Ted Stevens

From D.C., Alaska Senator Keeps An Eye (and A Hand) Out For His Son

Justin Rood | September 1, 2006, 5:31PM

Ah, how the bennies of the father are visited upon the son! A 2003 article counted at least nine separate cases in which Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) has done favors for companies or organizations which paid his son Ben over $1.5 million in salary and "consulting fees." And there have been more since then. (The article, from the Los Angeles Times, was unearthed by the Washington, D.C.-based Sunlight Foundation.) Ben Stevens, president of the Alaska State Senate, recently had his offices raided by the FBI. News out of Alaska indicates the feds are looking for information surrounding a major resource legislation package that benefited at least one of the companies father Ted helped out, VECO Corp. Since the Times piece was published, the elder Stevens has done more favors which benefited Ben.

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Tom DeLay

TX-22: Where Democracy Goes Crazy!

Paul Kiel | September 1, 2006, 4:20PM

The screwiest election in recent memory just got screwier.

Now Democratic candidate Nick Lampson, who's been calling for a special election since May when DeLay announced he'd be retiring, says that he won't be running in the special election, choosing instead to focus on the general.

That's in response to Texas Gov. Rick Perry's (R) call earlier this week for a special election to fill Tom DeLay's seat in the House. The election will take place the same day as the general election, November 7th, and will ensure that Shelley Sekula-Gibbs will appear on at least one ballot (if not on the general election ballot) on Election Day.

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Ted Stevens

Alaska FBI Raid: PLEASE Tell Us They Found the Hats

Justin Rood | September 1, 2006, 3:37PM

AP reports on the recent raid on Alaska lawmakers' offices, including those of Ben Stevens, son of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK):

Among the items federal agents were searching for in Alaska legislative offices this week are hats or garments labeled “Corrupt Bastards Club” or “Corrupt Bastards Caucus,” according to the search warrant.

Mailbag: TPMm Reader Keeps Scalia Honest

Justin Rood | September 1, 2006, 3:34PM

New disclosures show Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia took over two dozen trips paid for by non-governmental organizations, according to an AP story we noted a few days ago in the Daily Muck. Time Warner and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lousiana were but two of the groups Scalia disclosed as funding his travel, AP reported.

Wait a second, Reader RH noted in an email:

[T]here is no such thing as a Roman Catholic Diocese of Louisiana. There's the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, the Diocese of Baton Rouge, the Diocese of Lafayette, etc. but there is no such entity as [the Roman Catholic Diocese of] Louisiana.

A quick Google search appeared to prove RH right -- so I called up the Supreme Court. What gives? I asked.

Two days and several phone calls and emails later I got an answer, courtesy of Public Information Officer Kathy Arberg.

"Justin, it was the Diocese of Shreveport," she wrote me in an email. "I hope this helps."

There's your answer, RH. Apparently, Justice Scalia isn't as detail-oriented as one might expect. Then again, the guy goes on so many trips, who'd expect him to keep all the sponsors straight?

Ted Stevens

For AK Scandal Company, Money Can't Buy Happiness -- But Influence? Perhaps.

Justin Rood | September 1, 2006, 12:16PM

When FBI agents raided the offices of Alaska Senate President Ben Stevens and five other legislators, they were looking for evidence of improper ties between those state lawmakers and a company called VECO Corp. That left some scratching their heads. What's VECO? Based in Alaska, the privately-owned, non-union company deals primarily in petroleum and petroleum-related services; its estimated revenue in 2004 was $500 million, and it employs around 5,000 people worldwide. That's small by oil megacorporation standards, but it's big in Alaska, where the company has been called "a titan in the Alaskan oil industry." VECO has over two dozen subsidiaries, but it likes to spend money on influence. It's the top campaign contributor to both Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) and its congressman, Don Young (R). And although it's only the second-biggest contributor to Sen. Ted Stevens (R), with over $70,000 in donations to the senior senator from VECO employees (according to FECInfo.com), it keeps close ties to Stevens in other ways. For one, it's dumped $25,000 into his "Northern Lights" political action committee. The company also paid his state Senator son, Ben (he of the raided office) over $200,000 for various reported purposes, including lobbying his father. What's more, the son of VECO president Pete Lethard was reported to work for Stevens in Washington, D.C. Also, the company briefly owned the Anchorage Times; in 1992 it shut the paper down, and switched to funding a half-page of editorials in the Anchorage Daily News. The section, called "Voice of the Times," is reportedly devoted to "conservative," "pro-industry" views.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

pauljustin | September 1, 2006, 8:03AM

DeLay Has a Deal to Publish a Book
"DeLay said he'll explain how 'everything I've done in my career furthered the conservative cause' and helped change the culture of Washington.

"DeLay said the working title is 'No Retreat, No Surrender: The American Passion of Tom DeLay.' He declined to reveal how much he'll be paid. 'Not as much as I wanted,' he quipped.

"The book will be published by Penguin and should be ready by next spring, he said. Stephen Mansfield, author of 'The Faith of George W. Bush,' is working on the book with DeLay." (AP)

Read more »

Ted Stevens

FBI Raids Office of AK Senator's Son

Paul Kiel | August 31, 2006, 11:08PM

Yesterday, the FBI raided the office of Ben Stevens, who's president of the Alaska State Senate -- and son of Sen. Ted "King of Pork" Stevens (R-AK). Investigators searched his office (and those of five other legislators) for evidence of any ties ("financial information and gifts") between the lawmakers and VECO Corp., "an Anchorage-based oil field services and construction company whose executives are major contributors to political campaigns," according to the AP. VECO, a reader notes, is one of father Ted Stevens' biggest campaign contributors. Its employees donated $45,750 during his career. This is the second time in a week Ted Stevens' name has made headlines at TPMmuckraker -- earlier, readers will recall, he was unmasked on this site as being the GOP "masked holder" who held up the Obama/Coburn porkbusting transparency bill. Update: Is this part of what the Feds want to know about? From an April 28 article in the Anchorage Daily News: "Veco, an Alaska oil field services and construction company whose executives are major contributors to Republican political campaigns, paid [Ben] Stevens $57,000 last year for unspecified 'business services,' according to Stevens' most recent disclosure." And more, from a Nov. 3, 2005 AP article: "Ben Stevens' business relationship with the oil field service company Veco, which has paid him $243,000 since 2000, was cited as an example of 'corruption' in the recall petition brought against Stevens by Republican Moderate Party founder Ray Metcalfe."

Reform

Byrd Confirms "Secret Hold" on Porkbusting Bill -- And Drops It

Paul Kiel | August 31, 2006, 3:59PM

In a newly-released statement, Sen. Robert Byrd's (D-WV) spokesman Tom Gavin confirms his boss Byrd had a hold on the bill -- but has hereby released it.

The entire statement follows:

There was an effort to pass a bill (S. 2590) on an important subject without debate just before the Senate recess. Senators have an obligation to their constituents to know what they are voting on before signing off on any proposal. The American people ought to demand that bills receive scrutiny by Senators before those bills are approved. We have seen the consequences of rushing legislation through the Senate without any time for review or understanding.

On August 2, the last day before a month-long Senate recess, a Senate committee gave its approval to a brand new piece of legislation, cosponsored by Senator Obama and Senator Coburn. That same day, there was an effort to rush the legislation through the Senate without any Senator having the chance to ask questions.

Senator Byrd wanted time to read the legislation, understand its implications, and see whether the proposal could be improved. Now that there has been time to better understand the legislation, Senator Byrd has released his hold. Senator Byrd believes that the bill should be debated and opened for amendment, and not pushed through without discussion.

Reform

Are Even Porkbusting Projects Full of Pork?

Paul Kiel | August 31, 2006, 3:03PM

The Congressional Budget Office calculates (pdf) that it would take $15 million dollars to create and maintain the database of online searchable database of government grants and contracts for five years.

But Ellen Miller of The Sunlight Foundation says today they've commissioned the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit OMB Watch to do the exact same thing. The cost? $234,713 for three years.

So is Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) vindicated for having alleged cost concerns? And, more importantly, does OMB Watch have an Alaskan bridge-building division?

Reform

Is a Dem Also Holding Up the Porkbusting Bill?

pauljustin | August 31, 2006, 11:32AM

There's a loose thread to this "secret hold" story, and it bothers us.

By this morning, the dogged persistence of hundreds of bloggers and blogreaders garnered denials from 98 senators saying they did not hold up the Coburn/Obama spending transparency database bill. Only one senator, Ted "King of Pork" Stevens (R-AK), has admitted placing a hold on the bill.

But do the math -- you'll find that makes 99 senators. And Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) ain't one.

That's right: Byrd, whose penchant for pork would probably win him the Pork Crown if he weren't saddled with minority status, has for days declined to answer constituents and others who have asked if he put a hold on the spending database proposal, S. 2590.

We have called and emailed his office and press secretary at least a half-dozen times over two days. Yesterday, we were promised a statement by the end of the day; none came. This morning, spokesman Tom Gavin continued to blame Byrd's travel schedule for the lack of response.

What's more, staff in the personal and leadership offices of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) have been almost uniformly mum on the issue. If Byrd placed a hold on the legislation, he would have had to notify Reid's office to do so. After several calls and conversations with numerous staffers, Reid spokesman Jon Steinberg would say for the record only that "it's the policy of our office not to talk about holds."

However, Reid's office on Tuesday confirmed that the senator himself had not placed a hold on the bill.

The office of Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), who would know of the existence of a Democratic hold but not necessarily the identity of the holder, declined to comment. Frist has encouraged all senators to publicly declare their actions with regard to the Obama/Coburn bill.

We aren't the only ones wondering about Byrd's status. Yesterday, unsubstantiated rumors came from Senate Republican staffers claiming that GOP leadership staff knew of a Democratic hold on the bill.

Some blogs, including RedState.com and Suitably Flip, have reported without proof statements from anonymous "reliable," "Capitol Hill" sources that Byrd has a hold on the bill.

So, does he? It's a mystery to us how every one of Byrd's 99 colleagues have gone on record regarding the hold, yet he himself won't sing.

Jack Abramoff

Prosecutors Want More Time with Abramoff

Paul Kiel | August 31, 2006, 11:00AM

Jack Abramoff won't be seeing a prison cell until 2007 (long after the midterm elections), since prosecutors would like him free for much more cooperation.

As MSNBC reports, prosecutors have asked the judge to postpone Abramoff's prison date until January at the earliest -- he had been due to report October 2nd. Abramoff has already been sentenced to five years, ten months for fraud charges arising from his catastrophic purchase of a Florida gambling company; but he's yet to be sentenced for his role in bribing public officials. So in addition to postponing Abramoff's prison date, prosecutors have also asked to defer setting a sentencing date for their bribery case as he continues to cooperate, naming names.

Abramoff will ultimately face a sentence of between 9 1/2 and 11 years, depending on his cooperation.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

pauljustin | August 31, 2006, 8:22AM

Frist Expected to Get Medical Board Fine
"Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will probably be fined and have to make up for failing to do continuing medical education that Tennessee requires of doctors with active licenses.

"Additional disciplinary action, such as suspending his medical license, is unlikely, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Health said Wednesday....

"In a license renewal form filed with the board earlier this year, Frist certified he had met the state's continuing education requirement — 40 hours over the previous two years.

"In response to several inquiries from The Associated Press, however, the Tennessee Republican acknowledged Tuesday that he had not done all the work." (AP)

Read more »

Ted Stevens

Who's Scoopin' Who?

Paul Kiel | August 30, 2006, 5:36PM

About an hour ago, CNN posted a story on Sen. Stevens' exposure as the secret pork-meister and highlighted the way a host of different blogs (yes, including TPMmuckraker.com) helped smoke him out. But TPMm Reader AC still isn't satisfied, and emailed us the following:

[CNN: Sen. Stevens is 'the secret senator']
POSTED: 4:38 p.m. EDT, August 30, 2006

"CNN has confirmed that Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has placed a hold on a bill that would require the government to publish online a database of federal spending."

[TPMm: "MASKED" BILL-BLOCKER REVEALS SELF]
By Paul Kiel - August 30, 2006, 1:59 PM

"A spokesman for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) just confirmed his boss was the man behind the secret hold on the Coburn/Obama spending database bill, which has captivated a segment of the political blogging community in recent days."

CNN... Catch-up News Network

Hey, he said it. We didn't.

Tomlinson: He's Here, He's Crooked, Get Used to It

Justin Rood | August 30, 2006, 4:01PM

Buried amid our nonstop "anonymous holder" coverage yesterday was a real gem of a muck: serial lawbreaker/administration appointee Kenneth Y. Tomlinson got busted -- again -- for improper activities in another senior post.

But Tomlinson, whom the Washington Post calls a "longtime ally" of Bush adviser Karl Rove, isn't in danger of losing his new job at the Broadcasting Board of Governors: the White House says it continues to support him, and the Justice Department has declined to prosecute him based on the new findings.

What's disheartening about Tomlinson is the pattern apparent in his record: he's not a guy who, in a fit of greed or a moment of weakness, crossed a line. He appears to engage -- routinely -- in petty, me-first corruption: hiring friends, eschewing proper procedures, getting himself double-paid, and pursuing his own private agenda without regard for the organizations he's responsible for.

And his boss -- the White House, which continues to appoint him to senior posts -- lets him get away with it. Why?

Reform

Bill's Cost Troubled Me, Pork King Says

Paul Kiel | August 30, 2006, 3:56PM

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) held up a bill that would create a free, searchable database of government contracts and grants because he was worried about the proposal's price tag, his spokesman told me this afternoon. Its cost has been estimated at $15 million.

Stevens' office has asked Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the sponsor of the bill, for "a cost-benefit analysis to make sure this does not create an extra layer of unnecessary bureaucracy,” spokesman Aaron Saunders said. The Senator “wanted to make sure that this wasn’t going to be a huge cost to the taxpayer and that it achieves the goal which the bill is meant to achieve.”

Saunders added that Stevens' hold was not "secret," and that he would back the bill if the analysis shows that "it achieves its goal and it achieves its goal well."

But Sen. Coburn's spokesman John Hart questioned Stevens' motive. "The only reason to oppose this bill is if he has something to hide," Hart said.

Hart said that Stevens, who's on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, failed to attend any hearings on the bill, an assertion backed up by vote tallies. "If he had concerns, he should have addressed them in regular order rather than blocking something that will benefit millions of taxpayers," Hart said. He added that after Stevens' office raised the concerns, Coburn's office requested a meeting, but never got one.

The Congressional Budget Office has calculated that Coburn's proposal would cost "$4 million in 2007 and about $15 million [total] over the 2007-2011 period." By comparison, Stevens -- who's been called the "King of Pork" by one government watchdog -- was recently publicly lambasted for his appropriation of more than $200 million for the so-called "Bridge to Nowhere," which would link Ketchikan, Alaska (population 8,900) with its airport on Gravina Island (population 50).

Read more »

Reform

"MASKED" BILL-BLOCKER REVEALS SELF

Paul Kiel | August 30, 2006, 1:59PM

A spokesman for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) just confirmed his boss was the man behind the secret hold on the Coburn/Obama spending database bill, which has captivated a segment of the political blogging community in recent days.

"Sen. Stevens does have a hold on the bill," said the spokesman, who would only speak on the condition he not be named. He added that Sen. Tom Coburn's (R-OK) office was notified of the hold after it was placed. So Coburn's comments two weeks ago may have been duly informed.

So why does Stevens say he placed the hold? Why did it take this long for him to say so? And will he lift it?

We'll have more soon...

Surveillance

NSA: Blogs Are Media Too

Justin Rood | August 30, 2006, 12:28PM

In a recent directive to its employees, the National Security Agency explains that "the media," in its opinion, includes bloggers.

The document defines "media" as "any print, electronic, or broadcast outlet (including blogs) where information is made available to the general public."

The NSA directive orders the secretive agency's 45,000 employees to report "unauthorized media disclosures" of classified information. That is, leaks.

It raises an interesting question: do bloggers enjoy the reporter's privilege of protecting their sources in court?

In a landmark case from 2004, Apple computer argued that bloggers aren't journalists because they aren't professional, and therefore aren't protected by "shield laws." Such statutes keep law enforcement from forcing reporters to reveal confidential sources. The company lost the original ruling -- and lost on appeal this May.

NSA's point of view appears to bolster bloggers' standing as journalists. If anybody who can disseminate information -- that is, receive and broadcast a leak -- is a member of the media, then that means us bloggers are in the club. "I thnk that's becoming increasingly obvious," Kurt Opsahl, a blogging-rights expert and counsel to the California-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, told me. "There's no principled way to distinguish between the various media."

(Courtesy dickarmitage.blogspot.com. No, just kidding. via Secrecy News)

Update: An earlier version of this post cited an article on the case of Josh Wolf, a California blogger currently in prison for refusing to turn over videotapes to a federal grand jury. However, at the federal level, California's shield law did not apply; federal prosecutors did not take a stance on Wolf's reporter status. Jurt Opsahl, a blogging-rights expert and counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told me he is not aware of a case in which the federal government has asserted bloggers are not journalists.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

pauljustin | August 30, 2006, 9:01AM

Scalia Discloses 24 Expense-Paid Trips
"Justice Antonin Scalia was the Supreme Court's most frequent traveler last year with 24 expense-paid trips that took him as far as Ireland, Italy, Turkey and Australia. Law schools and legal groups paid for most of Scalia's travel, although Italian heritage organizations, media giant Time Warner Inc., the Roman Catholic Diocese of Louisiana and the Julliard School also covered some trips." (AP)

Read more »

Ted Stevens

Coburn: Stevens Blocked My Bill

Justin Rood | August 29, 2006, 11:27PM

Twelve days ago, at a town meeting in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) accused Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) of obstructing his porkbuster-database bill with an anonymous hold.

That's according to an Aug. 18 article in the Fort Smith (Ark.) Times Record:

One of the senators most criticized for his personal projects, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, has a hold of his own on Coburn’s bill to make public the spending patterns of the government. Called the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act, the legislation calls for the creation of a database open to the public where citizens can track government spending.

“He’s the only senator blocking it,” Coburn said of Stevens.

Coburn's office was not available for comment this evening.

The article has gone largely unnoticed in recent days, as hundreds of bloggers and blog-readers (at TPMm and elsewhere) have called Senate offices in an effort to determine who placed the "secret" hold on Coburn's bill. The piece does not turn up in a Nexis search, although it is in Google.

Stevens has been the odds-on favorite since the hunt for the Holder Who Dare Not Speak His Name began.

But did he really do it? Well, he had a motive: As the paper and others have noted, Stevens and Coburn have clashed before -- in particular over Stevens' now-legendary "bridge to nowhere." Coburn attempted (and failed) to block the $233 million boondoggle. And revenge certainly fits the senior Alaskan's m.o. "Stevens can play rough," the Seattle Times noted in June. "Despite denials from his staff, he retaliates - and doesn't mind waiting years to do so."

Stevens' office has so far refused to comment on the hold. Ninety-five other senators have confirmed they were not responsible.

Thanks to TPMm Readers MP, GC for the tips.

Reform

Masked Senator Pursuit: The Endgame

Paul Kiel | August 29, 2006, 7:09PM

So here we are. Thanks to the great efforts of TPMm readers, TPMm's "Secret Hold" tally has worked its way down to six suspects.

They are: Sens. Robert Byrd (D-WV), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ted Stevens (R-AK), and Robert Bennett (R-UT). (Our ongoing log of responses is here.)

A few notes.

-- Porkbusters has eliminated Sen. Byrd from their tally, but TPMm reader responses about Byrd conflict, and the pork-loving senior senator's spokesperson has so far declined to confirm or deny his boss' status. So Byrd stays on -- for the moment.

-- We previously had Sen. Bennett in the denial column, but Portbusters' N.Z. Bear pointed out to me that the denial ("Not that I know of") Bennett's office gave to GOP Progress' Liz Mair was equivocal. So he's been placed back into the unknown column.

-- Porkbusters still has Sens. Martinez, Rockefeller, and Carper as unknowns in their tally, but we have received denials for them, either directly or through readers. We received two separate reader accounts of getting straight denials from Martinez staffers, a reader got a denial from Rockefeller's spokeswoman, and I personally got a denial from Carper's spokesman. So they're off our unknown list. To be sure, we have requested comments from both Martinez's and Rockefeller's spokespeople. If they tell us otherwise, the senators will be bounced back on.

We've made multiple attempts to get comments from all of the remaining suspects. Only one of them, Sen. Crapo, has flatly refused to answer. We will continue to tomorrow and hope readers will join us.

And finally, a big thank you to TPMm readers from Justin and me.

Report: State Official Broke All Kinda Laws

Justin Rood | August 29, 2006, 5:50PM

The New York Times reports:

State Department investigators have concluded that Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the head of the federal agency that oversees most government broadcasts to foreign countries, improperly hired a friend on the public payroll for nearly $250,000 over two and a half years, according to a summary of their report made public this afternoon by Democratic Congressional staff members.

They also said that Mr. Tomlinson, whose job puts him in charge of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, used his government office for personal business, including running a “horse racing operation” in which he supervised a stable of thoroughbreds he named after leaders from Afghanistan, including President Hamid Karzai and the late Ahmed Shah Massoud, that have raced at tracks across the United States.

Tomlinson, you may recall, was previously the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, where he charged that public broadcasting was full of liberal bias.

At CPB, a separate probe had been started to examine his habit of hiring lobbyists and consultants without consulting with the CPB board. Last November, Tomlinson resigned before the probe's findings -- that he had broken the law -- were released.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) had called for the investigation, and has posted a summary of the findings on his Web site. Berman today called for Tomlinson's ouster.

Tom DeLay

Gov Perry Calls TX-22 Special Election

Paul Kiel | August 29, 2006, 4:13PM

As if the race for Tom DeLay's old seat weren't confusing enough already, what with a hyphenated Republican write-in candidate, now voters will also have the opportunity to elect a temporary representative to fill the empty seat from November through January. The elections (general and special) will take place the same day.

As a benefit of Gov. Rick Perry's move, voters will now see at least one ballot with the name of the official GOP candidate. Perry's spokesperson says they waited this long because of DeLay's legal wranglings.

The AP explains:

In the general election, Democrat Nick Lampson is the Democrat candidate, and Republicans have thrown their support behind Houston city councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs as a write-in candidate after the courts refused DeLay's efforts to remove his name from the ballot.

Because both elections are on the same day, there's a chance Lampson and Sekula-Gibbs could appear on both ballots. That means one of them could win both elections, taking over after the election and remaining in office for a two-year term starting in January.

NH Lawmaker Paid Teen Sons Thousands for Campaign Work

Justin Rood | August 29, 2006, 3:08PM

More on Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-NH), the wealthy conservative lawmaker whose pro-energy voting record complements his energy-heavy stock portfoilio.

Now, Harper's blog reports that he's paid two of his kids -- recent high school grads -- thousands of dollars to work on his campaign:

[Bradley paid] almost $27,000 in salary and expenses to two of his children, Sebastian and Noel, who served as field coordinators for his run for Congress in 2004. Not bad for five months' work by a couple of recent high school graduates. . . .

There aren't many Congressional campaigns that hire fresh-faced kids as field coordinators; in fact, college graduates frequently have to beg their way into unpaid campaign internships. But when it comes to positions on the Bradley campaign, it clearly helps to share the candidate's genetic material.

The Scoop on "Secret Holds": No Rules Apply

Justin Rood | August 29, 2006, 1:36PM

Some senator has put a "secret hold" on the Coburn/Obama bill that would create a user-friendly, public database of all government spending. By 1:20 p.m. today, 75 senators have responded to scores of emails and phone calls from bloggers and blog readers, stating they were not the ones who placed the hold.

The situation raises some questions. Who knows the identity of the secret holder? How is the holder's identity kept secret? And why is this practice even honored?

First things first: the holder's identity is known to the holder and to either Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) or Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and possibly a leader's secretary. It could be known by others, but according to practice a hold is placed merely by telling your party's Senate leader or secretary. That's the word from Don Ritchie, associate Senate historian. (Vice President Cheney, who is also the President of the Senate, cannot place a hold on a bill, Ritchie confirmed.)

Oddly, proponents of "secret holds" believe they're not a minor quirk of Senate procedure, but actually an important part of what keeps the Senate functioning, Ritchie told me. Despite this, the practice of honoring secret holds has no basis in law. It has no basis in Senate rules. And it has no basis in Senate precedents -- a byzantine collection of many hundreds of rules developed over time by lawmakers, collected and codified by the Senate parliamentarian.

In fact, the practice was briefly banished in 1997.

Read more »

Reform

Citizen Sleuthing: A Note on Methodology

Paul Kiel | August 29, 2006, 1:08PM

A number of readers have written in to ask if we're accepting equivocal denials from senators' staffers on the Secret Hold issue -- the answer is no. And we've gotten a lot of these.

TPMm Reader EF writes of her conversation with Sen. Domenici's (R-NM) office:

An assistant named Jacob said "As far as I know, he is not the one."

I protested that the statement left some wiggle room, and he was unwilling or unable to clarify.

And TPmm Reader SD:

I called Senator Bayh's office just now. A staffer named Ann answered. I asked if Bayh put the secret hold on the bill. To her credit she was aware of the bill's intent, but not the answer to my question. She put me on hold briefly, came back and said Bayh intended to vote for the bill and to quote directly "was a strong supporter of it". I pointed out that didn't address my question and said he could intend to vote for it and still be responsible for the secret hold. Again I was put on hold. She returned and said the Senator was not in the office to directly address the question. However a "senior staffer" told her to tell me in no uncertain terms he was a strong supporter of the bill, hoped for its passage and that was the only comment they could make at this time.

So they remain a suspect until their staffers can state as fact that the senator was not responsible for the hold.

Update: Bayh's spokesman has written in to categorically deny that Bayh was responsible for the hold.

Update: Domenici is also now a definitive no.

Top "Hedge Fund" Prober Gets $2.5M Buyout -- From Hedge Fund

Justin Rood | August 29, 2006, 11:14AM

Here's a fun one: the Bush Administration official leading a federal inquiry into so-called "hedge funds" stands to collect $2.5 million -- from a hedge fund he helped start.

Did we mention the review he's leading is an entirely closed-door affair?

Porkbuster Countdown: 59

Justin Rood | August 29, 2006, 8:30AM

It's day two, and the effort's still going strong!

The blogosphere (including, we're proud to say, a strong contingency of our own readers) has rounded up 59 denials from senators who say they did not place the "secret hold" on legislation to create a user-friendly public database of all government spending.

Check our tally regularly and see who's holding out -- and even make a couple calls.

Click here for more background on the issue.

Update: We're up to 68 now and are continuing to update our prior post with updates.

The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

pauljustin | August 29, 2006, 8:24AM

On YouTube, Charges of Security Flaws
Three weeks after insider publication NavyTimes reported it, the Washington Post savvies that a whistleblower posted a video claiming serious problems with Coast Guard patrol boats.

According to Michael DeKort, the boats made by his employer, Lockheed Martin, have blind spots in their surveillance systems, and other problems. The Coast Guard has asked YouTube to remove the video; as of yesterday, according to the Post, it's still available -- but less popular than a clip of a cat playing with a wheel. (WPost, Navy Times)

Read more »

Fake HUD Official Punk'd Louisiana Pols

Justin Rood | August 28, 2006, 5:55PM

A team of political hoaxers fooled New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco, and a thousand construction-industry members today.

Posing as fictitious senior HUD official Rene Oswin, Andy Bichlbaum -- a member of the Group the Yes Men -- promised big (and unlikely) changes in New Orleans to a privately-organized conference in Kenner, Louisiana. Among his expansive promises, according to CNN:

- Energy giants Exxon and Shell would spend $8.6 billion "to finance wetlands rebuilding from $60 billion in profits this year."

- Wal-Mart would withdraw its stores from poor neighborhoods and "help nurture local businesses to replace them."

- the federal government would spend $180 million to fund "at least one well-equipped public health clinic for every housing development."

- the feds would reverse plans to replace public schools with private and charter schools, and instead create a national tax base to supplement local taxes.

HUD quickly confirmed Oswin wasn't part of their agency. "This announcement is totally false; it's totally bogus," spokeswoman Donna White told CNN, who said no one named "Rene Oswin" works for the department. "I'm like, who the heck is that?"

Yes Man Mike Bonanno responded to an email from TPMmuckraker this afternoon asking whether his group was behind Oswin: "yes. Guilty as charged."

The Yes Men have been responsible for numerous political hoaxes in recent years, including the Halliburton SurvivaBall (to protect managers against rapid climate change), and a hamburger made from human waste (to solve the global hunger crisis). They were the subjects of a 2004 documentary, the Yes Men.

"It's really a sick, twisted -- I don't even want to refer to it as a joke," HUD spokeswoman White told CNN. "At this point, it's not funny."

Update: An earlier version of this story did was written before the Yes Men's involvement had been confirmed.

Late Update: CNN belatedly catches on to the joke.

Harper's: GOP Lawmaker Votes His Portfolio

Justin Rood | August 28, 2006, 2:25PM

Harper's blog profiles Rep. Joseph "Jeb" Bradley (R-NH), a reformed-hippie conservative whose vote history tracks closely with his investments:

Bradley has voted in a way that makes him look more like a stockholder than an elected representative. For example, he owns nearly $1 million in oil, gas and electric company stock and has taken over $45,000 in campaign contributions from energy industry PACs. Bradley has consistently voted with energy interests since taking office, often stripping key environmental and consumer protections in the process. It's a textbook case of why there should be some financial threshold at which it becomes mandatory for members of Congress to put their wealth in blind trusts.

Vote your wallet, indeed.

Reform

Blogosphere Unites in Pursuit of Masked Senator

Paul Kiel | August 28, 2006, 1:04PM

Who's trying to stop the government from telling its citizens where their tax dollars are being spent? Help find out.

Just before the August recess, the Senate was set to vote on a bill introduced by Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) that would create a public, searchable database of all federal grants and contracts. Envisioned as a Google-like website, it would provide free, immediate access the information, which can be alarmingly difficult to obtain.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed the measure July 27th, and S.2590 seemed to be speeding on its way to full Senate passage when, in the dark of night, an unknown Senator placed a "secret hold" on the bill. According to Senate courtesies, the bill will never come to a vote as long as the hold continues.

So who's the culprit?

Since he/she is unlikely to fess up, bloggers from the left and right have united in the effort of eliminating suspects one by one. The only way to do this is to call your Senator's offices up and get an answer. Over at Porkbuster.org, they're keeping a tally; 27 Senators have responded to readers and bloggers and said they weren't responsible for the hold. GOP Progress (via Wonkette) got that total up to 33.

We think TPM readers should get in on the act. If your Senator has yet to respond (see the Porkbusters tally), give his or her staff a call and politely ask if the Senator was the one who placed the secret hold. And let us know how it went (email us at comments (at) tpmmuckraker dot com).

Updates below the fold...

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Eyebrow Raised Over First Blackwater Contract

Justin Rood | August 28, 2006, 11:37AM

Most readers are familiar with the Blackwater Security company, mainly because it's the biggest mercenary security force in Iraq. Blackwater got an unwanted boost in name recognition in 2004, after it sent four of its men into the horrific Fallujah ambush driving an unarmored car. The image of the men's charred corpses hanging from a local bridge is now an icon of the early days of the U.S. occupation.

The company's reputation has been further tarnished by its taking $100 million more from the State Department than Foggy Bottom can justify. Oh -- and for clearing over $30 million more in taxpayer monies to "protect" FEMA rebuilding operations in New Orleans.

So how did the controversial company get its start? The old-fashioned way, a new book reports: by finagling a secret "no-bid" contract from a close friend in the CIA.

According to Robert Young Pelton, author of the forthcoming book, "Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror," Blackwater's first contract was a secret, no-bid $5 million deal with the CIA, with apparent assistance from the agency's #3 man, who was a family friend of Blackwater's founder. Pelton reports:

Buzzy Krongard had been appointed to the position of executive director of the CIA in March 2001. He had quite a few years of experience as advisor to the [CIA Director], but further back in his career he had been an investment banker, and it was in that capacity that he had first become acquainted with [Blackwater founder] Erik [Prince] and the Prince family fortune. . . .

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Globe: Bush Admin Shunts Military Lawyers Aside

Paul Kiel | August 28, 2006, 8:39AM

We'd be remiss if we didn't link to Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage's piece from Sunday on the Bush administration's (read, vice president Cheney's) ongoing struggle to subdue the military's autonomous Judge Advocate General (JAG) corps.

Cheney's failed attempts to bring the military lawyers under the thumb of the Pentagon's appointed civilian leadership date back to George H.W. Bush's administration, but the JAGs remain independent.

So, since the administration doesn't like the JAGs' advice, they're ignoring it -- as they have in the past (see: Abu Ghraib).

Most JAGs, Savage reports, oppose the use of secret evidence against detainees, and their "key request" of the new tribunal system that the administration is developing after the Supreme Court struck down the old system, is that detainees have the right to see the evidence against them. You might expect the administration to listen closely to the advice of the lawyers who will actually be carrying out the tribunals they're designing, but...

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The Daily Muck

The Daily Muck

pauljustin | August 28, 2006, 8:27AM

Homicide Charges Rare in Iraq War
"The majority of U.S. service members charged in the unlawful deaths of Iraqi civilians have been acquitted, found guilty of relatively minor offenses or given administrative punishments without trials, according to a Washington Post review of concluded military cases. Charges against some of the troops were dropped completely.

"Though experts estimate that thousands of Iraqi civilians have died at the hands of U.S. forces, only 39 service members were formally accused in connection with the deaths of 20 Iraqis from 2003 to early this year. . . .

"'We are indeed having trouble getting convictions and accountability, and so are other countries,' said Eugene R. Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice. 'It has struck me that the sentences are kind of modest.'" (WPost)

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Valerie Plame

Newsweek: Armitage Played Key Role In Plame Leak

Justin Rood | August 27, 2006, 11:06AM

"[Former secretary of state Richard] Armitage's central role as the primary source on [former undercover CIA officer Valerie] Plame is detailed for the first time in "Hubris," which recounts the leak case and the inside battles at the CIA and White House in the run-up to the war," Newsweek says this week, teasing an upcoming book co-authored by one of its star investigators, Michael Isikoff.

The book confirms that Armitage was one of the initial sources of the Plame leak, for both conservative columnist Robert Novak and the Washington Post's Bob Woodward. Last week, AP reported that Armitage met with Woodward in June, on the same day Woodward had said he spoke with a source about Plame's identity.

"The disclosures about Armitage, gleaned from interviews with colleagues, friends and lawyers directly involved in the case, underscore one of the ironies of the Plame investigation," Newsweek says:

that the initial leak, seized on by administration critics as evidence of how far the White House was willing to go to smear an opponent, came from a man who had no apparent intention of harming anyone.

Update: "Hubris" co-author David Corn has more.