Explosive Norton Voicemail — Where's the MSM?

Yes, we’re talking to you, Mainstream Media. Last night, our sister site Big Government published the audio of a voicemail from a woman who identifies herself as Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s lone Congressional representative, asking an unidentified lobbyist for a contribution:

This is, uh, Eleanor Norton, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Uh, I noticed that you have given to uh, other colleagues on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. I am a, um, Senior Member, a twenty year veteran and am Chair of the Sub-committee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management. I’m handling the largest economic development project in the United States now, the Homeland Security Compound of three buildings being built on the uh, old St. Elizabeth’s hospital site in the District of Columbia along with uh, fifteen other, uh, sites here for, that are part of the stimulus .

I was, frankly, uh, uh, surprised to see that we don’t have a record, so far as I can tell, of your having given to me despite my uh, long and deep uh, work. In fact, it’s been my major work, uh, on the committee and sub-committee it’s been essentially in your sector.

I am, I’m simply candidly calling to ask for a contribution. As the senior member of the um, committee and a sub-committee chair, we have (chuckles) obligations to raise, uh funds. And, I think it must have been me who hasn’t, frankly, uh, done my homework to ask for a contribution earlier. So I’m trying to make up for it by asking for one now, when we particularly, uh, need, uh contributions, particularly those of us who have the seniority and chairmanships and are in a position to raise the funds.

I’m asking you to give to Citizens for Eleanor Holmes Norton, PO Box 70626, DC, 20024. I’ll send you a follow-up note with appreciation for having heard me out. Thanks again.

The story has been up now for about 17 hours, and is currently linked in red on the Drudge Report, but thus far, the only media that have picked it up are in the independent blogosphere. As of this writing, there has been not a word about it in the MSM, and most especially not in the Post, Norton’s hometown newspaper. Indeed the last story the Post published about her — including on its normally nimble blogs, was a celebration of her victory in the D.C. primary held on Tuesday night.

This is not just business-as-usual fundraising. As Big Government notes:

By way of background, with their prospects for November quickly deteriorating, Congressional Democrats are scrambling to assemble the financial resources they hope can stave off their electoral Armageddon. Speaker Pelosi and her leadership team are putting a lot of pressure on Democrat members to pony up campaign contributions to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In the article linked above, Politico noted:

In August, Pelosi and other top leaders wrote members, saying, “We need to know your commitment is to maintaining a strong Democratic majority now” and pleading with them to call “to let us know what you are able to do and when.”

The pressure is especially strong on members from “safe” districts, who need little campaign money of their own to win reelection. The catch, though, is that many of these members haven’t amassed vast campaign war-chests, for the simple reason that they haven’t needed them. So, they are scrambling to meet their Pelosi-imposed obligations. Holmes Norton is from one such “safe” district-the District of Columbia.

Pelosi based her campaign for a Democratic Congress on the notion of “draining the swamp,” and as this tape indicates, the swamp of corruption that is the Congress of the United States has gotten deeper and more foul-smelling than ever. As Big Government notes, Holmes’ actions raise both ethical and legal issues; if she were, say, John Boehner, the media would be howling for her scalp.

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Time to hold your pets accountable, MSM. We’re watching you.