John Gizzi of Human Events has this tidbit:
Rep.-elect Michele Bachmann (R.-Minn.) has turned to Brooks Kochvar,
chief of staff to defeated Rep. Chris Chocola (R-Ind.), to run her
office.
Looks like former Bachmann campaign manager
Andy Parrish didn't get the position he was (supposedly) angling for. As a first-time campaign manager, I didn't see him getting a chief of staff position. I guess he'll still be working for Bachmann, though, considering the invaluable
purse-holding work he performs for Michele.
We'll be watching the career of Mr. Parrish closely, because his
ridiculous wingnuttery is so entertaining. But who is this
Brooks Kochvar?
His current appointment, as the
Human Events piece notes, is chief of staff to recently defeated two-term Republican representative and assistant majority whip
Chris "the Count" Chocola of Indiana. There are quotes from Kochvar strewn across the internet--boilerplate Republican campaign stuff, but nothing too crazy that I've seen. However, he is not without controversy.
An
investigation by
American RadioWorks on the
cozy relationships between special-interest lobbyists and congressional staffers reveals that Kochvar has
accepted two lobbyist-sponsored trips,
worth almost $2,000, from the
Congressional Institute, Inc., a Washington "think tank." According to
SourceWatch,
CII is
a DC organization that conducts research and hosts seminars on topics
such as health care, taxes, energy, and the environment. The Institute
is a non-profit organization funded by corporate contributions and run
by top GOP lobbyists.
Judge for yourself the trustworthiness of this organization and the appropriateness of their
corporate-funded junkets to
high-end spas and resorts.
After coming under the scrutiny of news organizations, the CII
dramatically cut back its lobbyist-sponsored trips in 2006, dropping from a total of
nearly 1,000 sponsored trips between 2002 and 2005 to
just 17 in the first 8 months of 2006.
One factor in Chocola's loss were allegations of corruption against him. In his four years in Congress, he
amassed tens of thousands in campaign contributions from tainted GOP lawmakers like
Tom Delay ($40,000),
Bob Ney ($8,000),
Duke Cunningham ($6,000), and current leaders
John Boehner and
Roy Blunt (over $25,000 each.) Many
believe that his close ties to Delay and the GOP leadership were factors in his rapid rise to position of prominence as assistant majority whip and key seats on the Ways and Means Committee and the Budget Committee, which resulted in millions of dollars in pork for his district. Also factoring into the loss were Chocola's close ties to the unpopular
President Bush, who appeared with Chocola several times.
Going back further in Kochvar's career, it appears that, before coming to Chocola's staff, he worked for disgraced Republican Congressman
Duke Cunningham,
now serving over 8 years in prison for accepting over
$2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and for
tax evasion. Kochvar is listed
here as Cunningham's "Legislative Correspondent," and is also linked to Cunningham in
this document from April 8, 2003. I can't find any specifics on Kochvar's time with Cunningham, and he doesn't appear to be explicitly linked to the Cunningham bribery scandal. However, Cunningham's corruption
appears to extend back at least as far as May 2000, so Kochvar's time with Cunningham overlapped with the congressman's corrupt activities. Does that mean that Kochvar knew about it? Not necessarily... but if I were Michele Bachmann, I'd be concerned about the message sent by hiring a guy who's worked for one of the
most corrupt public officials in history, who later worked for a key player in the
GOP culture of corruption, and who himself accepted lobbyist-sponsored vacations.
With this background, it is clear that Kochvar has a history in the
GOP culture of corruption, and, with his selection as her chief of staff,
Michele Bachmann has made it clear that she wants to be a part of that culture.
Know anything more about
Mr. Brooks Kochvar? Please add it in the comments.
