Congress Condemns BCS

Three Members of Congress are claiming that the NCAA Bowl Championship Series is illegal and demanding a playoff. Forget government corruption or corporate fraud. Three members of Congress want the Justice Department to investigate whether college football's Bowl Championship Series is an illegal enterprise. Reps. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., and Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, are introducing a resolution rejecting the ...

Congresswoman Jackie Speier Booed at Swearing In

Jackie Speier, who was sworn in yesterday after a special election to replace the late Tom Lantos, was booed after she turned her introductory speech into a tirade against the war in Iraq. For a few feel-good moments on the floor of the U.S. House today, Jackie Speier basked in bipartisan applause as she was sworn in as its newest ...

Majority Leader Hillary

A friend passed along yesterday's WSJ op-ed from former RNC chair Rich Bond calling on Harry Reid to offer Hillary Clinton his job as Senate Majority Leader as enticement to withdraw her divisive bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. Only the proffer of this consolation prize would likely persuade Mrs. Clinton to drop her divisive, and now futile, quest ...

Pentagon Follows Travel Rules, Blamed For Them

A Politico story headlined "Pentagon balked on gay partner travel" is generating some buzz. Actually reading the story, though, makes it clear "the Pentagon" did no such thing -- and not just because buildings can't balk. Prior to the Easter recess, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced to intervene with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in order to get Democratic Rep. ...

Jefferson ‘Wins’ Supreme Court Case

Representative William J. Jefferson won his 'Debate Clause' case against the FBI but the incriminating evidence against him is still admissible. The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a lower court ruling that the F.B.I. went too far in searching the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat accused of using his position to promote business deals ...

Porkbusters Oust Green Over Flake Flap

Porkbusters has ejected Rep. Bill Greene from its mailing list for passing over group favorite Rep. Jeff Flake for a seat on the Appropriations Committee in favor of Rep. Joe Bonner. Rob Bluey has details: Just when it appeared House Republicans had turned the corner on earmark reform, party leaders did the unthinkable. They picked Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) ...

Congressional Investigations of Sports Scandals

As if Congress didn't have enough work to do in handing out tax rebates to people who don't pay taxes, building bridges to nowhere, censoring the perverts within its ranks, and the like, our esteemed legislators have been devoting an inordinate amount of time lately investigating the internal operation of professional sports leagues. Henry Waxman, for one, wishes he hadn't. ...

Republican Diaz-Balart Disrupts Lantos Memorial

Silliness in Congress has morphed into ugliness, including a disruption of the memorial service for recently passed colleague Tom Lantos, NBC's Mike Viqueira reports. Republicans are outraged. Democrats are putting forward a resolution holding White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress. House GOP rank-and-file are planning a dramatic walk out ...

Tom Lantos Dies at 80

Congressman Tom Lantos died this morning at the age of 80. Rep. Tom Lantos, who as a teenager twice escaped from a Nazi-run forced labor camp in Hungary and became the only Holocaust survivor to win a seat in Congress, has died. He was 80. Spokeswoman Lynne Weil said Lantos, a Californian, died early Monday at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center ...

Bush to Issue Earmarks Executive Order

President Bush is poised to ban most spending earmarks by executive decree. President George W. Bush will begin "unprecedented steps'' to trim billions of dollars earmarked by lawmakers for pet projects, a White House spokesman said. In his State of the Union address tonight, Bush will promise to "veto any spending bill that does not succeed in cutting earmarks in half ...

Treaties and Executive Agreements

Steve Benen has a thoughtful post arguing that the Bush administration's current negotiations with the Iraqi government to define our political, economic and security relationship in the coming years "disregards Congress’ role in treaties." This is an understandable reaction, given the plain language of Article II, Section 2 that the president "shall have Power, by and with the Advice and ...

Bush Surrenders in Earmarks Battle

A Washington Examiner editorial asks, "Has Bush lost his spine on earmarks?" It calls on the president "to make good on his promise to 'end this practice' once and for all." This, of course, presumes Bush had a spine to lose on this issue, which seems to rely on facts not in evidence. Certainly, nothing in his seven ...

Baker Passes Go, Collects $1 Million

Richard Baker is leaving Congress to cash in. Big time. The dean of Louisiana's congressional delegation, Rep. Richard Baker, has decided to step down from Congress after 22 years to take a lucrative job in the private sector representing investors he has spent a career regulating. The announcement by the Baton Rouge Republican was not unexpected and makes him the ...

Closing the Earmarks Favor Factory

Mark Tapscott provides an extensive report of a Congressional Research Service finding that President Bush could, by mere executive order, stop all earmark spending directed by committee report rather than actual legislation. It turns out that this is the vast majority of all pork barrel spending. Of course, no evidence whatsoever has been provided in the last seven ...

Democrats May Push Byrd From Chairmanship

Robert Byrd has been in the United States Senate since 1959, well before I was born, and has paved over the state of West Virginia with federal highways and monuments to himself. Now, though, his colleagues are trying to push him aside. A group of Senate Democrats has begun quietly exploring ways to replace the venerable Sen. Robert Byrd ...