: Medicare: Who Tried To Bribe Rep. Smith?

[Guest guest]

> Who Tried To Bribe Rep. Smith?

> Stop protecting him, Congressman.

> By Timothy Noah

> Slate

> Posted Monday, Dec. 1, 2003, at 3:17 PM PT

>

> <http://www.house.gov/nicksmith/>Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., says that

> sometime late Nov. 21 or early in the morning Nov. 22, somebody on the

> House floor threatened to redirect campaign funds away from his son Brad,

> who is running to succeed him, if he didn't support the Medicare

> prescription bill. This according to the

>

<http://www.ourfuture.org/issues_and_campaigns/medicare/apsmith11_24_03.cfm>

Associated

> Press. Robert Novak further

> <http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak27.html>reports,

>

> On the House floor, Nick Smith was told business interests would give his

> son $100,000 in return for his father's vote. When he still declined,

> fellow Republican House members told him they would make sure Brad Smith

> never came to Congress. After Nick Smith voted no and the bill passed,

> [Rep.] Duke Cunningham of California and other Republicans taunted him

that

> his son was dead meat.

>

> Speaking through Chief of Staff Kurt Schmautz, Smith assured Chatterbox

> that Novak's account is " basically accurate. " That means Smith was an

> eyewitness to a federal crime. United States Code, Title 18, Section 201,

> " <http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/201.html>Bribery of public

> officials and witnesses, " states that under federal law, a person commits

> bribery if he

>

> directly or indirectly, corruptly gives, offers or promises anything of

> value to any public official or person who has been selected to be a

public

> official, or offers or promises any public official or any person who has

> been selected to be a public official to give anything of value to any

> other person or entity [italics Chatterbox's], with intent to influence

any

> official act. &

>

> Promising to direct $100,000 to Rep. Smith's son's campaign clearly meets

> the legal definition of bribery. The only question, then, is who to

> prosecute. The AP had Smith attributing threats to support his son's

> opponent to " House GOP leaders, " but that was a paraphrase, and it is

> possible Smith meant someone else when he spoke of an actual offer of

> $100,000. We know House Speaker Dennis Hastert spent a lot of time that

> night trying to win over Smith. The trade publication CongressDaily

spotted

> Hastert around 4 a.m., about an hour into the extended Medicare roll call,

> placing his arm around Smith and gesturing. Twenty minutes later,

> CongressDaily saw Hastert work Smith over again, this time with Health and

> Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. At 5:30 a.m., with less than half

> an hour left until the final tally, CongressDaily saw Hastert and Thompson

> give it one final try. The Washington Post's David Broder, in his

>

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A7290-2003Nov22?language=printer>N

ov.

> 23 column, wrote that House aides " recounted that Hastert said Smith's

help

> was vital to the party and the presidenta fitting gift at the end of a

long

> careerand suggested it would also help Smith's son, who plans to run for

> the seat. " That's pretty close to Novak's version.

>

> But according to Hastert spokesman John Feehery (as quoted by the AP),

> Hastert merely said " that a vote on this would help him and help his son

> because it would be a popular vote. " Ordinarily, Chatterbox would consider

> that a laughably weak denial. But Feehery told Chatterbox that Smith had

> personally assured the speaker that he wasn't the individual he'd

> complained about. Schmautz, Smith's chief of staff, said Smith had further

> clarified that the perpetrator not only wasn't Hastert; it wasn't Thompson

> or House Majority Leader Tom " the Hammer " DeLay, either.

>

> Obviously Smith doesn't want to alienate the GOP establishment by hurling

> criminal accusations at whoever this phantom bribe-giver may be. But it's

a

> little late for that. If Smith witnessed an attempted bribery, he has an

> obligation as a citizenand even more so, as member of Congressto make that

> person's identity known to law enforcement officials. Marc Miller, a

> Washington attorney who advises clients on ethics issues, told Chatterbox

> that what Novak described not only looked like " a slam-dunk violation of

> the bribery law " but probably also included " a smorgasbord of other

> criminal violations. " Rep. Smith, Miller said, " should really be sharing

> the specifics with the Justice Department. "

>

> So, Congressman. Enough with the guessing games. Who tried to bribe you?

> http://slate.msn.com/id/2091787/

>