Thursday, June 30, 2005

Dance, Puppet, Dance!   Republican Minnesota Representative Mark Kennedy is abandoning a fairly safe House seat to seek the Senate seat being vacated by Democratic Senator Mark Dayton.  This has people looking with greater scrutiny at his views, such as they are.  It isn't entirely clear he has any views of his own.  Actually, many wonder if Mark Kennedy is less of a lawmaker, and more of a passive vehicle for the President's every whim; that he's a puppet; that his very ability to speak is more or less a ventriloquist's act.  He defends having voted on the President’s side 98% of the time by saying, "I have a 100% voting record with my mother."   And what's his voting record with his dog?  Well, Representative Kennedy's dog could not be reached for comment, but is believed to be concerned about Kennedy's stance on leash laws.  Given the Representative is on a leash himself, he's got to be for them. 5:55:07 PM    comment []

Finally, Progress in the Plame Affair   Evidently, the threat of a small but never-ending fine ($1000 a day in perpetuity) has proven to be enough to make Time magazine cave.  Time has agreed to hand over Matthew Cooper's notes from his interview with the anonymous source who broke the law and betrayed the country, by revealing the CIA affiliation of Valerie Plame.  These notes may include the actual name of the source or sources.  We can hope, at least.  There should at least be clues.  And then maybe the criminal can be brought to justice, as well as any superiors higher up in the administration who may have urged them to commit this minor form of treason. 2:39:17 PM    comment []

Quote for the Day, 6/30/2005   "We shall not get any better no matter how long we live."   -Stanley Plumly, "Since England is an Island" 9:37:15 AM    comment []

At Last   After more than six months of intransigence by Republicans, preventing the House Ethics committee from functioning, an agreement has been reached to let the comittee do its job.  The first fight was over an effort to change the rules so that no Ethics investigation would ever be completed, because any incomplete investigation would automatically be dismissed.  Republican Ethics Committee Chairman Doc Hastings is a close associate of both Tom DeLay, and an even closer associate of the Al Capone of the lobbyist set, Jack Abramoff.  Ethics Committee investigations have always been handled by nonpartisan investigators.  Chairman Hastings was insisting that his chief aide instead have partisan control over those nonpartisan professionals.  Hastings claims he backed off that demand over a month ago; but memos from that time make clear he is less than truthful in making that claim.  In any case, the Chairman says he's agreed now that nonpartisan people will have a free hand to investigate ethical violations (though before there's an investigation, distressingly, it's not enough there's evidence of a violation of House rules...a Representative has to actually lay a charge).  Given the hundreds or thousands of ethical violations great and small by dozens of Congressional officials, let us hope these professionals are not only nonpartisan, but are also both hard workers and fast workers, and that both parties are quick to report everyone guilty of any violation.  If justice were just done to Majority Leader DeLay, however unlikely that seems, well...it would be nice, but it's not enough.  The lobbyists in Washington certainly appear to have thoroughly corrupted much of Congress.  It's time to find out if that's true.  If there aren't a great number of investigations, of members of both parties, we can be sure that it is. 8:47:35 AM    comment []

White House is Candidate-Hunting in Florida   Republican Representative Katherine Harris' people are infuriated by White House efforts to recruit another candidate in the US Senate race against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson.  Karl Rove and Elizabeth Dole both flew down to Florida on White House orders to get on bended knee begging Republican Florida House Speaker Allan Bense to enter the race.  "It's unimaginable that the White House folks and the National Republican Senatorial Committee would be so disloyal to Katherine Harris, especially after all she has done for the Bush family and the Republican Party," a Harris supporter said.  And just what has Katherine Harris done for the Bush family?  Well, let's review.  She threw the 2000 Presidential election by preventing tens of thousands of legal voters from voting.  Her best chance to be elected to the Senate was in 2004, running for a vacant seat.  But she bowed out of the race due to pressure from the White House, which knew her candidacy was likely to cost President Bush Florida's electoral votes.  So now the White House is showing their gratitude for her giving them two terms in the White House by trying to recruit a candidate to beat Harris in a Republican primary.  Look, I know Harris will almost certainly get beat by Senator Bill Nelson.  I just remember Republicans bashing President Clinton for being a political mechanic with no loyalty to his supporters.  When do they start bashing President Bush for being exactly the same? 3:13:07 AM    comment []