Dallas Democrat awarded 23 Black Caucus scholarships to relatives & kids of staffer

[Liberal_in_LA]

Letters bearing Eddie Bernice Johnson's signature ask that scholarship money be sent directly to her grandsons

07:36 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 8, 2010
By TODD J. GILLMAN and CHRISTY HOPPE / The Dallas Morning News


Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson apparently asked the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation to send scholarship checks directly to her two grandsons and two great-nephews, rather than to their colleges.

Johnson has insisted repeatedly that she left scholarship decisions to aides.

Also Online
09/07/10: Letters bearing Johnson's signature direct money to grandsons, not schools
Download: See the letters

09/04/10: 5 recipients didn't meet residency rule

09/03/10: Johnson: 'I never heard the rules' on scholarships

08/31/10: Johnson says she'll repay scholarship funds

08/29/10: Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson violated rules, steered scholarships to relatives

But two letters she sent the foundation from 2006 undermine claims that she wasn't involved in obtaining $31,000 for her relatives and two other ineligible recipients.

Neither her aides nor the foundation responded to repeated requests to discuss the letters, which were obtained separately by The Dallas Morning News and by Johnson's GOP challenger, Stephen Broden, who released them Tuesday.

But the letters suggest a far more direct role for the Dallas Democrat than she acknowledged in the last week after revelations by The News that she awarded at least 23 scholarships to her relatives and the children of a top staffer – in violation of the foundation's nepotism and residency rules.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/090810dntexebj.ce52ce69.html

[uponit7771]

1. I'm still voting democrat, republicans accept too much stupid

[emilyg]

2. Not good.

Saw her interviewed.