Bi-partisan bling?

I don't have a lot of trust in the National Legal and Policy Center, but if these reports are accurate, then we may be certain that some democrats have not been altogether hampered by being out of power when it comes to lining their own pockets.

As lawmakers have increasingly slipped pet projects into federal spending bills over the past decade, one lawmaker has used his powerful perch on the House Appropriations Committee to funnel $250 million into five nonprofit organizations that he set up.

Those actions have prompted a complaint to federal prosecutors that questions whether any of that taxpayer money helped fuel a parallel growth in his personal fortune.

The most ambitious effort by the congressman, Alan B. Mollohan, is a glistening glass-and-steel structure with a swimming pool, sauna and spa rising in a former cow pasture in Fairmont, W.Va., thanks to $103 million of taxpayer money he garnered through special spending allocations known as earmarks.

The headquarters building is likely to sit largely empty upon completion this summer, because the Mollohan-created organization that it was built for, the Institute for Scientific Research, is in disarray, its chief executive having resigned under a cloud of criticism over his $500,000 annual compensation, also paid by earmarked federal money.

The five organizations have diverse missions but form a cozy, cross-pollinated network in the forlorn former coal capitals of north-central West Virginia. Mr. Mollohan has recruited many of their top employees and board members, including longtime friends or former aides, who in turn provide him with steady campaign contributions and positive publicity in their newsletters.

The conservative National Legal and Policy Center in Falls Church, Va., filed a 500-page complaint with the United States attorney for the District of Columbia on Feb. 28 challenging the accuracy of Mr. Mollohan's financial disclosure forms. The forms show a sharp spike in assets and income from rental properties from 2000 to 2004.

Federal authorities said yesterday that they were reviewing the complaint, which was reported in The Wall Street Journal.

The case has led several Republican leaders to call for Mr. Mollohan's removal from the House ethics committee, where he is the senior Democrat.

Mollohan, while not exactly denying the charges, says he's a target because he's the senior Democrat on the ethics committee.

In a statement yesterday, he said, "These groups were not created to benefit me in any way, and they never have."

Mr. Mollohan noted that the National Legal and Policy Center had attacked other Democrats and their union supporters and that it began its inquiry last May after he had voted against Republican efforts to water down House ethics rules.

"Obviously, I am in the crosshairs of the National Republican Party and like-minded entities," said Mr. Mollohan, who faces a serious electoral challenge in November. Vice President Dick Cheney is scheduled to headline a fund-raiser on April 21 for the Republican whom the White House recruited to run against Mr. Mollohan.

"They are angry at me, and I fully expect that from now until November they will continue to make baseless charges against me, my record and my family," the statement said. "I will vigorously defend my service and not be intimidated by their heavy-handed tactics."

It will be interesting, though, to learn more about the National Legal and Policy Center. For instance, what's with their obsession with slave reparations?

Then there's their related opposition to "corporate social responsibility."

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), Free Enterprise Education Institute (FEEI), and Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) are sponsoring the CSR Reconsidered 2005 Conference, which will be held on Wednesday, November 2 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC from 9AM-12PM.

CSR Reconsidered 2005 is a counter-conference to the Leftist-dominated Business for Social Responsibility conference also being held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel that same day. Information on this conference can be found at www.bsr.org. The event is co-sponsored by the New York Times, Pfizer, General Electric, Chevron, Disney, Ford, Microsoft, Monsanto, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Intel and many other companies.

CSR Reconsidered 2005 will bring together representatives of several organizations to offer a competing vision of “corporate responsibility,” based on free-market principles. The conference represents the first organized effort to challenge the Left’s longstanding campaign to use corporate America to advance its radical social and political agenda.

“Corporations do have a ‘social responsibility’” says NLPC President Peter Flaherty. “It is to faithfully protect the interests of the shareholders who own the company. When corporations cave into the demands of radical activists, they undermine private property and the whole idea of an ‘ownership society.’”

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has been invited to speak at CSR Reconsidered. Mr. Wolfowitz is scheduled to speak at the Business for Social Responsibility conference later that day.

Sounds like another interesting group of wingnuts. I'm sure better reporters in the blogosphere will find out who's funding them, though I have my suspicions.

Not defending Mullohan -- or earmarks -- though his did seem to be funneled to groups created to salvage the economy and environment of West Virginia. But such tidy packages tied up with a bow for the Wall Street Journal to report smell a wee bit.