Free Republic

Congressional approval of the $700 billion bailout last week marks the beginning of a new debate over how to prevent a similar financial crisis from happening again. “The $700 billion rescue plan is a life-support measure. It may keep our economy from collapsing, but it won’t make it healthy again,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), after he brought to order the first of five hearings his committee will hold in the coming weeks concerning the financial crisis. “To restore our economy to health, two steps are necessary. First, we must identify what went wrong. Then we must enact real reform...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose corruption scandal shook up Washington's power elite and contributed to the Republican loss of control in Congress, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in federal prison. Judge Ellen Huvelle issued the sentence on conspiracy and other charges after federal prosecutors recommended leniency due to Abramoff's cooperation in pursuing corruption cases against lawmakers and former administration officials. He faced a maximum of 11 years under a plea deal reached in 2006.

The family of Joe Biden, who will be officially nominated as the vice presidential candidate of the Democratic Party's 'reform Washington' ticket with Barack Obama Thursday night, appears to be enmeshed in the same D.C. money game that Obama denounces. One of the senator's sons -- Hunter, a Washington lobbyist -- and the senator's brother, James --received a $1 million investment in their purchase of a hedge fund company from the senator's largest political donor, an Illinois law firm, SimmonsCooper. The brother and the son subsequently repaid the $1 million to the law firm, which specializes in representing asbestos victims....

Cleveland nun to close one night of Democratic convention with prayer By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service WASHINGTON – St. Joseph Sister Catherine Pinkerton of Cleveland is not usually one to seek the spotlight, but she will take center stage at the Democratic National Convention Aug. 27 when she gives the benediction to close the party’s third day of business. Sister Catherine, 86, a lobbyist for Network, a national Catholic social justice lobby, will close the convention on the night that Sen. Barack Obama is expected to formally become the party’s nominee for president. The invitation to lead the prayer...

John McCain's top foreign-policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, is a leading expert on U.S.-allied Georgia -- and was a paid lobbyist for the former Soviet republic until March, in the run-up to what has become a major battle between Georgia and Russia. Democratic rival Barack Obama's presidential campaign was quick to try to paint Mr. Scheunemann's dual roles as a conflict of interest after Sen. McCain swiftly took Georgia's side in the dispute, and cited it as evidence that Sen. McCain is "ensconced in a lobbyist culture," as Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan told reporters over the weekend. But given the rapid...

A lobbyist with close ties to the White House is offering access to key figures in George W Bush’s administration in return for six-figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush’s presidency. Stephen Payne, who claims to have raised more than $1m for the president’s Republican party in recent years, said he would arrange meetings with Dick Cheney, the vice-president, Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, and other senior officials in return for a payment of $250,000 (£126,000) towards the library in Texas. Payne, who has accompanied Bush and Cheney on several foreign trips, also said...

WASHINGTON - The Democratic National Committee, now operating under Barack Obama's fundraising rules, on Friday returned about $100,000 in money from lobbyists and political action committees. The donations were already "in the pipeline" when Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, instituted the standards for the committee, a party official said. Obama imposed the rules to avoid a conflict with his own ban on money from federal lobbyists and PACs. On Thursday he sent one of his top strategists to the DNC to help with its general election operation. Republican John McCain does accept money from lobbyists and PACs as does...

WASHINGTON - John McCain's national finance co-chairman has stepped down, becoming the latest adviser to leave the Republican's presidential campaign because of ties to lobbyists. Former Texas Rep. Thomas G. Loeffler, one of McCain's key fundraisers, resigned after the campaign last week instructed staff to disclose all lobbying ties and to make certain they are no longer registered as lobbyists or foreign agents. McCain's campaign on Sunday confirmed Loeffler's resignation. Loeffler lobbies for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., which with Northrop Grumman Corp. won a lucrative contract to provide air refueling tankers for the Air Force. McCain helped...

Around noon today, the powers-that-be at NEWSWEEK posted "A Convention Quandary" on our website. In the story, investigative ace Michael Isikoff reported that the man chosen by John McCain's presidential campaign to run this summer's GOP convention--Arizonan Doug Goodyear--was causing some headaches within the ranks. The problem? Goodyear is CEO of DCI Group, a consulting firm that earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients--not the most convenient association for a candidate who's already struggling to reconcile his reputation as an anti-special interests crusader with the sizable number of lobbyists on his senior staff. Further...

HR4774 On March 5th, the US House of Representatives unanimously approved the naming of a Post Office after Cyndi Taylor Krier. Normally, a vote like this would not make news in The Daily Congressional. This, however, is a special case. According to The Washington Post“One of Washington’s minor traditions is to name post offices after heroes, usually recently deceased. A lot of them have been named recently for service members killed in Iraq. But Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) has taken a new approach. He’s pushing to name a post office after a prominent, very-much-alive lobbyist. And that’s not all. His...

Howie Carr live thread, starting off with his Sunday Boston Herald column

Everyone knows the First Amendment protects freedom of religion, speech, press and assembly. How many remember that, in addition, the First Amendment protects a fifth freedom—to lobby? Of course it doesn’t use the word lobby. It calls it the right “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Lobbyists are people hired to do that for you, so that you can actually stay home with the kids and remain gainfully employed rather than spend your life in the corridors of Washington. To hear the candidates in this presidential campaign, you’d think lobbying is just one notch below waterboarding, a...

WASHINGTON — In late 1998, Senator John McCain sent an unusually blunt letter to the head of the Federal Communications Commission, warning that he would try to overhaul the agency if it closed a broadcast ownership loophole. letter, and two later ones signed by Mr. McCain, then chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, urged the commission to abandon plans to close a loophole vitally important to Glencairn Ltd., a client of Vicki Iseman, a lobbyist. The provision enabled one of the nation’s largest broadcasting companies, Sinclair, to use a marketing agreement with Glencairn, a far smaller broadcaster, to get around...

Number of bundlers for 2008 presidential candidates: 2,382 Number of lobbyist bundlers for 2008 presidential candidates: 143 Amount raised by 2008 presidential candidates: $317,070,981 Barack Obama (D) Total Raised: $78,915,507 ************ Bundlers: 359 Lobbyist Bundlers: 10 Hillary Clinton (D) Total Raised: $78,507,181 ************ Bundlers: 322 Lobbyist Bundlers: 20 Rudy Giuliani (R) Total Raised: $44,559,299 ************ Bundlers: 225 Lobbyist Bundlers: 35 Mitt Romney (R) Total Raised: $43,999,833 ************ Bundlers: 345 Lobbyist Bundlers: 16 John McCain (R) Total Raised: $30,306,621 ************ Bundlers: 463 Lobbyist Bundlers: 58 John Edwards (D) Total Raised: $29,935,179 ************ Bundlers: 665 Lobbyist Bundlers: 3 Ron Paul (R) Total...

Rep. Jefferson put FBI onto lobbyist witnessJim Creaghan to testify at trial By GERARD SHIELDS Advocate Washington bureau Published: Jan 7, 2008 - Page: 1A WASHINGTON — When the FBI interviewed U.S. Rep. William Jefferson for two hours before the August 2005 search of his home, the New Orleans Democrat mentioned a name the agents didn’t recognize: Jim Creaghan. The Baton Rouge energy lobbyist quickly became a cooperating witness in the public corruption case against Jefferson. “Creaghan was the only person the congressman named during two hours that I didn’t know,” Tim Thibault, the lead FBI agent in the case,...

<p>The Republican primary in Colorado will soon be upon us; and even before Iowa and New Hampshire, one thing should be eminently clear: there is only one candidate who throughout his career has been consistently Conservative and who will be able to lead a prosperous America into the second decade of the 21st century.</p>

Lobbyists do represent ordinary Americans, as Hillary Clinton claims, but those contributing to her campaign mostly represent big industries, the Center for Responsive Politics finds. Obama and Edwards eschew lobbyists' money, but their biggest contributors still lobby in Washington. November 29, 2007 | As John Edwards and Barack Obama continue to assail Hillary Clinton for accepting campaign contributions from Washington lobbyists, she has tried to dispel their accusation that being the top recipient of K Street's money puts her in the pocket of entrenched corporate interests. Among Clinton's defenses is that lobbyists also work in the interest of ordinary people....

In what may go down as the strangest news in ITK history, last week a 60-year-old registered lobbyist insisted that a squirrel said "hello" to him on Capitol Hill. The lobbyist, who would not allow us to use his name for fear of losing clients, represents a chemical company, Clariant.....

There's a new first in the 2008 presidential campaign. We've already se en the first woman candidate, Hillary Clinton and the first African American with widespread support and a serious chance at winning the presidency. But now there's another groundbreaker: the first lobbyist candidate — Fred Thompson.

As a matter of efficiency, it’s not odd for a national political operation to digest whole campaign structures at the statewide level. Fred Thompson seems to be doing this in Georgia. We’ve gotten word that Joel McElhannon, the Republican political consultant who helped put Casey Cagle in the lieutenant governor’s office and Jim Whitehead into a run-off for the 10th District congressional race, is being gobbled up by the Thompson campaign as some sort of Southern coordinator. McElhannon confirmed the move, but referred all other questions to the campaign. Thompson has a fund-raiser here on Friday, one of his first...

I realize that millions of dollars have been spent over many years to make the word "lobbyist" almost as dirty a word as "profit". Anti-capitalists hate both and have done a magnificent job of demonizing both. But in case you have an interest in knowing the facts, I thought someone should point out that "lobbyists" are nothing more or less than paid messengers. Not so long ago, government had no role in business, free enterprise, free market economics, employment or trade. Once government chose to insert itself in all aspects of our now not-so-free economics, business groups were forced to...

Fred Thompson, who is weighing a Republican presidential bid as a social conservative, "has no recollection" of performing lobbying work in 1991 for a family planning group that was seeking to relax an abortion counseling rule, a spokesman said Friday. The Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site that Thompson was retained by National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association to lobby the administration of President George H.W. Bush to ease a regulation that prevented clinics that received federal money from offering any abortion counseling. At the time, Thompson, a lawyer, worked as a lobbyist at Arent Fox Kintner...

By all accounts, Fred D. Thompson will soon be running for president, portraying himself as a Washington outsider on the campaign trail. But over the past three years he showed up every two weeks or so at a lobbying and law firm in downtown D.C. to plot how best to persuade Congress to help a British company. His main assignment: to use his connections to then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) to extract information about goings-on inside Congress and use it to benefit his multibillion-dollar client. In exchange for this insider wisdom he was paid a cool $760,000. Even casual...

According to liberal Democrats, their loyal press and their mindless minions across the country, none of whom care about the facts, they were “elected” by Americans in 2006 for the purpose of “saving America” from those corrupt Republicans who have been busy “selling America” to lobbyists and foreign interests. The problem with their story is, according to official Federal Election Commission reports, it isn’t supported by the hard facts. During the study years running from 1990 through 2006, here are the real facts concerning who is selling America for political contributions…

A lobbyist tied to the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling scandal has resigned from the law firm where he worked, company officials said Monday. Kevin Ring worked with Abramoff until early 2005 and previously was an aide to California GOP Rep. John Doolittle, whose ties to the convicted GOP lobbyist are under investigation in the ongoing corruption probe. Ring resigned effective last Friday from Barnes & Thornburg LLP, said managing partner Alan A. Levin. Ring joined Barnes & Thornburg after leaving Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig LLP. Barnes & Thornburg is based in Indianapolis and has offices throughout the Midwest and in Washington....

Texas Showdown Parents Object to Vaccine Mandate Wed, Feb 14, 2007 Related Stories Printer-Friendly BY TIM DRAKE REGISTER SENIOR WRITER February 18-24, 2007 Issue Posted 2/13/07 at 8:00 AM DALLAS — Texans are crying “foul” in reaction to a new mandate that girls entering sixth grade receive a vaccine against the human papillomavirus (HPV). Gov. Rick Perry’s Feb. 3 executive order is meant to protect young women against the sexually transmitted disease, which can lead to cervical cancer. The vaccine “provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer,” Perry said when announcing the order. “If...

When Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) rose to the Senate floor last summer and passionately argued for keeping the federal estate tax, he left one person with an interest in retaining the tax unmentioned. The multibillion-dollar life-insurance industry, which was fighting to preserve the tax because life insurers have a lucrative business selling policies and annuities to Americans for estate planning, has employed Dorgan's wife as a lobbyist since 1999. A few months earlier, Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-N.C.) had pleaded for restraint as she urged colleagues to avoid overreacting....At the same time, her husband, Robert J. Dole, was registered to...

Stephen Bassett has a lobbying pitch straight from outer space. He wants to tell Members of Congress about the alien spacecrafts visiting Earth. They’ve been coming for years, he says, often scooping up humans for test probes. And if lawmakers could muster the political backbone to address the issue, Bassett would like to present some people to testify about making contact, as well as reams of evidence to back up their claims. Trouble is, it’s tough to get a meeting on Capitol Hill when your subject is little green men. Bassett himself, founder of the Paradigm Research Group and the...

WASHINGTON The House ethics committee has approved a $2 million payout from a lobbying firm to a top Appropriations Committee staffer. The lobbying firm's ties to Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., are under federal investigation. Jeff Shockey got $1.96 million in severance payments when he left Washington-based Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton, & White early last year to become deputy staff director of the Appropriations Committee. The payments have been criticized by government watchdog groups because Copeland, Lowery, which specializes in helping clients that want federal funding for projects, frequently lobbies the Appropriations Committee. "It appears that the terms of your...

Depending on your perspective, Letitia White is either the epitome of a Capitol Hill success story or a prime example of an unsettling mix of money, politics and public policy. White was a receptionist when she joined the staff of Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands. More than two decades later, she's an influential lobbyist whose connections to Lewis - now chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee - and others on the Hill have translated into millions of dollars for her and her firm. They also have made her part of a federal investigation into Lewis' ties to the lobbying firm where...

The most visible male homosexual lobbyist in the Massachusetts State House has been arrested for soliciting oral sex from college students at the University of Massachusetts, according to newspaper reports. William Conley works for the Massachusetts Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus and has been the point man for coordinating legislative support for funding homosexual programs (including the new "Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth") in the public schools, as well as same-sex "marriage", repeal of the sodomy laws, and other homosexual-related legislation.Conley has been a member of the "Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth", and has now become a...

WASHINGTON - A Washington lobbyist and his partner twice insinuated themselves into the tribal elections of an Inland tribe, which paved the way for them to receive lucrative contracts worth more than $7.2 million which the two split in a secret deal, according to a nearly 400-page report released by a congressional committee Thursday. The report by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is the most detailed account so far of how the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs came to hire Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his partner, public relations specialist Michael S. Scanlon. Abramoff, who...

A jury found former Bush administration official David Safavian guilty Tuesday of covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff. Safavian was convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction. He had resigned from his White House post last year as the federal government's chief procurement officer. The trial consumed eight days of testimony about Safavian's assistance to Abramoff regarding government-owned real estate and a weeklong golfing excursion the lobbyist organized to the famed St. Andrews golf course in Scotland and London. Safavian went on the trans-Atlantic trip while he was chief of staff at the...

Inland Rep. Jerry Lewis has received more than $1 million in donations from lobbyists and current and past clients of a top Washington lobbying firm under investigation by federal authorities, an analysis of campaign-finance data shows. A federal grand jury issued subpoenas last month to Inland cities and counties asking them to turn over documents about their decision to hire the firm, billing statements and communications between local officials, Lewis and the lobbying firm Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton & White. Clients of Copeland Lowery have received millions of dollars in congressional earmarks -- the special projects lawmakers insert into federal...

San Bernardino County, Calif., has been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury for records connected to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, and a lobbying firm with strong ties to Lewis, a county official said. The subpoena asked for all records of the county's correspondence with Lewis and his staff and with the lobbying firm, Copeland, Lowery, Jacquez, Denton, & White, which employs former California Republican congressman Bill Lowery, said San Bernardino County's chief deputy counsel, Daniel B. Haueter. Haueter said that the county, which hired Copeland, Lowery in 2002, was complying. Lewis represents portions of the inland Southern...

USA Citizens Day - July 1st Immigration Control Rally Nationwide Rally on Saturday, July 1st, at noon, at your City HallMay 1st - Million of Illegal Aliens Marched in our StreetsTwelve million illegal aliens demonstrated their political power, and declared May 1st to be A Day Without Undocumented Workers ( illegal aliens ). They boycotted the USA, all US businesses and institutions. Millions of them marched in our streets, carried Mexican flags, shouted "Si se puede!", and demanded new laws from our Congress. July 1st - U.S. Citizens Nationwide Rally for Immigration ControlRally to stop our continuous invasion by...

WASHINGTON - A divided House on Wednesday passed legislation to address the lobbying scandals and ethical missteps that have tarnished the reputation of Congress. Republicans said it would define bright lines of right and wrong while Democrats said it was a feeble attempt at reform that won't fool voters this fall. The 217-213 vote, largely along party lines, sends the bill to negotiations with the Senate, which has its own bill that goes further in banning meals and gifts from lobbyists and slowing the movement of former lawmakers to lobbying jobs. The House bill's chief sponsor, Rules Committee Chairman David...

The fake persuadersDetective work ... shows how a PR firm contracted to the biotech company Monsanto appears to have played a crucial but invisible role in shaping scientific discourse. ...An article on its website...warns "there are some campaigns where it would be undesirable or even disastrous to let the audience know that your organisation is directly involved...   it is possible to make postings to these outlets that present your position as an uninvolved third party..." ...So the campaign against the researchers was extraordinarily successful; but who precisely started it? Who are "Mary Murphy" and "Andura Smetacek"? The Bivings Group...

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether two contractors implicated in the bribery of former Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham supplied him with prostitutes and free use of a limousine and hotel suites, pursuing evidence that could broaden their long-running inquiry. Besides scrutinizing the prostitution scheme for evidence that might implicate contractor Brent Wilkes, investigators are focusing on whether any other members of Congress, or their staffs, may also have used the same free services, though it isn't clear whether investigators have turned up anything to implicate others. [Randy Cunningham] In recent weeks, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have fanned out across Washington,...

WASHINGTON - A batch of 278 e-mails between lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a Bush administration official show a highly inappropriate relationship where gifts and business interests mixed freely and frequently, federal prosecutors said Friday. The prosecutors hope to use the e-mails in the criminal case against David Safavian, who is accused of lying and obstruction of justice in connection with investigations of an Abramoff-sponsored golf outing to Scotland in August 2002. The e-mails show that Abramoff and Safavian, then chief of staff at the General Services Administration, were in frequent contact, played golf often and traded workplace gossip. Abramoff showered...

Coverage of the debate over the recent paper by professors Stephen Walt of Harvard and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago that examines the influence of Israel and its supporters in Washington over US foreign policy has been, mostly, absent from US media. But the paper generated vigorous debate in the British and international media and on the Internet. Since the working paper's release, there have been several more attacks on it, but also more support for the professors' position on the need to look hard at the US-Israel relationship. The Financial Times reports on Wednesday that Harvard Law...

Lobbyist regulation an exercise in absurdity By Eric Heyl TRIBUNE-REVIEW Friday, March 17, 2006 It was almost as if Gov. Ed Rendell had come out strongly in favor of deodorant soap, or homogenized milk. Response was fairly muted after Rendell on Wednesday ordered lobbyists doing business with the executive branch of state government to begin registering and reporting their expenses. He also urged the Legislature to pass a state lobbyist disclosure law. Most pundits viewed Rendell's edict as either a political ploy or unenforceable decree only marginally better than nothing. Given the history in the only state in the nation...

In his first political firestorm since taking office in January, Gov. Jon S. Corzine said Wednesday that he provided $5,000 in bail money to a lobbyist accused of stalking a state assemblyman. "I reacted as a human being responding to someone in need," the multimillionaire Democrat said. "However, in light of my position as governor, I realize this was a mistake." Karen Golding, a government relations manager for insurance giant Prudential Financial, is accused of breaking into the government-issued car of Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, a Democrat, and of writing threatening letters and making threatening calls to Cryan and others. Authorities...

MARCH 7 - While serving in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2003, Robert Menendez wrote a letter of recommendation on behalf of a major campaign contributor whose company was seeking public technology consulting contracts. Five days after the letter was dated, Menendez’s campaign received $4,000 in contributions from the owner of the company. Several months later, Hudson County awarded the company, Hindsight, Inc., a $4 million contact. Hindsight’s bid was $850,000 higher than the low bidder. Menendez, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate in January, is now finding himself on the defensive.........

WASHINGTON – It has to be rough right now, being a lobbyist in the nation's capital. Perhaps it is also rough being Brian Bilbray. He's the congressman-turned-lobbyist-turn-ed-congressional candidate who must convince voters that he is part of the solution to the ethically challenged climate on Capitol Hill, rather than part of the problem. As tales of bribery dominate the headlines and lawmakers scramble to curb the influence lobbyists have on Congress, Bilbray finds himself unique among the 50th District candidates for his experience as a member of Congress, and as a lobbyist seeking to influence members. “If you're a lobbyist,...

Democrats have taken more money from lobbyists than Republicans during the past 15 years, according to an independent analysis of campaign contributions. Since the 1990 election cycle, Democrats have accepted more than $53 million from lobbyists while Republicans have taken more than $48 million for their election campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Data provided by the nonpartisan group also shows that when Democrats controlled Congress in the early 1990s, they consistently hauled in more than 70 percent of the town's lobbyist money. The group is a leading critic of Texas Republican Rep. Tom DeLay's ties to lobbyists....

New Info Surfaces Further HighlightingSen. Harry Reid's (D-NV) Hypocrisy; Ties To Jack Abramoff _____________________________________________________Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) Claims The Abramoff Scandal Is Only "A Republican Scandal":Reid: "[D]on't Lump Me In With Jack Abramoff. This Is A Republican Scandal. Don't Try To Give Any Of It To Me." (Fox News' "Fox News Sunday," 12/18/05) Click Here To Watch Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) Say Abramoff Is A Republican Scandal. Reid: "[T]his Is A Republican Scandal. When The Justice Department Completes Its Investigation, This Will All Be Republicans Involved Criminally." (Judith Kohler, "Salazar, Reid Take Democratic Message To 'Red States,'" The Associated Press,...

A leading US evangelist is forming an umbrella organization under which all pro-Israel Christians in America can speak as one in support of the Jewish state. Pastor John C. Hagee of San Antonio, Texas, is to launch Christians United for Israel (CUFI) at an invitation-only "Summit on Israel" next Tuesday at his Cornerstone Church. The Texas-size church seats 5,000 worshipers and has some 17,000 members, but the summit will host a much smaller congregation: the spiritual leaders of an estimated 30 million US Christians. "Think of CUFI as a Christian version of AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee]," Hagee...

The scandal in Washington, D.C., surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff has exposed a level of pay-to-play influence in our nation's Capitol which exceeded even our suspicions, which were numerous. Abramoff has pled guilty to trading campaign contributions and perks such as free meals at posh restaurants and international golf trips to Scotland in exchange for congressional votes for his clients. As layers of this odious onion are pealed away, the public is becoming all the more skeptical about the performance of their elected officials. However, there may be a silver lining to the scandal. Advocates of lower taxes and less government...

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) Lashes Out At Bush Administration, Forgetting His Jack Abramoff Connections "It's unfortunate that a week before President Bush has an opportunity to lay out his agenda, Harry Reid is already mischaracterizing his record of achievement in an effort to score cheap political points. Whether he is taking the battle to the terrorists or delivering prescription drug coverage to America's seniors, President Bush is a proven leader in step with our nation's priorities. By launching bitter, partisan attacks that ignore problems in his own backyard, Senator Reid is emblematic of a minority party that is long on...