During his seven years in prison, expelled congressman Jim Traficant (D-OH) took up painting to pass the time. When he was released this month, he promised to auction off some of those paintings to raise money for a group of retirees from his district.
Those paintings — of a horse, Betty Boop and Elvis — are now available on eBay. We’ve compiled them all into a Traficant slideshow for your viewing pleasure.
In 2002, Traficant was convicted on 10 felony charges including racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion, after he demanded kickbacks from his staff and failed to pay taxes, among other things. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and ousted from the House in a vote of 420 to one.
At a welcome-back-from-prison party in Ohio, Traficant met more than 1,000 supporters who chanted, “Run for Senate!” and jostled each other for his autograph.
Proceeds from the paintings will benefit the Delphi Salaried Retiree Association, a group of autoworkers whose company, Delphi Corp., went bankrupt earlier this year. The retirees are afraid they’ll lose their pensions after the company turned the pensions over to the government’s pension insurer. The group filed suit against the insurer today.
This isn’t the first time Traficant’s work has gone up for sale. Throughout his stint in prison, he sold paintings through his now-defunct web site, BeamMeUpArt.com, and through local Ohio galleries.
Traficant is a big fan of Elvis — his welcome back party featured Elvis impersonators — and much of his work had included depictions of horses, barns and other aspects of farm life. The “M” in the moon on each work is a tribute to Mae West, a 1930s movie star famous for her one-liners, including “Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?”
Check out the paintings here. They’ll be available for bidding until Sunday.
