Sunlight Foundation

Press Articles & Mentions Archives

December 2008

• The Washington Post - e-Hail To the Chief

  "Fired up, ready to go -- that was the campaign slogan," says a beaming Ernest E. Johnson on a recent Saturday. A real estate agent and longtime Washington activist, the 60-year-old worked the streets and the Internet, networking and organizing to make sure Barack Obama got elected president.

• Examiner Newspapers - Newshounds should stay on Rangel's scent

  Veteran investigative journalist Bill Allison asked an important question not long ago on the Sunlight Foundation blog. After detailing 2008's many revelations of conflicts of interest and other apparent abuses by Rep. Charlie Rangel, the New York Democrat who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, Allison noted that major amounts of time and money were invested by the media organizations that uncovered his unethical behavior. But the media heat seems to have cooled more recently, and Allison observed that "it will be interesting to see how long reporters stick with this."

• Syracuse Post Standard - Walsh often spoke of Syracuse

  Capitolwords.org is a Web site created by the Sunlight Foundation to track the most-used words by members of Congress ...

• Washington Examiner - OpEd: Earmarking funds Moran’s campaigns

  Earmarking tax dollars and tucking them into bills has become commonplace in Congress over the past several years. But most Americans are unaware of how earmarks add to inflation and huge deficits.

• Reuters UK - Word-for-word, Congress big on health, energy

  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The most commonly used words in Congress over the last two years were "health," "energy" and "security," says a website that sifts through Capitol Hill's abundant rhetoric in search of deeper meaning.

• USA TODAY - Bill Clinton discloses foundation donors

  WASHINGTON — Former president Bill Clinton accepted tens of millions of dollars from foreign governments and Democratic donors with corporate and Hollywood ties to help build his non-profit foundation and presidential library, according to a list of contributors made public for the first time Thursday.

• National Journal - Pay and Play

  Now that's convenience. It turns out that the most popular spots for D.C. political fundraisers are all helpfully located near the Capitol. The Sunlight Foundation and its Party Time project gathered 2,117 invitations to parties that helped finance campaign committees and leadership PACs in 2008 and sorted them by locale. No. 1 is the National Republican Club of Capitol Hill, which hosted 248 parties. Johnny's Half Shell comes in second, and third is the National Democratic Club. Other hot spots in the top 10: Bistro Bis, Tortilla Coast, Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar, the Monocle, and a Capitol Hill townhouse owned by lobbyist Timothy Rupli. Members can easily run "from a fundraising event where they're collecting checks from lobbyists with a stake in an issue straight to the House or Senate floor to vote about that very subject," said Nancy Watzman, director of the Party Time project. "It shows how blatant it all is."

• Congressional Quarterly Weekly - Now, to Bridge a Deep Partisan Divide

  The message of Barack Obama's presidential campaign was simple. Tired of the knee-jerk partisanship that has broken Washington and made it impossible to solve big problems? Vote for a grown-up who can break the cycle.

• Salt Lake Tribune - Chaffetz joins ranks of Twittering politicians

  Rep.-elect Jason Chaffetz is bypassing the traditional media filter to talk directly to the people of Utah. He just has to keep it shor

• CNET News - Congress scores low grade on Net communication

  Attempts by Congress and grassroots advocacy groups to employ different technologies to communicate with each other have done more harm than good, a new report says.

• Mercury News - Obama team shifts from online campaigning to more accessible government

  WASHINGTON — Pushing for greater openness and participation in government, Barack Obama and his team are making the leap from Internet campaigning to Internet governing. Their goal: a series of new online ventures to make his presidency more accessible.

• Politico - Where's transparency of Podesta group?

  Barack Obama’s transition has set a high standard for transparency, putting the details of its contributors online sooner than required, and even demanding that former President Bill Clinton reveal the 200,000-plus donors to his personal foundation.

• The Front Page Magazine - Dashed Hopes

  Throughout his presidential campaign, Barack Obama vowed to “free the executive branch from special interest influence” and pledged that none of his appointees would be “permitted to work on regulations or contracts directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years.” Obama’s own ethics rules, moreover, bar lobbyists from working on his transition team in areas in which they have exerted any influence during the previous year. But at least one nominee has managed to evade the president-elect’s promised scrutiny of lobbyists: Tom Daschle, Obama’s current health care policy adviser and his nominee as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

• The Washington Post - You Mean We Can Talk Back?

  Sometimes, the change is enough to make your head spin. This is one of those moments.

• Congressional Quarterly Weekly - Cover Story: A Dome Under Lock and Key

  In early August 2007, as the House moved rapidly to pass legislation modifying the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before its summer recess, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seemed uncertain about the details of the bill they were debating. There had been intense negotiations with the White House, and only a handful of House members had been briefed on the details of the bill.

• Cox News Service - Obama White House To Embrace New Web Tools And Reach

  Presidential addresses on YouTube. Online chats with administration officials. And millions of energized Barack Obama backers ready for the next e-mail or text message calling them to action.