NO PASSING THE TORCH
Last Thursday’s New York Times ran a story saying that the Department of Justice was
investigating the appointment of former Attorney General
John Ashcroft as a monitor of a deferred
prosecution of Zimmer Holdings, a medical supply company in Indiana
that was investigated by U.S. Attorney Chris
Christie in New Jersey. The Department of Justice quickly
released a statement that there was no investigation of any kind
under way.
So how did the New York Times get it so wrong?
Apparently, bad information from its sources on the House Judiciary
Committee and inside the offices of New Jersey Democrat Reps.
Frank Pallone and Bill Pascrell,
Jr.
In fact, based on information obtained by House Republican
leaders, the Republican caucus is mulling whether to file for an
ethics investigation into the actions of Pallone and Pascrell and
their staffs in pushing the Ashcroft story.
“When you look at the record, both Pallone and Pascrell have
been taking money from some of the same people in the same industry
that Ashcroft is trying to keep clean,” says a member of the House
Republican leadership. “We’re not talking about a couple of donor
checks, we’re talking hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars for
both men.”
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Pallone, who
chairs the health subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, received over $2,008,729 —$1,201,647 from health PACs
and $807,082 from donors identified as having ties to the
healthcare industry. In fact, to date, with more than $350,000
banked, Pallone is the 10th highest recipient in the House of
healthcare dollars from donors for the 2008 re-election cycle.
Pascrell is the 6th highest, with almost half a million banked
($462,009).
And buried in those donor records is the point that may have the
House Ethics Committee looking into the Jersey boys:
Consultants to the company that Ashcroft is monitoring, Zimmer
Inc., have been donors to both New Jersey House members. According
to Federal Election Commission filings, the American Academy of
Orthopaedic Surgeons, which consults for Zimmer, has a PAC that
gave $23,000 in political contributions to Pallone between 1999 and
2007 and $2,000 to Pascrell for the 2000 election cycle.
Interestingly, neither Pallone nor Pascrell has asked the House
Judiciary Committee to investigate their former colleague and
political benefactor, former U.S. Senator Robert G.
Torricelli, who chose to not seek re-election in 2002 amid
rumors of campaign finance improprieties.
Torricelli has made a fortune from the same court-ordered
oversight jobs that Ashcroft was given, though the circumstances of
Torricelli’s gigs are a bit more suspect. For example, the New
York Times reported in 2003 that “The Torch” has made millions
from overseeing a court mandated environmental clean-up job by
Honeywell International in Jersey City, New Jersey. Torricelli
personally receives at least $350 an hour from Honeywell, and the
company is also required to pay the fees of all of the consultants
and outside lawyers and experts that Torricelli hires.
Torricelli got the job, one of several he currently holds, from
a federal judge Torricelli had recommended for nomination, and
whose wife worked for then-Senator Jon
Corzine.
“We asked if they wanted the Torricelli deal to be included in
any Judiciary investigation or hearings,” says a Republican aide on
the House Judiciary Committee of Pallone and Pascrell. “And you can
guess the response. They don’t want to touch that case with a ten
foot pole.”
Finally, the Pallone shot across U.S. Attorney Christie’s bow
may be more personal than most people realize. The Newark Star
Ledger reported back in 2006 that Christie had reportedly
impaneled a federal grand jury that was investigating whether
Pallone had been the beneficiary of improper and potentially
illegal campaign finance actions by officials at the University of
Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ). As Josh Margolin and
Ted Sherman reported in the Star Ledgerof February 19,
2006, in a story headlined “Jury is Probing Tales at UMDNJ of a
Slush fund”:
According to multiple sources with direct knowledge of
the ongoing federal investigation, Louis Copeland — manager of
government relations in the government affairs department — told
the grand jury he was instructed to contribute $1,000 to Rep. Frank
Pallone (D-6th Dist.), a member of the health subcommittee of the
House Energy and Commerce Committee. Copeland testified that after
he made the contribution, he was repaid in cash, those sources
said.
Documents obtained by the newspaper show UMDNJ’s Washington
lobbying firm, JordenBurt LLP, had urged a show of support for
Pallone at a Sept. 27, 2004, event in New Brunswick. “His support
has been invaluable in establishing bipartisan support for many of
UMDNJ’s projects,” noted a memo from the firm.
“When you get down to it, this is classic Jersey politics,” says
the member of the Republican House leadership. “It looks like we
have House members trying to ‘do right’ by their many benefactors,
but they just don’t understand how dirty they themselves are going
to get in trying to smear a good man like John Ashcroft.”
MR. ED
Less than six weeks after he signed on as the face of the national
campaign, Huckabee senior political adviser Ed
Rollins may be pushed out the door, according to Huckabee
aides who are just beginning to sign on with the former Arkansas
governor.
“[Rollins] stepped all over our victory narrative in Iowa with
that stunt he pulled in the diner with that blogger,” says one of
the newcomers to the campaign, referring the Rollins overheard
conversation in Iowa diner by a blogger, where he claimed that the
Huckabee campaign would go negative in South Carolina against its
competitors. “If there is a time to make some changes, it will be
after South Carolina. We have lots of people lining up to help
right now.”
Perhaps that’s a reference to political pundit Jim
Pinkerton, who on Friday announced he was joining the
Huckabee campaign in a senior position.
