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THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG   Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 at 12:10 pm "Words and Deeds" Norm Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform, drops by to talk about progress on ethics and transparency since the President was sworn in. The President promised across-the-board change in Washington and all of us in the White House have been pleased to help deliver. In the ethics and government reform arena, we have worked hard to help the President impose strict new ethics rules for all employees; foster a culture of compliance and respect for the law; promote greater transparency (including...

Common Cause's state chapters in Florida and New Jersey are going out of business, Tampa Bay Online reports: After 30 years of advocating campaign finance reform, tougher ethics laws, election reform and other “good government” issues, the Florida chapter of Common Cause is shutting down for lack of funding. [...] The two Common Cause full-time staff members, Wilcox and development director Alex Chavez of Sarasota, were told yesterday their jobs were being terminated at the end of March, along with a total of 20 staffers nationwide, said Chavez. He said that will include closing at least one other state office,...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Announces-Key-State-Department-Appointments/ THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ___________________________________________________________ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 6, 2009 President Obama Announces Key State Department Appointments WASHINGTON – Today, President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals for key State Department posts: Esther Brimmer, Assistant Secretary for International Organizations; Phil Gordon, Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs; and Melanne Verveer, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. President Obama said, "Each of these individuals brings a deep knowledge and expertise in their field, along with a commitment to strengthen American diplomacy to...

WHEATON, Ill. — Theological conservatives upset by the liberal views of the Episcopal Church are forming a rival denomination. The new Anglican Church in North America will include four Episcopal dioceses that recently split from the U.S. church, along with breakaway Anglican parishes from Canada. The announcement Wednesday in Wheaton, Ill., comes after decades of debate over what Episcopalians should believe about issues ranging from salvation to sexuality. Tensions erupted in 2003 when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop. The world Anglican Communion is a fellowship of churches with roots in the Church of England. The Episcopal Church is...

Endeavor Agency's Ari Emanuel talks several times a day to his brother, U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who is masterminding the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's midterm elections. There's a well-reported piece on Rahm in today's Washington Post (Fighting For The Spoils) that mentions Ari. "They all play to win, those Emanuel boys. Rahm (left) is the middle son of three. His big brother, Ezekiel, is a Harvard oncologist and bioethicist. Younger brother Ari (below) is a high-flying agent in Los Angeles. He made news recently as the only major agent to publicly call for an industrywide shunning of Mel Gibson following...

Press Release: Barack Obama Tuesday, November 8, 2005 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE On Election Day, Obama Introduces Legislation to Prevent Election Fraud WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) Tuesday introduced legislation to protect Americans from using tactics that intimidate voters and prevent them from exercising their rights on Election Day. Obama's legislation, the Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2005, would make it illegal for anyone to knowingly attempt to prevent others from exercising his or her right to vote by providing deceptive information and would require the Attorney General to fully investigate these allegations. The legislation would...

Bob Edgar is a man of many hats. A pastor at 19, a member of Congress at 31. Edgar represented a Pennsylvania district in the House for six terms, served as general secretary of the National Council of Churches from 2000 to 2007, became president of Common Cause last May. No wonder the interview over coffee at The Mill on Wednesday moved so freely from the dominance of money in politics to the war in Iraq to Pastor Jeremiah Wright. Let’s start where the conversation ended, with the retiring pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Sen. Barack...

I was present for the closing service (“Holy Eucharist” from the ECUSA 1979 Prayer Book, Rite 1, with Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh as the Celebrant) for the fifty or so Bishops of the Common Cause Partnership on Friday September 28, 2007 in Trinity Cathedral, Pittsburgh; then I stayed for the hospitality, the Press Conference, and, following that, for informal conversations with various bishops. Here I want to reflect on the public Statement and commitment of the 50 or so Bishops rather then summarize its content, for it is available at websites (see e.g. www.anglicancommunionnetwork.org ). Further, David Virtue, who...

* Note Kevin Kallsen should be broadcasting this very shortly * link: http://www.anglicantv.org/blog/index.cfm/2007/9/25/Common-Cause-PIttsburgh-Tuesday-Stream [hat tip to Stand Firm] A total of 51 bishops and bishops-elect representing tens-of-thousands of Anglicans in North America are meeting together Sept. 25-28 in Pittsburgh , PA. The meeting of the first-ever Common Cause Council of Bishops brings together bishops and observers from the American Anglican Council, the Anglican Coalition in Canada, the Anglican Communion Network, Anglican Network in Canada, the Anglican Province of America, Anglican Essentials Canada, the Anglican Mission in the Americas, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, Forward in Faith North America...

A central plank of congressional ethics reform appeared in danger of collapse yesterday when government watchdog groups balked at disclosing their donors. A provision of the proposed reform would force watchdogs to reveal their donors if they file ethics complaints. But the watchdogs, which have long called for openness in government, voiced strong opposition to openness on their own part. The donor disclosure rule is part of a proposal to create an independent ethics panel to police behavior in the House.   Groups such as Public Citizen, Common Cause and Democracy 21 have made the creation of such an office...

Liberals around the world are trying to blame a rise in Islamic extremism on the War on Terror. This, in my opinion, rises from a fundamental lack of understanding of the threat we face but mainly, it rises from the election of 2000. In actuality, it is the Democrats and their Liberal/Socialist buddies around the world who are fueling this surge in Islamic extremism with their own hate. Muslim extremists sense a kindred spirit in and common cause with those who hate the President so much. They were already predisposed to believe the worst about the US and the Left,...

In 2000 and 2004, problems plagued the polls in different parts of the country: long lines, eligible voters turned away, voter intimidation, misallocation and malfunctioning of voting equipment. They were underreported on Election Day. Days and weeks later, a more complete picture of voter disenfranchisement emerged—but it was too late. The elections were over and the media had moved on. Starting this election, citizen journalists—people like you and me—will document problems as they occur. We'll play them online, spread word through blogs and partner websites, doing our part to make sure the full story of our elections is told.

DOHA, Qatar (AP) - Al-Jazeera's taboo-smashing newscasts regularly vex politicians in Washington, but not nearly as much as they anger leaders in the Arab world, where the news channel has been banned from operating in 18 countries at one time or another. Now, the network is launching its biggest gamble on its 10th anniversary - an English-language channel with an Arab perspective. Al-Jazeera International plans to hit the airwaves Nov. 15 and hopes to steal viewers from CNN and the BBC. Feisty and sometimes graphic coverage of global carnage is an Al-Jazeera specialty, as is bracing commentary that has shaken...

Its sinister maneuvers in the Foley scandal have put George Soros' Shadow Party on a collision course with the FBI. THE SCANDAL over Congressman Mark Foley’s sexual misconduct has generated some unexpected blowback.  It has pitted George Soros’ Shadow Party against the FBI. The Soros-funded group CREW has effectively declared war on America’s top federal law enforcement agency. CREW has called on the Justice Department to investigate the FBI.  In an October 5 statement, it accused the Bureau of having “fabricated and disseminated” falsehoods about CREW, as part of an FBI “cover-up” of the Foley scandal. (1) In the war of...

The nonpartisan watchdog group Common Cause filed a complaint with the Justice Department Monday alleging that Rep. Katherine Harris violated federal law by seeking a $10 million appropriation in exchange for an offer of fund-raising support from a defense contractor. The complaint alleges that Harris, a Republican from Longboat Key who is running for the U.S. Senate, sought the appropriation for a counterintelligence facility in her congressional district after having dinner early last year with Mitchell Wade, an owner and chief executive of MZM Inc., a defense contractor who later pleaded guilty to bribing former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif....

How does a dog vote? It's a question to ponder. Dogs do end up on voter lists from time to time -- one was registered in St. Louis in 2000 -- and I worry that today's polling places are not dog-friendly. Can a dog operate a touch screen election machine? Are owners permitted into the voting booth to help their pets? Seriously. Nowadays dogs, the deceased, convicted felons, illegal immigrants and imaginary people are registered to vote. This shouldn't be. But to hear some liberal groups, any rules and restrictions on the franchise are intolerable. One liberal group seems to...

Marie St. Fleur was a candidate for lieutenant governor for less than 24 hours before she had to drop out over unpaid taxes...leaving voters to ask how a key player in crafting the state budget could make such a mess of her own checkbook. It is a question Massachusetts voters have asked themselves before. Massachusetts, dubbed "Taxachusetts" years ago for its tax-happy ways, seems to churn out scofflaw lawmakers unable or unwilling to pay their own taxes on time. It did not take long for another candidate to reveal that he, too, has had tax problems. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval...

No Rove influence seen in US public TV boss hiring Tue Dec 13, 6:43 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's inspector general found no evidence in correspondence that White House adviser Karl Rove or other White House officials tried to influence the hiring of the group's new leader, according to a letter released on Tuesday. CPB Inspector General Kenneth Konz denied a request by three watchdog groups to release documents and e-mails related to a report that found former CPB Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson was motivated by politics when he hired a new president and chief executive...

Separate ballot measures in California and Ohio to remove lawmakers from the drawing of legislative districts have been dogged by accusations that they are essentially partisan power grabs. Now Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, hopes to counter those claims by throwing his weight behind the Ohio measure, even though no prominent Republican elected official in that state has done so and many Republican lawmakers there are raising money to defeat it. ... A top supporter of the measures in both states said Mr. Schwarzenegger would participate in a series of public events this week to signal his stance. (snip) In...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Common Cause and two other political reform groups on Wednesday endorsed Proposition 77, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to take the power to draw legislative and congressional districts away from the Legislature. "The current system, where self-interested politicians are responsible for drawing political boundaries, is rotten to the core," said Chellie Pingree, national president of Washington, D.C.-based Common Cause. "It's time to get the fox out of the henhouse and to put an end to California's rigged system of elections." Proposition 77, one of eight measures on California's Nov. 8 special election ballot, would give the power to...

San Diego Councilwoman Donna Frye and former Police Chief Jerry Sanders will face questioners under the sponsorship of California Common Cause in a two-hour forum on September 30 hosted by the University of California, San Diego. Co-sponsor of the event is the League of Women Voters of San Diego and the entire proceeding will be televised by UCSD-TV in a production to be repeated numerous times right up to election day, November 8. The debate at UCSD marks the first major engagement between the two candidates of the final election season. A focus of the forum will be the reform...

WASHINGTON (AP) - When California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nabbed an endorsement from Common Cause for his plan to redraw political district lines, some Democrats and open-government activists were dismayed. How could the respected good government group sign on with a governor who's been criticized for his supercharged fund-raising? Why was Common Cause embracing a plan that's picked up little or no backing from other nonprofit groups? "Common Cause is star-struck and so they're lending the governor their brand," said Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica-based consumer group that's among Schwarzenegger's chief critics....

WASHINGTON (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will visit Common Cause in Washington Thursday to seek support for his plan to redraw political district lines. A vice president of the nonpartisan good government group said an endorsement was planned. The meeting comes as the Republican governor faces skepticism - including from GOP leaders - over his proposal to let a panel of retired judges redraw congressional and state legislative district boundaries in California as early as next year. That job is currently done by state lawmakers, and under the normal timeline it wouldn't happen until after the 2010 census. Schwarzenegger's press...

The Shadow Party: Part I By David Horowitz and Richard Poe FrontPageMagazine.com | October 6, 2004 Part 1: Origins "My family is more important to me than my party," declared Senator Zell Miller, a Georgia Democrat, as he spoke from the podium of the Republican National Convention on September 1. "There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George Bush." [1] Many Democrats howled in outrage at Miller's "betrayal" - former President Jimmy Carter in particular. In an angry personal letter to the Georgia senator, Carter accused Miller of...

Advocacy groups challenge Fox News slogan By JAKE COYLE The Associated Press 7/19/2004, 8:05 p.m. ET NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News' use of the slogan "Fair and Balanced" constitutes deceptive advertising, two political advocacy groups claimed Monday in a petition filed with the Federal Trade Commission. Liberal MoveOn.org and historically nonpartisan Common Cause assert that Fox News' reports are "deliberately and consistently distorted and twisted to promote the Republican Party of the U.S. and an extreme right-wing viewpoint." Alleging consumer fraud, the complaint calls for the FTC to order Fox News, consistently the highest-rated cable news network, to cease...

<p>SACRAMENTO - After refusing money from single-interest trade associations, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger accepted donations from members of a building group who combined their individual contributions and sent them in as one.</p> <p>While the tactic is legal, critics said it flew in the face of the Republican governor's stated policy of not taking money from single-issue lobbying organizations.</p>

Madison - Wisconsin unions and businesses gave $1.3 million to a national Democratic Party committee, which then returned much of it to an organization prosecutors say Sen. Chuck Chvala illegally ran to skirt state campaign-finance laws, a new report released Thursday charged. Using new Internal Revenue Service data, the non-partisan group Common Cause in Wisconsin was able for the first time to list donations from Wisconsin - including $430,000 from the state's largest teachers union - to the Democratic Leadership Campaign Committee in Washington, D.C., before state elections in 2000 and 2002. Wisconsin contributors gave more to the national committee...

<p>ASHINGTON -- The president of Common Cause is facing allegations that she violated federal election laws in her Democratic race for the US Senate last year, causing embarrassment for the nonprofit lobbying group that is a leading advocate for campaign finance reform.</p>

The loony left has decided to drag out its favorite bogeyman in an effort to defeat a decades-old regulation whose days are - and ought to be - numbered. The bogeyman is a former owner of this newspaper - one Rupert Murdoch. And the regulation is the so-called cross-ownership rule, which has long prohibited the ownership of a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the same city (except for those grandfathered in, and 50 cities where a waiver allows the major newspaper to own a TV station as well). The Federal Communications Commission, under the leadership of Chairman Michael Powell,...

Campaign fundraising reports for Chellie Pingree, a former Democratic Senate candidate form Maine who now heads Common Cause, contain numerous infractions that may prompt an audit by the Federal Election Commission (FEC), The Hill has learned. The prospect of an election commission audit of Pingree has raised eyebrows among campaign finance experts and lawyers because the well-known government watchdog group spearheaded the passage of the landmark Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act last year. In fact, campaign finance regulation has become Common Cause's signature issue in recent years. Pingree, who last year lost her bid to oust Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), became...

<p>Common Cause issued a report Wednesday that said cigarette manufacturers were one of the big winners in California's last legislative session.</p> <p>The report prepared by the campaign finance reform group's Education Fund in Washington, D.C., said tobacco companies dramatically increased the amount of money they spent on lobbying at the Capitol and escaped an increase in the cigarette tax toward the end of the legislative session while the state's budget deficit was being debated.</p>

Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau AUSTIN -- The Texas chapter of Common Cause, a nationwide citizens lobbying group, has less than two months to raise $30,000 or face shutting down its office here. Suzy Woodford, Common Cause Texas executive director, said the state office ended the last fiscal year on Dec. 31 with a $30,000 deficit. Since then, the national office has being paying operating costs for the Texas office and Woodford's salary. The nonprofit group is funded by dues and contributions from members and supporters. "The bottom line is that the National office of Common Cause has informed...