Feeney and the FBI Anniversary Week 7 Deadly Questions for "Representative #3"

QUESTION #5: Did you take your clubs on the private jet?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 20, 2008

TALLAHASSEE - Golfers are notorious for obsessing over their equipment.

Prized clubs are diligently cared for and maintained, lest a favorite driver be damaged or lost. Enthusiasts maintain that two putters of the same make and model can feel very different.

If you're Florida's most corrupt member of Congress, Tom Feeney (R-24th), and you've been escorted by Jack Abramoff via private jet to golf on some of the world's most exclusive courses, wouldn't you take your own bag of clubs?

We're three days from the first anniversary of the public relationship between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the man it affectionately refers to as "Representative #3".

To celebrate the occasion, the Florida Democratic Party is asking Feeney "Seven Deadly Questions" that he has left unanswered.

Question #5: Did you take your clubs on the private jet?

A question that may seem out of touch to some - certainly Floridians held hostage by the Republican Recession - is critically serious to those elite jetsetters who toil with their long and short game.

Likewise, the answer to this question could shed more light on the believability of Feeney's excuses. Feeney has said that he was misled about who paid for the Scotland visit. But there's documented evidence that he was informed something shady was going on.

In January of last year, the Orlando Sentinel reported Feeney's claim that he was "'duped and lied to' about what he thought was a fact-finding trip with Abramoff." [Feeney trip tied to Abramoff 'slush fund,' Orlando Sentinel, 1/4/07]

Abramoff later pleaded guilty to corruption charges. Another member of the trip, former congressional staffer Mark Zachares, also pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe public officials. Zachares' agreement details how he "lied on disclosure forms by saying the National Center for Public Policy Research sponsored the 'fact-finding' trip for $5,643." [Scotland trip for 8, including Feeney, cost $160,000, Orlando Sentinel, 4/26/07]

In reality, Zachares coordinated the trip's dishonest price tag with Abramoff so that the other members of the junket, including Feeney, would report it identically. An Abramoff slush fund paid for the trip, not the policy center.

Court documents also report the price of the trip exceeded $160,000. But Feeney's disclosure forms are consistent with the claim that got Zachares into trouble: $5,643 for a private jet excursion to golf in Scotland.

Simply, whether or not he took his personal golf equipment on the trip would help determine that Feeney knew full well that the illicit trip was nothing more than a lobbyist-paid vacation.

"Few people have the means to pay for lavish international golfing excursions in a good economy, let alone in the middle of a Republican recession like we're in now," Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski said. "This anniversary is a sad one for Floridians who want to trust their elected officials to represent them, not go golfing with corrupt lobbyists. Tom Feeney's pay-for-play attitude and out-of-touch voting record show that he just doesn't care about the challenges Floridians face."

The Florida Democratic Party will release one deadly question a day through April 23, exactly one year after news broke that Tom Feeney was under investigation by the FBI.

Read more about the infamy of Tom Feeney at: http://www.feeneysfullofit.com.