Here's a notice that the EPA, along with state and local officials, launched an environmental impact study of the CSX Relocation, mentioned in the post immediately below, in 2003. This article, from Mississippi Coast.org, a coalition of local development councils seeking to bring business into the state, tells us,
The Coast is crisscrossed by the rail lines of the CSX and Kansas City Southern system, which connect t Continue reading
Slight change of plans
Glenn Reynolds has a post up pointing to a Mark Tapscott post about Trent Lott's tantrum over the temerity of those who question things like a $700 million earmark to persuade CSX Corporation to give up one of its rail lines so a highway can be built there instead. (The full AP report is here. Reynolds writes of Lott's annoyance with Porkbusters (the Mississippi Senator said he was "getting damned tired of hearing from them"):
I guess he's hearing from people he'd rather not. You know, the ones who don't have their checkbooks out.This isn't the first time (see here, for example) that the suggestion has been made that there's a connection between campaign contributors and pork barrel projects. I suspect that's more likely to be true in Defense earmarks than Transportation, but I think it's worth exploring whether this is the case. Continue reading
Today’s agenda
Like yesterday, I'm going to spend a good deal of the day figuring out how one element of this blog will work, about which more below. But I'm also going to investigate a particular earmark, one of the 6,373 that researchers at Taxpayers for Common Sense painstakingly identified in the Transportation Equity Act of 2005. This one is from Illinois; the text reads, "East Peoria, Illinois Technology Blvd. upgrades," and the appropriated amount is an insignificant (in Washington terms) $800,000.
Continue readingIn Blog Daylight: Tom DeLay’s Resignation:
There is only one story in the blogs today and that is Tom DeLay resignation (effective sometime in May):
- Think Progress has been all over the story since MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Mike Allen of Time Magazine broke the story. Of particular interest is DeLay's statement that the Texas Legislature will remove Ronnie Earle from office:
SNOW: Okay, so at this point, you know — are you willing to let bygones be bygones?
DELAY: Absolutely not. Texas should not allow a district attorney from Travis County have this kind of power. And they can take his power away from him because there was the Texas legislature that gave him this power. And I think that will happen in the next session of the Texas legislature.
- Think Progress also finds DeLay bragging about the K Street Project:
The Democrats hate the fact that their culture of K Street has been changed from a totally dominated Democrat K Street [lobbying community] to a totally dominated Republican K Street. Nothing illegal about that at all. And we built that. When we took over in 1995, the K Street contributions to elections was 70/30—70 percent Democrat, 30 percent Republican. Today it’s 60/40—60 percent Republican and 40 percent Republican. That’s a change in culture. Democrats and the left hate that, and they have worked very hard to destroy it.
- TPM Muckraker is all things DeLay today. Seriously, try and find a post that's not about him. One story in particular stands out. It appears that Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) is replacing DeLay on the Appropriations Committee. The seat that DeLay held had recently been vacated by Duke Cunningham, who is now in prison serving an 8 year plus sentence for accepting bribes. Calvert "accompanied former Rep. (and current convicted felon) Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-CA) to Saudi Arabia. Convicted felon Thomas Kontogiannis, a pal of Cunningham's, joined the two."
- Digby takes a guess at DeLay's next act (if it doesn't involve orange suits and bars). His guess is that DeLay would go and work for Rick Scarborough, the Christian Right activist and author of the forthcoming book Liberalism Kills Kids.
More News:
- The Hill reports on the rush to return campaign contributions from the newest member of “pled guilty” caucus, Tony Rudy.
- Roll Call reports on a new Astroturf advocacy outfit Health Care America that will push for health policy desired by pharmaceutical companies, employers, and hospitals. The Executive Director Sarah Berk, a former lobbyist for the American Hospital Association and aide to Sen. Continue reading
Abramoff Sought to Aid Sudan:
We know that Jack Abramoff worked with (for) the South African apartheid government; took the corrupt kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko as a client; helped the anti-Semitic Prime Minister of Malaysia gain access to President Bush; and lobbied on behalf of the autocratic dictator of Gabon. I guess it makes sense that he would go all the way and attempt to lobby for a government actively committing genocide. The Los Angeles Times reports:
Two eyewitnesses say that former lobbyist Jack Abramoff proposed to sell his services to the much-criticized government of Sudan to help improve its abysmal reputation in the United States, especially among Christian evangelicals who were campaigning against human rights violations in the troubled African nation.
Khidir Haroun Ahmed, Sudan's ambassador to the United States, said in an interview that Abramoff proposed a multimillion-dollar lobbying contract in late 2001 but that the proposal was "never seriously considered" by the Sudanese. He declined to elaborate.
…
Two eyewitnesses say that former lobbyist Jack Abramoff proposed to sell his services to the much-criticized government of Sudan to help improve its abysmal reputation in the United States, especially among Christian evangelicals who were campaigning against human rights violations in the troubled African nation.
Khidir Haroun Ahmed, Sudan's ambassador to the United States, said in an interview that Abramoff proposed a multimillion-dollar lobbying contract in late 2001 but that the proposal was "never seriously considered" by the Sudanese. He declined to elaborate.
Abramoff and his spokesman both deny that the meeting, which took place in Abramoff’s skybox at FedEx Field, occurred as Khidir claims. However, a former associate of Abramoff’s has backed up the Sudanese ambassador’s claims:
Continue readingAccording to the lobbyist's former associate, Abramoff sat with the ambassador in the skybox and described an elaborate and costly plan to blunt the effect of pressure from Christian groups with money and travel, two of the methods Abramoff frequently deployed in his Washington lobbying campaigns.
He said some of the money would be sent to the Christian Coalition and some would be spent encouraging Christian leaders to visit Sudan and talk with the government. Other money would be spent on a grass-roots campaign to promote a better image of the country in the United States.
The former associate said Abramoff repeatedly told the ambassador that he would arrange for his friend [Ralph] Reed to push the idea with Christian groups.
Abramoff Sought DeLay’s Help in Guam Elections:
According to the Guam Pacific Daily News:
Former Sen. Mark Charfauros, D-Agat, said he got lobbyist and friend Jack Abramoff involved in his battle with former Gov. Carl Gutierrez in 1998 because he wanted more federal attention brought to his concerns about the Gutierrez administration.
Charfauros yesterday told the Pacific Daily News that complaints by him and others to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about Gutierrez weren't getting anywhere at the time, so he asked Abramoff for help. Abramoff is a friend, he said, and stayed at Charfauros' home when he visited Guam.
…
Charfauros sent a letter to DeLay on Oct. 28, 1998, according to Pacific Daily News files, and DeLay the same day sent the letter to the Inspector General of the Department of Interior, calling for a formal investigation into alleged mismanagement of federal money under the Gutierrez administration.
A few days prior to the election Charfauros bought a one-page advertisement in the PDN to publish the letter from DeLay sent to the Department of Interior. Abramoff also may have attempted to affect the 2002 gubernatorial race according to allegations made by then-gubernatorial candidate Robert Underwood:
Underwood has said direct mailers printed out of a stateside business owned by a lobbying client of Abramoff undermined his first run for governor. The direct mailers, sent to about 25,000 members of Guam's Filipino community, had painted Underwood as being allegedly biased against Filipinos, a charge Underwood has said is untrue.
…
One clue to the possible Abramoff connection, Underwood explained, was a fax cover letter from Preston Gates, the lobby shop where Abramoff had worked for during the Guam gubernatorial campaign season in 2002.
Underwood claimed that Abramoff stuck his neck out in this election because he did not want to lose a lobbying client in Underwood’s opponent, current Gov. Felix Camacho.
Continue readingDeLay Won’t Seek Reelection, Will Resign from Congress:
Embattled former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) announced that he would resign from Congress later this spring rather than seek a tough reelection battle, according to the Washington Post. DeLay told Time Magazine that he decided not to seek reelection after much deliberation because, “It was obvious to me that this election had become a referendum on me … It's obvious to me that anybody but me running here will overwhelmingly win the seat.” While DeLay insists that he is not under investigation and that he has done nothing wrong it is clear that prosecutors continue to work their way closer to him. The Post writes, “some of DeLay's official actions in Congress clearly fall within the scope of the continuing investigation: Last week's guilty plea by Rudy cites as part of the evidence of conspiracy a letter that DeLay wrote on behalf of an Abramoff client and legislation that DeLay supported on behalf of a client of Abramoff's firm.” Also noted in the Post is DeLay’s ability to “convert any or all of the remaining funds from his reelection campaign to his legal expenses … Election lawyers say one advantage of bowing out of the election now is that the campaign cash can be converted to pay legal bills immediately, instead of being drained in the course of a bid to stay in office.”
Continue readingMany Pockets
Today’s announcement that Tom DeLay will be giving up his reelection campaign and his seat in Congress, amidst the unending swirl of scandals surrounding him, reminds me of an old editorial cartoon that used to be used as a training aid for investigative reporters.
The cartoon was drawn in the late 1800s by Thomas Nast and entitled “The Many Pockets of a Politician’s Coat.” It showed money being stuffed into every conceivable pocket of a portly politician, by a variety of supplicants seeking favors and bearing cash. The cartoon was a favorite of Kent Cooper, who for many years ran the Federal Election Commission’s public records office and was a regular at training seminars for journalists. He used the illustration to impress upon reporters how important it was to look not just for direct campaign contributions, but for all those indirect pockets that accomplish the same goal by less visible means. Maybe it’s a job for the spouse, maybe a golfing trip to Scotland. Or maybe, as in the case of Tom DeLay, it’s a scheme for shifting funds to state candidates through federal party committees, or browbeating the lobbying community on K Street to hire more Republicans against the threat of losing their access. In the case of Mr. DeLay, there may still be pockets no one has looked into yet – but enough of them have been exposed that it has finally brought down the man who once was arguably the most powerful politician on Capitol Hill. Continue readingDeLay chooses not to run
Apparently, he'd rather be in Alexandria. Tom DeLay has chosen to move there rather than run for reelection in 2006. I liked this bit from the Washington Post article:
...under Texas law, he must either die, be convicted of a felony, or move out of his district to be removed from the November ballot. DeLay told Time magazine that he is likely to change his official residence to Alexandria, Va., by the end of May.Given the options, I think Alexandria was probably the best choice... Continue reading
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