A story I’ve been following with some interest (and not a little black humor) since the beginning of the month:
At some time during the debate over the recent Medicare/prescription drug bill in Congress, it appears that someone tried to bribe Representative Nick Smith, a Republican from Michigan who’s retiring after this term in office. Rep. Smith’s son is running for his soon-to-be-vacated seat. As originally told by Smith, the story goes that “House leadership” pressed him for a “yes” vote on the bill by first promising financial help and leadership endorsements for Smith the younger and then threatening to make sure that his campaign failed if Smith refused to endorse the bill. When the press picked up on the story and pushed Smith to name names, pointing out that if true, the conduct pretty much equaled the textbook definition of bribery, Smith “recanted” and said it never happened. Problem is, Smith was all over the place talking about it before it became a legal issue…
In the latest “development”, if you want to call it that, the Justice Department is dragging its heels over opening an investigation into the matter. Personally, I don’t know how long it takes for the wheels of Justice to grind into motion, but it does seem as if the information is out there just waiting for them to decide to jump into it.
