Government Integrity Project

NLPC “blows the whistle” on government officials and interest groups engaged in questionable activities. NLPC has filed formal Complaints with a variety of authorities and regulators, including the Federal Election Commission, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Congressional Ethics Committees.

NLPC supports government integrity in two additional ways: by promoting the First Amendment as the basis for campaign finance reform, and by promoting use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Obama Must Withdraw Geithner Nomination

Posted on by NLPC Staff

Peter Flaherty, President of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), today made the following statement:

President-elect Obama should withdraw Timothy Geithner’s nomination for Treasury Secretary. Obama says that middle–class families with incomes of $250,000 are wealthy and their taxes should be raised, but he wants a Wall Streeter who didn’t pay his taxes to be his point man on the economy.

The amount of unpaid taxes — $42,000 — may sound like pocket change to Geithner and his Wall Street buddies, but it is a lot of money on Main Street.

Geithner’s claim that he didn’t know he was supposed to pay taxes doesn’t pass the laugh test. It is true that American citizens who work for the IMF are responsible for the employer’s share of the payroll tax, but IMF employment includes generous pay and a host of other perks. Anyone who has ever worked there is well … Read More ➡

Obama Invited Blagojevich Appointment of Roland Burris By Backing Off Call for Special Election

Posted on by NLPC Staff

Peter Flaherty, President of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), today reacted to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s appointment of Roland Burris to Barack Obama’s Senate seat by saying:

It’s getting more difficult for Barack Obama to extricate himself from the political mess in Illinois. Obama and other leading Democrats should have stuck to their calls for a special election to fill his Senate seat, instead of reverting to a brokered process. It only invited this kind of shenanigans from Blagojevich.

It is hard to see how Blagojevich’s appointment of Roland Burris has less credibility or moral standing than one brokered by other Illinois politicians. They all come out of the same corrupt culture that includes both parties.

Much of the initial media coverage of Blagojevich missed the point. I don’t believe was he was out of control or some sort of lone wolf. I believe his intercepted conversations are typical … Read More ➡

Unions Among Contributors to Rep. Jefferson’s Defense Fund

Posted on by Carl Horowitz

Congressman William Jefferson has a knack for attracting the wrong kinds of people with money. That skill earned him a high-profile federal indictment a year and a half ago. The Louisiana Democrat is going to need his friends, too, which include labor chieftains, when he goes on trial in Alexandria, Virginia early next year. Voters in his New Orleans district also are showing their loyalty. This November they handed him a runoff victory over his rival, Helena Moreno, in the Democratic primary. And they’re overwhelmingly likely to return him to Congress when he faces Republican challenger Anh Cao in the December 6 general election, which, like the primary, is being held late due to Hurricane Gustav. The man’s been leading a charmed life – at least if one ignores the possibility of a prison sentence of up to 235 years.

 

Back in June 2007 a federal grand jury indicted … Read More ➡

Obama’s Choice of Eric Holder for Attorney General Criticized Because of Holder’s Role in Health Care Task Force Cover-Up

Posted on by NLPC Staff

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a plaintiff in the successful 1993 lawsuit to open the meetings and records of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health care task force, today criticized Barack Obama for selecting Eric Holder as his Attorney General nominee.

According to NLPC President Peter Flaherty, “Holder is not ethically qualified to serve as Attorney General. His track record is not one of independence or objectivity. Instead, he has been guided by politics and self-interest.”

On December 21, 1994, federal Judge Royce Lamberth, who presided over the litigation to open the health care task force, asked Holder, who at the time was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia to investigate Ira Magaziner for possible perjury and criminal contempt of court. He also suggested that Attorney General Janet Reno should appoint an independent counsel to investigate.

Reno announced on March 3, 1995 that she would not appoint an … Read More ➡

Obama Support for Auto Bailout Characterized as Payoff to United Auto Workers

Posted on by NLPC Staff

UAW logoPeter Flaherty, President of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), today criticized proposals to bailout GM, Chrysler and Ford, arguing that the plans are actually intended to bailout the United Auto Workers (UAW). Flaherty said:

The $700-billion Wall Street bailout was not meant to be a prize for special interest groups that were on the winning side of the election. It is a mistake to use TARP to reward high-tax, non-right to work states like Michigan. It was argued that failure of financial firms posed systemic risk; no such risk exists with the automakers.

The automaker bailout is actually a UAW bailout. The union will not allow companies to deploy capital in ways that the market would dictate such as closing plants and layoffs. That’s why UAW opposed the GM/Chrysler merger and a government role in it.

UAW wants to instead enrich health and retirement plans they control, like … Read More ➡