“This is not a partisan issue,”
Flake told POLITICO last week,
“and I think most members recognize that on both sides of the aisle.”
U.S. colleges and universities are graduating as many scientists and engineers as ever, according to a study released on Oct. 28, 2009 by a group of academics. But that finding comes with a big caveat:
Many of the highest-performing students are choosing careers in other fields. The study by professors at Rutgers and Georgetown suggests that since the late 1990s, many of the top students have been lured to careers in finance and consulting.
Representatives Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) have this month been urging colleagues to co-sponsor H.R. 1791,
the so-called "STAPLE" Act of 2009.
It would exempt foreign-born individuals who have earned an American PhD in STEM fields from annual limits on the number of employer-based green cards and H-1B visas awarded.
In a letter to the House of Representatives on Oct. 27,2009,
Flake and Quigley wrote that the STAPLE Act
"is the simplest, most commonsense step Congress can take to create jobs and ensure both American competitiveness in the global marketplace and increase the likelihood that future Nobel laureates will do their work inside the U.S."
Photo: AP
Dems fear defections in PMA probe
By PATRICK O'CONNOR & JOHN BRESNAHAN |
3/30/09 4:27 AM EDT
A trickle of defections
has Democratic House leaders wondering
how long they can hold off calls for an investigation
into the PMA Group
and its ties to Pennsylvania Rep. John P. Murtha.
Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) got only 17 Democratic votes when he introduced a privileged resolution in February
calling for an ethics investigation into
“the relationship between earmark requests already made by members
and the source and timing of past campaign contributions.”
House Democrats built their new majority
in large part
by running hard against the
“culture of corruption”
in Washington.
But the iconoclastic Arizonan
— who has battled his own leaders on earmarks —
insists that he’s not driven by hopes of partisan gain.
He says his main goal is
to root out corruption
in the annual spending process.
Flake,
a Republican anti-earmark crusader,
promises to keep offering these resolutions until his colleagues give in:)
“This is a matter that has to be dealt with,”
Flake said.
“And if that means I need to keep offering it, I will.”
|
Posted: 06/22/09 07:29 PM [ET] |
The FBI’s raid of the once-highflying PMA Group has sent a cold chill through the insular world of defense appropriations lobbying.
While fallout from the raid has hit lobbyists and clients of the PMA Group the most, even defense lobbyists with strong ties to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) but no affiliation to PMA are worried their once-vaunted connections to the senior defense appropriator could become tarnished.
The lobbyists are fearful the federal investigation into defense lobbying, coming on the heels of former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s (R-Calif.) and Jack Abramoff’s high-profile scandals, could make it even more difficult to request and secure government dollars for defense contractors and clients.
“There’s definitely some concern that [the PMA investigation] will put more pressure against earmarks,” a defense lobbyist commented. “There’s also going to be a lot more sunshine on everyone’s campaign contributions.”
The PMA controversy has also put the spotlight back on the revolving door of appropriations staffers-turned-lobbyists, something House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a strong Murtha ally, decried when Republicans held the House majority.
When Democrats regained the majority,
Pelosi advocated extending the one-year ban on members and aides
from lobbying after they leave Congress.
But House Democrats ended up dropping a provision from their lobbying reform bill that would have extended the ban to two years after veteran Democratic members balked at the language.
The revolving door is a common practice across Capitol Hill, and Murtha, a 35-year veteran of the House and one of the longest-serving members of the spending panel, naturally has many former aides working in the private sector.
Murtha isn’t the only lawmaker with strong ties to the PMA Group. The former defense group also had lobbyists with close ties to Reps. Pete Visclosky (D-Ind.) and Jim Moran (D-Va.), and all have faced the brunt of the bad publicity.
After the raid, the firm closed its doors and the formerly tight-knit band split into several different firms. None of them has gone on to work for major defense contractors, one appropriations lobbyist said, mainly because with the FBI questioning many of them, they’re all considered “radioactive” right now.
PMA clients have also taken a hit. Visclosky has stopped requesting earmarks for former PMA clients and has stepped aside from his chairmanship of an Appropriations subcommittee until the investigation is over. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) plans to offer an amendment to the defense appropriations bill to prevent any PMA clients from receiving earmarks.
Murtha is still earmarking, and some of his requests for fiscal 2010 are for former PMA clients. A number of other requests would go to clients of former Murtha staffers with no connection to PMA.
The staffers-turned-defense lobbyists who owe their positions to Murtha are shy about talking to the press, keep to themselves and continue year after year to rake in earmarks for their defense clients.
Their clients are slated to receive $43.1 million in defense earmarks from Murtha alone in fiscal 2010. That¹s about half of Murtha’s $77.5 million in total defense earmark requests.
The staffers-turned-lobbyists are fiercely loyal to Murtha; when contacted by The Hill, only two former Murtha staffers returned phones calls and none would speak on the record. None of the lobbyists named in this story would be quoted by The Hill.
Several rushed to Murtha’s aid late in the 2008 campaign when his seat was suddenly threatened, including three who have ended up in key government-relations posts at Lockheed Martin: former Appropriations Defense subcommittee staff directors Greg Walters and Greg Dahlberg; and Gabrielle Carruth, a Murtha staffer from 2002 to 2007 who ended her Capitol Hill tenure as appropriations director for the defense spending subcommittee.
That trio cut checks to Murtha totaling $5,400. In the last few weeks of the campaign, Boeing’s David Morrison also wrote a $1,000 check. Lobbyist Scott Harshman, who founded Harshman Consulting, doled out $1,100, and another $2,300 came from David Kilian, who represents several defense clients for Innovative Federal Strategies, the firm that changed its name after the FBI began examining its ties to Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.), another powerful appropriator.
Before joining Lockheed, Carruth was vice president for government relations for Argon ST. This year Murtha requested $8 million for Argon’s program upgrading Naval torpedo defense capabilities.
Murtha also has requested $3 million for a program at the University of Pittsburgh involving “smart” electronic health records to optimize care for civilian and military patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Morrison, a former staff director on the Defense subcommittee and adviser to Pelosi on defense and intelligence matters, had lobbied for the university while at the Podesta Group. He left in late February to become vice president of government operations at Boeing.
Harshman worked for Murtha in various positions from 1994 to 2003, ending as the economic development coordinator in Murtha’s district office. Harshman lobbies for Nokomis Inc., the requested recipient of $6 million to continue the development of anti-improvised explosive device (IED) technology. The close ties between Nokomis and Murtha’s office are obvious from a quick review of the company’s website. The only news item listed on the site links directly to Murtha’s congressional website.
Harshman also lobbies for Advanced Acoustic Concepts, a former PMA client.
Carmen Scialabba, a 27-year veteran of Murtha’s staff, also maintains a close bond with Murtha. Scialabba divides his time between the Pennsylvania Association for Individuals with Disabilities (PAID), which he founded, and KSA Consulting.
Murtha requested $3.5 million this year for one of KSA’s clients, Compass. Scialabba also lobbies for KDH Defense Systems, a Johnstown, Pa.-based contractor. Murtha requested $2.2 million for KDH’s body armor ballistic protection research and development. |
WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury has subpoenaed a Democratic congressman in a corruption probe, the first concrete indication that a long-simmering Justice Department investigation of a top lobbying firm also has the potential to seriously damage congressional careers.
On Friday, Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., acknowledged the grand jury has demanded documents from his office, some employees and his campaign committees.
The probe focuses on the PMA Group, a now-defunct lobbying firm that specialized in securing federal contracts for defense firms from Visclosky, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., and others on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee that Murtha chairs.
In his hometown of Johnstown, Pa., Murtha brushed aside questions Friday about one Pennsylvania defense contractor for whom he obtained $14.7 million in the last two years in congressionally directed funds called "earmarks." The Navy suspended the contractor a month ago for alleged fraud.
Murtha grew defensive
when asked about the suspension at a news conference he held at a defense trade show.
"What's that got to do with me?" he asked.
"What do you think,
I'm supposed to oversee these companies? That's not my job. That's the Defense Department's job."
Asked whether he had a lawyer, Murtha responded, "What kind of question is that?" and then ended the brief news conference by turning around and walking out of the room, accompanied by aides.
Murtha has collected more than $2 million in campaign contributions from PMA's lobbyists and the companies the firm has represented since 1989, while Visclosky has collected more than $1 million, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Murtha's earmarks for Kuchera, which was not a PMA client, were only a tiny slice of Murtha's earmarks for defense contractors.
For PMA and its defense clients, Murtha had $78 million in earmarks for fiscal years 2008 and 2009, while Visclosky had $36 million.
The latest inquiry represents only the latest round of legal troubles for Congress involving earmarks, federal money lawmakers direct to their home states. In recent years, two former Republican congressmen have gone to prison over influence-peddling charges connected with the practice. Once-prominent Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, also in prison, once dubbed the earmarking committees "the favor factory."
PMA was founded by Paul Magliocchetti, who became a lobbyist in 1989 after leaving his Capitol Hill job as a staffer on Murtha's subcommittee. A former Visclosky chief of staff also joined PMA.
Though Murtha has long been a target of critics of so-called pay-to-play politics, Visclosky has studiously maintained a low profile. Though he hails from northwestern Indiana, an area notorious for local corruption, Visclosky has cultivated an image of being above the fray.
Even as the fallout from PMA Group has threatened to taint him, Visclosky has tried to set himself apart from other recipients of PMA's largesse, notably Murtha and Rep. Jim Moran, a Virginia Democrat, who has received nearly a million dollars in campaign donations from employees of PMA and their clients.
Earlier this year, Visclosky joined a Republican-led effort to have the House ethics committee investigate PMA Group, a move that was destined to fail because of overwhelming Democratic opposition. Visclosky also agreed to return at least $18,000 in campaign cash from donors who were listed as having ties to PMA Group, a step Murtha and Moran have not taken.
Earlier this year, Visclosky disclosed that he had hired an attorney to represent him in the ongoing investigation.
Visclosky has deep ties to PMA. In addition to the firm employing his former congressional chief of staff, one out of every five dollars in political donations to Visclosky over the past seven years has come from PMA and its clients. He is also the leading recipient in Congress of donations from PMA employees.
Federal investigators have been looking into allegations that PMA helped funnel money to lawmakers through so-called straw donors.
The grand jury's document subpoena to Visclosky's congressional office could become a legal issue, as it is in the scheduled trial of former Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson, D-La. A federal appeals court in Washington ruled that the way in which a raid of Jefferson's congressional office was conducted did not fully protect Jefferson's privileges as a congressman. Jefferson's lawyer says all the documents obtained in the raid should therefore be barred at his trial in June.
House chairman temporarily gives up position
By HENRY C. JACKSON, Associated Press Writer –
Tue Jun 2, 7:55 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Rep. Pete Visclosky, the chairman of a powerful House appropriations subcommittee, said Tuesday he is handing off control of a key spending bill, the latest sign his ties to a troubled lobbying firm are weakening his standing in Congress.
The Indiana Democrat's announcement came less than a week after he disclosed that a federal grand jury had issued subpoenas to his congressional and campaign offices and some of his employees as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into a now defunct lobbying firm, PMA Group.
Jacob Ritvo, a spokesman for Visclosky, said he could not confirm when the subpoenas were issued. Later on Tuesday, Ritvo said that Visclosky's longtime chief of staff, Chuck Brimmer, had resigned. He declined to say why or when Brimmer made the decision.
Visclosky is the chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water, one of 12 offshoots of the House Appropriations Committee that help to carve out billions in government spending.
Visclosky said Tuesday he had asked Rep. Ed Pastor of Arizona, another Democrat on the subcommittee, to take over control of the fiscal 2010 appropriations bill for an indefinite period. Allowing another congressman to manage the spending bill, albeit temporarily, effectively takes away the main responsibility of the subcommittee chairman. The bill details more than $30 billion in spending.
No reference was made to the ongoing PMA investigation. But Visclosky's actions are the latest sign of the investigation's impact.
Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said Visclosky should give up his chairmanship, at least until the PMA investigation is completed.
"I suspect he's hanging on to it simply so it doesn't look like he's conceding any kind of illicit relationship," Holman said.
Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the decision to hand off the bill was Visclosky's alone.
"This was a personal decision and the speaker respects it," he said.
PMA was founded by Paul Magliochetti, a former staff member of the Defense appropriations subcommittee. It was once a powerhouse lobbying firm that specialized in securing lucrative military contracts for its clients. Now disintegrated, PMA is being investigated by federal officials amid allegations it was used to funnel donations to lawmakers through so-called straw donors.
Word of subpoenas for Visclosky's offices and staff was the first sign the investigation of PMA Group had spread to Capitol Hill.
Visclosky, who is also a member of the Defense appropriations subcommittee, has strong ties to PMA along with two other House members — Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who chairs the Defense appropriations subcommittee, and Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., who is a committee member.
Visclosky's former congressional chief of staff, Richard Kaelin, left his office to become a lobbyist at PMA. The firm also heavily subsidized Visclosky's political work: One out of every $5 in political donations Visclosky took in during the last seven years came from PMA employees or its clients.
At the same time, Visclosky has proved to be a reliable advocate for PMA and its clients. In 2008 alone, he helped to secure more than $23 million in earmarks for the company's clients.
Ethics groups say the link between Visclosky's earmarks, or federal money directed by lawmakers to specific projects, and PMA's donations are an example of pay-to-play politics. They say they follow a pattern of troubling behavior from Congress involving earmarks.
Visclosky has gone to various lengths to try and avoid the stain of the PMA investigation. Handing off the Energy and Water subcommittees' spending bill is the latest effort.
Earlier this year, Visclosky joined a Republican-led effort to have the House Ethics committee investigate members' ties to the firm. He also refused to request any earmarks for PMA clients in this year's defense spending bill and promised to return at least $18,000 in contributions from donors with ties to the firm.
Dems push through PMA resolution
John Bresnahan –
Wed Jun 3, 2:52 pm ET
Seeking to head off Republicans, Democratic leaders on Wednesday pushed through a resolution requiring the House ethics committee to disclose what actions it has taken in responding to the controversy over the PMA Group, a once prominent lobbying firm now at the center of a Justice Department criminal probe.
The largely partisan vote was 270-134, with 17 members, including members of the ethics committee, voting “present.”
Led by Rep. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), have been calling for a PMA investigation by the ethics committee for months, but Democrats have resisted, arguing that it is not necessary and just an attempt by the GOP to cause political problems for the majority.
Most Democrats have held firm in voting against resolutions calling for investigations, although some junior members have joined with Republicans on the measure.
GOP leaders strongly objected to the Democratic leadership’s resolution, branding it a “stunt’ and a “worthless piece of paper,” and noting that the measure doesn’t require any action by the ethics panel other than to publicly declare whether it has taken any action on the PMA controversy.
“This is a joke. It is the tiniest speck of political cover from a Democratic Leadership that has voted time after time to block a real investigation of PMA,” said Michael Steel, spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio). “It doesn’t even require an investigation, it simply inquires whether there is one – and gives the Committee a month and half to reply. That’s ridiculous. They can and should answer that question today. In the meantime, the swamp waters continue to rise, and this won’t fool the American people.”
But the DOJ criminal probe has moved to Capitol Hill as Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, and his departing chief of staff have been subpoenaed for documents as part of the PMA investigation. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) also has ties to the now defunct lobbying firm.
With that in mind, Democratic leaders are drafting their own PMA resolution, one they say will be more targeted than the Flake proposal. They want the ethics committee to publicly declare whether it has initiated a PMA-related probe. The panel has made no comment on the issue yet, despite eight House votes so far on Flake’s resolutions.
According to the Democratic resolution, the ethics committee would have 45 days to report back to the body on what actions it “has taken, if any, concerning any misconduct of members and employees of the House in connection with such activities of the PMA Group.”
“It will basically ask the ethics committee to tell us what they are doing on this issue,” said a senior Democratic aide.
One report said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is the author of the Democratic resolution, but Democratic insiders said another party leader is drafting the measure.
Hoyer, though, has argued during Democratic leadership meetings that the majority has to make some response to the PMA controversy other than asking Democrats to vote against the Flake resolutions.
The PMA scandal is a growing problem for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other senior appropriators, including Visclosky and Murtha, a close Pelosi friend and ally. Both lawmakers accepted hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions from the firm, its employees and clients, and then pushed spending earmarks worth tens of millions of dollars from these clients. Murtha and Visclosky have denied any link between the donations and the earmarks, but the issue has become a political albatross for Democratic leaders.
We asked you: How did Florida's Legislature do?
Give them a grade!
May 7, 2009
A: Lawmakers did very good work under difficult circumstances. 1.9%
B: A decent enough job overall. 1.8%
C: Mediocre at best. 7.4%
D: At least they got a budget, shoddy as it is. 15.8%
F: They did almost nothing right. 73.1%
It is so sad.
It's like we have a bunch of clowns.
It’s on like Donkey Kong:
a battle for the heart and soul of the Florida Republican Party!
"From a conservative side,
it's time for us
to listen first,
to learn
a little bit,
to upgrade our message
a little bit,
to not be nostalgic about the past,"
-Jeb Bush
GOP base rips Cantor's new group
“Maybe we've gotten to the point where you have to scam the American people
in order to get their votes. I hope not,”
Limbaugh said.
“See I'm enough of an idealist, probably a little naïve, and hopefully a bit of a realist,
to understand that it really works out best if you respect your audience,
respect their intelligence,
approach them that way.”
Those Brand-New Humble Republicans
Joe Conason – Thu May 7, 2009 3:00 am ET
On talk radio,
where
Rush Limbaugh is the true boss of the Republican Party,
"listening" is for wimps.
The only way forward is to charge full tilt to the right.
In short,
there is no need to re-brand,
let alone rethink or reconsider.
Forget the listening tour.
As Limbaugh put it,
"We need a teaching tour."
That kind of arrogance is startling,
given the thrashing that Republicans
continue to suffer
in the voting booths,
on Capitol Hill
and in public-opinion surveys.
Oil drilling - God wills it!
"We worship a God who made (the oil),
and if we ran out,
I think he could make some more."(?!?!?!)
-Rep. Van Zant R-Palatka,
sponsor of House Bill 1219
who holds two degrees from Baptist seminaries
Isn't that special...
"Energy is not an issue that's going away."
"By waiting
to be dragged pulling and screaming
into the clean energy economy
they hamstring
their own state
in the
process"
"It's fairly mind-boggling,"
-Susan Glickman
54,000 -180,000
JOBS LOST!
That's the estimated number of new jobs in renewable energy being left on the table
by the Florida House as the 2009 Legislature draws to a close.
This, at a time when
800,000 Floridians are out of work!
The renewable energy bill the House has evidently decided to kill this year
was not a
surprise bill sprung on the public
at the last minute.
This year was an important because Crist is widely expected to run for a
U.S. Senate race in 2010,
making him essentially a lame duck governor next year
and
leaving the state without a prominent Republican energy reform advocate.
GOP's budget blues
By: Jim VandeHei and John F. Harris
Oct 11, 2007
05:54 AM EST
Virtually every Republican on Capitol Hill
agrees that one way to revive their prostrate party is to reclaim the mantle of
fiscal conservatism. One of the dramas now playing out in the dysfunctional GOP
family is deciding what exactly this might mean.
Turns out it is not quite as simple as it
sounds. Recent days have made clear that Republicans are in no position to do
battle against Democrats until they resolve any increasingly irritable dispute
among themselves over budget priorities.
One common take on the problem comes from Rep.
Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). The 44-year-old conservative sees many of his colleagues publicly
applauding his attempts to kill pork-barrel spending while privately working to
keep alive the budget “earmark” system that has already been the wellspring of
several recent corruption cases. “It will
probably take another indictment or two” to force change, Flake said in a
Wednesday interview. “I think those [indictments] are coming.”
In Flake’s view, Republicans can hardly be said
to stand for anything domestically if they don’t stand for purging the budget
of boodle and boondoggles.
But Senate Republicans
at a recent private strategy session heard a much different view of earmarks.
In short: No one cares.
GOP pollster David Winston told the group that
his surveys showed that earmark reform, a popular mantra in the days after the
2006 election, has little juice with voters. Only slightly more than half of
voters are even aware of earmarks; of those who are, only a third offered
negative views of them. His advice: Find
ways to speak in more sweeping terms about how Republicans will rein in
spending to make way for future tax cuts and other initiatives to lessen the
cash burden on voters.
“You have to develop the issue,” Winston said.
“It is a good starting point, but they [voters] are not there yet.”
In truth, they are not even close. Beyond
earmarks, the pollster also recently presented data to GOP House and Senate
leaders showing that the public is more
interested in balanced budgets than tax cuts.
For Republican
candidates, the implications of this research are sobering. Tax cuts have been
the engine of the GOP domestic agenda for a decade. Even if voters were more
enthusiastic, the reality of Bush-era deficits makes them substantively
impractical. It’s the reverse of the old Reagan-era strategy, which held that
big deficits were useful because they made it harder for Democrats to push new
social spending.
As for balanced budgets, the current public
relations drubbing the party is taking in its battle with Democrats over the
SCHIP health care program for needy children is a vivid illumination of the
dangers of actually trying to draw sharp lines over spending.
The conflicting strategies implied by Flake’s
rhetoric and Winston’s data are a fault line that is unlikely to be bridged any
time soon.
House Republicans, hoping to make amends with
conservatives put off by the rampant deficits of the Bush years, are
emphasizing the earmark reform effort and are eager for a series of
high-profile presidential vetoes of Democratic spending.
Senate Republicans have scant interest in
forfeiting their own pet projects, especially if there is nothing to gain
politically. Instead, they want to focus on holding the line on spending in the
broadest of terms.
The reluctance to embrace even modest earmark
reforms is causing friction with House Republicans.
“They must be committed to a different set of
core values than I have,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican. “They also read different
things into the 2006 election results than I did.”
Senate Republicans are somewhat dismissive. “Our
guys feel some earmarks are worthy,” said a top Senate GOP strategist.
“Where we can make gains is starting to describe
our effort in broader terms — a balanced budget,” the strategist said. GOP
congressional aides are agitating for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to
make a balanced-budget promise with a specific year attached, an idea likely to
be discussed when the Senate returns next week.
The disagreement has left House leaders
searching for a middle path. Instead of ending earmarks, as Flake and many
conservatives want, GOP leaders are pushing for greater transparency of the
process, rather than ending it.
“I sympathize with their frustration that we are
not doing enough, but we cannot let the other side off the hook,” said Rep.
Adam Putnam (R-Fla.). The cautious rhetoric might be
a good way to navigate a news cycle, but Flake and
others say it’s not the way to rally a demoralized party for the election.
Do you think charges
should
have been brought
against Mark Foley?
“Opie
had Denny’s back while Denny stood behind Foley”-
“I sympathize with their frustration
that we are not doing
enough,
but we cannot let the other side off the hook,”
said
Rep. Adam Putnam
(R-Fla.)-AKA "Opie".
WASHINGTON — Former Congressman Mark Foley is unlikely to face
criminal charges for sending sexually explicit e-mails to teenage boys, sources close to the year-long investigation have told Scripps Howard News
Service.
Former
House speaker seeks graceful exit
The longest-serving Republican speaker in history, Hastert resigned the seat late last year after losing his powerful speaker post when Democrats took control of Congress in the 2006 election. He spent two decades in Washington.
"Dennis
Hastert (who was 15 in 1957) is
very popular with our members, with our donors and with our activists,"
said GOP Rep. Tom Cole (who was 8 in
1957) of Oklahoma, chairman of the party's campaign committee.
Rookie congressman: Win sends message
By DEANNA BELLANDI, Associated Press Writer Sun Mar 9, 6:32 PM ET
CHICAGO - A day after snagging former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert's congressional seat in a special election, Democrat Bill Foster knew Sunday he didn't have much time to savor the victory.
Foster chalked up his win to voters dissatisfied with Republicans and to demographic changes caused by ever-spreading suburban sprawl. The district stretches from Chicago's far western suburbs to almost the Mississippi River.
Foster credited high-profile support from some well-known Illinois Democrats. Presidential candidate Barack Obama endorsed him in a TV ad.
He said his win carries a message for both political parties.
"People on both sides should take the message that we want people who are less divisive, less ideological and more problem-solving," he said.
Flake and others say it’s
not the way to rally a demoralized party for the election.
Yesterday we posted Rep. Jeff Flake's reasons for opposing the bailout bill, but the big mystery on the floor was why so many Democrats went against Pelosi. Most members are pointing me to their statements on the bill, which reveal them, for the most part, as ready for a deal if the bill is rewritten with muscular taxpayer protections and a whip hand over Paulson. A sample of the different takes...
Could Blunt be Boehner's lifeline?
Patrick O'Connor Patrick O'connor – 1 hr 52 mins ago
Republican insiders are braced for bloodshed if the House GOP loses big in November — and they say that the keys to John A. Boehner’s survival as minority leader may be in the hands of his onetime rival.
Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt fell six votes short of beating out Boehner as majority leader in February 2006, settling instead for the No. 2 job as majority whip. But if Republicans suffer heavy losses in the House next month, many insiders expect Blunt to step aside from his whip post to create an opening for his top deputy, Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor.
Such a move could take Cantor — the lawmaker with the best shot of unseating Boehner after the election — out of the running to challenge the minority leader. Boehner’s grip on the party remains tenuous after the contentious debate over the Bush administration’s $700 billion economic bailout plan.
Other leaders might not be so lucky, according to members, aides and outside lobbyists who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be more candid. If Election Night produces embarrassing results, these insiders say restive Republicans could turn their anger on conference Chairman Adam Putnam of Florida, the third-ranking Republican in the House.
Boehner and Blunt were able to save their jobs after the 2006 election because the rank and file blamed President Bush and their predecessors, such as former Texas Rep. Tom DeLay, for the losses that cost them control of the House.
This time around, members say, Boehner and Blunt won’t be able to escape the blame.
“Members are furious after this bailout debacle,” one lawmaker said. But he cautioned that the incumbent Republicans who were “willing to run” against Boehner and Blunt “are not well-positioned to win. ... So we’re trying to decide if we’re pissed off enough at Cantor and Putnam.”
Should Boehner survive and Putnam become a target, the dynamic would echo a similar realignment in 1998, when Boehner was bounced as the conference chairman after a weakened Rep. Dick Armey of Texas barely saved his job as majority leader.
Parlor politics have distracted House Republicans for months — at the expense of party unity — as the party’s conservative wing grows in size, influence and anger. The divisions grew sharper in the debate over the bailout plan, which exposed a series of long-simmering rifts between the elected leaders and many rank-and-file members.
Initially, the big four — Boehner, Blunt, Cantor and Putnam — agreed that the economic threats articulated by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were very real and could topple the U.S. economy. During one meeting early on, the Republicans agreed to support the Treasury request granting the department historic authority to inject $700 billion into the private markets, according to aides familiar with the meeting.
Those leaders knew their decision would be politically unpopular — during one meeting, Blunt even joked that colleagues would beat them up for pushing it — but each of the four GOP leaders believed that it was the right thing to do, aides said. But as the rank and file rebelled — led by conservative critics as well as some of Boehner’s closest allies — that unity started to splinter.
Should Blunt step aside, Putnam would become the top target for ambitious lawmakers eyeing a promotion.
The youthful Floridian rose quickly through the ranks by engendering a close relationship with former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and impressing colleagues with his political acumen. He has since become a smart, pragmatic voice for the party who does not shy from questioning sacred cows.
But Putnam, who can be aloof from colleagues at times, recently angered the rank and file by supporting the bailout. His detractors were also angry that his office failed to distribute talking points after the first vote failed; supporters say he was trapped because he couldn’t risk angering Democrats who supported the plan or GOP colleagues who opposed it.
It’s not yet clear who would challenge Putnam.
Putnam,
as House Conference Chairman,
is the third-ranking Republican in the new GOP
House minority.
He first attained a post in House leadership while
Hastert was speaker.
“Opie
had Denny’s back while Denny stood behind Foley”
Later
on, Hastert was criticized for his handling of the
case of
Mark Foley,
Florida
congress member who was revealed to have had improper communications with
congressional pages.
Putnam then became one of Hastert’s chief defenders,
contending critics of Hastert were
motivated by partisan politics.
“I sympathize with their frustration
that we are not doing
enough,
but we cannot let the other side off the hook,”
said
Rep. Adam Putnam
(R-Fla.)-AKA "Opie".
The cautious rhetoric might be a good way to navigate a news
cycle,
but Flake and others say it’s not the way to rally a demoralized party
for the election.
FLAKE ON FAKE NEWS
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said he and his family happened to be watching the Oct. 4 episode of "Saturday Night Live" when a special correspondent for the Weekend Update fake news segment began to sing a roll-call account of how members of the House voted on the Wall Street bailout bill.
The singing reporter started to sing each member's name, starting alphabetically with the delegates from Alabama, followed with each representative's "Yea" or "Nay" vote. The reporter sang all the way through Arizona's delegation before fake news anchors Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers cut him off.
"My kids were sure impressed," Flake said. "I mean, they haven't been that impressed since I was interviewed by Rob Corddry for 'The Daily Show.'"
Those Flake kids are tough to impress. Their father also has been interviewed by Morley Safer for "60 Minutes."
Divided We Fail pledge
Thu Jul 26, 6:15 PM ET
To: POLITICAL
EDITORS
The pledge language reads as follows:
I am committed to working with my colleagues across the aisle to develop
and implement policies that provide all Americans with access to quality,
affordable health care and lifetime financial security. I understand that
Americans want answers, action and accountability from their elected
officials -- not legislative stalemate. The time has come to address
these critical national priorities.
I pledge to work across party lines to sponsor or support legislation that
seeks to:
-- Provide every American with access to quality, affordable health care,
including:
* Information about the quality, cost, and effectiveness of health
care services
* Policies that prevent illness and promote good health
* Policies that reduce health care costs while maintaining quality of
care
* The development of secure health information technology and
electronic health records
* Choices when it comes to long-term care service delivery and
affordable financing options;
-- Strengthen Social Security in a manner that treats all generations
fairly;
-- Provide Americans with greater access to retirement plans, financial
incentives to save, and tools to better manage their finances and help
prepare them for retirement; and
-- Develop policies that help ensure that all workers-regardless of age-
can continue to work and contribute to society.
More information about the Divided We Fail
efforts can be found at http://www.dividedwefail.org
Lawmakers
Sign Pledge to Put Aside Politics, Establish Healthier, More Prosperous Future
for Americans
Contact: Cecelia Prewett or Drew Nannis of AARP, +1-202-434-2560; Kirk Monroe
of Business Roundtable, +1-202-496-3269; Kawana Lloyd
of SEIU, +1-202-730-7087
WASHINGTON, July 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/
-- At the prompting of more than 2,000 people at yesterday's Capitol Hill
Advocacy Day rally, 86 lawmakers on both sides of the aisle signed the Divided
We Fail pledge, committing to create meaningful bipartisan solutions to the
health care and financial security crises plaguing America.
In an effort coordinated by the
organizations of Divided We Fail -- AARP, Business Roundtable and SEIU -- more
than 800 employers, workers and retirees fanned out across the Hill to meet
with their elected officials and ask them to sign the pledge.
"How much worse does this problem have
to get before our political leaders do something," said AARP CEO Bill Novelli. "Enough is enough."
"The collective voice of the public
was heard on the hill today," echoed SEIU President Andy Stern. "We
look forward to working hand-in-hand with our nation's leaders to put the full
strength of our democracy behind addressing these priorities."
Business Roundtable President John Castellani commended pledge signers for overcoming partisan
politics in favor of action and urged other policymakers to follow their
example. "Divided We Fail has taken the first step towards establishing a
healthier, more financially secure path for
America
by coming
together," he said. "If our three organizations can put aside our
ideological differences to create real solutions, than certainly Congress can
too."
Members who signed the pledge to-date include:
1. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI)
2. Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
3. Rep. Michael Arcuri (D-NY)
4. Rep. Joe Baca (D-CA)
5. Rep. John Barrow (D-GA)
6. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD)
7. Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)
8. Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT)
9. Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV)
10. Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL)
11. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT)
12. Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
13. Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY)
14. Rep. John Boozman (R-AR)
15. Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK)
16. Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS)
17. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL)
18. Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT)
19. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD)
20. Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO)
21. Del. Donna Christian-Christensen (D-USVI)
22. Rep. Stephen Cohen (D-TN)
23. Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN)
24. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN)
25. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT)
26. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID)
27. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
28. Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL)
29. Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA)
30. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-MA)
31. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
32. Rep. Phil English (R-PA)
33. Del. Luis Fortuno (R-PR)
34. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
35. Rep. Raul Grivalja (D-AZ)
36. Rep. Charles A. Gonzalez (D-TX)
37. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN)
38. Rep. Al Green (D-TX)
39. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA)
40. Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
41. Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
42. Rep. Paul Hodes (D-NH)
43. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ)
44. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
45. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA)
46. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI)
47. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA)
48. Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI)
49. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
50. Rep. Nicholas Lampson (D-TX)
51. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
52. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
53. Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT)
54. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
55. Rep. Jim McCrery (R-LA)
56. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
57. Rep. Jerry Moran (R-KS)
58. Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA)
59. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
60. Rep. Richie Neal (D-MA)
61. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)
62. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL)
63. Rep. James L. Oberstar (D-MN)
64. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ)
65. Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-NJ)
66. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO)
67. Rep. Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
68. Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
69. Rep. Jon Porter (R-NV)
70. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA)
71. Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN)
72. Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT)
73. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX)
74. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA)
75. Rep. John T. Salazar (D-CO)
76. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY)
77. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT)
78. Rep. Albio Sires (D-NJ)
79. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)
80. Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA)
81. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK)
82. Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT)
83. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
84. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA)
85. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC)
86. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY)
Divided We Fail
efforts can be found at http://www.dividedwefail.org.
Business Roundtable
Business Roundtable (http://www.businessroundtable.org)
is an association of chief executive officers of leading
U.S.
companies with
$4.5 trillion in annual revenues and more than 10 million employees. Member
companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the
U.S.
stock markets and
represent over 40 percent of all corporate income taxes paid. Collectively,
they returned $112 billion in dividends to shareholders and the economy in
2005. Roundtable companies give more than $7 billion a year in combined
charitable contributions, representing nearly 60 percent of total corporate
giving. They are technology innovation leaders, with $90 billion in annual
research and development spending -- nearly half of the total private R&D
spending in the
U.S.
SEIU
With 1.8 million members, SEIU (http://www.seiu.org)
is the fastest- growing union in
North America
. Focused on
uniting workers in three sectors to improve their lives and the services they
provide, SEIU is the largest health care union, including hospitals, nursing
homes, and home care; the largest property services union, including building
cleaning and security; and the second largest public employee union.
SOURCE Business Roundtable
Republicans risk eroding
their moral appeal to conservatives
by appearing too cozy with the gaming
industry.
WWJD?