Politicians pass judgement, they pass laws and often are the first to bash and destroy political adversaries. But who are they and how are they so much better than the rest of us? Unfortunately, they are often some of the worst people in our communities. They operate above the law and make backroom deals that hurt people but gain them fortunes along their path in politics. Here are 23 of the worst offenders. Just look through these galleries and realize that these are the people that are supposed to represent your best interests. They pass laws that discriminate yet they are involved in devilish scandal.
The Foley Scandal
The Mark Foley scandal, which broke in late September 2006, centers on soliciting e-mails and sexually suggestive instant messages sent by Mark Foley, a Republican Congressman from Florida, to teenaged boys who had formerly served as congressional pages. The scandal led to Foley’s resignation from Congress on September 29, 2006. In some quarters, the scandal is believed to have contributed to the Republican Party’s loss of control over Congress. The BACK STORY listed Foley, among others, as prominent conservative politician who had a record of anti-gay legislation and was later caught in a gay sex scandal.
Ted Kennedy
In the Chappaquiddick incident on July 18, 1969, Mary Jo Kopechne, a female passenger of U.S. Senator Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy, was killed when he accidentally drove his car off a bridge and into a tidal channel on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts. Kennedy swam free and left the scene, not reporting within nine hours, but Kopechne died in the vehicle. In the early hours of July 19, Kopechne’s body and the car were recovered. Kennedy pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident after causing injury and received a two-month suspended jail sentence. The incident became a national scandal, and may have influenced Kennedy’s decision not to campaign for President of the United States in 1972 and 1976
Mayor Marion Barry
By late 1989, federal officials had been investigating Barry on suspicion of illegal drug possession and use; that fall, they were able to make cases against several of Barry’s associates for cocaine use, including Charles Lewis, a native of the United States Virgin Islands who was implicated in a drug investigation involving Barry and a room at Washington’s Ramada Inn in December 1988.
Barry was captured on a surveillance camera smoking crack cocaine during a joint sting operation by the FBI and D.C. Police.
On January 18, 1990, Barry was arrested with a former girlfriend, Hazel Diane “Rasheeda” Moore, in a sting operation at the Vista Hotel by the FBI and D.C. police for crack cocaine use and possession.[52] Moore was an FBI informant when she invited Barry to the hotel room and insisted that he smoke freebase cocaine before they had sex, while agents in another room watched on camera, waiting for Barry to accept her offer. During the videotaped arrest, Barry says of Moore, “Bitch set me up…I shouldn’t have come up here…goddamn bitch”.
Barry was charged with three felony counts of perjury, 10 counts of drug possession, and one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to possess cocaine, even though the cocaine belonged to the government informant. The criminal trial ended in August 1990 with a conviction for only one possession incident, which had occurred in November 1989, and an acquittal on another. The jury deadlocked on the remaining charges. Six or seven jurors (of whom two were white and the rest black) believed that the evidence against Barry was overwhelming and that he had displayed “arrogance” during the trial.
Christopher Lee
Christopher John “Chris” Lee (born April 1, 1964) is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives for New York’s 26th congressional district. He served from January 2009 until he resigned February 9, 2011 after it was revealed that he had solicited a woman on Craigslist and emailed a shirtless photo of himself. A notorious party animal, he was drummed out of politics following the photo leak.
Anthony Weiner
Anthony Weiner, former member of the United States House of Representatives from New York City, was involved in two sexual scandals related to sexting, or sending explicit sexual material by cell phone. The first, sometimes dubbed Weinergate,led to his resignation as a congressman in 2011.The second, during his attempt to return to politics as candidate for mayor of New York City, involved three women Weiner admitted having sexted after further explicit pictures were published in July 2013.
The first scandal began when Democratic U.S. Congressman Weiner used the social media website Twitter to send a link to a sexually suggestive picture of his engorged penis to a 21-year-old woman from Seattle, Washington. After several days of denying media reports that he had posted the image, he admitted to having sent a link to the photo, and also other sexually explicit photos and messages to women both before and during his marriage. He denied ever having met, or having had a physical relationship with any of the women. On June 16, 2011, Weiner announced his intention to resign from Congress with his official resignation occurring on June 23, 2011.
A second scandal began on July 23, 2013, after Weiner returned to politics in April 2013 by entering the New York City mayoral election, when more pictures and sexting by Weiner were released by the website The Dirty. They were allegedly sent under the alias ‘Carlos Danger’ to a 22-year-old woman with whom Weiner had contact in late 2012, and as late as April 2013, more than a year after Weiner had left Congress. Weiner admitted sexting at least three women during this period, and although called on by the New York Times editorial board, among others, to leave the mayoral race, he remained in the race until the end, when he took fifth place in the Democratic primary, with 4.9% of the vote.
Robert Packwood
Oregon politician Robert Packwood’s political career began to unravel in November 1992, when a Washington Post story detailed the claims of sexual abuse and assault by ten women, chiefly former staffers and lobbyists. Packwood initially denied the claims but after portions of his diary were subpoenaed he ended up resigning rather than facing the fire.
Wilbur Mills
Wilbur Mills was a popular US congressman but things fell apart for him after getting a DUI right after engaging in a scuffle with Argentinian stripper, Fanne Fox. To make things even more comical, when he was pulled over she was actually with him in the car. Before the police officer could even say a word, however, she jumped out the back and dove into a drainage ditch after which she was taken to a mental hospital and left Wilbur with some serious explaining to do.
Mel Reynolds
In August 1994, Illinois congressman Mel Reynolds was indicted for sexual assault and criminal sexual abuse for engaging in a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old campaign volunteer that began during the 1992 campaign. He initially denied the allegations and continued to campaign but was eventually convicted and sent to prison both for the rape charges as well as charges related to bank fraud and money laundering.
The Keating Five
The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s. Basically they had prevented Charles Keating, Chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association from being audited in return for receiving campaign funding. Unfortunately for everybody else in America the association collapsed under the corruption causing billions of dollars worth of damages and ruining the reputations of the senators.
The five senators were – Alan Cranston (Democrat of California), Dennis DeConcini (Democrat of Arizona), John Glenn (Democrat of Ohio), John McCain (Republican of Arizona), and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (Democrat of Michigan)
The five senators were – Alan Cranston (Democrat of California), Dennis DeConcini (Democrat of Arizona), John Glenn (Democrat of Ohio), John McCain (Republican of Arizona), and Donald W. Riegle, Jr. (Democrat of Michigan)
Florida Ballot Snafu
The election between George Bush and Al Gore was plagued with issues but it wasn’t until Florida bungled its voting system that the trouble really began. With the world watching the state had to count and recount all its ballots until finally the courts stepped in and chose Bush.
Larry Craig Scandal
On June 11, 2007 US Senator Larry Craig was arrested for lewd conduct in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Apparently there had been complaints of sexual activity in the restroom so a police officer was stationed in the one of the stalls undercover. Eventually Craig entered the stall next to him and began reaching under the partition to signal he wanted to engage in gay sex. The officer responded by flashing his badge under the partition and pointing towards the exit.
John Edwards
Although the National Enquirer isn’t known as the most legitimate news source, they did manage to spill the beans on Senator John Edwards affair with videographer Rielle Hunter. Senator Edwards had engaged in an affair with Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker hired to work for his presidential campaign, with a child produced from the relationship. ABC News reported that Andrew Young, a member of Edwards’ campaign team, stated that Edwards asked him to “Get a doctor to fake the DNA results … and to steal a diaper from the baby so he could secretly do a DNA test to find out if this was indeed his child. After the admission from Edwards that he fathered a child with Hunter, Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth Edwards, announced a separation from her husband, with an intention to file for divorce. On January 25, 2010, the existence of an explicit sex tape, featuring Edwards and Hunter, was publicly reported. To make everything worse, Edwards ex-wife was battling cancer and eventually died in 2010.
Eliot Spitzer
According to published reports, investigators believe Spitzer paid up to $80,000 for prostitutes over a period of several years while he was Attorney General, and later as Governor. Spitzer first drew the attention of federal investigators when his bank reported suspicious money transfers, which initially led investigators to believe that Spitzer may have been hiding bribe proceeds. The investigation of the governor led to the discovery of the prostitution ring after which he obviously resigned.
“I cannot allow for my private failings to disrupt the people’s work,” Spitzer said at a news conference in New York City. “Over the course of my public life, I have insisted – I believe correctly – that people take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself. For this reason, I am resigning from the office of governor.”
He later had to pay his ex-wife Silda $7.5 million. Silda will also keep the family’s Fifth Avenue home, her living expenses will be taken care of (including health care and a housekeeper), and she’ll receive up to $100,000 per year to donate to charity.
Additionally, the former governor will pay her $240,000 annually in spousal maintenance for the rest of her life or until she remarries.
Rod Blagojevich
Rod Blagojevich, former Governor of Illinois, is an American politician. He and his Chief of Staff John Harris were charged with corruption by federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. As a result, Blagojevich was impeached by the Illinois General Assembly and removed from office by the Illinois Senate in January 2009. The federal investigation continued after his removal from office and he was indicted on corruption charges in April 2009. The jury found him guilty of one charge of making false statements with a mistrial being declared on the other 23 counts due to a hung jury after 14 days of jury deliberation. On June 27, 2011, after a retrial, Blagojevich was found guilty of 17 charges (including wire fraud, attempted extortion, and conspiracy to solicit bribes), not guilty on one charge and the jury deadlocked after 10 days of deliberation on the two remaining charges.On December 7, 2011, Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison
Mark Sanford
For six days in June 2009, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford’s whereabouts were unknown and there was media coverage of what was described as his disappearance. Subsequently the Governor reappeared and reported that he had been in Buenos Aires, Argentina with a woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair. He stated that in 2001 he met and became friends with this woman and that they started having a sexual relationship in 2008. His wife, Jenny Sanford became aware of the relationship in January 2009, and it was later revealed that two weeks prior to June 24 Sanford and his wife had begun a trial separation. The woman was later identified as Maria Belén Chapur, an Argentine journalist.
During the six days of absence, one of the excuses offered by Sanford’s spokesperson was that Sanford was hiking the Appalachian Trail. As a result, “hiking the Appalachian Trail” or “hiking the Appalachians” became a euphemism in the English language. Sanford resigned as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association, but made no comment about the possibility of resigning his position as Governor of South Carolina.
Bill Clinton
Details emerged of a sexual relationship between 49-year-old President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House employee, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998 by the U.S. House of Representatives and his subsequent acquittal on all impeachment charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in a 21-day Senate trial.
While working at the White House she began a personal relationship with Clinton, the details of which she later confided to her friend and Defense Department co-worker Linda Tripp, who secretly recorded their telephone conversations.
Lewinsky claimed to have had sexual encounters with Bill Clinton on nine occasions from November 1995 to March 1997. According to her published schedule, First Lady Hillary Clinton was at the White House for at least some portion of seven of those days.
Newt Gingrich
As Gingrich was crucifying Clinton for his extra-marital affair, details were leaked by Larry Flynt of Hustler magazine, about Gingrich and his multiple affairs. “There were times when I was praying and when I felt I was doing things that were wrong. But I was still doing them,” Gingrich said during the interview. “I look back on those as periods of weakness and periods that I’m not only not proud of, but I would deeply urge my children and grandchildren not to follow in my footsteps.”
“I was married very young and had my first daughter when I was very young, in fact at the end of my freshman year in college,” he said of his first marriage to Jackie Battley, his former high school geometry teacher. “And after a period of time, about 18 years, things just didn’t work out.”
William Jefferson Scandal
The corruption case against then Louisiana representative William J. Jefferson started on a suspicion of bribery. The FBI raided his Congressional offices in May 2006, but he was re-elected later that year. On June 4, 2007, a federal grand jury indicted Jefferson on sixteen charges related to corruption. Jefferson was defeated by Republican Joseph Cao on December 6, 2008, being the most senior Democrat to lose re-election that year. In 2009 he was tried in Virginia on corruption charges.[4] On August 5, 2009, he was found guilty of 11 of the 16 corruption counts. Jefferson was sentenced to 13 years on November 13, 2009, the longest sentence ever handed down to a congressman for bribery.
The Plame affair
The Plame affair (also known as the CIA leak scandal and Plamegate) was a political scandal that revolved around journalist Robert Novak’s public identification of Valerie Plame as a covert Central Intelligence Agency officer in 2003.
In 2002, Plame wrote a memo to her superiors in which she expressed her hesitance to recommend her husband, former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson, to the CIA for a mission to Niger to investigate claims that Iraq had arranged to purchase and import uranium from the country, but stated that he “may be in a position to assist”.After President George W. Bush stated that “Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa” during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Wilson published a July 2003 op-ed in The New York Times stating his doubts during the mission that any such transaction had taken place. A Senate intelligence committee report in July 2004, however, found that for most intelligence analysts, Wilson’s report had bolstered the case for the purchase of uranium.
In 2002, Plame wrote a memo to her superiors in which she expressed her hesitance to recommend her husband, former diplomat Joseph C. Wilson, to the CIA for a mission to Niger to investigate claims that Iraq had arranged to purchase and import uranium from the country, but stated that he “may be in a position to assist”.After President George W. Bush stated that “Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa” during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Wilson published a July 2003 op-ed in The New York Times stating his doubts during the mission that any such transaction had taken place. A Senate intelligence committee report in July 2004, however, found that for most intelligence analysts, Wilson’s report had bolstered the case for the purchase of uranium.
Iran Contra Affair
The Iran–Contra affair, also referred to as Irangate, Contragate or the Iran–Contra scandal, was a political scandal in the United States that occurred during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo.They hoped thereby to secure the release of several US hostages, and to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendment, further funding of the Contras by the government had been prohibited by Congress.
The scandal began as an operation to free the seven American hostages being held in Lebanon by a group with Iranian ties connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. It was planned that Israel would ship weapons to Iran, and then the United States would resupply Israel and receive the Israeli payment. The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the release of the U.S. hostages. The plan deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages.Large modifications to the plan were devised by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anti-communist rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua.
Watergate
The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s as a result of the June 17, 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C., and President Richard Nixon’s administration’s attempted cover-up of its involvement. When the conspiracy was discovered and investigated by the U.S. Congress, the Nixon administration’s resistance to its probes led to a constitutional crisis. The term Watergate has come to encompass an array of clandestine and often illegal activities undertaken by members of the Nixon administration. Those activities included such “dirty tricks” as bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious. Nixon and his close aides ordered harassment of activist groups and political figures, using the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The scandal led to the discovery of multiple abuses of power by the Nixon administration, articles of impeachment,and the resignation of Nixon as President of the United States in August 1974. The scandal also resulted in the indictment of 69 people, with trials or pleas resulting in 48 being found guilty and incarcerated, many of whom were Nixon’s top administration officials.
Gary Condit
Gary Condit, a former representative from California, was reported to have an affair with Chandra Levy, an intern at his Washinton DC office. After she disappeared he admitted to the affair but denied anything to do with her disappearance. He was cleared as a suspect. When Chandra’s body was found and police determine that Ingmar Guandique, a Salvadorian immigrant, was responsible.
Joe Wilson
After standing up before Congress and yelling, “You Liar!” at President Barack Obama congressman Joe Wilson was rebuked by the House of Representatives for his behavior and he later apologized to the president about the event.
For More Posts Go To Main Blog
0 comments:
Post a Comment