Doolittle Throws His Wife Under The Bus

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/18/doolittle-wife/

Doolittle Throws His Wife Under The Bus


Rep. John Doolittle’s (R-CA) statement tonight:

Doolittle Responds to Reports about FBI Search of Wife’s Business

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville) issued a statement to media questions regarding reports of an FBI search of his wife’s business in Virginia.

Doolittle said, “My wife has been cooperating with the FBI and the Justice Department for almost three years and that cooperation is going to continue in the future. I support my wife 100 percent and fully expect that the truth will prevail.”

Doolittle apparently expects people to believe that he has nothing to do with the investigation of his wife’s business. That’s laughable.

The relationship between John Doolittle and criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff is extensive. Doolittle received $64,500 from Abramoff, his partners and clients between 2001 and 2004. Abramoff let Doolittle hold fundraisers in his sky box for free, and paid to send Doolittle’s top aide to Puerto Rico. Abramoff hired Doolittle’s then-chief of staff, Kevin Ring, who in turn helped hire Doolittle’s wife. Julie Doolittle, who owned a consulting firm, was brought on by Abramoff and his firm, Greenberg Traurig, to do fundraising for Abramoff’s charity.

The fact that investigators raided Julie Doolittle’s business suggests that they are attempting to show how John Doolittle himself — not just his staffers or campaign committee — benefited from Abramoff’s largess. Too bad for the Doolittles, California is a communal-property state:

San Diego attorney Stanley Zubel, who heads Californians for a Cleaner Congress, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said Julie Doolittle’s commissions raise troubling questions about whether the congressman personally benefited from his support of Wilkes’ projects. “For all practical purposes, when someone’s wife earns money, then he earns money, especially in a community-property state like California,” Zubel said. “He can’t separate this out and say, ‘This is my wife’s money.’ If she’s getting a benefit, he’s getting a benefit.”

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. I read a scorching article(VF?) a year or two ago about Julie. They have really enabled each other

to have the littlest ethics and scruples possible. She trashed him in that article, although I don't see much sniping from him in this one. However, he was the lead "gambling and prostitutes" guy in D.C., as his codependent wife is very aware.

Dear God, what IS it about the GOP, forcing the most salacious parts of their private lives on the rest of us? And, trying to legislate OUR "moral" behavior? MKJ

[babylonsister]

2. Here's a bit more on Ms. Julie, and I liked your last comment, MKJ.

The Doolittles trying to legislate our moral behavior is laughable.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Doolittle

Julie Doolittle's Fundraising

Julie Doolittle, the congressman's wife, has received intense scrutiny for her fundraising operation, Sierra Dominion Financial Services. Two of her clients were her husband's campaign committee and leadership PAC from which she received a 15% commission from every donation. The Washington Post provides and example of how she, and her husband, profit every time Congressman Doolittle receives a contribution:

The United Parcel Service PAC, for example, has given $15,000 to the leadership PAC and $10,000 to the campaign committee, which, in turn, means a commission of $3,750 for Julie Doolittle's company.<20>

She has received at least $215,000 from Mr. Doolittle's various campaign committees since 2001.<21>

Julie's other three clients were Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig, his restaurant Signatures, and the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, an outfit founded by Ed Buckham that operated out of the offices of his Alexander Strategies Group.<22> Her files have been subpoenaed twice over her work for both Buckham and Abramoff. The New York Times reported:

Julie Doolittle's fundraising technique was publicly criticized by the 27,000 member Association of Fundraising Professionals after the organization sent a letter to the congressman that their organization "explicitly prohibits percentage-based compensation".<23> The head of the Association Pauletta Maehara spoke to the Sacramento Bee and stated:

This is absolutely not the standard in the industry. Fundraisers can charge a flat fee, an hourly fee or a combination of both. We do support incentive compensation as long as it is not based on the percentage of the money raised.<24>

A second organization, the American Association of Fundraising Counsel, also objected to the Doolittle's fundraising operation:

Contracts providing for a contingent fee, a commission, or a fee based on percentage of funds raised are prohibited ... Such contracts are harmful to the relationship between the donor and the institution and detrimental to the financial health of the client organization.<25>

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Republican Family Values

. . . gets you right in the heart, doesn't it?

It would get them there, too, if any of them had a heart.