Will Bush attack Iran for an October Surprise? Not unless he’s the dumbest m… oh, wait … On the other hand, maybe he’s just engaging in the usual let’s you and him fight method of conflict resolution between two factions……

2006:
AT&T – $12,500, Comcast – $10,000, National Cable & Telecom Assn – $5,000, Verizon – $5,000
That’s from his top 10, and I believe that there are some contributions that have been knocked off the list since the last time I looked. Over $40,000 to one of the safest Congressmen around.

2004:
NCTA – $10,000, SBC – $6833, Verizon – $6500

2002:
Verizon – $7500, NCTA – $7499, SBC – $7000, BellSouth – $4500

2000:
SBC – $14,881, Verizon – $6000

I’m normally a fan of Bobby, but this net neutrality thing has got me pissed.

Can corruption be beautiful?

“It is a clear conflict of interest for Rep. Rush to weigh in on this bill,” said Sheila Krumholz, the acting executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, which researches money in politics. “People can disagree about where to draw the line on contributions and abstaining from votes, but $1 million is definitely over that line.”

Rush is the only Democrat to sponsor the “Communications Opportunity Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006.” He has been working with committee chair Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) to promote the “Barton-Rush” bill.

Rush, asked to explain whether he had a conflict in sponsoring telecommunications legislation in the wake of the grant, replied in a statement that the “real conflict” stems from inequities in the telecommunications marketplace that hurt the poor.

“It is a systemic institutional disinvestment in [the] poor by corporate America in communities such as Englewood,” Rush said. “We deserve an even playing field.”

Final check written in 2004

The SBC Foundation grant was given to the Rebirth of Englewood CDC, a non-profit dedicated to improving the economy of the impoverished South Side community in Rush’s congressional district.

Rush and his wife, Carolyn, are on the board of the Englewood organization, and his son, Flynn, works for the center. Rush has been a member of the Energy and Commerce panel for more than a decade and serves on its subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.

The SBC charity made the first of a series of payments totaling $1 million in 2001 to the Englewood group to create the still unbuilt “Bobby L. Rush Center for Community Technology.” The final check was written in 2004, with the SBC Foundation delaying the last payment for a year over concerns that the project was not moving forward. The Rush center is now expected to open within the next 12 months.

In his statement, Rush — seeking to downplay the conflict claim — noted that the $1 million grant “you are referring to is over a half decade old.”