Why people think members of Congress are crooked: Nine of them are being investigated

Fully 50 percent of Americans think that most members of Congress are corrupt and 36 percent think their own member of Congress is corrupt, according to a poll released Thursday by CNN. A quick stroll over to my personal favorite part of the Congresspedia wiki, the Members of Congress under investigation page, shows why: at least a dozen current and former members of Congress are under investigation for everything from covering up the Mark Foley page scandal to laundering campaign contributions to bribery. And don't take comfort in the fact that three of those dozen are no longer in Congress: each was forced to resign in just the last year in the wake of investigations or guilty pleas related to actions they took while they were still in Congress.

Each of these current and former members of Congress has detailed explanations of the allegations against them on their Congresspedia profile pages, but the mind-boggling litany of allegations begs for a quick rundown:

• Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) is under investigation by the Justice Department for taking action favoring clients of convicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for $146,590 in campaign contributions. Burns helped secure a $3 million earmark for an Abramoff tribal client and opposed minimum wage laws and labor regulations in the Northern Marianas Islands, another Abramoff client.
• Senate Majority Leader Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and a U.S. Attorney for insider trading. Frist sold his stock in HCA—a large private health care company owned by his family—from his "blind" trust two weeks before the company announced a substantial drop in earnings that caused the stock to plummet.
• Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for the actions his aides took in the Mark Foley page scandal. ABC News also maintains that Hastert is under investigation by the FBI for actions he took in 2003 to block permits for a casino that would have competed with a casinso operated by a Jack Abramoff client. The Department of Justice has issued a statement denying that Hastert is under investigation.
• Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) is under investigation by the Justice Department and House Ethics Committee for soliciting bribes in a foreign telecommunications scheme. Jefferson's congressional office and New Orleans home were raided by the FBI, where $90,000 was recovered from his freezer.
• Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) is under investigation by the Justice Department and House Ethics Committee for a camping trip he took in 1996 with two teenage congressional pages, where one page says he was “uncomfortable with a particular social encounter” that involved physical contact when he and Kolbe were alone.
• Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) is under investigation for using earmarks to benefit a lobbyist friend of his. Lewis staffers moved back and forth between his office and that of his friend, a lobbyist, Bill Lowery. Lewis has sponsored earmarks for firms Lowery represents, including one owned by Brent Wilkes, himself a target of a federal investigation in the Duke Cunningham case. Federal prosecutors are also investigating a land deal in which owners of a company preserved land in Lewis' neighborhood from development after receiving millions in earmarks from Lewis' committee.
• Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-W.V.) is under investigation for using earmarks to direct contracts to non-profit organizations headed by both campaign contributors and business partners. One report notes that Mollohan aided in giving at least $179 million in U.S. government contracts to twenty-one nonprofit groups and companies that gave $225,427 to the Robert H. Mollohan Family Charitable Foundation, for which Mollohan is secretary. In June, he filed two dozen corrections to his past six annual financial disclosure forms, arguing that his accountant had uncovered several unintentional errors.
• Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) pleaded guilty this month to taking bribes from convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a businessman involved in an Iranian airplane deal. Despite his guilty plea, Ney has refused to resign from Congress.
• Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) is under investigation for trading his political influence for millions in lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, Karen Weldon. The FBI has referred the investigation to the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section for prosecution.
• Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-Calif.) was convicted of accepting $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for securing, through earmarks, millions in defense and intelligence contracts. The Justice Department is still investigating others connected to the House Appropriations Committee and House Armed Services Committee.
• Former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) was indicted in September 2005 for money laundering and conspiracy, the latter of which was waived. DeLay was named in the guilty plea of his former chief of staff, Tony Rudy, who was convicted in connection to the actions of Jack Abramoff. DeLay’s name has also surfaced in the Brent Wilkes-Duke Cunningham scandal and the Justice Department may be looking at his actions in relation to that case.
• Former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) is under investigation by the Department of Justice and House Ethics Committee for improper sexual communications with teenage House pages. Foley resigned from the House in September 2006, soon after the publication of some of the communications.

Further, these may not be all the members who come under investigation by election day. The Illinois Daily Journal reported on Friday that Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) has informed House authorities that he has knowledge of another page who was "inappropriately invited to a social function by another congressman." Stay tuned to Congresspedia and its Members of Congress under investigation page for continuing updates to these developing stories.