Day: January 22, 2006

Florida Repugs Sic Goons on Reporters During Jeb Speech

Trish

Florida Governor Jeb Bush is learning from his big brother. “If you have anything to say,” W. must have told him, “never say it in front of unbiased people. Make sure they’re all on your side first.”

Reporter: “How ludicrous was it? Picture this: Before Jeb spoke, half a dozen young men in dark suits frantically looking through the ballroom, as if Osama himself might be lurking…”

St. Petersburg Times:

The Florida Republican Party on Saturday called security to eject reporters listening to Gov. Jeb Bush tout his party’s accomplishments in Tallahassee.

The unusual scene – five hotel security staffers and a sheriff’s deputy escorting reporters away from where they could hear the governor – occurred in the middle of a speech in which Bush exhorted party activists to spread the word of Republican successes in Florida.

“I apologize for that if I’m indirectly responsible, which I’m not,” Bush said after addressing Republican activists gathered at Disney for a party meeting…

Way to accept responsibility like a grown-up, Jeb.

Eyewitness reporter Adam Smith had more to say about the event on his blog.

How ludicrous was it? Picture this: Before Jeb spoke, half a dozen young men in dark suits frantically looking through the ballroom, as if Osama himself might be lurking: “Find Bill Cotterell! Has anyone seen Bill Cotterell?! He could still be in there!”

Or this: An overwrought reporter (yours truly) accosting legislators in the hall, demanding they explain why their party would bar the press from hearing the governor. “No comment. I have no comment on that,” poor Sen. Durrell Peadon said, looking like he could have been leaving a grand jury proceeding.

The Lake Buena Vista Four included Windy March of the [Tampa] Tribune, the [Tallahassee] Democrat’s Cotterell, Jeremy Wallace of the [Southwest Florida] Herald-Tribune, and your Buzz correspondent.

Six Things to Know about Rep. Bob Ney

Jon Ponder

The Los Angeles Times has a profile up of Rep. Bob Ney, the Republican Congressman who allegedly traded trips and other benefits from disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff in return for help with legislation. Here are six things about Bob Ney to know and learn:

  • Ney is the first member of Congress accused of directly trading gifts for legislative favors with Abramoff. “He is identified simply as “Representative #1″ in a Jan. 3 plea agreement between Abramoff and federal prosecutors.”
  • In his position as chairman of the Administration Committee, which controls congressional office budgets, he was known as the “mayor of Capitol Hill” — until he was forced to resign last week.
  • A former Ohio legislator, two of Ney’s former legislative aides in Ohio became lobbyists and went to jail for bribery after Ney went to Washington.
  • He is known as “Bobby.”
  • He taught English in Iran before the Revolution, and is the only member of Congress who speaks Farsi.
  • He is the idiot who forced the Capitol’s food service to change the name of French fries to “freedom fries” during the run-up to the war in Iraq — a high point in Republican low culture.

McCain: Bush Has No Legal Authority for Warrantless Wiretaps

Jon Ponder

From Fox News Sunday via Think Progress:

[CHRIS] WALLACE: But you do not believe that currently he has the legal authority to engage in these warrant-less wiretaps.

[SEN. JOHN] MCCAIN: You know, I don’t think so, but why not come to Congress? We can sort this all out. I don’t think — I know of no member of Congress, frankly, who, if the administration came and said here’s why we need this capability, that they wouldn’t get it. And so let’s have the hearings.