Ethics probe asked on lawmakers at C Street house

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Ethics probe asked on lawmakers at C Street house
Thu Apr 1, 2:57 pm ET

WASHINGTON – A government watchdog group says it has filed ethics complaints against lawmakers who have rented rooms in a controversial Capitol Hill townhouse.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington - CREW for short - cites news reports that say House members and some senators have paid below-market rents to live in a house on C Street SE that is owned by a Christian prayer group known as the Fellowship. CREW wants the House and Senate ethics committees to determine whether the monthly rent, reported to be around $950, is below the market value. If so, CREW says, the discount could amount to an illegal gift.

A spokesman for one resident of the house named in CREW's complaint, Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, said the rent covers a furnished room and shared bathroom. It does not include meals, housekeeping in his room or parking and is therefore in line with market prices.

Democratic Reps. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and Bart Stupak of Michigan said they no longer live in the house but that while there, the rent was fairly assessed.

Other lawmakers named in the complaint did not respond to calls for comment. They are: Republican Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas and John Ensign of Nevada, neither of whom currently live in the house. Also named in the complaint were Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. and Reps. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., and Zach Wamp, R-Tenn.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100401/ap_on_go_co/us_c_street_house_ethics

[dgibby]

1. Couldn't happen to a more deserving group,

and long overdue, but most welcome. I hope the IRS nails everyone of them.

[No Elephants]

5. I believe gift taxes are the responsibility of the giver. (Even better in this case, IMO)

[movonne]

2. Thank you Rachael....

[waiting]

3. It's about time

This phony group needs to be exposed for what they are. I've known for 34 years that they were all about money and power and not about Christianity in the least. Unfortunately, my life was drastically effected by their bull, but no one back then ever heard of them or talked about it at all.

[lamp_shade]

4. WOW. I'd love to hear your story.

[SpiralHawk]

6. Pope Ratzinger (R) has declared them to be "above reproach"

So that tells you something right there...
:sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[No Elephants]

7. How the hell would he know? (no pun intended). Has he investigated them? Or does he think he's

omniscient?

Maybe Popes should start sticking to heading the Roman Catholic Church?

[No Elephants]

8. The Fellowship-Internaional neo theo cult, that does business (literally) under the d/b/a name, its

trade name, "The International Foundation." Also known as the Fellowship Foundation, Inc. (its original incorporation name-1942), the International Christian Leadership, ICL, Fellowship House, and "the Family."

Although only a few lawmakers actually live(d) in the House:

"Prominent evangelical Christians have described the organization as one of the most, or the most, politically well-connected ministries in the world.

D. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist who studies the evangelical movement, said “there is no other organization like the Fellowship, especially among religious groups, in terms of its access or clout among the country’s leadership.”<2> He also reported that lawmakers mentioned the Fellowship more than any other organization when asked to name a ministry with the most influence on their faith.<1>

In 1977, four years after he had converted to Christianity, Fellowship member and Watergate conspirator Charles Colson described the group as a “veritable underground of Christ’s men all through the U.S. government.”<3>

The Reverend Robert Schenck, founder of the Washington, D.C. ministry Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital, described the Family's influence as "off the charts" in comparison with other fundamentalist groups, specifically compared to Focus on the Family, Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer, Traditional Values Coalition, and Prison Fellowship.<5> (These last two are associated with the Family: Traditional Values Coalition uses their C Street House<5> and Prison Fellowship was founded by Charles Colson.) Schenck also says that "the mystique of the Fellowship" has helped it "gain entree into almost impossible places in the capital."<13>"


Read the rest of the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fellowship_(Christian_organization) See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Grove and (re the Carlyle Group) http://www.bainvestor.com/The-Iron-Triangle.html

Which international organizations has the American left started? Anyone? Anyone?