WA-06: Norm Dicks Lies About Votes to Avoid Debate?

That’s what investigative reporter John Fund of the Wall Street Journal suggests:

Incumbents have come up with some unusual strategies to avoid debates in this election.

Take Democrat Norm Dicks, a 34-year veteran of the House from Washington State. You’d think he’d be eager to tout all he has done for his Tacoma district, but this past Monday he pulled out of a debate with his GOP opponent after the local newspaper had announced he would attend. Mr. Dicks’ office sent a representative to the debate who told the 300 people in attendance that his boss had to miss the event to cast “several important votes” back in Washington. The only problem is that there were no votes scheduled for Monday or Tuesday of this week. While the debate was going on, Mr. Dicks was actually in Everett, a city outside his district, meeting with a group of unionized Boeing employees.

Doug Cloud, Mr. Dicks’ opponent, took full advantage of the Congressman’s absence. “I’m drawing a line in the sand and Norm Dicks doesn’t want to face that line and the mistakes he’s made,” he told the audience for the aborted debate.

If you’re a subscriber to the WSJ’s Political Diary, read the whole article.

Norm Dicks: Mr. Boeing to Mr. Spending?

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.

Dicks, Murray and the Defense Industry Lobby

Last week hotshot KPLU reporter Austin Jenkins got the scoop on Rep. Norm Dicks being named in a report on defense earmarks and campaign contributions. Front-page news, right?

Flashback to March of this year: FBI Investigates Lobbying Firm That is Generous to Murray, Dicks.

So where’s the follow up?  Shouldn’t this be front-page news?

Apparently allegations of political corruption in the form of pay-to-play in our favor factory Congress isn’t a story anymore.  Where’s the Seattle Times of 2008? Or the Seattle Times of 2007? Anybody? Anybody? Bueler?

Are Murray, Cantwell, Dicks, and Baird Out of Touch?

KOMO 4 has more on Rick Larsen’s town hall event held yesterday in Mt. Vernon:

As has been happening in many places across the country, the event drew an overflow crowd of attendees. But an important point was made in the news segment, that shouldn’t be lost on us.  ”It’s important to have these town halls,” said one attendee, even if no minds are changed.

Why?  It’s democracy, stupid.

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