Notepad

Did DeLay Dance on Ron Paul's Head?

2009-09-23T21:09:58Z

Long before he danced with the stars, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay two-stepped all over fellow Texas Rep. Ron Paul's hopes of overseeing the Federal Reserve, according to an account provided by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank .

In a broader interview with my colleagues Phil Mattingly and Benton Ives, Frank offered this assessment of how DeLay and other GOP leaders tiptoed around giving Paul -- who wants to abolish the Fed -- the gavel of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over it:

"In 2003, Ron Paul was in line to be chairman of the Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee of this committee. Specifically and solely to frustrate Ron from being the chairman, they merged the Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy with the Subcommittee on International Monetary Policy. Ron Paul then complained to Tom DeLay, and Tom DeLay told [then-Chairman Mike] Oxley [R-Ohio] 'Don't change it' ... [T]wo years later, even though they merged the two subcommittees in the progression, Ron was then again ready to be chairman, this time of the combined one. [Then-Rep. Deborah] Pryce [R-Ohio] was dragooned to come back and assert a subcommittee chairmanship ... Ron at that point said to me, 'I guess I have to wait for you to be chairman for me to have any authority around here.' The Republican Party was a staunch defender of the Fed against Ron Paul."

]]> Paul and Frank share an interest in auditing the Fed, though neither Frank nor any other member of the House has signed onto Paul's bill to repeal the Federal Reserve Act.

The general outlines of Frank's account -- though not DeLay's hand -- were confirmed by Republican sources. Paul said he didn't recall DeLay's involvement, but he acknowledged Republican leaders didn't want him to have the subcommittee chairmanship.

"They just got rid of one" subcommittee, Paul said of the first time he was passed over. "They wouldn't have enjoyed me being chairman."

But Paul has a defender in the current top Republican on the Financial Services Committee, Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, who appointed him to the leading spot on the subcommittee with Republicans in the minority.

"There are people who said 'Is this the best thing to do?' I felt like it was," Bachus said. "I'm glad I appointed him. I have no regret."

Kennedy: Kirk Was 'My Dad's Most Loyal Guy'

2009-09-23T18:27:41Z

Democratic Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy clearly would be happy if Paul G. Kirk -- a longtime Democratic Party insider and Kennedy family associate -- were named to succeed his father, the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.

But Kennedy, who represents a Rhode Island district in Congress, declined to comment on reports that he and his brother, investment banker Ted Kennedy Jr., had recommended that Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick appoint Kirk to the seat on an interim basis until a special election is held Jan. 19.

"Paul was my dad's most loyal guy," Kennedy said in a brief interview outside the House chamber on Wednesday afternoon. "My dad thought the world of Paul. I think the world of Paul."

Kirk is a former aide to Sen. Kennedy and a former Democratic National Committee chairman. He acted as the senator's attorney and is chairman of the board of directors of the John F. Kennedy Library.

]]> The Boston Globe reported that the elder Kennedy's two sons and his widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, are all pushing for Kirk.

The Massachusetts legislature is changing state law to allow Patrick to appoint an interim successor until the special election can be held. The winner of that January contest will fill out the remainder of Kennedy's unexpired term, which runs through the 2012 election.

Patrick is expected to choose an interim appointee who has no interest in joining the special election candidate field.

Patrick Kennedy said he believes the short-term nature of the appointment -- a few months rather than a matter of years -- argues for a successor who would not only vote like his father, but understand how his father did the job.

"Paul Kirk falls into that category, no doubt," Kennedy said, adding that the appointee should be a "caretaker to [Sen. Kennedy's] legacy."

But the younger Kennedy is well aware of who has the power to make the appointment.

"This is really the governor's decision," he said. And, he added, "lots of people" could do the job.

The other Massachusetts figure who has received prominent mention as a possible Senate appointee is former Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, who was the 1988 Democratic presidential nominee.

Cantor: Democrats' Angel and Devil on Health Care

2009-09-23T13:34:05Z

Democrats are stealing a page out of Sybil in their approach to House Republican Whip Eric Cantor.

Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said yesterday that he will reach out to the Virginia Republican, who has said the two parties agree on 80 percent of a health care overhaul.

"I'm going to reach out to a number of Republicans in the next day," Hoyer told reporters. "I want to find out what that 80 percent is, because if we have 80 percent we ought to work on the other 20 percent."

But a few hours later the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which orchestrates the party's national House campaign strategy, circulated an item from the liberal Website thinkprogress slamming Cantor.

]]> The item highlighted Cantor's comment to a constituent that an uninsured relative with stomach tumors should either find an existing government program or a charity for assistance.

Cantor's remarks were made at a bipartisan town hall meeting that he held with Rep. Robert C. Scott, who represents a neighboring district in Virginia.

Obama Names House Northeasterners to U.N. Team

2009-09-22T20:53:15Z

Reps. William Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, and Christopher H. Smith, a New Jersey Republican, have been nominated by President Obama as Congress' representatives to the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

General debate in the session opens Wednesday in New York.

One lawmaker from each party in the House is selected in odd-numbered years and one from each party in the Senate gets the nod in even-numbered years. Delahunt, who was recommended by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, served in the same capacity in 2007. Texas Republican Ted Poe was Delahunt's counterpart that year.

Delahunt chairs the House Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, which has jurisdiction over American involvement with the U.N.

]]> In the last Congress, he spent much of his time investigating whether and to what degree policies of President George W. Bush's administration were hurting U.S. interests abroad. He co-sponsored legislation to ban U.S. use of waterboarding, an interrogation technique considered torture by many people in the United States and around the world.

And he supports the establishment of a "Truth Commission" to investigate alleged abuses of power by the Bush administration, including any related to enhanced interrogation techniques.

At times he has courted controversy with his efforts to open up U.S. relations with Cuba and broker a deal for Venezuela's state-owned oil company to provide subsidized home heating oil to Massachusetts residents.

Smith, a devout Roman Catholic with socially conservative views, has been involved in many human rights issues around the globe during his quarter-century in Congress. In recent years, he has pressured Russia, Vietnam and China on human rights issues -- including his unsuccessful call for Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

He is the ranking Republican on the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.

The nominees require confirmation by the Senate.

"The U.N. has shown time and time again that it is the pre-eminent international body for dealing with issues that no single country -- not even the U.S. -- can deal with on its own," Delahunt said. "The fact is that if the U.N. didn't exist, the U.S. would be called upon to address some of these issues -- at a substantial increase in cost to Americans."

According to a release from his office, Delahunt will focus on climate change, women's rights, increasing United Nations involvement in elections in Iraq and Afghanistan and improving peacekeeping capabilities.

$5K 'C Street' Relay? Pickering-Barbour-Vitter

2009-09-22T05:08:15Z

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's political action committee reported giving $5,000 to Sen. David Vitter, R-La., the same week it accepted an identical amount from former Rep. Chip Pickering of Mississippi.

Pickering, like Vitter, is a conservative Christian Republican accused of having an extramarital affair linked to the "C Street" townhouse in Southeast Washington that is at the center of a spate of GOP sex scandals.

Pickering's otherwise dormant CHIP PAC made its first donation of the year to Haley's PAC on Aug. 15 -- four days after the governor gave to Vitter's 2010 re-election campaign -- according to a Sept. 20 filing with the Federal Election Commission. The two checks comprise all of the month's activities for Haley's PAC, which has just $13,281.37 in the bank and has made only one other contribution this year.

Is it just a coincidence?

]]> "Because Gov. Barbour has been a great supporter of Sen. Vitter's in the past, the campaign was happy to have his PAC host a fundraiser for Sen. Vitter and accept his donation," Vitter spokesman Joel DiGrado said in response to e-mail questions about whether Pickering intended to aid Vitter.

"No comment," said Austin Barbour, who is treasurer of his uncle Haley's PAC and works at Capitol Resources with Pickering. Henry Barbour, another nephew of the governor who has managed campaigns for Pickering and Haley Barbour, is a partner at the lobbying firm.

Pickering was not at his office when a reporter called on Monday and did not immediately return a message left on Tuesday morning.

It wouldn't be at all unusual for Barbour to help Vitter, a sitting Gulf Coast senator whom he has donated to in the past. And Pickering, who obviously is personally close to Barbour and his nephews, has no history of donating to his former House colleague Vitter. So it's certainly possible that contributions from Pickering to Barbour and from Barbour to Vitter are unrelated.

A little more than two years ago, Vitter's phone number turned up in the records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called D.C. madam, who later said she knew the senator as "David from C Street." Vitter said at a press conference in July 2007 that he and his wife had reconciled following his commission of a "serious sin."

If Louisiana's conservative electorate is able to get past it and vote for Vitter -- and CQ rates the race "Leans Republican" -- that would be good news for Pickering in neighboring Mississippi.

Pickering said he wanted to spend more time with his family when he announced in 2007 that he would retire in January of 2009. But by July 1 he had filed for divorce. His estranged wife Leisha Pickering responded with an "alienation of affection" lawsuit charging that her husband had carried on an affair with an old college sweetheart while he lived at the now-infamous C Street House that has been a sanctuary for Sen. John Ensign and Gov. Mark Sanford, conservative Republicans who acknowledged their own extramarital affairs earlier this year.

Leisha Pickering alleges that Chip Pickering gave up the chance to be appointed to the Senate by Barbour in 2007 because of an ultimatum from his mistress. Pickering had long been seen as the heir apparent to retiring Sen. Trent Lott, and his name is sure to surface in any conversation about who might succeed Sen. Thad Cochran.

While Barbour's PAC files monthly reports, Vitter's next report isn't due until Oct. 15, and CHIP PAC has switched from monthly reporting to a semi-annual schedule that will not require a filing until early next year.

Mark Foley Leaves Door Open for a Run

2009-09-21T17:07:15Z

Former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., is making his way back into public life less than three years after a congressional page scandal forced him from Congress, and he isn't entirely ruling out a future bid for office.

"I doubt I will re-enter the political arena as an office-seeker, but I will use my experience and my voice to help others, to rally for economic sanity, to bring about real reforms on a local, state and even national level," Foley told Javier Manjarres according to the transcript of an interview published on the subscription-only part of the Web site of the Conservative Republican Alliance in Florida.

Manjarres interviewed Foley at the West Palm Beach restaurant Pistache last week after a fundraiser for Marco Rubio (Rush Limbaugh was there, too). He told Notepad his impression is that Foley is leaving his options open.

]]> "I don't think he's completely ruling it out," Manjarres said. "I don't think he's ruling anything out right now."

The former Palm Beach County congressman is scheduled to start a new politically oriented radio show Tuesday on a local AM station.

Foley, who has not been charged with a crime, sent salacious e-mails to male former congressional pages, the teenage helpers who run errands for members of Congress.

Manjarres said he didn't expect Foley to agree to sit down with him.

"I was surprised," Manjarres said. "He was a little hesitant about doing any interview."

Presidents Often Play in Party Politics

2009-09-21T15:56:59Z

Democrats on the receiving end of a presidential push to postpone political plans are understandably unhappy that the most powerful man on the planet is picking sides.

But, as White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday morning, it's nothing new.

Long before President Obama sent word to New York Gov. David A. Paterson that he shouldn't run for re-election in 2010, President George W. Bush and his advisers threw elbows in every corner of the political ring.

For every Paterson whose work is no longer deemed helpful by Obama, there's an ex-Sen. Robert C. Smith who believes Bush broke a promise to back him over primary challenger John E. Sununu in 2002.

]]> For every Rep. Steve Israel who Obama asked to step aside for appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, there's a Katherine Harris who was pushed out by Bush in favor of Mel Martinez.

And for every Sen. Arlen Specter who gets Obama's presidential nod against a candidate, Rep. Joe Sestak, with stronger ties to the party's base, there's a conservative Steve Laffey who watched helplessly as Washington's Republican establishment backed left-leaning incumbent Lincoln Chaffee in a primary only to see Chaffee lose the seat to a Democrat.

Heck, in 2004 Bush helped Specter, then a Pennsylvania Republican, defeat surefire 2010 GOP nominee Pat Toomey.

There are many examples of Bush and political guru Karl Rove involving themselves in intraparty warfare. No doubt the list for Obama and his coterie of advisers will grow.

But someday -- as was the case with Harris in 2006 -- candidates may stop listening to the top political pros in their party.

Echo of 'Rummy Speak' in Paterson-Obama Flap

2009-09-21T15:07:13Z

Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time former Defense secretary, has a well-chronicled penchant for posing his own questions and then answering them.

So does someone working in the Obama administration.

The New York Times reported this weekend that President Obama had send an emissary to New York Gov. David A. Paterson to ask him not to run in the 2010 election. Paterson, the former lieutenant governor who took over from resigned Democratic Gov. Eliot Spitzer in March 2008, has approval ratings that are near rock bottom.

And the story included this trip-down-memory-lane nugget:

"Is there concern about the situation in New York? Absolutely," the second administration official said Saturday evening. "Has that concern been conveyed to the governor? Yes.

The faces and issues change, but media strategies are timeless.

ACORN Vote Masks Big Funding Ban

2009-09-18T20:03:38Z

There's a legislative oak tree poised to spring from the ACORN funding ban the House passed on Thursday.

The measure would deny all forms of federal funding to any organization that has made a fraudulent filing with either a federal or state regulatory agency. Rather than focusing solely on ACORN, an umbrella group for a variety of community organizations, the legislation instead could affect a wide range of corporations and nonprofits, from defense contractors and drug companies, to financial institutions and charities. The affected organization may not even have to have been convicted in a court.

While Republican aides were aware of the scope of the provision, it's not clear that many members of either party knew they were voting for such a broad policy in adding the "Defund ACORN Act" to a student loan bill.

"This amendment is more than just a mechanism to de-fund ACORN, it's a clear declaration that misuse of taxpayer dollars will no longer be tolerated," said Kurt Bardella, spokesman for Republicans on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

]]> "Every year, reports are released by Inspectors General, the GAO, government watchdog groups detailing a bureaucracy that is over-run with waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement. Congress is supposed to be stewards of the taxpayers' dollars and instead has turned a blind eye to egregious waste and mismanagement," said Bardella, whose boss, Rep. Darrell Issa of California, has been spearheading anti-ACORN efforts for the GOP.

A lawyer for House Minority Leader John A. Boehner said through the congressman's spokesman that the legal thresholds for an organization to be affected are both high and consistent with debarment guidelines for federal contractors. However, debarment is a complex and nuanced regulatory process, while an outright funding ban is clear, immediate and offers little recourse.

It's hard to argue with the concept that companies that defraud the government should be barred from getting more federal money, but the extent to which an all-out ban is practicable is questionable.

Here's the important language from the ACORN amendment, which was adopted 345-75:

(a) Prohibitions- With respect to any covered organization, the following prohibitions apply: (1) No Federal contract, grant, cooperative agreement, or any other form of agreement (including a memorandum of understanding) may be awarded to or entered into with the organization. (2) No Federal funds in any other form may be provided to the organization. (3) No Federal employee or contractor may promote in any way (including recommending to a person or referring to a person for any purpose) the organization.

(b) Covered Organization- In this section, the term `covered organization' means any of the following: (1) Any organization that has been indicted for a violation under any Federal or State law governing the financing of a campaign for election for public office or any law governing the administration of an election for public office, including a law relating to voter registration. (2) Any organization that had its State corporate charter terminated due to its failure to comply with Federal or State lobbying disclosure requirements. (3) Any organization that has filed a fraudulent form with any Federal or State regulatory agency. (4) Any organization that-- (A) employs any applicable individual, in a permanent or temporary capacity; (B) has under contract or retains any applicable individual; or (C) has any applicable individual acting on the organization's behalf or with the express or apparent authority of the organization.

It seems unlikely that the amendment will become law as written. But it provides a good example of how sturdy an oak can be hidden inside a little ACORN.

Democrats Assented to ACORN Smackdown

2009-09-18T11:10:00Z

The ban on federal funding for ACORN adopted by the House Thursday almost certainly would have been ruled out of order -- if Democrats had cared to stand in the way.

The Republican-written amendment exceeded the jurisdiction of the committee that wrote the bill and had nothing to do with the legislation at hand, giving ample opportunity for any Democrat to raise a point of order against it because it was not germane to the underlying student-loan bill.

Some Republicans expected Democrats to object and kill the "motion to recommit" that triggered the amendment. But none did. Instead, the whole House voted, 345-75, to prevent the beleaguered catchall community-organizing outfit from getting federal funding.

So even the 75 Democrats who voted with ACORN already had silently assented to the federal-funding ban. After these videos surfaced, it's not hard to understand why.

CBO's Health Care Scorecard Written in Pencil

2009-09-17T19:41:11Z

Everyone in Washington loves to wave around a Congressional Budget Office estimate as unimpeachable proof of an argument.

That's been as much the case with the health care bills moving through the Congress as any legislation in recent memory, with CBO releases on the House's HR 3200 and the Finance Committee's new draft legislation serving as gospel for Republicans, Democrats, conservative and liberal pundits, and journalists -- even this blogger -- alike.

But the secret of the scores is this: So far, they're not based on CBO's own independent analysis.

"The estimated impact of the provisions related to health insurance coverage is based on specifications provided by the committee staff, rather than on a detailed analysis of the legislative language," CBO wrote in its "preliminary analysis" of HR 3200 on July 17.

"There are several reasons why the preliminary analysis that is provided in this letter and its attachments does not constitute a comprehensive cost estimate for the proposal," the agency wrote on Wednesday in its analysis of the Senate Finance Committee's draft.

]]> Indeed, CBO offered a rather expansive explanation of the caveats in that review, which was produced hastily to meet Sen. Max Baucus' timing. But the short of it is this:

CBO based its work on a preliminary description of what Baucus released publicly.
It didn't review actual legislative language, which it says could "have a significant effect on the analysis."
The analysis is narrowly focused on the programs in the bill and does not take into account spending by other government agencies or all future administrative costs.

So what do we know about the cost of the health care bills? Mostly, we know the cost floor. It's unlikely that the committees writing the bills intentionally overestimated their costs. We probably have as good a sense as possible of what the revenue provisions would produce, as CBO's cautionary notes tend to deal with the spending side and not the Joint Committee on Taxation's estimates of tax items.

The two analyses also provide a window into which provisions result in neither costs nor savings. That's important if Democrats attempt to use the reconciliation process, a fast-track mechanism for deficit reduction, to avert a filibuster and pass a health care bill with a bare majority of senators rather than 60 or more.

The Senate's Byrd Rule creates points of order against provisions that have either no impact on the deficit or a budgetary effect that is "merely incidental" to the policy they would implement.

As was the case with its review of HR 3200, CBO's estimate of the Baucus bill contains a laundry list of provisions that are estimated to have no effect on the deficit.

Ultimately, the applicability of Byrd Rule proscriptions can be very subjective, but the CBO estimates provide a map of some of the potential roadblocks.

Not so long ago, Democrats were able to frustrate GOP reconciliation plans by using the Byrd Rule to strike four provisions -- including two administration reports -- from a bill cutting close to $40 billion in spending.

The Congressional Research Service's review of that fiscal 2006 reconciliation bill provides an excellent explanation of how the Byrd Rule was used by the minority to knock the majority off track on major legislation (pages 33 and 34).

Conservative Confab Ignores Jewish Holiday

2009-09-17T18:44:29Z

Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., the lone Jewish Republican in Congress, is slated to deliver a speech tomorrow to the Values Voters Summit in Washington several hours before the sun goes down and Rosh Hashanah, the two-day Jewish New Year holiday, begins.

Perhaps it's not surprising that a conference sponsored by such groups as the political action arms of the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family -- whose parent organizations advocate for the Christianizing of American life -- would not generally be filled with Jews, many of whom are Democrats and very few of whom see the United States as "a Christian nation."

But Values Voters, which has drawn Jewish speakers in the past, can't possibly help its outreach efforts by scheduling its major conference during one of the holiest times on the Jewish calendar.

The results of its 2012 GOP presidential primary straw poll are due to be released at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, smack dab in the middle of Rosh Hashanah. Though Cantor is the second-ranking House Republican and was, on occasion, mentioned as a VP candidate in 2008, he is not among the nine candidates listed in the straw poll.

A spokeswoman for the Family Research Council said she would check into the decision to hold the conference this weekend, but she never called back.

Letter to Obama: Freeze Afghanistan Force

2009-09-16T20:22:18Z

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., is preparing to send a bipartisan letter to President Obama opposing an anticipated request for more troops in Afghanistan.

"We oppose any increase in U.S. troops in Afghanistan, especially in light of the fact that there is no exit strategy," said McGovern, who is still circulating the letter for signatures.

The top American official in Iraq, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is expected to make an official request for more troops soon.

North Carolina Rep. Walter B. Jones, a one-time supporter of the Iraq War who became its most fierce GOP critic in Congress, is signing on to the McGovern letter, ensuring it has support in both parties.

"The president needs to slow down," said Jones, who represents the Marine base Camp Lejeune. "We're going to be more demanding of 'What are we trying to achieve?' because our troops are worn out."

]]> Indeed, both men question American objectives in Afghanistan nearly eight years after an invasion that was a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

They say other members of both parties are likely to add their names before the letter is sent.

McGovern said he doesn't take the action lightly.

"I like [President] Obama. I don't want to be against him," he said.

Several senior House Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John P. Murtha, D-Pa., have expressed strong reservations about ramping up the U.S. force in Afghanistan or noted that there is little support for the idea.

But it ultimately may be difficult for them to deny a president, particularly one of their own party, the troops he requests for an ongoing war.

Motor Voter for Health Care

2009-09-16T15:45:48Z

The draft health care bill unveiled by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., on Wednesday contains language allowing consumers to sign up for health care at departments of motor vehicles, as well as hospitals, schools and Social Security offices.

The provision appears aimed, like the motor voter law is with registering to vote, at using the necessary evil of a trip to the DMV to facilitate the purchase of health insurance.

Could it also boost the number of voters -- filling out two forms while waiting in line isn't much harder than filling out one -- at a time when voter registration at DMVs appears to have fallen off?

Hoping to hear soon on that from the League of Women Voters.

Senator and Samaritan

2009-09-15T22:25:02Z

So, what's a senator to do with clothes that are old or have gone out of style?

For Sen. Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, the answer is bag 'em up, walk them to a receptacle on Capitol Hill and make a quiet, anonymous donation to unknown recipients.

A spy tells us Collins dropped off her clothing on Sept. 13 in a bin managed by The Clothing Recycling Company, which collects and sorts clothes to distribute to other charities that deliver them to needy folks.

Call it social justice, Senate style.