On Thursday, state Rep. T.D. El-Amin, D-St. Louis, pleaded guilty to a federal charge of soliciting and accepting $2,100 in bribes.
Bad. Very bad. As state Rep. Joe Smith, R-St. Charles, told the Post-Dispatch’s Jake Wagman, it causes people to ask, “What are they doing in Jefferson City?”
Part of the answer is this: Soliciting money.
On Wednesday, as El-Amin awaited his day in court and prepared to resign from office, Gov. Jay Nixon’s campaign committee received a $25,000 contribution from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Kansas City.
Since July, Republican Tom Schweich’s campaign for state auditor has received seven contributions of $10,000 or more. In August, state Rep. Steven Tilley, R-Perryville, who probably will be the next Missouri House speaker, received five matching $10,000 donations from a group of nursing homes.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Post-Dispatch editorial- The difference between bribery and campaign donations
A. St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial examines the difference between campaign contributions and bribery...and really doesn't find any difference:
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2 comments:
Interesting..... I made this comparison about a month ago ( Michael Goodrich took money, which was called bribes, from certain people in exchange for some favors and politicians accept "gifts" from people for favors and votes). Is this really a matter of semantics or does the public really view this as different?
Pay to Play.
reminds me of the old joke,
punch line is: We've already determined that, now we are just haggling over the price.
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