Congressman’s Special Projects Bring Complaints
As lawmakers have increasingly slipped pet projects into federal spending bills over the past decade, one lawmaker has used his powerful perch on the House Appropriations Committee to funnel $250 million into five nonprofit organizations that he set up. Those actions have prompted a complaint to federal prosecutors that questions whether any of that taxpayer money helped fuel a parallel growth in his personal fortune.
It’s become fashionable among some of us on the Left to decry the corruption of Republicans. While there is certainly some truth to the Republican propensity toward graft and corruption, we would be remiss not to recognize and admit that corruption is not something that respects partisan ideology. No, corruption is just as much a Democratic issue (Jim Wright, Jim Traficant) as it is a Republican one. Of course, it might just be that Republicans are more skilled and adept at fleecing the public and lining their pockets and those of their friends, but it’s not difficult to find examples of Democrats who lost their moral compass once they reached the halls of Congress…and it looks as if we might just have to add West Virginia Congressman Alan Mollohan to that list.
Given the highly charged, “gotcha” environment that is official Washington, you’d think that a sitting Congressman of long standing would be sensitive to anything that would create even the impression of inappropriate behavior, or even the suggestion of the barest whiff of corruption. I’m not saying that a politician should strive to channel Mother Teresa, but that’s not such a bad idea, either. At the very least, how about recognizing that channelling most of the pork for your district to five non-profit organizations that you created and control might just generate some suspicion outside your fiefdom district?
Here’s my real question, though: Mollohan has been in office since 1982. The behavior now being questioned has been taking place since at least the mid-90s…and it’s just now coming to light? Yes, I realize that his district in is rural West Virginia, not exactly the favored stomping grounds of the national media, but these folks do have electricity and running water- and probably even an hotel or two. You’d think someone would have picked up on Mollohan’s hijinks long before now…wouldn’t you??
The most ambitious effort by the congressman, Alan B. Mollohan, is a glistening glass-and-steel structure with a swimming pool, sauna and spa rising in a former cow pasture in Fairmont, W.Va., thanks to $103 million of taxpayer money he garnered through special spending allocations known as earmarks.
The headquarters building is likely to sit largely empty upon completion this summer, because the Mollohan-created organization that it was built for, the Institute for Scientific Research, is in disarray, its chief executive having resigned under a cloud of criticism over his $500,000 annual compensation, also paid by earmarked federal money.
The five organizations have diverse missions but form a cozy, cross-pollinated network in the forlorn former coal capitals of north-central West Virginia. Mr. Mollohan has recruited many of their top employees and board members, including longtime friends or former aides, who in turn provide him with steady campaign contributions and positive publicity in their newsletters.
At the very least, Mollohan has managed to create quite the little fiefdom for himself, one that has also apparently managed to also line his pockets quite nicely. Gee, what a shock…a politician enriching himself on taxpayer money. Whodathunkit? That Mollohan is a Democrat only angers me more.
Instead of directly addressing the appearance of impropriety, Mollohan has chose to do what any corrupt demagogue would do- he’s portraying himself as the victim of a witch hunt being conducted by his political enemies (et tu, Tom DeLay??).
“Obviously, I am in the crosshairs of the National Republican Party and like-minded entities,” said Mr. Mollohan, who faces a serious electoral challenge in November. Vice President Dick Cheney is scheduled to headline a fund-raiser on April 21 for the Republican whom the White House recruited to run against Mr. Mollohan.
“They are angry at me, and I fully expect that from now until November they will continue to make baseless charges against me, my record and my family,” the statement said. “I will vigorously defend my service and not be intimidated by their heavy-handed tactics.”
In previous interviews, Mr. Mollohan acknowledged that he had failed to pay 2004 taxes on income from rental properties in Washington and North Carolina, resulting in a state lien of $8,948.28 being filed on Dec. 1. He said the case was resolved by final payments of all taxes, interest and penalties by January.
“Obviously it’s totally my fault,” he said. “I just neglected this, and it was paid late, and I regret that.”
Translation: I got caught, so I’d best at least act contrite.
In the last three years, Mr. Mollohan, a Democrat first elected in 1982 to a seat long held by his father, has bought $2 million worth of property on Bald Head Island, N.C., with Laura Kurtz Kuhns, a former employee who now runs one of the organizations and is on the boards of two others.
He was unapologetic about his earmarks, saying that local lawmakers knew their constituents’ needs best, and that he was hardly alone in mainlining money back home. “The amount of money in the transportation bill spent in Illinois in earmarked projects is astronomical,” he said. “It puts $100 million on the I.S.R. building in real perspective.”
Translation: Everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn’t I?
Of course, there is always the possibility that Mollohan is being absolutely truthful, and that he is no more corrupt than you or I. Unfortunately, there’s a reality I can’t get past here. If it looks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, and if it waddles like a duck, there’s a very high likelihood that you have a duck on your hands. If Mollohan is guilty of anything besides pride and avarice, it’s not recognizing that the fiefdom he’s created back home might not pass the smell test. I don’t know if Mollohan is corrupt or merely arrogant and stupid, but you have to admit that this situation certainly smells…and that is Mollohan’s problem, one he’s going to have to overcome if he doesn’t want to be sharing a cell with Tom DeLay.
