“Watergate” is a general term used to describe a complex web of political scandals between 1972 and 1974. The word refers to the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. In addition to the hotel, the Watergate complex houses many business offices. It was here that the office of the Democratic National Committee was burgled on June 17th, 1972. The burglary and subsequent cover-up eventually led to moves to impeach President Richard Nixon. Nixon resigned the presidency on 8 August 1974.
“Watergate” is now an all-encompassing term used to refer to:
- political burglary
- bribery
- extortion
- phonetapping
- conspiracy
- obstruction of justice
- destruction of evidence
- tax fraud
- illegal use of government agencies such as the CIA and the FBI
- illegal campaign contributions
- use of public money for private purposes.
Most of all, “Watergate” is synonymous with abuse of power.

Whiskey Ring was a group of distillers and public officials who defrauded the federal government of liquor taxes. Soon after the Civil War these taxes were raised very high, in some cases to eight times the price of the liquor. Large distillers, chiefly in St. Louis, Milwaukee, and Chicago, bribed government officials in order to retain the tax proceeds. The Whiskey Ring was a public scandal, but it was considered impregnable because of its strong political connections. U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow resolved to break the conspiracy. To avoid warning the suspects, he assigned secret investigators from outside the Treasury Dept. to collect evidence. Striking suddenly in May, 1875, he arrested the persons and seized the distilleries involved. Over $3 million in taxes was recovered, and of 238 persons indicted 110 were convicted. Although President Grant’s secretary, Orville E. Babcock, was acquitted through the personal intervention of the President, many persons believed that the Whiskey Ring was part of a plot to finance the Republican party by fraud.

In the early part of the 20th century large oil reserves were discovered at Elk Hills, California and Teapot Dome, Wyoming. In 1912 President William Taft decided that this government owned land and its oil reserves should be set aside for the use of the United States Navy.

On 4th June, 1920, Congress passed a bill that stated that the Secretary of the Navy would have the power “to conserve, develop, use and operate the same in his discretion, directly or by contract, lease, or otherwise, and to use, store, exchange, or sell the oil and gas products thereof, and those from all royalty oil from lands in the naval reserves, for the benefit of the United States.”

In March 1921 President Warren Harding appointed Albert Fall as Secretary of the Interior. Soon afterwards he persuaded Edwin Denby, the Secretary of the Navy, that he should take over responsibility for the Naval Reserves at Elk Hills and Teapot Dome. Later that year Fall decided that two of his friends, Harry F. Sinclair (Mammoth Oil Corporation) and Edward L. Doheny (Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Company), should be allowed to lease part of these Naval Reserves.

Attempts were made to keep this deal secret but rumours began to circulate when it became known that Albert Fall was spending large sums of money. On 14th April, 1922, the Wall Street Journal reported that Fall had leased Teapot Dome to Harry F. Sinclair. President Warren Harding defended Fall by claiming that “the policy which has been adopted by the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of the Interior in dealing with these matters was submitted to me prior to the adoption thereof, and the policy decided upon and the subsequent acts have at all times had my entire approval.”

Robert La Follette and John B. Kendrick called for a Senate investigation into Albert Fall and the Naval Reserves. President Warren Harding died suddenly on 2nd August, 1923 and was replaced by his vice-president, Calvin Coolidge.

Hearings on the Teapot Dome oil lease began on October 15, 1923 before the Senate Committee on Public Lands and Surveys. Senator Thomas J. Walsh, a Democrat from Montana, led the committee’s investigation. Over the next few months, dozens of witnesses testified before the committee. On January 24, 1924, Edward Doheny admitted that he had lent Fall $100,000.

Seven days later the Senate passed a resolution stating that the leases to the Mammoth Oil Company and the Pan American Petroleum Company “were executed under circumstances indicating fraud and corruption”. Albert Fall and Edwin Denby were now both forced to resign from office.

On 17th October, 1927, Harry F. Sinclair appeared on trial charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States. The trial ended prematurely two weeks later when the government presented evidence that Sinclair had hired a detective agency to shadow the jury. The judge declared a mistrial. Sinclair was tried for criminal contempt of court. Found guilty and he was sentenced to six months in prison.

Albert Fall was now charged accepting a bribe from Doheny. On October 7, 1928 the trial began in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Even though the trial concerned Fall accepting money from Doheny, the judge allowed M. T. Everhart’s testimony showing the financial relationship between Sinclair and Fall. That testimony was used to show that Fall had lied to the Senate committee when he declared that he had not accepted any money from Sinclair. Fall was found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine.

On December 4, 1875, William Marcy “Boss” Tweed, notorious leader of New York City’s Democratic political machine, escaped from prison and fled to Europe. Between 1865 and 1871, Boss Tweed and his cronies stole millions of dollars from the city treasury. Convicted of forgery and larceny in 1873, Tweed was released in 1875. Immediately rearrested on civil charges, he was allowed daily visits to his family in the company of his jailor. On one of these trips, Tweed made his escape.

Elected an alderman in 1851, the former bookkeeper and volunteer fireman worked his way up New York City’s Democratic hierarchy by holding various elected and unelected positions in the municipal government. He served one congressional term, but operated most effectively at the state level. By 1868, the year he gained a seat in the New York senate, Tweed firmly controlled the state Democratic Party. Two years later, he maneuvered passage of a revised city charter. A newly instituted board of audit became the principle means by which the Boss and his friends siphoned the city treasury of between twenty million and two-hundred million dollars.

The movement to overthrow the “Tweed Ring” included the New York Times, Harper’s Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast, and reforming Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. On July 22, 1871, the newspaper began publishing an exposé of the Tweed Ring’s activities. Nast followed up with cartoons roasting Tweed. “Let’s stop them damned pictures,” the Boss supposedly said, “I don’t care so much what the papers write about—my constituents can’t read—but damn it, they can see pictures.” Despite bribes and threats, Nast continued to lambast Tweed weekly on the pages of Harper’s. Meanwhile, Tilden’s efforts to oust Tweed solidified his name as a reformer—a reputation that made him Governor of New York in 1874 and nearly put him in the White House in 1877.

With his 1873 conviction behind him, Tweed was sued by New York State for $6 million. Held in debtor’s prison until he could post half that amount as bail, the former boss had few options. Still wealthy, his prison cell was fairly luxurious. Yet Tweed was determined to escape. Fleeing to Spain, he worked as a common seaman on a Spanish ship until recognized by his likeness to a Nast cartoon and captured. Extradited to New York, William Marcy Tweed died in debtor’s prison on April 12, 1878.

Boss Tweed, acting as a policeman, although wearing the uniform of a convict, holds two boys by the collar with one hand, and carries a billy club in the other. Reform Tweed: “If all the people want is to have somebody arrested, I’ll have you plunderers convicted. You will be allowed to escape; nobody will be hurt; and then Tilden will go to the White House, and I to Albany as Governor.”

The political machine that created Boss Tweed and that Tweed strengthened remained a powerful force in New York City politics. Through a system of patronage and charity, Tammany Hall, the executive committee of the New York City Democratic Party, commanded the allegiance of many voters. Lacking a government safety net, poor citizens relied on the party for access to employment, or for help with funeral expenses. Public works projects like Central Park provided politicians with patronage opportunities ranging from lucrative contracts to day work digging ditches.

Former Gregg staffer caught in lobbying probe
The Associated Press – Wed., Feb. 4, 2009

WASHINGTON – A former congressional aide to Commerce Secretary-nominee Judd Gregg has been caught up in a long-running investigation into a Capitol Hill lobbying scandal.

A person familiar with the case confirmed Wednesday that “Staffer F” in court documents is Kevin Koonce, who worked as legislative director in Gregg’s Senate office from 2002-04. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is still under investigation.

Staffer F was cited in a guilty plea last week by Todd Boulanger, a former deputy to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In federal court, Boulanger admitted he plied the staffer with front-row tickets to a hockey game, meals and drinks and other tickets to a baseball game, and in exchange received favors in spending legislation.
The total value of the gifts Staffer F took from Boulanger exceeded $10,000, court papers said.
The biographical details about Staffer F contained in court documents — his job title at the time in the Senate office — correspond to Koonce’s.

Koonce has not been charged with any crime. He now works at a private firm, Sorini Samet & Associates LLP.
After several attempts by The Associated Press to reach him, Koonce replied to an e-mail Wednesday, saying only that he was on personal leave.

A spokesman for President Barack Obama, who on Tuesday appointed Sen. Gregg, R-N.H., to serve as Commerce secretary, declined to comment. Gregg’s spokeswoman, Andrea Wuebker, had no immediate comment.

Abramoff, once a top GOP lobbyist, is now in prison and has cooperated with the Justice Department to help convict more than a dozen people, including former Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, and a number of former lobbyists and Capitol Hill aides.

Boulanger was the most recent ex-lobbyist to fall, pleading guilty Friday to lavishing a number of congressional staffers with gifts similar to those he gave Staffer F, including an all-expense-paid trip to the World Series.

As part of the plea documents, prosecutors said Staffer F tried to help insert spending measures and add other amendments to legislation for Boulanger’s clients. Later, the staffer asked Boulanger if he could “score some hockey tickets,” and Boulanger got him front-row seats.

Boulanger later got the staffer box tickets to see the Baltimore Orioles, but Staffer F wanted more.

“Could you make sure there’s beer this time,” he wrote in an e-mail. I “mean, the red sox, crab cakes, and fillet mignon’s were nice but … haha.”

Later, Boulanger sent an e-mail to Abramoff expressing confidence that the senator for whom the staffer worked would give them a favor. “Easy money,” Boulanger wrote, adding that the aide “practically lives in our various suites. We are shady.”

According to his biography on the Web site of Sorini Samet & Associates, Koonce was a negotiator for the U.S. trade representative prior to working for Gregg. Koonce also worked for six years as a legislative assistant to former Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., in the 1990s. Koonce graduated from Denison University and received a law degree from Catholic University.

Do politicians try and live above the law? Well, it seems like not paying your taxes, employing illegal immigrants, extortion and bribery are alive and well in all political bodies in our country. Are we receiving the political leadership we deserve because of our apathy and failure to get involved in government? No matter what political party, age demographic or position a certain politician holds, it seems like corruption is rampant. Yes, politics has always been corrupt to some extent. But so is Wall Street, the medical industry and other industries in our nation. Corruption is not limited to politics. BUT I dare say there is much more corruption among our leaders who are supposed to take oaths of integrity, honor and dignity.

Just look at yesterday:
Daschle withdraws from Secretary of Health and Human Services position, since he did not pay taxes to the tune of $128,000. And, then claims “I did not know” – c’mon give me a break. That argument means you are either ignorant or arrogant. You signed the return, or you are responsible for what your Accountant does. It’s really that simple. Ask any American who does pay all of their taxes. We apparently pay more attention than you do…

Ironies of irony? Why, after all the slams at Bush and his administration, is the American public having to be subjected to this by a group claiming to be representing change? If this was Bush, he would be crucified for making stupid selections. But,Obama will get a pass for now. Don’t get me wrong: I voted for Obama and I want a new culture in DC. BUT then Obama has to break away from the Olde Guard and forge a new one – because the Olde Guard is too entrenched (in his own party) in what he campaigned against. Daschle epitomized all that is wrong with politics. Let him make his millions in the private sector, schmoozing and calling in old favors in DC for lobbyists. Or writing books, hitting the lecture circuit or rubbing elbows with the Saudis’.

Change? – Yes, but then recruit new private sector blood into politics. Out with the Olde Guard, in with the New.

Posted: Wednesday, July 30, 2008

In a serious blow to one of the most powerful members of the U.S. Senate, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was indicted on corruption charges for failing to report $250,000 in gifts from oil companies.

The New York Times: “The indictment of a sitting senator, particularly one of Mr. Stevens’s seniority and stature, reverberated swiftly and ominously through the Capitol, in no small part because of the political implications. Democrats already had high hopes that they would win more seats in November. They now control the Senate by a razor-thin 51 to 49, thanks only to two independents who vote with them. As far-fetched as it might seem, some Democrats have started thinking aloud that they may be able to win nine more seats in November, bringing them a filibuster-proof majority of 60.”

Stevens professed his innocence. “With the indictment, Stevens, an icon in Alaska politics, becomes by far the most powerful politician charged in the broad, four-year federal investigation into public corruption in the state. To date, three state legislators, a high-level official in Gov. Frank Murkowski’s administration, two businessmen and a lobbyist have been convicted, while two legislators are awaiting trial.”

Just how much trouble is he in for re-election? Um, a lot. “Stevens, who has never had a close election race since being appointed to the Senate in 1968, says he’s innocent and will fight the charges. His campaign is expressing confidence, and even detractors concede his reservoir of loyalty in the state. The question is whether a federal corruption indictment is enough to poison that goodwill.”

“It’s too late for Stevens to withdraw his name from the Aug. 26 Republican primary ballot, even if he wanted to. But if he won the primary and then resigned, the state Republican Party could pick his replacement for the November general election.”

More: “David Dittman, an Anchorage pollster and political consultant working for the Stevens campaign, said voters were already aware of the investigation and anticipating something would happen. The indictment is almost ‘old news’ now, Dittman said. He emphasized Stevens was charged with filing false disclosures rather than taking bribes. ‘In my view, if this is their best shot, it’s not good, but there’s not a whole lot there,’ he said.”

And: “As for the GOP primary, developer David Cuddy has been running second in polling. GOP consultant Marc ‘Hellenthal said Cuddy would be the odds-on favorite for the Republican nomination but has run a lackluster campaign so far. He said a wild card is Alaska political newcomer Vic Vickers, owner of a Florida-based maritime company, who said Monday he plans to spend $750,000 of his own money on winning the primary. ‘If a guy is going to spend $750,000, you can’t ignore him, and it’s not like Dave (Cuddy) is a household name,’ Hellenthal said.”

Mayors, lawmakers, others accused of taking bribes to influence contracts
The Associated Press updated 7:55 p.m. ET, Thurs., Sept. 6, 2007

TRENTON, N.J. – FBI agents arrested 11 public officials in towns across New Jersey Thursday on charges of taking bribes in exchange for influencing the awarding of public contracts, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Two of those arrested are state lawmakers, two are mayors, three are city councilmen and several served on the school board in Pleasantville, where the scandal began.
All 11, plus a private individual, are accused of taking cash payments of $1,500 to $17,500 to influence who received public contracts, according to criminal complaints.
“Today we witnessed another example of the disease that affects the state of New Jersey; the disease of public corruption that spread like wildfire from south to north,” said the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Christopher J. Christie.

All 12 suspects, wearing handcuffs and leg shackles, made initial court appearances on Thursday afternoon. The charges against them were explained, they were advised of their rights and a $200,000 unsecured bond — to be paid only if they miss a court appearance — was set for each.

A federal complaint charges each of the 12 with accepting payments from companies that offered insurance and roofing services to cities and school districts, said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for Christie.

FBI went undercover in probe
The investigation began last year with Pleasantville schools, near Atlantic City, Drewniak said. The FBI established an undercover insurance brokerage company purporting to employ the government’s two cooperating witnesses and undercover agents.

The probe widened when Pleasantville school board members referred the cooperating witnesses to public officials in northern New Jersey, Drewniak said.

Democratic state Assemblymen Mims Hackett Jr. and Alfred E. Steele were arrested, as was Passaic Mayor Samuel Rivera. Also arrested were Keith Reid, the chief of staff to Newark’s City Council president; Passaic councilmen Jonathan Soto and Marcellus Jackson; two current Pleasantville school board members, three former board members and a private citizen. One of the former school board members is now a Pleasantville city councilman.

“This is another sad day for the people of New Jersey,” said Assembly Minority Leader Alex DeCroce. “Once again, New Jersey’s culture of corruption is national news.”

Rivera is a former police officer and professional wrestler.

Hackett, 65, is both a legislator and mayor of Orange, a city of about 33,000 residents 15 miles west of New York City. He was convicted of kidnapping in 1975 and sentenced to 30 years in prison, but was pardoned a year later when the victim recanted and Hackett’s cousin confessed.

Hackett is accused of accepting $5,000 in bribes, according to the complaint.

A phone message left at Hackett’s office wasn’t immediately returned Thursday. Neither were messages left at Reid’s and Rivera’s offices.

‘A horrible day in Pleasantville’
Steele, an assemblyman since 1996 and deputy speaker since 2002, also serves as a Baptist minister in Paterson. He’s charged with accepting $14,000 in bribes, according to the complaint. He had been Passaic County undersheriff but resigned from the $89,900-per-year post on Thursday, said sheriff’s spokesman Bill Maer.

Jenna Pollard, who answered the phone at Steele’s office and identified herself as his chief of staff, said she had no comment and didn’t know if Steele had a lawyer.

One of the former school board members, Maurice “Pete” Callaway, is now a Pleasantville city councilman and the brother of former Atlantic City Council President Craig Callaway, who is serving time in federal prison from stemming from an unrelated corruption scheme.

“It’s just a horrible day in Pleasantville,” said John Deserable, a monitor sent by the state Department of Education to oversee the district’s finances. “It’s another black eye to the district that we don’t need. The children deserve better than this.”

Thursday’s arrests were the latest in an anti-corruption campaign waged by Christie’s office.

More than 100 public officials in the state have been convicted on federal corruption charges in the last five years. Two other Democratic state senators, Wayne Bryant of Lawnside and Sharpe James of Newark, are among others facing pending corruption charges.

Attorney general’s comments follow charges against Puerto Rico’s governor
The Associated Press
March. 28, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO – Attorney General Michael Mukasey vowed anew Thursday to crack down on crooked politicians and public officials, dismissing critics who accuse the Justice Department of letting partisan loyalties interfere with corruption cases.
Mukasey’s comments came hours after prosecutors charged Puerto Rico’s Democratic-leaning governor in a campaign finance probe that began more than two years ago.
Additionally, Mukasey said that a multibillion-dollar overseas contracting loophole that was quietly slipped into Justice Department plans to protect taxpayers’ money “shouldn’t happen.”
All were part of the attorney general’s rhetorical assault on public corruption, which he called one of his top priorities.

“It’s often in the interest of someone to charge politicization whenever a prominent public figure is investigated or prosecuted,” Mukasey said during a noontime speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. “I find it notable that they make these accusations in the media, rather than before a court.”

Earlier, during an interview with The Associated Press, Mukasey said corruption has “a cost beyond dollars and cents — it undermines the whole idea of government.”
Because of corruption, Mukasey said, “people can’t have confidence that government’s being done honestly.”

Numerous corruption cases
The Justice Department has brought numerous corruption cases over the last several years targeting Democrats and Republicans alike. In 2006, the latest data available, Justice prosecutors charged nearly 1,200 federal, state and local government employees in public integrity cases — a 20 percent increase from a decade ago.

During his speech, Mukasey pointedly spoke of charges brought against two former Republican congressmen: Randy “Duke” Cunningham of California and Bob Ney of Ohio. He did not mention charges brought hours earlier against Puerto Rico Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila, who faces 19 counts in a campaign finance probe. Twelve others associated with Acevedo’s Popular Democratic Party also were indicted Thursday.

Other high-profile lawmakers facing Justice Department charges include Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., in a land scam case, and Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., for allegedly taking bribes. Also under scrutiny by the FBI or congressional investigators are at least eight current House and Senate lawmakers. Democrat Eliot Spitzer resigned as New York’s governor earlier this month after a federal wiretap caught him arranging trysts with a prostitute.

Part of the Justice crackdown on corruption focuses on waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars spent on pricey government contracts. To that end, Mukasey told AP that the Justice Department is actively working to have a loophole exempting overseas contracts stripped from tough new rules to force private companies to report internal evidence of fraud.

The Bush administration added the loophole after the rule was first proposed by the Justice Department.
“Our position is it shouldn’t happen,” Mukasey said. “My understanding is we are doing whatever we can do at this point to show that we are opposed to it.”

Year of turmoil
Mukasey took over the Justice Department in November following nearly a year of turmoil there over whether nine U.S. attorneys and career prosecutors were hired or fired because of their politics. The scandal ultimately led to the resignation of the attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, and Mukasey has been intent since then on rebuilding the Justice Department’s image as fair and independent.
He also sought to quell suspicions over whether the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles meant to disband that office’s cadre of public integrity prosecutors when he reassigned them to other units. Mukasey described the move as little more than an office restructuring. “To take that as a signal that the Central District of California is out of the public corruption business I think is absurd,” Mukasey said. “I didn’t read it that way and … that’s not the life truth of it.”

Disclosures show how his name, connections helped him lead lavish lifestyle
By David D. Kirkpatrick      The New York Times      Mon., Feb. 2, 2009

WASHINGTON – Tom Daschle, the former Democratic Senate leader, had been voted out of office. His close friend Leo Hindery, a Democratic donor and media mogul, was out of a job too, having just sold his latest company, Yes Networks.
So in early 2005 the two men decided to team up. Mr. Daschle agreed to become the founding chairman of “a world-class executive advisory board” of “industry and regulatory experts” for a new investment firm run by Mr. Hindery, according to a news release announcing its inception and seeking investors. The Daschle-led board, the release said, would help provide a “collective depth of industry knowledge and expertise that will allow us to pursue unique and high-value opportunities.”

In addition to lending the prestige of his name, Mr. Daschle traveled to help raise money from investors for Mr. Hindery’s new venture, said Jenny Backus, a spokeswoman for Mr. Daschle. And in exchange, over the next four years the firm compensated Mr. Daschle with over $2 million, and Mr. Hindery lent Mr. Daschle the use of a chauffeured limousine in Washington.
Ms. Backus said that when Mr. Hindery was not in Washington he lent his car to Mr. Daschle as a favor to a friend.
The partnership has now come back to haunt Mr. Daschle, with the disclosure that he had failed to pay $128,000 in taxes on the car and driver Mr. Hindery’s firm provided him, threatening to derail his confirmation as secretary of health and human services.

Beyond the ramifications for Mr. Daschle’s ascent to the cabinet, the disclosures about Mr. Hindery and the many clients Mr. Daschle advised on public policy offers a new window into how Washington works. It shows how in just four years an influential former senator was able to make $5 million and live a lavish lifestyle by dint of his name, connections and knowledge of the town’s inner workings.

There is no evidence that Mr. Daschle pulled strings for Mr. Hindery. Indeed, Mr. Hindery’s firm appears to have had few interests before the government. But interviews and a review of public documents show that in his work for a Washington law firm, Mr. Daschle did take on an array of clients seeking influence with the government, including concerns involved in Indian gambling, ethanol, health care, telecommunications and federal contracting.
At least one, the nonprofit student loan company EduCap, may pose new problems for Mr. Daschle. The Senate Finance Committee said it was trying to determine whether trips to the Bahamas and the Middle East provided to Mr. Daschle by the company should also have been reported as income.
Ms. Backus said that the trips predated his work for EduCap, that he traveled at the request of a different charity, and that his accountants say he handled the trips appropriately.
Affiliated with the firm Alston & Bird, Mr. Daschle has operated in the gap between the popular understanding and legal definition of a lobbyist. There is no evidence that he directly sought to influence his former colleagues or other government officials in ways that would have required him to register as a lobbyist or could have run afoul of the restrictions on former lobbyists entering the Obama administration. But the rules still left plenty of room for him to advise businesses seeking to influence the government or to profit otherwise from the fame and insights he acquired in public life.

“Did he attempt to influence? Maybe,” said Thomas Susman, an official at the American Bar Association and author of its lobbying manual. “Did he advise others in the business of influencing? Probably. But he wasn’t a lobbyist.”

Ms. Backus said Mr. Daschle provided clients with advice based on years of public service. But she said he also gave the same insights free to the One campaign and the liberal Center for American Progress, as well as to his students at Georgetown University.

Aides to President Obama said on Sunday that they still expected Mr. Daschle to win confirmation. The Senate Finance Committee will meet on Monday to discuss the nomination.

What expertise Mr. Daschle contributed to Mr. Hindery’s firm is hard to determine. The firm, Intermedia, has hired no federal lobbyists and it mainly invests in media businesses — the television program “Soul Train,” for example; cable networks devoted to gospel music or hunting and fishing; and the Christian publisher Thomas Nelson — with few interests before the government.

Mr. Hindery, who sought the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee in 2000, could not be reached for comment. Other firm executives did not return calls. Former Senator Bob Kerrey, another board member, did not respond to an e-mail message.

Former Senator Slade Gorton, a Washington Republican who also joined the board, said in an interview on Sunday that the other members received $100,000 a year in compensation, mainly for attending quarterly meetings about the state of the firm.

The Senate Finance Committee expects to disclose this week the results of a two-year investigation into the possibility that Mr. Daschle’s client EduCap abused its tax-exempt status by providing lavish entertainment and travel to its officers and their guests, including Mr. Dashcle. Mr. Daschle is an old friend of Catherine B. Reynolds, EduCap’s chief executive.

Another client paying for his policy advice was UnitedHealth, a giant insurance company with many issues pending before the Department of Health and Human Services. About a third of its $81 billion in revenue last year came from federally regulated sales of Medicare Advantage and Medicare supplement and prescription drug plans.

The company boasted in its annual report that “one in five Medicare recipients participates in a UnitedHealth Group Medicare program.” (Mr. Daschle has said he will recuse himself from matters involving former clients.)

Two of the clients Mr. Daschle disclosed involved Indian tribes: the Great Plains Indian Gaming Association, and the law firm Fredericks Peebles & Morgan, which represents Indian tribes in legal and government-relations matters involving gambling, health care and other issues.

Another was Perry Capital, a firm that specialized in handicapping the completion of mergers, many of which required federal approvals.

Several other clients or employers have stakes in federal support for the production of ethanol, an alternative to petroleum popular in farm states but controversial among environmentalists. Mr. Daschle received fees as a director of Prime BioSolutions and the Mascoma Corporation, which are involved in ethanol production, and he sold policy advice to the Governors’ Ethanol Coalition and the Renewable Fuels Association. Other clients were investment companies with stakes in federal environmental policies, and one, Crown Consulting, specialized in work for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Mr. Daschle was also a director of the Mayo Clinic. Although he did not officially lobby for the hospital, he did lend his voice to its cause in at least one notable battle. (As a director, Mr. Daschle received free medical care from the clinic, and for that he paid taxes, his spokeswoman said.)

Over the last few years, the clinic paid several Washington lobbyists to help beat back a $2.5 billion government loan for a company from Mr. Daschle’s home state, South Dakota, that wanted to operate a freight rail line near the clinic’s headquarters in Rochester, Minn.
To much criticism in his home state, Mr. Daschle sided with the clinic, calling it “an American treasure.”
“I don’t think the Mayo Clinic is asking too much,” he told The St. Paul Pioneer Press. The Federal Railroad Administration killed the project last February.
Robert Pear and Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed reporting.
This article, “In Daschle’s Tax Woes, a Peek Into Washington,” first appeared in The New York Times.