
Rep. John Doolittle’s (R-CA) statement tonight:
Doolittle Responds to Reports about FBI Search of Wife’s Business
WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Roseville) issued a statement to media questions regarding reports of an FBI search of his wife’s business in Virginia.
Doolittle said, “My wife has been cooperating with the FBI and the Justice Department for almost three years and that cooperation is going to continue in the future. I support my wife 100 percent and fully expect that the truth will prevail.”
Doolittle apparently expects people to believe that he has nothing to do with the investigation of his wife’s business. That’s laughable.
The relationship between John Doolittle and criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff is extensive. Doolittle received $64,500 from Abramoff, his partners and clients between 2001 and 2004. Abramoff let Doolittle hold fundraisers in his sky box for free, and paid to send Doolittle’s top aide to Puerto Rico. Abramoff hired Doolittle’s then-chief of staff, Kevin Ring, who in turn helped hire Doolittle’s wife. Julie Doolittle, who owned a consulting firm, was brought on by Abramoff and his firm, Greenberg Traurig, to do fundraising for Abramoff’s charity.
The fact that investigators raided Julie Doolittle’s business suggests that they are attempting to show how John Doolittle himself — not just his staffers or campaign committee — benefited from Abramoff’s largess. Too bad for the Doolittles, California is a communal-property state:
San Diego attorney Stanley Zubel, who heads Californians for a Cleaner Congress, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said Julie Doolittle’s commissions raise troubling questions about whether the congressman personally benefited from his support of Wilkes’ projects. “For all practical purposes, when someone’s wife earns money, then he earns money, especially in a community-property state like California,” Zubel said. “He can’t separate this out and say, ‘This is my wife’s money.’ If she’s getting a benefit, he’s getting a benefit.”
UPDATE: More from McClatchy: “Rep. Doolittle’s attorney, criminal defense lawyer David Barger, said Wednesday that the raid was in connection with a search warrant for Sierra Dominion records and not anything related to the congressman. He declined to say, however, whether John Doolittle had become a target of investigation in the ongoing probe.”
UPDATE II: The Washington Post story is out with more details on Julie Doolittle’s work with her husband.

poor bus
April 18th, 2007 at 7:21 pmGreat one, Raven. Heh.
Throwing one’s wife under the bus — is this one of those fine Republican family values?
April 18th, 2007 at 8:04 pmThis is so low…even for a republican.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:05 pmJulie, honey,
Turn His Ass In!
What a D*ck.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:06 pmTP folks, why the 40 minute take down of this piece?
April 18th, 2007 at 8:07 pmWhere is the part where he sticks the knife in?
I must have missed that part, or this is some new usage of the poltical/meme of throwing someone under the bus I am not aware of.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:09 pmHope she got her taxes sent in before her office was raided, ’cause they’re gonna be late now if she didn’t………..
April 18th, 2007 at 8:12 pm#5.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:12 pmThey had to fix a flat………..
Fantastic. Leave it to a Repuke to provide a shining example of marital solidarity.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:13 pmI was pissed off at the temporary takedown as well, FGF.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:13 pmIt was an accident FGF. I accidentally saved it as a draft before leaving the office for the night, then republished it when I got home.
– Nico
April 18th, 2007 at 8:14 pmThe State of Virginia’s not having a good week is it
April 18th, 2007 at 8:20 pmThe relationship between John Doolittle and criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff is extensive.
I like the new descriptor for Abramoff, rather than the old “disgraced lobbyist”. How about “criminally convicted”, Nico? You’d be stating a fact.
About Doolittle and his wife, although I do agree that his statement is a laughable attempt at distancing himself from the investigation, I don’t know how the “California as a communal-property state” logic applies in this case.
By that standard, the wives of criminals are also criminals themselves because they benefited from the husbands’ (illegal) activities. They would be suspects at the very least.
Can someone knowledgeable elucidate? Briseadh na Faire? Anyone else?
April 18th, 2007 at 8:26 pmRepublican Family Valuesâ„¢
April 18th, 2007 at 8:27 pmIt was an accident FGF. I accidentally saved it as a draft before leaving the office for the night, then republished it when I got home.
– Nico
So wait a minute.
The first thing you did when you got home was checked TP and saw this blooper and fixed it?
No. That’s not right.
Have a life.
;)
April 18th, 2007 at 8:30 pmRaven — she probably tried to use Intuit’s Turbo tax, since they’re a pretty red company.
Whoops!
bummer about that, huh?
April 18th, 2007 at 8:31 pm#15 - true
He’s at home. I bet he’s posting thread while he’s naked.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:32 pmLook at the picture of these 4 losers. The soulless, dead eyes; the lifeless stepford smiles (or smirks) — all hallmark physical traits of your modern conservative goon. Can’t wait to see the pictures and looks on their faces as they’re being frog-marched off to Bubbaville.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:42 pm#16. Will E.
April 18th, 2007 at 8:45 pmTurbo-tax had a melt down from the overload of last minute filings…
…the Blackberry server had a breakdown as well last night.
Ah, technology…………
Zooey, Not an image I want. (No offense, Nico.)
Re: Turbo tax:
Whaaaa?
I used them this year. Tuesday, the 17th.
What meltdown?
**panic**
April 18th, 2007 at 8:48 pmFor more on Doolittle and the lastest Abramoff scandal news, documents, legal filings and other essential materials, see:
April 18th, 2007 at 8:48 pm“The Abramoff Scandal Resource Center.”
Zooey, Not an image I want. (No offense, Nico.)
Comment by trueblue
You obviously haven’t seen Nico….. ;)
April 18th, 2007 at 8:51 pmThere is also the fundraising dinner in San Diego sponsored by ADCS in November 2003. In which Doolittle’s campaign got $50,000, and his wife got a $14000 or so cut of that, even though there are no records that she did any solicitations or work to get the dinner organize or the donors committed, (I believe all the diners were ADCS executives or the like)
Doolittle got something like $37 million in grants to Wilkes through his position on Appropiations… I think this could be the deadlier of the charges, given there is some obvious quid pro quo going on.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/ news/ politics/ 20060319-9999-1n19dolittle.html
My guess is that she will try to plead guilty for some sort of misdemeanor, but the US prosecutors will deny it, unless she can bring something more against Wilkes, DeLay or Buckham. The problem is that Rep. Doolittle will have an almost impossible time escaping this, because if she is tried on charges specifically on her fundraising for his campaign, he is toast….
April 18th, 2007 at 8:53 pm#20. trueblue……..
April 18th, 2007 at 8:55 pmI’ll have to go back and find the article, trueblue, stand by.
It was either on CBS web news, or the BBC web news.
Trueblue:
CBS web News, article entitled Turbo Tax Trouble, in the Science News section.
(Brace yourself for the main page, CBS is still fixated on the VT gunman, it’s been one disgusting photo after another for three days now…………….)
April 18th, 2007 at 8:59 pmThanks, Raven.
I’ve stopped hyperventilating now that I found out I’m in one of the areas granted an extension due to the crazy weather (caused by Global Warming… but I digress…)
OK.
I’m gonna check it out.
Wish me luck.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:05 pmyou got it…..
April 18th, 2007 at 9:09 pm(Brace yourself for the main page, CBS is still fixated on the VT gunman, it’s been one disgusting photo after another for three days now…………….)
Comment by Raven
All the MSN sites are. =P
April 18th, 2007 at 9:09 pmJust to be clear: no matter what the rest of the country thinks about us, California is NOT a “communal property” state. Unbridled Maoism has not taken hold here.
California is a COMMUNITY property state; that is, the husband and wife form a coequal community, which entitles each party to a marriage to an equal division of the property acquired and earned during marriage (except that acquired by gift or devise).
April 18th, 2007 at 9:12 pmThere’s no honor among CONTURDS or RepubliSCUM.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:25 pmI threw my bitch-ass wife under the bus and I loved it.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:41 pmShe took one for the team.
April 18th, 2007 at 9:42 pmIt feels like Christmas Eve, I’ll have a difficult time falling asleep tonight
April 18th, 2007 at 9:43 pmfor sure.
I’d like to spend some time with Kernie from the photo. Yum.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:05 pm“community property” state.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:07 pmCommunity property state. Not “communal.”
April 18th, 2007 at 10:09 pmJulie, sweetheart- have something to eat, you’ll feel better.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:15 pm…she may have some time, her husband may be doing time…
April 18th, 2007 at 10:17 pmIs Julie a lawyer? Can she get referral money from the lawyers both she and John hired?If not lets set up a legal defense fund,pure dears they will need it.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:21 pm“poor bus”
Thank you for the laugh. That was funny as hell.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:45 pmSo Doolittle has a criminal defense attorney.
I don’t have a criminal defense attorney.
None of my friends have a criminal defense attorney.
Congressman Doolittle must be special to have one.
April 18th, 2007 at 11:41 pmCongressman Doolittle must be special to have one.
Comment by VerbalKint
Criminally special….
April 18th, 2007 at 11:47 pmOnly $64,500? Isn’t that less than the amount Harry Reid pocketed from Abrahamof clients? What’s up with that?
April 19th, 2007 at 12:52 amI am a peace activist.Worked for Kucinich in 2004.Talking ABOUT PEACE to the Rethugs is like talking to the back of a bus.Is that the one Ms.Doolittle is under?
April 19th, 2007 at 1:58 amFrom the looks of Julie Doolittle, I pity the bus.
April 19th, 2007 at 2:55 amIf this were my wife, I’d throw her under the bus too… Like Raven said, poor bus…
Conservative Family values–Corruption, Deceit and Backstabbing–all in one happy family
Keep your eyes on Nevada and Montana!
April 19th, 2007 at 6:56 amDoolittle Throws His Wife Under The Bus……..Bus fights back and throws skinny Doolittle under fat Doolittle.
April 19th, 2007 at 8:49 amFrom the posturing of the four I think there might be a little more to their relationship than just friends.
Why not have both women in the middle framed by their husbands? Here Doolittle stands next to Ring’s wife while his wife is next to Ring but outside. Just conjecture but this suggests another hallmark of Republican Family Values, sexual shenanigans and a bit of lesbophobia with the women apart from each other.
That said and that image in my head I will not be able to sleep tonight.
April 19th, 2007 at 10:00 amThe photo is arranged per conservative standards: alternating genders, to avoid close contact with same sex; man in power position.
Lesbophobia isn’t a core value; it’s a corollary to the essential position that conservative males can have a reflexive violent reaction any time they think about manlove. Conservatives know that women can’t really have sex together, because there’s no penetration.
April 19th, 2007 at 10:42 amIt seems Dolittle did a lot….
April 19th, 2007 at 10:59 amFor a guy named (John) Doolittle and by proxy a wife named (Julie) Doolittle they certainly do more than their name(s) suggest.
April 19th, 2007 at 11:56 amFamily values my ass.
April 19th, 2007 at 1:11 pmTitle of the picture: It’s a good life when you are friends of the King.
On the other hand, I think John and Kevin make a better looking couple than John and Julie. We know Kevin just resigned his big job and is most likely headed to the big house. Maybe he can take John with him.
April 19th, 2007 at 7:28 pm