Well, we do have Byron “Skybox” Dorgan who was embroiled in the Jack Abramoff scandal a while back. The media played that as a Republican scandal, but Dorgan (who’s on the Indian Affairs committee) was seen in Abramoff’s skybox at the MCI Center four years before he claimed in a press release that he’d “never met” the man. Next thing you know, he’s returning the money he never got from the man he never met…no worries. The lapdog ND media gave him a pass.
Now we have Senator Kent “Countrywide” Conrad, who is under investigation for getting a sweetheart mortgage deal on property in Bismarck. He too claims he had no idea what was going on, but an NBC News special report interviewed the guy whose job it was to MAKE these politicians know that they got special treatment. I actually lived in the 8-plex he got a loan for; Countrywide’s policy is to loan on no larger than a 4-plex.
Conrad owns this apartment complex near the capitol and claims it as his legal address so he can continue to live on the east coast complements of ND citizens. Even better: he provides another apartment in this complex to Senator Dorgan! I never saw either of them at this apartment building when I lived there, leading me to conclude that they keep those addresses on paper only so they can continue to run for reelection as North Dakotans. Oh, and Conrad gave some money to Habitat for Humanity as penance for his unwitting cronyism, and the KFYR’s and Bismarck Tribune’s of the state sucked it up like always.
These two alone have enough corruption for the entire state. As far as the USA Today report goes, we in ND have fewer people than other states, but plenty of government. The ratio is tipped. Besides, we prosecute our criminals (except for Conrad and Dorgan, we send them to Washington) when they abuse their public office. This whole thing is irrelevant, though; it’s just a ploy to deflect attention from Illinois, the state of the Obamessiah, who the media helped elect and will continue to shield as long as he’s able to hold office.
Previous posts about Conrad’s and Dorgan’s “residences” can be found here and here.