Who Tried To Bribe Rep. Smith?

[Oilwellian]

This could get interesting....

By Timothy Noah
Posted Monday, Dec. 1, 2003, at 3:17 PM PT


Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., says that sometime late Nov. 21 or early in the morning Nov. 22, somebody on the House floor threatened to redirect campaign funds away from his son Brad, who is running to succeed him, if he didn't support the Medicare prescription bill. This according to the Associated Press. Robert Novak further reports,

"On the House floor, Nick Smith was told business interests would give his son $100,000 in return for his father's vote. When he still declined, fellow Republican House members told him they would make sure Brad Smith never came to Congress. After Nick Smith voted no and the bill passed, Duke Cunningham of California and other Republicans taunted him that his son was dead meat."

Speaking through Chief of Staff Kurt Schmautz, Smith assured Chatterbox that Novak's account is "basically accurate." That means Smith was an eyewitness to a federal crime. United States Code, Title 18, Section 201, "Bribery of public officials and witnesses," states that under federal law, a person commits bribery if he

directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers or promises anything of value to any public official or person who has been selected to be a public official, or offers or promises any public official or any person who has been selected to be a public official to give anything of value to any other person or entity with intent to influence any official act. …

Promising to direct $100,000 to Rep. Smith's son's campaign clearly meets the legal definition of bribery. The only question, then, is who to prosecute.
<more>
http://slate.msn.com/id/2091787/

[damnraddem]

1. Who's to prosecute? Umm ... Ashcroft?

;-)

How about prosecuting it in the media, on the net, any way we can?

[Kanary]

2. Here's your "who"

House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson

Here's the rest of the story:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak27.html

Kanary

[Oilwellian]

3. But....

From the story I posted:

But according to Hastert spokesman John Feehery (as quoted by the AP), Hastert merely said "that a vote on this would help him and help his son because it would be a popular vote." Ordinarily, Chatterbox would consider that a laughably weak denial. But Feehery told Chatterbox that Smith had personally assured the speaker that he wasn't the individual he'd complained about. Schmautz, Smith's chief of staff, said Smith had further clarified that the perpetrator not only wasn't Hastert; it wasn't Thompson or House Majority Leader Tom "the Hammer" DeLay, either.:shrug:

[Kanary]

4. Sorry. I just tried to help. I'll go away.

[liberalcapitalist]

5. this dude is from my small town of 537 people

Graduated with my grandma, lives about 1 mile away from my parents on the rural outskirts of Addison, MI.

I thought he was the worst type of career politician, but I am proud to be from his district when he stands up to fellow Repubs and exposes them like this!