Carney reverses course on ethics, corruption

U.S. Representative Chris Carney, under pressure from constituents in his Pennsylvania district to probe fellow Democrat Paul Kanjorski, now says he believes previous Republican Congresses have done all they could to investigate possible corruption and ethical lapses.

Carney, like most members of his Democrat freshmen class, ran his 2006 campaign on an anti-corruption platform. “I came to Congress with a promise that corruption should not be tolerated from either party,” Carney recently noted.

But following a call to initiate an investigation into a fellow Democrat, Carney balked, with his office telling the Wilkes-Barre Citizens Voice “if the Republican-controlled Congress chose not to investigate this matter in 2002, I’m unclear as to why the issue would be resurfacing now.”

In just six months in office, this is the second time Carney has dodged action against fellow Democrats accused of ethical lapses.

KANJORSKI DOGGED BY QUESTIONS
According to the Citizens Voice report, Carney has been asked to request an ethics investigation of Kanjorski, who “helped steer more than $11 million in federal earmarks to (a) company founded by his nephews that was supposed to use high-pressure water jets to pulverize coal and other materials. Eight years after Cornerstone was founded, it is bankrupt. The advanced products it was supposed to develop for the Navy never materialized.”

The company, Cornerstone Technologies, has been the center of a public controversy since at least 2002, when it was reported that the FBI was “investigating (Kanjorski’s) alleged role in directing millions of dollars in federal grants to his family-owned businesses.”

The Scranton Times reported earlier this month that “Kanjorski’s daughter, Nancy, and his four nephews were owners and/or board members at Cornerstone, which rented space in a Wilkes-Barre building co-owned by the congressman before moving to larger quarters in Plains Township.” According to that report, Kanjorski played an active role in the company’s operation.

“Although he was not an owner of Cornerstone, Congressman Kanjorski often took an active role in its operations, former employees and associates say,” the paper reported. “Peter Kanjorski, who was CEO of the firm, made no decision without consulting his uncle. In August 2000, the congressman personally presided over a meeting between Peter Kanjorski, two other Kanjorski nephews and Mr. Conrad to resolve a dispute over offering shares in Cornerstone to several key employees.”

After leaving Cornerstone, Peter Kanjorski went to work for his uncle’s political action committee.

Kanjorski has given varying accounts about his role with Cornerstone. In October, 2002, the Allentown Morning Call reported that “Kanjorski freely admits he arranged federal funding for water jet research but insists it was not for Cornerstone or any other specific company.” Four years later, in October, 2006, he called it a “pet project,” and told the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader that family members “did me a favor in devoting their time” to Cornerstone.

One industry expert described the company’s activities as “the Three Stooges meet anthracite.”

MURTHA’S ROLE
In November, 2005, Roll Call newspaper reported that U.S. Representative Jack Murtha “inserted earmarks in defense bills that steered millions of dollars in federal research funds toward companies owned by children of fellow Pennsylvania Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D).”

“Whether they get what they want in the bill or they get the votes they are looking for, nobody ever leaves completely disappointed,” Kanjorski told the New York Times of his and other Democrats’ dealings with Murtha on federal funding requests like those that benefited Cornerstone.

Even though questions rose over Murtha’s activities with Kanjorski, his relationship to the lobbying firm of brother Kit Murtha, and his role in a project important to family members of now-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, no ethics investigation was ever sought. Some members of the media, including the Washington Times, questioned whether Murtha’s new role as leader of the anti-Iraq War Democrats earned him a pass from further questioning.

CARNEY IDOLIZES MURTHA
Not long after being elected, Carney told the Pittsburgh Press Gazette “Jack (Murtha) has our back,” and that he didn’t believe ethical questions would harm Murtha, who has been a controversial figure since being named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1980s ABSCAM trials.

Despite his anti-corruption platform, Carney has come to Murtha’s defense. “If it's questionable,” Carney said of Murtha’s reported ethical lapses, “why has he been elected with such large majorities over the years?”

Carney refused to allow the House to consider a resolution questioning whether Murtha violated ethics rules when he reportedly threatened a Republican colleague earlier this year.

Carney has received $7,000 in campaign contributions from Murtha’s leadership PAC, and another $2,000 from Murtha’s re-election committee.