Betty Freauf -- Criminals, Lard Butts & Nepotism, Part 2

CRIMINALS, LARD BUTTS AND NEPOTISM
PART 2 of 2

By Betty Freauf

September 6, 2006

NewsWithViews.com

Following the campaign violations, the Bar Association received complaints that suggested Doyle began to neglect his law practice and his clients after he was elected to the Oregon legislature in 2001. Knowing he�d be indicted on 11 counts of falsifying reports between April 2002 and December 2004 he pleaded guilty. And his wife, Victoria, also pleaded guilty to a single count of falsifying a report in connection with her losing candidacy for county clerk. For Dan, each count was a felony with a maximum prison sentence of five years and a fine of $125,000. He eventually was given 10 months but was out in five and he was fined $127,000. Prosecutors said he skimmed more than $146,000 in contributions to his campaigns and diverted the money to his law firm and immediate family. His wife, Victoria, spent 10 days in the work-release program of the county and 240 hours of community service, three years probation and $1,604 fine. In January 2006 Dan resigned officially from the Bar Association.

Through it all, the Doyles were living pretty high on the hog. You do the calculations from the Wirth scandal to see how much his wife was possibly earning working on staff plus his own salary and they were bringing in a pretty sizeable monthly income for six months of really dedicated work at the legislature and yet he needed more. In fairness to the Oregon legislators who don�t earn a great deal of money and must try to keep their businesses afloat for six months (usually Republicans) out of every two year election cycle and while serving their constituents, perhaps it doesn�t seem fair that Doyle should have lost so much. One media pundit came to his defense using the low pay of legislators as a crutch but didn�t he count the cost before he filed for this office not once but three times? Was he forced to run? Did he and his family ever sit down to consider the consequences of being an elected official? Is power so addictive that it trumps reason?

He said, �I was too proud to disclose my financial shortcomings, so I falsified my campaign reports to conceal the fact that I was paying my law firm and supporting my family with campaign contributions.� Doyle won the seat in 2004 but a few weeks later, the precinct people had to choose a GOP replacement.

I talked to him about a matter right after he was elected in 2001 and felt he had some character flaws. I never voted for him again. In June 2004, the Oregon State Bar suspended him from law practice for 30 days after the bar concluded that for a time, he failed to return money and failed to pursue the claims of one of his clients. Dan Doyle was trying to keep too many balls in the air at once and sooner or later, they get dropped.

Early in January the Doyles tried for bankruptcy but the judge wouldn�t erase their fines of $130,000 in state penalties.

I don�t know if any of the above stories made the national news but when Oregon�s Republican Senator Bob Packwood was forced to resign, that did make the national news. After years and years of patting fannies in Washington, D.C. and after the �sexual harassment movement�, the Democrats decided it was time for him to go and the feminists pulled out all the stops, i.e. media attention, bad publicity and Bob went. It�s all a big political game. He returned to Oregon and set up some political organization and he�s been laughing all the way to the bank ever since with his Senate retirement.

We had tried for years to get Packwood out. In 1986, a charismatic minister ran against him and had a tremendous following but at the last minute, President Reagan�s face turned up on the local T.V. station ads saying how he needed Packwood to help him re-write the tax code � or some other excuse- and begged the voters to send Packwood back to D.C. again. The party should remain neutral during the Primary but when an incumbent is in trouble, ethics are tossed aside. And, of course, all that does is alienate thousands more voters. Will the party leaders ever learn?

Then we had our former governor Democrat Neil Goldschmidt, still the power behind the scene in Oregon politics and former Transportation Secretary under President Carter. He was finally exposed a couple years ago as a child molester. It seems he took liberties with his teenage babysitter. It became common knowledge among his cohorts in crime but everyone remained quiet. Of course, the statute of limitations had run out when it finally hit one of our local papers and he never served one day in prison. I�ve been told his current wife was the GOP�s gubernatorial candidate�s campaign manager at one time. So you can see, in most instances, it�s twiddle dee and twiddle dumb running for office. [Read]

And it is not unusual to see legislators disappear from the process occasionally perhaps due to term limits, governor appointments or election defeats (which rarely happens) and then I�ll be reading the newspaper and suddenly I see his or her name as head of some governmental agency at a very high salary. Or they become well-paid lobbyists. It�s called the �revolving door� where the power brokers in Oregon (and I�m sure other states) simply recycle people from one board to another with many interlocks and it becomes the good �ole boys network. New faces rarely show up. They often start out as members on a voluntary school board or perhaps the city council, county commissioners or the governor appoints them to this, that or some stupid board or commission. Then they claim that as their �experience� when they attempt to run for the legislature but what we actually end up with are pettifogging government popinjays spouting the party line. (Gee- I wonder if I could impress former school teacher and now FOX T.V. personality, Bill O�Reilly with that description?)

And it is extremely difficult for an independent candidate to get elected. [Read] We have a lady, Mary Starrett who is running for governor on the Constitution Party ticket. She�s a solid pro-life conservative but the �sheep in wolves clothing� evangelical political leaders are on the attack just like they were in 1990 with another independent candidate. After the election it was discovered that the GOP gubernatorial candidate was funneling money to the �wolves� and they were doing the attack pieces on the independent and placing Voter Guides in thousands of churches with misleading information. Of course, the independent lost because confusion is from the devil and the conservative voters ended up once again voting for the lesser of two evils and the independent (not the evangelical community) was blamed for putting the first female governor into office by the name of Democrat Barbara Roberts, the third wife of Oregon Senator Frank Roberts, whose first wife became a Supreme Court judge. They had a daughter who became Attorney General. The Roberts dynasty was truly one of the most dysfunctional families in Oregon history involved in nepotism.

The GOP candidate in that 1990 race was former Attorney General, Dave Frohnmayer, whose brother is John Frohnmayer � the �indecency czar� that Sr. Bush appointed to head the National Endowment of the Arts. Dave�s wife was a registered Democrat and couldn�t even vote for him in the Oregon primary. After his loss to Roberts, he was appointed to head the University of Oregon where he remains to this day slopping at the public trough.

This is how nepotism works. And if you think this is bad, you should read the book Poverty Is Where The Money Is 1968 about Johnson�s War on Poverty and how the money was foolishly spent on uncompetitive contracts to friends and relatives, high salaries, conflicts of interest and how Katrina ended up exposing the poverty still remaining in the Gulf states. Money will never solve our problems!

Now, this article is not meant to be an indictment on all legislators � both at the state or federal level; however, in checking on a recent Constitutional voting record of all the Congress people in D.C., I found only 28 had a grade of 50 or slightly above and I believe 50 percent is way to low and the Congress people in my own state of Oregon flunked! California, for instance, has 53 representatives. Only two (both Republicans) surpassed the 50 percent grade � one with a 52 and the other with a 57. New York has 29 and they didn�t have one pass the Constitutional litmus test of a mere 50%. [Read]

I found it interesting that Georgia with 13 Congress people had five that passed so percentage wise, they came out on top. They were all Republicans with the exception of Democrat Cynthia McKinney � the black legislator that has been in the news a lot lately. I began to wonder if maybe the New American 7/10/2005 survey was a little to tough on its grading and then I discovered Representative Ron Paul, a Republican from the state of Texas with a 100%. On the Senate side in D.C. I found six out of 100 senators that had a 50 or better grade. The battle we are fighting is against lickspittles that have no respect for the Constitution nor do they concern themselves with the oath they take. Those who do try to take their Constitutional oath seriously are simply outnumbered and their votes are like spitting in the ocean. Elected officials have one thing in mind: Re-election. Voters have got to watch how their elected officials vote, not what they say or promise and with all the information available on the Internet now, the voters don�t have an excuse.

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But then we have to worry about election rigging which is always a possibility. Greg Palast in his book Armed Madhouse explains how Bush won the 2004 election and why the Democrats will do their best to get even in the next go-around. The 2006 and subsequent 2008 presidential race should not be boring. There is no honor among thieves. [Read] and [Read] For part one click below.

Click here for part -----> 1.

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Betty is a former Oregon Republican party activist having served as state party secretary, county chairman, 5th congressional vice chairman and then elected chairman, and a precinct worker for many years but Betty gave up on the two-party system in 2004 and joined the Constitutional Party.

Betty is a researcher specializing in education, a freelance journalist and a regular contributor to www.NewsWithViews.com

E-Mail: bettyboot@wvi.com

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