This would be big news in the Drive By's today except, well, Speaker Pelosi is a Democrat.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year.
Sure, they reported the story. But this will be all you will hear about it. They certainly won't be pressing the issue. Anyone want to take a guess how this would play out if it was a Republican Speaker of the House? Oh wait, we already know, because we've seen that story before.
The payments have quadrupled since Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer of his wife's committee in 2007, Federal Election Commission records show. FLS is on track to take in $48,000 in payments this year alone - eight times as much as it received annually from 2000 to 2005, when the committee was run by another treasurer.
Lawmakers' frequent use of campaign donations to pay relatives emerged as an issue in the 2006 election campaigns, when the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal gave Democrats fodder to criticize Republicans such as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. John T. Doolittle of California for putting their wives on their campaign and PAC payrolls for fundraising work.
More like it gave the media fodder to criticize Republicans, as this was probably the 2nd biggest media story that year. Then again, Pelosi used it against Republicans too, and as noted, she supported banning the practice.
Last year, Mrs. Pelosi supported a bill that would have banned members of Congress from putting spouses on their campaign staffs. The bill - which passed the House in a voice vote but did not get out of a Senate committee - banned not only direct payments by congressional campaign committees and PACs to spouses for services including consulting and fundraising, but also "indirect compensation," such as payments to companies that employ spouses.
Way to lead by example. The most disturbing thing is that as her power has grown, her payola gifts to her husband have also grown. This shows a disturbing and utterly non-surprising abuse of power.
Worst. Speaker. Ever. And worst congress ever. Good job, America. You still want that "change" that you voted for back in 2006 when gas cost less than milk and the economy was strong?
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