Senate Majority Project

Moving

2005-12-20T18:25:00.000-05:00

Blogspot is great (and the price is right), but we can now be found here:

www.senatemajority.com

starting

right

now...

link to the feed here:

http://www.senatemajority.com/atom.xml

Another RNC Must Read... (Between the Lines)

2005-12-20T17:05:00.000-05:00

RNC’s Favorite Editorial Board Backed Review of Wiretaps

Scratching for anybody to back President Bush’s unilateral secret order to tap Americans’ phone calls, the RNC pointed to a Wall Street Journal editorial entitled (not making this up) “Thank you for Wiretapping.” That the Journal supported the Bush position, and largely echoed his arguements, is not surprising. What is surprising is the degree to which it did at the expense of its own editorial integrity.

In a 2002 editorial headlined “No License to Spy” the Journal editorial board wrote: “We consider ourselves civil libertarians, as wary as anyone of government power,” then went on to explain that the critics of the Patriot Act were “over the top” because,

“FBI agents will not suddenly be able to snoop into American bedrooms. U.S. officials who want a wiretap warrant under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will still have to convince a court that there is probable cause to believe the target is an agent of a foreign power or terrorist organization.” [No License to Spy, 20 November 2002]

We now know that this isn’t true. President Bush, with the flimsiest legal justification, ordered wiretaps without the FISA review in which the Journal recently placed so much faith.

The Journal explained away Bush’s actions much the same way the president did yesterday -- by pointing to the war on terror. The paper has frequently argued for broad presidential power (at least when it does not affect corporations). However, it has also repeatedly argued for oversight of the power. Only days after 9-11, the Journal editorial pages again announced, “We count ourselves as stalwart civil libertarians,” and explained its support for greater cooperation between agencies saying,

“The best way to reassure people is to ensure our intelligence and law enforcement agencies at some point make their case to some outside authority. That means defining who they are targeting as well as paying more attention to the specifics of accountability. … And we have no objection to putting a sunset provision on any expanded powers, so they can be reviewed by Congress to see if they've been abused.” [Taking Liberties 25 September 2001]

Amazingly the Journal’s editorial position was more suspicious of presidential powers against terrorism when the rubble of the World Trade Center was literaly still settling just blocks away from the paper’s New York headquarters than it is today. Given a chance to draw the line it has so often drawn before, an editorial board which recently proclaimed that “Every free society needs civil-libertarian watchdogs” offered little more than weak apologies.

The most troubling aspect of the Bush orders is the shameless and brazen nature used to exploit presidential power. Bush even claimed that his own judgment and oath of office is enough to check what he appears to see as virtually unlimited power. The Journal editorial board, civil libertarians all, have rolled over and thanked him for it.

Military Brass Ask Senate to Pull ANWR

2005-12-20T14:37:00.000-05:00

Senate Republicans Jeopardize Resources for Troops and Families

Yesterday, Sen. John Kerry released a letter from five top retired Generals and a retired Navy Admiral urging Senators Frist and Reid not to let Sen. Ted Stevens get away with his latest scheme to open the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to drilling.

Stevens has attached his drilling plan to the otherwise noncontroversial Defense funding bill in open violation of the Senate Rules, a move that bogged down its passage and could postpone final action sending the much-needed funding bill to President Bush’s desk until after the first of the year.

In the letter, Generals John M. Shalikashvili, Joseph Hoar, Anthony Zinni, Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, Vice Admiral Lee F. Gunn and Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney urge Congress to

“finish its work and provide them the resources they need to do their job. … It is not helpful to attach such a controversial non-defense legislative issue to a defense appropriations bill. It only invites delay for our troops.”

ANWR would not produce a single drop of oil for 7 years. Troops and families need resources today. The choice would seem clear, but clearly not for Ted Stevens.

Download the letter here (pdf)

Freedom Isnt Free

2005-12-19T16:56:00.000-05:00

Spin, However, Comes Cheap at the RNC

A release from the Republican National Committee hot off the wire touts a Freedom House Survey, pronouncing 2005 a “success.” The actual report, however, is much less rosy, particularly when it comes to the Administrations chief concern of the moment, Iraq.

To begin with, here’s how the group’s research director characterized what the RNC determined was a “successful year.”

"Among other things, the past year has been notable for terrorist violence, ethnic cleansing, civil conflict, catastrophic natural disasters, and geopolitical polarization. That freedom could thrive in this environment is impressive."

You can almost hear the corks popping.

Meanwhile, the group determined that Iraq merited no improvement in its rating over the past year. In fact, Freedom House issued chilling cautions that whatever small gains occurred could be easily lost. And Freedom House earlier expressed reservations about the Iraqi constitution even calling the effort a “waste:”

Freedom House is very concerned that the emerging constitution will seriously undermine the prospects for democracy and the safeguarding of human rights in the new Iraq. After all the American blood and treasure that has been expended to bring freedom to Iraq, it would be worse than a shame if the new constitution were to enshrine the triumphalist vision of a minority within a particular sect, rather than reflect a national consensus on a democratic framework; it will have been a waste.

Of the gains in Iraq over the last year, the group seemed to express some skepticism that the presence of American troops was helpful to the process, and whatever gains occurred could be fleeting:

Indeed, some have argued that the rise in anti- American sentiment has tarnished the democratic idea in the minds of ordinary Arabs, although several of their countries have taken steps towards expanded freedom.

It is also clear that some of the gains noted in this year’s survey are fragile and could be reversed in the future. Gains made in Iraq could be wiped out if the current level of violence escalates into outright civil conflict among Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds.

And the big successes touted by Bush are represented by Freedom House as “small gains” in “modestly successful” elections.

In addition, Freedom House has spoken out strongly against the Bush Administration’s own growing involvement in torture:

Among others opposing American involvement in torture are the American Civil Liberties Union, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, members of the 9-11 Commission itself, the American Bar Association, Human Rights First, Freedom House, and Amnesty International. A joint statement signed by some of these groups emphasizes that the torture provisions "undermine the credibility of U.S. efforts to promote human rights and democracy in the Arab world, which President Bush has identified as a key element in the Administration's long-term strategy to combat terrorism . . . "

Advances in Democracy should be welcomed, but clearly the Mission is not quite Accomplished.

Frist Surrenders … to the French

2005-12-19T16:09:00.000-05:00

Do You Want Fries With That Tax Break?

Today the New York Times reported about the Budget Cuts Senate leaders have agreed to in order to make room for $100 billion in tax cuts. The cornerstone of the remaining appropriations bill is the Defense bill funding, among other things, equipment and benefits for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, this bill has become the Christmas tree that others are looking to hang pet provisions having nothing to do with defense in hopes that opponents would cringe at opposing a bill funding troops during wartime. Sen. Bill Frist decided to use this bill to ram through his misguided plan to let drug makers off the hook for producing vaccines that cause serious side effects, even death.

One of the last items added to the military spending bill was a provision sought by Mr. Frist that would shield drug makers from lawsuits related to vaccines that protect against biological agents or viruses like the one that causes the avian flu. The language would allow lawsuits against vaccine makers only if they engaged in "willful misconduct." The government would pay medical expenses and benefits to those injured or killed by vaccines.

Mr. Frist contends that the provision is necessary to encourage drug companies to make vaccines. But it is likely to draw criticism, with some arguing that it would be a windfall for those companies.

Likely to draw criticism … In fact it already has.

Among other things the Frist plan would remove practically all economic incentive to fully test and protect against side effects that could cause even more serious illness or deaths, especially in vulnerable populations like children and the elderly. Supporters say that its necessary to encourage drug makers to manufacture vaccines for the avian flu.

The trouble with that argument is that a French vaccine maker recently signed a $100 million contract with the U.S. government to produce an avian flu vaccine…without any additional liability protections. And, this contract was fifth pandemic-related agreement that the company has entered into with the U.S. government since May 2004.

Maybe they were late getting Frist’s memo while it was being translated into French, because after signing the deal, the company’s spokesperson said,

"Full liability protection is a requirement for our participation in the development and production of a pandemic vaccine,’ said Len Lavenda, spokesman for Sanofi Pasteur.” [Washington Post, 11/17/05]

Or maybe the businesses making vaccines know that they can make a profit off the expanding vaccine market without the deal that Frist and the drug company lobbyists are ramming through on the back of the defense funding bill. In fact, industry analysts expect the market for new vaccines to expand dramatically in the next few years. Companies including Merck, Wyeth, GlaxoSmith Kline, and Novartis have all announced large investments in expanding their vaccine manufacturing capabilities … all without the sweetheart deal that Frist is pushing through.

Face Time With Karl Rove...

2005-12-19T15:28:00.000-05:00

If you could spend time with Karl Rove, isn't this what you'd do ... more or less...?

http://www.foxnews.com/photo_essay/photoessay_745_images/04.jpg

Frist Charity Under Scrutiny

2005-12-17T20:36:00.000-05:00

The Associated Press breaks another big story on Sen. Bill Frist. This time the AP finds that Frist's charity, dedicated to helping fight AIDS, also has helped his political staff and their families and conservative Republican activists Frist is courting for his presidential race.

This is Bull****

2005-12-16T13:00:00.000-05:00

Maybe President Bush Knows Why

verbatim:

"After 25 years of serving as a CNN commentator and program host, our colleague Bob Novak's tenure on the network will come to a close (effective 12/31). Through the years, Bob has offered incisive analysis for much of CNN's programming, including Crossfire, The Capital Gang, Inside Politics, Evans and Novak, The Novak Zone, and Novak, Hunt and Shields. Bob has also been a valued contributor to CNN's political coverage. We appreciate his many contributions and wish him well in future endeavors," said Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S.

And proving that with Bob Novak, you’ll often be upset, but never surprised….

Novak leaves CNN after 25 years to join Fox

Frivolous Lott-igation

2005-12-16T12:38:00.000-05:00

Do As I Say, Not As I Sue

After fighting to limit your ability to sue your insurance company, Katrina victim Sen. Trent Lott files a lawsuit against his ...

According to the Wall Street Journal, Senator Trent Lott is suing his insurance company, State Farm Insurance, after it refused to pay for the damage to the Senator's beachfront Pascagoula home, which was leveled by Hurricane Katrina. But not too long ago, Lott was leading a fight to limit Americans' ability to sue their health insurance company:

"It's sue, sue, sue... That's not the answer."

Republicans deplore the focus on litigation. 'It's sue, sue, sue,' said Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Senate Republican leader. 'That's not the answer.'” [The New York Times, 8/4/2001]

"You have a problem with HMOs, file a lawsuit. We don't think that's the answer."

"… the answer is not lawsuits. … You have a problem with HMOs, file a lawsuit. We don't think that's the answer. … You know, do lawsuits, you know, really prove anything in America? I'm a lawyer, but we are a society that has gotten to where we look to a lawsuit first. I think we should look for solutions, not add more costs." [Meet the Press, 7/11/1999]

Lawsuits Aren't "Necessary" to Get "Help and Answers"

"Do they want results or do they want lawsuits? Now, I think the answer should be found in the operating room, not in the courtroom. … When people are asked, "Do you think you have the right to sue?" Well, they -- you know, well, yes, probably yes…. [Democrats’] answer is always more government and more lawsuits for their plaintiffs' lawyers' buddies." [Fox News Sunday, 7/19/1998]

Lott Says Lawsuits Have Forced 44 Insurance Companies Out of Mississippi

"Lott said Sunday that frivolous lawsuits and unlimited damages have forced 44 insurance companies out of his home state of Mississippi 'because it has become just a personal injury lawyers' bonanza.'" [Associated Press, 6/24/2001

UPDATE:

Not surprisingly, there are enough hypocritical Trent Lott quotes to fill several posts ... Sirota has more …

Sen. Stevens White Whale

2005-12-15T15:26:00.000-05:00

"We All See It. That Don't Make it Real."

In yet another sign that he creeping off the deep end, Senator Ted Stevens announced that House and Senate appropriators agreed to attach his long anticipated measure of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the Defense Appropriations bill. []

Yesterday Stevens attempted to attach ANWR drilling to the hurricane relief package stating, “It’s going to be awfully hard to vote against Katrina [disaster assistance]. . . . If it’s in there, then maybe those disaster people — area people — will vote with me on ANWR.” (CQ Today, 12/14/05)

By pitting Gulf coast victims against troops in Iraq, the Senator may finally have his wish of drilling in ANWR, however his behavior in the matter did not go unnoticed. “Like Ahab, certain Republicans are so dedicated to a lost cause that they have lost their reason in the process,” said Democrat Ed Markey (D-MA) who warned that adding ANWR to the Defense appropriations bill would slow down the approval of funding for the troops. “Let us hope that those who captain the Senate will turn this ship around before it founders on a filibuster.”

Perhaps if by some miracle (‘tis the season) the Senator doesn’t get his wish, and we have an open and honest debate about ANWR without holding desperately needed funds hostage, Stevens will finally keep his promise to resign.

"Those Disaster People"

2005-12-15T09:41:00.000-05:00

“It’s going to be awfully hard to vote against Katrina [disaster assistance]. . . . If it’s in there, then maybe those disaster people — area people — will vote with me on ANWR,”

Sen. Ted Stevens, CQ Today, 12/15/2005

Hurricane Ted Aims For Louisiana

2005-12-14T17:26:00.000-05:00

Stevens Holds Katrina Victims Hostage to ANWR

According to Congressional Quarterly, Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), realizing moderates in his party have slowly come to their senses about drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), has now held the Hurricane Relief package hostage by adding ANWR language to it.

Sounding like a man whose perspective is slipping, Stevens said, “It’s going to be awfully hard to vote against [hurricane aid],” Stevens said. “If it’s in there, maybe people will vote with me on ANWR.”

It doesn’t stop there

Stevens has also threatened to hold up the Defense Appropriations measure on this issue as well, stating that bill could also be a vehicle to push ANWR drilling.

Maybe if he doesn’t get his way this time he actually will quit.

Home for the Holidays

2005-12-13T12:40:00.000-05:00

Maybe Dole Thinks It’s Comfier in the Watergate?

According to government records, Sen. Elizabeth Dole may not be the biggest fan of North Carolina. Document revealed Dole made only one official trip to North Carolina this past summer. Dole’s office claimed the records were incomplete, stating that she actually has made FOUR more official trips to her home state, and that those trips weren’t processed yet.

Perhaps realizing how ridiculous it is to argue five trips to a home state as close to Washington D.C. as North Carolina is nothing short of neglect, Dole’s spokeswoman later added in the piece that the Senator has visited the state at least every month since her election. Much better spin, however let’s review some history.

During her 2002 Senate campaign, it was reported that Dole hadn’t lived in North Carolina for over 40 years, living in fact in the Washington, DC landmark, the Watergate Hotel. (Washington Post, 10/7/02). Until Jesse Helms announced he would retire from the Senate in July 2001, Dole was registered in Kansas, the state that elected her husband to the Senate.

According Rowan County records, Dole purchased her North Carolina home in 2001 the day after Christmas, perhaps realizing she needed a residence to actually run for Senate. However, a county recording from this past July still listed Dole’s residence as the Watergate.

That didn’t stop the Doles from sending out Christmas Cards in 2001 which said "From our home to yours." Dole’s spokesperson that year said that the Doles owned the Salisbury home. We now know they didn’t purchase it until after Christmas.

Wonder where the Christmas cards are coming from this year.

The Vision Thing

2005-12-12T17:18:00.000-05:00

More Fuzziness on Frist’s Not-So-Blind Trusts

Making an appearance Fox News this past Sunday, Senator Bill Frist defended his role in the sale of HCA stock held in a “blind trust” in his name. Frist stated he ordered the sale of HCA stock from his blind trust to make sure there was “no appearance of whatsoever of a conflict of interest.” And further claimed,

“For the last 10 years or 11 years, I have no idea, no earthly idea, at any point in time how much stock of anything, not just that particular stock, but all of the stocks that I’ve owned in the past.

If that were true, it would all certainly clear the Senator’s name. But then the SEC wouldn’t have those pesky investigations.

The Associated Press reported that in December 2002, the trustee of the senator's supposedly blind trust told Frist that HCA stock valued at $15,000 and $50,000 was added to the trust. Two weeks later, Frist made nearly identical statements denying any knowledge of HCA stock in his blind trust.

At least twice earlier in 2002, Frist was told that his “blind” trusts contained HCA stock. First in May, when Frist was told that HCA stock valued at $500,000 and $1 million was moved to one of his trusts and HCA stock valued at $250,000 to $500,000 was moved to another. It is hard to reach any other conclusion than Frist owned a lot of HCA … blind trust or no. Later, on Nov. 20, 2002, the trustee wrote Frist that 14,781 shares of HCA were sold, along with three other investments.

On top of this, from 1994 until 2002, Frist had a substantial amount of HCA stock in a company called Bowling Avenue Partners, an LLP that was outside of his senate approved blind trust.

Its one thing to misspeak a few times about how much stock Frist owned -- though “none” typically means a number closer to zero than $1 million worth -- but Frist also stated HCA was not run by his family.

HCA co-founders included Sen. Frist’s father and brother. His brother, Thomas F. Frist Jr., was Chair and CEO as recently as 2001, and stepped down as chairman and CEO of HCA after a nine year investigation by the Justice Department into alleged Medicare cost-reporting fraud. Thomas Frist still currently serves on the company’s Board as Chairman Emeritus.

PREVIOUSLY:

Tennessean Study Finds Frist’s Votes Helped HCA

Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me

2005-12-12T12:31:00.000-05:00

Allegedly Pro-Choice Murkowski to Trust Alito’s "Temperament"

Since being appointed as a Senator promising to protect the right to choose, Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s position has slid from pro-choice to “multiple choice.” She’s voted in favor of a resolution supporting Roe v. Wade, only to feign disinterest in the position and views of a Justice that could overturn crucial parts of that decision. Her position can now only be described “multiple guess.”

After meeting with Judge Alito, Murkowski announced:

“If he had given me his view on what we should do with Roe vs. Wade, I don't care which direction he went, I would not think that he would be the type of person that we would want to serve on the bench.”

In fact, Alito has zigzagged almost as much as Murkowski on the issue. An architect of the Reagan Administration strategy to overturn Roe, Alito has proclaimed that he believes in the right to privacy, the same day he touted a dissent he wrote that would have upheld states can require a married woman to notify her husband before ending a pregnancy. Consistency apparently is not part of the temperament of either.

Picture of Corruption

2005-12-12T10:34:00.000-05:00

Duke, Frist, Ney and DeLay … Oh My

Tobin Update

2005-12-08T18:21:00.000-05:00

Dole Lawyer Advised Convicted Jammer on RLC Biz

Yesterday, at the Tobin trial, lawyers in opening arguments Dave Butswinkas, Tobin’s lawyer in the criminal trial, said that Allen Raymond, had run the scheme by a lawyer. Earlier, it had been reported that the nervous owners of the Idaho company that made the calls, Mylo Enterprises, had “met with GOP Marketplace attorneys, who told them not to worry.”

So, who was the lawyer?

One possibility … Skadden Arps Kenneth A, Gross, who was the campaign attorney for Bob Dole in 1996.

Gross and Skadden Arps were the lawyer for Raymond at the Republican Leadership Council in 2002, so its not a stretch to imagine that he also advised Raymond on matters with his other operation … GOP Marketplace.

Gross also has consulted the national Republican Party, acting as lawyer for the NYC 2004 Convention Host Committee.

Murkowski Gets Rolled on PATRIOT Act

2005-12-08T17:06:00.000-05:00

Republican Left Off Committee, Fails To Deliver Republicans on Compromise

In her race for Senate, Lisa Murkowski promised to use her clout and influence with a Republican majority to help Alaskans. Now its looking more and more like she doesn’t have any. First, she was excluded from the mostly Republican panel negotiating a compromise, then her pleas to the team negotiating the deal went unheeded. Republicans virtually ignored her when the latest deal was struck to reauthorize the USA PATRIOT Act.

According to the Associated Press, House and Senate negotiators worked out a agreement that "would extend for now two of the Patriot Act's most controversial provisions -- authorizing "roving wiretaps" and permitting "secret warrants for books," records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries. Those two provisions would expire in four years under the deal."

In April of this year, Murkowkski said, "While we certainly recognize the need for our law enforcement community to have the necessary tools to defeat terrorism, we can not offer security at the expense of the Constitutional freedoms that are at the heart of America."

In October, after the House backed the President rather than Murkowski, she said,
I encourage the conferees to accept our version and help achieve the result that we have agreed upon here in the Senate.”

And just last month she issued another plea to Republicans
“We have worked too long and too hard to allow this conference report to eliminate the modest protections for civil liberties”

Alaska TV Stations have said that Murkowski is “leading the fight,” but where Lisa Murkowski is leading, her Republican colleagues in the majority clearly ain’t following.

This, incidentally is not the first time in recent weeks that the Republican majority has tossed aside the concerns of their Alaska
http://senatemajorityproject.blogspot.com/2005/11/do-you-think-any-of-frank-murkowskis.html

Burns & Co. Display Firm Grasp of Obvious

2005-12-08T16:18:00.000-05:00

Biggest Recipient of Abramoff Money in Senate Says Abramoff Is A "Bad Bad Guy"

Please take exactly 50 seconds to watch this video of Sen. Conrad Burns getting the Ambramoff question in Kalispell, MT.

Here's the full quote and the story:

"This Abramoff guy is a bad, bad guy. And he's indicted, and I hope he goes to jail and we never see him again. I wish he'd never been born to be right honest with you. Because he's done a terrible, terrible thing to our Native American community."

His spokesman was not quite able to marshall a similar anger this morning:

Burns spokesman James Pendleton responded, in sarcastic incredulity, "A senator met with lobbyists? ... And he's been meeting with them for years? Well, duh."

Wonder if anybody has pointed out to Burns that if Abramoff hadn’t been born, Burns’ campaign account would be a few thousand lighter. And all the time Burns and/or his staff spent in meetings with Abramoff could have been spent at home taking care of their kids.

Is he keeping the money? Well, duh!

Coleman Poll at Lowest Level Ever

2005-12-08T15:18:00.000-05:00

St. Cloud State University Says Minnesotans Not So Warm on Norm

A poll released today by St Cloud State University found that Colemans “feeling thermometer” among Minnesota voters was at a level of 50. Coleman’s rating slipped 2 points from last year and a net 5 points from 2003.

The current level is the lowest St. Cloud St. ever recorded for Coleman. In fact, Coleman is now eight points below the point he was in 2001 when he announced that he would challenge Paul Wellstone and even below the level he was at immediately after he lost the Minnesota gubernatorial race in 1998.

Coleman “Feeling Thermometer” 1999-2005
Mean Temperature

1999 52
2000 55
2001 58
2002 53
2003 55
2004 52
2005 50

With George W. Bush rating the lowest in the poll, at 44, maybe Coleman ought to rethink his strategy of carrying water for the Bush Administration.

Frist Do No Harm

2005-12-08T14:31:00.000-05:00

Sen. Frist's Sweetheart Deal for Drug Companies is For the Birds

In a speech to reporters at the National Press Club, Senator Bill Frist announced his six-point plan to help the nation cope with an avian flu outbreak. During the speech, Frist placed fear in his audience, proclaiming:

“Think of a fast-moving, highly contagious disease that wipes out 50 million people. Half a million in the U.S. The killer pandemic claims more victims in 24 weeks, than HIV-AIDS has claimed in 24 years. In the United States -- the most developed nation in the world -- bodies pile up in the streets. There aren't enough morticians to bury the dead. Nor are there enough doctors and nurses to tend to the sick."

Scary stuff. A situation that definitely calls for a six-point plan. And today Frist’s outlined measures he says would increase availability of flu vaccine and streamline the process of research and development.

But what if it was side effects of a vaccine that was responsible for making people sick? That’s different according to Frist and friends. Today, Frist talked of “balanced, sensible liability protection” But his idea of balanced and sensible is to remove virtually all incentives for responsible drug production. His SB 1873 completely shields companies making drugs in response to public health emergencies, unless the Secretary of Health and Human Services (rather than an impartial court or jury) determined that the company acted with “willful misconduct.” [Sec 319F-3]

The drug makers would agree: According to PhRMA chief Billy Tauzin today, “Liability reform is a critically important part of this plan. It’s clear that the nation’s liability system is broken.”

One problem with this is that Congress supposedly already fixed that problem when they passed class action reform. Last we heard, the GOP Congress protected pharmaceutical companies by designing a bill that shifts many class action suits from state courts to backlogged federal courts. (Lawsuits against companies, due to side affects of a vaccine would almost certainly be handled as a class action.) That measure was supposed to lead to more research and development and broader manufacturing of vaccines.

At the end of the day, Frist’s vaccine plan cure might actually end up being worse than the disease. Drug manufacturers would have no potential liability except in the most extreme circumstances and therefore no economic incentive to fully test and protect against side effects that could cause even more serious illness or deaths, especially in vulnerable populations like children and the elderly.

Frist, a doctor, is familiar with the side effects of vaccines, and has himself cautioned against requiring vaccination against smallpox or anthrax because of the hundreds or even thousands of deaths that could result.

For example, In 2001, when Frist was asked about reinstating routine smallpox vaccinations, he said nationwide inoculations would result in an estimated 400 deaths from the vaccine’s side effects. He told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that,

“About 25 out of every 100,000 people have a side effect to the vaccination itself. Probably 600 to 2,000 people would die just from the vaccine itself.” [NBC Meet the Press, 10/14/2001]

And after the U.S. Capitol was hit with an anthrax attack, Frist again cautioned against the vaccines saying,

There are very real and potentially serious side effects from the [anthrax] vaccine and anyone who elects to receive the vaccine needs to be made aware of that,' said Frist. 'I do not recommend widespread inoculation for people with the vaccine in the Hart Building,'" [CNN.com, 12/18/2001]

Despite the very real danger of side effects from vaccines, Frist’s bird flu plan envisions widespread vaccination of Americans in a short time period with even less protection against side effects than are currently in place for either the smallpox or anthrax vaccines Frist cautioned against.

But wait, there’s more.

Frist’s plan also creates a new agency, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Agency, with oversight authority over the nation’s bird-flu and bioterrorism preparedness. Frist would give the agency the unprecedented protection of complete exemption from the Freedom of Information Act. Thus people could not even know whether the vaccines developed under the Frist plan would have a chance of hurting them. As Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center summed up:

Without public scrutiny or the ability to take the companies to court, ``these drugs are going to be developed in secret, and if there are deaths and injuries, they're going to be covered up,'' she said. ``And there will be no way to hold anybody accountable.''

Now that’s scary.

Republican Voter Suppression Trial Update – Day 1

2005-12-07T14:22:00.000-05:00

Republican Lawyers May Have Approved Plan

Yesterday in Manchester, NH, the trial of James Tobin opened. Tobin is accused of conspiring to stop New Hampshire residents from voting in the 2002 election that resulted in the election of John Sununu. At trial, prosecutors argued and witnesses testified that several state Republican leaders were uncomfortable with the idea and that Tobin helped facilitate the plan after no one else would help. In addition, Tobin’s lawyer opened the door to the possibility that other Republican lawyers may have approved the plan. Arguing that Tobin was not connected to the scheme that has already sent two top-tier Republican operatives to jail, the attorney said, “that Raymond [the consultant hired to make the calls] has stated he ran the plan by a lawyer.”

A few local outlets are doing useful reporting on the trial

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051207/REPOSITORY/512070354/1031

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051207/NEWS0201/112070014

The RNC has sent upwards of $1 million defending Tobin, and made arguments that would prevent prosecutors from determining how far up the Republican party ladder the scheme went, how widespread the practice was, and who ultimately paid for it. The first day of the trial only provided more reasons for Republicans to stop hiding behind lawyers and come clean about the level of the national party’s involvement.

Lindsay and Duke

2005-12-07T12:17:00.000-05:00

Graham is the Top Senate Recipient of Dirty Duke Donor Money

With the indictment, plea and resignation of Duke Cunningham, there is plenty of evidence that Cunningham donor Brent Wilkes -- aka coconspirator #1 -- had more in mind than boosting his favorite candidates with his political contributions. According to the San Diego Union Tribune,

Over the past 20 years, Wilkes has devoted much of his career to developing political contacts in Washington. He and his associates have spent at least $600,000 on political contributions and $1.1 million on lobbying beyond the gifts mentioned in the Cunningham plea agreement, as they cultivated such politicians as House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis.

And since 1996, he has received at least $95 million in government contracts for the small family of firms based in his $11 million headquarters in Poway, including ADCS Inc. and Group W.

A list of money from Wilkes, his businesses and employees shows mostly House members, but one Senate candidate stands out: Sen. Lindsay Graham received $13,000 most of it from ADCS PAC for his 2002 Senate Race.

True to form, Graham served on the House Armed Services Committee and went on to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee. Others include Larry Craig, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Sam Brownback. All three of these Senators serve on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Wilkes was known to have distributed cash and favors to lawmakers who were most likely to help him secure defense contracts.

A developing angle to the story was sniffed out by the Hotline who noticed the following in the San Diego Union tribune story.

According to the U-T, Wilkes also "ran a hospitality suite, with several bedrooms, in" DC -- "first in the Watergate Hotel and then" in a Capitol Hill hotel.
Come again? A "hospitality suite with several bedrooms"?
Talk about raising more questions, including:
-- Why does a lobbyist need a "hospitality suite with several bedrooms"?
-- Who uses those bedrooms and for what?

How do You Say “Toady” in Dutch?

2005-12-07T11:17:00.000-05:00

Coleman carries water for Bush’s biggest donor

Just when you thought Sen. Norm Coleman might succeed in selling you on his moderate record, he has once again proven to be a loyal Bush foot solider. In yesterday’s Washington Post, Coleman placed himself on the record in support of the ambassadorship Roland Arnall, to the Netherlands. Arnall as many know is the founder and principal shareholder of Ameriquest, the nation’s largest sub-prime lender. Arnall has also been the President’s largest campaign contributor since 2002 (of note, according to campaign finance data, Arnall has never made a contribution to Coleman). Ameriquest has been under investigation by a number of states, including Minnesota, for their predatory lending practices. Practices which include: misrepresenting fees and costs, pressuring appraisers to inflate property values so borrowers could get bigger loans and promising customers they would receive lower interest rates and then give them higher rates anyway.

Coleman voted for Arnall, despite Minnesota’s extensive investigation into Ameriquest’s dealings, stating, “Mr. Arnall is not the subject of any investigation. His personal actions have never been called into question. His credibility and integrity were praised by members from both sides of the aisle during his hearings. For these reasons, it is inappropriate to hold up Mr. Arnall’s nomination.”

Not so fast.

Arnall’s credibility was suspect enough for GOP Senator Chuck Hagel, to say, “I do think it's important who represents this country abroad. I do think we should send people who are not under a cloud of investigation. Mr. Arnall, fairly or unfairly, finds himself in that position.

So why is Coleman helping yet another Bush crony get a prestigious job? A fair question for Minnesotans to ask.

In Case You Frist It

2005-12-06T16:52:00.000-05:00

Sen. Frist's Votes Found to Favor HCA Interests

Over the weekend, The Nashville Tennessean published a comprehensive review of Bill Frist’s votes in Congress which found that

“An examination of Frist's voting record over his nearly 11 years in the Senate shows a pattern of supporting bills friendly to HCA and to hospitals in general. … He's also helped HCA in less obvious ways. Several years ago, the Tennessee Republican fought a Democratic-sponsored version of a "patients' bill of rights" that would have allowed patients to sue their HMOs and collect unlimited damages.”

Recently the Securities and Exchange Commission opened an investigation of a sale of HCA stock Frist ordered from his “not so blind” blind trust. Frist claimed that he ordered the sale to avoid the appearance of conflicts of interests – this in his 11th year in the U.S. Senate. The sale happened to come at a time when the stock was at a high and immediately before it fell on information that would have been available to HCA insiders. In an investigation of the sale, it was revealed that the trust’s managers communicated frequently with Frist about the contents of his supposedly blind trust. In addition, while Frist claimed that he had no contact with his family on business issues, saying "I don't discuss it [HCA] with my brother at all because I want to keep absolute arm's length," Frist was a partner in a company called Bowling Avenue Partners with his brother, the chairman of HCA, which held at least $775,000 in HCA stock.

The Tennessean story outlines several examples of activity Frist took that benefited HCA including the following:

An HCA subsidiary would benefit from limits on jury awards. Health Care Indemnity Inc. is one of the country's largest providers of medical malpractice insurance, with gross premiums of $382.3 million a year.
Bills supported by Frist have given hospitals more money for treating seniors and curbed development of physician-owned specialty hospitals that compete with HCA.
Frist led the opposition on the floor to the "patients' bill of rights" that would have allowed patients to sue their HMOs.
Frist was a leading supporter of legislation that gave hospitals an extra $25 billion in Medicare and Medicaid payments over 10 years, according to the American Hospital Association, which supported it. Last year, Medicare and Medicaid accounted for about 35% of HCA's total revenue.
Frist also supported an 18-month moratorium on new physician-owned specialty hospitals that would compete directly with full-service community hospitals such as those operated by HCA.

This Watchdog is Done Barking

2005-12-05T12:13:00.000-05:00

McCain Refuses to Follow Abramoff Trail Where it Leads

Now that the Indian Affairs Committee hearing has wrapped up, its become clear that the U.S. Senate has only taken the first step. Recent revelations surrounding lawmakers like Sen. Conrad Burns and Rep. Bob Ney show that the investigation has just scratched the surface.

Despite the fact we are only facing the first down, John McCain punted yesterday on Meet the Press. He said that his committee will not look further at the issue and suggested the ethics committee, the government or the media. The problem is that McCain himself admitted that the ethics committee doesn’t work very well, and the media does not have the power of subpoena. In fact many of the discoveries the media made were based on documents and testimony that was pried loose by McCain’s Committee.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator, you said you're going to follow the money, but are you also going to investigate which legislators may have taken money and used that to influence legislation, to write into law what you're suggesting the behavior of senators, your colleagues? Are you going to investigate them?

SEN. McCAIN: The--I will not, because I'm a chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. This was brought to our--this whole thing started--was brought to us--attention by some disgruntled tribal council members in a small tribe in Louisiana, and we took it as far as we thought was our responsibility, which is where the money ends up. I'm not as--we are responsible for Indian affairs. We have an Ethics Committee. We have a government--we have other committees of Congress, but we also have a very active media.

MR. RUSSERT: Does the Ethics Committee work in all honesty?

SEN. McCAIN: I don't think the Ethics Committees are working very well. …

With Republicans in the House and Senate as well as the executive branch implicated, the odds are slim that there will be a serious look at this as long as both branches are in Republicans control. Among other things, this Congress has already dragged its feet on investigating items such as

Pre-war Iraq intelligence
The outing of a CIA agent by a top Administration official
Corporate and political contributors who influenced the drafting of the country’s energy policy,
Torture and detention at Abu Gharib and other detention centers
Alleged abuses and rip-offs by army contractors

With serious evidence raised that the Abramoff lobbying scandal affected votes and national policy, the American people deserve a serious, independent look into the facts.

Do YOUR Part in the War on Terror … Buy a GOP Calender!

2005-12-04T22:38:00.000-05:00

The RNC just sent the following e-mail from Chair Ken Mehman:

I am writing today to ask you to help the Republican Party - and maybe help out your own holiday shopping while you're at it.

With the holidays here and the New Year just around the corner, the Republican National Committee is releasing the 2006 edition of our annual RNC Calendar. … By ordering the 2006 RNC Calendar with your contribution of $25, you'll help advance President Bush's second-term agenda … The stakes are high in 2006 - our party's bold agenda, victory in the war on terror, and the President's ability to nominate judges who won't legislate from the bench …

Yep, the Republican Party is hawking calendars as a way to raise money and in the process “advance … victory in the war on terror.”

It does not appear that any of the money will actually go toward helping make America safer. That job will continue to be mismanaged with your tax dollars. According to 9-11 Commission chair Tom Kean, in a report to be released tomorrow morning,

"A lot of the things we need to do really to prevent another 9/11 just simply aren't being done by the president or by the Congress.”

At any rate, you can buy a calender here, and then use it to NOT design an artificial timetable for leaving Iraq.

And shouldn’t the RNC really be avoiding the term “Holiday Shopping?” Wait until Bill O’Reiley and Dennis Hastert hear this one….

Heating Up in New Hampshire

2005-12-01T17:30:00.000-05:00

This is not usually the season for sweating in New Hampshire, but several top Republicans (and their defense lawyers) might be closely watching a trial scheduled to start Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manchester, NH. Two top Republicans have already pleaded guilty to attempting to suppress the Democratic vote in a close race in which Sen. John Sununu beat former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. With pre-election polls showing Gov. Shaheen with a narrow lead, the Republican Party of New Hampshire arranged to have hang-up calls jam Democratic and union get-out-the-vote phone banks on election morning in an effort to block Democrats from voting.

One remaining Republican, James Tobin, has pleaded innocent to conspiracy charges related to the incident. At the time, Tobin was the regional political director for the NRSC, which was chaired by now-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. After the 2002 election, Tobin was hired by Ken Mehlman to work for the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, and went on to become one of the campaigns top fundraisers. Tobin eventually resigned from the campaign when charges were filed in the case. However, his legal bills, which are approaching $1 million, are being paid by the RNC, currently chaired by Mehlman.

Besides Tobin’s personal involvement, other issues that might be resolved in the trial include who devised the plan, who paid for the calls and who in New Hampshire or in Washington DC knew about and approved the plan.

One co-conspirator has already admitted using NH Republican state committee funds to pay for the calls, but the committee reports show sizeable contributions from the RNC and NRSC. Tobin’s lawyers, who are being paid by the RNC, are seeking to exclude evidence of payments from the national committees to the state committee. This would effectively shield officers and operatives at those committees, including Sen. Frist and then-Chair Marc Racicot from having to answer difficult questions about whether their committees were involved in this plan, and what other states might have had similar RNC-funded schemes to suppress Democratic turnout.

Another theory points to donations received immediately before the election from two clients of Jack Abramoff, Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, Palm Springs, CA, and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Choctaw, MS, on October 28, 2002, along with a contribution from Tom DeLay’s Leadership PAC, ARMPAC.

There also might be more information forthcoming on the involvement of the Republican Leadership Council. At the same time Raymond was running the phone jamming scandal, he was also running the RLC. The RLC hired GOP Marketplace to place calls for them too, moving more than $200,000 to the firm in 2002 alone. In the 2002 cycle they were active in Montana, New Jersey, and other states. The RLC’s chair, Lew Eisenberg, was also finance chair of the RNC in 2002,

These were not renegade, overeager Republican loyalists acting on an uninformed whim. The people involved in this case were sophisticated Republican operatives employed by the national Republican Party. Links in the case threaten to go to the top leadership of the House and Senate Republicans and the Republican National Committee. Now the Republican Party is paying nearly $1 million on lawyers to bury the allegations and block revelations that might show its own role in the scandal. Hard to see how this is a good move for a Party that has already been tarred by arrogance and scandal.

UPDATE:

By coincidence perhaps, Bill Frist will be in Manchester on Tuesday. Somebody save him a seat in the courtroom.

Something Fishy in Alaska

2005-11-29T17:10:00.000-05:00

Reader tip #1:

The Anchorage Daily News has an investigative report of a deal between Alaska State Senator Ben Stevens, the son of Republican U.S Senator Ted Stevens, and a fishery that stood to gain millions thanks to legislation pushed through by the elder Stevens.

State Sen. Ben Stevens held a secret option to buy into an Alaska seafood company at the same time his powerful father, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, was creating a special Aleutian Islands fishery that would supply the company with pollock worth millions of dollars a year.

The pollock allocation alone was projected to provide the company with $1.5 million in profits this year and $3.7 million in 2006, the company's founder said in an affidavit in March, before problems involving the company and the availability of fish cast doubt on those numbers. Under his deal, Ben Stevens would have been entitled to one-fourth of the profits of the company, Adak Fisheries.

During the time he held the option, the company grew in value from about $2 million to at least $8.5 million, according to an owner and court documents.

The full report has a lot more detail about the origins of the deal and Ted Stevens's refusal to provide all the details about what he knew when he pushed the legislation that benefited his son.

2005-11-18T11:26:00.000-05:00

Do you think any of Frank Murkowski’s Other Kids Need Jobs?

Despite Sen. Ted Stevens threat that he would resign, the U.S. Senate went ahead and killed, for now, the “Bridge to Nowhere.” Just last month Stevens said:

"I don't kid people … If the Senate decides to discriminate against our state . . . I will resign from this body."

Yesterday however, Stevens was quoted as saying:

"While I am not happy with it, I think that under the circumstance it was the best we could expect because of the publicity that came with the Sunday supplements and whatever," he said. "Everybody is talking about what to do about our bridges."

Doesn’t sound quite like a resignation yet, but then again, its not like he promised to resign under oath.

What’s the Most Important Issue For the Republican Senate?

2005-11-17T17:55:00.000-05:00

If you guessed:

Developing an exit strategy for Iraq?
Properly equipping our troops?
Acting to reduce gas prices and reduce dependence on foreign oil?

You would be wrong

If you read polls you might say:

The economy
Terrorism
Or the War in Iraq

You would be wrong

Current Majority "Leader" Bill Frist says:

"Asbestos reform will be the first major piece of legislation that we consider in late January when we return,"

And Judiciary Chair Arlen Specter even said:

"Of all of the items which could provide an economic stimulus to the U.S. economy, I think asbestos reform would be the most important,"

Republicans … Making the world safe for Asbestos. Because if Asbestos is not reformed, the suiciders have really won.

McCain Endorses Candidate who Welcomed White Supremacist Group

2005-11-17T16:53:00.000-05:00

The Associated Press is reporting that Sen. John McCain will be campaigning in Alabama Monday to endorse George Wallace, Jr. for lieutenant governor.

"I'm proud to offer my support to this committed conservative reformer. George will bring great leadership and integrity to the lieutenant governor's office," McCain said in a statement.

Wallace is the son of former Alabama Governors George and Lurleen Wallace. The elder Wallace ran for president on a segregationist platform, but later became a supporter of civil rights.

In June 2005, the younger Wallace delivered the welcoming speech to the Council of Conservative Citizens, an avowedly racist group that Thurgood Marshall once called the “Uptown Klan.” News reports quoted Wallace as saying "There is nothing hateful about those people I've seen."

The CCC was created from the mailing lists of the old White Citizens Councils, which were set up in the 1950s and 1960s to resist efforts to desegregate Southern schools, and which Thurgood Marshall once described as "the uptown Klan."

The group is currently is advertising “White Pride” T-shirts on its website and proudly says “We believe that the United States derives from and is an integral part of European civilization and the European people and that the American people and government should remain European in their composition and character.”

In 1999, RNC chair Jim Nicholson denounced the CCC as “racist” and called on all Republicans to resign from the group because "There is no room for racist views in the Republican Party."

The McCain-Wallace ticket apparently takes a different view.

Also on tap to appear with Wallace are Sen. Lamar Alexander and Gov. Haley Barbour (who has his own CCC issues).

And if McCain and the RNC won’t condemn the CCC’s racism, they ought to at least condemn their geographic knowledge for statements like these:

“We believe the United States is a European country …”

Did Hatch Oil Up his Resume?

2005-11-17T13:10:00.000-05:00

In the middle of yesterday’s meltdown, Sen. Hatch twice claimed to have once been in the oil industry and therefore had intimate knowledge about what it takes to make a profit in the business.

Come on, America, wake up. I am sick of it. I used to be in the oil business. I know how hard it is. …

I get tired of the populist rhetoric on the other side of the aisle that never gives any consideration to how difficult it is to be in this business. I don't have any financial interest in oil. All I can say is that I have been there, I know what it is like. …

Oddly enough, none of the material in Hatch’s official bio mentions his oil business experience, and an initial search found no previous instances of him mentioning it. In addition, glancing at his official bio, its hard to tell when he could have spent any meaningful time in the business.

At an early age, Senator Hatch was taught the value of hard work. His father worked long hours as a metal lather to provide for his family. As a young man, Senator Hatch also learned the metal lathing trade and was a card-carrying member of the AFL-CIO. He worked his way through college at Brigham Young University, graduating in 1959 with a degree in history. He was awarded a full honors scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh Law School. As a law student, he struggled to provide for his growing family, working as a janitor, a metal lather and at night as an all-night desk attendant in a dormitory. In 1962, he received his Juris Doctorate, graduating with honors. After receiving his law degree, Senator Hatch was a practicing attorney, first in Pennsylvania then in Utah, until his election to the United States Senate in 1976. Since then, Senator Hatch also has received five honorary doctorate degrees from law schools and universities.

Unless he’s counting all the time he spent carrying water for the oil industry in the U.S. Senate, its not entirely clear what Sen. Hatch is talking about. Of course, if he’s never really been in the oil business, he lies well enough to have a post-Senate career as an oil executive.

“Oil-in” Hatch Flips Out

2005-11-17T12:18:00.000-05:00

If you ever want to really make Orrin Hatch doggone mad, apparently all it takes is criticizing oil companies. Yesterday on the Senate floor, Hatch rushed to the defense of the poor oil companies, who had a bad day after it was reported that several executives lied to a Senate committee. Orrin said that the big problem today isn’t the fact that oil companies are making record profits while families are paying record high prices. It’s the criticism that the poor companies have to face on the “stinking” senate floor. Question oil company profits? Those are fighting words. Heres a few of the more choice moments from his rant:

Everyday we have people coming around here giving these populist talks about how we have to bring oil and gas prices down, and yet they make it almost impossible to do it. Come on, America, wake up. I am sick of it. I used to be in the oil business. I know how hard it is.

I think it is time to get rid of the populist talk and start talking reality. It is nice to come out and beat up the oil companies who are making great profits, but who would use those profits if they could to develop more of their products.

I think it is very unfair for my colleagues, as much as I admire you, it is very unfair to come on this floor and brand the oil companies as a bunch of antipatriotic companies

I get tired of the populist rhetoric on the other side of the aisle that never gives any consideration to how difficult it is to be in this business. I don't have any financial interest in oil. All I can say is that I have been there, I know what it is like. Of course, these companies are out to make money

I don't believe that oil companies should make excessive profits that they are unwilling to use for furthering their business interests either, but if they are given a chance to use them and go out and get more oil for us and more gas for us, they are going to do it. But every step of the way, they are stymied by the very people here who have been complaining.

Following Hatch’s outburst, Sen. Dorgan summed up:

I would much prefer to see a colleague of mine agitated about the price of energy in a full-scale agitation about what this is doing to consumers, agitated about what it is going to do when somebody on a fixed income cannot figure out a way to heat their home this winter. I would much sooner see a colleague agitated about that than having just come fresh yesterday from, as he described, a meeting with a major oil company, come to make the case for the major oil companies on the Senate floor, and say: You know what the problem is in this country? It is those populists dripping with venom… “When you hit someone over the head with a book and get a hollow sound, it doesn't mean the book is empty.''

Crooks and Liars has video of the most bizarre moment.

Is Republican Recruiting This Bad?

2005-11-16T17:45:00.000-05:00

AP is reporting that “Apprentice” reject Raj Peter Bhakta is launching a political career. Apparently after being rejected by a “reality” show, politics seems like an obvious alternative.

Raj, for those who have Trump allergies, was thrown off the show when he failed to satisfactorily remodel a house. Makes sense that he would decide to run for the House.

And the real fans will remember this:

Raj never gave up: After being fired by Donald Trump, he lingered in the elevator lobby, waiting for the doors to open so he could begin his taxi ride of shame. Instead of standing there, humbled, he went for it: He walked over to Trump employee Robin and asked for her phone number.
As she tried to ignore him, he continued, “Pony up, come on, pony up. Do you have a boyfriend?” Robin, the “secretary” who has no purpose on “The Apprentice” except to tilt her head and tell the contestants they can go back into the boardroom, sighed and didn’t say much.

A legitimate debate question …

MODERATOR: “Mr. Bhakta … “pony up” … does that line ever work?”

One more link … nuff said.

Ted Stevens Makes You Want To Swear

2005-11-16T15:11:00.000-05:00

The Washington Post has obtained documents showing “officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy policy.”

But just last week, executives of three of the firms say that they played no role in the task force.

Thanks to Committee Chair Ted Stevens, who refused to administer an simple oath to the oil executives, they cannot be prosecuted for perjury. There is a fallback statute, but Sen. Stevens so far has not committed to using it. Even after his colleagues asked him to swear in the witnesses, a quick and simple process that numerous witnesses in similar circumstances have agreed to, Stevens refused. His justification? "I intend to be respectful of the position that these gentlemen hold."

When it was revealed that the oil company executives lied to Stevens and his committee, Stevens was outraged. But not at the oil company executives who flatly denied easily demonstrated facts. Rather, Stevens flew into a rage on the Senate floor today because Sen. Durbin took him to task for refusing his colleagues’ simple request. Stevens accused Durbin of violating Senate Rule 19 that makes it taboo to “impugn to another senator or to other senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator.”

To sum up, Stevens made sure that the oil companies got special treatment from the Senate. The companies then turned around and denied that they had gotten special treatment from the administration. That, it turned out was flat out wrong. Who’s to blame? Sen. Durbin of course.

Stevens may have a deteriorating relationship with reality, but his cozy relationship with the oil companies is well-documented. The oil and gas industry has given his campaign more than $350,000. BP is his second largest contributor. He has backed opening the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to drilling and recently supported increasing tanker traffic in Puget Sound. Stevens even owns oil wells in Oklahoma.

This investigation needs to be done right, and that means recalling the executives, putting them under oath, and asking them the tough questions that Americans deserve answers to. And this time, Stevens should hand the gavel over to somebody who can be genuinely impartial and not cowed by the “position these gentlemen hold.”

2005-11-16T10:15:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 16, 2005

NEW GROUP CALLS FOR SWIFT BOAT CANDIDATE TO RELEASE RECORDS
“Whats Good for the Goose is Good for the Slanderers”

Today, the Senate Majority Project publicly called on Vermont Senate Candidate Greg Parke to sign a release allowing public inspection of his entire military record.

A few days ago, Parke released a letter from “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” founder John O’Neill endorsing him, asking for contributions to his campaign and linking the group’s effort to defeat John Kerry to the Vermont Senate race. Parke has since admitted that he asked for O’Neill’s help through another leader of the Swift Boat group, Bud Day. Now, despite the fact that he asked for their help and is taking their money, Parke is denying that the Swift Boat Veterans are aiding him.

“Any candidate or officeholder at any level who condones the Swift Boat smear tactics by soliciting their help and their money should at least pass their basic test,” said Executive Director Mike Gehrke pointing to repeated calls by O'Neill's group and its supporters for John Kerry to release his full military record.

“What’s for the goose is good for the slanderers. If Greg Parke is taking their help and their money, he should allow release and inspection of his entire military record. All he needs to do is sign a form conveniently found on the Swift Boat Vets website and send it to the Senate Majority Project and we will happily pay for and post a website allowing full disclosure of these records.”

The Senate Majority Project's Blog can be found at: http://senatemajorityproject.blogspot.com

A form SF180 authorizing release of military records can be found on the Swift Boat Vets website at: http://www.swiftvets.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Form180

The form can also be downloaded here: http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/standard-form-180.html

###

In Your Gut, You Know He's Nuts

2005-11-15T19:00:00.000-05:00

In 1964, Barry Goldwater rode the slogan “In your heart, you know he’s right” to a whopping 38 percent of the popular vote – the worst showing by a major party candidate since 1824.

The vast majority of Americans may have rejected Goldwater, but in his heart, Sam Alito knew Goldwater was right. In 1985 letter, Supreme Court Nominee Sam Alito cited the 1964 campaign of Barry Goldwater as one of the “greatest influences on his views.” Here are a few examples of views embraced by Goldwater during the 1964 campaign that shaped Alito’s views:

Goldwater supported making Social Security voluntary

Goldwater opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. He said it was an unconstitutional effort to “legislate morality”

Goldwater promised to overturn a Supreme Court case that said the principle of “one person one vote” required representatives to be apportioned by population,

Goldwater promised to strengthen “States Rights”

Goldwater advocated the use of nuclear weapons in Vietnam

Bush has picked a nominee who eagerly embraced the Goldwater Agenda when it helped him get a promotion in 1985, so it’s a fair question how many of its outrageous parts he still wants to impose on the country. Goldwater would have axed the Civil Rights Act and rolled back bedrock democratic principles. And where Goldwater supported rights of women to make medical decisions … Alito seems to be multiple choice.

Democrats in 1964 printed bumper stickers ridiculing the Goldwater campaign slogan, but maybe the LBJ campaigns other slogan for Goldwater applies more to Alito … “In your heart, you know he might”

Then again, Goldwater did offer this gem in 1981: "I think every good Christian ought to kick Jerry Falwell in the ass"

Republican Running Away from Swift Boat Ties

2005-11-15T15:10:00.000-05:00

Just days ago, John O’Neill, the founder of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and a member of its steering committee, wrote a fundraising letter on behalf of Vermont Senate Candidate Greg Parke. Now, confronted with the tie, Parke is already running away.

Today in Roll Call, Parke denied that the Swift Boat group is involved in his campaign, even though its founder has endorsed him, raised money for him and even said that “the mission” was the same as the defeat of John Kerry. Further ties were revealed when the Parke campaign admitted that O’Neill was brought into the group by Swift Boat member Bud Day, who appeared in the group’s advertisements and was interviewed for its book, even though Day never served on Kerry’s boat, and was not even in the same branch of service as John Kerry. Day also traveled for the Group, campaigned against Kerry and has even sued Kerry.

Legal or illegal, if Parke is going to accept the support of Swift Boat Veterans, he should pass their test. We are sure that O’Neill, Day and their Swift Boat cronies would agree that as a candidate for public office that seeks to have power over our armed forces, Parke needs to authorize the disclose of his full service record, just as John Kerry did before and after the 2004 election. He can do so by filling out a simple, two-page Form 180, conveniently available on the Swift Boat Vets website.

We'll be watching closely for the call from O'Neill and his group for this disclosure.

Still Misleading America (Part 1): Bush and the RNC Keep Distorting Democrats Iraq Comments

2005-11-11T13:05:00.000-05:00

The Bush Administration has launched yet another P.R. offensive to salvage public support on Iraq. With polls saying that Bush is simply not trustworthy, and that he lied about intelligence before Iraq, Republicans are left stammering that Democrats made similar pre-war statements. While both parties recognized the obvious -- nuclear weapons in Saddam Hussein’s hands would be bad – Bush alone had access to superior intelligence, the ability to weigh separate claims and release them selectively and the responsibility as commander-in-chief to make the decision whether to send Americans into Iraq.

For the record, here is what Bush said:

Bush raised threat of “mushroom clouds
”“Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.” [Remarks by the President on Iraq, 10/7/2002]

Bush said Iraq had WMD
“[Iraq] possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons…Saddam Hussein is a homicidal dictator who is addicted to weapons of mass destruction.” [Remarks by the President on Iraq, 10/7/2002]

Bush said Iraq and Al Qaida were connected
“We know that Iraq and the Al Qaida terrorist network share a common enemy: the United States of America. We know that Iraq and Al Qaida have had high-level contacts that go back a decade.” [Remarks by the President on Iraq, 10/7/2002]

Bush said Saddam was connected to 9-11
“Some citizens wonder, ‘After 11 years of living with this problem, why do we need to confront it now?’ And there’s a reason. We have experienced the horror of September the 11th.” [Remarks by the President on Iraq, 10/7/2002]

Bush said Iraq sought uranium from Africa and attempted to purchase aluminum tubes“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” [Remarks on the State of the Union, 1/28/2003]

This week the RNC has been in front of distributing segments of remarks from Democratic leaders that would seem to suggest that Democrats made the same judgments the administration did and only recently have questioned Bush’s policy. Even worse, Bush himself has suggested that those questioning the decision are being disloyal to the troops that are there.

Trouble is … every example the Republicans use is either wrong, out of context, specifically based on Administration-released reports that were wrong, or all three. Here are just a few examples:

Sen. Reid said Iraq did not have nuclear weapons
Pointing to a 1992 Senate floor speech, the RNC suggests Reid agreed that Hussein had WMD. But nowhere in the quote that Republicans use did Reid agree that Hussein has WMD, nuclear weapons, OR ties to Al-Qaeda. In fact, he left Iraq out of a list of countries that were believed to have nuclear weapons. Reid didn’t say that Hussein HAD nuclear weapons, rather he specifically said he did NOT.

Furthermore, the speech used was in 1992, shortly after the first Gulf War, and long before the Bush Administration began its march to war. In fact, in 1992, George W. Bush may not have had been able to tell whether Raphael Palmiero was stockpiling steroids.

Sen. Reid’s full quote: "The problem is not nuclear testing; it is nuclear weapons: There are too many of them, and there are too many of them in the wrong hands. The number of third world countries with nuclear capabilities seems to grow daily. Saddam Hussein's near success with developing a nuclear weapon should be an eye-opener for us all. In addition to the United States, three Republics of the former Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, and China, four countries are believed to have nuclear weapons, or have the ability to assemble them in short order; namely, Israel, India, Pakistan, and South Africa."
Sen. Schumer asked for better intelligence in 2002
Schumer did say that the threat of giving nuclear weapons to a suicide bomber was a threat. However, he did not say that Iraq had or was imminently about to obtain a nuclear weapon. Far from endorsing the Bush Adminsitration’s intelligence, Schumer complained that Bush had not yet made his case, saying

"You know, the president and the secretary of defense, in a briefing to the senators last week, said, "We have good evidence that shows why this is a necessity, and we will be sharing it with you and, in a non- classified way, with the American people and the people of the world." That hasn't happened yet. It's interesting, Wolf, I think there's more of a -- there's very little partisanship on this issue, Wolf. From what I've heard from Democrats and Republicans, the stand is virtually the same, which is, basically, show us the money, show us the evidence that, A, Iraq is going to be a real danger, which, if it has nuclear weapons or could have them in a short time, would be, and B, that invasion is the only resort, or maybe the last but only remaining resort. And you'll find -- I think the president will get generalized support. But thus far, he hasn't done that to either the Congress or the American people or, for that matter, to the people of the world, so that even leaders like Blair who want to go along with him are being pulled by their populace in another direction."
President Clinton actually said Bush’s top priority should be pursuit of Al Qaeda, not invasion of Iraq
While Bill Clinton was President, the U.S. and the world community disarmed Iraq. While president, Clinton repeatedly warned of what could occur if the weapons inspectors were not allowed to do their work in the country. Hussein removed weapons inspectors, but backed down and allowed them back into the country in February 1998; days after the speech the RNC cites. In the speech cited, Clinton also notes:

[The UN] inspectors, the eyes and ears of the civilized world, have uncovered and destroyed more weapons of mass destruction capacity than was destroyed during the Gulf War. This includes nearly 40,000 chemical weapons, more than 100,000 gallons of chemical weapons agents, 48 operational missiles, 30 warheads specifically fitted for chemical and biological weapons, and a massive biological weapons facility at Al-Hakim, equipped to produce anthrax and other deadly agents.

Later, after September 11th, Clinton warned that:

"Saddam Hussein didn't kill 3,100 people on Sept. 11, Osama bin Laden did, and as far as we know he's still alive. … I also believe we might do more good for American security in the short run at far less cost by beefing up our efforts in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere to flush out the entire network ... We know they still have a terrorist network around the world, and we're already kind of changing the subject, looking at Saddam Hussein. We know he's not going anywhere." [Associated Press, 9/6/2002]

More to come …

Where's the Bird Flu When You Need It?

2005-11-10T16:37:00.000-05:00

Some poor Republican donor’s kid had to show up this morning at the DNC dressed as a Turkey. Maybe they lost a bet on Tuesday night … It’s really not entirely clear why. Regardless, Democrats had some fun pointing out that after weeks of bad polls, a stalled agenda and brutal election losses, there isn’t much left to strut about …

Go here for the pictures…

Of course they could have just as easily sent chickens, because they’ve got plenty of those these days:

Hayworth Doesn't Want Bush Campaigning For Him

Bush to appear in Pa. minus Santorum

Maybe it was the "Zell-tinis"

2005-11-10T16:02:00.000-05:00

Just when you thought the long sad story of Zell Miller couldn’t get any weirder… the Washington Post reports today that the former Democrat, who bashed lobbyists, adamantly insisted that he would not be a lobbyist, and railed that special interests have destroyed the Senate, has now (wait for it) .... registered as a lobbyist.

Even before he left the Senate, Miller signed up with the government relations practice of McKenna Long & Aldridge, a firm with more than 20 lobbyists representing defense contractors, pharmaceutical makers, and insurance companies. However, Miller adamantly denied he would be a lobbyist:

“one thing he won't be is a lobbyist, he insisted. ‘I'm not going to be walking any halls of the Capitol or taking any folks out for a steak dinner,’ [AP, 12/8/2004]

While McKenna didn't greet Miller with a steak dinner, they did throw him a fancy cocktail party that let him schmooze with other defense lobbyists and Pentagon brass over “Zell-tinis” made from vodka, peach schnapps, and mint leaves.

During his one term in the Senate, Miller complained that "elected officials are beholden to these special interest groups." His answer to the problem was to propose eliminating the 17th Amendment to the Constitution which instituted the direct election of senators:

The Senate has become just one big, bad, ongoing joke, held hostage by special interests, and so impotent an 18-wheeler truck loaded with Viagra would do no good. … Today State governments have to stand in line because they are just another one of the many special interests that try to get Senators to listen to them, and they are at an extreme disadvantage because they have no PAC. … It is the Senate's sorriest of times in its long, checkered, and once glorious history.

Now, according to Senate filings, Miller is a full-fledged, federal lobbyist, registering to lobby for Hercules Inc in September 2005. The Post also reported that Miller will have another lobby disclosure filed soon for luxury transatlantic air carrier Eos Airlines.

(Maybe because he is so ashamed about the role of special interests in the Senate, Miller failed to disclose that he even served in the Senate, as he is required to by federal lobbyist disclosure law.)

Miller is legally barred from contacting Senators until January 2006. But even then, don’t expect too many of his former colleagues to roll out the welcome mat for the senator who betrayed his party as easy as he betrayed his promise not to be a lobbyist.

Then again, when it comes to Zell Miller, things can always change.

Its Not THAT Kind of Handicap

2005-11-08T14:12:00.000-05:00

Roll Call reminds us that Golf Digest recently named Senator Saxby Chambliss the second best golfer in the U.S. Senate and the 33rd best golfer in Washington, D.C. It seems that while the Senate was debating Iraq intelligence in closed session, Sen. Chambliss, who serves on the Senate Select Intelligence and Armed Services committees, missed the session because he was golfing at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

Instead of being forced to talk about the uncomfortable issue of pre-Iraq war intelligence (or the lack thereof), Chambliss was “the envy of golfers everywhere,” as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution put it. At least until he stepped up to what the newspaper called the club’s “unenviable first tee.”
“That was one of the more intimidating shots I have ever had,” the paper quoted Chambliss saying. “Thank goodness it worked out.”

And thank goodness Chambliss, who sits on the Senate Select Intelligence and Armed Services committees, didn’t have to suffer through the Democrats’ tortuous questions about those elusive weapons of mass destruction and whether the Bush administration manipulated the truth and misled Congress into supporting the war.

No mention of whether Chambliss’ golf handicap suffers from the old knee injury that kept him out of Vietnam. Chambliss received four draft deferments, one because of a knee injury. He then went on to accuse Max Cleland, who won a Silver Star in Vietnam before losing both legs and one arm in a grenade explosion, of being weak on defense. One Republican ad even compared Cleland to Osama bin Laden.

Needless to say, Cleland had seen a number of more "intimidating shots" than those at East Lake.

Also no word as to how many deferments Chambliss will seek of a real investigation into whether the Bush Administration knowingly misled the country in the lead-up to war.

Swift Boat Veterans for Republicans

2005-11-08T11:30:00.000-05:00

It took more than a year, but the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth finally admitted it. They were an organization founded and designed to defeat fellow Vietnam combat veteran Senator John Kerry and reelect George Bush.

In an e-mail to Newsmax.com subscribers SBVT founder John O’Neill wrote:

“As you know, I helped start the 'Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' during the 2004 election for one reason...;I knew from three decades of personal experience that John Kerry was a liar and a fraud who had betrayed the men he served with. And there was no way I was going sit idly by as John Kerry tried to become our "Commander-in-Chief". … But just like I knew I had to act when John Kerry was running for President, now we all must act to stop Bernie Sanders.”

Surprise! … John O’Neill wanted to elect George Bush.

It has been well-documented that O’Neill was a committed and long-time partisan with a personal grudge against Kerry. O’Neill and his allies made repeated allegations that were treated as credible by the mains€tream news media, despite the fact that they failed to provide a single scrap of documentary evidence for their claims. The United States Navy investigated and determined that there was no basis for their charges. Even after Kerry released his entire military record during the campaign, and re-released after the campaign, they stuck to their warped version of reality.

Incredibly, both the Bush campaign and O’Neill denied that they were a front for the president’s election campaign. O’Neill hired Republican consultants with ties to Bush and Rove, funded their organization with huge contributions from long-time Bush allies and leading Republican donors and even shared lawyers with the Bush campaign. However, O’Neill steadfastly insisted that he merely wanted to “get the truth out.” Like so much else about their organization, it was a lie, and now they’ve admitted it. In O’Neill’s own words, it was founded for “one reason” to stop John Kerry from becoming Commander in Chief.

“Duh!” should be the initial reaction. However, this has serious potential legal problems for O’Neill and company:

This means that the entire operation was illegal from the start, and that they raised and spent over $20 million illegally in support of George W. Bush. Since 1974, any group whose “major purpose” is to influence federal elections, and spends $1,000 or more to do so, must register with the FEC as a political committee and be subject to the contribution limits, source prohibitions and reporting requirements that apply to all political committees.

O'Neill still has complaints pending before the FEC, so maybe his frank admission will lead to a serious look at this group and exactly how involved the Bush White House and Republican party were in setting up, supporting and running this Bush front group.

What do Republicans say now?

2005-11-07T23:51:00.000-05:00

Today we know that when Bush told the Congress, the Country and the World that we had to invade Iraq in order to prevent it from using weapons of mass destruction that it either had or was producing, he was wrong. And a growing number of accounts suggest that the administration either knew, or should have known that these claims were false.
Democrats are frequently asked whether they were misled by the Bush Administration. But few Republicans who aided and abetted the administration in making the case for war have been asked the same question. Here are just a few statements made by Republican Senators in the lead-up to the vote on authorizing the use of force in Iraq that repeated these claims, vouched for the Administrations bad conclusions and sometimes even went further than even the Bush Administration did. If these senators independently evaluated the intelligence available, then they should answer for their statements. And if they blindly relied on the Bush Administration, then they may wish to address whether they feel that they were misled into making the statements they did.

Senator Bill Frist (R-Tennessee): Iraq has chemical and biological weapons
"I personally don't feel weapons inspectors will make a difference," said Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). He said there is "growing evidence" pointing to Iraq's possession of biological and chemical arms. (The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, 9/5/02)

Sen. Pat Roberts (R., Kan.): Endorsed Bush Intelligence
Roberts said the committee was getting "good analysis" from the CIA. (The Philadelphia Inquirer 10/5/02)

Senator John McCain (R-Arizona): Convinced that Saddam has WMD
Well, I've been convinced of that for a long period of time, as the evidence continues to mount, that Saddam Hussein is acquiring these weapons and is refusing ... ... to allow the weapons inspectors back in, which, by the way, is a Security Council resolution and part of the cease-fire agreement that brought about the end of the Gulf War in 1991. (CNN 9/12/02)

Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minnesota): Iraq has Weapons of Mass Destruction and Must Surrender Them
Pronouncing that "history will judge" the United States based on how it confronts Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, Coleman said he supports a Congressional resolution giving Bush the authority to strike first against Iraq - unilaterally if necessary - if it does not relinquish weapons of mass destruction. (St. Cloud Times 9/25/02)

Senator James Inhofe (R- Oklahoma): Iraq has Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Weapons
Let's look at this, Wolf. If it is true, and I believe it is, that Saddam Hussein has all three of the types, classes of weapons of mass destruction and if he is very, very close to having a missile that would deliver those to an American city, the president has to do something. So that's my feeling. (CNN 8/25/02)

Senator Richard Shelby (R- Alabama): Al Qaeda is in Iraq
There are some [Al Qaede] there, there are some in Baghdad. Lot of stuff we don't know, but we know there has been some affiliation in the past and some help in the past, and some of them are there. Some have gone to the north where the Kurds are, but there are some as we speak in Baghdad. (CNN Capital Gang 9/28/02)

Tom Coburn: A Five Letter Word for The Sound A Duck Makes

2005-11-07T11:49:00.000-05:00

Last we heard from Senator Coburn, he was spending the confirmation hearing for Chief Justice John Roberts attempting to complete a crossword puzzle (and apparently, not doing very well).

He’s back. This time its comforting to know that Coburn will be lending his medical skills to read the mind of Judge Sam Alito. Here’s the exchange from Meet the Press yesterday:

MR. RUSSERT: Do you believe as a physician you can tell whether a candidate for the Supreme Court is telling the truth?
SEN. COBURN: I think you can certainly tell when they're ill at ease with a subject and sometimes telling the truth or not. I think you can do that. I think you can do that--anybody can be trained to do that--by body language, respiratory avoidance responses. Yeah, I think you can.
MR. RUSSERT: And have you used those skills to make judgments like that?
SEN. COBURN: Mm-hm, I certainly have.
MR. RUSSERT: Has any--have you ever detected someone lying?
SEN. COBURN: Uh-huh, lots of times.
MR. RUSSERT: In your hearings.
SEN. COBURN: Sure.
MR. RUSSERT: Such as?
SEN. COBURN: Well , I'm not going to say that. You know, I'm--in lots of hearings that I've had on federal financial management where we're looking at the $100 billion that we found wasted far this year from 2004, I found lots of times when people were not truthful. Absolutely.
MR. RUSSERT: Based on your skills as a physician.
SEN. COBURN: Yeah. And then what you do is you go then look it up and see where the problem is and all of a sudden you find, wait, this isn't truthful.

If only he had used his special powers to tell us that Iraq really didn’t have WMD or that these guys were lying…

ARROGANCE OF POWER BY THE NUMBERS

2005-11-03T17:29:00.000-05:00

Bob Geiger at Yellow Dog Blog has an interesting take on Republican Partisanship in the U.S. Senate. His study shows that so far the Republican-controlled Senate has killed 80 percent of the Democratic sponsored amendments that made it to the Senate floor. Just more evidence of how Republicans have used their majority in the Senate to jam through a far-right agenda that destroys all pretense of bipartisanship.

Senate Uncovers More Abramoff-Cornyn Connections

2005-11-03T14:19:00.000-05:00

E-mails released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee yesterday further document how Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his accomplice Ralph Reed used Sen. John Cornyn to further their scheme to extort millions from unsuspecting Native American tribes in Texas and Louisiana.

MORE CORNYN COVER … “WEEEZ GONNA BE RICH”

In an e-mail commenting on an article where Alabama Coushatta tribal leaders bragged about the number of Texas residents traveling to their casino near the border, Abramoff wrote “Have we launched on Cornyn? We need to do so now.” Reed and Abramoff had already launched a campaign to provide cover for Cornyn’s efforts to close a Tigua casino in Speaking Rock, and had discussed the campaign with Cornyn. The December 19th e-mail seems to outline a new campaign to “persuade” Cornyn to close the Alabama casino as well. A $250,000 check was sent from Capitol Campaign Strategies to Reed’s Century Strategies. And a memo from Abramoff partner Mike Scanlon dated January 6th noted that “The Texas Attorney General filed a lawsuit in federal court on Friday [Jan 4, 2002] to shut down the Alabama Coushatta’s ‘entertainment center’ in Livingston. This means that the threat of a class III facility near Houston has been completely eliminated.” Privately, Scanlon wrote to Abramoff saying “Yeah baby!!! … weeez gonna be rich!!!”

“ATTABOY BUDGET” DISCUSSED FOR CORNYN

Previous e-mails released by the committee documented Reed and Abramoff’s desire to reward Cornyn for helping their cause. Specifically, in e-mails dated January 6th, after Cornyn sued the Alabama tribe, Reed said, “Hope these developments help with client, I think we should budget for an ataboy for Cornyn.”

On February 11th, Reed forwarded an e-mail to Abramoff containing an Associated Press article saying that Cornyn had won a procedural motion when the Supreme Court refused the Tigua tribe’s application for a stay that would keep their casino open. Reed wrote “can we now get an “attaboy” budget to give these guys air cover?”

THE 2002 TEXAS POLITICAL PLAN

Also released yesterday were e-mails detailing a Texas political plan Abramoff designed to defeat Texas Democrats who would frustrate Cornyn’s goal of keeping the Tigua casino closed. Reed specifically asked for help for Cornyn’s Senate race again on July 24, 2002 saying “This is total victory and should lead friends in TX to now want to launch the grassroots effort to insure that those elected officials who stood up for families and against casino gambling have support this fall. It is critical. The Governor’s race is too close to call and the Senate race is within the margin of error.” Previous reports show that Cornyn and the RNC received financial help from rival casino owners seeking to keep the Tigua casino closed.

Scooters Defenders

2005-11-03T12:50:00.000-05:00

Republican Senators have been rushing to defend Scooter Libby since he was indicted on five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice last week. Remarkably some of the same Republicans who hyperventilated and rushed to judgment when Ken Starr threw around similar accusations about the last administration seem to have changed their tune. Where Republicans treated accusations of perjury as grounds for removing a president, today they seem to be barely more than parking tickets.

SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHINSON

On a recent Meet the Press, Hutchinson discussed possible indictments in the CIA leak case. The Senator hopes that if there is going to be an indictment, "it is an indictment on a crime and not some perjury technicality where ... just to show that their two years of investigation was not a waste of time and taxpayer dollars." [Chicago Tribune 10/30/05].

But Hutchinson was singing a different tune when discussing why she voted for the removal of President Clinton back in 1999, she said "the reason that I voted to remove him from office is because I think the overriding issue here is that truth will remain the standard for perjury and obstruction of justice in our criminal justice system, and it must not be gray. It must not be muddy." [Hardball, 10/24/05]

SEN. ORRIN HATCH

Recently, Senator Orrin Hatch was on CNN discussing Scooter Libby and the CIA leak case. Hatch dismissed the charges that Libby and other officials may have blocked the investigation of crimes, by saying that the prosecutor has not yet indicted Libby, Rove or others for releasing the identity of a CIA agent. Hatch went on to say, “You will notice one thing. He did not call his wife a covert agent. Now, that was a very telling statement by his attorney because that's what this whole case was supposed to be built on. If there was no underlying crime committed, then one has to ask, why then would you bring five count against a servant in the government who may or may not have done something wrong?”

Hatch sure took these offenses seriously when President Clinton was under investigation. The Senator had said referring to President Clinton "If he lies before the grand jury, that will be grounds for impeachment," [York Daily Record 8/17/98]. Wow, grounds for impeachment? That is some serious stuff. The Utah Senator made other comments “for one, worries that if the Senate "finds that perjury and obstruction of justice are not removable" it would send the message that the Senate does not take these offenses seriously” [The Nation 2/22/99]. Hatch believed perjury and obstruction of justice were serious before, why not now?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina felt the need to speak on the supposed intentions of the Bush White House by saying: "I really, honestly believe this is the truth, that Joe Wilson, when he wrote the column critical of the Niger event, interjected into the debate that he was sent there by the vice president. And in the White House, they knew that wasn't true. And they tried to set the record straight. And apparently, they didn't violate the law in setting the record straight," Mr. Graham said. [Washington Times 10/31/05]. Graham did not say why revealing the identity of Wilson’s wife, and possibly endangering national security, would set the record straight.

Graham had a different story when talking about President Clinton: “But Lindsey said that hiding evidence, manipulating grand jury testimony or lying to the jury in an active case are impeachable offenses. [AP Newswires 8/10./98].” Huh? That is what the current White House is doing, but Senator Graham said they are setting the record straight, I don’t understand why Senator Graham didn’t say President Clinton was setting the record straight when he made these accusations. Senator Graham also said “For God's sake,'' he told the Senate, ``figure out what kind of person we have here in the White House. [Winnipeg Free Press 2/11/99].” It might be the proper time to direct that question towards President Bush and his staff at the White House.

Senator Graham had also said when referring to President Clinton "You don't wag your finger at people and lie to them. People can forgive you for your sins, but they don't want to be lied to." [The Herald of Rock Hill, S.C. 8/18/99].”

John Cornyn and the Abramoff Scandal

2005-11-02T15:16:00.000-05:00

This morning, The Senate Indian Affairs Committee held a fourth hearing expected to further expose the degree to which Jack Abramoff defrauded Native American Tribes that hired him as a lobbyist. The hearing today will focus on his work for the Coshutta Tribe in Louisiana which was seeking to lobby the Department of Interior to reject the application of a rival tribe for a casino. Abramoff eventually extracted $36 million from the tribe in part to allegedly convince Texas voter not to legalize gambling.

Testimony of Coshutta Tribe Councilman David Sickey today revealed that Abramoff and Michael Scanlon obtained the contract by over-hyping the threat that gambling could be legalized in Texas, and bragging that they had “critical influence with Texas officials who could defeat Texas gambling.”

Texas’ chief gambling cop at the time was Attorney General John Cornyn. With the help of Abramoff, Scanlon and Ralph Reed, Cornyn rose to prominence in Texas by shutting down the Tigua casino, a client that Abramoff was simultaneously convincing to pay him millions to keep the casino open. [Washington Post, 9/25/2004]

Cornyn won final judgment in the lawsuit to close the casino in February 2002, weeks after formally kicking off his U.S. Senate campaign, saying "I will be a senator who will fight hard for true Texas values, and a conservative senator who will work for and stand beside our great president” [Houston Chronicle, 1/14/2002, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 4/17/2005]

His effort was no doubt helped along by the $4 million anti-gambling campaign funded by Abramoff and run by Ralph Reed – formerly of the Christian Coalition and currently a candidate for Lieutenant Governor in Georgia. E-mails released previously show that Reed and Abramoff were closely connected and receiving inside information from Cornyn’s office and keeping him posted on their efforts over a period of months. And the campaign itself was expressly an effort to provide political cover for Cornyn’s efforts. [U.S. News and World Report, 8/29/2005, Atlanta Journal Constitution, 6/19/2005]

But Cornyn’s race didn’t just profit from the publicity. Near the end of the campaign, Reed wrote to Abramoff saying “I think we should budget for an ataboy for cornyn” [sic]. Abramoff contributed $1,000, the maximum amount legally allowed. Cornyn also received $6,250 in contributions from Las Vegas casino interests who oppose Indian gaming, some of which were made at the same time Cornyn was pushing to close the Tigua's casino. In addition, a rival casino owner, Stanley Fulton, who was seeking to keep the Tigua casino closed, gave $1.25 million to the RNC. The RNC transferred a total of $2.8 million to the Texas Republican Party. Fulton also gave the maximum legal contribution to Cornyn’s Senate campaign. [El Paso Times, 10/30/2002]

Today, Cornyn pleads amnesia, saying he has no recollection of any contact with Abramoff. [Fort Worth Star Telegram, 4/17/2005]

The hearings into Abramoff’s dealings are a start, but the examination should not exclude the hard questions for the public officials and candidates who made his scams possible.

REFORM THIS!

2005-11-01T16:32:00.000-05:00

Could it be that Senator John McCain is illegally raising soft money to boost a future presidential campaign?

Allison Hayward at www.skepticseye.com recently published an appeal from McCain for contributions to a South Carolina (read early primary state) state legislator. In the letter McCain says:

As you know, I rarely ask you to support candidates for state office in states other than your own. However, I must make an exception for a race coming up in South Carolina. …

Rick [Quinn] needs our help. Running statewide is very expensive, and it is important for him to get a strong early start. I hope you will consider sending him a contribution. The easiest way to do that is by logging on to Rick’s website at…

As a South Carolina state legislative candidate, Quinn happily accepts corporate contributions up to $5,000. But under the federal law that is McCain’s namesake, federal officeholders that help state candidates such as Quinn raise money cannot, and must only ask for funds that they could asked for under the federal law. The FEC recently clarified this saying that such funds could be raised so long as …
“written notices are clearly and conspicuously displayed at state candidate fundraising events at which Federally impermissible funds are raised indicating that the covered person is only soliciting federally permissible funds….Alternatively, if written notices are not provided at the event, the covered official may make the following public oral disclaimer: “I am only asking for up to $2,000 from individuals and I am not asking for corporate, labor or minors’ funds.”
[FEC Advisory Opinion 2003-3]

According to Heyward, this solicitation did not contain such a disclaimer.

Is Senator McCain going to FEC prison? Probably not. But he should get a few minutes in the hypocrisy penalty box. In March of this year, McCain joined a letter where he argued for a rule that would “bar Federal officeholders and candidates from soliciting ANY non-Federal funds.” [McCain et al. letter dated 3/28/2005].

Nobody is asking McCain, or anybody else, to unilaterally disarm. And the new federal laws McCain helped write are anything but clear. But we would hope that the media holds McCain to the same level of scrutiny that it does others that are tangled in the web of confusing rules he created and supported.

REMEMBERING ...

2005-10-31T12:24:00.000-05:00

This morning, CNN turned to Senator Jeff Sessions to comment on Rosa Parks memorial. His glowing comments about Parks, and the civil rights movement, rang a little hollow since prior to becoming a United States Senator he was the only Reagan judicial nominee denied by a Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee. His rejection was in large part because of discomfort over Sessions racially-charged statements, disagreement with mainstream interpretations of the Voting Rights Act, and racially-slanted prosecutions for voting fraud.

In 1984, as a United States Attorney, Sessions unsuccessfully prosecuted a former aide of Rev. Martin Luther King, Albert Turner, alleging voter fraud. [Washington Post 6/6/1985] Turner was one of three civil rights activists whose voter registration drives in black counties attracted notice of white Alabama Republicans as the percentage of African American voters registered in the counties began to increase. Sessions launched an investigation of these counties, but not other predominantly white counties, after the 1984 election. After an exhaustive investigation and several interrogations of African American voters, Sessions could point to just 14 bad ballots out of 1.7 million cast. When the matter came to court, Turner was acquitted in less than four hours. [Wildman, The New Republic, 12/30/2002]

During his unsuccessful confirmation, Sessions admitted to calling the Voting Rights Act of 1965 a "piece of intrusive legislation," a phrase he stood behind even in his confirmation hearings. [Wildman, The New Republic, 12/30/2002] Today, however, Sessions praised the Act saying: "the Voting Rights Act really fundamentally changed so much of what occurred in the South. People were surreptitiously and systematically, in some cases just blatantly, denied the right to vote in the South. That has been eliminated, of course, by the Voting Rights Act." [CNN Breaking News, 10/31/2005]

Finally, according to sworn statements by Justice Department lawyers, Sessions called the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union “un-American” and “communist-inspired” and said they “force civil rights down the throats of people.” He also reportedly said of the Ku Klux Klan, “I used to think they’re OK,” until learning that some Klan members were “pot smokers.” Sessions said the remarks were in jest or had been misinterpreted. [1996 Congressional Quarterly Profile]

Before praising civil rights leaders, Sessions should revisit his own civil rights record.