Santorum Explodes On Gingrich Over The…House Banking Scandal?

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Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had a lively attack at former House Speaker Newt Gingrich during Thursday night’s CNN Republican debate in South Carolina — Santorum hit Gingrich on a bit of governmental sleaze, saying that Gingrich did nothing about the House Banking Scandal that hit in the early 1990s.

Santorum, referring to himself, said (from a rush transcript):

But you have to admit this freshman congressman who wasn’t supposed to win a race came and did something you never did, which is blew the lid off the biggest scandal to hit the Congress in 50 years. You knew about it for 10 or 15 years because you told me you knew about it. And you did nothing because you didn’t have the courage to stand up to your own leadership. The Democratic speaker of the house. Take to the floor of the senate. Demand the releasing of the checks that were being taken by members of congress. Risk your political career. Risk your promotion within the ranks. And that had more or as much to do with the 1994 win as any plan that you put together.

A primer on the scandal, from PBS:

“In 1992, many House members were suspected of bouncing checks from accounts they held at the so-called “House Bank” — a loose operation that allowed member of Congress to cash their checks but kept shoddy records and often were quite delayed in recording deposits or withdrawals.

Although the lawmakers had broken no laws and many did not even know they were bouncing checks, several took advantage of the bank system and many voters viewed the scandal as a blatant abuse of power.

Of the 296 sitting representatives and 59 former members who had overdrafted their personal accounts in the preceding 39 months, the House Ethics Committee released a list of the 24 worst abusers. Twenty were Democrats, although Republican Rep. Tommy Robinson of Arkansas was the worse offender, with 996 overdrafts.”

           

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