wowzer. denny hastert gets $40,000 a month in taxpayer monies

[cali]

U.S. taxpayers are spending more than $40,000 per month on office space, staff, cell phones and a leased SUV for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, even as he works as a lobbyist for private corporations and foreign governments.

The payments are perfectly legal under a federal law that provides five years of benefits for former speakers — but only if Hastert never makes use of his government-funded perks in the course of his lobbying work. Ethics experts say that sort of separation is hard to maintain.

Hastert “has to be meticulous in his schedule to make sure there is no bleed from his publicly subsidized office into his private practice,” said Kenneth Gross, a former Federal Election Commission general counsel and congressional ethics authority. Steve Ellis, vice president of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, called the arrangement “really concerning.”

“It is specifically prohibited — federal dollars can’t be spent on lobbying operations,” Ellis said. “We are paying for his staff for a car, and we need to be very sure that he isn’t spending a dime of that money on lobbying operations. “That all needs to be above board, in the clear and transparent. And it’s not.”

Hastert declined to discuss the situation with POLITICO.

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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30846.html

[ORDagnabbit]

1. I think we need another revolution at this point and start the fuck over.... I get so sick reading

this sort of crap again and again!

[chandler2]

2. Amen, brother...or sistuh. The rest of the world has long known

that we have one of the most corrupt governments in the world, and very possibly THE most hypocritical one.

[asjr]

3. I know we are told what it is for, but what

do you suppose Hastert does with that money?

[Bitwit1234]

4. Plus ...remember he left the House with all those

brief cases full of money from the Arabs. And the bush administration would not investigate as to why he was paid off. But then I guess if the insurance companies can stuff the pockets of our democratic senators and representatives, what's $50,000 from the Arabs.