TX 22: DeLay Ballot Issue Heads Into Appeals Court
"The 5th Circuit federal appeals court in New Orleans on Monday will become the latest venue for the partisan legal battle over whether Tom DeLay — the former House majority leader who resigned from Congress under a cloud of ethics controversies June 9 — must remain on the ballot this November as the Republican nominee in Texas’ 22nd District." (CQ, AP)
Fla.'s Harris to DNC Chair: I Knew Josef Stalin, Josef Stalin was my Friend, and I, Sir, Am No Josef Stalin
"U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris demanded an apology Thursday from Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean, who during a speech this week likened the senatorial candidate to former Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin." Funny, how easily an ill-advised remark can be turned into a two-day story. (AP)
DNC Chief Stops in Florida to Revive Ailing Harris Campaign
DNC chairman Howard Dean gave a fiery speech in Florida yesterday, with at least one zinger aimed at Rep. Katherine Harris that's sure to rile up her weary supporters in the GOP base. "This is not Russia and she is not Stalin," Dean told a crowd of Democratic supporters Wednesday, comparing "Pink Sugar" herself to the infamous autocratic Soviet leader who was responsible for the deaths of millions.
That line gave the Harris campaign what's sure to have been a refreshing change of pace -- a chance to comment on how crazy someone else is. "The people of Florida know that Congresswoman Harris will stand for what is right and not respond in kind to such scurrilous attacks," Jennifer Marks told reporters, responding to Dean's scurrilous attack.
Surveilling Arlen Specter
"Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) has begun to resemble a living bookend to Frank Capra's fictional Mr. Smith, the naive everyman who went to Washington with an incontrovertible aversion to compromise. For Specter, "compromise" has become another term for victory, not defeat. . . .
"'On the one hand, he seems to know that [the NSA domestic spying program] is wrong,'" explains Lisa Graves, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union who previously worked on the Judiciary Committee's Democratic staff. "But on the other hand, he is unable to stop himself from helping to ratify it.'" (Salon)
Specter Prepping Bill to Sue Bush
""We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will...authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president's acts declared unconstitutional," Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said on the Senate floor. Specter's announcement came the same day that an American Bar Association task force concluded that by attaching conditions to legislation, the president has sidestepped his constitutional duty to either sign a bill, veto it, or take no action." (AP)
ABA Faults Bush for Ignoring Parts of Bills
"The American Bar Association said Sunday that President Bush was flouting the Constitution and undermining the rule of law by claiming the power to disregard selected provisions of bills that he signed. In a comprehensive report, a bipartisan 11-member panel of the bar association said Mr. Bush had used such “signing statements” far more than his predecessors, raising constitutional objections to more than 800 provisions in more than 100 laws on the ground that they infringed on his prerogatives [Apparently, this is a higher tally than all previous presidents combined.]. These broad assertions of presidential power amount to a “line-item veto” and improperly deprive Congress of the opportunity to override the veto, the panel said." (NYT)
More, from The Washington Post's write-up:
If the president has constitutional problems with a bill, the task force said, he should convey those concerns to Congress before it reaches his desk. The panel said signing statements should not be a substitute for vetoing bills the president considers unconstitutional."The President's constitutional duty is to enforce laws he has signed into being unless and until they are held unconstitutional by the Supreme Court or a subordinate tribunal," panel members wrote. "The Constitution is not what the President says it is."
The ABA recommends that Congress pass legislation permitting court review of the statements.
Who needs Jack Abramoff? His clients can fend for themselves -- or at least get a new lobbyist!
Roll Call brings word that an Indian tribe formerly repped by Abramoff is working to hold up a gaming reform measure they don't want that's being pushed by Abramoff foe John McCain:
The Choctaws, who paid Abramoff’s firms $11.7 million over a six-year stretch, have prevailed on their senior home-state Senator, Republican Thad Cochran, to put a hold on McCain’s bill. The move has helped tangle the measure in a thicket of objections from other Indian tribes and about a dozen Senators. Aiding the Choctaws in their drive is lobbyist Kevin Ring, who worked for the tribe as an associate of Abramoff’s and later refused to testify before McCain’s Indian Affairs panel as it conducted an investigation into the corruption scandal. Ring stopped working for the tribe in 2004 when it dropped its lobbyists at Greenberg Traurig amid revelations of Team Abramoff’s practices. But he was rehired last spring after joining the lobbying shop at Barnes & Thornburg. That contract also included former Abramoff associates Edward Ayoob and Neil Volz. Volz has since pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges.(Roll Call)
Quick! Embrace Lobbying Reform!
In a good primer on corruption as an issue in the forthcoming midterm elections, The Washington Post's Jim Vandehei discloses the grand Republican strategy:
Republicans worry that more than six candidates for the House and Senate could be hurt by Justice Department investigations, the courts and revelations in the Abramoff affair....Anticipating more bad news, House GOP leaders are privately discussing a pre-election plan to compromise with the Senate on legislation clamping down on lobbyists and member perks, according to a GOP source familiar with the effort. The source, who discussed the plan on the condition of anonymity, said that if [Rep. Bob] Ney (R-OH) or other Republicans are indicted, House leaders will drop their demands to include strict curbs on the special-interest election spending that favored Democrats in 2004 and quickly pass the lobbying bill to provide political cover to candidates.
Katrina Audit Shows Fraud, Abuse
$68,500 worth of unused dog booties!
"The Homeland Security Department wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars last year on iPods, dog booties, beer-making equipment and designer jackets, congressional investigators have concluded. More than 100 laptop computers and a dozen boats also bought by Homeland Security employees are missing, the investigators found. Poor training, lax oversight and rampant confusion over what employees are allowed to buy with government-issued purchase cards left Homeland Security "vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse," according to a draft report by the Government Accountability Office, Congress' investigative and auditing arm." (AP, NYT)
Capitol Salute Host: "I Made a Mistake" Including Duke
Two days before his U.S. Capitol Historical Society was slated to recognize 37 departed members of Congress, the group's president bowed to criticism and agreed to remove imprisoned former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's (R-CA) name from the program.
“I agree with the critics. The critics are right,” Ron Sarasin told Copley News Service's Joe Cantlupe. ". . . I made a mistake."
“I shouldn't have included Cunningham's name, so his name will be stricken from the list,” Sarasin said, giving a full-throated apology. “It should have been clear to me. I caused the problem and I will apologize for it.”
Despite controversy over the inclusion of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who has been indicted and faces federal investigations and legal battles, Sarasin says he plans to keep his name in the program. (SDUT)
Leaders Agree: Convicted Lawmakers Shouldn't Be Honored
The House Democratic and Republican leadership have found another issue they agree on: former congressmen convicted of abusing their office shouldn't be saluted for their service to the nation.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is refusing to take part in an event Wednesday night that will include a tribute to former Reps. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.), saying the two men 'have dishonored the House' and 'are unfit to to be honored for their service.'When told of Pelosi’s objections to having Cunningham’s name mentioned during the event, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) agreed, saying through a spokesman that 'it would be inappropriate to have a convicted felon on the honor roll.'
The head of the group hosting the event, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, said that he was willing to "skip any mention" of Cunningham during the event. But he would not refrain from honoring DeLay, who to date has not been convicted. (Roll Call) (sub. req'd)
Brother of GOP Candidate Calls Her "Evil"
Ah, family. The brother of Republican K.T. McFarland, a Reagan-era Defense official who's challenging Hillary Clinton for her New York Senate seat, called Ms. McFarland "evil" yesterday. Why? As the New York Post puts it:
Tom Troia, of Janesville, Wis., accused his sister of conjuring up [abuse] allegations [against her father] in a spiteful letter she gave to her parents in 1992 in hopes of killing her father with a heart attack while also rubbing in another brother's face that he was dying of AIDS.
Why would she do such a thing? Tom says he doesn't know. "Evil needs no reason."
I guess he won't be handing out stickers along the campaign trail anytime soon. (AP, New York Post)
Congressional Group Honors Fallen Ex-Congressmen
Here's a party I'm sad to miss: "The U.S. Capitol Historical Society will hold a reception next week to honor a select group of lawmakers 'for their hard work, service, time and the sacrifices made in upholding the office with which they were entrusted.'" Among the honorees: Imprisoned former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA), and disgraced former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX). (The Hill)
DeLay Prosecutor Wants Probe Details Kept Secret
Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is suing to block a request from the Houston Chronicle for paperwork associated with his investigation into Tom DeLay. Earle argues that fulfilling the request -- which does not ask for secret information, like grand jury documents -- would jeopardize his case. (AP)
Second Ney Aide Subpoenaed
It's the drip, drip drip that gets to a man: "A second member of embattled Republican Rep. Bob Ney's staff has been subpoenaed to testify in the Justice Department's investigation of influence-peddling in Congress," AP reports.
"John Bennett, who works in Ney's eastern Ohio district office, notified House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., of the subpoena with a letter read Monday into the Congressional Record." That's good news for Ney's re-election campaign, right? (AP)
$2 Million Payment to Former Lobbyist Raises Eyebrows
Several weeks after news of the megapayout to lobbyist/Lewis approps aide Jeffrey Shockey was reported, the Washington Post's Jeffrey Birnbaum hits the streets and discovers: yes, even other lobbyists think it's an unusual amount of cash to pass to a sitting Hill staffer, even if he was a partner in your firm. (WPost)
U.S. Exports Hate Groups to Iraq
"We've got Aryan Nations graffitti in Baghdad. . . that's a problem," a Defense Department investigator is quoted as saying in a new report. Neo-Nazi groups have long sought to place members in the U.S. armed forces, as a way to train them on the use of weapons and explosives for the "race war" they believe is imminent. The Pentagon has had a ten-year declared "zero tolerance" policy towards such volunteers -- but the report, from the domestic terror-tracking Southern Poverty Law Center, says pressure on recruiters as a result of the Iraq war has led to violent racists getting accepted -- and trained, and deployed.
The report quotes Scott Barfield, a Defense Department investigator, saying, "Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don't remove them from the military even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members."(NYTimes)
Scandal-Linked Lobby Firm Loses Another Client
The city council of Redlands, Calif. voted unanimously to end its relationship with Copeland Lowery, the lobby firm in the middle of the federal probe into Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA). Investigators have subpoenaed documents from Redlands as part of their investigation. The city had paid the firm $30,000 a year to help win federal money. Redlands is the fourth client in recent weeks to leave the firm. (Riverside Press-Enterprise)
McCain Staffers Defend Abramoff Report
Countering attacks by conservative activist Grover Norquist, aides to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said his committee's report on Jack Abramoff is "a neutral, factual account of [Jack] Abramoff’s movements." Norquist had accused McCain of using the report to launch attacks against him personally.
“McCain does what he thinks is right. He’s not going to shift his position for Grover or anyone else," one McCain aide told The Hill newspaper. "I have no evidence that McCain takes any of this personally.” (The Hill)
On the Diamond, Republicans Taunt Jefferson
The annual congressional baseball game was last week. And despite the taint of scandal enveloping the GOP side of the Hill, Republicans taunted Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) with jeers of "cold, hard cash! Cold, hard cash!" when he came up to bat, Roll Call's Mary Ann Akers reports.
Jefferson came in as a pinch hitter in the 7th inning. He hit a pop fly, which was easily caught. His spokeswoman later denied the taunting affected his performance -- he couldn't hear it, she said. (Roll Call)
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