Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Corruption in Washington Archive
September 28, 2008
The original Golden Fleece Award
William Proxmire, John McCain, and Georgia--the pieces fall into place
Randy Travesty
In which I find myself in the awkward position of defending the integrity of a lobbyist
September 23, 2008
Scary Palin Thought of the Day
Given Sarah Palin's stonewallling of the Alaska Legislature, and her refusal to honor legislative subpoenas, is there any reason to believe that she won't pick David Addington as counsel to the Vice President if she assumes office?...
Abracadabra
This is really extraordinary. At the Banking Committee hearing today, Chuck Schumer--not generally known as someone who is tough on Wall Street--asked Hank Paulson a reasonable question: why do you need $700 billion right now? You said you were going to use about $50 billion a month; so why don't we give you $150 billion now and then come back...
September 22, 2008
Maybe we SHOULD fire Chris Cox
Today I met with a big development executive, whose business is doing just fine, and isn't in trouble over the financial meltdown. But he is absolutely outraged at Chris Cox and the SEC. "Why?", I asked. "What has he done? He seems like the convenient whipping boy of the day." "It's what he hasn't done," my friend replied. "He doesn't...
Shorter Rick Davis
The New York Times has lost its credibility by reporting that I was paid $2 million by Fannie and Freddie for lobbying. I was actually paid $2 million for doing absolutely nothing....
September 10, 2008
Asleep at the Switch
So it turns out that there is a "culture of ethical failure" in the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service. The Inspector General's reports "portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch." It's all there: sex, drugs, cash--just the sort of thing that makes...
September 06, 2008
More presumption by John McCain
He's acting as if he's a (Republican) President even before the election. I'm pretty sure even Nixon waited until he'd been inaugurated to start obstructing justice....
August 20, 2008
Obama ad hits McCain on Ralph Reed
McCain holds hearings on Jack Abramoff, never calls key Abramoff co-conspirator Ralph Reed. Reed organizes fundraiser for McCain.
August 18, 2008
Your tax dollars at work
When Condi Rice went to Tbilisi, the plane she should have been using was flying Dick Cheney to Republican fundraisers.
August 13, 2008
Is this allowed?
AP treats the scandal about McCain's foreign policy adviser lobbying for foreign governments as ... as scandal. I thought that was against the rules.
Meantime, Saakashvili wants McCain to pass from words to deeds, and wants American troops as peacekeepers. Would McCain send them?
July 29, 2008
Cleaning Out the Stables
The DOJ IG's report demonstrating the politicization of the Department implies the not-unreasonable suspicion that the Administration has done this throughout the government. They have had eight years to overlook the most qualified applicants, and put unqualified hacks from the "right" backgrounds into the civil service. Remember how Regent University Law School boasted that more than 150 of its graduates...
July 28, 2008
Pardons: Just Keeping Score
AG Mukasey is "of course disturbed" by the DOJ Inspector General's findings that Monica Goodline, Kyle Sampson, former White House Liason Jan Williams, and EOUSA (Executive Office for United States Attorneys) Director John Nowacki (who is still at the White House), all "committed misconduct, by considering political and ideological affiliations in soliciting and selecting IJs [immigration judges], which are career...
July 23, 2008
Question of the Day
Jacob Leibenluft has a useful "Explainer" today on the Presidential pardon power, but then comes up with this clunker: If someone hasn't yet been charged with a crime, how does the president know what to pardon them for? As in Nixon's case, President Bush could issue a pardon that applies generally to any crimes that may have been committed within...
July 22, 2008
The Upcoming Pardon Wave: Bring on the Disbarments!
To the surprise of exactly no one, in light of the torture scandal, the warrantless wiretapping scandal, the US Attorneys scandal, the Valerie Plame scandal, and the (fill in blank) scandal, conservative lawyers are pushing the Bush Administration for dozens of pardons for administration officials. Some of us, of course, predicted this months and even years ago (well, okay--a year...
July 13, 2008
Latest Nigerian email scam
... pretends to come from Blackwater employees in Iraq.
July 02, 2008
$1.2 billion rip-off
The House just voted to block a bidding system that would mean that Medicare no longer pays $110 for a walker available at Wal-Mart for $60. Total cost to the taxpayers and beneficiaries: $1.2 billion per year.
June 16, 2008
Blackmail
KBR shook down the Army for more than $1 billion it hadn't earned by threatening to shut off food to the troops unless it was paid.
June 14, 2008
McCain's campaign manager's Kremlin ties
The influence of money on politics creates a national security vulnerability. Patriotically, Rick Davis of the McCain campaign has alerted us to that vulnerability; his firm Davis, Manafort has close allies of Vladimir Putin as clients, and has helped those allies try to frustrate U.S. foreign policy.
May 27, 2008
John McCain, Phil Gramm, and UBS
While UBS was helping its clients evade US taxes, its Vice-Chairman and lobbyist, Phil Gramm, was advising John McCain on banking policy.
May 25, 2008
Rove, Siegelman, and executive privilege
If Rove can deny involvement in public, why can't he do so under oath?
The House has arrest powers; it should use them.
May 18, 2008
The bare necessities of copyright
A proposal for a name for IP rollback.
What could we do if we broke the power of money in politics?
If Democrats can raise big money in small chunks over the Internet, that ought to free us to do some good and popular things that some group of big donors has until now been able to block.
What's the list?
April 10, 2008
Corruption and real life
Latest Barack Obama Pennsylvania TV spot:
The Medicare prescription drug coverage bill explicitly forbids Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. The chair of the House committee that wrote that law quit Congress to take a $2 million-a-year job lobbying for Big Pharma. Suddenly "reducing lobbyist influence" isn't some vague wine-track goo-goo issue; it's about Grandma's heart medicine.
April 06, 2008
Political violence
The crew that brought you the corrupt Siegelman prosecution is still at work.
March 28, 2008
March 24, 2008
The Kwame Kilpatrick case
Is perjury in civil suits worth prosecuting?
Does a mayor have the same right to use his office to obstruct justice as a President?
March 15, 2008
March 14, 2008
No longer for sale
Clinton-supporting fat cat DNC donors are threatening to ask for their money back if the Florida delegation chosen contrary to party rules isn't seated anyway. They're welcome to take a walk. Obama's on-line fundraising has made them obsolete.
March 10, 2008
"Structuring" by Spitzer, and by Limbaugh
Both were crimes. Or neither was. Take your pick.
March 07, 2008
Pardon me, Mr. President.
Bill Clinton won't release the records surrounding all those pardons, including the ones Hillary's brother Hugh was paid $200,000 apiece for obtaining.
March 01, 2008
The Goeglein plagiarism case
Shouldn't newspaper editors use TurnItIn?
February 25, 2008
A Short Constitutional Law Lesson
Mark observes that because the statute of limitations for obstruction of justice lasts past next January, "we may yet see Karl Rove behind bars." I would remind my co-blogger that Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution gives the President the power "to grant Pardons . . . for Offenses against the United States." I would be willing...
The next Attorney General?
Mark's notion that the next Attorney General needs to have nonpartisan credentials makes a certain amount of sense, if for no other reason that Democrats need to create the perception that the government represents the entire public and can do competently. (Republicans gain an advantage with incompetent and partisan government because it reduces the public's faith in government to begin...
Railroaded
Sixty Minutes has the goods on the Siegelman case.
February 22, 2008
Influence peddling on the Straight Talk Express
Charles Black, who runs a lobbying firm, is still drawing a full-time salary from his firm even as he travels on the Straight Talk Express as one of McCain's senior staffers. How does he earn his salary? Why, he does his lobbying work by phone from the campaign bus.
Beautiful!
February 06, 2008
February 04, 2008
Reason to vote Democratic #16,523
HUD Secretary tries to shake down the Philadelphia Housing Authority on behalf of his friend, a Republican contributor.
January 30, 2008
Quid pro quo
Bill Clinton cozies up to the dictator of Kazakhstan in order to get a uranium-mining concession for a friend, who turns around and commits $131 million to the William J. Clinton Foundation.
January 02, 2008
The DOJ-CIA Videotape Investigation: Morose Thought of the Day
I suppose that it's a good thing that Michael Mukasey has ordered a criminal probe into the CIA destruction (with White House approval) of the torture videotapes. And I suppose that it's also a good thing he has appointed someone who seems to be a career, professional, and very hard-headed prosecutor to the job. But I can't say that I...
December 17, 2007
Truth and Reconciliation
If a Democrat gets elected next year, he or she is going to have a terrible hand to play. The economy is likely to be in a slowdown, with the bad-housing-debt problem still looming. The foreign policy situation certainly isn't going to get any better. And worst of all, the new President will be inheriting an office discredited, and a...
November 14, 2007
Obstruction of justice: News Corp., Regan, and Kerik
Did News Corp. execs ask Judith Regan to lie to investigators to protect Bernie Kerik and avoid political damage to Rudy Giuliani? Looks that way.
October 23, 2007
Turnabout is fair play
The attempt to censure Pete Stark breaks the "ethics truce." Time to go after the GOP crooks, hard.
October 16, 2007
Coin-operated politics
No, the Turkish government isn't buying votes on Capitol Hill; that would be illegal. It's just hiring lobbyists, and the lobbyists are buying the votes. All perfectly legal. Feh.
October 04, 2007
God bless Larry Craig!
Looks as if we're going to have him to kick around for another year or so. But it would be a disgrace if the Senate were to make his toe-tapping a basis for his expulsion. His attempt to abuse his power is a different matter.
September 30, 2007
First things first
Why should Harry Reid pull the Republicans' chestnuts out of the fire by investigating Larry Craig? If the ethics committee is going to hold hearings they ought to be on Ted Stevens.
Competing to sell the rope
What's a top Republican strategist doing giving aid and comfort to the KGB?
Why, making money, of course. You got a problem with it?
September 24, 2007
Political and journalistic malpractice
The public perceives the two parties as about equally ethically challenged. Some Democrats, and some journalists, simply aren't doing their jobs.
August 23, 2007
Blood money in politics
The mine owner in the Crandall Canyon cave-ink had a long history of safety violations and yet got permission from MSHA to pursue "retreat mining" at Crandall Canyon. He was also a generous donor to Republican candidates and committees. Are they going to give the money back?
July 30, 2007
The first step in an impeachment ...
... is a resolution of inquiry. Jay Inslee of Washington plans to file one tomorrow against Gonzales. Don't applaud; just throw money.
July 28, 2007
Impeach Gonzales?
The NYT suggests it; Josh Marshall endorses it; I'm for it.
July 10, 2007
The Gonzales Denounement--You Heard It Here First
Now that the Washington Post has revealed that Alberto Gonzales perjured himself while testifying before a Senate committee in 2005 (piling on top of his other perjuries), I will now offer the Ultimate Prediction on what will happen. Likely? No. But if it happens, you heard it here first: 1. The House of Representatives will impeach Gonzales. 2. The Senate,...
July 02, 2007
The Libby Commutation: Let's have some hearings!
Bring Libby in, immunize him, and ask him under oath what he had on Cheney and Bush.
July 01, 2007
You-read-it-here-first dep't
The NYT comes out for Congressional hearings on the Siegelman affair.
June 30, 2007
How to save the Imperial Vice-President
For the first time, I have proposed a contract for TradeSports (now Intrade): Will Bush pardon Cheney before leaving office in January 2009? It's hardly far-fetched; recall that Ford pardoned Nixon before any prosecution was brought. Indeed, this is the conservative approach. The more aggressive contract would be: Will Bush pardon Cheney in January 2009, then resign and be pardoned...
June 29, 2007
What next in the Siegelman scandal?
How about hearings focused on Dana Jill Simpson?
June 28, 2007
Seven years, four months for Siegelman
More than the guy who's supposed to have bribed him, though he never pocketed a nickle of the purported "bribe."
June 26, 2007
Libby and Siegelman
The former Democratic Governor of Alabama is facing 30 years in prison based on a case that the former Republican Attorney General of Arizona says "doesn't pass the smell test."