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April 2008
Bush awards teacher of the year, pushes No Child Left Behind
President Bush gave a crystal apple to the Teacher of the Year Wednesday.
“Good teachers are empathetic souls. And really the best teachers have a special intuition and the ability to see potential and have the patience necessary to watch it grow,” Bush told state teachers of the year in the Rose Garden.
In addition to honoring the top educators of the country, Bush used the event as an opportunity to push the No Child Left Behind Act. Although the law has yet to be reauthorized by Congress, Bush called it a “brilliant, important piece of legislation”; and one that “refuses to accept the soft bigotry of low expectation.”
He said that coming from a tough neighborhood should not be an excuse for low performance.
“One thing about No Child is that when you find somebody struggling, it’s important to get extra resources to help that child get up to speed now, before it’s too late.”
Before turning the garden over to Teacher of the Year Michael Geisen, a 7th grade science teacher from Oregon, Bush mentioned a set of reforms to NCLB proposed last week by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. The reforms were designed to address dropout rates in public schools, increase school accountability, and ensure that more students have access to tutoring.
Geisen, after telling the president that he “likes what he had done with the place,” — reference to the Rose Garden — said there is no one best teacher in America. He said millions of teachers face the challenge of educating “the entire child - not just the left side of their brains.”
He stressed the importance of teaching children that learning is not about just having the right answer, and said creativity should be encouraged. Geisen said children should be given the opportunity to learn life and social skills that are applicable outside of a classroom setting.
“Children are fully human beings,” Geisen said. “They’re not conglomerations of hormones, they’re not animals to be trained, they’re not just numbers to be measured or future commodities to produce. They are our equals. They’re the here and the now. And they are beautiful.”
In his seven years of teaching at Crook (cq) County Middle School in Prineville, Oregon, Geisen has developed family-oriented school projects, a hands-on science curriculum, and several educational songs, including one about a lonely bacterium, to grab his students’ attention.
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Bipartisan senators to Bush: Stop filling!
Oil has crushed airlines, truckers, and family budgets. Now it’s breaking the partisan lines in the U.S. government.
Republicans Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn of Texas and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia were among more than a dozen senators who signed a letter to President Bush this morning asking the administration to stop buying oil at record prices for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The “SPR had 554 million barrels when President Bush took office and today it has over 701 million barrels,” Hutchison said. “We are in an extreme circumstance, now that oil is around $120 a barrel. I support an immediate halt in the deposits of domestic crude into the SPR as we enter the busiest driving season of the year.”
The economic reasoning is that the government’s daily purchase of 77,000 barrels a day adds demand to the runaway market, driving up prices. Last week, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., urged the administration to sell some oil, thereby increasing supply and lowering prices.
But the White House and plenty of economists counter that a halt in purchases would have no significant impact on prices.
Some argue that financial seculators are bigger culprits in driving up oil prices. As traders pull out of debt markets in the wake of a credit crisis, they divert capital into commodity markets — gold and food are among several that have also seen a recent surge in prices.
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Banking on the unbanked
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. refers to some 10 million U.S. households as the “unbanked,” meaning they do not have accounts at banks or other mainstream financial institutions. As a result, those families often pay big fees to cash simple checks.
On Tuesday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced it would allow customers to cash their U.S. tax rebate checks for free at any Wal-Mart store, even without making a purchase. But should those customers want to turn some part of Uncle Sam’s $100-billion largess into useful items, Wal-Mart stands ready to help. The retail discounter says that as the economic stimulus checks go out, it will be cutting prices on cereal bars and cereal boxes. That means the unbanked won’t have to be the unbreakfasted too.
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Wright challenges charges he is unpatriotic
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the charismatic minister whose fiery sermons have caused some political headaches for Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama, today challenged critics who have accused him of being unpatriotic.
“I served six years in the military,” Obama’s former minister said in response to a question at the National Press Club about his patriotism. “Does that make me patriotic? How many years did (Vice President Dick) Cheney serve?”
Wright enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1961. After two years, he joined the Navy and became a medical corpsman. He was assigned to the Navy’s premier medical facility, Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he was part of the team that cared for President Lyndon Johnson after his 1966 surgery.
Cheney? Not so much. During the six years Wright was on active duty with the Marines and the Navy, Cheney applied for and got five deferments from the draft and thus avoided military service completely. That, though, did not stop him from becoming the head of the entire military establishment as Secretary of Defense under President Bush’s father.
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Private watchdog group trying to end impasse on government watchdog
A private watchdog group is trying to end a congressional impasse over the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the federal agency that enforces federal campaign finance laws.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) today launched a website, fixthefec.org, in an effort to pressure Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to allow a vote to get the FEC back in business.
“Since Senator McConnell has dug in his heels and refused to allow for a vote, the nation’s watchdog has been muzzled right when we need it most,” CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said. “Incredibly, the FEC cannot address any complaints against presidential candidates or a series of public financing questions.”
The FEC has six members, and a quorum of four is needed to act. Right now, the FEC has four vacancies, and McConnell will not allow a Senate confirmation vote unles all four nominees are voted on at the same time.
Such a procedure would make it easier to get confirmation of Hans von Spakovsky, who served on the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections in Atlanta before becoming an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department.
At Justice, he headed the Civil Rights Division and was instrumental in the approval of a controversial Georgia ID voter law over the objections of the department’s career staff. His name has also surfaced in the on-going congressional investigation into the Bush administration’s dismissal of U.S. attorneys.
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Bush leads the band
Here’s the view from the head table Saturday night as President Bush led the Marine Corps Band at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington. Bush told a few jokes and then took the baton.
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Is Perry tryin to scoop Hutchison?
On Friday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry called for a reduction in a federal mandate that a certain amount of the country’s fuel supply come from corn-based ethanol, as we reported today.
This morning, Politico’s Mike Allen reported in his must-read Playbook column](http://www.politico.com/playbook/) that Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Perry’s fellow Republican, will have an op-ed in Monday’s Investor’s Business Daily calling for a freeze in such biofuel mandates, instead of steadily increasing them over the next 14 years.
Let’s quickly review: Hutchison is considering coming home to run for governor in 2010. Perry has that job now and says he wants to seek it again. The two aren’t exactly close. Could the governor have made his annoucement to steal the thunder from the senator?
“Gov. Perry announced the ethanol waiver Friday because it was the right thing to do for Texas, period,” Perry spokeswoman Krista Piferrer told us today.
It’s starting to feel a lot like 2005, the last time these two were nudging each other in anticipation of a primary fight. Perry won that round when Hutchison opted not to run, and he doesn’t seem to have lost much off his game.
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Delta flight attendants bumped from overbooked hearing
A few Delta flight attendants were bumped from their seats Thursday when House Judiciary staff members realized there were not enough empty chairs left in the hearing room to seat witnesses testifying on the next panel.
The staffers told a group of Delta flight attendants who were there to watch the hearing on the proposed merger of Delta and Northwest Airlines that they needed 7 volunteers to give up their seats.
They were not offered any cash incentives or promised a seat at the next hearing, but were put on a “standby” list in case there were any seats not occupied when the hearing started.
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What’s younger than McCain? Lots
John McCain is 71 years old. And if he’s elected president he will be 72 years old when he takes the oath of office. That would make him the oldest American ever to ascend to the presidency. (Ronald Reagan was 69 when he first became president.)
Indeed, in 1936, when McCain was born, the cost of a gallon of gasoline was 10 cents, a loaf of bread was 8 cents, a pound of hamburger was 12 cents, a new Studebaker cost $665 and the average cost of a new house was $3,925.
So, not surprisingly, the presumptive Republican nominee is taking more than a little bit of ribbing about his age. There’s even a website, www.youngerthanmccain.com, which has been featured on YouTube, listed some of the things that are, well, younger than McCain.
But the website and the YouTube video hardly include all the things that are younger than McCain. Here, then, is a longer - though far from complete - list. And incidentally, most of the items listed here are also younger than the 60-year-old Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton.
Israel, rock ‘n’ roll, frozen orange juice, the Interstate highway system, NATO, the Guiness Book of Records, instant replay, the federal minimum wage rate, the U.S. Air Force, Barbie dolls, GI Joe action figures, credit cards, the dial tone, area codes, 911, the GI Bill, drive-through windows, Batman, Medicare, air conditioning in cars, ATMs, birth control pill, Teflon cookware, Tide laundry detergent, long playing records, compact discs.
Baseball batting helmets, refrigerator-freezer combinations, Tony the Tiger, Play-Doh, the last six amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, bumper stickers, Ebony, Life, National Enquirer, Sports Illustrated, People, Playboy, MAD, Rolling Stone, NASCAR, HBO, the AFL-CIO, prepared cake mixes, Oreo cookies, Monday Night Football, Motown Records, Minute Rice, the Peace Corp, AMTRAK, UPC codes, Zip codes.
Tubeless tires, canned Coca-Cola, the Super Bowl, Pop Tops, Tupperware, heart transplants, Sugar Frosted Flake, Bic disposable ballpoint pens, the Slinky, three-color traffic light, 3-D movie, Irish coffee, clock radios, Tetracycline, the domino theory, “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, the Pentagon, M&M’s, the Corvette, the Mustang, the Thunderbird, the Firebird.
Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, frozen pizza, ABC, polio immunizations, wrap around car windshields, instant nonfat dry milk, White-Out, pink flamingo lawn ornaments, the Frisbee, the hula hoop, Sweet ‘n’ Low, the bikini, disposable diapers, portable hair dryers, electric tooth brushes, wireless microphones, Sprite, Diet-Rite Cola, Tab.
Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Fresca, color TV, Pop Tarts, Gatorade, SpaghettiOs, James Bond, freeze-dried instant coffee, Disneyland, Disney World, Chunky Soup, Wendy’s, odometers, rear window defrosters, air bags, quartz watches, unleaded gasoline, home pregnancy tests, Nike, Tylenol.
The CIA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Office of Management and Budget, NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, the Department of Veterans Affair, the state of Alaska, the state of Hawaii, Hell’s Angels, the happy face.
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Anti-tax group vows ‘whatever it takes’ to reelect Broun
The Club for Growth, a conservative political action committee with deep pockets to help friends and oppose foes, announced it will be actively backing Georgia Republican Paul Broun for reelection to the House seat he recently won in a special election.
The group’s president, Pat Toomey, praised the Athens-based newcomer to Capitol Hill for opposing pork barrel projects and “big government” spending. “The Club for Growth will do whatever it takes to help Rep. Broun earn a full term,” Toomey said.
That being the case, the message to Broun’s would-be Republican primary challengers is, “Look out.” In the last election cycle, the Club for Growth shelled out more than $1.5 million for independent campaigns and negative ads against GOP candidates who were deemed out of line with the group’s low-tax, smaller government goals.
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White House swimming pool fears
The question of the day in the White House Briefing Room involved what would happen if the floor gave way and everybody fell into the old swimming pool below.
Carlton Carroll of the White House Press Office handled the query, which came from questioners perhaps even more immature than the ones usually in the seats.
“The good people of the U.S. government built this floor very stable so it won’t do that,” Carroll told the concerned questioners.
“But what if it did?” came the follow-up.
“Well that would not be good,” Carroll responded, “but I’m pretty sure they did a good enough job.”
Take a look at Carroll’s cool-under-pressure handling of an intense grilling by White House staffers’ kids on hand for Take Your Child to Work Day.
And, fyi, the old pool is empty.
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A Democratic Bush?
President Bush is for presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain. So is Laura Bush.
First daughter Jenna Bush? Undecided, she says.
Here’s the conversation among mom, daughter and Larry King on his CNN show Wednesday night when the prime subjects were Jenna’s upcoming wedding and the children’s book co-authored by the two Bush women:
King: Do you have a favorite between the two, the two Democrats?
Laura: My favorite is the Republican.
King: Yours, too, I would imagine.
Jenna: I don’t know.
King: A-ha.
Jenna: But, I mean, you know…
King: Are you open to…
Jenna: Yes, of course. I mean, who isn’t open to learning about the candidates? But, I mean, and I’m sure everybody is like that. But I really - I honestly have been too busy with books to really pay that much attention.
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Poem ‘relay’ protests Olympics in China
In a protest that is roughly following the path of the Olympic torch, human rights activists are participating in a poem “relay” in which groups around the globe are translating and reading the words of an an imprisoned Chinese writer.
The poem, a lament recalling the crackdown at Tiananmen Square in June 1989, was written by pro-democracy activist Shi Tao, who is serving a 10-year sentence on charges that he illegally gave “state secrets” to a foreign entity. He was arrested amid reports that Yahoo provided information about his private e-mail account to Chinese authorities.
Shi Tao’s poem, which has been translated into 90 languages, can be heard by clicking on nearly 100 locations on an Internet map posted by International PEN, an association of writers that fosters freedom of expression worldwide.
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No more freebies? Isakson’s PAC pays for Masters Tickets
When the Masters Tournament offered Sen. Johnny Isakson two free passes to the golf classic in Augusta, Ga., he said that under new Senate ethics rules he could not accept the gift.
So the Georgia lawmaker bought the tickets with $350 from donations to his “21st Century Majority Fund,” a group that raises money which he directs to the campaigns of fellow Republican Senate candidates. The expenditure is reported in a disclosure for March at the Federal Election Commission.
Spokeswoman Joan Kirchner said Isakson was unable to go to the tournament and gave the passes to family members. Even so, the Georgian is known to be an avid duffer who recently made the “Golf Digest” list of top 200 golfers among lawmakers and lobbyists in Washington, D.C.
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Presidential candidates court wrestling fans
It’s a little hard to believe, but it’s true: The three remaining presidential candidates will appear tonight on World Wrestling Entertainment Raw with taped messages courting pro-wrestling fans.
Yes, THAT pro wrestling.
Not the first time they’ve tried reaching out to this audience. In 2000, The Rock was a featured speaker at the Republican National Convention.
Here’s a preview of the messages they’ll deliver. (Notice how McCain pronounces Obama’s first name. Weird).
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Tony Snow to CNN
Former White House Press Secretary (and former Fox News staffer) Tony Snow has signed on with CNN, which says his job will be “conservative commentator.”
Snow, says CNN, is “a well-known and respected observer of politics with a longstanding news background.”
He did 10 years on Fox News, starting in 1996 and leaving in April of that year to become Bush’s spokesman. Snow left that post last September.
“I’m delighted to be able to join CNN during the most exciting and unpredictable political year in memory,” Snow says in a CNN release. “The big challenge in 2008 is to develop deep, creative and aggressive analysis of both political parties, their candidates and campaigns. I’m eager to get started, since this race is sure to shape American politics for years to come.”
So here’s your latest update on ex-Bush advisers now commenting for cash:
Tony Snow, CNN. Karl Rove, Fox. Matthew Dowd, ABC.
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Katrina update
It may not be the best way to measure post-Katrina progress, but it does somehow seem appropriate.
This assessment today from Paul Conway, chief of staff for the feds’ Gulf Coast Coordinator, aboard Air Force One as President Bush headed to New Orleans:
“You have more restaurants open in New Orleans now than you did before the storm.”
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John McCain, American
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled Thursday review of something on which presidential candidates John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all concur.
McCain, they agree, is an American, duly qualified to serve as president of the United States.
McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone while his father served in the Navy. The Constitution says “no person except a natural-born citizen or a citizen of the United States” can be president.
There really is no controversy about McCain’s eligibility, but Obama, Clinton and others are co-sponsoring the resolution just to make sure there is no doubt about it.
“Whereas John Sidney McCain III was born to American citizens on an American military base in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936: Now, therefore, be it resolved that John Sidney McCain III is a ‘natural-born citizen’ under Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States,” says the resolution.
The Constitution also says a president must be at least 35 years old. There appears to be no controversy about whether McCain is old enough for the job.
Miscellaneous Canal Zone trivia: Karen Hughes, longtime adviser to President Bush, is the daughter of Harold Parfitt, the last U.S. governor of the Canal Zone (1975-79).
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Doggett injured in weekend accident
U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, broke his leg in a weekend biking accident back home.
We don’t have a lot of details so far, but Doggett’s office said he was riding with his wife, Libby, at the time of the accident, and that he’s now recovering in Austin and will be on crutches “for some time.”
Doggett, in a written statement, praised the care he received from EMS and Seton Hospital.
“With spring in full swing, we decided to hit the trail,” Doggett said. “I just hit it a little harder than I had planned.”
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McCain praises Obama-backer John Lewis
At first, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., backed Hillary Clinton for president. Later, he changed his mind and endorsed Barack Obama.
Today, Lewis was involved in the John McCain campaign, though in name only and with no indication that he’s not still an Obama backer.
McCain mentioned Lewis several times during a campaign stop in Selma, Alabama that kicked off a week of events aimed at reaching out to minorities and others not usually lured by GOP candidates.
Here’s some of what McCain said about Lewis:
“Forty-three years ago, an army of more than 500 marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge; an army that brought with them no weapons, which intended no destruction; that sought to conquer no people or land. At the head of the column, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, tie and tan raincoat, marched a 25-year-old son of Alabama sharecroppers, John Lewis.”
“John Lewis took the first blow, a baton thrust to the stomach that shoved him back on the marchers behind him. He took the second blow, too, a hard swung club to his head, leaving a permanent scar where it struck. Blood poured from the wound, darkening his raincoat. He tried to struggle to his feet, and then collapsed unconscious, his skull fractured. That evening, millions of Americans watched in stunned silence as ABC News broadcast the clash of might against right. They watched brave John Lewis fall.”
“I’ve seen courage in action on many occasions in my life, but none any greater or used for any better purpose than the courage shown by John Lewis and the good people who marched for justice with him.”
Later Monday, Lewis expressed appreciation for the mentions.
“I am gratified that Senator John McCain would take the opportunity to recognize what happened 43 years ago on the Edmund Pettus Bridge,” Lewis said in a statement. “Bloody Sunday was a turning point in the struggle for voting rights and equal justice in America. President Lyndon Johnson was right when he compared what happened in Selma on March 7, 1965 to the crossroads this country faced at Appomattox, Lexington and Concord. These seminal events cut to the core of American democracy. Their significance to all Americans is much bigger, much larger, and much more profound than partisan politics.”
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Schwarzenegger to Bush: Action!
The most famous Republican on the West Coast was back East on Friday, taking President Bush to task over environmental policies.
Two days after Bush gave a speech saying the country needs to halt the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 - but offering no real plan to do so - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used an appearance at a climate conference at Yale University - Bush’s alma mater - to chastise him about it.
“I trust you heard President Bush’s speech on climate change this week,” Schwarzenegger said in prepared remarks. “Well, I’m glad he is acknowledging the very serious threat, but now I want to see the sense of real urgency to match that threat.
“President McCain, President Obama or President Clinton will all shift this country into a much higher gear on climate change,” Schwarzenegger added. “All three candidates will be great for the environment. So things will immediately pick up speed after inauguration day.”
The Governator and Bush have long had an uneasy relationship, made rougher by a recent battle over the Bush Administration’s refusal to let California and other states toughen car emissions standards.
At least Schwarzenegger’s jabs were less pointed than some Bush received Thursday at an international climate meeting in Paris. According to Reuters, German’s environmental minister issued a statement referring to Bush’s environmental speech as “Neanderthal” and inferring it was an example of “Losership, not Leadership.”
Bush’s speech marked the first time he’s publicly acknowledged that the United States - the world’s biggest polluter - should set a timetable to stop greenhouse gas emissions growth. Most of the rest of the world set emissions limitations back in 1997 with the Kyoto Protocol, which the United States refused to ratify. Until recently, Bush has repeatedly dismissed any calls for setting any limits on U.S. emissions.
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A springtime Friday in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Papal fever has died down in Washington, freeing up time and space for the usual interesting folks who stand in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to exercise their free-speech rights.
Take a look at today’s scene, which includes a reminder that McCain, Obama and Clinton are not the only folks interested into moving into the house in the background.
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Audio: Hutchison reacts to Perry news
Shortly after the news broke that Gov. Rick Perry said he would seek re-election in 2010, I chased down Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in her Senate office building. Hutchison, of course, is weighing her own run for governor that year.
Listen here what she had to say.
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Georgia Rep. offers praise of Pope
Halfway into his six-day whirlwind visit through Washington D.C. and New York City, Pope Benedict XVI has gotten more press than what his host, President Bush, has gotten in weeks.
With national discourse focused on Benedict’s tour and Sen. Obama’s remark about certain voters “clinging” onto religion, Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Marietta, a Catholic, offered his two cents on religion Thursday afternoon.
Taking the House floor after attending Mass at Nationals Park, Gingrey praised Benedict as a vocal and effective leader who stresses “fundamental Christian values in response to what many see as the world’s sloping trend towards secularism.”
An obstetrician before entering Congress, Gingrey is a vocal pro-life supporter, and he touched on abortion in his remarks.
“As Pope, he has focused on the importance and sanctity of human life - especially the life of the unborn - an issue that is very important to me, both as a member of the Catholic Church and as a member of Congress,” he said. “But every American, regardless of party affiliation or religious belief, can find hope in his message of freedom and justice for all people.”
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Bush already causing problems for son-in-law-to-be
Say you’re a new guy on the job at a big company. And say you’re a newlywed. And say it turns out that your new father-in-law once very publicly made fun of the name of the man who serves as president, CEO and chairman of the board of your new employer.
And say your new father-in-law is the president of the United States of America.
That’s pretty much the deal for Henry Hager, who will marry into the Bush family on May 10. Reports indicate he will go to work for Constellation Energy in Maryland. Sounds like a good gig, as long as Mayo Shattuck, the firm’s top man, is cool with how President Bush mocked his name during a June 2005 visit to a company facility.
“I want to thank the president and CEO of Constellation Energy, Mayo Shattuck,” Bush said at a nuclear power plant owned by Shattuck’s company. “That’s a pretty cool first name, isn’t it? Mayo. Pass the mayo!”
Several days after the event, Shattuck took a no-hard-feelings approach when asked about the good-natured comment.
“When the president was departing I said, more or less, ‘You know, Mr. President, I had heard that one before,’” Shattuck said. “And the president responded, more or less, ‘I figured as much, and that’s why I knew you could take it.’”
Advice to Hager: Call him Mr. Shattuck.
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Congress honors the Nature Boy
U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, R-N.C., gave a brief speech on the floor of the House this week commending pro wrestler Ric Flair, who had his last match on March 30.
Many consider Flair the greatest wrestler of all time, and some of his finest moments came while he was working for Atlanta-based World Championship Wrestling.
Myrick’s one-minute speech is below. Stick around until the end and you’ll get to hear her give one of Flair’s trademark “wooos.”
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After the debate: Ready to take a spin?
You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead. Your next stop: The Spin Zone.
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Each of these people watched the same debate. Each of these people are convinced their candidate was the big winner.
Buckle up. You are about to be spun.
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Watching TV so others don’t have to
Reporters from around the world converged on Philadelphia for the Democratic presidential debate.
And, like you, they watched it on TV.
Take a look at the press covering the debate from the filing center in the National Constitution Center.
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More scenes from a debate
The glamour. The cuisine. The pretzels.
It’s the press filing center at the Democratic presidential debate at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center.
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Scenes from a debate
Pre-debate action near the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, scene of the Wednesday night Democratic presidential debate.
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McCaul has big fundraising lead, but Doherty shows viability
At the end of March, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, had $318,000 in his campaign account.
Democratic opponent Larry Joe Doherty of Austin/Houston/Washington County (the man has homes in all three places) reported that he had about $122,000. He certainly has a lot of ground to make up, but that’s not a bad total for someone who emerged just weeks earlier from a tough primary.
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Opponents to Carter, Doggett show little life
The long, long list of candidates who have tried unsuccessfully to win office without raising any serious money is not stopping two local congressional candidates from trying to do just that.
Democrat Brian Ruiz of Williamson County has yet to file any fundraising paperwork with the Federal Election Commission. That means he either hasn’t raised or spent $5,000, or he’s not following their rules. We could not reach Ruiz at his campaign office.
He’s running against Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock. New reports to the FEC show that, at the end of March, Carter had $220,000 in the bank.
Republican George Morovich of LaGrange is doing only slightly better. He reported that he had about $9,000 on hand at the end of March. But he’s going to need much more. He’s running against Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, who has $2.4 million in his campaign account.
Candidates who do not raise money often say that they’re instead running grass-roots campaigns. I’m reminded of what Democratic consultant Harold Cook said in November when I talked to him about what it takes to run for office. It’s important to note that Cook wasn’t talking about any campaigns or candidates in particular.
“Campaigns are always a lot more expensive than first-time candidates believe they will be,” Cook said then. “They all think that they can run a grass-roots campaign and be above the fray and that hardly ever works. If you want to communicate with voters you’ve got to have the money to do it. And that’s just the ugly truth. A lot of first-time candidates try to find a loophole for it. And there just is no loophole. They either have to raise the money or they’re going to lose.”
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Papal dinner (minus the pope) guest list
As reported below (see His Holiness will skip White House dinner in his honor), Pope Benedict XVI (a birthday boy today: Happy 81st) won’t be on hand for the big White House dinner tonight marking his visit.
But former Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda will be. Other guests, according to the White House, will include several of the supremes, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Alito and Thomas.
And there’ll be a supreme knight, specifically Carl Anderson, the supreme knight and chief executive officer of the Knights of Columbus.
From the legislative branch: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader John Boehner.
Also, more than 20 members of the clergy from around the nation.
Here’s the menu. Probably similar to what you have planned for this evening. No telling what spell check will try to do to some of these words.
Morel-encrusted diver scallops, ramp spatzle, angel hair asparagus bisque, duo of veal, white truffle potato dumplings, baby carrots and boletus mushrooms, heirloom lettuces and candied pumpkin seeds, spring squash carpaccio, styrian pumpkin oil vinaigrette, raspberry crisp and mint coulis.
No evidence of birthday cake, which allows the White House to avoid the dicey decision of angel food or devil’s food.
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Clinton says a “grave mistake” to not seat Florida delegates
Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton warned Tuesday that it would be a “grave mistake” for the Democratic Party to refuse to seat Florida’s delegates to the national convention this summer.
“I think it would be a grave mistake for the Democrats to disregard the highest turnout in primary history in Florida,” Clinton said in response to questions following a speech to a joint meeting of The Associated Press, the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Newspaper Association of America.
“I have called and will continue to call on the Democratic Party to make a decision that respects the votes of the people of Florida and gives those votes due consideration in seating the delegates that will go to the convention in Denver,” she added.
The Democratic Party stripped Florida and Michigan of its convention delegates because both states held their presidential primaries in January, in violation of party rules. Clinton needs the delegates from both states in order to overtake Barack Obama’s lead in their contest for the party’s 2008 presidential nomination.
Clinton, who won the Florida primary even though all of the candidates boycotted the election, said the party should “take into account” what the 1.7 million Florida voters said in the January primary and “do it expeditiously.”
Noting the record turnout in the Florida primary despite the candidate boycott, Clinton joked, “Maybe the lesson is we shouldn’t campaign anywhere, just leave people alone and let them follow the campaign and make up their minds.”
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Texas Railroad Commissioner Williams makes the Washington rounds
Your blogger sat down in Washington today with Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, who is running for re-election.
He said he’s in town to talk to Republicans about how he can help out John McCain, and, in turn, how they can help him out.
If re-elected this year as most would expect he will be, many expert Williams to try to jump to another statewide office. Here’s what he said when we met at Ebenezer’s Coffee Shop on Capitol Hill:
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On Capitol Hill, tax time means face time
While members of Congress usually aren’t shy about stepping in front of the camera, they seem particularly anxious to do so on the day that Americans must turn in their federal income taxes.
A group of House Democrats this morning highlighted the cost of the war in Iraq, which, according to some congressional estimates, has already cost more than $1 trillion.
“The American people are tired of this war,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. “And what’s worse, we’re not even paying for it. We’re putting it off on our children and grandchildren.”
Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, also had some thoughts to share about the war’s cost.
Here’s the footage:
Meanwhile, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, joined with a couple of other Republicans to denounce Democrats’ budget plan, saying it would increase taxes.
Democrats say those tax increases are needed to offset the cost of extending earlier tax cuts, or else the country will face a huge deficit. A trade of tax increases for tax cuts — it’s an argument often used by Texas Republicans in recent years to justify the state’s new business tax, that it’s needed to offset property-tax cuts. (Although Texas lawmakers ultimately ended up cutting billions more in taxes than they raised).
Anyway, here’s the senior senator from Texas:
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“Annie Oakley” Clinton Not So Gun Shy Anymore
Hillary “Annie Oakley” Clinton is not nearly as gun shy in her pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination this year as she was eight years ago in her effort to get elected to the U.S. Senate from New York.
In fact, eight years ago, in an appearance before the annual meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE), Clinton said that “one of the reasons I am running for the Senate” is that “we need a comprehensive plan to stop gun violence.”
The newspaper group is the same organization she addressed today. But in her speech to the group today, she made no mention of guns, or hunting, or rival Barack Obama’s mocking reference to her as “Annie Oakley.”
But eight years ago, she used her speech to the newspaper group to promote gun registration and the creation of “ballistic fingerprints” for gun manufacturers.
“We license drivers before they get behind the wheel to make sure they can drive safely,” she said in 2000. “We register cars to make sure someone is responsible for every vehicle on the road. But we don’t do the same for deadly weapons.”
Mostly, she was talking about hand guns eight years ago.
But she also proposed the creation of a “ballistic database” for all new guns, requiring gun makers or sellers to fire guns before sale and send that “ballistic fingerprint” to law enforcement.
Even before that, Clinton, as first lady, took aim at the National Rifle Association (NRA), the chief lobbying organization for gun owners. She used a Mother’s Day march in 1999 to call on Americans to “buck the gun lobby.”
Her pre-Senate campaign remarks contrasted sharply with her comments of late, especially since rival Barack Obama’s observations about gun-clinging Americans in small towns and rural areas of the country.
“I disagree with Sen. Obama’s assertion that people in our country cling to guns and have certain attitudes about trade and immigration simply out of frustration,” she said over the weekend.
“You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught me how to shoot when I was a little girl,” she added.
On Sunday, Obama mocked Clinton, saying she was acting like “Annie Oakley … packin’ a six-shooter” in her attempts to connect with gun owners.
Oakley was a sharpshooter, who had a starring role in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show in the 19th century, a role that made her one of America’s first female national celebrities.
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You Say Obama, I Say Osama
Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama got a huge laugh Monday at the Associated Press luncheon, and did so at the expense of AP Board Chairman Dean Singleton.
Singleton, acting as the moderator during questions for Obama following his speech, inadvertently referred to Osama bin Laden, the terrorist responsible for the 9/11 attacks, as “Obama bin Laden.”
Before answering the question, which dealt with moving U.S. troops from Afghanistan to Iraq, Obama politely corrected Singleton.
“I think that was Osama bin Laden,” the candidate said with a wry smile.
When the laughter died down, Singleton offered an apology.
“No, no, no,” Obama replied. “This is part of the exercise that I’ve been going through over the last 15 months.” Then, he added, “Which is why it’s pretty impressive that I’m still standing here.”
Of course, no one mentioned that Obama’s middle name is “Hussein.”
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If you’re reading this, you’re smart
Newspapers may be buying out or laying off reporters in droves, but their Web sites are flourishing, according to an analysis done by Nielsen Online for the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).
NAA, a newspaper trade group meeting in Washington this week, said the study showed newspaper Web sites attracted more than 66.4 million unique visitors in the first quarter of 2008, a 12.3 percent increase over the same period last year.
Those visitors typically are more affluent and politically engaged than the average Internet user, it said. They are 27 percent more likely to earn six-figure incomes and 46 percent more likely to have a post-graduate degree, the study found.
And best of all for advertisers, newspaper Web site visitors are 59 percent more likely than average Internet users to have shopped online for a new car in the past six months. Which means they can help drive all of those unemployed reporters around to look for new jobs.
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Bush awards Commander in Chief Trophy to Navy gridders
Another beautiful - if chilly - spring day at the White House, which President Bush likes to call the “people’s house.”
So, people, let’s see what’s going on in the backyard at your house.
Why it’s the annual awarding of the Commander in Chief’s Trophy, easily the most impressive hardware (two-and-a-half feet tall and 170 pounds) awarded for winning two football games.
The trophy, first handed out in 1972, goes to the service academy football team with the best record against the other service academies. Math tells us it’s possible for each of the three teams (Army, Navy and Air Force) to go 1-1 versus the other academies. Who gets the trophy when that happens? Nobody and everybody. It’s “shared” and the previous winner keeps the trophy, and it’s happened four times (most recently in 1993).
Navy is your winner this year, taking the trophy for the fifth straight year after Air Force had won it six years in a row.
Now, armed with more than you ever cared to know about armed forces football, click the above to see a bit of today’s Rose Garden ceremony. You’ll see Navy Coach Ken Niumatalolo thanking Bush for the warm welcome, and you’ll see Bush putting on a hat presented to him by the team.
You won’t see Bush trying to pronounce Niumatalolo.
“Like, you call me George, I’ll call you Ken,” Bush said.
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McCain: I’m A Teddy Roosevelt Republican
So just what kind of Republican is Arizona Senator John McCain, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee?
Throughout the Republican presidential primaries this year, McCain had a quick answer to that question. “I’ve been a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution since the beginning,” he frequently said.
But now that he’s got the GOP nomination wrapped up, McCain is identifying himself with another Republican icon, one that is much more appealing to Democrats: that old trust-buster and environmentalist, Teddy Roosevelt.
“I’m a Teddy Roosevelt Republican,” McCain noted twice during his appearance at the Newspaper Association of America meeting in Washington today - once to explain that the government has a role in the home mortgage crisis and again in promoting protection of the environment.
Roosevelt did not share the Reagan philosophy that “government is the problem.” Roosevelt’s view was “the government is us.” And he, in fact, used the tools of the federal government to attack corruption and to promote the regulation of capitalism.
Roosevelt, who established the first national park also earned a reputation as an environmentalist and conservationist, in contrast to Reagan, who had an aggressive policy of issuing leases for oil, gas and coal development on national lands.
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He was there in spirit
President Bush and liberal activists meeting in Washington don’t agree on much. But they do share this view: Lenders who contributed to the housing crisis don’t deserve a bailout.
After meeting Monday with his cabinet, Bush told reporters he doesn’t “think we ought to be bailing out lenders or speculators.” Last week, the Senate approved a bill that would provide tax breaks for homebuilders and lenders. The White House has raised objections to several provisions, especially a $7,000 tax credit that would help lenders unload homes in foreclosure. House Democrats also strongly oppose that measure and plan to leave it out of their version of housing legislation.
While Bush was speaking, the activists were proclaiming their opposition to help for lenders. They gathered for the annual National People’s Action (NPA) conference, which brings together grassroots organizers demanding immigration reform, universal health care and help for low- and middle-income homeowners.
Hundreds of participants demonstrated at the Federal Reserve Bank. NPA said it is angry that “the Senate dismissed an opportunity to help homeowners,” and instead wants to help lenders. Despite his agreement, Bush did not join in the demo.
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His Holiness will skip White House dinner in his honor
Here’s how the event is listed on the president’s Wednesday schedule:
“The President and Mrs. Bush host a Dinner in Honor of the Visit of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI to the United States. East Room. The White House.”
You’d think His Holiness would attend a dinner in honor of his visit. You’d be wrong.
The pope will be a no show, says the White House, which says he never was expected to show up for the dinner in his honor. Scheduling conflict, says spokeswoman Dana Perino.
“He has a meeting with the U.S. bishops that night,” she said.
So the White House dinner in his honor will be attended by “Catholic leaders from all over the country,” says Perino.
Another oddity about the papal visit that begins tomorrow: Bush will head to Andrews Air Force Base to join in the Tuesday arrival ceremony when Shepherd One (the papal aircraft) touches down. Perino says it’s the first time Bush has gone to Andrews to meet anyone. And as far as she knows, it’s the first time any president has gone to Andrews for an arrival ceremony.
It’s all part of showing respect for Pope Benedict XVI as a religious leader and head of state, says Perino.
The president and the pope will meet Wednesday in the Oval Office after a South Lawn arrival ceremony.
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Analyst: Isakson’s idea “pretty troubling”
Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., pushed the Senate to include a homebuyer’s tax break in the housing bill it passed this week. His provision would create a tax credit of up to $7,000 over two years for people who buy foreclosed homes. He says it would help clear the real estate market of vacant houses.
On a conference call with reporters Friday, fiscal experts at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities dismissed the Isakson proposal as “unhelpful.” The research group specializes in examining the impact of federal policy on low- and moderate-income Americans.
Fiscal policy analyst Aviva Aron-Dine called Isakson’s provision “pretty troubling” because it would “make problems worse.” If lenders knew they could attract new buyers with the help of tax credits, they would have more incentive to drive people from their homes, rather than work with them to avoid foreclosure, she said.
Center Executive Director Robert Greenstein said the measure may be dropped from the final bill because House leaders oppose it. Still, the outcome is hard to predict, he said. “You’re going to get heavy negotiations and horsing trading” as House and Senate negotiators decide which provisions to cut, he said.
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Wave goodbye to the president
Among the more coveted invitations in Washington is one to watch Marine One depart from the White House South Lawn when the president heads out of town.
Consider this your clickable invitation to see a presidential departure. This is President Bush leaving today en route to Andrews Air Force Base for an Air Force One flight to Crawford for the weekend.
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Doggett: Transportation funding problems start at home
U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Michael McCaul of Austin spoke Wednesday to business leaders from Austin and the surrounding area who were visiting Washington. Reps. Lamar Smith and John Carter had addressed the same group a day earlier.
The visitors made it clear that transportation is atop their list of concerns. Shocker. They’ve also read and been told frequently that Texas is paying more in federal gas taxes than it is getting back in transportation dollars from Washington.
Doggett, however, threw out one interesting statistic. He said that between 1994 and 2005, federal highway dollars going back to Texas had increased about 185 percent. At the same time, state spending for transportation from the state gas tax had increased about 20 percent, he said.
“A lot of it has to do with policies made not in Washington but in Austin,” Doggett said.
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Your tax dollars at work
It’s a beautiful spring day in Washington, perfect for a quick look at the flowers blooming in the White House Rose Garden.
As you wrap up work on your 2007 federal income tax returns, please consider this a thank you from those who toil in the building to those of you who send money here to help pay for the flowers.
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Bush vs. Britney?
President Bush’s comments today on Iraq showed up on the official schedule as a “statement on Iraq” as opposed to a speech or an address to the nation.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, referring to it as a speech, indicated the nomenclature is unimportant.
“We are not asking for network time,” she said, adding, “for those networks that want to cover it that will be great, barring any sort of, you know, Hollywood scandal that pops up.”
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President heads to high school
An unusual stop this year on President Bush’s annual tour of commencement ceremonies: He is headed to a high school.
The White House today announced that Bush will be the commencement speaker on May 4 at Greensburg High School in Kansas. The date marks the first anniversary of a devastating tornado that tore up the town and killed 11 people.
Bush’s other commencement speeches this year will be at the U.S. Air Force Academy on May 28 and Furman University in South Carolina on May 31.
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Bush slings dirt
Here, in their entirety and as released by the White House, are the remarks made today by Laura Bush and her husband at a tree planting on the North Lawn. The action was captured in this Reuters photo.
Mrs. Bush: We are replacing the Scarlet Oak that fell earlier, actually, I think it was before Christmas, that was planted by Benjamin Harrison, I think in 1898, I believe is when it was planted. And so now we’re replacing it. And we’ve invited descendants of Benjamin Harrison to come help us plant it. So we see all the family members over here, and three, two great-great-grandsons, and one great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison who are here with us. So we’re ready to do it. Are you ready?
The President: Yes, getting ready to shovel - (laughter) - dirt.
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Bush’s war speech
President Bush will make a Washington speech on Thursday to detail the next steps in the war in Iraq. He’ll meet later today with congressional leaders to discuss a variety of topics, including the war.
Don’t look for anything he hears at that meeting to have much impact on what he says tomorrow.
“I think the president has gotten a lot of advice” already, says White House Press Secretary Dana Perino. “I think he is pretty far down the path on what he is going to say tomorrow.”
Will he announce he agrees with Gen. David Petraeus’ and Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s assessment that things are too fragile in Iraq to allow for additional troop cuts?
Perino’s attempted non-answer today sounded like a yes.
“You’ve heard the president say for years that he is the type of commander-in-chief who listens to his commanders on the ground to be the experts who can provide the best advice to him,” Perino said.
Might Bush deviate from the advice of Petraeus, his top commander on the ground in Iraq, and Crocker?
“If you look at the president’s practice of listening to his commanders on the ground, it would not be to type if he did not listen to them,” Perino said.
Does Bush want the war to end before he leaves office in January?
“It’s not going to be possible to do that before the end of the year. The (presidential) candidates have even acknowledged it. We will have troops there … when he leaves office. What the president is working to do is make sure that he makes tough decisions now that help for smooth transition when the next president takes, over,” Perino said.
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The warm embrace of John Carter
At a Washington luncheon today with folks from the Austin Chamber of Commerce, as well as leaders from surrounding towns, U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, offered a somewhat gruff introduction.
“Welcome to the devil’s city,” Carter said. “I hope you enjoy it.”
We’re guessing that Carter won’t be speaking to the Washington, D.C. Chamber of Commerce any time soon.
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Austin-area business leaders hear from Smith, Carter
A group of city and business leaders from Austin, Round Rock, Leander and other Central Texas towns is in Washington this week to talk to federal officials and members of Congress.
They had a luncheon today with GOP Reps. Lamar Smith and John Carter, and your blogger was there too, video camera in hand. We’ve got some clips for you. (Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Michael McCaul are supposed to address the same group tomorrow).
The first is Clarke Heidrick, an Austin lawyer who is vice chairman for government relations at the Austin Chamber of Commerce. He tells us about the visit.
First to address the group was Smith, who talked about some of the federal projects (read: earmarks) he’s helped bring home to Austin, as well as workforce issues and energy. Here’s Smith talking about his faith in solar energy:
Carter spent much of his time defending earmarks, which are spending projects that members of Congress direct to go to specific locations. He’s on the House Appropriations Committee, which decides how federal dollars get spent, and so he’s in a better position to win earmarks than any other Austin-area House member.
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Perino prevails
The question was about the president and whether he watched last night’s NCAA men’s basketball championship game.
The answer from White House Press Secretary Dana Perino was a bit more inward looking.
“I bet he caught a little bit of it. I can’t say for sure. I don’t know. But I will say I had Kansas to win it all and I didn’t even know what I was talking about,” said the point guard-sized press secretary.
No money involved, she insists, noting she participated in “our bracket thing” merely for fun.
“I just get bragging rights,” Perino noted.
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“Destiny’ recreated at the White House
“Imagine that I’m on the stage at Ford’s Theater, and you’re sitting in the chairs on the main floor,” first lady Laura Bush told Salma Kikwete, first lady of Tanzania, as well as children from schools in the Washington area.
All were attending a White House performance Monday of “One Destiny,” a play recreating the events leading up to the April 14, 1865 assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.
Embroidered in the black lining of the overcoat Lincoln wore to the theater were the words, “One Country, One Destiny,” the actors said.
“Above you are two balconies that were filled a few nights ago with happy people celebrating the end of a difficult war by watching a comedy, a funny play. Above, and to my left, is the box is where President Lincoln watched the play with his wife and two guests,” Bush said.
Michael Bunce and Stephen Schmidt played actor Harry Hawke and theater manager Harry Ford, respectively, on the night of Lincoln’s assassination. The performance was set in Ford’s Theater and begins a few days after Lincoln died. The two men discuss the fate of Ford’s Theater and then recall their conversation on the day that John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln.
In the course of their dialogue, the two men repeatedly mention Booth’s presence in and around the theater on the day of the shooting.
“He sure is around here a lot for an actor who doesn’t work here,” Ford says. Hawke quickly assures him, “We have no reason to be suspicious.”
They also mention a note written by Booth before the assassination in which he wrote, “I no longer have a country.”
In describing the panic that ensued after the shot was heard, the men alternated lines, creating a vocal montage of panic.
“It wasn’t as loud as you would think. It was more of a pop than a shot,” Hawke says.
“There was a man jumping out of the balcony onto the stage. I thought, oh my God, that’s Wilkes Booth,” Ford says.
“What could anyone do?” Hawke asks.
At the play’s end, Ford concludes, “Perhaps the story was always meant to turn out as it did.”
With “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” playing in the background, Hawke performed a scene from “Our American Cousin,” the comedy that was performed that night at Ford’s Theatre. Lincoln died at 7:22 a.m. the next morning after being carried out of the theater to a nearby house by soldiers. April 14 marks the 143rd anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination.
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Lance Armstrong speaks in DC
Lance Armstrong has been in Washington over the last couple days, meeting with senators and doing the other things he does to raise awareness of issues surrounding cancer.
Friday he spoke to the Intercultural Cancer Council, a group that seeks policies and other solutions to decrease cancer rates in minority communities.
He noted that Friday was the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and he reminded the audience that in 1958 King talked about the disparity in health care as one of the great injustices in society. Armstrong questioned how much things have changed in the 50 years since.
“Things have to change,” Armstrong said.
He also recalled a doctor who told him that the disparity between what society knows how to do, and what it actually does, to fight the disease is a moral and ethical failure.
“As somebody that, I suppose, perhaps was given the best care, we take those things for granted and we shouldn’t,” Armstrong said. “As long as that divide exists, we’re all going to lose.”
He told the hundreds of people in the audience that one thing they could do was elect a candidate who understands that cancer “doesn’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat, if you’re black or you’re white, if you’re rich or you’re poor.”
Here are some video excerpts from the rest of his speech:
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Load it up with this, not that
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., used a Friday teleconference with reporters to express his hopes, fears and frustrations in the run-up to a vote on housing legislation.
On the hopeful side, the housing crisis will be the Senate’s top legislative priority next week. Before Congress took its two-week spring break in March, a housing bill could not attract enough support to allow a vote. But when lawmakers returned to their home districts, “they heard from their constituents,” Dodd said. Now they are eager to help housing, and “that’s a positive step.”
But with the legislation getting traction, Dodd fears it will attract unrelated amendments. “They are loading up this bill,” he said. “And several of them are going to cause problems.”
Even more frustrating is the prospect of NOT getting the amendment he wants to provide help for bankrupt homeowners. “Would I like more in this bill?” he asked. “You bet.”
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Hutchison lauds earmark recommendations but hides her own requests
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, yesterday hailed a series of recommendations from a group of Republicans working to reform the earmarking process. Earmarks are tucked into large spending bills and direct federal agencies to spend money on specific projects in specific locations, and critics say the process allows members of Congress to quietly steer tax dollars to their contributors or favorite lobbyists.
The Fiscal Reform Working Group came out with a series of recommendations to make the earmark process more open.
They say, for example, that earmarks should be put into the text of a bill, instead of into the last-minute conference reports issued after the House and Senate compromise on final language. They also say earmarks that have been inserted into bills should be made public at least 48 hours before senators vote on them, and call for greater transparency for earmarks that come from the White House.
In a press release claiming she “continues advocating for greater transparency,” Hutchison lauded the recommendations.
“With these provisions, we could reduce the federal deficit by striking unnecessary earmarks, increase transparency by requiring all earmarks be placed in bill text and made available online, and require senators and the administration to be equally accountable for all earmarks,” she said.
Yet Hutchison has gone to greater lengths than any other Austin-area member of the House or Senate to conceal the earmarks she is seeking. The American-Statesman recently asked those lawmakers for the earmarks they are requesting in the upcoming year. Three House members provided them and the fourth, Michael McCaul, isn’t requesting any. Senators haven’t had to request theirs yet, but Sen. John Cornyn said he will release his requests once they are turned in to the Appropriations Committee. Hutchison, who according to her spokesman, is planning to run for governor, said she will not release hers.
While that position has been criticized by groups such as the Sunlight Foundation and the Heritage Foundation, it is consistent with the Republican recommendations, which say that only the earmark requests that lawmakers successfully insert into bills should be publicly disclosed.
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Carter on oil companies and gas prices
Lots of buzz on Capitol Hill today about the Select Committee for Energy Independence and Global Warming, which is holding a hearing with heads of five major oil companies.
While there is likely to be some talk at the hearing about climate change, we also expect there will be plenty of talk about why folks are paying so much for a tank of gas.
There are no Texans on the committee. But earlier this morning, we caught up with U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, and asked him a little about what to expect and how much blame he thinks they deserve for the rising gas prices.
There’s one moment in here that probably made his press secretary cringe a little. You’ll know it when you hear it.
Listen here to Carter’s remarks.
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McCain on education
Here’s John McCain today as he spoke at Episcopal High School (his alma mater) in Alexandria, Virginia. See below for what he looked like in his high school yearbook in 1954.
The GOP presidential contender touched on several topics, including warm memories of the school, what it taught him and the direction he thinks education now needs to go in America.
“We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice, remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward superior teachers, and have a fair, but sure process to weed out incompetents,” he said.
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Man arrested in Dallas is accused of stalking Hutchison
The Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill reports this morning that a man was arrested in Dallas on March 21 on accusations that he has been stalking U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
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