The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She gets the award for the following.

WASHINGTON — — A non-partisan watchdog group is questioning whether friendship and campaign contributions played a role in federal spending earmarks obtained by U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Schultz, a second-term Democrat from Pembroke Pines in Broward County, said her actions had nothing to do with friendship and denied knowing there as a link between contributors and a small private autism school in Miami that she earmarked for a $50,000 grant last year.

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The organization is questioning the $50,000 grant Wasserman Schultz obtained for The Victory School, a private autism school in Miami that has 25 students. It also questions the propriety of Wasserman Schultz earmarking a total of $450,000 for Nova Southeastern University in Broward County, where she worked for 10 years.

But the organization has not filed any official complaints about Wasserman Schultz's actions.

At the center of the Victory School question is Robin Parker, a Nova professor and clinical supervisor in communication sciences and disorders who is an unpaid consultant and advisory board member at the Victory School.

Since 2004, when Wasserman Schultz ran for Congress, Parker has contributed $8,150 to her campaigns. Among those contributions was one for $1,850 on June 12, 2006. Three weeks later, Wasserman Schultz announced that the House had approved a spending bill that earmarked $50,000 to the Victory School for a community outreach enrichment project and additional teacher training.

"It looks like she's trading campaign contributions for earmarks," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "You don't go to Congress and earmark for your friends and your former employer."

Why a congress person in a safe seat(Debbie Wasserman Schultz had no opposition in 2006) needs to sell a vote is beyond me. Except to prove that both members of Congress are corrupt and some of the most insecure people on earth. A google search shows Wasserman Schultz to have visited this school. I don't buy her not knowing Parker's association with the school and neither should you. For selling her vote in Congress, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

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