Letters Show Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) Steered CBC Scholarship Money Directly to Her Grandsons
On August 29, the Dallas Morning News dropped a bombshell into the race for House District 30 in Texas: Nine-term Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, Democrat, had evidently abused her position to push Congressional Black Caucus scholarship money toward several of her relatives and the children of her aides over the course of several years. According to the News:
Longtime Dallas congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson has awarded thousands of dollars in college scholarships to four relatives and a top aide’s two children since 2005, using foundation funds set aside for black lawmakers’ causes.
The recipients were ineligible under anti-nepotism rules of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which provided the money. And all of the awards violated a foundation requirement that scholarship winners live or study in a caucus member’s district.
Johnson, a Democrat, denied any favoritism when asked about the scholarships last week. Two days later, she acknowledged in a statement released by her office that she had violated the rules but said she had done so “unknowingly” and would work with the foundation to “rectify the financial situation.”
It’s that “unknowingly” part that, first, makes no sense, and second, is now clearly not true. The CBC’s scholarship program is unambiguous on the subject of nepotism. Relatives of CBC members — and Johnson is not only a member, but has chaired the CBC — are not eligible. Johnson’s grandchildren also didn’t meet residency requirements.
Johnson took to the air on Sept 2, going on CNN with Anderson Cooper to argue in favor of her ignorance. She didn’t know the rules, she said, the rules were ambiguous, she said, and she hadn’t seen the rules, and she had no direct knowledge that any of this was going on. She even claims that she didn’t know the rules were in print — implying that their being in print is itself part of the problem. It’s evidently a problem in one sense: Their being in clear, unambiguous print makes it harder to spin the problem away.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave…! Now, Ms. Pelosi, about that swamp….
The people representing us in DC are all there for their own enrichment, and to hell with their constituents. We vote the Pelosis, Waters, Reids into office every time they run. When in the hell will we wake up and kick them out on their royal rears?
Term Limits. Easy. additionally, when you leave office the tax payers are not responsible for your welfare. ie salary for life, medical care for life as well as protection for life.
It is to be an honor to serve, not a license to steal.
Term limits, will put an end to the career politicians, who think they are entitled to stay in the position forever. A career office holder, tends to breed familiarity with the K Street lobbyist groups, and a reliance on the campaign funds, the lobbyists are eager to disburse in return for favors. I also think that anyone running for political office that affects so many lives, should be subjected to a comprehensive background check. A check of this type could weed out the charlatans seeking office for personal gain. Lord knows, we have had too many of them over the years.
What’s really disappointing about this kind of thing is that they don’t even try very hard to hide it. At some level if you’re going to break the rules and/or law you should have the personal integrity to do it better than this.
aahhhh…more political ignorance and cheating…i.e, Waters and Wrangle..
The woman had to know what she was doing was wrong…the money was not set up for discretionary use or her family and friends.
When rules are “ambiguous”, the dip weed should stop and question and clear them up.. I think the rules became “ambiguous” after she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
Hey Nancy!!! here’s some more swamp!!!!
WOW…I spit out my coffee on the darn keyboard…I mean c’mon lady….Did you really think we are that stupid…..oh wait…WOW….as the venerable Myron Cope used to say..”that’s a double yoy”…!!!!!
No, term limits aren’t the answer. It’s time to do away with elected officials and simply draft them. Just like jury duty, some random citizen is notified that they’ll be the next congressman for the district. I have more faith in a randomly drawn citizen who works hard, pays their bills and knows how to live within their means than a group of privileged and connected lawyers with more loyalty to a party to further there ‘careers’ in politics than to their constituents. Folks whose professional training is to find folks with money and come up with reasons to take it away from them.
I think it would be better to have a congress that is truly representative of the people it is supposed to serve. Folks who’d really not interested in making careers out of telling others how to live, but simply put in place the minimum rules necessary and go home for 6 months per year.
Obviously you have never been on jury duty! Our government would go down the toilet faster than a cell phone if its members were drafted. The answer is term limits and a set of penalties for Congress much stricter and harsher than common law. This clown Johnson should be treated as a bank robber and sent to prison for 15 years. Also, along with these changes there should be a panel of judges with the power to investigate and have subpoena power over Congress that would allow them to get rid of the crooks like Johnson, Murtha, Rangel, Waters and about 431 others.
Actually Inspectorudy that would be a great way to rid the congress and senate of the United States of most if not all the Democrats (Communists or Socialists)!
We have the same corruption problem in Cleveland with a county commissioner & Dem party chair plus a bunch of other high ranking county (Democratic) officials either indicted, soon to be or ahve already plead guilty to taking bribes, getting free services, giving no-show jobs to friends & relatives, etc. Their response “…I didn’t do anything that others haven’t done before…” This entitlement mentality “they got theirs so its my turn to get mine” is rampant & largely a Democratic phemnomenon. The Dems run the most corrupt locales in America. We need to treat them like vampires in movies – drag them kicking & screaming into the sun light & drive stakes through their hearts.
Same goes for Bell,CA. I would bet my life savings that all the corrupt elected officials in Bell are Democrats. You always know when the media fails to identify the party affiliation.
The arrogant politicians throughout this country are oblivious to the discontent they have created……………..
So – she didn’t read the rules. Isn’t that the excuse most Dummycrats have when it comes to ObamaCare – I didn’t read the bill, my staff did and they never told me what was in it. And so, I voted for it, but don’t blame if anything happens.
“Rectifying the financial situation” is not sufficient. Her grandsons are old enough to go to college which means they should be over the age of 18 and therefore old enough to sign statements that they were not related to her. If they did sign, or just in case they were still under age while they were in high school, their parents signed, they should be prosecuted for fraud.
A fine and imprisonment for the signer for the crime of fraud should be mandatory in addition to paying restitution.
Term limits is not the answer. Lengthy prison terms should accompany outright theft in office.
Term limits is not the answer.
But Romanian term limits are. Lasting, permanent and instructional to the rest.
They keep this up and that’s where it’s going to go.
I agree, long prison sentences for those leading the crime( politicos) and for those helping and receiving the benefits from the crime.
However, as long as the criminals are investigating and handing down the sentences to their fellow criminals, real justice for our “friends” in WA DC will never exist.
A far more interesting facet of this behavior, is since Obama took office they not only do it, but make little attempt at hiding it, Maxine Waters comes to mind. If any here where guilty of the offenses these charges encompass, we would already be in jail trying the make bond. Meanwhile these elitist continue to shove regulations down our throats, and living large on our dime.
God Bless this womans future- if this is one incidence of some petty money laundering, imagine how much other money laundering is going on outside this story- there needs to be more whistle blower incentives in the marketplace.
Houston House Painting
It’s not stealing, it’s reparations.
ZINGO! I wish I’d said that……WHAM!…right on the nail’s head
The most amazing thing about this whole story is that the Dallas Morning News broke it originally. The DMN has long gone after the Dallas school district and it’s endless corruption but has seldom gone after crooked black politicians.
One of the solutions to the criminal congress-person might be term limits, but I think an honest, objective media would work much better. I’d like to know, for example, how often (and the circumstances) that Congresswoman Johnson and these same related beneficiaries have been guests at Dallas Cowboy football games.
Damn, I wish Ma was in Congress so I didn’t have to pay tuition.
Term limits are certainly part of the answer. Judges who actually believe in the 9th and 10th Amendments, a House of Repeal, and banning negotiation with public employee unions are other pieces.
For Democrats this is chump change. Obama’s funneled 2 and a half trillion dollars to corrupt cronies and supporters. Personally, he’s made more millionaires in less than two years than the stock market makes in two decades.
The reasons to vote every lily livered, lying, coniving corruption filled thief out of office actually do number in the trillions. They don’t read the bills they pass and ignore the laws they flaunt. Get their hands out of the taxpayer money-filled cookie jar while you still can afford the trip to the polls.
One wonders where the usual trollish suspects are to try to defend the indefensible.
As a constituent in Congresswoman Johnson’s District (TX-30), I recommend her Republican challenger, Stephen Broden, as an excellent candidate worth serious consideration to send to Washington next year. After nine terms (18 years) of representation, District 30 voters deserve a change. You can learn more about Stephen Broden at http://www.brodenforcongress.com It’s time for new representation in TX-30.
The CBC is a racist group. What’s it’s point except to exclude other races?
Conspire?
Cover each other’s a**??
Race bait???
Not sure…I’m just sayin’.
More work for the new Republican congress judicial and ethics committees!
But anyone who wants to make a big deal out of this must be a racist.
I read on another blog this morning that when Johnson found out the checks were made payable to the colleges, she issued an order to have them voided and made payable directly to her family members.
I’m surprised the CBC gave the, ahem, ‘scholarship’ money out.
It’s a fact the CBC spends more of its monies on their ‘meetings/mixers’ than to DESERVING (Rep. Johnson, are Gregory and Preston Moore old enough to be tried for theft?) SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS.
I don’t know who’s outlived their usefulness more – The NAACP or the CBC..
And what are the odds that this lawmaker-turned-lawbreaker will never see the inside of a prison?
Unless Texas steps up and charges her under state laws.
Aside from armed insurrection, that’s what it’s going to take to clean up our government…pitilessly prosecuting criminal politicians and then casting them down amongst their convict peers in the Penitentiaries.
How many more deserving students were denied their college funds so that this dame’s grandwhelps could get a free ride on her gravy train?
This babe’is future is going to be tied directly to the strength of the cotton industry.
Rock, Bonnie Kate and really everyone else are right on point. But what we are forgetting is that the progressive left in the MSM will protect their chattle slaves. Therefore, like with Rangle, it will take months if not years for the Dems to ever investigate this crook. And by then they will-God willing- be out of power but our delicate white GOPers and RINOS like McLame will not dare to investigate a black.
Rock is right in that now the blacks commit crimes with little or no compunction because they know they can get away with it. They know the lily white progressives will protect them. Every Dem politician especially males bows and scrapes to black politicians.
So blacks commit crimes with utter contempt for America. And Bonnie is absolutely right: to them it is reparations.
I see parmanent harm done to our society. White progressives, Dems and their black “useful idiots” on the one side and the rest of America’s citizens cannot co-exist together as a united nation. They have destroyed our traditions, culture, values, honor, all that is good about America.
If anyone here thinks that the next two elections will make a difference and restore America, please tell me how? Tell me when we can be proud to be white Americans again. Tell me when white children can have the same access to higher education as blacks; when hard working white workers will not be denied jobs because they are white and not a “protected class”; when will the desparately poor white families in Appalachia receive the same allocation of money ss blacks in inner cities; when white workers can ascend to hire ranks and responsibilities because of merit and not be denied that opportunity because not enough blacks passed a test; when hard working white families who saved for a house will not see their home trashed because the neighborhood has been overrun by black or hispanic gangs; tell me when white families who bought a house are not cheated because blacks got their houses free or at reduced rates….
If Johnson, Rangle and all the other CBC crooks and other crooks in the Dem party can get away with their crimes then everything I’ve asked for will never happen. I just took the long way of saying it.
…Your deductions and rational, are spot on! The kicker is that no-one has called you a racist… yet! Maybe its too tuff to play the race card when the games up.
This thief is exibit A in the case for term limits… they need to be burried so deep in Leavenworth that PB will have to pipe light to them.
To tell the truth I’d be happy with being proud of America again. This administration has used every socialist tool to demoralize us, and those who once trusted us. Hated by our foes, mistrusted by our friends and divided within. Political Correctness, race baiting, attacking our nations religions faith, while invoking that same faith in an attempt to shame us to embracing the hate of murderous heathens who seek our destruction. Obama and or his handlers care not one iota for the American dream other than as a tool to mass power. Everyone talks of the upcoming elections. I have little hope of a honest outcome. Given the mood of the electorate why would these traitors continue to bait them, unless they feel they have the elections in the bag. A 1/2 million people on the Mall on a long weekend and the Dems are out of town. They do not on any level fear or respect our concerns. As I have said elsewhere until those entrusted with protecting the Constitution do so, we are nothing but sheep to the slaughter.
This is OLD NEWS already…..SO WHERE’S HOLDER? WHY HASN’T THIS “CROOK” BEEN ADDRESSED YET? The PUBLIC is paying for this woman to “commit fraud”!
STEP DOWN NOW…..YOU’RE COSTING “US” TOO MUCH MONEY AND TIME!
Jesus, don’t you people have a legless female veteran to denigrate? Meanwhile, maybe you should go check out the website Dirty Scottsdale, the legacy of yet another conservative dynasty, Ben Quayle.
Stay pure. Stay classy. Stay godly. Stay repressed.
Hey Troll:
“Jesus, don’t you people have a legless female veteran to denigrate?”
I know that it never, ever would occur to your feeble moonbat mind and it’s slave mentality, but the money that this pig of a woman jacked from the Treasury for her own worthless progeny COULD have been spent on outfitting a motor vehicle for a legless female veteran.
“Stay pure. Stay classy. Stay godly. Stay repressed”
Yes…keep repeating that to yourself while you wonder why the kibble ration being doled out in your federal feed trough seems to be getting smaller and smaller.
It must suck for you, going through life as little more than primate livestock, gazing through the fencing of your barnyard at all the free people, while your masters use you for their own personal benefit.
Don’t despair, though, one day you’ll be sold to be ground down into dog food and rendered into glue…all so that CongressPig Johnson’s grandkids can afford a set of blinged-out rims for their Escalade.
Tool.
Glory be! I detect some fee-floating hostility.
Wow… you just don’t get it do you? Take off the blinders and exit your state of perpetual denial… you are part of the problem.
What is your reason for using the name of Jesus? Are you addressing your comment to him? Or just profaning his name? I think I know why you did it~~you’re frustrated because your usual ignorance and persistance is as intimidating to normal Americans as you would like them to be….it’s always interesting to observe how frustrated people tend to use profanity or yell when they don’t get their way. Use “Allah” next time, please.
your drivel …..”is NOT as intimidating” as you would like them to be….
What, no race card?
Maybe you should ask Bilgeman . . . ” . . . all so that CongressPig Johnson’s grandkids can afford a set of blinged-out rims for their Escalade.”
I’d wait a bit before asking him, though, he seems . . . a bit tense and distracted.
Wanna bet her grand-kids, etc have never been NEAR a college of any kind!! I’ve no idea how much was directed to her family members, but a good indication might be the model year of the Cadillacs sitting in their driveways.
“never been NEAR a college of any kind” That would be questionable… Do they deal drugs?
The Black Causus has a proud tradition of breaking the rules, and they know they are shielded against opposition by their friends in the LIBERAL MEDIA, and if that doesn’t work they have the RACE CARD to use as their favorite weapon. ” My Slavemasters have sent me here today “… One of their favorite preludes to speaches made in the past in front of Republicans. Well ‘the times they are a changin ‘. We will not let this behavior stand any longer,and as far as the Race Card usage…..ITS A JOKE, IT MEANS NOTHING AND AMERICANS KNOW IT. Goodby C.B.C. !!!!!
I hate to say it but what do you expect from our privileged class, now she will play the race card. Being a thief has no one race, it is truly nonracial!
Hey Betty, their,s a big pimpin dawg named Rev. Al Sharpton who,ll be running interference all through the MSM while those Pitbulls a at the Dept of Justice seek recompense for us peasants, against congresswoman Johnson. Maybe you can be his his #1 on this website swooning and mooning us naysayers with street walker repartee.Big pimpin Rev Al just loves youse useful lady types Hmmmm!
Just what the world needs, another redneck wigger. You’ve been too shy about your fame and intellect. Here, let me help. I’ll post your site . . .
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNQ5gZVytk
Is Eddie Bernice any relation to Maxine Waters? The MO sounds identical.
Where’s the NAACP when you need um’?
Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire.
Good afternoon,
Hope this finds you well. We thought you might be interested in this article from the latest issue of D Magazine, Dallas’ city magazine. D Magazine’s Editor In Chief, Wick Allison, scrutinizes the controversy that has embroiled Texas Congresswoman, Eddie Bernice Johnson. Detailing the series of events and false claims of innocence (and ignorance) by Johnson, he reveals another potential area of scandal for the Congresswoman: Johnson has a blind trust that owns a private stake in the Hudson News concessions at Love Field, one of two major airports in Dallas-Fort Worth. It will no doubt come under investigation by the Department of Justice as well.
Allison’s analysis of Johnson’s fate is concise and insightful, and we think your readers will appreciate it.
http://www.dmagazine.com/Home/D_Magazine/2010/October/Congresswoman_Eddie_Bernice_Johnson_is_the_Worst_Grandmother_in_America.aspx
Thanks for taking a look.
Caitlin West
Brand and Communications Assistant
D Magazine Partners
750 North St. Paul Street, Ste 2100
Dallas, Texas, 75201
214-540-0144
Dmagazine.com
Facebook.com/DMagazineOnline
Twitter.com/DMagazine