Topic: WorldNetDaily
In his Nov. 17 WorldNetDaily column, Joseph Farah lamented losses in the November midterm election by three "members of Congress who understand the Constitution and abide by it." One of them was Rep. Richard Pombo, Farah's co-author on the book "This Land Is Our Land" (and contradicting standard WND practice, Farah does disclose this):
Pombo is chairman of the House Resources Committee, where he spent much of his time trying to overhaul one of the most ridiculous pieces of legislation in the history of our country – the Endangered Species Act.
Pombo was targeted with millions of dollars by environmentalist extremist groups that don't really care about conservation or endangered animals but do care about government control and political power.
After all the shock expressed by Americans over eminent domain in the last two years, men like Pombo, who have been fighting for personal property rights for decades, should have been returned to power, not turned out. But this was a strange election cycle, indeed. It was quite an upset.
He is a good man. He will be missed not just by people in his congressional district, but by all freedom-loving Americans.
But by dismissing Pombo's loss as the result of "a strange election cycle" and being the target of "environmentalist extremist groups," Farah fails to acknowledge another noteworthy reason he lost: allegations of corruption. Pombo has been linked to disgraced ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and accused of using federal funds to pay for a 10-day family trip in an RV through several national parks. In fact, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) -- whom WND authoritatively cited for its allegations of corruption against John Murtha -- called Pombo one of the 13 most corrupt Members of Congress.
