ANOTHER Obama Administration official in trouble. Unreal.
WASHINGTON (AP) – An aide to President Barack Obama is on leave from his White House job after the FBI raided his old District of Columbia government office Thursday, arresting a city employee and a technology consultant on corruption charges, a White House official said.
The charges were lodged against the two men at a federal court hearing as the FBI finished searching the city’s technology office, which was led until recently by Obama’s new computer chief, Vivek Kundra.
Kundra is on leave from his White House job until further details of the case become known, according to a White House official speaking on condition of anonymity because the official did not want to publicly discuss personnel matters.
Slight correction. Are ther any ‘Clean’ politicians? Seems like an oxymoron to me.
I still can’t figure out how a bunch of guys who can’t do their own taxes feel like they can do a trillion dollar gov’t spending package over a weekend is right either, but what do I know? I mean I just pay my taxes, my mortgage, etc. and don’t look for a hand out. Oh wait, I forgot where I was for a second. hmmm
I was wondering if something similar was going on although I just can’t imagine the media letting something like this “Slide by” for Bush.
It would be an interesting comparison to see exactly how many corruption charges and “Resignations” due to corruption have taken place in various administrations.
Like someone else said “Anyone” or “Anyone in politics”?
I look at my life and wonder what I’ve screwed up that could be construed as “Corruption” of some sort that I’m either not aware of or simply don’t consider “Corrupt”. That being said I have nothing, again to my knowledge, tax wise or anything so “corrupt” that I could be arrested for, again to my knowledge.
Now that being said and the legal system the way that it is, I’m guessing I’ve broken any number of laws at any given time. if someone wanted to do enough digging on pretty much anyone of us I’d guess we’d all be “Corrupt” or criminals in one way or another.
I think if you dig deep enough most people have skirted tax law (How many people pay sales tax on all out of state purchases? How many claim income from e-bay or garage sales? Etc…)
The corruption and other charges are more disturbing to me.
Or maybe Bush’s admin was a lot more effective at hiding things…
Clean politician, clean cyclist, same deal
When Sarkozy was elected, he promised to get rid of ‘cumul des mandats’ (term accumulation)…we’re still waiting…you can still be a member of the chamber of deputies, mayor of your city, something with the gov. etc. all functions you get paid for, get retirement for, and a bunch of other things.
Funny that when Lionel Jospin was prime minister, there was a rule that was not official, but that worked a lot better (at least for the members of the gov.)
Maybe the better question is whether anyone is clean anymore. …and maybe the vetting process is getting more transparent than in years past.
I just read this article, White House Ethics? Mr. No Knows in the Washington Post today about Obama’s ethics chief who handles hiring, lobbying rules etc.
I was trying to remember back when Bush and Clinton first came into office if there were as many people who were “uncovered” to have some problem the prevented them from taking a job with the administration. Also, there are a lot of very qualified people who are turning down offers because of the new ethics rules.
My response is that they’re really not “qualified” if they can’t meet the standards for the job in place at the time of their potential hiring. You don’t lower the bar because “nobody’s clean anymore,” you take the time to search until you do find somebody. Tax cheats and scofflaws shouldn’t be a hired to oversee the tax laws and finances of this country, as an example, just because we’ve convinced ourselves that their particular skill, alone among everybody else, should get them a free pass. It’s the same in every other case. And doing it (hiring these folks) just degrades the ideals and mores we say we wan’t to uphold.
Did you actually read the article? I’m not sure how you would infer that he is not clean other than assuming he was guilty due to someone else being arrested at his office (which in this case is a DC government office)… The article specifically quoted someone as saying the he was not the target of the investigation…
Anyone in politics was what I was implying given it was a story about politicians. I should have clarified knowing how this crowd overanalyzes
But, I also wonder what the percentage of people on here would pass the “corruption” test. I’m sure I would get dinged for my behavior in college considering how far back the press is willing to go. And, I have a feeling someone I worked for wasn’t on the up and up so when my project with him ended I didn’t go back. So, I probably wouldn’t pass but it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be qualified to clean out curruption in the DEA. Just means I have personal experience ;-).
