Five days after we pointed you to a Washington Post story on two ethically challenged local congressman, both got a curtain call for being among the 20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress. For their eyebrow-raising, borderline illegal land dealings, Reps. Ken Calvert (R-Riverside, but his district includes parts of South Orange County) and Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar, whose district also takes in a chunk of North County) are ranked alongside such scoundrels as Katherine Harris (R-Florida), Rick Santorum (R-Pennsylvania) and Senator Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) in the rankings curated by the nonprofit Beyond Delay. Delay, of course, is a play on that most corrupt of recent congressional crooks, Tom DeLay, and you've no doubt noticed that everyone mentioned above is a Republican. But Beyond Delay spreads the scorn around, also including as most corrupt Democratic reps William Jefferson (D-Louisiana), Allan Mollohan (D-West Virginia) and Maxine Waters (D-California). And Beyond Delay's list of 5 congresspeople to watch includes darling of the anti-war movement, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania). The 17-term congressman's “ethics issues stem from abuse of his position as Ranking Member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee to benefit clients of his brother, Robert 'Kit' Murtha, a registered lobbyist,” report the watchdogs.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.