Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson Awards $31,000 in Scholarship Money to Family and Friends

In breaking the silence on a scholarship scandal that makes her the third Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) member to come under investigation, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) seemed to do a lot of futile wriggling in response to questions about whether she knew it was wrong to award scholarships from the CBC Foundation to her two grandkids.

“If I had known this was against the law I wouldn’t have done it,” she told a Dallas TV station regarding the matter.

And how often has that defense worked with the police or in a court of law?

Then she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 that she was too busy to review each scholarship application personally.

“I have not dwelled on figuring out how to give my grandchildren $1,000 a year,” she told CNN.

Which is true, because in actuality a total of 23 of the scholarships Johnson’s office has awarded in the last five years, totaling $31,000, have gone not only to two grandsons from Austin, but also to two great-nephews from Plano, and two children of a top aide in Dallas, according to the Dallas Morning News.

One gets the sense that Johnson -- who, like other members of Congress, earns $174,000 a year -- isn’t really going to give a straight answer on this matter, even though she says she accepts full responsibility for what took place.

But here’s a question that we think would be difficult for Johnson to answer in a way that doesn’t further damage the reputation she is trying to protect.

That question -- fair game for any grandmother of a family full of scholarship-winning kids -- is: How proud and surprised were you when you found out that four relatives won scholarships awarded from your office?

We don’t know how proud she may have been in seeing her grandkids and great-nephews “win” so much money for college. But she could hardly have been surprised.

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