Big Dogs Weblog

More Troubling Information About Eddie Bernice Johnson

by Big Dog on Aug 31, 2010 at 16:37 Political

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas has been caught doling out scholarships to her family members and to the children of one of her aides. She did this in violation of the rules governing the scholarships which are paid for through the Congressional Black Caucus. Among the rules are specific prohibitions on awarding scholarships to family members and to people related to anyone associated with the scholarship program. Those awarded must live or study in the district of the member of Congress or in a district of another member of the CBC. I assume white children are eligible though I wonder how many actually get the awards. I also wonder how it would be received if there was a scholarship program that was open only to people in the districts of Tea Party Caucus members…

Anyway, Johnson is in hot water. In my opinion she should be prosecuted and she should be investigated by the Ethics Committee. Her responses to the discovery of her illegal activities have been underwhelming and have highlighted her arrogance. Johnson has stated that names came across her desk and that she was not directly involved and all kinds of things but then we see this statement and wonder what planet she is on:

Last week, Johnson initially defended her scholarship choices, then acknowledged violating the scholarship rules, though she said she did so “unknowingly.” She also said that all qualified applicants have gotten a share of scholarship funds each year, and that she might not have picked relatives had there been more qualified applicants. Dallas News

How could she have violated the rules unknowingly when the rules say that no family member is eligible? She had to know that the people involved were related to her because they were her grandsons. In addition, she admitted that she knew in her last sentence. She said she would not have awarded the scholarships to family members if there had been more qualified candidates. Therefore, she knew they were her family.

Also, and here is where she shows her true stupidity, her family members were NOT qualified. Therefore, any other applicant (who met the standards) was MORE qualified. She does not seem to understand this little piece of logic so let us spell it out one more time. Her family members were NOT qualified so all other applicants (who met the standards) were MORE qualified and her argument is only a fabrication to cover her rear end.

If she claims ignorance then not only should she be prosecuted for the scholarship fraud, she should also be removed from office for gross incompetence.

Johnson says she will pay back the money for the scholarships by the end of the week. I am unsure which ones she means but if she is going to pay for all of them it will cost quite a bit of money.

I would also like to point out that the application for the scholarship asks applicants if they are related to anyone associated with the program. The people who investigate this might want to look at the applications and see how those questions were addressed. There might be fraud coming from more than one direction.

Maybe they can all get a family cell at the iron bar hotel…

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

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Tags: eddie bernice johnson, fraud, jail, lies, prosecute, scholarships