Preet Bharara: Wall Street's Biggest Enemy! Obama Appointee

Under George W. Bush's Administration Insider Trading & Securities Fraud Peaked (i.e., Bernie Madoff Among Others).

Due To The Republican Party's Bitter Revulsion Of Regulation & In Exchange For Fat Campaign Checks, GOP Lawmakers Turned A Blind Eye & Deaf Ear To Corporate/ Financial Crimes.

Then Comes The Nov. 2008 Election Which Ushers In Pres. Obama!

He Comes In Smiling Like A Subservient Lamb, Fooling Everyone!

This Smiling, Shrewd, "Subservient" Lamb Delivers A Powerful Blow To Wall Street By Appointing U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara To The Manhattan Office.

Mr. Bharara Is Now Wall Street's Biggest ENEMY!

Ha Ha Ha!

CAUTION:

I Strongly Advise Mr. Bharara To Watch His Back!

Former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer Once Went After Wall Street's Crooks And Look What Happened To Him.

Let Me Be Clear Despite My Disagreements With Pres. Obama's Administration In The Past On Some Issues, I Am Without A Doubt, Boldly Endorsing Pres. Barack Obama For Re-election In 2012!

Its NOT Unusual For A Politician's Constituents To Disagree With Them On Certain Issues Because Human Beings Are Individuals.

However At The End of The Day Its About Who's STILL Standing By Their Side.

I Stand By Pres. Obama's Side!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

U.S. Attorney Sends a Message to Wall Street

Every few days during the trial of Raj Rajaratnam, the Galleon Group’s co-founder, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, would quietly enter the courtroom and take a seat in the last row of the gallery.

From that unassuming vantage point, Mr. Bharara watched his colleagues try to persuade a jury to convict the former hedge fund titan of securities fraud and conspiracy.

The consistent presence of Mr. Bharara at the largest insider trading case in a generation — and the office’s resounding victory on Wednesday — signaled that the chief federal prosecutor in Manhattan was back as the sheriff of Wall Street.

Over the last decade, the New York attorney general, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, the Manhattan district attorney and even the Justice Department in Washington angled for their share of financial fraud cases, an area traditionally dominated by the Southern District. For example, Eliot Spitzer grabbed headlines when he was New York attorney general by focusing on malfeasance at investment banks.

But Mr. Bharara has not-so-quietly reaffirmed his office’s leading role in pursuing corporate crime with this landmark insider trading case, which relied on aggressive prosecutorial methods and unprecedented tactics. For the first time, federal authorities used wiretaps to listen in on stock traders swapping illegal tips.

“What this case has done,” said Neil M. Barofsky, a former Southern District prosecutor who recently served as the special inspector general for the government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, “goes well beyond simply putting a billionaire hedge fund manager behind bars.”

“The case will impact an entire industry,” Mr. Barofsky said. He said that Mr. Bharara “did more than just oversee and support the prosecution — he made sure that the target audience, traders on Wall Street, fully understood the extraordinary lengths that his office will go to discover these crimes, and that justice will be served.”

It has been 21 months since Mr. Bharara, 42, was appointed United States attorney by President Obama.

In that short tenure, his staff has ventured far beyond Wall Street, prosecuting some of the nation’s — and the world’s — most prominent defendants. Among them: Faisal Shahzad in the Times Square bomb plot; agents in a Russian spy ring; Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first Guantánamo Bay detainee to be tried in the civilian system; Viktor Bout, a Russian accused of being an arms trafficker; a Somali man charged with piracy; and four men charged in a plot to bomb synagogues in the Bronx.

Not every case has gone smoothly. In Mr. Ghailani’s trial, the jury acquitted him of more than 280 counts of murder and conspiracy and convicting him of a single count of conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property. Nonetheless, Mr. Ghailani received a life sentence.

Some academics and newspaper columnists have also criticized Mr. Bharara for not filing criminal charges against senior executives at the center of the financial crisis. Last week, when his office filed a civil mortgage-fraud lawsuit against Deutsche Bank, he said there was not enough evidence to justify a criminal complaint.

Mr. Bharara was an infant in 1970 when he came to the United States from India with his parents. He grew up in Eatontown, N.J., and earned degrees from Harvard and Columbia Law School.

After several years in private practice, including a stint at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in New York, Mr. Bharara became a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, handling organized crime, narcotics and securities fraud cases. In 2005, he became chief counsel to Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, leading a Congressional inquiry into the firings of United States attorneys.

Some lawyers have wondered aloud whether Mr. Bharara may have political aspirations like his predecessors, including former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who filled the post in the 1980s. As with Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Bharara is a charismatic figure who is comfortable in front of cameras, can talk tough and has a knack for the witty sound bite. At a news conference announcing Mr. Rajaratnam’s arrest, Mr. Bharara riffed off a famous line from the movie “Wall Street.”

“Greed, sometimes, is not good,” he said.

Unlike Mr. Giuliani, whose political ambitions seemed barely hidden while he led the prosecutor’s office, Mr. Bharara has told friends he has no interest in elected office.

“Everything about Preet’s record suggests that he’s a federal prosecutor for all the right reasons,” said Randy Mastro, a lawyer at Gibson Dunn and a former top deputy under Mayor Giuliani. “The best prosecutors are often those who don’t have political ambitions.”

Mr. Mastro, who overlapped for a time with Mr. Bharara at Gibson Dunn, added, “But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be drafted into running.”

Ellen Davis, Mr. Bharara’s spokeswoman, said in a statement on Thursday: “Preet loves his job and has no desire to run for public office now or ever.”

Mr. Bharara has not commented publicly on the Rajaratnam verdict, other than a short statement in a news release. But in a series of speeches, he has explained his aggressive approach to corporate crime.

“When sophisticated business people begin to adopt the methods of common criminals, we have no choice but to treat them as such,” Mr. Bharara said weeks after revealing the use of wiretaps in building a case against Mr. Rajaratnam. “To use tough tactics in these circumstances is not being heavy-handed; it is being even-handed.”

He has taken that approach in other areas of financial crime.

His office secured convictions in two high-profile criminal cases against bank executives accused of stealing proprietary computer code related to high-frequency trading businesses, including a case against a former programmer at Goldman Sachs. More recently, Mr. Bharara’s prosecutors charged the operators of three popular online poker sites with fraud and money laundering.

And Mr. Bharara continues to pursue insider trading cases. Over the last 18 months, his office has charged 47 individuals with insider trading crimes, 36 of whom have pleaded guilty or been convicted. At a recent news conference, he indicated there was more to come.

“I wish I could say we were just about finished, but sadly we are not.”




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Sources: MSNBC, NY Times, Russia Today, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps

Anne Tompkins Officially Confirmed As U.S. Attorney (Western District)

Charlotte lawyer Anne Tompkins Confirmed As U.S. Attorney


The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed Anne Tompkins as the U.S. Attorney for Charlotte and the Western District of North Carolina.

President Obama nominated Tompkins for the post last December.

Tompkins, 47, is a former Federal and State Prosecutor.

She has been a partner in the law firm of Alston & Bird in Charlotte where she has handled white collar Criminal Defense and advised corporations on how to comply with Federal laws and stay out of trouble.

Tompkins will earn $153,000 a year and oversee more than 30 prosecutors stationed in Charlotte and Asheville.

The Western District stretches from Charlotte to the Tennessee border.

As a State Prosecutor, Tompkins helped put serial killer Henry Louis Wallace on death row in 1997 for the murders of nine Charlotte women.

As a Federal prosecutor, Tompkins went on an eight-month assignment to Iraq in 2004 and helped advise the tribunal that prosecuted Saddam Hussein.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Whitehouse.gov, Google Maps

Eric Holder vs. The Obama Administration; Thrown Under The Bus Too?

The Attorney General's Friendly Fire


The GOP has been out for Eric Holder's head for weeks over his handling of the Khalid Sheikh Mohammed trial. But lately, some Democrats worry the White House may be Holder's most dangerous enemy.

Eric Holder has been under fire from across the aisle for weeks now. Sarah Palin bashed the attorney general's decision to try terrorists in federal courtrooms instead of military tribunals, saying he should resign because "of the way that we are treating these terrorists and allowing them our constitutional protections when they don't deserve them."

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey told Fox News—the favorite broadcast venue for Holder's critics—that the management of terrorism trials under Holder created the appearance of "amateur night" at the Justice Department. Missouri Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, joined the chorus a few days ago, tearing into the AG's decision to pursue a civilian trial for the young Nigerian accused of trying to bomb a jetliner on Christmas Day. "I think Eric Holder has been totally wrong, and he should go," Bond told The Wall Street Journal.

But now, it seems, Holder has a far worse problem: being second-guessed, very publicly, from within the administration—by the president himself.

On Friday, the White House disclosed that the president will become involved in the decision of how and where to try to terrorist suspects—decisions that Holder had previously described as free of political influence because they were his and his alone.

The drumbeat of criticism has anxious Democrats wondering if the attorney general, despite what appears to be a genuine friendship with Obama, can hold on to the job that admirers say he has coveted since he first signed on at the Justice Department as an ambitious young prosecutor in the 1970s.

"Eric needs to fight back hard," a senior Senate Democrat tells The Daily Beast. "He has real enemies among the Republicans, who want to make him the face of how Democrats have supposedly gone soft on terrorism. And it looks like he has real adversaries in the White House, too."

The administration is scrambling to find somewhere to try 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after Holder's original plan—to hold the trial in a civilian courthouse in Lower Manhattan, only blocks from ground zero—was opposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had originally supported the idea.

City officials feared that "the trial of the century," as Holder once proudly described it, would be a neon-lit invitation to terrorists to attack again.

In an embarrassing about-face, the White House is now holding out the possibility that Mohammed and four other 9/11 plotters will face a military tribunal, and that the trial will take place somewhere—anywhere—other than New York.

The White House is eager to head off a Senate bill that would bar any terror suspect held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp from being brought to the United States for civilian trials; the idea has support from moderate Democrats.

Some liberals have questioned whether Obama's involvement represents an improper assertion of the White House into a matter properly left to the Justice Department—political pressure on a law-enforcement decision. But former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, a Republican who served under President George H.W. Bush, says the White House had made a mistake from the start by trying to burden the attorney general with sole responsibility for terrorism prosecutions.

"I don't want to be too hard on Eric Holder," said Thornburgh, adding he has long admired the AG. "I think the mistake was made in off-loading the whole decision on him in these cases."

Thornburgh said the White House should have stepped in much earlier in decisions about "where Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is going to be tried and how do you deal with the Christmas bomber—those are classic national-security questions" that go well beyond the Justice Department.

Through his spokesmen and others at the Justice Department, Holder insists that the Republican criticism of his decision-making smacks of politics ahead of this November's mid-term elections, when the GOP hopes to portray the Obama administration as soft on terrorism.

"Much of the criticism has been more focused on politics than on facts, and that's unfortunate," his chief spokesman, Matthew Miller, tells The Daily Beast.

The reports of strife between Holder and White House officials, especially Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, are "overblown," Miller said. "We work well with the White House on a number of issues."

But others in the administration say Holder often does feel under siege from White House officials, Emanuel in particular, who believe the attorney general is unnecessarily antagonizing Republican leaders—and voters—in trying to prove that civilian courts can deal with terrorist cases.

Recent polls suggest that the public, by an overwhelming margin, prefers that terrorists be dealt with in military tribunals, not in civilian courts.

Whatever the flap over terrorism cases, Holder's defenders insist that he has otherwise done well in his first year at the Justice Department given the turmoil he found there in the aftermath of the Bush years, when the department was regularly accused—and not just by Democrats—of being turned into a political arm of the White House.

Behind the scenes, aides say, Holder has been rebuilding parts of the department that the Bush administration had effectively neutered, if not shut down, especially the divisions that are charged with enforcing Federal Laws on Civil Rights, Anti-Trust, and the Environment.

After years of scandal, many department Veterans, Democrats and Republicans alike, agree that Holder has restored a sense of calm and competence in the long-battered agency.

"Eric has made real efforts to earn the respect of the American public for the department, which rightly or wrongly lost a lot of respect in the latter years of the Bush administration," Thornburgh said. "That's an accomplishment."

Sources: The Daily Beast

Max Baucus Questions Reason For Ethics Inquiry...Conflict Of Interest

Harvard Law Professor Larry Lessig: The effects of Political Corruption on Voters. In this video Sen. Max Baucus is the focus of a lesson on Political and Public Corruption.






(Politico) Baucus: "No sense" in Ethics inquiry


Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on Saturday dismissed calls for the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate his recommendation that the White House consider his girlfriend for a top federal prosecutor’s position in Montana.

“I can’t understand why,” Baucus said when asked about calls for the panel to probe the matter. “I don’t understand why that’d be the case. Everything of it is straight up and up. I went out of my way to be up and up. That doesn’t make any sense to me.”

On Friday night, Baucus’ office disclosed that the senator had recommended his girlfriend, along with two others, for the White House to consider for the position of U.S. attorney in Montana. But as the Justice Department was reviewing the candidates, Baucus said his relationship with Hanes intensified, and the two decided that it was time for her to withdraw her name.

“At some point when we were becoming quite close, then I thought it made more sense and she thought it made more sense not to continue,” Baucus told reporters just off the Senate floor Saturday.

While GOP senators mostly stayed away from commenting on the matter, Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the question that Baucus used his Senate office “to advance a taxpayer-funded appointment for his staff-member girlfriend raises a whole host of ethical questions.”

“This issue demands the attention of the Senate Ethics Committee,” Steele said. “They should hold a hearing to identify who was involved in this process, what they knew and when they knew it, and why Senator Baucus put his personal needs above those of the people of Montana.”

Democrats pointed out Saturday that the RNC did not call for an Ethics investigation into the sex and lobbying scandal involving Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.).

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Ethics Committee, declined to comment on a possible investigation.

But some members of the Ethics Committee seemed to expect Saturday that the panel would have to at least look at the matter.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who sits on the panel, said “if there’s any chance it may come up,” he didn’t want to comment on the controversy.

Melanie Sloan, who heads the watchdog group the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said she didn’t see the matter warranting an Ethics Committee investigation, saying that politicians on a regular basis recommend people who are close to them to get top spots in the administration, especially U.S. attorney positions.

“I think Baucus showed bad judgment,” she said, but added that the fact that Hanes withdrew from consideration makes it even more difficult for the panel to reprimand the senator.

Stan Brand, an ethics attorney in Washington, said that Baucus’ promoting of his girlfriend doesn’t seem to run afoul of any nepotism statutes or ethics rules.

Baucus and Hanes began their relationship in summer 2008, when Hanes was serving as Baucus’ state director, and both are now divorced and live together on Capitol Hill. Baucus took pains Saturday to argue that he was not having an extramarital affair with Hanes since both were separated from their spouses when the relationship began.

“It’s very, very happy in my life – where I am,” Baucus said. “It’s wonderful. … There was no affair.”

Baucus said that when there was an opening for the U.S. attorney position in Montana, Hanes put her name forward, which didn’t surprise him because she was “unbelievably qualified” with her background working in prosecutors’ offices and in the legal field.

He said six people applied for the job, and he submitted their resumes to a lawyer in Montana, a process that he said is “totally objective” and that he used to “totally get the best persons possible.” The lawyer came back with the three names, including Hanes’, and both he and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) interviewed the three candidates.

Baucus then submitted the names to the Justice Department, but he said Saturday that he did not lobby administration officials to choose Hanes. And he added that the two later decided they did not want to carry on a relationship 2,000 miles apart, prompting her to withdraw from consideration.

Hanes later got a job as acting deputy administrator for policy in the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, which Baucus said she earned on her own merits, with no help from his office.

Asked if he should have recused himself from the process of considering Hanes this past spring, Baucus said he thought his long-used process to vet candidates yielded “sufficient objectivity.”

But Baucus said he didn’t know whether the third-party reviewer was aware that he and Hanes were carrying on a romantic relationship.

“I do not know if the vetter did or didn’t,” Baucus said. “The point is that when it became apparent that the relationship was becoming close, then it made sense for it not to continue.”

Baucus said he didn’t think the White House was aware of the relationship – or his close friend and former chief of staff Jim Messina, who is now the White House’s deputy chief of staff. And he said that he didn’t believe Messina played a role in the process of choosing the attorney.

Obama later selected Michael Cotter, who was one of the two other names Baucus submitted.

“I did not at all push” Messina or the White House to nominate Hanes, Baucus said.

Still, the Friday night disclosure of the unusual episode threatened to cause a distraction in the Senate’s historic health care debate, which Baucus is leading as chairman of the powerful Finance Committee. But Baucus said it would have “no effect whatsoever” on the health care debate, and that his colleagues were offering him encouragement on the Senate floor Saturday.

“All in all, I kind of wonder why someone called a blogger in the middle of the health care debate,” Baucus said in an apparent reference to the website Main Justice, which first reported the story Friday night. “I’m not going to insinuate anything but it seems a little interesting.”

Democrats came to Baucus’ defense Saturday and insisted the matter would not deter from their efforts to pass a bill out of the Senate by year’s end.

“No distraction,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) of the controversy. “Not in the least,” added Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.

Baucus informed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of the matter soon before the story broke Friday night, and Reid came to his defense Saturday.

“Max is a good friend, an outstanding senator and he has my full support,” Reid said in a statement.




(MSNBC) Aide: Baucus nominated girlfriend for Fed Post


Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus was already involved with his girlfriend and former staffer when he recommended her earlier this year to become the next U.S. attorney for Montana, a spokesman said.

The Montana Democrat and his former state office director Melodee Hanes began their relationship in the summer of 2008, after Baucus separated from his wife, Ty Matsdorf told The Associated Press late Friday.

Baucus nominated Hanes for the U.S. attorney post in Montana in March. But she later withdrew, saying she had been presented with other opportunities she couldn't pass up.

The Senate leader who's been a major proponent of Democratic health care legislation had submitted six names to a third-party reviewer, who whittled those to Hanes and two others. Matsdorf said the senator sent the three names to the White House with no ranking.

"Senator Baucus recommended each of the three candidates based solely on qualifications, and merit, knowing whichever one the White House selected would serve Montana well," Matsdorf said.

The spokesman said Baucus and Hanes decided during the nomination process that she should withdraw her name because the couple wanted to live together in Washington, which they later did.

Reason for disclosure?

Matsdorf declined to say why the senator was just now disclosing the circumstances surrounding the nomination, which was first reported in Roll Call, an online publication that covers Washington politics.

Baucus and his ex-wife Wanda announced last April that they planned to divorce after 25 years of marriage. In a joint statement, they said they have "parted ways amicably and with mutual respect."

Before the April announcement, Baucus said the couple had some "differences" in the marriage, which was his second.

Hanes started working for Baucus in 2002 and was his state director before leaving his office earlier this year for a position in the U.S. Department of Justice.

"Mel is supremely qualified and she got to her current position based solely on her merit," Matsdorf said.

President Barack Obama eventually nominated Helena attorney Michael Cotter for U.S. attorney, who supervises prosecutors of all federal crimes committed in Montana and the state's seven Indian reservations. Cotter is awaiting confirmation.

Baucus was elected to the Montana House in 1973 and to the U.S. House in 1974 and 1976. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 at age 36, and is up for re-election in 2014.

The senator has played increasingly visible roles in Congress, sometimes willing to buck his Democratic Party on certain issues. He seems to take the position that the state that sent him to the Senate for five terms is fundamentally conservative and its voters want someone willing to base votes on more than party lines.

At the center of health reform effort

Most recently Baucus has been at the center of an effort to move sweeping health care legislation through the Senate with a bill aimed at meeting Obama's goal of overhauling the nation's health care system to cover 48 million uninsured Americans.

Just on Friday, Baucus went against his party and backed a Republican effort to eliminate a long-term care insurance program to help seniors and the disabled. Republicans argued that the new plan would be a drain on the federal budget.

The Democrat has also been in the middle of other congressional battles: He played a key role in 2003 legislation adding a prescription-drug benefit to the Medicare program and enactment of President George W. Bush's tax cuts in 2001.

Baucus also has secured millions in federal funding for highways and billions in disaster aid for drought-plagued farmers and ranchers.




(Billing Gazette) County Prosecutor joins Baucus bid


Deputy County Attorney Melodee Hanes will be leaving her job to work for Sen. Max Baucus' re-election campaign.



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Sources: Politico, MSNBC, Billing Gazette, The Daily Beast, Daily World Buzz, Youtube, Google Maps

Melodee Hanes & Max Baucus: Another Lurid D.C. "Love Story"

(NY Daily News) Montana Sen. Max Baucus nominated own mistress, Melodee Hanes, as U.S. attorney



Sen. Max Baucus was having an extramarital affair with a woman he nominated to be U.S. attorney in Montana, the senator's spokesman admitted Friday night.

The Montana Democrat nominated Melodee Hanes, who was Baucus' state office director, and three others to the post in March, spokesman Tyler Matsdorf said. The two began having an affair in the summer of 2008, Matsdorf said.

He said the senator was separated from his wife when he gave Hanes' name to the White House. Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and his wife have since split.

"Sen. Baucus is currently in a mature and happy relationship with Melodee Hanes. They are both divorced, and in no way was their relationship the cause of their respective divorces," said Matsdorf.

Hanes later removed her name from nomination and took a job in the Justice Department.




(MSNBC) Aide: Baucus nominated girlfriend for Fed Post


Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus was already involved with his girlfriend and former staffer when he recommended her earlier this year to become the next U.S. attorney for Montana, a spokesman said.

The Montana Democrat and his former state office director Melodee Hanes began their relationship in the summer of 2008, after Baucus separated from his wife, Ty Matsdorf told The Associated Press late Friday.

Baucus nominated Hanes for the U.S. attorney post in Montana in March. But she later withdrew, saying she had been presented with other opportunities she couldn't pass up.

The Senate leader who's been a major proponent of Democratic health care legislation had submitted six names to a third-party reviewer, who whittled those to Hanes and two others. Matsdorf said the senator sent the three names to the White House with no ranking.

"Senator Baucus recommended each of the three candidates based solely on qualifications, and merit, knowing whichever one the White House selected would serve Montana well," Matsdorf said.

The spokesman said Baucus and Hanes decided during the nomination process that she should withdraw her name because the couple wanted to live together in Washington, which they later did.

Reason for disclosure?

Matsdorf declined to say why the senator was just now disclosing the circumstances surrounding the nomination, which was first reported in Roll Call, an online publication that covers Washington politics.

Baucus and his ex-wife Wanda announced last April that they planned to divorce after 25 years of marriage. In a joint statement, they said they have "parted ways amicably and with mutual respect."

Before the April announcement, Baucus said the couple had some "differences" in the marriage, which was his second.

Hanes started working for Baucus in 2002 and was his state director before leaving his office earlier this year for a position in the U.S. Department of Justice.

"Mel is supremely qualified and she got to her current position based solely on her merit," Matsdorf said.

President Barack Obama eventually nominated Helena attorney Michael Cotter for U.S. attorney, who supervises prosecutors of all federal crimes committed in Montana and the state's seven Indian reservations. Cotter is awaiting confirmation.

Baucus was elected to the Montana House in 1973 and to the U.S. House in 1974 and 1976. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 at age 36, and is up for re-election in 2014.

The senator has played increasingly visible roles in Congress, sometimes willing to buck his Democratic Party on certain issues. He seems to take the position that the state that sent him to the Senate for five terms is fundamentally conservative and its voters want someone willing to base votes on more than party lines.

At the center of health reform effort

Most recently Baucus has been at the center of an effort to move sweeping health care legislation through the Senate with a bill aimed at meeting Obama's goal of overhauling the nation's health care system to cover 48 million uninsured Americans.

Just on Friday, Baucus went against his party and backed a Republican effort to eliminate a long-term care insurance program to help seniors and the disabled. Republicans argued that the new plan would be a drain on the federal budget.

The Democrat has also been in the middle of other congressional battles: He played a key role in 2003 legislation adding a prescription-drug benefit to the Medicare program and enactment of President George W. Bush's tax cuts in 2001.

Baucus also has secured millions in federal funding for highways and billions in disaster aid for drought-plagued farmers and ranchers.




(Billing Gazette) County Prosecutor joins Baucus bid


Deputy County Attorney Melodee Hanes will be leaving her job to work for Sen. Max Baucus' re-election campaign.



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Sources: NY Daily News, MSNBC, Billing Gazette, Daily World Buzz, Google Maps

Charlotte Attorney Nominated By Pres. Obama For U.S. Attorney Job...Eliminating NC Public Corruption

Pres. Obama nominates Thomas Walker to replace George Holding


President Barack Obama late Monday nominated Charlotte Lawyer Thomas G. Walker to replace U.S. Attorney George Holding, who has spent months overseeing federal probes of two of the state’s most prominent Democrats: two-time presidential candidate John Edwards and former Gov. Mike Easley.

Walker had long been thought to be the front-runner for the job, but it was uncertain whether he would take over the investigations into Edwards and Easley.

Holding, who covers North Carolina’s Eastern District from Raleigh, has been examining the campaign finances of Edwards, a former senator who admitted last year to an extra-marital affair. Holding also has looked into campaign finances and gifts to Easley, who just completed two terms as governor. Holding has called grand juries in both cases, but charges have not been filed against either Easley or Edwards.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, who put Walker’s name forward as a potential nominee, said late Monday she wants Holding to finish those probes.

“I will continue to impress upon the White House that George Holding should be given the time to complete his investigations into former public officials,” said Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, in a statement.

Still, she praised Obama’s choice of Walker, a partner at the Charlotte office of Alston & Bird and a former Special Counsel to N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Hagan called Walker “extremely qualified and fair-minded.” She added: “I expect the transition process to be undertaken in a mutually respectful manner with an eye toward what is best for the citizens of North Carolina.”

Obama also named U.S. attorney nominees, who must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, to similar posts in Wisconsin, Wyoming and Michigan. “These fine attorneys have a extensive legal experience and a shared commitment to public service,” Obama said in a his prepared statement.

Walker, 45, has worked at Alston & Bird since 2003, and before that worked for Cooper for two years. At Alston & Bird, he concentrates on complex federal and state government investigations and white-collar defense.

He has served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Western District from 1994 to 2001, and was an assistant district attorney for Mecklenburg County from 1990 to 1994.

Walker gave $1,250 last year to Obama’s presidential campaign and $500 to Hagan’s Senate campaign, according to records.

Last summer, Hagan submitted Walker’s name along with that of Benjamin David, the district attorney for Pender and New Hanover counties; and Hampton Dellinger, a partner in the law firm of Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson.

Burley Mitchell, a former N.C. Supreme Court justice, said Walker stood out as a contender for the position. Mitchell chaired a committee advising Hagan on the judicial nominations.

“He gives every indication of being fair and moderate,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell did note say that the nomination took did take longer than in previous administrations, but that Obama’s attention understandably could have been elsewhere.

“He has one or two things on his mind in addition to who will be U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of North Carolina,” he said.

Mitchell said he doesn’t expect Thomas’ nomination to derail the ongoing Easley and Edwards investigations.

Hagan told the White House that she wanted Holding to finish that work.

“As I have previously discussed with the Office of the White House Counsel, it is my belief that the current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, George Holding, should be allowed to complete the ongoing investigations of public officials in the state,” Hagan wrote in July.

She continued: “During my conversations with the Office of the White House Counsel, there was an interest expressed by the Counsel’s office to potentially appoint a separate individual to begin handling other matters not related to these investigations. Should you decide to do so, the following names are provided for your consideration.”

But in its spare news release Monday, the White House made no mention of whether Holding could stay on at all. Efforts to reach him were unsuccessful U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, was not immediately available for comment late Monday.





The Charlotte-Mecklenburg DSS Fraud mystery: Where did money go?


Internal e-mails reveal new allegations of misspending at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services, raising more unanswered questions about what happened to money intended to help needy children.

Some of the more than 1,000 e-mails the Charlotte Observer obtained through a Public Records Request provide the most detailed account to date about the agency's accounting fiasco.

E-mails show:

Officials suspected an employee wrote $80,000 in checks to herself from donations.

An administrator questioned why other donations were used to buy $340 diamond earrings, leather coats and a $300 DVD player.

A top executive complained that a senior fiscal administrator frustrated co-workers with her "inability to explain the simplest concepts of revenue and expenses."

After nearly a year, officials have never said who was at fault for $162,000 that disappeared or whether anyone was disciplined.

No one has been charged in an ongoing police investigation and a county report says officials cannot be certain where the money went.

Meanwhile, donors are left to wonder whether their generosity ever helped buy Christmas gifts for those in need.

In one e-mail, a woman describes calling the county in 2007 to give $900 for single mothers at Christmas. The person who answered the phone told her to make a check payable to the worker's sister.

The donor said she grew suspicious and made the check out to the county, but the idea that it may still have been misused is "like a kick in the stomach."

In another e-mail, a founder of Second String Santa said he was concerned whether kids received the more than 50,000 toys his group had donated since 1989.

Will Miller said he believes some of the toys reached children, but he's not sure about the rest.

"Will we ever know? Probably not," he said.

Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Commissioners said they have asked County Administrators for a full accounting of what went wrong at DSS but have yet to receive answers. County officials have never explained who was responsible, they said.

"To fix it, you have to admit all the stuff that is messed up," Commissioner Bill James said. "They don't want to do too much digging."

County administrators declined interview requests. Instead, a county spokesman released a prepared statement saying appropriate fiscal controls have been installed in response to an outside audit and an internal investigation.

"Our review of the e-mails we provided and your follow up questions did not reveal any new information that would suggest any change in the audit findings or in management's response to those findings," the statement said.

Some commissioners said they have been told that the employees involved have either left county government or been placed in new positions.

Unusual spending patterns

DSS spends $176 million annually and employs 1,200 workers to assist Mecklenburg's poor and neglected. The agency administers everything from food stamps to foster care and child protection services.

Last spring, DSS Director Mary Wilson ordered financial audits following reports of suspicious spending.

Auditors looked at multiple spending programs and financial practices in the agency. They found a $10,000 check made out to an employee, missing and altered receipts and money for kids spent on office supplies.

County leaders responded by suspending the programs, putting DSS finance under direct county control, training workers on accounting procedures and ordering a review of financial procedures in each county agency.

The Observer reviewed e-mails dating from December 2008 to July 2009 for seven current and former county administrators, including Wilson, County Manager Harry Jones, County Finance Director Dena Diorio and Internal Auditor Cornita Spears.

E-mails show county officials noticed unusual spending patterns as early as last December but did not disclose problems to the public until March.

On New Year's Eve, Wilson told staff she had suspended a voucher program the agency used to purchase clothes and other items for clients at local stores. She wrote that officials were worried about a lack of oversight and a spike in spending.

One monthly retail bill leapt from between $5,000 and $6,000 to more than $20,000 in October 2008, the e-mail says. Employees turned in receipts only 30 to 35 percent of the time, she wrote.

At one time or another, workers possessed or had access to numerous credit cards and gift cards, including some to Bath & Body Works, Bass Pro Shops, Macy's, the Cheesecake Factory and Outback Steakhouse.

Outside auditors verified for county administrators that DSS workers possessed county-issued credit cards, including 10 credit cards for Sam's Club, three for Harris Teeter and an online charge account with Amazon.com

In February, county officials asked internal auditors to look into questionable spending, including purchases of diamond earrings, leather coats and a DVD player.

An e-mail to one of the auditors from a human resources consultant said the purchases raise "many questions and concerns."

According to the county's statement, most gifts were typical children's items such as toys, clothes and books. More expensive items such as diamond earrings and leather coats were approved purchases for foster children who reached special milestones like high school graduation, the statement says.

"Receiving a gift of some significant value was viewed as an incentive for other children who were in foster care to set goals and accomplish them," the statement said.

Commissioner Harold Cogdell said he spent part of his early childhood in foster care and believes the gifts are a good idea.

"It makes sense to me to show the kids some love," Cogdell said.

A new Accountant

DSS has endured multiple management shakeups in recent years. The latest came when Wilson reorganized the agency after she was hired in July 2008.

She laid out the reasons to hire a new finance director in a February e-mail.

Wilson wrote that the senior fiscal administrator who managed DSS finances failed to provide reports about oversight, alienated staff and lacked the ability to conduct productive discussions with senior county executives. The e-mail does not name the senior fiscal administrator.

DSS later hired accountant Angela Hurlburt to oversee its finances.

James, the commissioner, said he has asked for the names and background information on Hurlburt's predecessors. He wants them to answer questions from the Board of Commissioners' Audit Review Committee, which investigated accounting lapses at DSS.

He said administrators have failed to respond to his requests and complained that officials "keep us in the dark."

Other Charlotte-Mecklenburg Commissioners disagreed.

Chairman Jennifer Roberts and Commissioner Dumont Clarke said county leaders have already put in place reforms that will protect taxpayer and donor money.

"The highest priority" is implementing new financial controls, Clarke said.

Shifting the Finances

Auditors from Cherry, Bekaert & Holland reviewed DSS and found that Mecklenburg officials responded appropriately. The county's Audit Review Committee came to the same conclusion.

But DSS Director Wilson bristled at one of the major reforms.

Leaders put DSS finance under the direct control of the county's main finance department after allegations of misspending surfaced.

In April, Wilson sent an e-mail to County General Manager Michelle Lancaster to complain. Calling the decision "premature" and "shortsighted," Wilson said there are emergencies when DSS workers must write checks immediately, including occasions when the agency takes children in custody who need clothes, toiletries and school supplies.

"I understand the urgency at the time, but there was a reason DSS had check writing capability and I think we threw the baby out with the bathwater instead of fixing the underlying issue, which is documentation and accountability," Wilson wrote.

Donors left with questions

Past supporters of the DSS Christmas charity include Young Lawyers, employees of Wachovia and Bank of America, and Project Joy, the holiday fund drive initiated by Observer columnist Tommy Tomlinson. The Christmas charity, known as the Giving Tree, is now run by the Salvation Army.

The donor who gave $900 e-mailed the county in July after learning about accounting failures from news accounts. She attached a picture of the check copy she made around Christmas in 2007.

She wrote that she did not remember the name of the woman she spoke with on the phone.

The donor said she and her family all pitched in to raise the money so she could assist women like her who had struggled as single mothers.

When she heard there were allegations of misspending in a DSS charity program, "It's like your stomach just drops."




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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, News & Observer, Charlotte Observer, Whitehouse.gov, Charmeck.org, Amazon.com, Google Maps