Are Rahm Emanuel and Tim Mahoney covering up a bribe?

Promoted - an insider speculates about today's news that Tim Mahoney paid off his mistress.

Today’s breaking news about Florida Congressman Tim Mahoney paying off his mistress for $121,000 begs a very important question: What did Rahm Emanuel know and when did he know it?

According to ABC News, which broke the story online earlier today, Congressman Rahm Emanuel knew (or had heard) about Mahoney’s affair last year and confronted Mahoney about it.

Senior Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives, including Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), the chair of the Democratic Caucus, have been working with Mahoney to keep the matter from hurting his re-election campaign, the Mahoney staffers said.

A spokesperson for Emanuel, said he confronted Mahoney "upon hearing a rumor" about an affair in 2007 and "told him he was in public life and had a responsibility to act accordingly." Emanuel's spokesperson said he had not had any further contacts with Mahoney on the subject and did not know the woman involved worked on Mahoney's Congressional staff until informed by ABC News.

So what…so Rahm had a conversation more than a year ago.  Big deal.

Ya, except that we know one thing about Rahm from his vociferous denials two years ago about his involvement in leaking the Mark Foley emails: Rahm is a habitual liar.

RealClearPolitics.com flashback:

For those keeping score, Emanuel denied knowledge of the [Foley] e-mails six times, and twice declared the source of the leaks was a Republican. As it turned out, the answer to Stephanopoulos’ first question concerning whether this was a Democrat dirty trick should actually have been ‘Yes.’

It stands to reason that Rahm Emanuel wanted to protect his investment in Florida’s 16^th Congressional District and wasn’t about to let Mahoney’s tryst undo all the damage Emanuel was able to do to Republicans in 2006. 

The question to Rahm is “What did you know and when did you know it?”  Only this time, tell the truth. 

The theory is that Mahoney could have laundered the $121,000 payoff through his media vendor back in March. (For those still keeping score, that’s a major violation of the law.)  Mahoney made a $150,000 campaign expenditure to his media consultant back in March.  According to the FEC, the money was reported for a “Media Time Buy.”  Except, no media time was ever purchased.  That’s a whole lotta money for nothing in return.  (Other than the silence of a woman scorned.)

UPDATE

Mahoney's media vendor has put out a press release.  You need to read this.  Below the fold.

For Immediate Release
October 13, 2008
Contact: [SNIPPED]

 Fletcher Rowley Chao Riddle Inc. Resigns from Campaign of Congressman Tim Mahoney (FL 16)

Statement of Fletcher Rowley Chao (FRCR, Inc.) CEO Bill Fletcher:

"As of today, FRCR, Inc. has resigned from Tim Mahoney's campaign and permanently ended our relationship with him.

"According to ABC News, Tim Mahoney apparently included our company in a
secret legal settlement without the knowledge of our firm.   Our firm did not agree to any legal settlement.

"If these allegations are true Tim Mahoney's actions are unacceptable and not in line with FRCR's business ethics."

BACKGROUND: It has been reported in news stories today that Florida Congressman Tim Mahoney has paid off a woman with whom he allegedly had an affair.  Without the knowledge of Bill Fletcher, John Rowley, Ben Chao or Mark Riddle, Tim Mahoney promised Ms. Allen a job with our company as part of a legal settlement.