Tom Davis delivers for - Tom Davis!

Don't think for a moment that snail mail is dead. Yes, you now compose your annual Holiday letter on your laptop, but you still mail them. You order pictures for the photo cards on line, but the pictures are mailed to you--then you mail them out. There are all those eBay and on line purchases that ship. And even if your Mother would accept an electronic Mother's Day card (which she won't), the flowers have to be shipped.  The post office may need to be reformed, but it still has a future.

Tom Davis (VA-11) oversees postal reform, and he's hitched his wagon to a mail truck. Every time you buy a stamp, Tom Davis and George Bush win. Davis has figured out a way to command over a million dollars from postal reform. He's made the money available, and Republican leadership has made withdrawals from the Bank of Tom Davis for 10 long years.  Davis uses the booty to continue the work of Jack Abramoff, and to lock in the corrupt House leadership of Dennis Hastert, Mark Foley, and Bob Ney. He has funded over 100 races around the country. Follow the money (and the BareNaked Ladies) on the flip to see how and where.
According to How to Succeed on K Street Without Really Trying, By Tory Newmyer, Roll Call, June 16, 2005:

The dirty little secret of lobbying is that if you get your client everything they want, youGÇÖll suddenly be out of a job. While lobbyists are loath to say so for the record, their most reliable business comes from efforts that fall short of success, but come close enough year after year that the client remains willing to pay the bills.

How does GÇ£ChurningGÇ¥ Work?

I'm the reason I don't go out, I'm afraid I might sell me something
I'm the shadow of every doubt, I'm the product this song's about
I'm the product this song's about to be.

GÇ£ChurningGÇ¥ used to be defined as the agitation that causes cream to rise to the top from the milk.  More recently it refers to the practices of selling something solely in order to generate the commissions that result. GÇ£Churn rateGÇ¥ is a measure of loyalty, the propensity of the victim of the sale to stay or leave.  Remember the calls from telephone companies asking if you would switch for a few dollars? That was churning.  (GÇ£SlammingGÇ¥ was when they switched you without telling you.)

Tom Davis is a Republican king-maker and lobbyist hawker.  HeGÇÖs raised millions by doing what Democrats on his Reform Committee disparagingly call GÇ£churning,GÇ¥ keeping good legislation locked down on lay-away until the last payment has been made.  HeGÇÖs done it with Postal Reform and with telecommunications contracts. HeGÇÖs done it as a partner in the gambling interests of Jack Abramoff, Ralph Reed and Bob Ney.  HeGÇÖs churned construction contracts for Iraq and Hurricane Katrina, and churned the give-aways to big oil, pharma and banking.  This diary is the first in a series of how Tom Davis, who votes with Bush 90% of the time, finances corrupt leadership by delaying legislation to churn money. The upcoming diaries will be available on those links in the upcoming week.

The Government Reform Committee, which Davis Chairs as a reward for RNCC fundraising, is supposed to oversee legislation and contracts that affect the efficiency and accountability of government agencies like Homeland Security, FEMA and the Departments of Treasury and Transportation.  To voters all over the country, the issues languishing before DavisGÇÖs Committee evoke need for leadership, ethics, and billions of tax dollars in plumb contracts. Much to the dismay of families across the Gulf region, the issues also raise nothing less than the personal safety for ourselves and for our families. To Davis, this is a prime opportunity for self-enrichment.

Davis gains and keeps power in the Republican Party just as Abramoff and DeLay did, by dispensing the churned money to Republicans who canGÇÖt generate enough support in their own districts.  This diary lists just one profitable example that affects your pocketbook every time you mail a bill or a card.

Churning on Postal Reform

I'm a kid in a candy store, I'm a bull in a china shop
I'm a tired old metaphor, For everything you can't afford
And everything you can't afford to be

The idea of postal reform is to make the Post Office more competitive with other delivery companies by consolidating its real property and other capital investments, streamlining and automating tasks, expanding postal services and changing the way postal rates are fixed.  Tom Davis has been churning on Postal Reform from 1998 to 2006 and heGÇÖs still going.

The PresidentGÇÖs Commission on the US Postal Service began work in December 2002. The nine-member panel, which was non-partisan but described by NALC as sharply tilted toward business interests, held public hearings.  It issued a final report and recommendations over three years ago in July 2003. The Senate passed itGÇÖs version of Postal Reform as S.22 in February 2005. The Senate also unanimously requested a conference with the House to resolve differences between the two bodies, and Senate conferees were appointed.  Davis has yet to appoint the representatives of the Government Reform Committee. Instead of finalizing the legislation, he maximizes how much more money will cross his palms before he will do his job he is already well-paid for by his constituents.

ItGÇÖs not immediately apparent how much money Davis has churned by delaying this necessary legislation.  The payors are spread across industries, so industry-targeted lists by groups like OpenSecrets.org donGÇÖt show contributions in a way that shows the link to postal reform.  For example, readers could be forgiven for assuming that the large contributions by labor might somehow be related to Davis being a friend to workers; however Davis obtains donation from particular unions, not all of them.  There are more than 2 dozen postal unions, and Davis has collected from all of them in exchange for their seat at the Postal Reform table.  In addition, he has churned from the unions for transportation servers that deliver air and surface mail.

No other unions have donated to Tom Davis.

According to Open Secrets, these postal-related unions escalated their donations to Davis every year during the consideration and delays of postal reform. Here are the shipping and postal union donations churned by Davis:

1997-98---------------$64,250
1999-00---------------$70,000
2001-02---------------$67,500
2003-04---------------$116,998
2005-06---------------$84,000+(last reporting period ended June 30, 2006)

These Postal and transportation unions continue to be victims of GÇ£churning,GÇ¥ for a total so far of $1.01 million.

But unions arenGÇÖt the only source for income for Davis as long as postal reform remains unfinished.  Other industries depend on mail order, such as transportation industries that deliver air and surface mail, and paper and publishing industries:

Year--------Forestry (paper)-----Printing/publishing----Transportation
1997-98-------$1,000---------------0-----------------------------$79,074
1999-00-------$1,500---------------$1,500----------------------$55,500
2001-02-----------0------------------$2,500----------------------$44,250
2003-04-------$5,000--------------$14,500----------------------$50,000
2005-06*-----------------------------$8,000----------------------$45,500
* (last reporting period ended June 30, 2006; not yet updated from Oct 15 filing.)

Other PACs that depend on postal rate regulation donate generously including Time Warner for its mail order books and records ($16,470), Pitney Bowes for its stamp machines ($5,000), Hallmark cards ($1,000), and even eBay ($1,000).

The total so far in Tom DavisGÇÖs pocket from postal reform pending before his committee is at over $1,288,542.

Hit the Federal campaign cap?  Contribute to Mrs. Davis

I'm a public embarrassment; I'm a bottle of diet poison
I'm a walking advertisement For everything I never meant
And everything I never meant to be

Tom Davis has found even more opportunities to churn more money on postal reform.  Davis has two other PACs of his own. HeGÇÖs also set up his wife in politics since he become her mentor and campaign manager.  There are larger limits on campaign funds in their Commonwealth of Virginia. 
GÇó To influence its air mail interest USAIR has donated $25,000.  USAIR has contributed to no one in VA except Tom Davis.
GÇó DavisGÇÖs wife has accepted $17,000 from UPS.

Customers and industry have been waiting 10 years and counting for final postal reform legislation.  Davis has let more than 3 years go by since the final report and more than one year go by after bill passage without even appointing Committee members to the Conference Committee. Meanwhile the grand total from Postal Reform churning to Davis from PACs alone GÇô not including individual donations - comes to over $1.333 million by June 2006.  This represents over one-third of the $3.2 million in PAC money Tom Davis has collected for his Federal campaign.

Beyond the Examples

Every morning since I was born
It's been hard to look in the mirror
And see my face for the horns.

Given DavisGÇÖs willingness to delay acting on legislation, itGÇÖs no wonder he voted to kill any amendment that would have brought meaning to the bills that would have reformed lobbying and ethics 2006. Instead, in January 2005, after scope and depth of the Abramoff scandal was becoming clear and under glare from media and the Democrats, Davis stood with Dennis Hastert and other corrupt Congressional leaders to kill a rule requiring caucus leaders to step down from their posts if they were indicted. The rule had been nicknamed the Delay Rule. Hastert had just fired the three Republican members of the Ethics Committee that had voted to admonish Tom Delay.  The firing was in time to prevent any action against Davis then, and repercussions continue. Hastert now stands to benefit from the powerlessness of the Committee as it investigates him.)

While the Reform Committee fiddles, Davis churns.  Davis argues to his voters that he makes up for his ethical lapses because his power enables him to bring home pork to his constituents.  He cites the Wilson Bridge project that belatedly helped resolved terrible traffic in Northern Virginia, albeit one he helped bring upon the region as head of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.  However, this bridge cost more than the sticker price. It cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives in Iraq and during Hurricane Katrina because Congressmen like Davis wonGÇÖt stand up to George Bush.

The current situation is not beyond hope.  A democratic Congress would give teeth back to the paper tigers that are the Ethics and Reform committees. On October 11, the Washington Post discussion opined on the hearings on backlog:

Charles Babington reported that if the Democrats win the majority in 2006, GÇ£I would look for hearings into how pre-war intelligence was used, and how the post-war coalition was run, who got contracts, who listened to the generals' suggestions on troop strength, etc.GÇ¥

Davis has donated his millions to over 100 races, in 40 states. (Click to find the candidate in your district. You owe it to your state to help defeat him, no matter where you're from. Luckily, he no longer continues in office unchallenged. Donate to and volunteer for Andy Hurst today.

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