Just like the trees around here.
And he is supposed to be a dove.
One war party, two heads.
Here's why he's gone:
"Hudak said he would back Israel if it decided to attack Iran militarily.... Hudak’s race against US Representative John F. Tierney suddenly gained plausibility, following a guilty plea by Tierney’s wife on federal charges of abetting tax fraud"
That's the cover story excuse for Tierney's ejection.
Looks like Massachusetts is going to have TWO Republican congressmen!
"Congressman Tierney’s wife to admit to tax fraud; Plea tied to kin’s gambling case" by Shelley Murphy and Matt Viser, Globe Staff | October 6, 2010
The wife of US Representative John F. Tierney is poised to plead guilty today to federal tax charges for managing a bank account that her brother allegedly used to deposit millions of dollars in illegal gambling profits raked in from an offshore sports betting operation in Antigua.
Patrice Tierney, 59, is charged with four counts of aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns by her brother, Robert Eremian of St. John’s, Antigua.
The US attorney’s office said she is scheduled to plead guilty this afternoon.
In a lengthy statement last night, the congressman, a Salem Democrat, defended his wife and said she was betrayed by her brother. He said she believed her brother’s earnings were from legitimate business, but is pleading guilty because she acknowledges she should have done more to investigate his activities....
Tierney is in the midst of a reelection campaign, with just four weeks before voters go to the polls. The seven-term congressman has been favored against Republican challenger Bill Hudak, a first-time candidate and Boxford lawyer....
Prosecutors allege that Eremian 57, moved an illegal gambling business from Lynnfield to Antigua in 1996 and deposited profits from his business, Sports Offshore, an Internet gambling site, into an account at Bank of America in Massachusetts.
Patrice Tierney is accused of managing some of Eremian’s “financial and family obligations’’ through the account and mischaracterizing deposits as commissions in documents submitted to her brother’s tax preparer for the years 2004 through 2008.
From 2003 through 2009, prosecutors allege, Eremian funneled more than $7 million in illegal gambling proceeds into the account managed by his sister, while passing himself off as a consultant for Sports Offshore rather than its owner. He allegedly transferred funds from a shell company, Benevolence Funding Ltd., into the Massachusetts account....
Robert Eremian remains a fugitive.
Hmmmm.
In his statement last night, the congressman said that when Robert Eremian left the country in 2002, after pleading guilty to a federal tax evasion charge, he was permitted by the federal court and probation officials to travel abroad to pursue a career selling or licensing software to legal Internet gaming businesses.
What?
Tierney said his wife disagreed with her brother’s decision to leave his family, but “agreed to care for their ailing mother and serve as a de facto second mother’’ to Eremian’s three teenage children....
“While devastated to learn that her brother might have deceived her and so many others, Patrice has acknowledged and agreed that she should have done more to personally investigate the true nature of Mr. Eremian’s business activities in the course of carrying out his requests in paying his children’s household expenses, family medical bills, and his personal bills and taxes from a checking account in which he deposited funds,’’ Tierney said.
Tierney represents the Sixth District, which covers the North Shore and stretches from Saugus to Salisbury, and he has been active on foreign policy issues. He first won office in 1996, defeating Republican congressman Peter Torkildsen, and has won reelection by comfortable margins since.
Tierney and his wife, after dating throughout the 1996 campaign, married the next year, several months after he was sworn into office. It was her second marriage, his first. She has three children from her previous marriage.
It is unclear how the criminal case against his wife will affect his reelection bid.
I think the other thing had something to do with it.
“My guess is it has a modest effect,’’ said Paul Watanabe, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston. “For the few people in that race who have not decided between Tierney and Hudak, it might give them a little pause about voting for Tierney. However, I don’t see it turning any Tierney supporters away from him. Most voters can in fact separate the activities of family members, including spouses, from them.’’
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The wife of US Representative John F. Tierney became a convicted felon yesterday, pleading guilty to four counts of aiding and abetting the filing of false tax returns for her brother, a federal fugitive who has been indicted on charges of illegal gambling and money laundering.
A grim-faced Patrice Tierney made the plea in US District Court in Boston yesterday, as the congressman, who faces a reelection challenge in less than four weeks, sat in the front of the courtroom, leaning forward, his head resting on hands held together as if in prayer.
“I take full responsibility for what my part in this was,’’ Patrice Tierney told US District Court Judge William G. Young. Asked by the judge whether she thinks she is guilty of the offenses the government described, she answered in a quiet voice, “I am.’’
US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz alleged this week that Patrice Tierney helped her brother, Robert Eremian, manage a bank account that collected more than $7 million in illegal gambling profits over seven years. Over that time, prosecutors allege, Patrice Tierney paid bills for his three children and their ailing mother, balanced the account, and provided information to his tax preparer, resulting in false tax filings, prosecutors said.
The charges seemed sudden and potentially damaging to Tierney, a Democrat who has served seven terms and who was not expected to face a serious threat from his Republican challenger, newcomer Bill Hudak.
Then why did the Globe's expert analyst say... awwww, never mind!
Law enforcement officials had been following Patrice Tierney’s brother for years and said he ran a large-scale illegal gambling business in the United States from the early 1980s through the beginning of 2010.
Just WATCHING and LETTING IT GO ON, huh?
Whadda STINK!
State Police raided his Lynnfield office in 1996, leading Eremian to move the business’s headquarters to Antigua, but the business continued underground in Massachusetts, said Assistant US attorney Fred M. Wyshak Jr.
Eremian was convicted in 2002 of tax evasion and money laundering, but persuaded law enforcement and probation officials to let him leave the country the next year to work as a computer consultant to the gaming industry.
Now could YOU or I do that, dear readers?
What a STENCH!
He returned to Antigua and continued to operate his illegal gambling operation from there, prosecutors say. In August, Eremian and another brother, Daniel Eremian, were charged with racketeering, money laundering, operating an illegal gambling business, and filing false tax returns.
Wyshak said the operation initially involved not only the two brothers but also their father, now deceased, and John Chew, Patrice Tierney’s son from a previous marriage.
After Robert Eremian returned to Antigua in 2003, Patrice Tierney began overseeing his Massachusetts affairs. Between 2003 and 2009, prosecutors charge, she handled his bank account, paying all the bills, balancing the books with accounting software, and helping Eremian’s tax preparer with her brother’s tax returns.
Prosecutors are not accusing her of profiting from the arrangement but of “willful blindness’’ to the type of business in which her brother was involved....
Yeah, JUST LIKE the GOVERNMENT that CHARGED HER!
Patrice Tierney, 59, of Salem, wore a tidy blue suit and drop-pearl earrings to court and spoke so softly that she could barely be heard.
A low talker?
She was represented by Donald K. Stern, who served as US attorney in Massachusetts from 1993 to 2001 and who now handles litigation and white-collar crime....
The judge repeatedly warned her of the rights she was waiving with her plea: She could not recant or plead the Fifth Amendment in any ongoing investigation, he warned, and the judge need not agree to the plea deal offered by prosecutors: two years of probation with 90 days home detention, as well as a $2,500 fine and $400 in court costs.
“This is your deal with the government,’’ Young said. “I’m not part of that. I can put you in prison for six months.’’
But Patrice Tierney said she was taking responsibility for her involvement. Asked about her mental condition, she acknowledged being treated for depression and anxiety and taking medications to relieve them.
And a drug addict, too!
But she said she understood the charge against her....
Not too zonked out.
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But it is putting the reelection bid out:
"Veteran’s campaign hits bump with plea" by Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Staff | October 7, 2010
SALEM — When you are running for reelection, having your wife plead guilty to abetting tax evasion is not the kind of news you want a month before voters go to the polls.
But that is where US Representative John F. Tierney, Democrat of Salem, now finds himself as he campaigns for an eighth term against a controversial but energetic Republican opponent, Bill Hudak.
Even as state Republicans tried to capitalize on Tierney’s troubles yesterday, many voters in the Sixth Congressional District seemed to be reserving judgment about their man in Washington and whether the guilty plea yesterday by his wife, Patrice, would resonate politically. Some voters displayed sympathy for Tierney, while others were highly critical.
So now it is not so damaging?
Patrice Tierney pleaded guilty in US District Court in Boston to managing a bank account that her brother allegedly used to deposit more than $7 million in illegal gambling profits. She will be sentenced in January. John Tierney said that both he and his wife had been betrayed by his wife’s brother and that he had been unaware of the particulars of the account.
That explanation did not satisfy some constituents.
“If that happened right under his nose in his own household, what’s he missing in Washington?’’ said Tom Scioletti, 56, of Marblehead, who was walking to a meeting in Salem yesterday afternoon. “I’m serious.’’
Yeah, here he is scolding Pakistan about corruption!
But David Lettvin, 62, a writer from Hamilton who was checking out a pile of books from the library in Beverly, said Tierney’s wife’s legal troubles would not affect his view of the representative.
“Why should it?’’ he said. “If I were to be held responsible for the stupid things my wife says, I’d be in trouble. So far as I’m concerned, you judge politicians on results.’’
Just the kind of support he needs: a wife-hating sexist!
Gotta love those Massachusetts Democrats!
Hudak, meanwhile, sought political mileage from the episode and challenged Tierney to detail what he knew about the bank account at the heart of the case. “I’d call on him to disclose what he knew and when,’’ said Hudak, a first-time candidate from Boxford who gained notoriety by comparing President Obama to Osama bin Laden and questioning the president’s birthplace. “Seven million dollars is a lot of money to pretend he knew nothing about.’’
Some choice over there.
Hudak was not the only state Republican seeking to draw attention to the plea. On Twitter, Jennifer Nassour, the chairwoman of the Massachusetts GOP, said the incident underscored the ethical problems among congressional Democrats. “I thought [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi was supposed to ‘clean up the swamp’?’’ she wrote.
Tierney has been seen as one of the safer incumbents in the Massachusetts delegation, and it remains unclear whether the developments of the last two days will have a serious impact on his reelection campaign....
Both candidates continued to campaign yesterday. Hudak toured two Danvers employers, Abiomed and M&H Engineering, while Tierney attended a Chamber of Commerce event with Governor Deval Patrick in the morning and a ribbon- cutting in Lynn for a housing development before spending much of the afternoon with his wife at the courthouse. The two candidates are scheduled to meet in debates today and again next week.
In interviews with voters across the rain-swept Sixth District yesterday, it was apparent that despite a tough political environment for Democrats and yesterday’s developments, Tierney retained a reservoir of good will among voters.
At a Gloucester supermarket, Joan Ross Cummiskey, 78, a retired nurse, said that she saw Tierney several times a year in the district or during her visits to Washington and had been impressed. “I love him,’’ she said. “He responds very well to all my letters.’’
Pfft!
Patrice Tierney’s plea was troubling, Cummiskey said, but did not change her mind. “I think it’s very unfortunate,’’ she said. “But people make mistakes, and I’m glad she owned up to them.’’
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US Representative John F. Tierney’s elderly mother-in-law donated $4,800 to his campaign account at the same time that she was receiving money from a bank account that was allegedly funded with illegal gambling money her son made from an offshore sports betting operation....
Oh, so he was KICKING BACK CAMPAIGN LOOT!
John Tierney said through a spokeswoman yesterday that the contributions to his campaign came directly from Mary Eremian and that he never received any money from Robert Eremian’s account....
Boston attorney Donald K. Stern, who represents Patrice Tierney, would not disclose how much money Patrice Tierney provided to her mother from the Bank of America account in Massachusetts funded by her brother.
“It’s an ongoing case,’’ he said. “Patrice Tierney has not been sentenced, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to get into that kind of detail.’’
Mary Eremian is on Social Security, has a small pension from her late husband, and obtained a small inheritance from two of her brothers who have died, according to Prael, but she was unable to provide additional details about Eremian’s annual income....
Mary Eremian and Patrice Tierney’s son from another marriage, John Chew, both live in a Lynnfield home owned by Robert Eremian. Prosecutors are seeking to seize the property as part of the illegal gambling case....
Government and banks want to seize everything that isn't nailed down, huh?
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Also see: Globe Editorial Tierney should publicly answer questions on his wife’s crimes
Well, if the Globe is out to get you (and we know why)....
"Tierney, Hudak spar about tax crimes, tax cuts, and Obama" by Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Staff | October 15, 2010
BEVERLY — In the first lengthy public debate since his wife pleaded guilty to federal tax crimes last week, US Representative John F. Tierney defended his record last night and blasted his rival for raising the issue.
Republican nominee Bill Hudak, whose campaign had appeared to be sagging before the disclosures, said Tierney should have known about the $7 million account funded by illegal gambling profits overseas that his wife, Patrice Tierney, admitted to managing for her brother, a fugitive who has been indicted on charges of illegal gambling and money laundering.
“You’re in office and engaged in a massive laundering scheme, and you’re looking the other way,’’ said Hudak, a Boxford lawyer.
“I knew of no wrongdoing,’’ Tierney said, accusing Hudak of misstating the facts in the case, in which the seven-term Democratic congressman from Salem has not been charged with any crime.
The exchange was perhaps the most dramatic moment of a raucous debate in a former school auditorium in Beverly at the heart of the Sixth Congressional District, which includes most of Essex County. Supporters of both candidates lined the street outside waving signs, and inside repeatedly interrupted the candidates with jeering and applause. A loud argument broke out among audience members when Hudak raised the issue of Tierney’s wife, temporarily delaying the debate.
But Hudak was also put on the defensive with questions about a lawn sign he put up in 2008 likening President Obama to Osama bin Laden, and statements to a reporter to look into whether Obama was actually born in the United States.
Hudak said he had been misquoted and attacked the news media for linking him to so-called birthers, who believe Obama was born in Kenya.
“Never once did I say he was not the lawful president, that he was not born here,’’ Hudak said. As for the sign, he accused Tierney of attacking the First Amendment by criticizing it.
“It was a satire and a poor one,’’ Hudak said. “That was a very simple exercise of my First Amendment rights.’’
Tierney responded that nobody was questioning Hudak’s right to put up the sign, but the decision to do so.
“What they’re questioning is the maturity, temperament, and judgment in doing that,’’ he said.
Standing behind lecterns in front of a red curtain, the candidates also traded jabs on taxes, Social Security, immigration, abortion, and gay marriage in the hourlong debate sponsored by the Jewish Journal and the Salem News.
Yeah, they control the politics and the papers here in AmeriKa.
There is no more denying it.
"We in Congress stand by Israel," the leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., assured Netanyahu at an all-smiles appearance before the cameras. "In Congress we speak with one voice on the subject of Israel."
They even admit it.
Hudak said he would back Israel if it decided to attack Iran militarily to stop Tehran from building a nuclear weapon.
“I would stand behind her absolutely 100 percent,’’ said Hudak, who also appeared to disparage the US intelligence service assessment of Iran.
They should be disparaged for all the lies they told.
Tierney said he did not want to speculate on possible military action, but he did defend the American intelligence community....
Then he is OUT, folks!
Read it here first!
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Update: Hudak pulls suit against Tierney
