Salon.com > Ben Travers

House Dems shoot down idea of Pelosi investigation

Thu, 21 May 2009 22:01:00 +0000

On Thursday, House Democrats decisively blocked a Republican measure that sought the creation of a bipartisan subcommittee to investigate allegations leveled by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that the CIA misled her about the use of interrogation methods like waterboarding.

Pelosi's accounts of CIA briefings have exposed her to a barrage of attacks over the last few weeks, with Republicans trying to redefine the investigation into Bush-era torture methods as a hypocritical partisan stunt. The embattled speaker had responded to criticism last week by accusing the CIA of lying to her and to Congress about the Agency's use of waterboarding, further igniting the controversy. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for her resignation, while Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, demanded that her security clearances be suspended, saying she “can’t be trusted with intelligence secrets until this matter is cleared up."

Quote of the day

Thu, 14 May 2009 22:05:00 +0000

There are lot of laudable qualities a person might have -- honesty, intelligence, temperance -- and probably most people in the world would agree that "empathy," the ability to identify with another human being's feelings and circumstances, is one of them. But prominent conservatives have been slamming President Obama for saying empathy is one of the things he's going to look for in potential replacements for retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter.

On Wednesday, during an appearance on NPR's "Tell Me More," former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales got in on the act. (Hat-tip to Think Progress' Matt Corley.) Here's the transcript:

GOP hits back over torture probe

Wed, 13 May 2009 22:25:00 +0000

When a Senate Judiciary subcommittee held a hearing on Bush administration interrogations Wednesday, it didn't take long before partisan rancor became the order of the day. A number of prominent Republicans came out to call the kettle black, so to speak, accusing Democrats of hypocrisy and threatening to drag House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., into any probe.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said that though the Democrats are making noise about investigations, they aren't likely to commit to the process, because it would implicate too many individuals from their own party.

"They are going to continue to talk about these truth commissions, but at the end of the day, they are probably not going to get anywhere, because there were dozens of Democratic members on both sides of the Capitol who were briefed on these techniques, said nary a word, and in some cases encouraged our intelligence officials [to] go further," Boehner said.

From taxpayers’ pockets to K Street

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:30:00 +0000

After months of political squabbling and popular anger over executive compensation and bonuses paid out by companies getting bailout money, you'd think the fires would slowly die. (That, or struggling banks and corporations would learn a few lessons about PR.) But a new story could fan the flames, deserved or not: The Washington Post reports that major recipients of bailout money spent $10 million lobbying the government in the first quarter of 2009, and some of that money went to the fight against executive pay caps and more stringent financial regulations.

The Post's Dan Eggen says companies that collectively accepted $150 billion in TARP funds have spent about $22 million on lobbying since the government began its handouts last fall. Topping the list of offenders for the first three months of 2009, though, were General Motors, which spent roughly $2.8 million, along with Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase, each of which spent about $1.3 million.

“Who wants to pay taxes? WE DO!”

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:00:00 +0000

NEW YORK -- On a day when people were congregating nationwide to protest high taxes and perceived government overspending, one small, unusually mellow crowd gathered at Manhattan's General Post Office at around 4:20 p.m. to protest the protest. Two-dozen protestors held aloft signs that said things like "Please tax me," chanted "Who wants to pay taxes? WE DO!" and jokingly presented the U.S. Treasury with a giant check, for $14 billion, made out on behalf of America's roughly 25 million pot smokers.

"You can call it a 'natural' grassroots movement, as opposed to astroturf," High Times magazine's Senior Editor David Bienenstock joked to Salon, referring to allegations that the tax-day tea parties have been hijacked by Fox News, the GOP and corporate lobbyists. "We are the rational and mature ones, unlike the others out in fantasy land today. We're out here to represent constituents that are eager to pay taxes. All we want is to be able to smoke our pot in peace."

“Death tax” issue comes back to life

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:00:00 +0000

Sens. John Kyl, R-Ariz., and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., are set to introduce a controversial amendment to the Senate budget resolution that would cut estate taxes for the wealthy and could cost the government an additional $250 billion between 2012 and 2021.

Proponents of that Kyl-Lincoln proposal -- which would raise the estate tax exemption from $7 million per couple to $10 million and reduce the rate from 45 to 35 percent -- claim that the amendment is in the best interests of small businesses and farm owners. But two liberal-leaning think tanks, the Center for Budget and Policy Alternatives and the Tax Policy Center have numbers that seriously undercut that argument.

Finally, House GOP unveils its budget plan

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:00:00 +0000

After a botched publicity stunt last week, the House GOP unveiled an actual budget proposal at a press conference on Wednesday.

The budget, which is at least partly an attempt to counter the charge that the Republican Party has been too busy lampooning the Obama administration to offer any concrete policy solutions, stands in stark opposition to the one President Obama proposed in February. It would cancel the entire stimulus plan in 2010, with the exception of Unemployment Insurance, make Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent and further slash taxes for top earners and corporations, freeze all non-defense discretionary spending for five years and cut health services for the poor and elderly.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, who drew up the alternative budget, told reporters that -- contrary to conventional economic wisdom -- the Republican plan is the only set of solutions capable of kick-starting the economy without creating crippling national debt.

White House considering move to block filibusters

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:35:00 +0000

In a move that has incited some anger from both sides of the aisle, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said Tuesday the administration is thinking about invoking a congressional rule in order to push some of President Obama's more controversial budget items through the Senate without facing a 60-vote threshold.

Under the budget reconciliation process, measures pass in the Senate with a simple majority as opposed to the 60 votes often needed because of filibusters and similar parliamentary tactics. The Democratic caucus only has 58 members at the moment, and not all of them are reliable votes for all of Obama's priorities, so the administration might need to have this kind of trick up it sleeve when legislation on things like health care, climate change and tax hikes for the wealthy, for instance, come to the floor.

Naturally, Republicans aren't happy about the news the administration is even considering this move and have accused the president of abandoning his repeated pledges about bipartisan cooperation. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, has said that any use of reconciliation would be an example of what he called the "Chicago approach to governing: Strong-arm it through."

Porn champion joins Holder at Justice

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:00:00 +0000

Attorney General Eric Holder finally has some company at the Department of Justice, despite the efforts of one prominent conservative group, which tried to splash holy water on the DOJ's newest devil's advocates. Thursday afternoon, the Senate confirmed President Obama's picks for deputy attorney general and associate attorney general, David Ogden and Thomas Pirelli.

The Family Research Council, an influential Christian right group, had launched an unprecedented effort to cow Republican senators into voting against both nominees, who were opposed by conservatives because of controversial, high-profile cases they fought earlier in their careers. The FRC reportedly sent lawmakers a letter urging opposition, and threatening to include their votes in the group's annual rating of members of Congress; a bad rating could hurt their standing with social conservatives.

Some Republican senators, unsurprisingly, joined the chorus of criticism. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., described Ogden as "more than just a lawyer who has had a few unsavory clients" but someone who'd "devoted a substantial part of his career, case after case, for 20 years, in defense of pornography."

Why all the fuss about earmarks?

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:55:00 +0000

On Wednesday, President Obama signed what he described as an "imperfect" omnibus spending bill, which carries a $410 billion price tag. The signing was coupled with an announcement intended to pacify the legions of lawmakers who've been crying out about the supposedly wasteful earmarks it contains: Reforms are on the way.

It's a welcome development. But what's with all the fanfare? True, the bill contains around 8,500 earmarks, for a total of roughly $8 billion. True, that's a little more than double the entire gross domestic product of Eritrea, and true, with the kind of debt the U.S. government is currently carrying, it'd be nice if it would at least try to spend prudently. But veto the bill? Let's keep things in perspective here: As House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer pointed out in a spirited op-ed for USA Today, all those nasty earmarks only represented about two percent of all the spending in the bill.

Was Jindal’s story about Katrina true?

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:00:00 +0000

In his response to President Obama's address to Congress Tuesday night, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal put one story, about rescues in Hurricane Katrina and the power of the American people as opposed to the government, at the center of his argument. But on Friday, Jindal staffers began walking the story back, admitting that it wasn't quite the heat of the moment situation the governor seemed to be describing. (They deny, however, that there's any difference between what they're saying now and what Jindal said Tuesday.)

Here's Jindal's story, which involves Henry Lee, the late sheriff of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana:

When I walked into his makeshift office I’d never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: "Well, I’m the sheriff and if you don’t like it you can come and arrest me!" I asked him: "Sheriff, what’s got you so mad?" He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go -- when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn’t go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, "Sheriff, that’s ridiculous." And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: "Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!" Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

Murtha’s not the only one with lobbyist trouble

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:55:00 +0000

Life for veteran Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.) got a whole lot worse recently, but at least now he's got some company in the doldrums.

Congressional Quarterly reports that 104 members of the House (54 Democrats and 50 Republicans) combined with a few senators to secure a total of roughly $300 million worth of earmarks for the clients of lobbying firm PMA, all of it in a single defense appropriations bill in 2008. That PMA connection is coming back to bite them, as the company -- founded by Paul Magliochetti, a former top aide to Murtha -- is currently the subject of an FBI investigation. The Feds are looking into potentially illegal campaign contributions to Murtha and fellow Reps. Jim Moran (D-Va.) and Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.).

Of the 104 lawmakers, 91 received campaign donations, amounting to $1,815,138 overall since 2001, from PMA employees, associates, and the firm's political action committee.

Will the real Roland Burris please stand up?

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:30:00 +0000

Illinois Sen. Roland Burris has a list of accomplishments etched into the crypt that's waiting for him in Chicago's Oak Woods cemetery, but with the way he's going lately, it's clear he won't be adding "Amateur Magician" anytime soon.

Burris tried employing a number of sleights of hand in a speech he gave in Chicago Wednesday, attempting to distract from the controversy that's rained down upon him this week over his rapidly shifting explanations of his relationship with former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his aides.

Falling back on a familiar strategy, Burris emphasized national unity, and stressed his service on behalf of ordinary Americans struggling to cope during the financial crisis. Speaking about the stimulus that President Obama signed Tuesday, Burris said, "we need to make sure it works in the ways in which we intended it... in ways that will have the most impact on our economy and the people that need it most. That is the measure by which I hope I am judged in the Senate, whether I am able to make a difference for the people of Illinois, whether I can through my actions improve their quality of life."