanchez, Auburn

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.

- Al Franklin, Auburn

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

[babylonsister]

2. How many does that make today? Implosion seems to be happening. nt

[Riverman]

3. If Doolittle Did Nothing Wrong, Why Does He Need to Clear His Name?

[Rose Siding]

4. And if he did nothing wrong, why is it "confidential"?

[Lautremont]

5. He wouldn't have had to if the agency was made up of animals.