Dan Burton, United States Congressman from Indiana's sixth district, you have develpoed a reputation has a "tough talking conservative who is more comfortable with wading into a partisan scrap than cutting a deal." You have been slated to chair the House of Representatives hearings over campaign finance scandals. But before you cast your first stone, you have been placed in the Purgatory in the category of the avaricious. In recent weeks, questions over your own allegations of fund-raising sins have arisen. You are condemned to Purgatory because although you did some very unscrupulous things, you have been awarded the Golden Bulldog from the Watchdogs of the Treasury for voting to cut wasteful Federal spending and reduce taxes. You also were given awards and recommendations for your voting practices, such as voting in support of policy of peacethrough strength and voting for your support of free enterprise and a strong econmy. Although these things deserve some merit, you have not been the most honest and practical politician. You have, for instance, (allegedy) threatened Mark Siegel, a fromer lobbyist for Pakistan, by saying you will cut off his access to other law makers if he did not deliver $5000 to the your campaign fund. You have also violated campaign finance laws when you took $646 in donations rom religious organizations. Mr. Burton, you also made efforts to win concessions from the Education Department, took an illegal $500 contribution from the departed dictator Muboto Sese Seko. You are a prime example of avarice. Dan Burton you are not satisfied with your position and current campiagn money, if you were you would not be taking illegal campiagn finances. Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader you have done a lot of good for consumers. You have also led attacks against Kaiser Permante the largest US health maintenance organization because it had posed a " direct threat" to the safety of its patients. You also said deficiencies in emergency care at Kaiser were " systemic" throughout its network and have led to a series of "medical malpractice tragedies" You also called Kaiser's plans to reduce the numbers of nurses on staff and internal Kaiser documents detailing other cost-saving initiatives he said were degrading the quality of care and called to the attention to a series of wrongful death lawsuits filed against the health care provider. Because of your action last week regulators in Texas responded to some of the patient lawsuits against Kaiser by slapping it with a $1 million fine and ordering it to implement specific steps to improve the quality of its care. For this you are commended yet you still do not belong in Paradise nor Hell. You are hence placed in Purgatory . You have for 30 years proclaimed yourself to be "Saint Ralph" the only honest man in Washington and the only friend to the average citizen. But yet you have long taken advantage of young earnest ambitious workers being controlling and paying far less . in 1976 many were paid $5000 per year and only a few at the top made as much as $20000. Meanwhile you repaired daily logs of everything the workers did from 7am to 9pm, plus monthly summaries of these logs. If a worker did not turn in the log they did not get pay. You are being placed in the terrace of the prideful because you have shown immense pride in yourself where it is not warranted. You pride yourself on your great character and stature and have a myth built in large part of personal asceticism--such as taking a small or minuscule salary, not owning a car, and living in a boarding house with a bathroom down the hall. Yet, David Sanford of the New Republic documented that residents of a well-to-do neighborhood in Washington had often spotted you sneaking into an expensive house over there. You also earned hundreds of thousand s of dollars per year in speaking fees although you claimed to live on a $5,000 a year and give nearly all the rest to his organizations. Because of your pride where it is not warranted you shall reside in the terrace of the avaricious and the prodigal. | Back to Dante's Purgatory |
Dan Burton, United States Congressman from Indiana's sixth district, you have develpoed a reputation has a "tough talking conservative who is more comfortable with wading into a partisan scrap than cutting a deal." You have been slated to chair the House of Representatives hearings over campaign finance scandals. But before you cast your first stone, you have been placed in the Purgatory in the category of the avaricious. In recent weeks, questions over your own allegations of fund-raising sins have arisen. You are condemned to Purgatory because although you did some very unscrupulous things, you have been awarded the Golden Bulldog from the Watchdogs of the Treasury for voting to cut wasteful Federal spending and reduce taxes. You also were given awards and recommendations for your voting practices, such as voting in support of policy of peacethrough strength and voting for your support of free enterprise and a strong econmy. Although these things deserve some merit, you have not been the most honest and practical politician. You have, for instance, (allegedy) threatened Mark Siegel, a fromer lobbyist for Pakistan, by saying you will cut off his access to other law makers if he did not deliver $5000 to the your campaign fund. You have also violated campaign finance laws when you took $646 in donations rom religious organizations. Mr. Burton, you also made efforts to win concessions from the Education Department, took an illegal $500 contribution from the departed dictator Muboto Sese Seko. You are a prime example of avarice. Dan Burton you are not satisfied with your position and current campiagn money, if you were you would not be taking illegal campiagn finances.
Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader you have done a lot of good for consumers. You have also led attacks against Kaiser Permante the largest US health maintenance organization because it had posed a " direct threat" to the safety of its patients. You also said deficiencies in emergency care at Kaiser were " systemic" throughout its network and have led to a series of "medical malpractice tragedies" You also called Kaiser's plans to reduce the numbers of nurses on staff and internal Kaiser documents detailing other cost-saving initiatives he said were degrading the quality of care and called to the attention to a series of wrongful death lawsuits filed against the health care provider.
Because of your action last week regulators in Texas responded to some of the patient lawsuits against Kaiser by slapping it with a $1 million fine and ordering it to implement specific steps to improve the quality of its care. For this you are commended yet you still do not belong in Paradise nor Hell. You are hence placed in Purgatory . You have for 30 years proclaimed yourself to be "Saint Ralph" the only honest man in Washington and the only friend to the average citizen. But yet you have long taken advantage of young earnest ambitious workers being controlling and paying far less . in 1976 many were paid $5000 per year and only a few at the top made as much as $20000. Meanwhile you repaired daily logs of everything the workers did from 7am to 9pm, plus monthly summaries of these logs. If a worker did not turn in the log they did not get pay. You are being placed in the terrace of the prideful because you have shown immense pride in yourself where it is not warranted. You pride yourself on your great character and stature and have a myth built in large part of personal asceticism--such as taking a small or minuscule salary, not owning a car, and living in a boarding house with a bathroom down the hall. Yet, David Sanford of the New Republic documented that residents of a well-to-do neighborhood in Washington had often spotted you sneaking into an expensive house over there. You also earned hundreds of thousand s of dollars per year in speaking fees although you claimed to live on a $5,000 a year and give nearly all the rest to his organizations. Because of your pride where it is not warranted you shall reside in the terrace of the avaricious and the prodigal.