Online gambling opponent cleared of wrongdoing

This week an old story resurfaced with the news that US Representative Spencer Bachus of Alabama, an arch anti-online gambling politician in Congress, has been completely exonerated on charges of abusing insider political knowledge.

The Republican politician was the subject of an investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics into allegations arising from a television expose claiming that he had made money from using insider knowledge that came to him as a lawmaker

Bachus, as chair of the powerful House Financial Services Committee, was in a position to prosper from insider knowledge, and he did so, especially in the 2008 economic meltdown, it was claimed. At the time, Bachus was receiving briefings from Treasury Department officials and economic experts about the banking crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2010.

A book by Peter Schweizer titled “Throw Them All Out” added fuel to the fire with details of questionable political conduct for personal profit in Congress.

The issue really hit the headlines in a big way only in 2011, when an expose on corruption in Congress aired on the CBS television network program “Sixty Minutes”, naming Bachus and other political luminaries like Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Bachus has consistently denied the allegations, and this week the Office of Congressional Ethics unanimously dismissed all suggestions of wrongdoing against him.

Something positive did come out of the sad litany of politicians behaving badly, however; Congress recently passed a law forbidding insider trading by members of Congress.

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