George Bush has a George Bush Moment...
Remember when George H.W. Bush had that encounter with a supermarket scanner? The technology everyone in the country had encountered a thousand times over, but the elder Bush looked at with awe? Well, GW's had his own moment in the sun, expressing surprise at the idea of $4 gasoline when every driver in America knows that's coming this summer.
The Bushes seem to suffer from a complete lack of awareness of the common man's woes, something that's hardly surprising given their high-society upbringing. GW, though, goes beyond the rest by his complete lack of interest in the key issues that face most Americans. Check out the video on this White House news site to see how articulate he was this week talking about baseball when the 2007 World Series champion Red Sox visited; that's because he finds baseball interesting. The people's economic woes? Booooooooo-ring!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Ethics Reform, Schmethics Reform...
The House of Representatives has delayed a vote on the new ethics process involving outside ethics experts. The delay, of course, was due to a revolt among rank-and-file members, both Republican and Democrat, obsessed with the idea that someone from the outside world might sit in judgment on them. Remember, this is the same House of Representatives that made sure to make ethics rules changes passed in 2007 "rules of the House" rather than laws. That prevents the Justice Department from enforcing those "rules," leaving Congress itself in the catbird seat.
The New York Times has a good strategy for pressuring a vote on this: just keep saying the name "Jack Abramoff" over and over. Works for me.
Meantime, AP has a nice summary piece on the first forays of Rep. William Jefferson into Africa with then-President Bill Clinton, the trip that started Jefferson down the road to his upcoming corruption trial. It's evidence of a new Washington truism: "Corruptions always start small in Washington."
The House of Representatives has delayed a vote on the new ethics process involving outside ethics experts. The delay, of course, was due to a revolt among rank-and-file members, both Republican and Democrat, obsessed with the idea that someone from the outside world might sit in judgment on them. Remember, this is the same House of Representatives that made sure to make ethics rules changes passed in 2007 "rules of the House" rather than laws. That prevents the Justice Department from enforcing those "rules," leaving Congress itself in the catbird seat.
The New York Times has a good strategy for pressuring a vote on this: just keep saying the name "Jack Abramoff" over and over. Works for me.
Meantime, AP has a nice summary piece on the first forays of Rep. William Jefferson into Africa with then-President Bill Clinton, the trip that started Jefferson down the road to his upcoming corruption trial. It's evidence of a new Washington truism: "Corruptions always start small in Washington."
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Who are they kidding?
Senator Robert C. Byrd, the inveterate crank from West Virginia, fell at his home recently and has been hospitalized, raising the question: is death the only way to get this crazy old coot out of the Senate?
In December, Politico blogged on rumors that Senate Democrats were looking at ways to remove Sen. Byrd from the Chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee; those rumors were quickly quashed, and Byrd retains the chair. This despite the fact that everyone in Washington knows he's not up to the job -- see this June 2007 AP report posted on MSNBC describing his inability to manage the Committee's business.
Congress has a long history of people staying too long, including former Democratic appropriations chairs Rep. Jamie Whitten and Sen. John Stennis, and House Rules Committee Chairman Claude Pepper. As Pepper's decline progressed, then-Rep. Joseph Moakley of Massachusetts used to sit next to him at Rules Committee meetings, nudging him along and helpfully pointing out when Committee Members had questions or comments. It's sad to watch legislative giants in their decline; it verges on the criminally negligent that their colleagues let them continue to chair Congress's most powerful committees in the name of collegiality.
Senator Robert C. Byrd, the inveterate crank from West Virginia, fell at his home recently and has been hospitalized, raising the question: is death the only way to get this crazy old coot out of the Senate?
In December, Politico blogged on rumors that Senate Democrats were looking at ways to remove Sen. Byrd from the Chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee; those rumors were quickly quashed, and Byrd retains the chair. This despite the fact that everyone in Washington knows he's not up to the job -- see this June 2007 AP report posted on MSNBC describing his inability to manage the Committee's business.
Congress has a long history of people staying too long, including former Democratic appropriations chairs Rep. Jamie Whitten and Sen. John Stennis, and House Rules Committee Chairman Claude Pepper. As Pepper's decline progressed, then-Rep. Joseph Moakley of Massachusetts used to sit next to him at Rules Committee meetings, nudging him along and helpfully pointing out when Committee Members had questions or comments. It's sad to watch legislative giants in their decline; it verges on the criminally negligent that their colleagues let them continue to chair Congress's most powerful committees in the name of collegiality.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Well, at least somebody's making money...
What better way to wake up than to learn that lobbying revenues in Washington increased 9 percent in 2007 compared to the prior year. The weekend web posting by The Hill will be followed up tomorrow by a full list, but its look at the top ten for 2007 is an eye-opener.
Old-line firms Patton Boggs and Akin Gump topped the field, each up in the range of $6-7 million at $42.7 and $32 million respectively. Must have been American companies investing more to keep the in new Democratic majority: a strong trend was seen in formerly Republican firms going bipartisan, including BGR Holdings, which slipped in at number 5 overall with $22.7 million.
BGR Holdings is the new name, of course, of Barbour Griffith and Rogers, the shameless sludgebuckets who decided that representing an opposition leader in Iraq in the middle of a U.S.-led civil war was somehow patriotic.
What better way to wake up than to learn that lobbying revenues in Washington increased 9 percent in 2007 compared to the prior year. The weekend web posting by The Hill will be followed up tomorrow by a full list, but its look at the top ten for 2007 is an eye-opener.
Old-line firms Patton Boggs and Akin Gump topped the field, each up in the range of $6-7 million at $42.7 and $32 million respectively. Must have been American companies investing more to keep the in new Democratic majority: a strong trend was seen in formerly Republican firms going bipartisan, including BGR Holdings, which slipped in at number 5 overall with $22.7 million.
BGR Holdings is the new name, of course, of Barbour Griffith and Rogers, the shameless sludgebuckets who decided that representing an opposition leader in Iraq in the middle of a U.S.-led civil war was somehow patriotic.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
They're at it again...
The Saturday New York Times has a report on the decision of the House of Representatives to consider an independent ethics panel to replace the utterly useful joke of a Committee that currently oversees House rules.
This in the immediate aftermath of the indictment of Arizona Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, the latest in a lengthy list nicely summarized by the Washington Post. And ten days after a slew of reports on the failure of the Senate Ethics Committee to act on Sen. Larry Craig -- the best headline of the group coming from the Detroit Free-Press, with its report that the investigation "Seems Stalled." Meanwhile, Federal corruption investigations into the actions of Rep. Jerry Lewis and Sen. Ted Stevens, Ranking Minority Members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee respectively, continue, although at a staggeringly slow pace.
Once again, in the face of overwhelming evidence, the House is looking to put a Band-Aid on over a gaping wound. It's pathetic.
The Saturday New York Times has a report on the decision of the House of Representatives to consider an independent ethics panel to replace the utterly useful joke of a Committee that currently oversees House rules.
This in the immediate aftermath of the indictment of Arizona Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, the latest in a lengthy list nicely summarized by the Washington Post. And ten days after a slew of reports on the failure of the Senate Ethics Committee to act on Sen. Larry Craig -- the best headline of the group coming from the Detroit Free-Press, with its report that the investigation "Seems Stalled." Meanwhile, Federal corruption investigations into the actions of Rep. Jerry Lewis and Sen. Ted Stevens, Ranking Minority Members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee respectively, continue, although at a staggeringly slow pace.
Once again, in the face of overwhelming evidence, the House is looking to put a Band-Aid on over a gaping wound. It's pathetic.
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