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Not healthy.
BTW...the above post seems to support this behavior.
Flannery is a veteran political reporter in Chicago and not just some clown promoting a website.
Here's a nugget from the Chicago Sun Times showing Weller to be a classic "in it for himself" repuke.
The rolling surf of the Pacific Ocean crashes onto white sand beaches below a lush hillside in southwest Nicaragua, a picture of tropical paradise by anyone's definition.
These days, paradise is for sale. Contact the seller, Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.).
Weller, a southwest suburban congressman with a fondness for Latin America, has sunk a large share of his investment capital into a land development in Nicaragua. But he didn't declare the extent of his holdings on his required congressional disclosures, and he indicated dramatically different purchase prices for the land in American and Nicaraguan records.
In 2002 Weller made his first official congressional trip to Nicaragua. Before the year was over, he had bought his first lot and eventually began looking for land he could subdivide into parcels that would attract buyers looking for prime ocean-view property at a relatively low price. It is an unusual investment for a member of Congress, and Weller's foreign land holdings seem far more extensive than any other House member's.
His investment got a boost from the narrowly passed Central America Free Trade Agreement, which Weller pitched in 2005 as a tool to enable businesses in his hard-pressed district to sell tractors and food to Latin America. CAFTA also includes additional legal protection for American investors, including those who have purchased lots from Weller.
What he didn't say was that, while he publicly pushed CAFTA, Weller privately was pursuing his land development, some 2,000 miles away. The House approved the trade pact in July 2005 by only two votes, 217-215.
Besides not mentioning his Nicaraguan investments during the CAFTA debate on the House floor, Weller did not give anywhere close to a complete accounting of them in his required 2005 financial disclosure statement. House ethics rules require representatives to disclose all property they own except for their personal residences.
The congressman listed only one Nicaraguan property purchase on his 2005 disclosure form, but property records in Nicaragua show that he bought or sold at least eight pieces of land.
That's not the only discrepancy. On at least two occasions, Weller has reported a land sale on his House ethics form and reported a much lower price for the same sale on Nicaraguan property records. Nicaragua's Pacific Coast was a prime spot for real estate bargains in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but buyers also frequently listed artificially low prices to lessen the bite of local taxes.
For example, Weller's first disclosed purchase in the coastal town of San Juan del Sur appeared on his 2002 financial filing, listing a lot with a purchase price of between $50,001 and $100,000. But in property records at the Registrar's office in Rivas, the department seat for San Juan, Weller is reported paying 78,000 cordobas, or about $4,333, for four-tenths of an acre in a transaction on Dec. 7, 2002.
Records indicate that Weller sold the same property in February 2005 for about $95,000. That sale does not appear on Weller's 2005 House disclosure.
When asked about the discrepancies, Weller's office first insisted that questions be given to the congressman in writing. After a week passed with no response to the written questions, The Tribune requested to talk to Weller in person. On Thursday afternoon, Weller's spokesman said he would not answer questions and had no comment.
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