Christ, What an Asshole - Friday Ethics Committee Edition
Published by BG on Friday, May 18, 2007 at 10:51 AM.TPMmuckraker May 18, 2007 10:07 AM
Wow.
From Roll Call (sub. req.):
The House ethics committee has declared that an earmark requested by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) to build a commuter transit center near a handful of properties he owns would not be an impermissible financial conflict because any benefit to Calvert would be shared by other similarly situated landowners.
Wow.
Just let that sit a little bit. Calvert used his power as a lawmaker to appropriate $5.6 million in taxpayer dollars to build a transit center that's within walking distance of seven of his properties (ranging from office and/or retail buildings to a storage facility). But there's no conflict there, mostly because any financial benefit Calvert achieved “would be experienced as a member of a class of landholders in the vicinity of the transit Center.”
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