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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Hush-Hush |
Current rating: 0 |
by Chris Floyd, Moscow Times-Global Eye
(No verified email address) |
19 Aug 2001
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Aide to congressman found murdered
Closure in the the Condit case?
Nope, it's the case the media ignores while on a witch hunt after the conservative Democratic representative from California. This case involves a conservative Republican from the state whose Republicans "worked" hard to select our current Prez, Florida. Is there fire where there's smoke here? Hard to tell, but the contrast in news coverage could not be more stark. ML |
When dealing with potentially scandalous stories concerning respected public figures, we at the Global Eye eschew lurid speculation in the Larry King-Fox News-Wall Street Journal manner. There, you will find daily doses of sex-crazed conjecture and feverish fantasy; here, we confine ourselves to the dry recitation of fact.
Thus when we read that a young woman found dead in a powerful congressman\'s office was actually killed by a blow to the head contrary to earlier official statements that said her body bore no marks whatsoever and that the medical examiner in charge of the case had previously had his license revoked for reporting false information, we do not leap to the nearest cable news outlet to spin wild conspiracy theories about lust and murder. We simply note the results of our research for whatever passing interest they may have for the reader.
The facts, then. On July 21, 2001, in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, the body of Lori Klausutis, 28, was found in the office of U.S. Representative Joe Scarborough, 38, for whom Klausutis worked as an aide. Police on the scene said there were no indications of forced entry or physical struggle and \"no signs of trauma to the body.\" The official medical examiner, Dr. Michael Berkland, then conducted an extensive autopsy more than 80 hours before announcing his findings last week.
Berkland said Klausutis died from a blow to the head, probably caused when she fainted and fell to the floor after an attack of a previously undiagnosed \"valvular condition of the heart.\" Klausutis, an avid runner and member of the Northwest Florida Track Club, had never evinced heart problems before but such things happen, Berkland said. He also admitted that authorities had previously lied about her fatal wound in order to forestall media inquiries into the case. \"The last thing we wanted was 40 questions about a head injury,\" he told the Northwest Florida Daily News.
Berkland moved to Florida after his medical license was revoked in Missouri following a 1998 case in which he was found to have falsified information in an autopsy report, American Political Journal reported.
Representative Scarborough was one of the rising stars of the Republican right. So rock-ribbed was his conservatism that he considered hard-right hero Newt Gingrich \"too liberal\" and tried to oust him as Speaker of the House in 1997. Chastened by this abortive attempt, Scarborough focused instead on tax cuts, military spending, Christian values (he co-sponsored the Ten Commandments Defense Act with California Democrat Gary Condit) and, of course, the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Meanwhile, he broadened his media appeal by appearing on Hollywood talk shows like \"Politically Incorrect\" and playing in a \"patriotic rock band\" with other Republican congressmen.
Last year, he amassed a war chest of $750,000 and cruised to re-election in November. He was tapped for powerful committees in the House armed services, government reform, and judiciary and took a leading role in implementing the Bush legislative agenda. This spring, reports surfaced that Scarborough, a divorced father of two, was planning to resign because of unnamed \"personal problems,\" including hints of an involvement with a staff member. He strongly denied these \"unfounded rumors\" and vowed to remain in office. On June 20, 2001, Scarborough suddenly resigned from Congress, saying he needed to spend more time with his family.
The death of Lori Klausutis one month later passed unmentioned in the King-Fox-Journal circles of higher mediadom. Not even the official coverup of the blow to her head has aroused those pundits who prey on every lipstick trace of Chandra Levy and every trouser flutter of Gary Condit while burying the various depredations of the Bush regime beneath their mounds of gossip.
We here at the Global Eye believe there is likely no fire at all behind these twin plumes of mysterious smoke in Florida and Washington. But we do think it\'s remarkable that only one plume is considered worthy of media attention, while the other is left to smolder in merciful darkness.
Postscript: So what\'s Joe Scarborough going to do now that he\'s resigned? USA Today reports he is mulling over a couple of lucrative offers: a plum post in the Bush administration, or a high-profile job in you guessed it the media.
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See also:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2001/08/17/107.html
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