Obama, Ethics, Charlie Rangel, and John Murtha

 President Obama has implemented strict ethics guidelines for his administration. Evidently those guidelines don’t apply to Hillary Clinton who as Secretary of State will be meeting with the same world leaders who are funneling millions of dollars into her husband’s foundation. The new guidelines seemingly don’t apply to Timothy Geithner, the tax cheat who will soon be heading the IRS, or Rahm Emanuel who was in conversations with Rod Blagojevich about Obama’s vacant senate seat.

 But anyway.

 Top Democrats just don’t seem to be on board with the president’s new ethics rules. Two top Democrats are caught in their own ethics scandals- Charlie Rangel and John Murtha.

  As Michael Steel, press secretary for House Minority Leader John Boehner points out in the following quote it is much easier to spew campaign rhetoric than it is to actually govern. Obama has much experience in the former and no experience in the latter and it is showing.

We are seeing again and again the gap between Democrats’ rhetoric during campaigns and their broken promises when they gain power.

Despite high-minded promises to ‘drain the swamp’ on the campaign trail, the Democratic leadership and the new administration seem to have no problem cutting deals with senior House Democrats who continue to wallow in the ethically questionable politics of the past.”

 Charlie Rangel writes the tax laws. He also doesn’t pay his taxes so he will fit right in with his soon to be new boss, Timothy Geithner. A good place to start “draining the swamp” would be here. I have written about Charlie Rangel’s tax evasion enough, but here is one more tidbit on Rangel’s corruption:

The New York Times recently reported that Rangel helped preserve a lucrative tax break for an oil-drilling company whose CEO pledged $1 million for the Rangel Center

 It is time to focus on John Murtha, it appears that the noose might be tightening around his neck.

Murtha, for his part, may be part of a new federal corruption investigation. Investigators from the FBI, IRS and DCIS on Thursday raided the offices of two Pennsylvania firms, Kuchera Defense Systems and Kuchera Industries, closely linked to Murtha, as well as the homes of the brothers who run them. Bill and Ron Kuchera and their employees have donated more than $65,000 to Murtha’s reelection campaign and PACs during the last six years.

 What is in it for the Kuchera brothers for their campaign donations?

The Kucheras’ companies have been awarded more than $100 million in federal earmarks, including more than $8 million in 2008.

 The Kucheras brothers donate to the campaign of the man in charge of overseeing defense spending and they receive $100 million in defense contracts. Coincidence? I think not.

 But it gets worse for Murtha and Mr. President.

Murtha’s troubles could touch on the nomination of William Lynn III for deputy secretary of defense, a nomination that contravenes the ethics guidelines that Obama issued on Wednesday on lobbyists

Lynn, a former undersecretary of Defense and aide to Ted Kennedy, is now a top lobbyist for Raytheon, a major defense contractor.

 I thought Obama banned lobbyists?

Obama waived the rule for Lynn

 And to bring this full circle:

Lynn, in fact, has ties to Kuchera Defense Systems via a $100 million missile contract awarded to Raytheon and Kuchera by the Pentagon in 2007. Raytheon’s lobbying records show that Lynn lobbied the Appropriations Committee

 Lynn lobbied John Murtha’s committee. NICE!

 Even one of President biggest allies, the maverick himself, John McCain is disgruntled by the move of Obama’s waiver:

I am disappointed in President Obama’s decision to waive the ‘revolving door’ provisions of the executive order for Mr. Bill Lynn,” McCain said in a statement released by his office.

“While I applaud the president’s action to implement new, more stringent ethical rules, I had hoped he would not find it necessary to waive them so soon

 There is a difference between talk and action and if this story proves anything it is that Obama can talk a good game, but when action is required he looks the other way. The Democrat party is more important that the country. Charlie Rangel and John Murtha are allowed to be corrupt because there is a “D” after their name. It doesn’t matter how corrupt they are, the swamp will not be drained.

 President Obama needs to get a handle on the corruption that is festering in the Democrat party before the infection spreads all the way to the top.

 The “culture of corruption” is alive and well under the Obama administration.