Link: http://newsbusters.org/node/10126
What a tangled web the Culture of Corruption can be. Far from hiding nearly six-figures in the freezer, today's latest scandal, best called TunaGate, is a real knee-slapper. Or at least it would be if it weren't such a bald-faced example of Beltway Fever and Democrat hypocrisy.
During the recent passage in the House of a hike in the minimum wage to $7.25, a little-known amendment was passed exempting American Samoa from the requirement. In and of itself, most people probably couldn't care less what happens in American Samoa. The interesting thing, however, is that the largest employer in American Samoa is Del Monte Foods' StarKist Tuna, home to over 75% of the island's workforce. Del Monte Foods, as it turns out, is headquartered in the District of the new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Smelling a whiff of impropriety, House Republicans have thrown up some serious questions about the exemption and who inserted it into the bill.
NewsBusters points out that few in the Mainstream Media will cover this story given their breathless love for the new Speaker. FoxNews has picked up the story, questioning the potential influence Del Monte may have as a major player in the Speaker's District. Doing my own research, however, I've discovered that the impropriety is much deeper. Speaker Pelosi's husband Paul, it turns out, owns something to the order of $17 million in Del Monte stock! I wonder if he stands to benefit should StarKist avoid an additional $2 hike in hourly wages...
Follow the money trail a little further and Speaker Pelosi may have a sympathetic accomplice in the US Senate. It turns out that the H.J. Heinz Company owns nearly 75% of Del Monte's stock. Heinz, of course, is the company owned in large part by the H.J. Heinz family of whom Teresa Heinz is a major heir as the widow of H.J. Heinz the III, the late Senator from Pennsylvania. And who did Mrs. Heinz marry shortly after her late husband's passing? Senator John Forbes Kerry of Massachussettes! I wonder if they would stand to benefit from StarKist avoiding an additional $2 hike in hourly wages...
So much for that whole ethics in Congress thing. I wonder if this counts as a major failure in the First 100 Hours strategy? Who'd of thought TunaGate would be the first scandal of the 110th Congress?
Update - After BizzyBlog and NewBusters picked up my thread about the Paul Pelosi connection, I felt obligated to dig a bit further. I've found a few stories addressing Tom's question about full disclosure of the Pelosi ivestments. This from SFGate.com earlier this year seems particularly pertinent:
In fact, Nancy Pelosi's most recent financial disclosure statement shows just how careful Paul Pelosi has been in his investment decisions. Because the federal statements require a politician to give only a range of value for investments, they show the Pelosis' net worth was $14.7 million to $55 million in 2005, ranking them ninth in the House and 17th in the entire Congress.
The bulk of the Pelosis' money comes from investments in stocks and real estate. Operating through Financial Leasing Services, his San Francisco investment firm, Paul Pelosi owns stock in companies including Microsoft, AT&T, Cisco Systems, Disney, Johnson & Johnson and a variety of tech stocks.
Real estate investments include a four-story office building at 45 Belden St. in the Financial District, office buildings on Battery and Sansome streets near the Embarcadero, a building housing a Walgreens drugstore near Ocean Beach and other commercial property in San Anselmo.
Other investments include a St. Helena vineyard worth between $5 million and $25 million, a $1 million-plus townhome in Norden (Nevada County), and minority interests in the Auberge du Soleil resort hotel in Rutherford, the CordeValle Golf Club in San Martin, and the Piatti Italian restaurant chain.
In other words, with Pelosi's ivestment firm holding the chips, there isn't nearly as much transparency here as we might expect.
Update #2 - There are more questions and answers regarding the validity of the Wikipedia entry I cited earlier. Trust me when I say that Wikipedia is NOT the Gospel when it comes to references, but the topic of discussion still bears consideration. As one of the commenters at BizzyBlog pointed out, there are more than a few angles of perceived impropriety here, and proving that the Pelosi's do or do not own a major stake in Del Monte will be difficult. I apologize to Tom for getting him into "the Post from Hell," but I think we've just had our first taste... or whiff, if you're into the fish references... of things to come under the new leadership.
Update #3 - This may be even more unreliable that the Wikipedia entry, but I found this random message board where a discussion of the evils of the tuna industry led to a discussion of StarKist. One of the commenters in late November mentions the $17 million figure in reference to billionaire Nelson Peltz's storied proxy battle with Heinz last year. Peltz and a group of dissident shareholders wrangled a couple of seats on the board, and this particular post claims he did it with Paul Pelosi's help. Sounds possible if not plausible. Again, probably raises more questions than answers and isn't any more verifiable now than before, but the figure was out there prior to the Samoan Exception.
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