Month: April 2006

Scandal Probe Uncovers GOP Pols Consorting with Call Girls on Lobbyists’ Dime at – Wait for It – the Watergate

Jon Ponder

At long last, sex has reared its ugly head out of the morass of Republican scandals plaguing the capitol — and I do mean ugly:

Word is, a House committee chairman or two may be involved. Even the speculation about this will send the media into hyperdrive.

Federal prosecutors are investigating whether two contractors implicated in the bribery of former Rep. Randall “Duke” Cunningham supplied him with prostitutes and free use of a limousine and hotel suites, pursuing evidence that could broaden their long-running inquiry.

Besides scrutinizing the prostitution scheme for evidence that might implicate contractor Brent Wilkes, investigators are focusing on whether any other members of Congress, or their staffs, may also have used the same free services, though it isn’t clear whether investigators have turned up anything to implicate others.

In recent weeks, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have fanned out across Washington, interviewing women from escort services, potential witnesses and others who may have been involved in the arrangement.

Regular citizens out there don’t focus on dry-as-toast political scandals about bribery and leaking classified information. But when sex is involved, the cable newsers go nuts and it gets their attention.

Word is, a House committee chairman or two may be involved. Even the speculation about this will send the media into hyperdrive.

More bad news for the GOP.

SBA Nom Preston a Crony of a Bush Crony

Buck Banks

Who? George Bush’s lightning-quick nomination of Steven Preston to replace retiring Hector Barreto as head the Small Business Administration may have many folks wondering who the heck he is and why Bush picked him. But “Businessweek” notes that the self-described “committed Republican” from Chicago can expect a rough time in his confirmation hearings.

What’s the connection? Preston’s a crony of a Bush crony, of course.

Preston worked at ServiceMaster while Claire Buchan, currently the chief of staff for Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, was a vice-president for communications at the company. Buchan held a variety of jobs in the Reagan Administration and the first Bush Administration, moving to ServiceMaster when Bill Clinton was elected.

“While ServiceMaster is a large company, it’s comprised of many smaller franchises that are mom and pop businesses. So I think he [Steven Preston] really has the right combination of small- and big-business experience,” says Buchan. Before coming to ServiceMaster, Preston was senior vice-president and treasurer of First Data Corp., and an investment banker at Lehman Brothers.

‘If the Democrats fail to take over Congress in the fall, it is likely that Bush will close the [SBA] before the end of his presidency.’

In other words, Preston is not and never has been an entrepreneur or small-business operator. And, according to “Businessweek,” franchiser ServiceMaster has been an enemy of small business for a number of years.

Indeed, the American Small Business League has come out strongly against Preston’s nomination:

“We don’t need another unqualified SBA Administrator,” stated Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League. “Hector Barreto’s dismal track record is a clear indication of what happens when you appoint someone that has no qualifications to run an important Federal agency. I’m afraid this nomination signals a continuation of the Bush administration’s intention to continue to dismantle the agency.

“I predict that we will not see Mr. Preston do anything to address the eleven Federal investigations that have found billions of dollars in small business contracts have been diverted to large firms as a result of fraud, abuse, and lack of oversight. If Preston is approved, he will likely foster policies that will act as barriers to small firms doing business with the Federal government and continue to allow awards to Fortune 1000 companies to be reported as small business contracts.”

Chapman added, “Republicans since Ronald Reagan have been trying to close the SBA and abolish Federal small business contracting programs. If the Democrats fail to take over Congress in the fall, it is likely that Bush will close the agency before the end of his presidency. It’s time for small business owners to band together and fight to keep these programs. We’re talking about $119 billion in Federal prime contracts and subcontracts – and once it’s gone, we will never get it back.”

[…]

Makes Sense to Me: Bush Logic

Trish

Only in Bushistan does it make sense to waive air pollution laws because gas prices are high. WTF does one have to do with the other? Yeah, I know, some obscure connection between cleaner “summer gasoline blends” and something something. Whatever. It’s just another flimsy excuse for Georgie to do what he wanted all along.

So what other initiatives that follow W-logic should we expect? How about:

  • Enforcing a 7 p.m. curfew on Democrats to stop CIA leaks about secret prisons
  • Barring Cindy Sheehan from Texas to stem illegal immigration
  • Ordering an IRS audit of Kanye West to prevent hurricanes
  • Deporting Michael Moore so Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq will throw down their arms
  • Torturing detainees isolated at Guantanamo since 2001 to prevent future terror attacks (oh wait, they really do that!)

This quick list is just the beginning. Add your own examples of Bush reasoning now.

Hack to Flack and Back: Why Tony Snow Will Fail

Jon Ponder

His Majesty was not in a good humor today when he introduced his new press secretary, rightwing radio personality and former journalist Tony Snow, to the White House press corps :

[Snow is] not afraid to express his own opinions. For those of you who have read his columns and listened to his radio show, he sometimes has disagreed with me. I asked him about those comments, and he said, “You should have heard what I said about the other guy.”

The president gurned a certain muffled indignance when he read these words from the briefing book before him, with both Snow and outgoing spokesman Scott McClellan looking on.

Unlike Mr. Bush, I have read what Snow has said about “the other guy(s)” — Gore, Kerry, Dean, Hillary and the rest — and didn’t find that his derogatory comments about his enemies mitigated his criticisms of his own Dear Leader one little bit.

It seems predictable now that hiring Snow will turn out to be another incompetent move by the White House — that he’ll resign soon after the elections this November, if not before — not because of President Bush’s aversion to criticism, but because of Snow’s self worth and survival.

The scandals wrought by the high-fivin’ white guys who run the West Wing have only just begun to seep out into the light of day. They’ll do everything in their power, which is lot, to keep them bottled up until at least Election Day this November.

But their once masterful ability to hide their own faults and foibles from the electorate has lost its magic of late. Only the West Wingers, their lawyers and their prosecutors really know what’s lurking out there.

And they sure as hell haven’t leveled with Tony Snow — who was a highly paid media figure until today. He will not go down with HMS Bush. He has his career to think of, after all.

Rove Called Back to Testify Before Fitz Jury

Jon Ponder

Karl Rove’s recent demotion was not attributed to his need to “spend more time with his family” but rather his need to spend more time thinking up ways to trick the common folk into voting for Republicans again this November. We cynical types were a bit suspicious that the real reason was that he was about to become enshrouded in the heinous stank of scandal:

Karl Rove, the senior counselor to President Bush, is expected to appear this afternoon before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a Central Intelligence Agency officer’s identity.

Even though it is news to us, Rove has known that he would be testifying today for a while — perhaps even as along as two weeks ago.

Support Public Radio and TV

Buck Banks

Keeping it public: In an effort to fend off Draconian budget cuts by Congress, public broadcasters have banded together and launched a Web site called TellThemPublicMatters.com. The site provides one of those nifty on-line response mechanisms whereby you can send a message in suppport of public broadcasting to your elected representatives.

Congress is considering cutting $201 million — 38 percent — of the funds allocated to public broadcasting nationwide. These are the same numbskulls who have appropriated more than $250 BILLION in supplemental spending for the war in Iraq!

Let Congress know that you value public broadcasting by signing on to join the campaign. And if you have a couple of scheckles lying around, consider donating them to your local public radio or television station.

Were Dirty Tricks in 2002 Election of Sen. Sununu Directed from the White House?

Jon Ponder

One of the ironies of the Watergate scandal was that undoing of President Nixon was triggered by the revelation of crime about which he had no prior knowledge — a bungled reconnaissance mission by GOP operatives at Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington D.C. In fact, it’s fair to say that most scandals are revealed in ways that do not seem obvious at the time, a fact that gives this story salience it might otherwise not have:

The facts are suspicious: dozens of phone calls to the White House by a man later convicted in the case; the national Republican Party agreeing to pay more than $2.5 million in legal bills; Democrats’ phone lines jammed on Election Day.

To Republicans, the New Hampshire phone-jamming incident is an isolated case of political dirty tricks that took place more than three years ago.

To Democrats, it’s a scandal with echoes of Watergate that may reach all the way to the White House.

Republican leaders are facing questions stemming from a criminal case involving efforts to suppress voter turnout in a U.S. Senate election in the state in 2002. Republican John Sununu won that race over Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, helping Republicans retake control of the Senate.

The facts, on the surface at least, are suspicious: dozens of phone calls to the White House by a man later convicted in the case; the national Republican Party agreeing to pay more than $2.5 million in legal bills; phones jammed on Election Day, not only of Democrats but of a firefighters’ group, in the first U.S. congressional elections since the Sept. 11 attacks. Democrats say that disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff may even be involved.

“The calls to the White House and the relationship with White House staff are a real eye-opener and should be a cause for concern on all fronts,” said Sheila Krumholz, acting executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington- based research group. “It calls into question who the person was on the end of that telephone line.”