This really does make for gruesomely fun reading. College Republicans meet in their national convention. All stand firm on the war, but few seem interested in fighting it. Many believe they can accomplish more fighting politically to support the war on the home front.
Vivian Lee says "Frankly, I want to be a politician. I'd like to survive to see that." Put her in the category of people who are ineligible for service because they want to survive into adulthood.
Chris Cusmano, a 21-year old from Rocky Point, NY says that "If there was a need presented, I would go." But he hasn't considered volunteering. Maybe someone should send him the clips about how the Army hasn't been able to meet its recruiting targets in months.
25-year old Matthew Vail, wtih Students for Bush, says "I'm in college right now, but who knows? The bug may get after college."
The fighting and dying for your country bug.
(Late Update: Note this is from last year's convention. I didn't realize that when I first read the piece. So at least the recruiting issue doesn't apply with the same force.)
--Josh Marshall
Cunningham lawyers up. And his lawyer knows what kind of case he's dealing with. Cunningham lawyer K. Lee Blalack told the hometown North County Times he couldn't talk details about the case because he "hadn't gotten his hands dirty on this thing yet."
Also of interest, it turns out that Blalack was Duke's attorney during the last major congressional bribery dust-up.
Says the article: "[Blalack] also represented the 63-year-old congressman and former Navy fighter pilot in a 2003 ethics case that alleged Cunningham and other lawmakers pressured Rep. Nick Smith to vote in favor of a Medicare reform bill."
Blalack also repeats Duke's claim that he paid $13,000 in dock and maintenance fees "in lieu of traditional rent." But here's what we're not clear on.
$8,000 of that is for slip fees.
But according to the earlier account, before Duke started living on the Duke Stir, he'd been living there on his own yacht, the Kelly C. The latter boat got sent off to get refurbished and is apparently down in Mobile, Alabama. And the Duke Stir took its place. So wasn't Duke paying the eight grand in slip fees all along? How does he get to count that as payment in kind to Mitchell Wade? And if someone loans you their house for a year, is it kosher by congressional rules if you pay utilities and upkeep in lieu of traditional rent?
--Josh Marshall
Let me extend my congratulations to Markos and the rest of his Dailykos team for the new redesigned site. Looks great and I well know how much time goes into such a project. Congrats.
--Josh Marshall
White House advance team subject of criminal probe, but press secretary won't disclose details. Will Denver DA save us from power-worshiping Washington?
Okay, he's not a DA. He's a US Attorney. But I was already set on the headline before that dawned on me.
However that may be, according to the Rocky Mountain News, the Secret Service says that they're still completing their investigation into what the Secret Service describes as a "criminal case" of a member of the White House advance team who reportedly impersonated a Secret Service agent at a Bamboozlepalooza event in March. Once they complete their probe, they will turn their findings over to William Leone, acting US Attorney for the Denver district who will have to decide whether criminal charges will be filed.
The White House, you'll remember, says no one did anything wrong in the incident and insists -- apparently forcing the Secret Service to remain silent too -- on keeping secret the name of the person at the center of the probe.
Can we hope for some spine from Leone? Otherwise, aren't we left relying on the liegemen from The Note?
--Josh Marshall
Score one for Duke!
Yesterday, I picked up a clip from the LA Times which identified Douglas Powanda, a former executive vice president at Peregrine Systems and current corporate fraud indictee, as the guy Duke bought the new house from. The Times also pointed out that Peregrine Systems was Duke's third largest corporate contributor.
Only that last point isn't true. Duke's third largest contributor is actually Peregrine Semiconductor, an unrelated company and one that to the best of our knowledge has bucked the trend and not made any personal cash payments to Duke.
It would seem that those of who want to have Duke to kick around will have to settle for the House-sale-cum-pay-off and the free boat accomodations.
Oh well.
--Josh Marshall
So back to the phase-out rally at the Capitol on Sunday.
A new phase-out group is holding what they're calling a "Storm for Reform" rally in support of phasing-out Social Security and replacing it with private accounts.
And to symbolize their rage against Social Security as we know it, these Storm Troopers will be hauling a bunch of paper shredders to Taft Memorial Park on Capitol Hill so that rally participants can shred their Social Security statements. (Sort of the wingnut equivalent of burning your bra, I guess.)
(And, no, I'm actually not making this stuff up.)
So who will show up to support Social Security in the face of this onslaught of anti-Social Security weasels?
More to come ...
--Josh Marshall
Storm troopers for phase-out to rally for dismantling Social Security at the Capitol this Sunday, to shred Social Security statements in bizarre phase-out ritual.
More soon ...
Leni, where are you when they need you?
Names, places and dates to follow ...
--Josh Marshall
One of my main goals when I started TPMCafe was to provide a bigger forum for the sort of information gathering and investigative journalism we did here at TPM in recent months on Social Security, the DeLay Rule, et al.
Now that we've got the site up-and-running, a staffer hired and a battery of volunteer researcher-writers in the process of being picked, we're going to dig into it.
First up, catching up on Social Security.
As you can see here, our Conscience Caucus list hasn't been updated since way back on March 3rd. A lot has happened in the last six months. Most of them good, certainly. But just recently the phase-out crew has begun making some initials forays out of their cave with the new plan to blow the entire Social Security surplus and the Trust Fund on those prized private accounts.
So we're going to dive back into that. We'll be moving the list over to a new library section of TPMCafe, updating it, adding new materials, and more.
If you'd like to be involved in helping us pull new information together, let us know.
Next up after that, Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, Karl Rove and more.
--Josh Marshall
On this whole Karl Rove matter, I refer everyone back to this post from last August 19th. It's the exact same thing.
--Josh Marshall
For all you landlubbers out there, TPM Reader SC sends us word that Duke's boat, the Duke Stir (type identified here) is actually not something you'd likely see in some old Jackie O home movie. SC sends us this link to an ad for a similar model going for $130,000 -- picture included.
--Josh Marshall
Let's note this officially as a story that the gatekeepers say isn't a story.
You know about the three Denver residents who were physically ejected from the Bamboozlepalooza event in their town back in March. They got the heave-ho from a guy in a black suit and an earpiece impersonating a Secret Service officer. Later they learned it was because they'd arrived in a car with a 'No Blood for Oil' sticker on it.
Various inquiries have now made it clear that the man in question was not a Secret Service agent, but a political working for the White House, acting on orders that have been in force for such events across the country.
But the White House refuses to identify the person in question or drop the policy. The White House says all the questions tied to the incident have been "asked and answered" and the folks in the White House press corps are apparently satisfied with that answer. So the story ends there apparently.
Hungry or overfed?
--Josh Marshall
The North County Times on Aqua-Duke ...
What's more, Cunningham since April 2004 has been living on Wade's yacht in Washington. The congressman said that in lieu of rent, he paid more than $8,000 in dock fees and $5,000 for upkeep on Wade's boat.We can set aside the dock fees, because Cunningham rented space for his own boat at the Potomac River marina for years before he moved into Wade's boat. According to Cunningham's accounting, that $5,000 over the last 14 months amounts to $357 a month.
Unless we are missing something, this looks like a sweetheart deal, with Cunningham paying far less than market rent, to say nothing of the true maintenance and depreciation costs of a fancy boat.
$357. At least it's fair market <$NoAd$> value.
--Josh Marshall
You can live nextdoor to Duke!
The house at 7150 Via Del Charro is on sale for a mere $5 million.
(As always in real estate there's fine print. The listing actually reads: "Seller will entertain offers between $4,650,000 and $5,400,876.")
To compare and contrast, here's the satellite view of Duke's place and here's the view of the place you can buy.
--Josh Marshall
For the true Duke aficionados, the Duke Stir was built in 1987 by Carver Boat Corp.
Length is 42.2 ft. Fiberglass hull. Gross Tonnage 34, Net Tonnage 27.
You can look up the same info here.
--Josh Marshall
Hmmm. Hard to know quite what these numbers mean. But let's see if anyone out there knows more.
Back in December 2003 Duke paid Douglas Powanda $2.55 million for the new manse in Rancho Santa Fe at 7094 Via Del Charro. Powanda is Duke's big campaign contributor from Peregrine Systems who's now waiting to go on trial for multibillion dollar securities fraud. They paid cash. And the new place comes in at 7,628 sq.ft.
Now, TPM Reader JS sent in these links to me which show that a couple weeks later someone else paid $2.25 million for the place down the road at 6849 Via Del Charro. But the records say that place only has 2936 sq.ft. (Satelite view of this location.)
A couple months earlier the place at 7002 Via Del Charro went for $3.45 million. And that place had only 5290 sq.ft. That's more than 2000 sq.ft. less than Duke's place. (Satellite view of this location.)
Now, maybe the Duke's place is a dump, though these photos would suggest otherwise. Or perhaps one part of the street has a to-die-for ocean view and the others don't. Who knows? In all honesty, it really is impossible to know what the different values mean having never seen individual homes or the lay of the land. And maybe I'm misinterpreting what these documents mean. (Here's a satellite view of Duke's place.) But given Duke's reputation for good luck on real estate deals, I'd say this deserves a look. Who knows? His judgment may have failed him on this one too.
If you're from the area or know it, drop me a line and tell me what you think.
--Josh Marshall
TPM Readers check in on Aqua-Duke ...
That's ridiculous!The annual cost of owning such a boat is far more than the marina fees. And remember, Duke was already paying those fees for his own boat before he switched to the "Duke Stir."
If the Duke pays for parking and gas, can Wade buy him a Porsche?
JD
Then there's RN ...
Josh, You're missing the bigger point. A yacht like that is worth easily a million dollars. It's not the slip rental. It's the fact that he got to live in a million dollar "residence" for the cost of the slip rental. It's like if someone offered you their million dollar house, and all you had to pay were the homeowner's fees.But just FYI, I used to live on a boat in L.A., in Marina Del Rey for 2 years. Most marinas have basic slip rental rates. I would imagine on the Potomac in the high-rent slips, like Wade's yacht was in, they run (I'm being conservative) between 15 & 20/foot per month. But marinas aren't crazy about liveaboards, because they use lots of electricity and water and they pollute. Marinas generally discourage the practice so they tack on liveaboard fees which will typically run the slip rent up another 50%. If it was a 50 foot yacht then the slip rental could have been $1000/month easy. Plus another $500/month for the liveaboard fees, making $1500/total.
I defer to the <$NoAd$> yachtsmen among you.
Then there's CC
Josh,I thought I had read that Mitchell Wade’s yacht was docked in Duke Cunningham’s slip while the Duke’s yacht was being repaired. So isn’t the Duke simply paying his own dock fees while living on Wade’s yacht for free? Or am I confused.
Nope. That's what we thought too.
--Josh Marshall
Duke breaks his silence! Speaks out on long sordid shenanigans. North County Times reprints statement.
It's fairly long. So you'll want to read it. But on a quick glance, this jumped out at me ...
Finally, recent news reports have questioned whether it was appropriate for me to live on a boat owned by Mr. Wade while I was working in Washington. It is important to note that I first came to Congress in 1991, and I only began living on Mr. Wade's boat in roughly April 2004. Mr. Wade and I agreed that, in return for me staying on the boat, I would pay the monthly dock fees and maintenance costs associated with keeping Mr. Wade's boat at the marina. There was nothing improper about my arrangement with Mr. Wade because I paid these monthly fees and costs in lieu of rent. Based on the records that I have been able to locate to date, I have paid well over $8,000 for the dock fees and well over $5,000 for service and maintenance. My attorneys are collecting the full payment records now and will make them available when they are all gathered.
This is great. Duke has <$Ad$> lived there for over a year. And he's paid $13,000 out of pocket. Yes, he says "well over". But by the looks of the document search he and his lawyers are doing it seems he's going to dig up the receipts for every roll of toilet paper and every bottle of windex he bought while he was there to pad the total.
When I lived in DC I lived in a medium to small-sized one bedroom apartment on 19th Street between R & S streets. That's in Dupont Circle.
DC housing isn't cheap. By the time I left last December I think my rent was $1468 a month. So with the help of my trusty calculator I can figure out that I was paying $17,616 in rent a year. So I was paying substantially more to live in my little one bedroom apartment than Duke was to live on Wade Mitchell's yacht down on the river.
He should have mentioned it. I would have been happy to trade. I had no idea it was so cheap to live down on a yacht on the Potomac.
Can you get wifi on a boat?
--Josh Marshall
Naomi Seligman isn't happy with the House Democrats. And, I would say, with some reason.
You probably know that Seligman is Deputy Director and Communications Director for CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington). And with a name like that, you can probably tell she and her colleagues have their work cut out for them.
In any case, a week ago CREW called on the House Ethics Committee to investigate the 'mystery' behind defense contractor Mitchell Wade's sweetheart purchase of Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's home for upwards of a million dollars over market value and whether that had anything to do with Wade's company going from zero to sixty in about ten seconds in the Homeland Security and Defense contracting game.
On Tuesday, CREW filed a related complaint with the Federal Elections Commission about Mitchell Wade's alleged practice of forcing employees of his company, MZM, Inc., to cough up cash for the company PAC to be served up for Reps. Cunningham, Goode and Harris.
In any case, back to Seligman and her beef.
Seligman et al. are pissed at the Dems because under the House rules only another member of the House can file an ethics complaint with the House Ethics Committee. And despite their best efforts, the folks at Crew can't find a single Democratic member of the House who's willing to go out on a limb and fill out a form saying that they think the Ethics Committee maybe ought to take a look at Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Wade), his house sale, 'his' fancy yacht, and his general status as the best kept (at least as far as we know so far) man in Congress.
Now, I've talked to various knowledgable folks. And the reasons are several. The ethics committee is shut down. So there's no point in filing a complaint. That's one of the main excuses. But the real reason seems to be this -- and the word comes down right from the House leadership: the Democrats don't want to start filing ethics complaints against the Republicans because they're afraid the Republicans will turn around and do the same to them.
They apparently want the 'truce' of the late 1990s back in force.
And just so we're clear, it's awfully hard to think of anything more pathetic than that.
Allow me a moment to explain why.
There are reasons beside cynical ones for an ethics truce to be in place. With all that has happened in the widening gyre of partisan warfare over the last two decades, there is some sense in both parties coming to some tacit agreement not to bludgeon each other senseless with endless hearings and investigations into what are often technical infractions by members on either side.
But if the price of a truce is that a member of the opposition party -- which if I'm not mistaken is making ethics and abuse of power one of its signature issues -- is not willing to throw down a red flag when a member of the majority party is caught quite demonstrably on the take from a businessman getting contracts from the member's committee, then you realize that there's really no point having an ethics committee or any ethics regulations at all.
If there is any point of merit in having a truce it is that both sides agree not to use ethics complaints merely as proxies in wider political battles and reserve them for the clear and manifest ethical infractions. But if it covers cases of manifest (almost definitional) political corruption, again, then there's no point in having an ethics committee at all.
But let me reel these angels back off the head of this pin.
The Republicans are running the most corrupt Congress in any of our lifetimes. I don't care if you're a hundred years old. Still applies. I'm not just talking about law breaking -- just as much, it's the practices that are actually legal but no less corrupt for that.
On Wednesday, the Post's Jeff Birnbaum had a story on the explosion in the lobbying trade since 2000. If the Dems want their knock-out campaign cudgel for 2006, Jeff provided it: "The number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled since 2000 to more than 34,750 while the amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by as much as 100 percent."
In explaining these developments Birnbaum writes: "The lobbying boom has been caused by three factors, experts say: rapid growth in government, Republican control of both the White House and Congress, and wide acceptance among corporations that they need to hire professional lobbyists to secure their share of federal benefits."
Now, a daily newspaper man works under different constraints and has a different brief than someone in my shoes. And this is what my late advisor Jack Thomas would have called a crackerjack piece. But I think I can cover this ground even more simply.
How's this? In Washington today, everything is for sale so there are a lot more salesmen. And there's so much to sell they're all getting higher commissions.
It may lack the granularity of Jeff's explanation. But that is the essence of the matter. That's why there are so many more lobbyists. The whole place is corrupt to the core. It's Tammany on the Potomac.
And here's the most pitiful thing of all. The Republicans are running a wildly corrupt Congress -- particularly on the House side. And the Democrats are so shorn of power that they couldn't even manage to be very corrupt if they tried. After all, this kind of corruption is about selling access and power. And the Democrats have no access or power!
So how is it exactly that the Democrats should be afraid that the Republicans are going to be able to give as good as they get if there's an 'ethics war' in the House when that is the case. Some are just scared. Others, particularly some of the veterans, don't want to clamp down too much because they've spent ten years out of power and they don't want all the fun to be over if and when they finally get back in the saddle.
If elected Democrats aren't able or willing to take a stand against the cash-n-carry legislative ethos of Tom DeLay's Washington they're simply not doing the job anyone sent them there to do. And they should be replaced too.
--Josh Marshall
Karl Rove raises money for Republicans all over the country. I think he was just in New Jersey raising money for Doug Forrester. Any Republican who's had Karl in town to raise money for them should get asked the question: Are they with Karl or against him when he calls all members of the opposition party traitors?
Yes or no.
And will they be giving back the money ...
--Josh Marshall
Just right: Rove should apologize or resign.
And that's only the start. For Rove, the war on terror, Iraq and Afghanistan have always been nothing more than tools of domestic politics. He speaks for the president and the president speaks for him. So all of that applies to the president too unless and until we hear from him.
The A-list press folks, especially on TV, are too well trained to call Rove out of bounds. So Dems will have to do it all themselves.
The president and his partner are more concerned with going to war with half the country than they are with war against the country's enemies abroad. Until the president thinks differently on that key point there's simply no point in dealing with him on anything.
--Josh Marshall
I guess we needed more evidence that Karl Rove is the most despicable man on the American political scene today.
I remember talking last year to a guy who'd been on shows a few times with Rove. And he told me how when you talk to the guy, there's nothing in his eyes, no soul. Just a machine, an animal.
Read this piece in today's Times, absorb it, give yourself 90 seconds for outrage, then rededicate yourself to wresting a great country from his hands.
Two examples: "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers ... Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year? Let me just put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."
Don't forget that these statements are meant to outrage you. You're a targeted audience They're meant to perpetuate a state of maximal polarization in this country -- the state of affairs most suited for vampires like Mr. Rove to suck the nation dry.
--Josh Marshall
A few days ago, a TPM Reader, who was doing some of her own sleuthing, wrote in to tell me that there might be an interesting backstory to the House Duke Cunningham bought as well as the one he sold.
I feel bad because I wasn't able to work quickly enough in this case with the information she was kind enough to send my way.
But now Tony Perry of the LA Times has confirmed what my reader was telling me.
This from Perry's article in today's Times ...
A month after selling their Del Mar Heights home, Cunningham and his wife, Nancy, paid $2.5 million for an 8,000-square-foot home in exclusive Rancho Santa Fe owned by Douglas and Karen Powanda.Douglas Powanda is a former executive vice president at Peregrine Systems, a San Diego-based business-software company.
Peregrine was Cunningham's third-largest corporate contributor in 2004, giving $14,000 in individual and corporate donations. In late 2004, Powanda was among eight former Peregrine executives indicted by a federal grand jury in an alleged multibillion-dollar securities fraud; he awaits trial.
Coincidences just won't leave <$Ad$> our man Duke alone when he gets into the real estate game, will they?
Oddly, these three grafs are just dropped down into the center of the article with no other mention or elaboration of the potential significance of this little piece of data.
(Here actually, is what appears to be the grant deed of the sale. And here's an October 2004 article about the Peregrine swindlers.)
But how does this strike you?
According to this page over at Opensecrets.org, Peregrine was Duke's #3 corporate contributor last cycle followed by Mitchell Wade's MZM, Inc. at #4. He unloads the old house on contributor #4 for twice its value and then uses the money to buy a new house from an exec from contributor #3.
And both transactions are handled by a 'real estate agent' (Elizabeth Todd) who'd never sold a home before and who, along with her family (as we first reported) is one of Cunningham's biggest financial contributors.
Small world, ain't it?
So a question: what was the real market price for the second house?
--Josh Marshall
Coming Soon: Next Wednesday MovingIdeas.org is hosting an online discussion entitled: PRIVATIZING SOCIAL SECURITY: HARMFUL TO WOMEN, CHILDREN AND PEOPLE OF COLOR. Click here for more on who's participating.
--Josh Marshall
Birds of a feather ... (from Reuters)
Spain's previous center-right government "manipulated and twisted" the Madrid train bombings of March 2004 in a bid to salvage general elections three days later, a parliamentary commission found on Wednesday.
Atrios has more here.
And if you're wondering just how lucky President Bush and most of his appointees were to get reelected last November, think this one over.
--Josh Marshall
Mums the word for Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham on what he did for defense contractor Mitchell Wade in exchange for Wade's setting him up with cush housing back home and in DC. So says the hometown paper, the North County Times.
Apparently it was nothing to be too proud of, seeing as Wade resigned as the CEO and president of his company (MZM, Inc.)
But when it comes to the flag-burning amendment Duke's sponsoring in the House, you just can't get him to shut up.
In response to critics of his legislation, Duke said today: "Ask the men and women who stood on top of the (World) Trade Center. Ask them and they will tell you: pass this amendment."
Coming next, on the ever-evolving <$NoAd$> story of Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the best kept man in Congress: more about those Arabic language interpreters MZM supplied for ole' Uncle Sam ...
--Josh Marshall
Ohio Gov. Taft lawyers up. And while we're at it, this blog seems to be all over the CoinGate story.
--Josh Marshall
Very interesting.
In our last post below, we asked just what defense and national security-related services Mitchell Wade's MZM, Inc. was providing the US government and whether the fact that Wade had to get Duke Cunningham a house and a boat to secure the contracts tells us anything about the quality of the services Wade's company provides.
Well, tonight in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Marcus Stern -- who broke the story ten days ago -- follows up with some very telling details.
One of the contracts Wade seems to have bought his way into is this one ...
Counter Intelligence Field Activity, a highly secretive program created in 2002 by a Pentagon directive that focuses on gathering intelligence to avert attacks like the ones on Sept. 11, 2001.
I certainly feel better knowing that MZM's got that one covered.
And then there's this (emphasis added) ...
Cunningham is on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the defense appropriations subcommittee, which puts him in position to influence the awarding of defense intelligence contracts.MZM had 56 such contracts totaling $68,645,909 in fiscal year 2004, according to Keith Ashdown, an analyst with Taxpayers for Common Sense. One of those contracts is to provide interpreters in Iraq. For the most part, the contracts were awarded to MZM without competition through a process known as "blanket purchase agreements."
Just gets better and better, doesn't it?
--Josh Marshall
At the risk of asking a really obvious question, lemme ask you a question. And I won't feel that bad for asking it since it must not be that obvious, given that no one is asking it.
So without more ado, here goes ...
We know now that our man Mitchell Wade is into Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Wade) for upwards of a million bucks. Not campaign contributions, mind you, but personal cash bonuses. He also got a yacht for Duke to live on when he was spending time in the capital.
So what's all the money for exactly?
Wade's company doesn't make paper-clips or government issue pencils. His firm provides a mix of defense, homeland security and intelligence-related products or services to the relevant agencies. We don't know precisely what they do since it's all, or most of it is, classified.
But this list of "critical skill areas" in which the company is currently hiring gives some sense of their line of work ..
In any case, it really seems like Mitchell Wade had to give Duke an awfully good greasing up to get the help he needed with those DOD and Homeland Security contracts.
And that makes you wonder: Were MZM's services really the best on offer? And why were they having such a hard time getting Pentagon contracts before Mitchell Wade bought Duke's house?
How about the services MZM is providing in Iraq? I would assume those include the "force protection" services MZM provides. (Note the firms office in Baghdad.) Is anyone there having to make do with second or third best because of Duke Cunningham's new house and his fancy boat?
Also note that the MZM website proudly notes that the company is "proud to be at the forefront of the war on terrorism, assisting the United States with fighting terrorism and preventing further attacks on our homeland." Are we all on the line for Duke's house?
Perhaps MZM offers crackerjack services. Maybe MZM just needed Duke to make its corporate voice heard amid DC's current cash-n-carry contracting culture. But doesn't this deserve some looking into?
--Josh Marshall
TPM Reader JH on Frist (and speaking <$NoAd$> sentiments we share) ...
Rove & Co. are well aware Frist wants to be Pres. So they tell him they won't support him unless he's their dog. Of course it's likely an elaborate double cross, to simultaneously show him up as a weakling, so that by 2008 he's an even bigger joke than he is now.
Then there's TPM Reader RK ...
Hasn't it been obvious since the White House "helped" Lott out? They wanted someone who would do their bidding, and Frist has been their boy since way back.And, not that you asked, but: an interesting parlor conversation would discuss who is a bigger wh--e: Frist or McCain? For my money, McCain wins by a mile - Frist has no pretense of being his own man, whereas McCain ran as a pseudo-anti-Bush in 2000, etc.
I sigh and hope this couldn't be true about Sen. McCain. Alas ...
--Josh Marshall
Even radio producers can't trust Bill Frist.
I was on the Al Franken Show today. And just as we were coming back from a break we got the news that Bill Frist had announced he'd seek no more votes on John Bolton's nomination. Then just as we were coming back on the air (maybe a minute later? 90 seconds?), the show's producer hollers out that Frist has already gone back on his pronouncement. Now Frist says the White House has said the president wants another vote. And when the president says, "Jump!", Bill Frist says, "How high?"
It now seems time to ask a few questions.
A) Who is the last Senate Majority Leader to have as bad a six months as Bill Frist has just had?
B) Has Frist's utter fealty to every direction of the White House now become an embarrassment even to members of his own caucus? Just out of some sense of residual institutional prerogative?
C) What does it say about Bush/Rove's opinion of Frist that they are now happy to humiliate him publicly on something close to a weekly basis.
Thoughts?
--Josh Marshall
Who can tell me how many bits of White House bamboozlement have been eaten whole by the author of this paragraph from an article in the Associated Press?
Since the beginning of his second term, Bush has been pushing to allow younger workers to create voluntary personal accounts funded out of their Social Security payroll taxes. Democrats accuse the White House of seeking to privatize the Depression-era program and have been unified in opposition to the idea.
Any takers?
Late Update: More commentary here on the dingbat AP story -- more significantly, how the whole lede is wrong. Also, TPM Reader RS pretty much knocked the question above out of the park. Here's the note he sent us ...
Oh Lord, where to begin on that AP report and its "Come To Jesus"
approach to President Bush's version of events:
1. "Since the beginning of his second term..." Bush has been pushing to dismantle SS since before he was elected in 2000. His party has been trying to shut it down since it was implemented back in the 1930s.2. "...voluntary..." It's voluntary if you ignore the rarely-mentioned but critically important cut in guaranteed benefits that everyone will suffer, even if they don't "opt-in" for these private accounts. If this administration has its way, you'd be a fool NOT to take the voluntary account. You'd likely starve without it, and you very well could starve anyway if the market crashes just before you retire.
3. "...personal accounts..." The bamboozler's favorite euphemism.
These are private accounts, as in privatized accounts, as in the end
of Social Security.4. "Democrats accuse..." Democrats aren't accusing him of anything.
They are stating fact. Bush wants to privatize Social Security.5. "...Depression-era program..." A cute attempt to imply that Social
Security is some relic from the past, instead of the critical safety
net that Americans (especially working class Americans!) need when
they retire.I'm pretty sure I missed some, but five bamboozles in a 50-word graf?
That's a 0.10 bamboozle co-efficient, which is almost breathtaking.
He even caught some <$NoAd$> I didn't think of. My picks were "voluntary", "personal accounts" and "Democrats accuse". He's got a t-shirt coming his way.
Even Later Update: Another TPM Reader RS sends in these ...
Here's my quick count:1. “Since the beginning of his second term” The writer forgets that Bush has been trying to gut social security as far back as his first failed run for Congress in the 1970’s.
2. “to allow younger workers” The writer uncritically passes along Bush’s concept of “younger” even though it excludes many fresh faced workers.
3 and 4. “voluntary personal accounts” The writer accepts, without informing the reader, Bush’s strained, but politically preferred, use of the words “voluntary” and “personal.”
5. “out of their Social Security payroll taxes.” The writer falsely implies that Bush’s plan is funded by current tax receipts and not from borrowed funds.
6. “Democrats accuse the White House of seeking to privatize” The writer misleads the reader by letting objective fact appear to be a partisan attack. A fair wording would be “Democrats criticize the White House for seeking to privatize…”
7. “Depression-era progam” The writer apparently believes Social Security is just a minor legacy program that was mistakenly left untouched after the Works Project Administration closed up shop. Social Security’s was created in the Depression era, but the program has been modernized over the last six decades and retains broad contemporary popular support.
What the hell ... A shirt for him too!
So Late We're Partying Like It's 1999 Update: Secret AP writer's identity revealed! Nedra Pickler!
--Josh Marshall
Congressman Issa (R) floats a trial balloon version of the Duke's defense?
From the North County Times ...
The North County Times did speak with U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, during a break between votes Monday. Issa defended his Republican colleague and said Cunningham is an honest man. In his opinion, Issa said, the real story is how the real estate agent who suggested the $1.675 million sales price of the home came up with those figures.Issa also questioned why the man who runs a multimillion-dollar defense company paid higher than market value for the house without getting an independent appraisal, then sold it for below market value.
..."Wade was either a fool (as a businessman) or a fool in how he tried to curry favor," Issa said. "He accomplished what he wanted to accomplish, but that doesn't mean Duke was in on it."
He said that while he believes the matter should be looked into, and it will be, he believes too much in Cunningham's integrity to think he would be capable of doing anything dishonest.
"Duke has one thing he prides himself on more than anything and that is his integrity," Issa said. "His word is his bond."
Textbook case of serial, predatory <$NoAd$> bribery ...
--Josh Marshall
One of the most telling features of the "Duke" Cunningham scandal (CunningScam? Yachthgate?) is that with all the very damning information that has been revealed over the last ten days neither of the principals has managed to say much of anything in their defense.
To the best of my knowledge (and I've followed this fairly closely), MZM CEO and grand poobah Mitchell Wade has not spoken to any reporter about anything related to the story.
For the first few days, his employees put out the word that he was "traveling without access to a telephone", which, for most businessmen today, is rather like drinking without a cup. More recently he seems simply to have gone to ground with no particular need for an any explanation.
At some later day, we may find him looking for the real killers or as the case may be, the real home buyers. But for the moment, he's nowhere to be found. And this is a federal contractor doing business with the USG on super-serious defense and homeland security matters.
Even more telling is the tightlippedness of Cunningham himself. After the story first broke he put out word that he was assembling paperwork that would put all questions to rest. But he now seems to have gone to ground too -- a sitting member of Congress no less.
Here, the North County Times (which has been giving the San Diego Union-Tribune a run for its money on this one) picks up the story. Cunningham spokesman Mark Olson says that the congressman has no timeline for when he'll speak to reporters or come forward with his all-clarifying dossier. But even the local head of the GOP doesn't seem happy about it. San Diego County GOP chief Ron Nehring says: "I think everyone is looking forward to the situation being clarified. There clearly is more information that needs to come out and when that happens we will get a clearer idea of what happens next."
Says Olson: "The congressman is putting together all the relevant records and information and will disclose it at the appropriate time."
Seems like an appropriate time.
--Josh Marshall
We'd heard this was coming. Now Copley News Service's Marcus Stern has the goods: "A defense contractor who took a $700,000 loss on the purchase of Rep. Randy Cunningham's Del Mar residence in 2003, and provided a yacht for his use in the nation's capital, forced his employees to make political contributions that benefited the San Diego Republican and other members of Congress, according to three former senior officials of the company.(emphasis added)"
There's also this intriguing nugget: "A third former employee of MZM described being rounded up along with other employees one afternoon in the company's Washington headquarters and told to write a check with the political recipient standing by. The former employee didn't give the name of the politician receiving the donations."
Boy, would it be fun to know who that 'political recipient' was.
And perhaps not that hard since the universe of members of Congress spending serious time on the MZM gravy train seems not to have been that large.
Earlier we told you about Rep. Virgil Goode (R) from Southside Virginia. But don't forget about the rest of folks who got money.
Like Katherine Harris.
In the 2004 cycle the MZM political action committee gave out $34,000 to House candidates. The totals go like this ...
Cunningham, Randy "Duke" (R-CA) $6,000
Forbes, J Randy (R-VA) $5,000
Goode, Virgil H Jr (R-VA) $10,000
Harris, Katherine (R-FL) $10,000
Hunter, Duncan (R-CA) $1,000
Renzi, Rick (R-AZ) $2,000
So Katherine Harris got $10,000 from the MZM Pac. And during the same cycle she got another $32,000 from employees of MZM.
Actually, not just during the same cycle. If you look at this read-out from OpenSecrets.org you'll see that that $32,000 came in 16 checks for $2000 each. And 14 of those $2,000 checks were written out on one day -- March 23rd, 2004, a Tuesday.
The two other were written out on April 1st, 2004 a Thursday by MZM owner Mitchell Wade's wife: Christiane Wade.
With Cunningham and Goode, Mitchell Wade had some very specific piece of business he wanted help with. What was his angle on Katherine Harris?
--Josh Marshall
Steve Clemons has a great play-by-play over at his site on what happened today with the Bolton nomination.
Another loss for the White House. An even bigger one for Bill Frist.
--Josh Marshall
On the House floor today, Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R) announced that he'd just been served with four subpoenas. Not that this is out of an abundance of candor. I think it's a House rule that you've got to disclose it in this way.
But apparently, they're not subpoenas over the House debacle, which the feds are also investigating. They're about something else. A Cunningham spokesman said the subpoenas were related to "constituent casework" but declined to give more details.
Now, as I think we've learned, 'constituent casework' can have a rather expansive meaning for the Duke. But there's another bit of this story that's unclear to me.
Right now I'm looking at an AP story at the New York Times website. The headline reads "Rep. Cunningham Discloses Federal Subpoena." But the article says the subpoenas were issued by the "Imperial County Superior Court." That sounds to me like a state court. And presumably this court is the one they're referring to. Either I'm wrong or they made a mistake. And one way or another it's likely a simple error. But what's also notable is that as near as I can tell, none of the Duke's 50th district falls anywhere in California's Imperial County, which happens to be in Rep. Bob Filner's district. (See page 4 of this pdf.)
I'm not expert on trial court nomenclature or San Diego-area congressional districts, so if I've gotten any of these points wrong, please let me know. But it does make me wonder just what other trouble the Duke's gotten himself into.
Late Update: TPM Reader SS alerts me to this late article on the the subpoenas mentioned above. It seems the case in question is one in which Cunningham is merely a bystander.
--Josh Marshall
There's a pretty funny ad running today at NationalJournal.com. Here's a short snippet about it from <$NoAd$>CongressDaily ...
ETHICSStark Runs Satirical Home-Sale Ad In Shot At Cunningham
Rep. Fortney (Pete) Stark, D-Calif., has bought ads on the Web sites of the National Journal Group's CongressDaily and Hotline, targeting Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R-Calif., for his home sale to contractor Mitchell Wade, the head of MZM, Inc. "It is ridiculous that the House is still without a working Ethics Committee that can investigate abuses of power," Stark said today. "I took out the ad to highlight that need. Plus, I have found that using humor to prove a point seems to especially get under the skin of the majority party." The $500 ad buy was paid personally by Stark and does not name Cunningham directly. It is a mock real estate ad for Stark's own home whose headline reads: "Attention Powerful Lobbyists! House for Sale by Influential Member of Congress." The ad continues, "From recent practices by defense contractor lobbyists, it appears that you may be able to slip a cool million to a member of Congress with little fear of ethics violations!"
--Josh Marshall
Over the weekend The Washington Post had a nice piece detailing the various shenanigans of Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R) and MZM, Inc., as well as the company's dealing with Rep. Virgil Goode (R) of Virginia.
To date, it's only fair to point out that Goode's help to MZM seems to have been in return for old-fashioned campaign donations rather than the more innovative personal cash bonuses received by Duke.
But looking at the coverage of the story over the last two days, I wonder whether Cunningham may not have ingeniously sucked all the air out of the coverage of the story by being so obviously guilty that there's little left to talk about.
And another question: who dropped the dime on the Duke?
If Republicans want him off the stage, now'd be about the best time to do it since there's plenty of time for Duke to decide he wants to spend more time with his family and for the local party to recruit another candidate.
He might even be unique and simply say that he wants to spend more time in his new house.
--Josh Marshall
Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders (I), who's <$NoAd$> running for Senate next year, just started his Table for One guest-blogging stint at TPMCafe.
In his first post he says he'll be reading your comments throughout the day and following up with responses where possible.
Here's the last paragraph of his first post to give you a flavor ...
The political stakes in America have never been higher. If we lose, if the grass roots of America don't speak out, if we do not turn back the radical Bush Administration, we will for the first time in our nation's history see the next generation both less free and less economical prosperous than we are. What an incredible challenge we face. That is why I think it is so important for all of us to be involved in the political process and why I'm so glad to be communicating with you through TPMCafe today. I know I've touched on a lot of topics in a short space but my hope is to spark some interesting and informative exchanges. So pull up a chair to the Table for One and let's get started.
You can read the whole thing here. Do stop by.
--Josh Marshall
A correction. On Saturday I noted that a judge in New Hampshire had ordered the state Republican party to turn over all its records about its own investigation of the party's election-tampering activities on election day 2002. I said this was the judge in the upcoming trial of James Tobin, arch-phone jammmer who was then the NRSC Northeast political director and a Bill Frist employee.
The last part was incorrect. This happened not in the Tobin criminal case but in a separate legal proceeding -- the state Democratic party's civil suit against the state Republican party.
As I should have remembered, covering the NH GOP requires a pretty detailed knowledge of the state court system.
--Josh Marshall
As you may have seen, the 'Denver Three' (the three Denver residents tossed out of a Bamboozlepalooza event for having a non-Bush-True bumper-sticker on their car) are headed to Washington today. And they're going to hand-deliver a letter to the White House today at 4 PM.
Also worth noting, in terms of credit where credit is due, the three will be meeting not only with Colorado Democrats on the hill but with Republicans too. They'll be meeting in person with Rep. Mark Udall (D)and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R) and staff members of other key members of the delegation, including Rep. Beauprez (R), at whose Bamboozlepalooza event all the shenanigans went down in the first place.
Do let me know if these three worthies get any play on Inside Politics or the other similar shows.
--Josh Marshall
Steve Soto has a great catch today over at the TPMCafe Economics discussion table about Social Security front. Sens. DeMint, Santorum and Graham next week will unveil a new plan to fund private accounts out of the money that's supposed to go into the Trust Fund.
So, after months of claiming that the sky is falling because the Trust Fund won't keep growing forever or, alternatively, that the Trust Fund doesn't exist at all, they now offer a new solution, raid the Trust Fund now to fund private accounts.
--Josh Marshall
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