Just POlitics

Sanders’ protest

The Bennington Banner in Vermont has their Congressman in a dither:

The way Rep. [Bernard] Sanders has reacted to the revelations, we think, indicates that he realizes how the situation looks. He claims the story was a lie, although the information came from public government records and was confirmed by his own staff, and he does not refute any of the facts in our report.

If Rep. Sanders believes the payments are on the up and up, a completely acceptable practice, he should come out and say so, instead of threatening not to speak with the media.

That's another issue that concerns us. In Maryland, the governor banned the Baltimore Sun from attending press conferences because he didn't like how he was being covered.

We at the Banner don't pretend to have any more rights than the average citizen. But the average citizen does have the right to hold his or her elected officials accountable for their actions.

Not everyone has the time or resources to follow the government's doings, but newspapers and other media do, and that's the next best thing.

Playing the Ethics Game

"It is not about Democrats not cooperating," Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters yesterday. "It is about Republicans gutting the process to a point that any participation would be an accomplice to undermining an ethical standard in the House."

The ethics committee, which over the years has become the political battleground for the game of "gottcha," is once again the domain of insider politics.

The Democrats are arguing that they will not participate in voting to organize and bring to life the House Ethics Committee until the rules are changed. The House voted to change the rules so that the Committee would have a specific amount of time to rule on ethics charges otherwise the member would be exonerated. The other rule change that Democrats are against is that members and witnesses would have greater flexibility in choosing layers to represent them.

The failure of the Committee to organize leaves Rep. Tom DeLay languishing against Democrat ethics charges and protects Rep. Jim McDermott, the Washington Democrat, from ethics sanctions for his conviction of illegally wiretapping telephone conversations of a member of Congress.

In further developments:

The House voted 218-195, along party lines, to kill today’s proposal by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, to rewrite the ethics rules one day after the meeting.

Yesterday in a closed House Republican meeting, Speaker Hastert and New York Rep. Tom Reynolds, among others, responded to the ethics scandal by telling fellow Republicans that Democrats were using the ethics committee for political gain. Hastert had earlier made a strong defense of DeLay, and he warned lawmakers that they, too, might become targets of what he described as an attack that was political at its core.

Washington Post attacking Bolton

The Washington Post continued the hopeful drum beat of Democrats who hope to defeat John Bolton’s confirmation as U.N. Ambassador. The story covers another incident when Bolton finds staff to be functioning inadequately:

The officials, who would discuss the incident only on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss it, said Rexon Ryu, an expert on nonproliferation issues in the Middle East, was transferred to another bureau after he failed to produce a document requested by Bolton's chief of staff.

Frist’s Gospel

Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist will be televised from the pulpit on the issue of judicial filibusters. Former Iowan, Tony Perkins -- who heads the Family Research Council -- is spearheading a simulcast of Frist’s speech from a Kentucky mega-church. The following is part of the Family Research Council’s (FRC) information concerning Justices Sunday:

Join FRC Action and churches from across the country on Sunday, April 24, as we host a live simulcast to engage values voters in the all-important issue of reining in our out-of-control courts and putting a halt to the use of filibusters against people of faith.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee is committed to returning constitutional order to the Senate by requiring an up-or-down vote on these nominees. To do this, he urgently needs the help of every values voter.

Without doubt, this will be the most important vote cast in the United States Senate in this term. If this effort fails, the best we can hope for are likely to be mediocre judges who meet the approval of Ted Kennedy, Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton. We must stop this unprecedented filibuster of people of faith. The simulcast will originate from Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Participants joining me include Dr. James Dobson, Dr. Al Mohler, and Chuck Colson. For more information on how your church can participate or how you can find a venue to participate in this critically important simulcast, click the link below.

Additional Resources
Click Here to Join the Justice Sunday Simulcast!

The NY Times offered a quote from Perkins concerning the event:

"As the liberal, anti-Christian dogma of the left has been repudiated in almost every recent election, the courts have become the last great bastion for liberalism," Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council and organizer of the telecast, wrote in a message on the group's Web site. "For years activist courts, aided by liberal interest groups like the A.C.L.U., have been quietly working under the veil of the judiciary, like thieves in the night, to rob us of our Christian heritage and our religious freedoms."

Tell and serve

Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee are pushing for a review and appeal of former President Clinton’s "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Seven members of the committee have called upon Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) to schedule review hearings on the policy. Congressman Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) has introduced a Military Readiness Enhancement Act, which would abolish the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and allow homosexual soldiers to openly reveal their sexual preferences.

God Bless America

The Washington Times offers its third and final installment on religion in America:

Binyamin Jolkovsky, editor of the Web site JewishWorldReview.com, argues that the ACLU and other civil liberties groups act counter to Jewish principles in efforts they depict as protecting minority religions.

"Jews who take their Judaism seriously don't want God taken out of the public square," Mr. Jolkovsky says.

Social Security compromise

"We're not going to get into ruling anything in or out," presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said as President Bush traveled to Ohio for a speech on Social Security.

Allan Hubbard, head of the National Economic Council sent a signal that the Administration might be willing to live with private accounts as an add-on rather than using existing payroll taxes to establish private accounts. Hubbard said that it depended on the proposal.

Treasury pressures China

John B. Taylor, Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, used diplomatic pressure urging China to let its currency -- the yuan -- float with the market. They urged that China proceed without further delay. Taylor told China that it has taken enough preparatory measures.

"We have very much stressed that they can begin to have a flexible exchange rate right now," Taylor said.

China continues to have predatory currency rates, which has exacerbated U.S. trade deficits with China.