Report: Alcee Hastings Broke and Owes Millions

BY BUDDY NEVINS

Politics hasn’t paid for Democratic U. S. Rep. Alcee Hastings.

 

In fact, he’s dead broke and owes millions.

The Miramar Democrat is the poorest members of Congress, having a net worth of  between minus $2.13 and $7.3 million.

This is according to a report by The Center for Responsive Politics on the wealth of members of Congress in 2009.

The Center said heavy debt was for legal bills.

The bills could be left over from Hastings acquittal for bribery and his impeachment eight years later. 

In 1981, then-federal judge Hastings was found not guilty of accepting a bribe to fix a case. The Democratic-controlled U. S. House didn’t care about the acquittal and impeached him, tossing him off the bench in 1988 by a vote of 413-3. 

He got his revenge by being elected to the same House in 1993.

Another interesting factoid from the report:  U. S., Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, had her assets take a big hit, losing thousands between 2008 and 2009. 

She had assets in 2009 from $118,000-$345,000, down from assets of $302,000 to $630,000 in 2008. She reported a big drop in funds at the Community Bank of Broward.  

Here is the report, which has a lot more in it than I am reporting.



17 Responses to “Report: Alcee Hastings Broke and Owes Millions”

  1. Ron Gunzburger says:

    Alcee is a great member of Congress who has served with distinction and honor. He has represented Florida well, and been a forceful advocate for Democratic Party values to improve our nation. It is unfortunate that he is still saddled with these debts from having successfully defended himself against all charges and (as Buddy mentioned) a jury found him NOT GUILTY.

  2. I wonder sometimes says:

    What is to become of us if we can’t attract talented people to run for office and lead? Who would want to put up with the crap that goes with it just to try and do something good for the community?

  3. Floridan says:

    If DWS had a 100% reduction in assets, she would have no assets. I think you meant her assets were reduced by 50%.

    FROM BUDDY:
    After reading your comment, I agree with you. Read this paragraph from news release that is linked to my post and you can see why I was mislead:

    “Laura Richardson (D-Calif.), Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), Howard McKeon (R-Calif.), Sanford Bishop Jr. (D-Ga.), Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Meeks each sustained 100 percent or more reductions in their year-over-year average calculated wealth.

    I changed the wording on your recommendation. Thanks.

  4. hope says:

    How’s that change workin’ out for ya?

  5. Willie Stark says:

    Poor Alcee, folks just aint handing out bribes like they used to in this economy . Must be tough for him.

  6. Charley Varrick says:

    The trouble with Alcee is that he doesn’t get out of Miramar enough :

    Through 2005, Hastings billed the government $152,378 for overseas travel, ranking him second in the House during the previous decade, according to a report compiled by Political Money Line. That dollar amount, which does not include costs for staff or use of military aircraft, covered 57 trips to 116 countries.

    On one three-day mission to Belgium in 2004 with legislative assistant Vanessa Griddine, Hastings spent $14,193 at taxpayer expense, according to Political Money Line.

  7. watcher says:

    Hope…I remember watching W explain how much trouble this country was in in 2008…I wondered if all those years of work were going to go down the tubes for me and friends…guess what it didnt happen…the federal government was the only game in town and we are headed back inspite of the party of NO…

  8. watcher says:

    BTW…alcee was a hell of a good judge

  9. Charlotte Brownfart says:

    No doubting that..the best that money could buy !

  10. The Conservative says:

    I guess the payoffs in Finland are not as god as in Congress….Yes God does have a sense of humor Rangel caught useing illegal funds Alcee Ive been impeached again Hastings now claims he is broke with a salary of $165,000 a year he is broke and he has been in congress how long I would feel safe to say he has gone thru 1.5 million dollars in government salary…..Voters get exactly what they voted for?

    Alcees Hastings
    Charlie Rangel
    Marion Barry
    Kwame Kilpatrick

    an lets not forget Congressman Klein the giverout of others social security numbers

    Alan earmarks Boyd beaten by a funeral director..

    An what do they all have in common?
    All Democrats enuf said

  11. Roger says:

    Hey Ron G.

    Yes the source is NRO which certainly is conservative but read this and see who voted to impeach him, Teddy K among them. If you still think Alcee is a stand up guy after reading this then your new nickname is Ostrich.

    http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/219278/alcee-hastings-bribery-and-house-intelligence-committee/byron-york

  12. watcher says:

    hey wingnuts…your kind of “standup guy ” is Larry Craig…oops he did his thing sitting down…right????

  13. Roger says:

    Watcher,

    If your implying I’m a Republican/Tea Party type your misnamed. You should be called jumper as in jumping to conclusions. Now tell me if you think Alcee is a “stand up” guy. As to the article, I clearly identified it was from a conservative source. That does not alter the facts of the vote nor make me a “wingnut”. Reid, Kerry and Teddy all agreed that Alcee was clearly unfit to serve and I agree with them. Does that now make me a left winger liberal socialist? At the risk of also jumping to conclusions I’m thinking you like to try to label people you disagree with. That way you don’t have to think about it, you can just dismiss them and go on thinking your views are the only ones worth having. I could be wrong about you and I think that might be a difference between us. You can’t imagine your viewpoint isn’t the correct one for everyone. And for the record, Craig was a sit down kind of guy. The “wide stance” kind.

  14. watcher says:

    it’s A JOKE…larry craig, a stand up guy…on Alcee, he could tell the truth tellers from the liars and has a good heart and that made him a good judge…what makes fitness? squeeky clean schmucks??

  15. Roger says:

    Watcher,

    Craigs defense was that he just took a “wide stance” when seated and wasn’t soliciting. I more than got the joke. Seriously, did you just say that a sitting judge who likely solicited payoffs is fit to serve as a judge and now congressman because he has a “good heart” and could tell truth from lies? Man, that is unbelievable. Given the vote of his own party members and now peers it is plain this is not a man that should have been on the bench. Yes, I will take the squeaky clean schmuck any day over the “good heart”. Just look at the cesspool in Broward politics lately. I’m tired of these “good hearted” pols selling us out. Would you want Bev Gallagher to come back if she had a good heart?

  16. watcher says:

    this might shock you but there are more than some judges who are lazy, not worldly and with substantial biases… trust me there are lots of situations where gross injustice occurs..just saying Alcee wasnt convicted…besides the Senate dems always always take the high road when one of theirs is taking the fall

  17. Roger says:

    Doesn’t shock me that there are bad judges. I am saying that the lack of a conviction doesn’t make him without taint. He may have been a decent judge when he wasn’t under the allegeded influence of cash. If I was on trial I might even prefer a dirty but “good” judge to a “clean” lazy judge to hear my case but that isn’t the point. The point is being on the take makes you unfit. The fact that a jury let you off but congress did not says volumes. If you were the victim of a crime and a judge let your perps off because of a payoff but otherwise was a great judge, how would you feel then? The point you make about bad judges augurs heavily for these positions to be limited term appointments instead of the current arrangement. One last thing, shouldn’t the Dems (and everyone else) always take the high road?