Start with Scott G. Stewart (top center) harasser of women, bilker of the elderly. He worked for the Interior Department. You'll remember Abramoff and Steven Griles, I'm sure who basically ruled there to the detriment of the country. Just like Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Stewart has taken inappropriate employment with a company that does a lot of "bidness" with said department, Shell Oil.
But even before Pat moved in with Scott in 2001, his dear alma mater, Belmont Abbey has an interesting history of hiring a sex offender and then lying about knowing he was a sex offender. George P. Berthold was hired in 1997 (right when Pat was there) to run it's Theology Department. According to the Boston Globe:
Donna M. Morrissey, the spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said that church officials in Boston had notified the college and the Diocese of Charlotte "verbally and in writing" that Berthold had been accused of inappropriate physical behavior with adult seminarians when he was dean of the undergraduate college at St. John's Seminary in 1995.According to Donnie Young, other major campaign peeps, Willliam Duffy and Bernard Sullivan, are under investigation by the the FBI [or perhaps the SBI?] for Medicaid fraud.
Morrissey said the notifications were made before the college in Belmont, N.C., hired Berthold.
Morrissey, however, refused to make public any of the notifications. And neither she nor the college would release a copy of the 1997 letter from Cardinal Bernard F. Law that, according to Belmont Abbey, said Berthold's record was unblemished.
Told of Morrissey's statement, the college spokeswoman, Teresa Sowers McKinney, insisted again that the college was told nothing about Berthold's misbehavior. She repeated her earlier statement that Belmont Abbey would not have hired Berthold if it had been made aware of the allegations.
The North Carolina Conservative's Judson Cox, writes that Florida shooter* Jason Drake (middle left) worked for McHenry. I have sources tying McHenry to Drake's alleged victim and Republican dirty tricks operator, gay Ralph Gonzalez* (lower right).
Michael Aaron Lay (upper left), a former staffer and housemate got deferred a plea deal on voter fraud. Deputy Field Director Brett Keeter (upper right) blew a point one three over Labor Day (and got a pat on the wrist).
There's even more at the North Carolina Conservative.
So, we'll be keeping you informed on the kinds of people Patrick McHenry does business with.
As he says on his House-provided website:
Click to enlarge. It's a screengrab of the McHenry's "Issue Page" labeled Sanctity of Marriage.
*For those of you who didn't follow those links for the Florida Gonzalez/Abrami/Drake murder/suicide story's details, I'll just sum up the political end of things for you:
Gonzales (as Georgia Republican Party Executive Director) has close ties to Ralph Reed and the dirty tricks that defeated Senator Max Cleland in Georgia. Never forget they employed the confederate flag wedge issue hysteria. Never forget that Ralph Reed took over the Georgian Republican Party using Abramoff-forced Choctaw "donations."And never forget that Abramoff knows all these guys. (Ever wonder why McHenry defends Charles Taylor so often and vehemently?)
Ralph Gonzalez also worked as now-Representative Tom Feeney's campaign manager who created a smear site against his Democratic opponent, Clint Curtis. Gonzalez was also Feeney's campaign manager when he ran for Florida state house to become it's speaker. He stayed on as a strategist and spokesman. There the ethics scandal involving influencing software purchases. He's tied to another indicted legislator, former Rep. Sheri McInvale.
And here's a new tidbit I hadn't seen before from political hotwire
When Gonzalez filed an annual report for Strategum with the State of Florida Division of Corporations in January, 2007, Schnick was listed as one of his business partners. (Note: Todd Schnick is a name that you might remember if you believe the 2000 presidential election was stolen, and that said theft occurred in Florida.)
7 comments:
Sorry, but I don't get the connection between McHenry and his alma mater's hiring of a sex offender. Did they know each other or were they just there at the same time? What point are you trying to make? Did I miss something, or are you getting a little too far afield here?
Thanks, Ray. I wasn't very clear, was I? The tie to Belmont Abbey came about after I posted two items on Republicans, conservative colleges and sexual predatory behavior.
I first asked the question two weeks ago: What's With Republicans and Their Repressed Sex Drives? I didn't have the answers. It was simply the opening of a what I expected to be an extended conversation. In that post, I list all the cases in the news (Coy Privette, Larry Craig) and link to bigger lists over a longer time period.
I got a relevant email in response to that which I posted under the title Are Conservative Colleges Breeding Predatory Gays?
At that time I had no idea that McHenry's school, Belmont Abbey, had had this recent history of knowingly hiring a gay offender. And, if the reports are accurate, not only did they employ an accused gay offender but then the high level Belmont Abbey staff lied (to the press) about having been informed that he was a sexual predator.
This happened while McHenry was a student. I can't help but think this kind of institutional behavior was a lesson to everyone there that many rules can be bent (without consequences) for those in power.
I'd like to keep this discussion ongoing. I would like to know if my readers know of any other situations like these two. Are these demonstrative or anomalies or somewhere between the two? Has this kind of predatory abuse by students or administration and faculty been studied from a sociological standpoint? I'd like to know more.
Sorry for the ramble and thanks for keeping me on track.
Leslie, I believe you're on the right track here.
As your reply to Ray notes, not only did Belmont Abbey hire Rev. Berthold to head its theology program, while having written and oral evidence from Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston that there were credible allegations about
Berthold's past.
Sorry, my posting above got truncated. My original posting went on to say:
Not only did Belmont Abbey hire Rev. Berthold to head its theology program, while having written and oral evidence from Cardinal Bernard Law in Boston that there were credible allegations about Berthold's past.
But when this information was made public through the legal disclosure process in lawsuits re: pedophile priests in Boston, initially both the bishop of Charlotte John Donoghue and the Abbot of Belmont Abbey, Placid Solari, denied having known of Berthold's past when Belmont Abbey hired him.
Both later had to retract their statements, when Cardinal Law in Boston made public documents showing that he had, indeed, informed both Abbot Solari and Bishop Donoghue of Berthold's past.
All of this is well-documented in many media sources in 2002 and later.
McHenry is celebrated as one of Belmont Abbey's most outstanding alumni. The college has a plaque honoring him on its Wall of Fame. A photo on McHenry's official D.C. website shows Abbot Solari standing beside him smiling.
Belmont Abbey has not taken a conspicuously gay-friendly stance as a Catholic institution. It is very deeply allied to some ultra right-wing Catholic movements that bash gays.
I think it's not at all beside the point to ask about religious institutions and religious leaders who do not adhere to principles about speaking the truth--principles they teach to us and impart to young people through their educational missions.
It's all the more important to ask these institutions to adhere to basic standards of truth, if they take political or religious stands that harm others--e.g., gay persons--while protecting a known sex offender.
Links to the picture of Hon. Patrick McHenry with Abbot Solari of Belmont Abbey, along with a picture of the plaque honoring McHenry on Belmont Abbey's Wall of Fame:
http://mchenry.house.gov/Photos/?PhotoID=27825
http://mchenry.house.gov/Photos/?PhotoID=27829
A link to an article about the plaque honoring McHenry on Belmont Abbey's Wall of Fame:
http://www.edukick.com/articles/Belmont-Abbey-College-Honors-Distinguished.htm
I wonder if McHenry was honored by his alma mater because of the "purer and truer" Catholicism he represents? In Feb. 2005, he informed Time magazine that Catholicism was booming in places like Charlotte because, "We adhere to a truer and purer view of Catholicism."
A transcription of the plaque honoring the Hon. Patrick McHenry on Belmont Abbey College's Wall of Fame:
"A man of the people, Patrick McHenry embarked on a political career that won him a seat in Congress at the age of 29. Born and raised in Gaston County, NC, he earned a BA in history at Belmont Abbey in 1999. It was during his college years that Mr. McHenry began to take politics as the focus of his ambition and service. In 1996, he worked as a staff member in the NC gubernatorial campaign of Robin Hayes. Two years later Mr. McHenry won the Republican nomination for the 76th District seat in the NC House. Following his graduation he worked for two technology companies, and served as a Coalition Director in the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush. He then accepted an appointment as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the United States Department of Labor. In 2004, Mr. McHenry was elected to the United States House of Representatives; he held the seat of North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District. As he took office in the 109th Congress, McHenry was the House’s youngest member. In recognition of his interests and expertise, Congressman McHenry was awarded membership in the House Financial Services Committee and Committee on Government Reform (!!!; exclamation points mine)."
The April 24, 2005 EduKick article announcing the Wall of Fame, a link to which I posted in my last posting, states:
"'The purpose of the Distinguished Alumni Wall of Fame is to show current and future students what can be accomplished with a Belmont Abbey College education,' says Fran Kirk Piñeros ’99, director of alumni and parent relations at Belmont Abbey."
The same article stresses that a Belmont Abbey College education is about celebrating excellence and virtue: "Ranked one of the best liberal arts colleges in the South by U.S. News and World Report, Belmont Abbey College celebrates excellence and virtue steeped in its 128 year Catholic Benedictine heritage. It is home to students from over 34 states and 17 countries and welcome everyone from any background or tradition committed to this vision of excellence and virtue."
The same article notes, "The College believes in development of the whole person – mind, body and spirit."
A slight correction to my second posting on Sept. 20: the bishop of Charlotte at the time the news about Berthold broke was John Donoghue's successor William Curlin.
It was Curlin who was informed of Berthold's past when Belmont Abbey hired him, according to documents released by the Boston archdiocese.
John Donoghue preceded Curlin as bishop of Charlotte, and then became archbishop of Atlanta.
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