As the release below points out, Bob just can't tell the truth:
Five days after the Chattanooga Times Free-Press first disclosed the deportation of illegal immigrants from a job site managed by Bob Corker’s company, the Corker campaign has had five different explanations for what happened on Mud Island when INS agents raided Corker’s Riverset Apartments job site on March 16, 1988.
It was me
“Corker campaign officials are not disputing the incident in which the then-federal Immigration and Naturalization Service arrested four illegal immigrants at the Riverset Apartments project on Memphis' Mud Island.” Chattanooga Times Free Press, 06/05/06.
“The fact is because Congress has failed to act, some illegal immigrants have exploited the current requirements with forged documents.” Corker campaign Ben Mitchell, Chattanooga Times Free Press, 06/05/06.
It wasn’t me
“Obviously, this was a subcontractor,” Corker said of the situation. “This was not someone who worked for us.” Kingsport Times-News, 06/06/06
If it was me, documents from the government’s investigative file on Bob Corker’s job site don’t prove it
“Corker campaign spokesman Ben Mitchell did not deny the authenticity of the documents, but questioned their relevance. ‘I think the fact that Harold Ford would make these kinds of baseless accusations based on photocopies of handwritten notes from almost 20 years ago indicates just how scared to death he is to face Bob Corker in a general election,’ Mitchell added.” Nashville City Paper, 06/09/06
If the documents from the government’s investigative file on Bob Corker’s job site do prove it, it’s a good thing, really
“I think this incident 18 years ago dealing with a subcontractor helps illustrate the need for employers to have an instant and tamper-proof means to electronically verify a worker's status,” Corker campaign manager Ben Mitchell said. Chattanooga Times Free Press, 06/05/06
If the documents from the government’s investigative file on Bob Corker’s job site do prove it, and it’s not a good thing, then ATTACK!
Mr. Mitchell also said “no doubt our opponents will try to make an issue here where there is none because they're way behind in the polls.” Chattanooga Times Free Press, 06/05/06
Michael Powell, senior advisor to the Ford for Tennessee, which released the government documents in response to the initial Chattanooga Times Free Press story, made the following statement today:
“When Ben Mitchell says, quoting from the Chattanooga Times Free Press on June 5, that he thinks ‘the public record has and will continue to demonstrate that Bob Corker ran his companies in such a way to make sure that all workplace laws and regulations were strictly followed,’ we invite voters and the Tennessee press to take him up on his offer to hold Bob Corker accountable.
“You can be like Bob Corker and answer the same question five ways in five days, but you can’t change the facts. Bob Corker made the management of his business an issue in this race. Now that he’s confronted with the facts of illegal immigrants working on his job, he isn’t being straight. There is only one conclusion: What is he covering up?”
Bob should just come clean and admit he hired the illegal workers. We all know he did--the evidence clearly shows that.
The more he tries to cover up the situation, the bigger the fraud he looks.
156 Days
Days of Congressional Inaction on Ethics
Above is the number of days that have passed since Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to bribing Congressman.
It is also the number of days in which Congress has failed to pass an ethics reform bill that would limit private travel, ski and golf junkets, and would call for a full disclosure of expenses by lobbyists on members of Congress.
It is time for Congress to step up and pass an ethics reform bill that would do all of the above. In addition, it is time to end the pork barrel spending system as we know it and establish an independent ethics commission that would review ethics complaints against members of Congress.
I am proud Congressman Harold Ford Jr. is fighting for that reform!
Read Congressman Ford's call for reform of the House rules here!
