Congressman Rogers is perhaps one of DC's best known pork rustlers. His hometown newspaper, the Lexington Herald-Leader, even calls him the "Prince of Pork" because of the 135 earmarks he's grabbed over the past two years, at a whopping cost of $246 million to taxpayers.
In an email sent out today, Ryan Rudominer of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said, "Every day it becomes more clear that Representative-elect Nan Hayworth and House Republicans are already breaking their promise to voters to get spending back on track."
Congressman Rogers and his GOP cronies were responsible for turning record budget surpluses during the Clinton years into record deficits during the Bush Administration.
Hayworth's district will includes Putnam County and parts of Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Westchester Counties.
Currently Rogers is sponsoring a bill to give $5 million a year to conservation groups that work overseas on behalf of endangered great cats such as cheetahs and lions. One group applying for these funds, should the bill pass, is the Cheetah Conservation Fund, where Rogers daughter works as a grants administrator.
In 2004, Rep. Rogers' son, John, was given a job by the call center company Senture. As this happened, Rogers was actively helping that company secure a $4 million earmark contract. And if that's not cozy enough for you, Senture's President, Christopher Deaton, contributed $4,200 to Rogers shortly thereafter.
Rogers pal Deaton, it turns out, was no Boy Scout. He plead guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud earlier this year. He admitted to taking part in a scheme to inflate the earnings of another company he ran, Image Entry, before he sold the company. He was sentenced to two years of probation, one year of home confinment and a $1 million fine.
