Echoing Democrats, top House Republicans call for a criminal investigation into former Rep. Mark Foley's (R-FL) misdeeds. Roll Call (sub. req.) says federal investigators are on their way -- if they haven't started already.

Funny -- wasn't Hastert trying to keep the Feds out of his House just a few months ago? Will he revert to form if the FBI decides it isn't happy with the lack of thoroughness and impartiality in Hastert's own "internal review" showing the leader knew nozzing, nozzing of Foley's misdeeds?

Update: TPM Reader DK notes that the Justice Department is now saying there's no investigation, but the department has a "real interest" in checking it out.

Roll Call's John Bresnahan reports:

As of Saturday evening, nearly a dozen House GOP lawmakers and staffers have acknowledged that they knew of the initial batch of non-sexually explicit messages from Foley to a 16-year-old former House page, some of them for a year or more. These include [House Speaker Dennis] Hastert [(IL)]; Majority Leader John Boehner (Ohio); National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.); Reps. Rodney Alexander (La.) and John Shimkus (Ill.); Mike Stokke, the Speaker’s deputy chief of staff; Ted Van Der Meid, Hastert’s counsel; Paula Nowakowski, Boehner’s chief of staff; Jeff Trandahl, the former Clerk of the House; and another Hastert aide and Alexander’s chief of staff, according to public statements and GOP insiders.

As the icky-email scandal broke wide open, Mark Foley quickly resigned his House seat. But he's left some big questions behind. Foremost among them: It looks like his activities were known by others, including leaders in his party, for months before they became public --so why didn't they do anything?

The AP brings new details about how senior Republicans received the news months ago that one of their own appeared to be soliciting a minor, and apparently did little to intervene. But even these details raise more questions than they answer:

Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., who sponsored the page from his district, told reporters that he learned of the e-mails from a reporter some months ago and passed on the information to Rep. Thomas Reynolds, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Republican campaign organization [the National Republican Congressional Committee].

Alexander said he did not pursue the matter further because "his parents said they didn't want me to do anything."

Carl Forti, a spokesman for the GOP campaign organization, said Reynolds learned from Alexander that the parents did not want to pursue the matter. Forti said, however, that the matter did go before the House Page Board -- the three lawmakers and two House officials who oversee the pages.

Why would Alexander go to the head of the NRCC? Did anyone tell House leadership? Clearly, no one reported the exchanges to the Department of Justice -- as Foley's own laws would have required, if circumstances had been slightly different. Did anyone take internal disciplinary action? And, the biggest question of all: if others knew and did nothing -- how can they assure parents of current and future pages that nothing like this is going on now?

Update: Josh notes on TPM that a different story quotes Alexander saying he told "House leadership" -- a very different thing from the NRCC.

In addition to being a dirty middle-aged man, former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL), the Icky Emailer, is also a hypocrite, co-chairing the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus, introducing bills and generally identifying himself as anti-child-sexploitation.

He may also be a criminal, thanks to laws he got passed to expand the definitions of child sex offenses using the internet, ABC now says.

And his proclivities may have been known about, but covered up. One former page told ABC News that his class "was warned about Foley by people involved in the program."

In addition to the emails revealed yesterday, Foley also engaged in online chatting with teenage boys in the congressional page program. ABC has published some of the cleaner exchanges between Foley and former pages. See them -- after the jump.

Read more »

Until his abrupt resignation today, Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) was the clear favorite to win reelection this November to represent Florida's 16th district.

That creates a headache for the Florida Republicans. According to state law, they can pick a new candidate -- but Foley's name will stay on the ballot. Here's the relevant statute:

In the event that death, resignation, withdrawal, removal, or any other cause or event should cause a party to have a vacancy in nomination which leaves no candidate for an office from such party, the Department of State shall notify the chair of the appropriate state, district, or county political party executive committee of such party; and, within 5 days, the chair shall call a meeting of his or her executive committee to consider designation of a nominee to fill the vacancy.... If the name of the new nominee is submitted after the certification of results of the preceding primary election, however, the ballots shall not be changed and the former party nominee's name will appear on the ballot. Any ballots cast for the former party nominee will be counted for the person designated by the political party to replace the former party nominee. [my emphasis]

Thanks to TPMm Reader DB.

Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) just resigned from Congress, ABC reports. Apparently, in addition to his not-quite-gross-but-certainly-inappropriate emails revealed yesterday, ABC had obtained "excerpts of instant messages provided by former pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts."

"A spokesman for Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, said the congressman submitted his resignation in a letter late this afternoon to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert," ABC reports, promising the full story on tonight's evening news.

Update: Foley has released the following statement:

"Today I have delivered a letter to the Speaker of the House informing him of my decision to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives, effective today. I thank the people of Florida's 16th Congressional District for giving me the opportunity to serve them for the last twelve years; it has been an honor. I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent."

Although the White House succeeded in getting its detainee treatment bill through Congress, it failed to win support for its other "must-pass" proposal, one that would provide legal cover for its dubious warrantless wiretapping program.

The House yesterday passed an NSA surveillance bill, but it is so different from the legislation considered by the Senate that, even if the upper body were to pass their version before recess, nobody thinks they could negotiate a compromise before leaving town.

Reports of the legislative effort's demise may have been premature, but they were borne out by events. "Leaders concede that differences between the versions are so significant they cannot reconcile them into a final bill that can be delivered to Bush before the Nov. 7 congressional elections," the Washington Post noted this morning.

Democrats haven't crowed about the defeat, largely (I suspect) because they didn't have anything to do with it. Conflicts within the GOP led to the bills going off-track.

A few weeks ago, a federal judge ruled the program unconstitutional, but has allowed it to continue for a short period pending an appeal from the government.

RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman did so many favors for Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist's team viewed him as a "rock star."

In an email exchange from November 2001 (you can see it here), Abramoff associate Tony Rudy writes Abramoff, "Mehlman said he would 'take care of this.' He was a rock star." Abramoff replies: "He's great."

The two were referring to Mehlman's agreement to get Abramoff's client the Mississippi Choctaw millions in federal funds to build a new jail -- but Mehlman, who had Sabbath dinner at Abramoff's house and visited his restaurant Signatures, did more than that to gain rock star status.

In a January 2001 email (posted here), Rudy reports that Mehlman had agreed to get an Abramoff foe "fired" at the State Department. The House Report details other instances of Mehlman's help, such as providing Abramoff with a White House endorsement for Republican candidates close to Abramoff on Guam; and making sure that a Republican running in the Northern Mariana Islands did not get an endorsement in the governor's race there, since he was opposing Abramoff crony Ben Fitial.

The Washington Post reveals a tidbit from Bob Woodward's new book:

Last May. . . the intelligence division of the Joint Chiefs of Staff circulated a secret intelligence estimate predicting that violence will not only continue for the rest of this year in Iraq but increase in 2007.

"Insurgents and terrorists retain the resources and capabilities to sustain and even increase current level of violence through the next year," said the report, which was distributed to the White House, State Department and other intelligence agencies.

The report presented a similarly bleak assessment of oil production, electricity generation and the political situation in Iraq.

Why has the White House failed to share this kind of information with the public? Is it because the Joint Chiefs of Staff tend to "slap together" these reports during the course of an "all-nighter," for their own partisan "political reasons"?

With President Bush poised to sign the White House-backed detainee treatment bill into law, groups are promising to challenge it in court "in days."

“I don’t think there’s a snowball’s chance in ‘H’ that this will be found constitutional,” Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told Congressional Quarterly (sub. req.). CCR represents a number of Guantanamo prisoners.

Strangely, some senators who voted for the bill weren't convinced of its constitutionality. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who voted for the bill even after his amendment to preserve certain rights for detainees was defeated, called the proposal "patently unconstitutional on its face," The Washington Post reported. When CQ asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who negotiated with the White House to win minor concessions on the legislation, if the bill was constitutional, he responded "I think so."

The House Government Reform Committee has released hundreds of new emails from Jack Abramoff's lobbying firm pertaining to his and his associates' contacts with Administration officials.

We're scouring them now, and here's a good one. In an email exchange subject-lined "were you able to whack mccain's wife yet?" Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff discuss derailing the nomination of a woman named Angela Williams to an Interior post.

Williams was up for head of the Office of Insular Affairs in the Department of the Interior, which has authority over decisions affecting the Northern Mariana Islands, an Abramoff client.

With the White House's help, Abramoff's effort was successful. Ralph Reed emailed Abramoff, "talked to rove about this and I think I killed it." You can see the exchange here.

"Williams is married to former Federal Trade Commissioner Orson Swindle, who was a Vietnam POW with Senator John McCain," according to Time.

There's already a lot of evidence out there that Ken Mehlman was Jack Abramoff's prime favor man in the White House -- but this new congressional report provides the most damning example yet.

From The Washington Post:

One exchange of e-mails cited in the report suggests that former Abramoff lobbying team member Tony C. Rudy succeeded in getting Mehlman to press reluctant Justice Department appointees to release millions of dollars in congressionally earmarked funds for a new jail for the Mississippi Choctaw tribe, an Abramoff client. Rudy wrote Abramoff in November 2001 e-mails that Mehlman said he would "take care of" the funding holdup at Justice after learning from Rudy that the tribe made large donations to the GOP.

So in exchange for political contributions, Mehlman made sure the Choctaw got their $16 million contract. I believe that's called a quid pro quo.

It's by no means the only example of Mehlman's favors.

In 2001, he made sure a State Department official wasn't re-nominated for his post -- the official, Allen Stayman was a long-time foe of Abramoff's.

And according to a report from the Justice Department's Inspector General, Mehlman ordered one of his suboordinates at the White House to keep Abramoff updated on issues related to Guam; Abramoff was keen to see the U.S. Attorney there replaced.

In March, Mehlman told Vanity Fair, "Abramoff is someone who we don't know a lot about. We know what we read in the paper."

Menendez Denies Involvement in Pressuring Pyschiatrist to Hire Physician As "Favor"
"U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's [D-NJ] closest political adviser was secretly recorded seven years ago boasting of political power and urging a Hudson County contractor to hire someone as a favor to Menendez, according to a transcript obtained by The Star-Ledger.

"Menendez's campaign said last night he had severed his ties with the adviser, Donald Scarinci, after learning of the taped conversation. The two men were childhood friends and Scarinci, a prominent attorney with extensive contracts in state and local governments, has been a key fundraiser for the senator throughout his long political career.

"Scarinci was recorded in 1999 by Oscar Sandoval, a Union City psychiatrist who had contracts with the county jail and hospital in Hudson County, according to two people familiar with the tapes who requested anonymity because the recordings are evidence in a pending lawsuit.

"A transcript of the recorded telephone conversation was obtained by The Star-Ledger and verified by the two sources. In it, Scarinci urged Sandoval to hire another physician, Vincente Ruiz, telling him: 'Menendez will consider that a favor.'(New Jersey Star-Ledger)

Read more »

The New York Times follows right behind Roll Call with details from an unreleased bipartisan congressional report on Jack Abramoff and the White House. The paper gives more details on the Karl Rove-Jack Abramoff relationship:

In October 2001, the report said, Mr. Abramoff asked the White House to withhold an endorsement from a Republican candidate for governor of the Northern Marianas Islands, an American commonwealth in the western Pacific where Mr. Abramoff had clients; Mr. Abramoff was backing another candidate.

On Oct. 31, 2001, the report said, [Rove assistant and former Abramoff employee Susan] Ralson sent an e-mail message to Mr. Abramoff that read: “You win :) KR said no endorsement.”

In March 2002, the report said, Mr. Abramoff contacted Ms. Ralson to offer tickets to Mr. Rove and his family for use of a skybox during the N.C.A.A. tournament at the MCI Center in Washington.

“Hi Susan,” Mr. Abramoff wrote in an e-mail message. "I just saw Karl and mentioned the N.C.A.A. opportunity, which he was really jazzed about. If he wants to join us in the Pollin box, please let me know as soon as you can.”

Ms. Ralston replied: “Karl is interested in Fri. and Sun. 3 tickets for his family?”

Mr. Abramoff responded: “Done. Does he want to go Friday night or Friday afternoon or both?” The report said that Mr. Rove offered to pay for the tickets, prompting Mr. Abramoff to propose that Mr. Rove pay $50 per ticket “payable to me personally.”

More, after the jump.

Read more »

The New York Times reports:

The Senate on Thursday endorsed President Bush's plans to prosecute and interrogate terror suspects, all but sealing congressional approval for legislation that Republicans intend to use on the campaign trail to assert their toughness on terrorism.

The 65-34 vote means the bill could reach the president's desk by week's end. The House passed nearly identical legislation on Wednesday and was expected to approve the Senate bill on Friday, sending it on to the White House.

Twelve Dems crossed the aisle to vote with the GOP majority; only one Republican, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), voted with the remaining Dems. Here's the roll call vote.

More of Kane-and-Bresnahan's reporting from Roll Call (sub. req.):

During the period examined by the committee, Bush administration officials repeatedly intervened on behalf of Abramoff¹s clients, including helping a Mississippi Indian tribe obtain $16 million in federal funds for a jail the tribe wanted to build.

Abramoff was able to block the nomination of one Interior Department official using Christian conservative Ralph Reed as a go-between with Rove, according to e-mails between Abramoff and Reed.

Abramoff also tried to oust a State Department employee who interfered with their efforts on behalf of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, one of Abramoff¹s most lucrative clients.

The White House responds to the charges:

"The billing records that are the basis of this report are widely regarded as fraudulent in how they misrepresented the activities and influence of Abramoff," [White House spokeswoman Dana] Perino said. "There's no reason those records should be suddenly viewed as credible." Perino added that she was unaware of any link between Abramoff¹s lobbying and White House intervention in policy or personnel matters affecting his clients. "Not that I'm aware of as a result of a direct contact," Perino said.

Perino did not specifically address whether White House officials ever accepted meals or tickets from Abramoff. "We have high standards and expect them to be met," she said.

Roll Call's John Bresnahan and Paul Kane reports (sub. req.):

Hundreds of contacts between top White House officials and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates "raise serious questions about the legality and actions" of those officials, according to a draft bipartisan report prepared by the House Government Reform Committee.

The 95-page report, which White House officials reviewed Wednesday evening but has yet to be formally approved by the panel, singled out two of President Bush¹s top lieutenants, Karl Rove and Ken Mehlman, as having been offered expensive meals and exclusive tickets to premier sporting events and concerts by Abramoff and his associates.

In total, the committee was able to document 485 contacts between White House officials and Abramoff and his lobbying team at the firm Greenberg Traurig from January 2001 to March 2004, with 82 of those contacts occuring in Rove's office, including 10 with Rove personally. The panel also said that Abramoff billed his clients nearly $25,000 for meals and drinks with these officials during that period.

Developing. . .

Government Executive's Kimberly Palmer reports that the former Abramoff golfing buddy could get a bad bump for "obstructing justice" during his trial:

David Safavian, the former head of the Office of Management and Budget's procurement policy shop convicted in June of obstructing justice and making false statements, has been granted a delay in his sentencing.

The sentencing was originally scheduled for Oct. 12, but will be moved to Oct. 27. Safavian was convicted on three counts of making false statements and one count of obstructing an investigation. The case revolved around his dealings with former lobbyist Jack Abramoff while Safavian was at the General Services Administration, where he served as chief of staff.

Prosecutors apparently are seeking a two-point sentence enhancement -- which would add to the recommended prison time -- by arguing that Safavian obstructed justice during his trial. Safavian testified at his trial that he did not lie, make false statements, or obstruct an investigation, but the jury found him guilty of doing those things.

There's no doubt about it: Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson is a machine politician -- it just seems that something always got stuck in the gears. And that might be the only thing that saves him from a criminal investigation.

A recent report from the HUD Inspector General found that Jackson repeatedly told his deputies that they should favor supporters of the President when awarding contracts. New revelations from the report show that Jackson himself admitted to investigators that political affiliation was a factor: "I’m not going to go out of my way to help somebody who’s castigating the President…Now, if that’s my bias, I have it."

But the IG seems to have found "no direct proof" that a contract was actually awarded or rescinded because of political affiliation.

"I think they saved his butt," said Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor and Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, referring to Jackson's suboordinates. If it turns out they just listened to his windbag speeches about helping Bush supporters, but then went off and did their jobs, Jackson may be off the hook. "However, it’s totally unethical and the guy ought to be fired," she added.

Put on your protective eyewear and rubber gloves.

A sixteen-year-old former page to the House of Representatives shared with Hill staff emails sent to him from Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL), in which the lawmaker asks inappropriate questions of him. They've since shown up on Web sites. ABC News reports:

In the series of e-mails, obtained by ABC News, between the page and Rep. Foley (R-FL), Foley asks the page how old he is, what he wants for his birthday and requests a photo of him. . . .

Congressman Mark Foley's office says the e-mails were entirely appropriate and that their release is part of a smear campaign by his opponent.

You can read some of the emails here, here and here.

The page characterized one of the emails as "sick sick sick sick sick."

What makes this story a) more depressing, b) more ironic, c) reaffirming of one's cynicisms is that Foley has made a name for himself as an advocate of children. "Mark strongly believes that our children are the key to the nation’s future," his Web site notes. The congressman has consistently pushed for stricter laws to track and punish child molesters and child pornographers. He hasn't yet pushed for a bill outlawing icky emails to young former subordinates, however.

Foley has served in the House for twelve years. He ran for Senate in 2004, but dropped out of the race, in the words of the Hotline, "after being ID'd as a homosexual by a 'gay-oriented publication.'" Foley says he left the race "because of family difficulties."

Update: Foley's opponent has called for an investigation, noting, "It is our understanding that a complaint was filed by the alleged victim, and that complaint should be fully investigated." Foley's office told ABC that "there is no official investigation into the matter and that Foley is only guilty of being friendly."

Jeanine "Love Bug" Pirro, GOP candidate for New York Attorney General, is under investigation for trying to spy on her husband, as we noted yesterday.

But she's fightin' the law! And she wants attorney general Alberto Gonzales to help her, says WCBS-TV (NY) News:

"I am calling on U.S. attorney [general], Alberto Gonzalez [sic], to begin an immediate investigation and appoint a special prosecutor to get Elliot Jacobson off his witch hunt," Pirro told the New York Hispanic Clergy Association in the Bronx. "There needs to be a federal investigation of the felony of leaking sealed court documents."

So she does have a working knowledge of the law after all.

Over the last two days, the Senate has been considering a bill that, just about everyone can agree, is of singular importance.

The Senate has allotted itself ten hours of debate to consider the bill and five amendments offered for it.

Compare that to the three days of debate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) provided in June, to consider the Marriage Protection Amendment (and even after that, the amendment failed). At the time, Democrats complained that Frist was eating up precious floor time with a political stunt.

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), one of the main backers of measure, objected: "If it was purely politics, let me assure you we'd be debating this in September."

"This is -- you don't pull an all-nighter. It's not like a college term paper that you slap together," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters today, trying to brush off nagging questions about why it's taking so damn long for the administration to assemble an intelligence report on the situation in Iraq.

Snow incorrectly noted that the Director of National Intelligence "just started [the report] a month ago." In fact, DNI John Negroponte announced his effort on Aug. 4, exactly eight weeks from tomorrow. That's an awfully long month, isn't it?

He also batted away the notion that "the Director of National Intelligence for political reasons is going to rush into completion something that requires significant deliberation."

Snow did not explain why the White House believed that "political reasons" are apparently the only reason one might accelerate such a review. With Iraq mired in bloody sectarian violence and poised precipitously on the brink of collapse, some might think an immediate focus on reversing the situation would be cause for getting on that study pronto.

Snow conceded that various intelligence agencies have closely studied the unfolding situation in Iraq, but claimed that they disagree widely on their conclusions. "They have plenty of material to work from, but what you also try to do is you look at disparate analyses and data from a wide variety of intelligence sources," said Snow. "And it takes time for people to work through and look at what they're doing."

However, a new story in Newsweek contradicts Snow. "In secret papers and briefings over the last 18 months, intelligence professionals have repeatedly portrayed a bleak picture in which disorder in Iraq appears to be growing rather than receding," write Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff. Doesn't sound like much disagreement there.

Read the exchange, after the jump.

Read more »

The Senate just killed an amendment to ensure federal courts could review the legitimacy of individual' imprisonment on suspicion of involvement in terrorism. The amendment had been proposed by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It is a fundamental protection woven into the fabric of our Nation," said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who supported the measure. It was defeated 48-51, largely along party lines.

Former torture victim Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), portrayed as a "maverick" by earlier bucking the White House on the issue of detainee treatment, voted against the amendment. The White House also opposes the changes the amendment would make to the bill. Sens. John Warner (R-VA) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who had also challenged the White House over the bill, joined McCain in voting against the amendment.

The Senate is expected to vote on -- and pass -- the entire bill later today.

Update: The recorded vote of each senator on this amendment can be found here.

The House yesterday passed its version of the White House-backed detainee treatment bill on a 253-168 vote. Perhaps surprisingly, 34 Democrats voted for the measure, while seven Republicans voted against it. Twelve didn't vote at all.

How did your representative vote? You can check here.

Yesterday, the House passed the "compromise" legislation on torture and detainee trials (with a little Democratic help), and now the bill seems set to sail through the Senate as well.

Minority Leader Harry Reid's (D-NV) office told me that the three remaining amendments on the bill --- including Sen. Arlen Specter's (R-PA), which would provide Guantanamo Bay detainees with the right to have a federal court hearing challenging their incarceration -- will be voted on throughout the remainder of the day. The final vote is likely to take place this evening, a Reid aide said. The only really close vote is likely to be Specter's amendment. We'll keep you updated.

House Suspends Crooked Ney Telecom Contract
"House leaders have suspended a multimillion-dollar wireless communications license that federal prosecutors say was corruptly awarded to a Dulles telecommunications firm by Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) in exchange for gifts from lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"The award of the license was one of a series of acts that Ney said he performed for Abramoff in exchange for campaign contributions, expensive meals, luxury travel and sports tickets. Ney agreed this month to plead guilty to corruption charges and is set to enter his plea Oct. 13. (WaPo)

Read more »

Newsweek's Mark Hosenball and Mike Isikoff say the Iraq NIE is barely begun:

At the time the Iraq study was first proposed, intelligence sources said there was some pressure on agencies to produce the paper so it would be available before the November congressional elections—even if its contents remained classified, as is customary with such documents.

But as of this week, one official said, Negroponte's office was still exchanging messages with the agencies working on the paper about the document's "terms of reference"—the broad outlines of questions which the new estimate is expected to answer. Given that its structure has still not been agreed, the likelihood of the Iraq paper being completed before the midterm elections has become remote; officials now are talking about finishing it by next January. . . .

Like the newly released NIE on terrorism, the upcoming intelligence estimate on Iraq is likely to contrast with public pronouncements of progress from the White House. In secret papers and briefings over the last 18 months, intelligence professionals have repeatedly portrayed a bleak picture in which disorder in Iraq appears to be growing rather than receding.

They also warn that there's another dangerous report that's in the wings: an "up-to-date assessment of the progress—or lack thereof—that the government of Iran is making in its alleged efforts to develop nuclear weapons." No word on its status.

Boy, it's been a rough year for Jeanine Pirro. First her fledging challenge to Sen. Hilary Clinton (D-NY) exploded after the worst campaign launch ever.

Now she's under federal investigation for plotting -- with onetime NYPD chief, former Iraq security head, would-be DHS secretary and crook Bernard Kerik -- to illegally spy on her own husband. (Come to think of it, it hasn't been a great year for Kerik, either). Oh, did I mention that their conversations were recorded?

Sources told NewsChannel 4 that in one conversation, Pirro allegedly complained that one of Kerik's employees is reluctant to board Albert Pirro's boat.

Jeanine Pirro suggests, "We can just simply say, if there is an issue, that I am redecorating it for our anniversary.” She complains that Kerik’s man is, “uncomfortable with that.”

Kerik responds by saying, “But Janine, I’m having the same f------g problem with everybody… everybody is panic stricken because it’s you… I’ve gone out on a limb… I had two other people looking at this… it’s a problem.”

Pirro says, “What am I supposed to do, Bernie? Watch him f--k her every night? What am I supposed to do?… I can go on the boat, I’ll put the f-----g thing on myself.”

Minutes later, Kerik apparently calls a contact at Giuliani Partners, former mayor Rudy Giuliani’s consulting firm, asking him to find a recording device.

The conversations were recorded because Kerik’s phone was tapped in 2005, as part of an unrelated corruption probe. He ultimately pled guilty.

Here's the latest on the White House's "must-pass" terrorism bills: The Bush-backed legislation to authorize warrantless NSA wiretapping is just about dead -- unless it gets last-minute CPR, say NYTimes, AP.

The detainee treatment bill, a.k.a. the torture "compromise," looks likely to move, however. The Senate has allotted 10 hours of debate for the measure -- seven hours to discuss five separate amendments, and three hours to debate the bill itself. Observers say a vote on the measure is likely to come tomorrow, but you never know: once the sun goes down on Capitol Hilll, anything can happen.

Starting about four weeks ago, Paige Barnes said she started getting "tons of calls a day," sometimes between ten and twenty, from angry West Virginians and Iowans, demanding that her company stop bombarding them with political calls. These people told her that the calls had been coming from "AETR, Inc." at the number (571) 522-6400.

She told them she had nothing to do with them and couldn't understand why her company's name would show up on the caller ID. That wasn't her company's number. When she tried calling that number, the call wouldn't go through. "I got really upset," she said.

She didn't know it, but Barnes was the latest victim of the GOP's newest, biggest attack machine, the innocuously-named Economic Freedom Fund.

Without her knowledge or consent, a "robo calling" firm appears to have used Barnes' company name to make thousands of negative campaign calls for EFF, attacking Democratic congressional candidates. Published reports confirm that EFF calls have gone out under "AETR, Inc." Such caller ID "spoofing," as the practice is known, may violate FCC rules.

Read more »

Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) kicked up some dust yesterday morning whe she announced she'd "learned" that there was a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq "that has been left in draft form" because "some of our leaders don't want us to see it until after the election."

The NIE, it seems, was never a big secret; after Democrats bellowed for one in late July, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte announced Aug. 4 he'd whip one up.

And there's scant evidence the report exists "in draft form" -- Harman may have an inside track on the matter, but sources tell me the process remains in a nascent stage.

But is the report being slow-walked? That appears to be somewhere between possible and very likely.

Read more »

It's starting to look like Rep. Jane Harman's (D-CA) second "secret" Iraq report is one that has been long promised by the Bush administration's top security official.

A quick recap: Amid the ruckus stirred up by reports of a secret report on Iraq and its impact on U.S. counterterrorism efforts, Harman announced yesterday morning that the Bush administration was withholding a second classified report, this one about the state of Iraq.

An ongoing effort to produce a National Intelligence Estimate -- a conclusive report from the entire intelligence community -- on Iraq has been extensively reported. Following an article by Ken Silverstein at Harpers.org in late July about the lack of an up-to-date intel assessment of the country, Democratic lawmakers slipped a provision into a bill that required Negroponte to produce an NIE on Iraq.

On Aug. 4, Negroponte announced he was ordering the report to be produced.

It appears this is the report Harman was talking about. Yesterday evening, White House adviser Fran Townsend acknowledged Harman's request by saying Negroponte had ordered the report in August, implying the two were the same. The report would take several months, she said, and would likely not be ready until January. In a letter today, Harman responded to Townsend's comments to say the timeline was unacceptable.

The entirety of Harman's letter after the jump:

Read more »

From last evening's briefing with Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend:

Q ... Jane Harman said today at The National Press Club that the administration is deliberately stalling on another intelligence assessment, this one solely about Iraq, because you don't want things -- you don't want it out before the election. I wanted your reaction to that....

MS. TOWNSEND: .... Let me talk for a moment about your question on Jane Harman. Look, I've had the pleasure of working with her on a number of intelligence reform issues. But I will say to you, we should be clear that the DNI agreed to begin preparing an updated NIE on Iraq. If I recall correctly, I believe that was back in August. Obviously, most NIEs are substantial research and writing projects that can take as much as a year. He agreed to try and have this thing done in -- somewhere in -- something, four to six months, or so, because it requires grasping and coordination throughout the intelligence community.

My understanding is the planned release date, given the work that must be done to have it be comprehensive and complete, is January of '07. But I will tell you, that's still quicker than most NIEs get done. The timing has got nothing to do with the election.

More soon. (via ThinkProgress)

From The Washington Post:

Copies of the NIE were sent to the House and Senate intelligence, armed services and foreign affairs committees at the time [late April], through normal electronic information channels available to all members, intelligence and congressional sources said. It arrived at the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on April 26.

In the House, "there was a bit of a snafu with this particular document," said a spokesman for Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the intelligence committee chairman. "We had a massive computer failure on our classified side." The first that the committee knew of its existence was late last week, when "it was requested specifically by a member. That was when it was found and scanned into our system."

A bit of a snafu?

Scandals May Hurt GOP Candidates in Ohio
"Joy Padgett, the GOP's new congressional candidate in Ohio, has been in a jam when it comes to finding a big-name Republican who could come to town and bring more than trouble.

"Gov. Bob Taft? He was convicted of illegally accepting gifts. GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell? He is getting trounced in the polls. Bob Ney, the current congressman? He admitted taking bribes and then checked himself in for alcohol rehabilitation"....

"A poll released this week by the Columbus Dispatch indicated Democrats could sweep races for U.S. Senate as well as Ohio governor, auditor, treasurer and secretary of state. This would be a remarkable turnaround after 16 years in which Republicans have enjoyed uninterrupted control of the governorship and dominated most statewide races." (WaPo)

Read more »

You can read the declassified key judgments of the National Intelligence Estimate “"Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States," here.

From the AP:

Congress is unlikely to approve a bill giving President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program legal status and new restrictions before the November midterm elections, dealing a significant blow to one of the White House's top wartime priorities.

House and Senate versions of the legislation differ too much to bridge the gap by week's end, when Congress recesses until after the Nov. 7 elections, according to two GOP leadership aides who demanded anonymity because the decision had not yet been announced.

Today, President Bush finally signed the Coburn-Obama database bill into law. A handful of large blogs from across the political spectrum, aided by hundreds of readers, banded together to push for the bill's passage, which will create a searchable website of federal grants, loans and contracts.

But when the bill arrived on the President's desk, he saw fit to invite bloggers who are reliably conservative.

Somehow our invitation got lost in the mail. I think that means only one side of that inspriring blog union got to meet the President. Unless Wonkette... no.

It was an oversight, no doubt.

As reported here earlier, here are Rep. Jane Harman's (D-CA) comments this morning about this second secret Iraq report, from CQ Transcriptions:

"I have also learned that there is a [National Intelligence Estimate] on Iraq -- specifically on Iraq -- that has been left in draft form at the National Intelligence Council. That is because some of our leaders don't want us to see it until after the election. It should be clear five years after 9/11 that we need accurate and actionable intelligence -- actionable in real time -- and we need our leaders to read that intelligence and cite it accurately. Sadly, we're doing better on the first piece; we're not doing better on the second piece."

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is introducing a measure that would force a House vote on whether or not to require the Bush administration to release controversial secret reports by the intelligence community on Iraq and terrorism.

The measure would call for the release of both the secret April 2006 report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, that is said to conclude the Iraq war has increased the danger of terrorism, as well as a separate classified report on the state of Iraq first mentioned by Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) in comments this morning.

Conyers' measure, a "resolution of inquiry," would require a full vote of the House within 14 legislative days of its introduction. While the resolution cannot be waylaid, the House leadership determines when during those two weeks it is raised. So a vote seems unlikely before the end of the week, when Congress will go into recess until after the November elections. The resolution has no guarantee of passage, however it forces all members to take a public position on the issue. (More details on resolutions of inquiry here.)

"The President needs to declassify and release both reports immediately," Conyers said in a statement e-mailed to TPMmuckraker.com. "The American people deserve to know the whole truth."

CNN reports:

An angry President Bush Tuesday said he would declassify an intelligence document that reportedly finds that the Iraq war increased the terrorist threat to the United States, saying the American people should come to their own conclusions.

The president said the media accounts of the report "create confusion in the minds" of Americans and suggested that the report had been leaked for political purposes.

There's a second damning Iraq report floating around the intelligence community.

At least, that's according to Rep. Jane Harman (CA), the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee. At an event this morning, Harman disclosed the existence of a classified intelligence community report that gives a grim assessment of the situation in Iraq, and called for it to be shared with the American public -- before the November elections.

The report has not been shared with Congress, although sources say a draft version may have circulated earlier this summer. It is a separate report from the one revealed by major news outlets Sunday, which is said to conclude that the war in Iraq has made the U.S. less secure from terrorist threats.

"This morning at the National Press Club, Jane Harman did say that there is an [National Intelligence Estimate] on Iraq," her spokesman, Ari Goldberg, confirmed. Golberg said he had not read the report, but believes it may be grim. Sources at the event say the document is not officially an NIE, although it was prepared by the National Intelligence Council, an community-wide intelligence body whose primary function is to prepare NIEs.

Dr. Lawrence Korb, a former senior Defense Department official now with the liberal-progressive Center for American Progress, hasn't seen the report but has discussed it with those who have. "It's a very bleak picture of what's going on in Iraq," he said.

Harman called for the White House to share a classified version of the report with Congress -- and to release a declassified version of the document to the American public, prior to the November elections.

Democratic sources on the Hill confirmed that the report has been a topic of discussion, particularly because of concerns that its release was being "intentionally slowed" by the administration. Attendees at the National Press Club event where Harman spoke -- a rollout for a new Democratic defense/intelligence policy group called the National Security Network -- characterized Harman saying the reported was "languishing" under wraps.

In late July, Democratic lawmakers requested the intelligence community to write a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, noting that such a report had not been done in over two years. The Democratic sources say this NIE was prepared separate from that effort. The NIE Harman is asking for "sounds a hell of a lot more complete" than the report being worked on at Congress' request, said one.

Congressional Quarterly reports (sub. req.):

[N]ow that the Republicans have worked out a deal on detainees, Democrats are not planning any organized effort to filibuster the deal in the Senate, even though they may not agree with some of the specifics in the legislation.

With just a few days left before the election recess, Democratic aides say they are not going to give Republicans an opportunity to paint them into a corner.

“We’re going to do what we can to limit the amount of daylight between us and them on national security issues in order to neutralize this as a political issue,” a senior Democratic aide said.

. . . Because it's worked so many times before?

The state of play is chaotic on both the legislation legalizing the NSA warrantless wiretapping, as well as that which would legalize programs to detain, interrogate and prosecute terror suspects, also known as the torture "compromise."

The Senate has a tentative vote scheduled on a standalone "compromise" bill today, although the same language is in a bill which is combined with the language of the White House NSA bill.

To make matters more complicated, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) offered the "compromise" language as an amendment to an anti-immigration measure, that would build a giant fence along the U.S.-Mexican border, CQ reports. No word on what happened to that effort.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) has said he would offer an amendment to the detainee bill that would allow suspects the right to appeal their detention, but said he wouldn't hold up the bill to do so.

We've long observed how Rep. Katherine Harris (R-FL) has succeeded in setting fire to her own political ambitions. But speculation is growing that she could cause casualties beyond her own Senate dreams.

Harris has trailed by as many as 30 percentage points behind incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D). Although we note with admiration that she has recently trimmed his lead to a mere 18 points now, no one outside the Harris campaign expects the gap to disappear -- or switch to Harris' favor.

Now the New York Times reports that Harris may claim casualties beyond herself. The House seat she gave up to run for Senate, once a sure thing for Republicans, is now in danger of falling into Democratic hands.

Read more »

Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) this morning will ask for a briefing on the April 2006 Iraq National Intelligence Estimate from Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte.

The "estimate," a document representing the official opinion of the entire U.S. intelligence apparatus, reportedly concludes that the invasion and occupation of Iraq has made the United States less secure by increasing the danger of terrorist attacks.

A press release on the announcement says they will also "discuss statements made by Vice President Cheney and other Administration officials that appear to be misleading given the revelation in the April NIE as described by press accounts."

Press release after the jump.

Read more »

In Alaska, FBI Gets More Evidence Against Senator and Son
"FBI agents returned last week to the legislative office of Senate President Ben Stevens and seized more evidence, including a copy of a sworn statement that implicated Stevens in an alleged payment scheme involving fisheries legislation brought by his father, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens.

"Word of the second search, and what was taken by the FBI, came from Ben Stevens himself, who disclosed the information in a letter to the Daily News dated Sept. 22. In his letter, Stevens denied a request by the newspaper for a copy of any FBI search warrants which may have been served on him or his office, and the government's receipts for items seized. But Stevens provided what he said was a "complete listing of what was obtained from my legislative offices" on Aug. 31 and Sept. 18." (Anchorage Daily News)

Read more »

What's the best way to avoid bad news? Don't read it.

"I haven't read it," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) said yesterday when asked his opinion of the once-secret April 2006 National Intelligence Estimate. News accounts say the document concluded the Iraq war had made the United States less safe, not more secure.

His excuse -- the document was classified -- is a little shaky. Frist is a member of the "Gang of Eight," a group of top lawmakers who are briefed into the darkest secrets of American intelligence. What's more, a draft copy of the NIE is alleged to have floated through certain congressional offices several months ago.

He's not the only one with a selective aversion to the written word. Remember Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' recent misstatements on Maher Arar?

Read more »

The Senate Judiciary Committee today held a hearing on whether detainees in U.S. custody should have the right to challenge the grounds of their imprisonment -- also known as "habeas" rights.

One witness in particular, a not-so-young lawyer named Tom Sullivan, made the most of his minutes before the distinguished lawmakers, sharply questioning Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who has been a staunch advocate of stripping those rights from suspected terrorists.

A partner in the white-shoe law firm of Jenner & Block, Sullivan has helped represent 10 Saudis held at Guantanamo Bay. Three have been released; seven are still confined to the military prison. He aimed his opening remarks squarely at Cornyn -- rarely does one see testimony so directly confront a lawmaker:

Senator Cornyn, I'd like to address a few remarks you made.

You said these are enemies of the United States captured on the battlefield. None of the 10 we represent were captured on the battlefield or are enemies of the United States.

You said no one suggested that the enemy combatants were entitled to the habeas corpus. The Supreme Court of the United States in the Rasul case two years ago held specifically that they were entitled to habeas corpus, to challenge the reason for their detention.

You said they have an administrative review following a trial on the merits. None of them got a trial on the merits. . . .

More after the jump.

Read more »

A Texas congressman is denying charges he slandered a foreign sex slave at the behest of Jack Abramoff. But documents obtained by TPMmuckraker contradict the Republican's claims.

In November of 1997, Rep. Ralph Hall (R-TX) publicly questioned the credibility of a teenage girl's claims that she'd been the victim of the sex trade in the Northern Mariana Islands. The statement, which Rep. Hall entered into the Congressional Record, was prepared by Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist for the islands.

"[S]he wanted to do nude dancing," Hall's statement said of the fifteen-year-old girl. She had earlier told federal investigators that she'd been forced to work for a local nightclub in a nightly live sex show. You can read the entirety of Hall's statement here.

Press accounts at the time detailed how the girl had been taken from her parents in the Phillippines, and forced to perform sex acts on stage and before video cameras at a Northern Marianas sex club. A 1998 Department of Labor report confirmed those reports.

Hall's challenger in Texas' 4th District, history professor Glenn Melancon, has made the episode a campaign issue. "When investigators discovered child prostitution and forced abortions on the Mariana Islands, Congressman Ralph Hall was paid for covering it up and publicly attacking one of the raped children," read postcards his campaign distributed to voters.

Hall has called the charge an "outright lie." His office did not respond to our request for comment on this story. But records show that Abramoff's staff contacted Hall's office fifteen times in the two months leading up to his statement in the Congressional Record.

Hall has also denied being paid for making the statement, but oddly enough has revealed that "[Tom] DeLay gave him money 10 years ago," according the to the district's local paper, The Herald Banner.

DeLay was Abramoff's closest ally in Congress with regard to the Marianas. But Federal Election Commission records do not show contributions to Hall from DeLay or his PAC during that period. The former Majority Leader was known for routing donations through third parties to hide their origin. Hall was a Democrat at the time he says he took DeLay's money -- he switched parties in 2004.

Hall visited the Marianas islands on an Abramoff-sponsored junket in 1997, according to emails. The CNMI government later reimbursed Abramoff. In this photograph from the Marianas Variety, Hall is shown during that trip:

Read more »

It's over. A judge has just ruled that Green Senate candidate Carl Romanelli is off the ballot in the Pennsylvania Senate race.

That strikes a deadly blow to Pennsylvania Republicans' gambit to draw votes away from Democrat Bob Casey by fielding a Green candidate. As we reported earlier, all of Romanelli's support was from conservative donors, and Sen. Rick Santorum's (R-PA) volunteers worked hard gathering signatures to get Romanelli on the ballot. The Santorum campaign has admitted steering help toward the Romanelli campaign.

After Romanelli gathered almost 100,000 signatures to qualify, Democrats challenged the signatures' validity. A court fight followed, and now a judge has found that the Greens are short almost 9,000 valid signatures from the 67,000 required by law.

Update: The Greens have one last hope -- but it seems a long shot. The state supreme court has yet to rule on Romanelli's bid to change the threshold of signatures required by the law. If Romanelli won that motion, then he would only need about 16,000 signatures. But for now, Romanelli's off the ballot and would have to appeal to get back on.

Senators at Odds Over What Torture Compromise Would Allow
"A Republican senator who played a leading role in drafting new rules for U.S. interrogations of terrorism suspects said yesterday that he believes a compromise bill embraced by party leaders and the White House will bar some of the most extreme techniques said to have been used by the CIA.

"Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) named three measures that he said would no longer be allowed under a provision barring techniques that cause serious mental or physical suffering by U.S. detainees: extreme sleep deprivation, forced hypothermia and 'waterboarding,' which simulates drowning. He also said other 'extreme measures' would be banned. . . .

"Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who wants to shepherd the detainee bill to congressional passage this week. . . declined to give a specific reading of it yesterday. Asked repeatedly on ABC's 'This Week' what the legislation would allow, Frist said, 'I'm not going to comment on individual techniques,' and he condemned doing so." (WPost)

Read more »