Yesterday, the AP's Ben Evans came out with an article about the Senator and Ms. Copland. I didn't learn a whole lot from yesterday's piece. There's nothing in the article to suggest that Sen. Cochran engaged in anything shadier than employing Ms. Copland. But this sentence caught my attention:
Last month, Copland left the state job and moved back to Washington, telling associates that she needed to focus on the investigation. She had kept her house outside the capital, in Fairfax, Va.
Moved back to Virginia to focus on the investigation? I wondered if that meant Ms. Copland has been cooperating with authorities. What I discovered, though, is simply bizarre. Let's create a timeline here. Months are approximate based on articles appearing in the press:
March 2008
Ms. Copland accepts a $90,000 a year job with Mississippi Public Broadcasting. For two months, she also draws her $140,000 a year Senate salary. While many Americans hold two jobs simultaneously, one of Ms. Copland's jobs was in Mississippi and the other was in Washington, DC.
May 7, 2008
Ms. Copland separates from her Senate employment.
January 2009
Ms. Copland quits her job at Mississippi Public Broadcasting and returns to Fairfax to "focus on the investigation".
First of all, people typically wouldn't exchange a $140,000 a year job for a $90,000 a year job, particularly if the lower paying job would put geographic distance between the family. Ms. Copland only held the Mississippi Public Broadcasting job for eight months, excluding the time she held two jobs. Meanwhile, we know that she and her husband kept their Fairfax, Va. home. Also, Ms. Copland's husband has been a public middle school teacher in suburban Washington this entire time. Ms. Copland has a high school age son ... I wonder where he went to school this past fall.
Something doesn't add up to me. Maybe Ms. Copland is cooperating after all. But I suspect she never intended to hold that Mississippi Public Broadcasting job for long. I have no clue what is going on here, but one explanation is that Ms. Copland has been dealing with the Justice Department since the first quarter of 2008 when she began looking for a job to replace her cush position on Sen. Cochran's staff.
2 comments:
why don't you do a good analysis of all the folks that have had their cases continued for the past 3 years. scanlon and rudy await final sentencing for a reason - based on their ongoing cooperation. who might they still be talking with the feds about?? anyone care to speculate??....
Anon:
In reponse to your comment, I'll say this. Ultimately, the Justice Department is going after several corrupt Congressmen. If they pick up staffers who have broken the law along the way, all the better.
Here is the list of Congressmen I think the DOJ is going after (in order of culpability):
1. Tom DeLay
2. John Doolittle
3. Tom Feeney
4. Ernest Istook (Istook makes the list for being "Representative #5")
I'd be disappointed if the DoJ doesn't take a good hard look at former Rep. Richard Pombo. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any evidence the DoJ is looking at him.
Rep. Don Young is in jeopardy, but he is a free-lancer that I'm not 100% convinced is connected to Abramoff. Therefore, he's a little outside of my field of interest, although I have several correspondents making an excellent case that Young will be implicated in Abramoff-related matters.
I didn't address Scanlon and Rudy specifically, but I hope my answer gives you an idea what the ultimate goal of the investigation is.
[According to Kevin Ring's indictment, the Scanlon and Rudy cases are related cases. They are apparently helping the Feds develop their case against Ring. Read the Ring indictment for further details.]
Post a Comment