Norm Dicks: Mr. Boeing to Mr. Spending?

By Evan at May 8th, 2010.

Norm Dicks (D-Bremerton) is slated to take the gavel of the U.S. House’s most powerful position: Chairman of the Appropriations Committee. In a rather scathing column, the WaPo’s Dana Milbank takes on the Democrats’ pick to replace Obey:

Now, with the just-announced retirement of Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.), Democrats are signaling that he will be replaced as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee by Dicks, the next in line — giving the honorable gentleman from Boeing broad control of about $1.4 trillion in annual discretionary spending. It’s an odd message the Democrats are sending: Return us to power, and we’ll return to business as usual.

As Milbanks points out, Dicks recently survived an ethics probe, even after it was revealed campaign donors gave him contributions with the expectation of gaining influence. Dicks is also one of the top House earmarkers, and opposed an outright earmark ban earlier this year.

Last October, the Seattle Times reported on the ethics cloud surrounding Norm Dicks:

In July, Dicks acknowledged he secured $27 million in earmarks for four PMA clients over the past three years. All of them were defense firms with Navy contracts. Though all of them are headquartered outside his congressional district, all of them have offices in Bremerton.

At the same time, Dicks received more than $133,000 in campaign contributions from the PMA political action committee and the firm’s employees and clients, according to a Moneyline Analysis of Federal Election Commission records from his last four campaigns.

In March of ‘09, the FBI raided the offices of the lobbying power house, PMA Group, which gave Dicks and Sen. Patty Murray thousands of contributions. The Times lede in to the story was:

Congressman Norm Dicks has never been shy about accepting campaign donations from favor seekers.

Now the FBI is investigating one of Dicks’ most generous donors — the powerhouse lobbying firm PMA Group.

Questions remain about the contributions, and Dicks’ connection to the firm that nearly took down his late colleague, John Murtha. Dicks and Murray, Washington state’s two most senior Democrats, were also connected to a $4.5 million boat boondoggle:

Why would the Navy waste taxpayer dollars on a boat that nobody wanted?

Blame it on Sen. Patty Murray and Congressmen Norm Dicks and Brian Baird. All three exercised their political muscle to slip language into a 2002 spending bill to force the Navy to buy the boat from Edmonds shipbuilder Guardian Marine International.

Congressman Brian Baird, who is retiring at the end of this term, was also involved in the boondoggle. Not to be outdone, Rep. Rick Larsen, who is facing a tough re-match against his 2000 challenger John Koster, also has what some might consider a spotty record when it comes to receiving campaign cash from firms he helped get earmarks.

Tags: Boeing, David Obey, Democrats, Earmarks, Ethics, featured, Norm Dicks, PMA