That which lends corruption lighter wings to fly

by: Yellowstone Kelly

Mon Oct 19, 2009 at 08:11:21 AM MST

It seems to have worked out. Earlier today, a US District Court Judge said she will declare a mistrial after the jurors of a grand jury declared themselves deadlocked.

Unless you follow progressive blogs, you may not know who Kevin Ring is. Despite being indicted, his name barely made the mainstream news, sort of, about a year and one-half ago. Kevin was a minion of Jack Abramoff's. And, is a good friend of Dennis Rehberg.

Oh, and Kevin gave Denny $2,000.00 in campaign contributions between June 13, 2002 and March 2003.

That just might have been a pay-off for Rehberg's recommendation to a county commission in eastern Montana contract with Mr. Ring to secure money for a project that was never completed.

LITW had a nice post.

But, alas, the burden of proof was not met, again. In fact, the Forbes article referenced above makes an interesting point:

Ring is only the second person implicated in the Abramoff scandal to fight the criminal charges at trial rather than pleading guilty and cutting a deal to cooperate with prosecutors in exchange for the possibility of a reduced sentence. The other was David Safavian, the George W. Bush administration's former chief procurement officer, whose convictions were overturned following a trial in 2006. Safavian was convicted again in a retrial and faces sentencing Friday.

This is pathetic. The single largest scandal of the 21st Century and one conviction.

One!

Looks like Denny caught another break.

Highway 323, revisited

by: Jay Stevens

Fri Apr 25, 2008 at 06:29:48 AM MST

Highway 323 is, of course, the road that Carter County paid Kevin Ring $100K to lobby for, on recommendation by Dennis Rehberg. (Coincidentally, Rehberg received a nice $1,000 campaign donation from Ring the day Ring signed the contract with Carter County officials.)

Well, Ring got Carter County its $9+ million, but turns out there's a little snafu:

Rehberg requested the money in the House. Baucus added money for other projects in the Senate. The final bill contained billions of highway dollars for Montana.

But according to the Montana Department of Transportation, that money can't be spent right away. Instead, the federal government trickles it out a little at a time over many years. That small trickle is not enough for the state to actually begin any construction, which typically cost a lot upfront.

To get around this, the state planned to pool small amounts of federal money from many different projects into one big account and use it for one project, like Highway 323.

Unbeknownst to either Baucus or Rehberg, U.S. House rules forbade this pooling. That meant the state couldn't spend the $9.6 million.

A local businessman is harassing Max Baucus about straightening out the snafu. But the snafu originated with the House rules, not the Senate's. And given that Rehberg had Carter County pay Ring $100K to lobby for an earmark that Rehberg requested, doesn't Rehberg owe Carter County a little extra effort?

Of course, there may be some procedural issue that only a Senator can solve. I don't know much about the rules of Congress. Or it could be that Max is the only one in this equation who actually has any pull to get something done in DC. Of course, if were from Carter County, I'd think twice before trying to lubricate the wheels again. A hundred thou didn't go as far as you thought it would, eh?