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Last week's arrest and indictment of Ted Loza, Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham's chief of staff, continues to put Graham in a rather unpleasant spotlight this morning. After WUSA9 first reported on Monday that the FBI investigation was also targeting the councilman, FOX-5 followed up last night with its own story, noting that Graham refused to go on the record all day on Monday in response to the allegations (earlier that morning when we saw him, Graham claimed he still hadn't read the story).
Seeing a vulnerability in Graham's otherwise strong Ward 1 armor, the D.C. Republican Committee has gone on the attack in recent days. D.C. Wire reports that robocalls were placed to 10,000 Ward 1 voters trying to link Graham more closely to the Loza scandal. "We need anyone but Graham in 2010," closed the calls.
The GOP followed up today with an open letter to Graham requesting that he take a leave of absence until he is cleared of any wrongdoing.
"The allegations that your office is facing are troubling, and we hope they are not true," wrote GOP chair Robert Kabel. "You have done the right thing by putting your chief of staff on leave. You should hold yourself to that same standard you set for your staff."
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leave of absence?
c'mon, DCGOP, let's get serious. only if graham is charged with a crime can you start something like this. until then, like it or not, you don't have a leg to stand on.
why the hell weren't you bloviating like this when barry was arrested (seriously, why not? i wish someone would replace him...)
Simple. Barry is teflon. They see a weakness in Jim.
Could the GOP be accused of...Grahamstanding?
Is there some reason why we should stop at just Jim Graham stepping down? Until they address the accusations of corruption, nepotism, rascalism, necrophilia, and association with known oil-soaked Middle Eastern perverts, the Council and the Mayor's Office are incapable of performing their jobs and should step down immediately. This would go a long way of stemming the tide of unenforceable feelgood legislation, gutted baby carcasses, and empty mambo sauce containers. In their absence, a caretaking Steward should be appointed to protect the Throne of Gondor. Oh yes, word has reached my ears of this Kwame son of Brown and I tell you now: I will not bow to this ranger from the North! Last of a ragged house long bereft of lordship.
Way to go, DC GOP. I got that robocall at 4am. Great way to win friends and influence people.
How would putting himself on leave be "the same standard" as putting Loza on leave? One has been arrested, one hasn't.
I'm still mad that he hated on the Jumbo Slice.
Sadly, I've only had Jumbo Slice once. Even more of a tragedy? It was 9pm on a Friday night and while the grease worked wonders to alleviate my inebriated state, it did not want to be contained in my liquor pit of hell. Someone woke up with a ghost jumbo slice in their yard the next morning.
I'd hope he goes down for this regardless, but his Jumbo Slice idiocracy makes for karmic icing on the cake.
At the very least, Graham should not be involved with the Taxi Cab Commission, even if he did not know that Loza was corrupt.
Does anyone know how long people get to collect their pay while on administrative leave and if they have to pay that back if they are found guilty.
It really angers me that Loza is being paid after reading the transcript on the charging papers. Graham should throw him under the bus.
I'm not sure that Graham knows what a bus is.
If he worked for Metro or was a cop he could count on a paid vacation.
Well, he is Chairman of Metro's Board of Directors, after all.
Well there you go.
Isn't this standard political practice, regardless of the party instigating it? Whenever some politician gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar or up some boy's a$$, the other party always demands that they step down until the accusations can be cleared, no matter how remote the cookie jar was from the politician or how far the guy's fist was up the kid's butt. The call to step down is one of those things politicians say that nobody pays any attention to, like when they refer to "the American people" when they're trying to push legislation to give themselves some perk, it's always "the American people are demanding that cheap foreign anal lube manufacturers compete on a level playing field with hardworking domestic anal lube manufacturers. The fact that my district accounts for 90% of the anal lube made in the United States is irrelevant." I mean, who pays attention when a politician says "I am not a crook" or "I did not have sexual relations with that hippo" or "I have a wide bathroom stance" or "I wear diapers and a bonnet and have hookers walk on my face" or "Someone put those babies right next to the condiments! WTF was I supposed to do?" I mean, jeeze, look at that picture and tell me that isn't the look of someone who either eats babies or is soiling themselves at the moment the photo was taken.
if only i still had the photo of him sitting on santa's lap at busboys and poets...
I have nothing against Graham, but it's fairly well known that corrupt elected officials have their underlings do their dirty work for them, so that they can remain "clean." I won't be surprised if it turns out Graham is guilty of wrong-doing. I also won't be surprised if his chief of staff keeps his mouth shut and Graham remains clean.
"I won't be surprised if it turns out Graham is guilty of wrong-doing. I also won't be surprised if his chief of staff keeps his mouth shut and Graham remains clean."
Don't be surprised if you strain a groin muscle straddling that fence.
There's simply no way someone not whoring for the taxi industry could have possibly introduced the heinous legislation Graham introduced...... giving every single existing cab a medallion, not requiring them to meet any sort of actual standards like real cities with medallion systems do, then denying even a single new cab medallion unless it was a hybrid?
It's like it was written by the existing crappy cab company representative.... oh, yes... but of course.
Honestly, if you read the language of the bill itself it's a big wet smooch to the crappy status quo. There's no way that was an accident.
Yup. For a long time now the only way to explain DC's consumer-hostile taxi policy is to see it as the result of massive amounts of graft and corruption.
Mr. Hillman, You need to get your facts straight. The corrupt legislation authored by Graham was meant to benefit few companies from New York who are salivating to monopolize DC Taxi industry in collaberation with corrupt officials in the city. In fact the cabbies went on strike for the same reason that the so called legislation would effectively force them out of business. Fortunatly enough FBI was watching the crooks before they made the final blow to the cabbies. The investigation has been going on for at least 18 months and it looks like there is a big network of crooks who have been targated and we are waiting for the big fishes being flushed out very soon.
....and we'd like to welcome the representatives of the taxi industry to the conversation!
"Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said today he is under orders from Attorney General Peter Nickles not to discuss or publicly comment on the FBI investigation into the taxi industry, which resulted in last week's arrest of Council member Jim Graham's chief of staff. 'My attorneys want everything referred to them,' Fenty said."
It is interesting. Of course he can not comment. Considering how Fenty has gone out of his way to hurt the cab drivers and considering how he is micromanaging the regulation of the cab business, I would suspect that he also is a target of the investigation.
"Of course he can not comment. Considering blah blah blah"
Silly. Anyone (of consequence) who comments on this risks charges for interfering.