Since Washington lobbysit Jack Abramof pleaded guilty to bribery charges involving several Washington politicians, mostly Republicans, a good deal of them, as well as some Democrats, have opted to return money they had received from the man-or donate said money to charity. Pesonally, I am of the mind that if they took that money in good faith, assumming the contributions were legal, they would not only have the right to keep the money, they would be well advised to do so. Personally, I am not impressed by the show some of these folks are putting on, including Democrats such as Hilary Rodham Clinton, herself a recipient of largesse from the lobbyist. After all, there is nothing illegal about campaign contributions, and this is not the reason Abramof was charged.
Yet another Washington Congressman who has received contributions from Abramof is my own Kentucky Fifth District Republican Congressman, Harold "Hal" Rogers, whose original and major qualification for the congressional seat he firmly holds is the little "r" that is generally displayed following his name.
Put it this way, the man is no Daniel Boone, despite the fact that certain of his supporters saw fit to replace the name of the famous frontiersman, one of the all time great early Americans, on the former Daniel Boone Parkway, a road that goes through a large section of Kentucky's Daniel Boone National Forrest. As out of line and innapropriate as it may seem, this road now bears the name "Hal Rogers Way". Still the same road, maybe with some improvements, but it just don't seem right.
Not that Rogers is a bad Congressman, as a matter of fact, he's a pretty darned good one, especially when you consider the fact that, in order to insur re-election in this district, he really doesn't have to do a goddamned thing. Still, he does what any good Congressmn is supppossed to do, I guess mainly out of pride in position. He brings home his share of the pork to the Fifth District. Now, I said he was a good Congressman-not a great one.
And, he has done more than this, really. Most notably, he is the brainchild, the founder, of Operation Unite, an organization dedicated to fighting drugs in Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky. It works, or is suppossed to work, in conjunction with educators and law-enforcement personnel, in addition to social services agencies, in attempting to do it's part to rid this part of the state of the scourge of drugs, especially the abuse of such drugs as Oxy-Contin, better known as "Hillbilly Heroin", and Meth, in addition to crack cocaine, marijuana, and all the other illicit drugs that afflcit the region.
It takes a three pronged approach to this. Law enforcement, by co-ordinating agencies to conduct stings of drug users, and pushers, is just one aspect. There are also resources dedicated to rehabilitation, which the organization rightly realizes is the key to insuring lives are put back together whenever possible. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, education, mainly through the public school system, in order to hopefully reach the vulnerable and instill in them the knowledge as well as the common sense they need to understand and avoid the dangers of engaging in this destructive lifestyle.
I would have to say Rogers deserves credit for this idea, it is one that has been greatly needed in this state, and similar programs elsewhere would be equally appropriate. Therefore, I decided I would not begrudge him what I assummed was the heartfelt gesture in turning the $3500.00 in campaign contributions he had received from Jack Abramof over to the coffers of Operation Unite, an organization which can certainly not receive too much money.
There is only one problem, which I just learned as of today. Veering over to the organizations web-site in preparation for this post, I made a somewhat disconcerting discovery. The last time the web-site has been updated, as of twelve o'clock noon today, EST, the 13th day of January, 2006-was in October of 2004. More than onr year. Somewhat strange for an organization that seems to depend to at least a large degree on citizen donor support, in terms of both financing and volunteer participation.
Yet, you can see it for yourself. Assumming I clicked on the correct link earlier today, and not an old and outdated one,you can click on the link in the post title and see for yourself. October, 2004, the last update. And that was a reference to an earlier event, like in September of that year, if I remember correctly. Otherwise, there's nothing happenning, as far as I can see.
So, I wonder just what's up with that?
