Sweet Irony: One of Congress's Slimiest Reps Loses $700K Investing in Cronies' Companies

Texas Republican Joe Barton, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is essentially owned by Big Oil. He was the principle principal author of the 2005 Energy Bill -- a massive giveaway to the oil giants -- he launched a ridiculous witch-hunt of an "investigation" into climate scientists who, you know, said global warming wasn't a left-wing conspiracy, and he exploited the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to push even more energy subsidies and ease environmental standards further for Big Oil. (Barton features prominently in Antonia Juhasz's excellent book, The Tyranny of Oil.)

Those Texas oilmen he represents get around campaign finance restrictions by donating to Barton's "charitable foundation", which pays his daughter's salary. That's pretty much his modus operandi -- Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) reported that Barton paid his wife  $57,759 in salary and bonuses out of campaign funds during the 2006 election cycle. CREW adds, "Barton's 2006 campaign committee also paid Barton's daughter, Kristin Barton, $12,622 in salary and bonuses and paid his mother, Nell Barton, $7,000 for a car." 

Now, here's the deal: there are various conflict-of-interest rules that apply to the personal transactions of members of Congress, but they don't apply to campaign funds. So, if one has a powerful role on, say, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, one can invest those dollars in companies that have extensive business before that committee. It's sleazy, but legal.

And that's what Joe Barton has done. For 20 years. But the econopocalypse hasn't treated his campaign funds any better than it has my mother's retirement account ...

Congressional Quarterly (via TPM):

Texas Rep. Joe L. Barton ’s campaign reported losing $703,500 in the financial markets last year.

A large chunk of those stock market losses — $196,900 — were in shares of four companies that have a stake in the bills handled by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where Barton is the top Republican.

Barton is one of a handful of House members whose campaign accounts are heavily invested in stock and bond markets, and, like many other investors, his campaign savings took a pounding when the stock market crashed.

Barton campaign spokesman Craig Murphy said the congressman has invested campaign funds for two decades and has no plans to divest.

[...]

But the confluence of Barton’s legislative jurisdiction and campaign assets raises questions about the propriety of the arrangement.

“If he has stock in a company, whether it’s in his campaign account or whether it’s in his personal account, the things he does that may benefit that company are going to be inherently suspect,” said Andrew Herman, a partner at the Brand Law Group, who has successfully argued campaign finance law before the Supreme Court. “The members of Congress who pride themselves on rectitude probably don’t own any stock and certainly don’t own anything that would be under areas of their purview.”

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

PS: In the spirit of bipartisanship, check out this article on Democrat Jack Murtha's latest little sleaziness problem.

PPS: On a related note, I wrote about this back in November:

Corruption is difficult to measure. Organizations like Transparency International rank countries according to people's -- especially business-people's -- perceptions of government corruption. But perceptions can be a tricky thing -- people doing business in a country can have all sorts of motivations for under- or over-reporting the degree of corruption they encounter. And critics have claimed that the rankings are highly politicized, with business-friendly countries getting a pass even if their customs inspectors and highway cops shake down everyone passing before them.