Clients Getting Smarter All the Time

San Diego's seldom-read alternative paper, the San Diego Weekly Reader, has a brief story this week on the decision of the San Diego State University Research Foundation to terminate its relationship with lobbyist and former Rep. Bill Lowery, now under investigation along with House Appropriations Committee Ranking Minority Jerry Lewis.

The San Diego State University Research Foundation has parted company with the firm of ex–GOP congressman Bill Lowery, its longtime lobbyist, who is currently under scrutiny by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles for his role in obtaining congressional earmarks for defense contractor Brent Wilkes, convicted in the Randy “Duke” Cunningham bribery case. The ongoing investigation reportedly centers on allegations that Lowery funneled campaign contributions to his friend and former colleague, Republican congressman Jerry Lewis of San Bernardino, in exchange for Lewis’s assistance in earmarking hundreds of millions of dollars for Wilkes and other clients, including the foundation. Both Lowery and Lewis have denied any wrongdoing. Campaign filings show that Lewis has spent a total of $1.27 million on legal fees over the past three years, $105,000 of it in the last quarter of 2007.

It's nice to know that the investigation continues, since the Justice Department has consistently put lawyers inches from retirement in charge of the case, and then had to start over following their retirements. Especially since Lewis had the gall in mid-February to come out in defense of earmarks, right around the same time that reports surfaced on his eye-popping $137 mllion in earmarks the previous year.

So much news gets lost in the relentless campaigning...

There's nothing I find more annoying than the relentless media focus on the Presidential campaigns -- the only saving grace being that the California primaries are over so I don't have to sit through any more of those idiotic ads. Among the items generally overlooked:
     o President Bush's disapproval rating is at 65 percent, only two points off the all-time record. You go, boy!
     o The House Democrats have developed a potential compromise on legislation allowing the government to tap our phones willy-nilly again: split the bill in two, one bill specifically on the issue of immunity for phone companies. That would allow liberal Democrats to vote against the immunity bill while supporting the overall legislation; and, since they will lose on immunity, allow the program to continue as the President wants. End result: an enormous amount of time wasted pulling together a sham vote designed to save face.
     o Futzing continues in an effort to bring the ethics panel reform back to the Floor of the House. It will probably take one more indictment to bring it over the top, but the ways things have been going, that shouldn't delay things very long.

The toe tapping lessons will be an added benefit...

Thanks for Los Angeles Times blogger Andrew Malcolm for catching on this Sen. Larry Craig item, which he picked up on from The Washington Post's Sleuth blog:

Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho is looking for some college interns to work in his Senate office this summer. Parents, what do you think?...
Craig's news release last week says, "Interns have the chance to be an essential part of a working congressional office. They participate in the legislative process as well as ensure that constituent services run smoothly."

Last weeks' Craig news item was the increasing cost of prosecuting him for lewd conduct in the now-famous Minneapolis Airport men's room stall shown above. While some wonder why the state keeps spending money on this, I'm more curious why he stays in office despite having disgraced his state and destroyed his career.

Craig's Washington office, by the way, is in the Hart Senate Office Building, the newest and most modern of the Senate buildings. It has the nicest men's rooms, too...