House

That is a big no-no, but it sure doesn't seem to stop the GOP and an employee of Steve Chabot's staff. All the details over at Daily Kos.

The House Republicans just stomped their feet and walked out of the House in protest to the FISA bill not being on the floor right now.

UPDATE:

The Republican leadership is speaking. They are trying to spin this as being the exact same law that is in effect now. No - there wasn't telecom immunity in the other bill. What I find most interesting is that our government thinks they can legislate away parts of our constitution.

Of course the GOP is going on that if it isn't extended next week we will all die. Fucking fear mongers - one and all.

UPDATE #2

According to TPM the Republicans have been disruptive all day. They even went as far as to disrupt a memorial for Tom Lantos. Why do the Republicans hate Jewish people so much?

We can

Democratic leaders are preparing to launch the second session of the 110th Congress this week with a partisan shot, hints of conciliation and some serious procrastination.

In its first couple of weeks after it returns tomorrow, the House is likely to take up contempt-of-Congress resolutions against White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers for their refusal to appear before Congress for questioning about the 2006 removal of nine U.S

The party of life - unless it involves corporations. Then the true meaning of the GOP comes out; the party of greed:

Seven House Republicans have urged Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) to postpone a hearing about Blackwater USA until the State Department and a separate commission report on the most recent incident involving the North Carolina-based security firm in which Iraqi civilians were killed.

The Republicans sent Waxman a letter Friday, urging him to reschedule a Tuesday hearing into Blackwater's role protecting U.S. government officials in Iraq.

They want Waxman to postpone the hearing until the State Department and the U.S.-Iraq Joint Commission unveil their own separate reports about a Sept. 16 shooting in the Mansour district of Baghdad in which nine Iraqi civilians were reported killed and another 15 were wounded.

Of course they want you to believe that this should be delayed so the State Department can investigate. Like this administration has been good at investigating anything. If these members of Congress do not want to do their constitutional job of oversight then they need to quit. They are violating the simple oath they took when they were elected.

Representative Jerry Weller (R-IL) announces he will not seek an eighth term next year. The Republican incumbents are dropping like flies.

Retirement ‘Wave’ Building Among House Republicans?

The announcement Friday by former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., that he will not seek re-election in 2008 capped a week in which three veteran House Republicans in a 24-hour span declared that the current 110th Congress would be their last.

Hastert’s announcement — coupled with similar ones Thursday by Ohio Rep. Deborah Pryce and Mississippi Rep. Charles W. “Chip” Pickering Jr. — brought to five the number of House Republicans who are not seeking re-election next year, compared with two on the Democratic side.

While nearly 15 months remain until the November 2008 election, the retirement decisions of Hastert, Pryce and Pickering will stoke speculation of a larger “wave” of GOP departures that would seriously hamper the party’s quest to make the 16-seat gain that they need to regain the House majority they lost last November.

Democrats pounced on the retirements as evidence of sagging morale in House Republican ranks and public disenchantment with President Bush and his party, which ran the House for a dozen years before the 2006 elections.

It is amazing how many Republicans are calling it quits this early. It appears that they see the writing on the wall and next year will not be easy for them.

Look who is calling it quits now:

Illinois Representative and former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert will not seek re-election, CQ.com reports. GOP sources tell CQ that a formal announcement will be made at a press conference scheduled this Friday.

Maybe it is time to start a blog called "Good-bye Asshole" where we can send parting messages to people leaving Washington.

The one time pick of George Bush to be one of the top judiciaries in the nation did not show up for her subpoena today, paving the way for contempt charges. Let's not forget George Bush in those charges either, who ordered Miers not to show up. As Josh posted yesterday:

18 U.S.C. Sec. 1505 : ... Whoever corruptly ... influences, obstructs, or impedes ... the due and proper exercise of the power of inquiry under which any inquiry or investigation is being had by either House, or any committee of either House or any joint committee of the Congress ... [s]hall be fined under this title, [or] imprisoned not more than 5 years ... or both.

18 U.S.C. Sec. 1515(b): As used in section 1505, the term "corruptly" means acting with an improper purpose, personally or by influencing another, including ... withholding, [or] concealing ... information.

Ordering someone not to show up under the title of President of the United States is very influential. High crimes and misdemeanors? Looks like we might have them now. Time for the Democrats to return justice to this once great nation.

So what is HR 451 you ask? Well it deals with corruption. Here is how Pelosi's site describes it:

The House has passed HR 451, introduced by Democrats, which calls on the ethics committee to either empanel an investigative subcommitee or report to the House describing its reasons for not doing so within 30 days any time a Member of the House is indicted or otherwise formally charged with criminal conduct. The resolution passed, 387-10.

It is evident this was a jab back at Boehner for his aggressive stand at getting William Jefferson kicked out of Congress. This is the same John Boehner that praised the indicted Tom Delay, which is the same Tom Delay that put the ethics committee in limbo.  Interesting how things work out.

Sorry John - the Democrats are not going to fall for your partisan/racially motivated plans. Instead of going after just the black Democrat, they will also be going after the white Republicans who are currently in trouble (and there are a lot more of them out there).

One of the issues about the fired U.S. attorneys is that members of Congress pushed one fired attorney about a case involving Democrats. Everyone agrees that this kind of congressional pressure is out of line and possible unethical. So why does the former chair of the House Judiciary Committee feel he doesn't have to follow the same guidelines? James Sensenbrenner is using the hearings today to push Gonzales on the Jefferson case:

 As TPMMuckraker notes, the case is currently held up in appeals court due to the execution of a search warrant.

I wonder how many Republicans would be yelling and screaming if a Democrat started pushing Gonzales on the Abramoff scandal and if they will hurry it up and get Tom Delay indicted. Sensenbrenner isn't upset about the politicization of our Justice Department. He is upset that it isn't politicized enough!

From Roll Call via Think Progress:

In a second blow to House Republicans this week, the FBI raided a business tied to the family of Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) Thursday afternoon as part of an ongoing investigation into the three-term lawmaker.

Details of the raid on Patriot Insurance Agency in Sonoita, Ariz., were not immediately available. Renzi’s most recent financial disclosure form lists the business as an asset belonging to his wife, Roberta, and valued at $1 million to $5 million.

Little is known about the inquiries into Renzi’s activities, but according to media reports the Justice Department has been running a two-track investigation into Renzi regarding a land deal, as well as a piece of legislation he helped steer that may have improperly benefited a major campaign contributor. It was not immediately clear which investigation the raid pertained to, and neither his attorney nor his spokesman could be immediately reached for comment.

As a result of the raid, Renzi is stepping down from his seat on the House Intelligence Committee, according to a statement from his office obtained Thursday evening by Roll Call.

“Today, the FBI came to my family’s business to obtain documents related to their investigation,” Renzi said. “I view these actions as the first step in bringing out the truth. Until this matter is resolved, I will take a leave of absence from the House Intelligence Committee. I intend to fully cooperate with this investigation.”

CREW is also reporting that an Arizona U.S.A. who was investigating Renzi was fired:

Last September, CREW named Rep. Rick Renzi as one of the most corrupt members of Congress in our report, "Beyond DeLay."  Last October, the Associated Press reported that Renzi was under federal investigation for a land deal.  In December, Paul Charlton, the U.S. Attorney in Arizona who was investigating Renzi, was fired.  Speculation is growing about whether the Renzi investigation led to Charlton's dismissal

I believe we have more than coincidence here when we now have two attorneys who are involved in corruption cases against GOP congressmen losing their jobs. Considering how many lies Gonzales has been caught in, him saying that these were not connected is most likely just another lie.

We also find out a few more details on Doolittle's "resignation" from the Appropriations Committee yesterday:

Doolittle, who was GOP conference secretary in the 109th Congress, voluntarily surrendered his seat on the coveted Appropriations panel. But GOP aides said Republican leaders made clear that if Doolittle failed to quit on his own, they would move to throw him off.

So it wasn't as much a "resignation" as it was an agreement.

I believe the most ironic part of all this is the fact that these actions are coming on the same week Gonzales had to testify. It sounds like someone pulled some strings to get the ball moving faster.

Victoria Wulsin will be running against Jean Schmidt again next year. This is could lead to a great pick-up for the Democrats. Victoria lost by only a handful of votes last year. If you want to donate, you can do so on my ActBlue page. She is not yet listed, but you can donate to the OH-02 race and she will get the money.

Howie has more details.

UPDATE:

Thanks to KT from ActBlue, Victoria Wulsin is now listed. You can contribute using this simple form.

House panel plans hearings on misinformation surrounding Tillman, Lynch cases

A U.S. House committee announced Tuesday it would hold hearings on misleading military statements that followed the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch in Iraq.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said an April 24 hearing would be part of its investigation into whether there was a strategy to mislead the public.

The plan comes two weeks after the Pentagon released the findings of its own investigations into Tillman's death, and three years after he was killed.

The committee has been quietly investigating the case since then and decided to add Lynch to the scope of its probe. It will "examine why inaccurate accounts of these two incidents were disseminated, the sources and motivations for the accounts, and whether the appropriate Administration officials have been held accountable," the panel said on its Web site.

The fact that this "misinformation" somehow always props up Bush's war is enough reason to investigate. We never hear that "this soldier died from friendly fire" and then months later they say "we made a mistake - it was hostile fire". These inaccurate statements appear to constantly align themselves with the administrations political policy and that is against military rules. If the White House is involved in fabricating these lies then that gives us a perfect reason to impeach and charge the commander in chief.

From today's WAPO:

Even as their confrontation with President Bush over Iraq escalates, emboldened congressional Democrats are challenging the White House on a range of issues -- such as unionization of airport security workers and the loosening of presidential secrecy orders -- with even more dramatic showdowns coming soon.

For his part, Bush, who also finds himself under assault for the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, the conduct of the Iraq war and alleged abuses in government surveillance by the FBI, is holding firm. Though he has vetoed only one piece of legislation since taking office, he has vowed to veto 16 bills that have passed either the House or the Senate in the three months since Democrats took control of Congress.

Despite the threats, Democratic lawmakers expect to open new fronts against the president when they return from their spring recess, including politically risky efforts to quickly close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; reinstate legal rights for terrorism suspects; and rein in what Democrats see as unwarranted encroachments on privacy and civil liberties allowed by the USA Patriot Act.

"I suppose there's always a risk of going too far," said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), "but the risk of not going is far greater."

The money quote from this article comes towards the end with old double standards Jack Kingston (R-GA):

"It's going to be like the government shutdowns" of 1995 and 1996, predicted Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.). "The Democrats' honeymoon is fixing to end. It's going to explode like an IED."

Remember - it was Kingston who said came out against the minimum wage increase. His argument was poor people should just marry and work longer hours. This was a month after he started complaining about Congress having to work a 5-day week.

This shows the hypocrisy of people like Kingston. Back in 1995 and 1996 it was great for the Republicans to investigate everything in the Clinton White House, from Monica to Christmas card lists. But now we have a Congress who wants to investigate lies that have lead us to war, the stripping of our Constitution by the President, torture and many other serious allegations and that is not good. Suddenly a Congress investigating a President is evil, yet the last President was worth over 50 investigations.

As Josh says about Kingston's little line there:

Maybe he can go try that one out on some of the kids over at Walter Reed.

I wonder if we asked those soldiers, who had to stay in building 18 at Walter Reed, if they thought the conditions there were more or less important than a President getting a blow job, how they would respond? How would the Republicans respond? I know the proper answer on that question, and I am sure most of you do. The problem is the Republicans want to play politics with everything and that includes the treatment of our wounded soldiers.

The Republicans created this high moral ground they want to walk on. They created this atmosphere of heavy oversight of the administrative branch during the last President's time in office. They created the legal mess that is plaguing Washington today by rubber stamping a rogue President and all of that lead to their spanking last November. If they want a prayer of retaking either hall of Congress then perhaps they should embrace the Democrats and work with them on this. Bush don't care one bit about throwing people under the bus for his failures, so why should the Republicans continue to protect him? He would throw the Republicans to the wolves in a second.

In the eyes of the White House:

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee sought more information yesterday about a presentation by a White House aide given to political appointees at the General Services Administration that discussed targeting 20 Democratic congressional candidates in the next election.

In a letter to White House political affairs director Karl Rove, the committee chairman, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), asked about the Jan. 26 videoconference by Rove deputy J. Scott Jennings, which was directed to the chief of the GSA and as many as 40 agency officials stationed around the country.

Jennings's 28-page presentation included 2006 election results and listed the names of Democratic candidates considered beatable and Republican lawmakers thought to need help. At a hearing Wednesday about the GSA, Waxman said the presentation and follow-up remarks allegedly made by agency chief Lurita Alexis Doan may have violated the Hatch Act, a law that restricts federal agencies and employees from using their positions for political purposes.

In yesterday's letter, Waxman asked Rove who prepared the presentation and whether Rove or Jennings consulted with anyone about whether it might be in violation of the Hatch Act. Waxman also asked whether Rove or any members of his staff have given the same or similar PowerPoint presentations to political appointees at other government agencies.

Considering how much grief Rove has given Bush, why hasn't he just fired him? Well that is simple. Because if Bush fires Rove, the Bush looses his brain and his brain might even get pissed and decide to talk.