Got Pombo?

Its a hard task to pick one politico that is the worst example of greed, corruption and influence peddling from the crew of the USS Ship of Fools, the GOP. But Rep. Richard Pombo of California's 11th District gets my vote. Its not just the idea of the corpulent Pombo tooling around DC in his leased Lincoln auto that he pays $7086 a year with taxpayer money. He could be satisfied with a government ride for $3096 a year. Or that he paid his brother and wife $357,325 from his political campaign funds (25% of his total) for "bookkeeping and consulting" Pombo has been named one of the Congress' 20 most corrupt legislators.

As the House Resources Committee chairman, he has the power to advance legislation in a lower house that has been transformed from a deliberative body into a majority party rubber stamp. To achieve savings of $2.4 billion in the federal budget--the estimated five year revenue from drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)--he circulated a draft bill to sell naming rights in 15 national parks. The bill was intended to influence colleagues to support drilling in ANWR, a proposal defeated by a Herculean effort of the conservation community. Even his fellow Republican, The Governator, had to ask Pombo to back off from his drilling enthusiasm. In a letter from the Ocean Protection Council, Schwarzenegger asked Pombo to drop his support for an end to the moratorium on coastal drilling. Pombo introduced serious legislation to gut the effective and popular Endangered Species Act. That bad idea was also defeated by a massive lobbying effort of which I was a part.

Even more troubling that his anti conservation agenda is his connection to influence peddling. The usual suspect is Jack Ambrahoff and his pay for play machine. The Mashpee Wampanoags are a famous for greeting the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, but they are not yet listed by the Interior Department as an "official" tribe. For thirty years the tribe has sought federal status to be eligible for federal largesse. The application was going nowhere, so four years ago they began greasing the wheels. The tribe paid out tens of thousands, some of which flowed to Abramoff and Pombo. The FBI has visited the tribes offices in Mashpee, Massachusetts to collect financial documents. A half dozen tribal leaders attended Pombo fundraisers and wrote personal checks for $2000 to his Rich PAC. About $20,000 was contributed after Pombo took a meeting with former Interior Secretary Gail Norton and the recognition program director in September 2003. The tribe's website now posts "a positive response from BIA" on their quest for recognition. Its the white man's game so you really cannot blame them for playing well.