Who ARE These Democrats Who Would Lead the Nation?

The American news media wasted two weeks with stories about EX Republican Congressman Mark Foley and his disgusting emails and online chats.

The one good thing this scandalmongering did was focus the American voter's attention on ethics and responsible behavior in our elected officials. Right? I mean, we all want to make sure that those who serve in our nation's government have the highest ethical and moral standards if we are to trust them to lead our great country in a time of war.

At Mike's America, we've already discussed the curious phenomenon where the scandal of an EX GOP Congressman generates millions and millions of articles in the online search giant Google's database and yet the financial scandal of Senator Harry Reid, who would lead the Senate if Democrats take control, gets less than 400,000 articles in the Google index.

Shouldn't we know at least as much about Democrats who would take control over the Legislative Branch of government as we do about an EX Congressman? Isn't that the primary function of the news media? To inform American voters?

Who is John Conyers and Why You Should Care

If Democrats take control of the House of Representatives Congressman John Conyers (D-Michigan) will take over as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Not important you say? Consider that the current Chairman, James Sensenbrenner, has been at the forefront of Congressional battles to keep the Patriot Act strong and fight illegal immigration. All that could be undone by Conyers.

Chicken Hawk Express has more on Conyers and his radical far left beliefs. He would be at the heart of efforts to investigate and, if possible, impeach President Bush. Instead of improving the nation's national security, he would instead push issues like reparations for slavery.

Conyers is a hero to the hate-Bush left. Lewis H. Lapham, former editor of Harper's magazine lauded Conyers for daring to take on President Bush, who Lapham describes as "[A] thief who steals the country's good name and reputation for his private interest and personal use."

What About a Man Who Steals Thanksgiving Turkeys From the Poor ?

In the minds of the left, Conyers is some great moral crusader out to save us all from King George! But as usual, reality is something a bit different from that fantasy world the left inhabits.

Serious unresolved ethics questions, which the mainstream media seems mostly to ignore, continue to swirl around Conyers.

In March, 2006 The Hill newspaper, a daily newspaper focusing on Congress, reported that two former Conyers' aides had made detailed and documented complaints of ethical misconduct in Conyers' congressional office to the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office. In the report "they allege that Conyers demanded that aides work on several local and state campaigns and forced them to baby-sit and chauffeur his children. They also charge that some aides illegally used Conyers' congressional offices to enrich themselves. "

"I could not tolerate any longer being involved with continual unethical, if not criminal, practices which were accepted as 'business as usual,'" Maher wrote in a letter to the ethics panel dated Jan. 13, 2006.

Well you can hear the lefty apologists now: "No big deal" they will say. They've said as much regarding Senate Minority Leader Reid's financial scandal. So sweep these unethical, improper and possibly illegal matters under that bumpy rug that hides more Democrat scandals than dust bunnies.

But can those same Democrats, all proclaimed defenders of the poor, minorities, the hungry pooh-pooh this:

Where Are The Turkeys, Congressman Conyers?
By Joel Thurtell
Detroit Free Press (reprinted in MIGOP.ORG)
January 5, 2005

The director of a Detroit food bank wants to know what happened to 60 turkeys -- 720 pounds of frozen birds -- that his charity gave to members of U.S. Rep. John Conyers' local staff two days before Thanksgiving to give to needy people.

Conyers' Detroit office promised an accounting of any turkey distribution by Dec. 27, but the Gleaners Community Food Bank had received no paperwork as of Tuesday, said the charity's director, Agostinho Fernandes.

Fernandes said he became suspicious that the turkeys didn't get to poor people after hearing from a friend that a federal court worker had said he was offered free turkeys from a member of Conyers' staff.

Conyers' press secretary Karen Morgan said Tuesday that she was told that some of Conyers' staffers gave the turkeys to poor people whose names were provided by the state Family Independence Agency. A fax with those names, she said, was to be sent Tuesday or today to Gleaners.

Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for the FIA, said Tuesday, "I spoke to the central FIA office in Wayne County, and they were unaware of the turkey situation.

"Normally, we don't provide names" of FIA clients, Sorbet added. "Sometimes at Christmastime we might if people self-disclose. It's remotely possible."

By mid-afternoon Tuesday, Fernandes said he had received nothing from Conyers' office.

"I've got to tell you that our mission of feeding hungry people has been violated by the people who should have been guardians of our mission," Fernandes said.

Fernandes said Conyers staffer Elisa Grubbs signed a Gleaners invoice Nov. 23 acknowledging she picked up the turkeys on the congressman's behalf. Fernandes sent the Free Press a copy of the invoice.

Morgan said the staffers who picked up the turkeys had promised to provide Gleaners with an accounting by Dec. 27. Morgan said she would ask Conyers to call the Free Press to answer questions about the turkeys, but he did not.

Morgan said Tuesday that she had been assured that a list of recipients exists, but added that she had not seen it.

"You can imagine how we feel," Fernandes said. "They didn't pay anything. This was donations to them to help the needy. We get calls from different representatives who want to put together food baskets for their needy constituents and you have faith that these people are going to bring the food to the people it's intended to go to."

A Conyers staff member who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal told the Free Press that Grubbs and her cousin, Conyers' Detroit deputy chief of staff Marion Brown, along with a former Conyers aide, DeWayne Boyd, picked up the turkeys and later gave contradictory accounts of what happened to the birds.

The unnamed staff member raised concerns in a memo sent to both the FBI and House ethics committee. Conyers was the target of an informal ethics committee inquiry last year following a Free Press investigation about use of staff members during work hours for political campaigns.

Boyd, who was fired from Conyers' Detroit office in 2002, was convicted on seven counts of fraud last month in U.S. District Court in connection with a scam he ran from Conyers' office in 1999.

With serious allegations that food meant for the Thanksgiving table of poor people in Detroit went instead to reward political supporters of a Congressman, you would think the anointed watchdogs of ethics and morality that have spent weeks pillorying Republicans in the Foley matter would have been just as outraged when the Conyer's scandal was disclosed. You would be wrong.

CREW, or the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, has been at the forefront of the Foley scandal. You won't find any mention of serious concerns in CREW statements regarding the man who could be the most powerful shaper of judicial and legal matters in the new congress.

Why is that? Simple: Melanie Sloan, who serves as CREW's Executive Director, was employed by Congressman John Conyers on the Democrat staff of the House Judiciary Committee.

Once again, rules of conduct, ethics and standards of behavior are being applied only to Republican members of congress. And the same news media and ethics watchdogs which trumpet GOP wrongdoing with such amazing zeal all but ignore serious questions regarding those who would lead Congress if Democrats take control.

Where are those turkeys Congressman Conyers? Working for CREW!