Adam “Barney Google” Schiff (Horse’s Ass – CA) is currently in the House of Representatives, is running for the Senate, and is in bed with a lot of defense contractors who contribute heavily to his campaigns in return for fat contracts.

This should come as a surprise to no one.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who is running for the Senate in 2024, doled out $10 million through earmarks to defense contractors that donated to his campaigns, according to a report published on Monday by Politico.

Schiff, who is running against fellow Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee, earmarked over $10 million of taxpayer money to five companies to develop military technologies between 2001 and 2007. These companies were found to have donated tens of thousands of dollars to his campaign, according to a review of earmark records by Politico.

“We were always concerned about the pay-to-play aspects,” wrote Steve Ellis, who runs the group “Taxpayers of Common Sense,” of Schiff’s earmarks, to Politico. “If you’re getting a campaign contribution and getting your earmark for that same company or for a client of that lobbyist, it has that perception.”

Perception, my aging white ass. It’s a payoff, pure and simple. Here are some tidbits:

The largest donor earmarks by Schiff, totaling $6 million, went to Smiths Detection, which was developing chemical weapons sensors for the military, while another $3 million went to Phasebridge, Inc., which was developing a Naval radar system. Both of these groups retained a lobbyist, Paul Magliocchetti, who around the same time donated $8,500 to Schiff’s campaign committees. Magliocchetti was later convicted on federal charges of illegal campaign contributions and served 27 months in prison, Politico reported.

Schiff also earmarked $1 million for Eureka Aerospace, a company that was developing military technology to stop vehicles that evaded checkpoints. Schiff’s campaign received $34,500 from Eureka’s CEO between 2006 and 2020, as well as from others in his household.

Schiff, furthermore, earmarked $1 million to Tanner Research, Inc., which was conducting research on detecting improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which killed many U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq. Tanner’s CEO donated $15,800 to Schiff from 2003 to 2012.

So we have a member of the House of Representatives – who holds the federal government’s checkbook – shoveling fat contracts out in return for fat campaign contributions.  How is this not corruption of the first water?

There’s one good thing about getting Schiff-For-Brains into the Senate; he won’t be helping to craft any spending bills, which by the Constitution, have to originate in the House.  It won’t end his tit-for-tat with contributors, though, and you can bet a fat defense contract that nobody in the Democratic Party will call him on it – they are all, after all, doing the same thing.