Charlie Bass' One Million of Non-Mystery Private Stock

Good grief - (4.00 / 5)

is it me?  Or is there a disturbing pattern of "erroneous" disclosure forms from Republican candidates?  Between Guinta's mystery money, Bass' questionable ethics, and Ayotte's FRM "the buck never stops with me", we have the trifecta of dubious characters and disreputable dealings.

I can only hope people are paying attention.  

In the immediate aftermath of Since the start of the financial crisis, the Fed/Treasury lent, spent, or guaranteed $28 $29 trillion to save the banking system.

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by: StraffordDem @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 10:27:16 AM UTC

Government is an ATM for the GOP (4.00 / 8)

And Charlie Bass is a piker compared to Judd Gregg, who set up the Pease Base Authority to operate without supervision of the Executive Council. The Authority then awarded no bid 100 year leases on the prime real estate to Judd's brother (with Judd at some point coming out as a partner). Judd then steered millions of dollars of earmarks to build up the infrastructure at the base, which of course greatly enhanced the value of his holdings.

In essence, Gregg was able to transfer millions of dollars of state and federal assets to the benefit of himself and his family.

Nice work if you can get it.

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 11:08:06 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Yup, the transfer of public assets into private wealth (4.00 / 2)

is not a happenstance.  It's really not hard.  All it takes is an analysis of costs and benefits in which the costs are public and the benefits are private -- the very essence of the perfect public/private partnership.

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by: hannah @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 12:19:53 PM UTC

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They're crooks who have figured out how to make crime legal. (0.00 / 0)

When Richard Nixon said, "I am not a crook," it was because he considered himself immune from prosecution.  Until the passage of the Federal Tort Claims Act in 1947, in response to corruption in military contracting during WW II, the principle of "sovereign immunity" had been applied to all public officials, even though the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 had removed it from interactions with the citizens of foreign lands.
Anyway, Nixon, in authorizing the break-in into Daniel Elsberg's psychiatrist's office had clearly perpetrated a crime.  We keep focusing on the Watergate burglary, in which he participated after the fact by authorizing monetary payments for their defense, but the real criminal act he planned and carried out was the effort to get "dirt" on Elsberg.

PBS recently presented "The Most Dangerous Man in America" on POV  I saw it on the web, but now it looks like you have to buy the DVD.

Anyway, biggest mistake, IMHO, was letting Nixon walk.  Really undermined the rule of law as a system based on justice, rather than process.

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by: hannah @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 12:11:10 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

LOL (0.00 / 0)

"get into DC and get right out again"

i.e. spend just enough time to perpetrate another legal heist.  

ethics, shmethics-- Ethics are like the vows taken by priests to exempt them from the laws that apply to regular people. A special law for special people.
It is not an improvement to have behavior that used to be routine (doling out goodies to cronies) reclassified as a special privilege, as long as it's reported.  A conflict of interest is not resolved by being admitted and the failure to disclose does not make the corruption worse.  However, prosecuting the failure to disclose does make it possible to leave the corruption in place.  

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by: hannah @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 10:43:22 AM UTC

"Get in and get right out"-- a strategy usually atributed to bank robbers. (4.00 / 4)

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 11:09:40 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Classica advice (0.00 / 0)

buy low and sell high

Hope >> Fear





Create a free Blue Hampshire account and join the conversation.

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by: Mike Hoefer @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 13:13:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

steal low sell high n/t (4.00 / 4)

note to close readers: this might be sarcastic so think twice before reading to candidates for use in their attacks on each other

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by: JonnyBBad @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 14:34:22 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

"Get rich and you still die." (4.00 / 1)

John Gorka - I walk where the bottles break.

In the immediate aftermath of Since the start of the financial crisis, the Fed/Treasury lent, spent, or guaranteed $28 $29 trillion to save the banking system.

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by: StraffordDem @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 16:40:36 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

love the man (4.00 / 1)

hilarious live

note to close readers: this might be sarcastic so think twice before reading to candidates for use in their attacks on each other

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by: JonnyBBad @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 18:30:05 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Isn't it convenient for our representatives that (4.00 / 3)

the disclosure forms they require of themselves are so flexible?

Charlie might have made $0 on his investment - or $4.5 million. A return of 0%, or of 800%. Th forms ("between 1 and 5 million") keep that detail private.

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by: elwood @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 10:59:33 AM UTC

Oops (4.00 / 5)

So, Guinta made a mistake leaving something OFF the form, and Bass made a mistake putting something ON the form.

Here is a problem for Charlie. The company, run by his nephew, said in a newsletter that Charlie set up a meeting between his nephew and the Secretary of Energy. Charlie says that's not true. He doesn't remember evah talking to the Energy Secretary about this.

Here is another problem for Charlie. He introduced legislation to benefit a company run by a family member.

And if you believe Charlie, that he made a mistake, the facts remain that after he lost, while still in congress, he inquired about buying stock in the company run by his nephew, a company he used his congressional office to help, and in a matter of a couple of weeks after he left office he was able to invest in the closely held company and his stock has multiplied in value.  Even if you believe Charlie is suffering from a variation of Guinta's Oops Syndrome, it still is pretty gross. We don't send  people to Congress as part of a Family Assistance Program, or to promote a business interest that they may want to invest in.

   



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    

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by: Kathy Sullivan 2 @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 11:28:25 AM UTC

ROFLMAO-- (4.00 / 1)

Charlie's private

Family Assistance Program

Now, that's an example of privilege!

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by: hannah @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 12:15:07 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I guess this is a rare instance where the GOP really does Focus on the Family. (4.00 / 5)

"But, in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope." Si se puede. Yes we can.  

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by: Paul Twomey @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 12:43:48 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Better than sex (for me at least) (4.00 / 1)

Even if you forget about the stock, this is reason enough to indict Charlie on corruption charges:

In September 2005, Walker told The New York Times his company was growing so fast he might not have been able to keep up with the orders if Congress had financed the Bass tax rebate.

"It is just as well, Mr. Walker says, that the new energy bill did not deliver a 25 percent rebate on the purchase of pellet-burning stoves or boilers that his congressman, Charles F. Bass, a Republican, lobbied for at his urging," The Times reported. "If it had, he says, he would be even more overwhelmed."

Charlie Bass was a horrible congressman who repeatedly placed his own selfish needs above those of New Hampshire's working families. He merits an indictment, not a return to Washington.  

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by: Dartmouth Dem @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 12:58:03 PM UTC

Bass' M.O. (4.00 / 2)

The fog is clearing.

"I'm passionate about doing whatever I can over a relatively short period of time to change America, and then I want to go back to what I was doing before," said Bass, a six-term former Republican congressman...

So, it looks like Charlie only needs just a small window to crawl into and grab some more PORK!

Then, poof. He'll be gone.

"Ill writers are usually the sharpest censors." - John Dryden

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by: Jack Mitchell @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 13:55:14 PM UTC

It appears the operative word (4.00 / 4)

It appears the operative word in the quote is 'relative'.

Have you told a stranger today about Bill O'Brien and his Tea Party agenda? The people of NH deserve to hear about O'Brien  and his majority committed to destroying New Hampshire and remaking it into a armed survivalist preserve.  

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by: Ray Buckley @ Thu Oct 14, 2010 at 14:57:52 PM UTC

[ Parent ]