"Bloody Chum" McCain thrown to the sharks by his own party?

by: Jay Stevens

Thu Feb 21, 2008 at 12:24:38 PM MST

Or, as the New York Daily News so ably said, "Get ready for the feeding frenzy, with the press as the sharks and John McCain as the bloody chum."

Indeed.

The Times drops a blonde bombshell on McCain

by: Jay Stevens

Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 23:46:03 PM MST

A champion of deregulation, Mr. McCain wrote letters in 1998 and 1999 to the Federal Communications Commission urging it to uphold marketing agreements allowing a television company to control two stations in the same city, a crucial issue for Glencairn Ltd., one of Ms. Iseman's clients. He introduced a bill to create tax incentives for minority ownership of stations; Ms. Iseman represented several businesses seeking such a program. And he twice tried to advance legislation that would permit a company to control television stations in overlapping markets, an important issue for Paxson.

In late 1999, Ms. Iseman asked Mr. McCain's staff to send a letter to the commission to help Paxson, now Ion Media Networks, on another matter. Mr. Paxson was impatient for F.C.C. approval of a television deal, and Ms. Iseman acknowledged in an e-mail message to The Times that she had sent to Mr. McCain's staff information for drafting a letter urging a swift decision.

Mr. McCain complied. He sent two letters to the commission, drawing a rare rebuke for interference from its chairman....

Senator McCain's relationship Iseman was questionable enough so that staffers tried to intervene, limiting her time with McCain and even warning both the Senator and his lobbyist of the impropriety of their relationship.

So...what to think of this report? It's awfully thin, isn't it? Apparently, one of the motivating factors for printing the story was that other publications were chasing it.

Most of the initial reaction to the story in the blogs - as you might imagine - was strictly partisan. From the right, Townhall's Mary Katherine Ham poses a rhetorical question: "What's the Quickest Way to Rally Conservatives 'Round McCain?" (I'll leave you to mull over the irony that McCain is an anathema to "conservatives" when he strives towards ethics reform; and a hero when he's suspected of ethical impropriety.) On the left, Kossak Scout Finch: "Speculation about an affair is one thing, but an intimate relationship with a telecommunications lobbyist? Not smart. Not smart at all."

The best analysis of the night, however, belongs to Josh Marshall:

Police used as "taxi service" for Giuliani mistress

by: Jay Stevens

Thu Nov 29, 2007 at 19:10:30 PM MST

Well before it was publicly known he was seeing her, then-married New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani provided a police driver and city car for his mistress Judith Nathan, former senior city officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

Let's see - raided funds for the disabled and the indigent to pay for adulterous trysts in the Hamptons, used New York's finest to shuttle his girlfriend around the city? You kind of get the feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg, don't ya?

Trent Lott called up to the Show

by: Jay Stevens

Tue Nov 27, 2007 at 07:26:10 AM MST

The other rumor - that Lott's quitting to cash in on some sweet lobbying gig - appears to be true:

A near-certain scenario has him teaming up with his son, lobbyist Chester Lott, founder of Lott & Associates. Another, still fluid, idea is partnering with former Louisiana Democratic Sen. John Breaux, who is said to be mulling a departure from the lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs. Breaux did not return calls for comment.

Of a Lott-Breaux partnership, one lobbyist quipped: "The only real question would be whether they would hire Brinks to bring in the money every day."

His son is a lobbyist? That's kind of sleazy, wouldn't you say?

But more important is what Lott's resignation and likely lobbyist career means for the culture of corruption in Congress. In short, Congress is seen as a stepping stone or proving ground for a lucrative lobbyist career!

...it was not so long ago that K Street jobs were considered consolation prizes for loser lawmakers - charity cases, if you will, that leaned on the quiet generosity of grateful lobbyists after being rejected by voters or becoming too aged or controversial to remain on Capitol Hill.

Money changed all that. As the jobs became more lucrative, including million-dollar contracts, lawmakers found it easier to get over any squeamishness about pitching a client's cause to a former colleague. It also moved up the timing of such a career change, from the closing days of a political career to its twilight to, in Lott's case, a peak.

"It's very clear that being able to go and lobby is seen as the upward track," said Meredith McGehee, of the Campaign Legal Center. "In the old days, you would make money and do these things and then maybe get to run for Congress or the Senate. Today, you run for Congress or the Senate and then, if you're really good, you can move up to become a lobbyist."

Congress has become what rightie Ed Morrisey calls the "AAA affiliate of K Street." What would be delicious is if Lott's resignation and attempts to lobby made him such a figure of ill repute that no lobbyist group would hire him...

Trent Lott, cashing in by checking out?

by: Jay Stevens

Mon Nov 26, 2007 at 14:08:51 PM MST

Yeah, his family of dead presidents:

While the exactly reason Lott is stepping down before he finishes his term is unknown, the general speculation is that a quick departure immunizes Lott against tougher restrictions in a new lobbying law that takes effect at the end of the year. That law would require Senators to wait two-years before entering the lucrative world of lobbying Congress.

That might also explain the recent spate of Republican retirements, might it not? A smart person:

...a friend asked -- with all these mid-term resignations, when is anyone going to stop looking at the political implications and start asking about the ethical ones? It's a fair point -- and one that I hope goes a few steps further.

Of course, there's always this rumor, which is delicious, if completely unsubstantiated:

Big Head DC hears that Hustler's >Larry Flynt may have played a role in the sudden and unexpected announcement of the resignation of Sen. Trent Lott this morning. Flynt was already involved earlier this year in uncovering Sen. David Vitter's involvement with the so-called DC Madam escort service. He has said he would reveal  more "huge" tawdry politico sex scandals by year's end.

Wheee!

Excellent candidates for censure

by: Jay Stevens

Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 09:07:58 AM MST

--Illinois Republican Representative, Jerry Weller, whose thugs pushed a news reporter down the stairs while questioning Weller about some shady land deals he made in Central America. Weller made CREW's third annual list of the nation's most corrupt Congressmen.

--Bill O'Reilly, who was shocked -- shocked! -- that, after a visit to a Harlem restaurant with Al Sharpton, black folks are...well...normal! "That's right," said O'Reilly, "there wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea!'" Those who have appeared on his show include Newt Gingrich, Robert Reich, and Tony Snow.

--Virginia Republican, Timothy D. Hugo, who scoured the comments of a liberal Virginia blog, Raising Kane, to cull out criticism for his Democratic opponent, Rex Simmons, which subsequently appeared in a Hugo TV ad. This is "nutpicking," a term for the maxim described by Kevin Drum a year ago. As Steve Benen notes, "there's obviously nothing to stop the Hugo campaign from going to Raising Kane, leaving derogatory comments about Simmons, and then using their own planted denigrations in their own campaign commercials." In short, Hugo has reached a new low in political advertising. Expect the rest of his sleazy party-mates to follow suit.

--Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell who said that "openly debating changes" to FISA is going to kill Americans. That's the lamest excuse used by a government hack, wishing to hide bad policy from the public.

--Radio personality, Glenn Beck, who called Jesse Jackson a "racist" for saying that presidential candidate Barack Obama is acting white. Thing is, Beck made the exact same claim in February! "...I saw this piece with [Barack Obama] on 60 minutes," said Beck, "and I thought to myself, he is - he's very white in many ways...He is. He's very white." Recent guests include Senator Orrin Hatch, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and presidential candidate Duncan Hunter.

--Alaska Republican Senator Ted Stevens, whose contractor admitted he bribed the Senator in court testimony, and whose telephone the FBI has been wiretapping in a corruption investigation.

And I didn't even mention the president or his cabal of advisors who manufactured evidence to get us into the Iraq, bungled the operation from the start, allowed no-bid contractors to bilk American taxpayers for work in Iraq then blocked any investigation of those contractors, send unprepared troops on multiple and lengthy deployment to Iraq, lost New Orleans to indifference or incompetence, gave out lavish subsidies to the richest among us, spied on the American people, eradicated some of our most basic rights, and begin torturing those under its power.

In short, all of these *sshats deserve real censure. Preferably a boot to the *ss. For some, jail time. Don't hold your breath. Unlike MoveOn members - who are just ordinary citizens - these folks actually matter. To the Senate.

Citizens v. government, English edition

by: Jay Stevens

Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 09:03:46 AM MST

Take England, for example. I stumbled onto this site -- The Public Whip. It's a grassroots organization helping bring transparency to its government by recording the votes of members of Parliament and how often each representative votes with or against her party. At least...I think that's what it does. D*mned if I know exactly what's going on here. Check out the Help/FAQ page for your own interpretation. But based on what I can glean from the site, parliamentary representatives' votes are not too well recorded...or something.

Anyhow, it's worth a bit of exploring on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Who knows? It might even serve as inspiration for a similar effort here on this side of the pond.

Max Baucus posts his schedule online

by: Jay Stevens

Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 20:46:35 PM MST

By the way, if you, like me, noticed that these schedule pages don't have an archive, have no fear! You can find all of the archives on a SourceWatch page. Bookmark it.

Update (by Matt) -- In comments, Mark Tokarski says that the schedule posting is imperfect. That is true, but it's certainly a big step in the right direction. If these things are being archived by Sourcewatch or anybody -- we've eventually got a searchable list of people with whom our members of Congress are meeting. That's useful to enterprising reporters.

Know what else I think would be cool? If someone would syndicate all three schedules so that people could get them daily either by email or by RSS feeder. Wouldn't that be useful? Big props to Max, Jon, and Dennis for leading on this -- and to the Sunlight Foundation for their hard work on it.

Rove to resign

by: Jay Stevens

Mon Aug 13, 2007 at 10:44:24 AM MST

In the meantime, here are some thoughts from others.

Steve Benen on Rove's legacy:

No, Rove's legacy has nothing to do with his so-called strategic brilliance. His significance has everything to do with his cutthroat, win-at-all-cost style. Rove believes the political rule that there are no rules. Laws are meant to be broken. Scandals are meant to be covered up. Enemies are meant to be destroyed. The key to electoral success is to tear the country in half and see who comes out with the bigger chunk.

Moreover, Rove helped usher in an unprecedented approach to executive-branch governing - one in which the line between policy and politics no longer exists. Every agency, every official, every decision was a political opportunity to be exploited, laws and ethics be damned.

I'll hasten to add that no doubt other political operatives would have liked to do the same in previous eras, but they were stopped - not by self-restraint - but by a strong opposition and media scrutiny. Rove's "brilliance" - if it was not just an accident of history - was to recognize that today's profit-driven media is afraid to challenge authority, and the Democratic party was overly afraid for its image, a combination that allowed Rove and the White House to abuse its powers repeatedly with little outcry.

Josh Marshall reacts to Rove's claim that he's not leaving in the shadow of Congressional investigations by reminding us, "the innocent explanation is never right with these guys," and notes that "Rove is connected to pretty much every instance of high-level wrongdoing." There are plenty of reasons for Rove's departure; few are innocent.

In fact, The Next Hurrah's Marcy compiles a list of these possible reasons that seems eminently reasonable. Let's not forget that some of Rove's pet projects were unpopular among conservatives - like immigration reform - or that he failed spectacularly on projects that were dear to conservatives - like Social Security reform or the 2006 election. No doubt he's been dropped by a party that's ready to move on from the disastrous Bush administration; an unpleasant circumstance when you're being investigated by multiple Congressional committees and possibly the DoJ.

But, as someone quipped in the wake of the resignation, "now everything he does is off the record."

Billings Gazette: Where's Max?

by: Jay Stevens

Wed Jul 11, 2007 at 09:48:52 AM MST

Max Baucus ought to join this bold minority movement in telling his employers (that's all of us Montanans) what he's doing in the job we're paying him to do. With Baucus disclosing his daily meetings, Montana would have the distinction of having the first entire delegation sharing this information publicly.

As chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Baucus is busier than when he was merely the ranking member. All the more reason to have his staff put his schedule on line.

Indeed.

Tester Backs Real Earmark Reform, Bucks Leadership

by: Matt Singer

Fri Jan 12, 2007 at 09:08:06 AM MST

Part of the Senate's ethics reform bill deals with earmarks -- lawmakers' often abused practice of inserting items in legislation to direct funds to special interests (a la Duke Cunningham). According to current rules, lawmakers can attach earmarks anonymously, a state of affairs inviting abuse. Reform efforts have sought to change that. Republicans and good government types have criticized Reid's version of earmark reform legislation, which is weaker than the version passed by House Democrats, saying that it doesn't go near far enough in terms of disclosure.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) offered an amendment today that mirrored the tougher legislation passed by House Democrats.

[...]

"DeMint's version is considerably tougher," Holman told me, noting that both Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who co-sponsored the bill, are "on the appropriations committee and haven't really believed in strong earmark reform propoals in the first place."

But Democrats sought to block DeMint's amendment, with an effort led by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL). They failed, due mostly to nine Democrats, including Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) and freshmen Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Jim Webb (D-VA), who crossed the aisle to vote with the Republicans, along with Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT).

Public Citizen, an outfit I trust, says that the Holman amendment was far better than original language.

Very nice job, Senator Tester.