LoBiondo Waited to Return Cash?

It wasn't until Jack Abramoff was indicted that Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, returned Abramoff's PAC money, despite the strong evidence and reports of ethical misdoings. Now Tom DeLay has been indicted. LoBiondo has accepted at least $5,692 from Tom DeLay's PAC and has voted with him more than 81 percent of the time. Will he now return this PAC money, too? And why does he have to wait for criminal indictments before he does the right thing? It's a little bit like President Bush. He won't fire Karl Rove for releasing confidential information about CIA agent Valerie Plame unless there is a criminal conviction. Is this our new ethics standard — one based not upon fairness, appearance of conflict of interest and the sullying of our national image, but upon the criminal code of beyond a reasonable doubt? So much for LoBiondo's “Contract with America” to clean up Washington.

JANET L. FAYTER

Egg Harbor Township

Letter Printed in AC Press, October 8, 2005

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/opsed/story/5610654p-5593672c.html