WASHINGTON, April 26, 2005
A new study shows that members of Congress have taken more than $16 million in privately financed trips over the past five years, with many of the trips sponsored by non-profit groups that are not obligated to disclose who paid the bills.
The results of the study by PoliticalMoneyLine, an Internet site that compiles campaign finance information, were first reported by USA Today.
The problems of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, have placed a spotlight on congressional travel. DeLay has been accused of a spate of alleged ethical lapses, including travel that may have been paid for by a lobbyist.
Congressional rules permit privately financed travel, provided the money doesn't come from a lobbyist or the representative of a foreign interest.
But the study shows that more than half the private money spent on congressional travel since 2000 - $8.8 million - came from non-profit organizations who are not obligated to identify who may be actually paying the bills.
Widespread interest in DeLay's woes have spread bipartisan jitters through the halls of Congress. The Washington Post reports that members are racing to put their travel and campaign finance records in order in case their own activities come under scrutiny.
The newspaper also said that some members are restricting privately financed travel or even halting it altogether because of affaire DeLay.
The PoliticalMoneyLine study reviewed 5,410 trips taken by 605 members of the House and Senate. Democratic lawmakers had the edge, taking 3,025 trips, to 2,375 trips for GOP members.
The No. 1 trip-taker in dollar terms was Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Sensenbrenner took 19 trips valued at $168,000.
In contrast, DeLay finished 28th by taking 14 trips valued at $94,568.
Among those higher on the list than DeLay were 2008 presidential wannabes Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and two members of the Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, and outgoing Marylander Paul Sarbanes (D).
Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn., took the most trips - 63. But Ford's less expensive domestic jaunts only totaled $61,000.
Top travel destinations, besides the U.S., were Mexico and Israel.©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments:
Delay was only only 14th. Biden, Evan Bayh, Lugar, and Sarbanes were among those who were higher on the list...
Reply 1 - Posted by: LAW428, 4/26/2005 4:30:37 PM
The Dems are so phony and disingenuous.
Reply 2 - Posted by: OregonMuse, 4/26/2005 4:33:27 PM
Wait a minute! CBSNews? I thought that LCom only accepted posts from legitimate news sources. Where's the LCom staff when you need them? Close the thread! Close the thread!
Reply 3 - Posted by: Clark Kent, 4/26/2005 4:38:00 PM
the difference is Delay is a front page screaming headline, a story like this is lucky to even make the paper. No bias whatsoever....
Reply 4 - Posted by: robert mcdaniel, 4/26/2005 4:41:56 PM
Not only CBS, but the WashPost, USA Today...and even CNN is on to this....
Check out JUDY WOODRUFF talking to Kyra earlier today re PELOSI!!
And, by the way, there are Democrats who are being looked at, too. The House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi. It turns out her staff, of the 40-some trips they've taken over the last few years, it now -- we're now learning -- and, again, this is...
PHILLIPS: Twelve in question, now, right.
WOODRUFF: That's right, 12 in question...Twelve of those trips are being looked at very closely. We don't know yet if there was anything wrong, but there are questions.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0504/26/lol.04.html
Reply 5 - Posted by: Yorkiemom, 4/26/2005 4:52:08 PM
Imagine that, Dims took more trips than the Republicans and there are fewer Dim members in the House and Senate. Both parties love to spend our money, don't they?
Reply 6 - Posted by: scotty, 4/26/2005 5:02:03 PM
The demonrats make up 46% of the Congress, but accepted 56% of the trips and do 100% of the fingerpointing.
Reply 7 - Posted by: Bigdog61, 4/26/2005 5:13:26 PM
Well, our Republicans are frequently cowards but at least we can fall back on the dims being just plain stupid. They stepped in it if the media can't gloss it over.
Reply 8 - Posted by: putupjob, 4/26/2005 5:16:32 PM
Standard trick. If you are guilty of something, accuse the other guy before he accuses you....Clinton playbook.
Reply 9 - Posted by: Halfgenius, 4/26/2005 5:21:31 PM
But don't we have a ethics committee to straighten this sort of thing out....wha...oh....
Reply 10 - Posted by: 1618, 4/26/2005 5:54:39 PM
Don't you think that the aircraft 9perators have to send their planes throuigh decontamination when the RATS get off them...The don't have to worry about Hillary she travels on a broom...
Reply 11 - Posted by: OregonMuse, 4/26/2005 5:55:16 PM
This is turning out to be like Enron. The Dems thought that Enron would be their ticket to taking out President Bush, until a number of Dem skeletons started falling out of Enron closets. Then all of a sudden Enron wasn't so important after all.
Reply 12 - Posted by: Christie, 4/26/2005 6:04:55 PM
My ex-friend was squealing last October that there is 'a HUGE difference' between Demos and Repubs; obviously Rs are evil, Ds are not. This was the same person who talked me into voting for Nader in '00 because--we agreed--both parties are equally corrupt and that we needed a 'new party'. (Dream on).
Anyway, Dubya, or what they think he represents, sure does get under the thin skin of lefty victims. I wish I hadn't lost an old friend over politics, but then again, it goes much deeper than that.
Reply 13 - Posted by: fysammy, 4/26/2005 6:19:14 PM
I'd rather these elitist take trips on private money than mine. They're going to vote in line with whatever gets them re-elected anyway.
Reply 14 - Posted by: char, 4/26/2005 6:33:20 PM
Look at it this way - if this is the very worst they can find on DeLay, than they don't have much ammo to shoot him down with.
Reply 15 - Posted by: Avikingman, 4/26/2005 7:52:11 PM
Some reach a level of awareness before others, or grow up faster.
Sometimes friends come back when they wise up.
Reply 16 - Posted by: ruready?, 4/26/2005 8:16:09 PM
There is no controlling legal authority.
Reply 17 - Posted by: amereagle, 4/26/2005 9:41:11 PM
As Americans, we expect politicians, no matter the party, to be a tad oily. Democrats far worse than Republicans, obviously, but oilyness across the board. It's the way our free democratic republican capitalist society works.
What we never expected was that the mainstream, most-watched and most-read media outlets would be completely partisan towards one party, the Democrats. The Liberal Media is out of control and getting worse now that their monopoly on the American mind has been broken by the Internet/Blogosphere and FoxNews/Radio
This is the true story of this, that the main media was led to pull a bogus hit job on DeLay by Soros, MoveOn, Democrats, Hillary, International Socialists et. al.
Liberal Media Delenda Est.
Reply 18 - Posted by: duchess, 4/26/2005 10:38:36 PM
Rahm Emmanual, Soros crowd and Clintonoids.
Supposed pre-emptive strike?
Reply 19 - Posted by: micktexan, 4/26/2005 11:17:04 PM
What I don't get is why the Repubs didn't get what the Clintons did to them...dropped a few well placed leaks that the Clintons were vunerable on a variety of issues...the Repubs took the bait, went after them only to find dry holes on many of the 'leads'.
This is a clever tactic to use someone else's enthusiasm to get you against them. People that are rabid about getting someone else are so easy to set up. Once you throw out the false bait you reel it in a bit, tug the line, and when they are hooked you send 100000 volts down the line...case closed.
How stupid does someone have to be to get caught doing something they know is illegal but do it anyway in plain sight of everyone else...
Sounds to me like Delay got arrogant and stupid and didn't cover his tracks...now he is on the hot seat. Let's see how he squirms out of this...and I hope he does!
