Dan Burton has survived a number of controversies over nearly 30 years as a Hoosier congressman, but he could face his biggest scandal yet in efforts to aid Pakistan.
Two of his campaign contributors, Syed Fai Syed Fai and Zaheer Ahmad, were arrested last week on charges related to illegal contributions. They are accused of using a U.S. advocacy organization to contribute to the campaigns of Burton and President Obama, among others. Fai has given Burton at least $10,000; Ahmad, $2,000.
“Mr. Fai is accused of a decades-long scheme with one purpose – to hide Pakistan’s involvement behind his efforts to influence the U.S. government’s position on Kashmir,” U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride of Virginia said in announcing the charges. “His handlers in Pakistan allegedly funneled millions through the Kashmir Center to contribute to U.S. elected officials, fund high-profile conferences, and pay for other efforts that promoted the Kashmiri cause to decision-makers in Washington.”
Burton has been chief among the lawmakers pushing for action to help Fai’s clients, creating a Pakistani caucus and criticizing Obama for not taking more direct action there.
In 1997, a U.S. lobbyist for Pakistan said he was “shaken down” by Burton for campaign contributions.
Burton – who infamously re-created in his back yard the supposed murder of Vincent Foster, a Clinton White House aide – is seeking a 16th term next year. The Hoosier congressman is also known for preferring golfing over attending sessions of Congress and linking childhood vaccines with autism.
Lugar’s record
The conservative Club for Growth is really reaching back to attack Sen. Richard Lugar’s record.
Among his sins, according to the organization, is that Lugar voted to bail out bankrupt New York City “back in the 1970s.” The club, headed by former Hoosier Congressman Chris Chocola, must be hoping Hoosiers won’t remember that when Congress and President Gerald Ford (a fellow Republican) approved the $2.3 billion loan to the city in 1975, Lugar was still mayor of Indianapolis and had nothing to do with the bailout loan.
As Factcheck.org pointed out, in 1978 Lugar did support a federal loan guarantee for the city (after working to cut the maximum guarantee from $2 billion to $1.65 billion), but that cost the federal government little to nothing.
Bad school news
While Fort Wayne Community Schools received some welcome news last week when North Side and South Side high schools were lifted from probation – and, therefore, a possible state takeover – the news was much worse for the former Wayne High School principal who leads Indianapolis Public Schools.
Indianapolis Superintendent Eugene White learned last week that six of the seven Indiana schools now on their sixth year of probation are in his district. And he probably didn’t help his case much when he insisted that the state was wrong about three schools because – after White converted them to grades 6-12 – state education officials used the test scores of 7th and 8th graders as well as those in 9-12.
