Steve’s Weblog

http://news8austin.com/?ArID=270341

04/18/2010 06:12 PM
Karl Rove to speak at UT-Austin Monday evening
By: News 8 Austin Staff

Former White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove will give a lecture at the University of Texas Monday.

Rove is expected to talk about his time at the White House as former President George W. Bush’s top political advisor.

Rove will also share his analysis of key issues the nation currently faces, including health care, the economy and the protection of individual liberties.

The event is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. at the Texas Union Ballroom.

The event is free and open to the public.

By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer Sat May 6, 7:03 PM ET

WASHINGTON – Prosecutors have e-mails showing Rep. Tom DeLay’s office knew lobbyist Jack Abramoff had arranged the financing for the GOP leader’s controversial European golfing trip in 2000 and was concerned “if someone starts asking questions.”

House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting free trips from lobbyists. DeLay, R-Texas, reported to Congress that a Republican advocacy group had paid for the spring 2000 trip that DeLay, his wife and top aides took to Scotland and England.

Yahoo! News

Pants on fire!

Oh, that’s just a stereotype, it’s not really true.

From a Conservative, a Lack Of Compassion for Ralph Reed

By Thomas B. Edsall and Dan Balz
Sunday, March 26, 2006; Page A05

Reed, Olasky wrote March 4, “has damaged Christian political work by confirming for some the stereotype that evangelicals are easily manipulated and that evangelical leaders use moral issues to line their own pockets.”

Washington Post

From the White House:

The President intends to nominate David C. Sanborn, of Virginia, to be Administrator of the Maritime Administration of the Department of Transportation. Mr. Sanborn currently serves as Director of Operations for Europe and Latin America at DP World. Prior to this, he served as Senior Vice President for North America Service Delivery at CMA-CGM (America) LLC. Mr. Sanborn also served as Vice President for Network-Operations for American President Lines, Pte. Ltd. Earlier in his career, he served as Director for Operations for Sea-Land Service, Inc. Mr. Sanborn is a retired Lieutenant Junior Grade for the United States Naval Reserve. He received his bachelor’s degree from the United States Merchant Marine Academy.

More at Raw Story

And wasn’t it just last week that Ann Coulter, the darling of the GOP was trashing Arabs as ragheads? How is it then that Bush is now suggesting it’s somehow racist to want to stop the UAE from controlling several major US ports. That’s the same UAE that Osama bin Laden’s operatives still use as a logistical hub years after more than half the Sept. 11 hijackers flew directly from Dubai to the United States in the final preparatory stages for the attack.

So, what’s really behind the deal? Who benefits financially from this deal? Or what kind of extortion is going on that would prompt BushCo to threaten a veto of any legislation that would get in the way of this deal going through? Something stinks.

Mr. Abramoff’s Meetings, Again

Saturday, January 28, 2006; Page A20

IF A TYPICAL picture is worth a thousand words, a picture of President Bush with Jack Abramoff, we suppose, might be worth about 10,000. And so we understand the desire of our more visually inclined colleagues to obtain photos of the president and the criminal. But the focus on the photos distracts from a more important question that the president managed to duck in his news conference Thursday: Who in the White House and administration met with Mr. Abramoff, and what were those meetings about?

It is no answer to this question to say, as Mr. Bush did, that “there is a serious investigation going on by federal prosecutors” and “if they believe something was done inappropriately in the White House, they’ll come and look, and they’re welcome to do so.” It is no answer to dismiss questions about Mr. Abramoff and the White House, as press secretary Scott McClellan has, by calling them a “fishing expedition.” If there is one thing that is now clear, anything involving Mr. Abramoff is, by definition, fishy.

Washington Post

Bush Aide Says Abramoff Photos Coincidence

1 hour, 59 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – An adviser to President Bush said Monday that Bush’s photographs in the company of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff amount to a coincidence and shouldn’t be interpreted any more seriously than that.

Yahoo

Guy raises over $100K for you, and you don’t know who he is?

that should read Democrats Seek to End Republican ‘Culture of Corruption’, because all the effort to deflect the Abramoff scandal away from the Republicans is kind of lame. As we saw back a few weeks ago from the list of contributions, all the money went to Republicans!

Anyway….

Democrats Unveil Lobbying Curbs
As Party Escalates Reform Push, GOP Calls Scandal Bipartisan

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 19, 2006; Page A01

Congressional Democrats yesterday laid out a plan to change what they called a GOP “culture of corruption” in Washington, even as Republicans pointed to ethics lapses on their antagonists’ side of the aisle.

Democratic leaders from the House and Senate endorsed proposals that closely mirror Republican plans unveiled this week to tighten regulations on lobbyists since the Jack Abramoff political corruption scandal broke. But in a sign that an ethical “arms race” may be developing, the Democratic plans go further than the Republicans’ proposals.

Washington Post

Loophole in Lobbying Bill Leaves Wiggle Room

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 18, 2006; Page A04

Lawmakers are about to bombard the American public with proposals that would crack down on lobbyists. Several prominent plans, including one outlined yesterday by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), would specifically ban meals and privately paid travel for lawmakers.

Or would they?

According to lobbyists and ethics experts, even if Hastert’s proposal is enacted, members of Congress and their staffs could still travel the world on an interest group’s expense and eat steak on a lobbyist’s account at the priciest restaurants in Washington.

The only requirement would be that whenever a lobbyist pays the bill, he or she must also hand the lawmaker a campaign contribution. Then the transaction would be perfectly okay.

Washington Post

In Ga., Abramoff Scandal Threatens a Political Ascendancy

By Thomas B. Edsall
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 16, 2006; Page A01

DAWSONVILLE, Ga. — Ralph Reed, candidate for lieutenant governor, had just finished his opening statement to the Dawson County Republican Party when retired pulp paper executive Gary Pichon sprang from his seat with a question that cut to the chase:

“Did you accept any gifts, commissions or other payments of any kind from Mr. Abramoff, and are you likely to be a party in the unfolding investigation?”

As everyone knew, Pichon was referring to Jack Abramoff, whose outsize Washington lobbying scandal has reached down to Georgia. Abramoff and Reed — the former executive director of the Christian Coalition — have been friends for 25 years, and until recently it had been a mutually profitable association. Now it is proving highly inconvenient for Reed, and threatens to stall a career that has been emblematic of the modern GOP.

Washington Post

Damn, those Republicans are dirty.

Rep. Ney to Temporarily Cede Panel Chair

By DAVID HAMMER, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 42 minutes ago

WASHINGTON – Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), an Ohio Republican implicated in a lobbying corruption investigation, said Sunday he will step aside temporarily as chairman of the House Administration Committee.

Ney is at the center of the Justice Department’s ongoing corruption probe and has been identified as the congressman referenced by Abramoff in his guilty plea earlier this month.

Ney’s decision comes as three House Republicans are waging a spirited campaign to replace Rep. Tom Delay (news, bio, voting record) of Texas as majority leader. Delay was forced by party rules to step aside after he was indicted by a state grand jury in Texas for alleged violation of campaign finance laws.

Delay also is a longtime friend of Abramoff and some of Delay’s former aides have been charged in the Abramoff investigation.

The Administration Committee that Ney headed controls disclosures of lobbying practices and would be a key part of efforts to reform the system.

Yahoo!

Texas Redistricting Is One More Hurdle for DeLay

By RICK LYMAN
Published: January 12, 2006

HOUSTON, Jan. 11 – Representative Tom DeLay is in the toughest re-election campaign of his 11-term House career, a battle that might be decided not only by his legal problems, but also by the Congressional redistricting plan he spearheaded in 2003.

The redistricting led to the loss of six Democratic seats in Texas in 2004, but it also shifted thousands of Democratic voters to strong Republican districts. Among those, Mr. DeLay’s 22nd District added several Democratic-leaning parts of Galveston County; several political analysts estimate they may have raised the district’s Democratic vote around 5 percent.

“There is huge irony here,” said Richard Murray, a University of Houston political scientist. “Six Democrats in Congress were eliminated, but the seventh victim may turnout to be the author of the plan.”

Should Mr. DeLay survive, as expected, a March 7 primary challenge by three Republican opponents, in November he will face a former Democratic congressman, Nick Lampson, whose district once included those parts of Galveston County now in Mr. DeLay’s district.

Mr. Lampson lost his seat in 2004 when his district, the Second, was reconfigured into a Republican-dominated one. He moved into the 22nd District last April, he said, with the intention of taking on Mr. DeLay.

“I’m not running against him because he took my district,” Mr. Lampson said, seated in a two-room suite of campaign offices in Clear Lake. “I’m running against him because I think I was a better member of Congress than he was, and I can be again.”

NY Times