Democrats Did Hussein’s Bidding
Mar 27, 2008 Political
There is word today that three Congressional Democrats took a trip to Iraq and it was paid for by Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agency. The trip was arranged by Muthanna Al-Hanooti who acted as an intermediary for the Hussein government. Al-Hanooti was arrested for conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, illegally purchasing Iraqi oil (he received oil from Iraq for setting it up) and lying to authorities.
The indictment did not name the Democrats involved but the AP reports the dates coincide with dates of a trip taken by Jim McDermott of Washington, David Bonior of Michigan (no longer in Congress) and Mike Thompson of California, all of whom opposed the war.
McDermott and Thompson indicate that the trips were approved by the State Department but that does not mean that the SD knew about the Iraqi connection and it does not exonerate the members who accepted the trip from a non government source. The real question is, did these three know who was really paying for their trip and did they receive anything else for their support of Hussein and his regime? Did they knowingly accept a trip from a hostile government and did that government exercise undue influence on US elected officials? Perhaps they knew nothing about this but it needs to be fully investigated and i mean the kind of investigation a Republican would get if one were involved in such a thing. Investigators need to dig down deep in the weeds to make sure these three did not sell out our government. If these guys knew about this or received any gifts (not necessarily oil) then they need to go to jail.
It is quite possible that they knew nothing and thought it was being paid for by the entity claimed. This points out problems in the way our government does business. No member of our government should be going on trips paid for by anyone other than our government because if the trip is important enough to go on then the government should be paying for it. This would prevent elected officials from giving the appearance of influence peddling. It would also keep members from helping our enemies. Democrats do that enough without working directly for them. The fact that these guys went there on someone else’s money is bad enough but being there and expressing doubts about our government’s position gave aide to our enemy. Our enemy, in effect, paid three Congressmen to go against our government. Sure, these three were entitled to disagree with the Administration’s opinion, but doing so while being paid by the enemy gives the appearance of impropriety and removes any appearance of independent judgement.
The junkets to vacation spots (not that Iraq is one of those) and to other countries that are paid for by lobbyists and other organizations are unethical and call into question the integrity of the officials who go on them. It does not matter what party they belong to they need to stop having anyone except the government pay for their trips. The people footing the bills for such trips are not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, they are doing it in order to get something in return. Each one of the trips is designed to influence elected officials and that is wrong and it is a disservice to the American People. Claiming it was for the children does not excuse the behavior.
People from both parties trumpet reform and they all say to elect them so they can clean the place up. Then when they are elected they pretend to make reform an issue and they pretend to be doing something but in reality they continue to be the bought and paid for prostitutes for anyone willing to pay. The only way to get true reform is to replace every one of them. This year remove all 435 Members of the House and every Senator up for reelection. It is time for new blood.
We have already started in my Congressional District by getting rid of Wayne Gilchrest. My District will have a new member of Congress come November. That is a start but the rest of you have to step up and do your part as well.
If we do not like the job they are doing it is our responsibility to fire them.
