Just POlitics

Democrat scandal grows

Two more Democrat Congressmen have been found to violate House travel rules, according to the Washington Post:

The payments represent two new instances in which lawmakers and staff members on overseas trips had their expenses initially covered by a registered lobbyist despite a blanket ban in congressional ethics rules on direct payments by lobbyists for travel-related expenses.

The two congressmen were James E. Clyburn (S.C.), now vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, and Bennie Thompson (Miss.), now the senior Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee. The aides to DeLay were Edwin A. Buckham, now a lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group, and Tony Rudy, now a member of Buckham's lobbying firm.

In other ethics committee developments, Republicans Lamar Smith of Texas and Tom Cole of Oklahoma have agreed to recuse themselves from the committee’s investigation of Rep. Tom DeLay because of DeLay’s contributions to their campaigns.

In addition Jewish World Review reports:

Rep. Norman Dicks (D-Wash) has reimbursed the Spectrum Group, a defense lobbying firm, $571 for food and lodging in Fort Lauderdale in February, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Tuesday. It is against House rules for a lawmaker or staffer to accept gratuities from lobbyists, though non-profit groups may pay for their travel expenses.

Protesting filibuster

College Republicans led a counter-protest in front of the Frist building on Princeton campus in support of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's proposal to eliminate judicial filibustering. MoveOn.org has inspired protesters to hold a mock filibuster in front of the building for several days now.

Waving Bush/Cheney '04 signs and posters with slogans like "Yay or Nay without delay," College Republicans positioned themselves directly in front of cameras recording the anti-Frist demonstration for last night's episode of "Hardball with Chris Matthews.

No gentleman @ Texas University

Ann Coulter spoke at Texas University and was heckled by rude and crude students. One particular student was so offensive that he was arrested. The student’s offending question came in response to Coulter’s affirming her belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.

The student asked Coulter the following question: "You say that you believe in the sanctity of marriage," said Ajai Raj, an English sophomore. "How do you feel about marriages where the man does nothing but f**k his wife up the ass?"

Where Kerry’s money went

The Washington Times "Inside Politics" reports on where some of Sen. John Kerry’s campaign money went:

Sen. John Kerry used thousands of campaign dollars to pay for Red Sox tickets and parking violations in the city of Boston. The 2004 Democratic presidential nominee dropped $3,150 in presidential campaign funds on baseball tickets when he threw out the first pitch at a game at Fenway Park just before his nominating convention in July, the Boston Herald reported.
The Massachusetts politician also used $287 of senatorial campaign funds in March to pay six parking tickets that were more than 15 months overdue.

Hardball

The Labor Department sent a letter to the AFL-CIO labor union warning them that their hardball politics might be illegal, according to the NY Times:

In a letter on Tuesday to the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the Department of Labor said it was "very concerned" that pension plans might be spending workers' money to "advocate a particular result in the current Social Security debate."

The Labor Department also warned the federation that pension plans could be violating their fiduciary responsibilities by suggesting that they might take their investment business away from Wall Street firms that support Mr. Bush's plans.

Oil, food hitting the fan

FOX News reports that documents that could prove U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan lied to Oil-for-Food investigators had been given to Congress Wednesday night.

Fox is also reporting that Sen. Norm Coleman will subpoena Oil-for-Food investigators who resigned allegedly because of the poor job Paul Volcker is doing in investigating the scandal. Robert Parton and Miranda Duncan, who resigned last month in protest of what they termed a whitewash, are currently shielded by diplomatic immunity.

"To subpoena investigators would harm the integrity of the investigation," responded Paul Volcker.

FOX news is reporting that congressional sources said they believe Volcker is terrified of the damage the investigators' testimony could do to his credibility. U.N. experts said the showdown between Volcker and Congress would be critical.

Bush won’t be arrested

It is reported that Dutch judges have ruled that President Bush will not be arrested when he visits that country:

A Dutch judge has ruled that US President George W. Bush can visit the Netherlands as planned this weekend and should not be arrested.

The ruling in a court in The Hague on Wednesday comes after a group of Dutch nationals lodged legal action against the State in the lead-up to Bush's visit.

The activists demanded that Bush be arrested or a court order issued to block his entry to the Netherlands due to "numerous, flagrant breaches of the Geneva Convention".

However, the judge rejected the request on the grounds that such a refusal was a political matter and therefore not something the court could rule on.

2008 hopefuls

The Iowa Republican Party has set their biannual precinct caucus date as Jan. 16, 2006. Previously these events were devoid of any presidential candidates. However given these candidates frequent visits to Iowa already, it is impossible to believe that will be the case this time.

It would be not out of the realm of possibilities to see candidate using this caucus as a dry run for the Presidential Caucus in 2008.