In today’s Queens Chronicle, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) attacked NLPC as “a right-wing, inside-the-Beltway organization with an explicitly stated partisan agenda.” As evidence, Meeks claimed that I “served as a top advisor to Mitt Romney during his presidential campaign.” The only problem is that Meeks got the wrong Peter Flaherty.
Maybe Meeks should learn how to aim before he fires. Or at least learn how to use Google. The Peter Flaherty who advised Romney is a principal in the Shawmut Group in Boston. He is a former assistant District Attorney in Suffolk County, and served as Vice-President of Walden Media, a film production studio. Flaherty worked as a senior advisor to Mitt Romney while he was governor, and held a senior position in his 2008 presidential campaign. He is also credited with helping to engineer Scott Brown’s upset Senate win this year.
Although I am also originally from Massachusetts, I have served as NLPC President since 1991.
Meanwhile, Meeks’ close ally Malcolm Smith is lawyering up. According to the New York Daily News:
Embattled Senate President Malcolm Smith has hired prominent criminal defense lawyer Gerald Shargel to help him deal with mounting investigations.
Shargel, whose Web bio says he focuses only on “the defense of serious criminal cases,” was hired two weeks ago amid a U.S. attorney probe into New Direction, a nonprofit founded by Smith and Rep. Gregory Meeks.
In the Queens Chronicle article, NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm noted:
We have a good record of going after people in public life who are doing things that are unethical regardless of their political affiliation. We are currently working on cases that involve high-ranking Republican and Democrat officials.
NLPC has investigated Republicans, including former Senator Ted Stevens and his Alaska colleague, Senator Lisa Murkowski. She sold back land to a developer a day after NLPC alleged in a Complaint to the Senate Ethics Committee that the original sale was a “sweetheart” deal.
NLPC exposed the Boeing Tanker Deal Scandal, sending to prison Darleen Druyun, a former Bush Defense Department procurement official.
Related:
NLPC Complaint Alleges Rep. Gregory Meeks Got Sweetheart Deal on Home
High-Living Congressman Meeks Blames NLPC for Scrutiny
Doubts Cast on Rep. Meeks’ New Account of Missing Katrina Funds
Rep. Gregory Meeks Blasted Bush Response to Hurricane Katrina
Why Haven’t Obama, Pelosi Jettisoned Rep. Gregory Meeks?