The week in Republican lawbreaking

Wow. Two stories today that appeared in Salon's War Room blog. Frist-- oops, I mean first-- is the former FDA chief Lester Crawford, who left after two months and could be in hot water for owning stocks in companies he regulated.

But now we're getting a little insight into why Crawford may have come and gone so quickly. In the U.S. District Court in Washington today, federal prosecutors charged Crawford with lying to federal officials about his ownership of stock in companies the FDA was supposed to be regulating. As the Associated Press reports, prosecutors say that Crawford failed to disclose income he received from Embrex, Inc., an FDA-regulated agriculture biotechnology company, and that he chaired the FDA's Obesity Working Group while he owned a substantial amount of stock in both Pepsico Inc. and Sysco Corp.

Second is Pennsylvania GOP Rep. Curt Weldon, who has put in appearances on my blog for his incredibly sleazy campaigning against challenger Joe Sestak. But Weldon (and even his daughter) might be in trouble with the law for-- you'd better sit down for this shocker-- enriching themselves through influence peddling.

Late last week, a lawyer for Rep. Curt Weldon said that his client didn't know anything about any investigation into allegations that the Pennsylvania Republican traded political influence for high-paying lobbying contracts for his daughter. The daughter's lawyer went so far as to send McClatchy Newspapers a letter saying "there is no investigation" and ordering a reporter to stop "harassing" and "baiting" his client with phone messages seeking comment.

Today's news? The FBI has just raided the home of Weldon's daughter as well as five other locations in Pennsylvania and Florida as part of its investigation into whether Weldon helped his daughter and one of his closest friends get $1 million in lobbying contracts from two Russian companies and a Serbian foundation between 2002 and 2004.