Category: Congress

Under his thumb…

Partisanship 1, Civil Liberties 0. The House GOP ride to the administration’s rescue and, by means both fair and foul, block a critical challenge to the Patriot Act with a 210-210 tie vote. “Rep. C.L. Butch Otter (R-Idaho), a conservative and an advocate of the defeated provision, told reporters after the vote: ‘You win some, and some get stolen.’“

…And Pointing the Finger.

Similarly, GOP Senator Pat Roberts covers Dubya’s back by making Tenet the fall guy for the WMD fiasco in the Senate Intelligence Committee report, while preventing any further investigation into White House efforts to arm-twist the CIA into the right conclusions. “‘The Republicans ultimately and effectively, at the end of the day, controlled this investigation. There’s no doubt about it. And they tried to put a bipartisan patina on it, but anybody who accepts that on face value is out of touch,’ said [a] former Democratic aide.”

The Art of the Kickback.

Meanwhile, Dubya has less to say about a sweetheart corporate tax package being pushed through Congress by the GOP, one that offers ridiculous handouts to various Republican-leaning business special interests. “[W]hat started as an effort to repeal a $5 billion-a-year subsidy has grown into one of the most significant corporate tax measures in years. The Senate bill, 980 pages long, includes more than $167 billion in business tax cuts over 10 years, handing out favors to NASCAR racetracks, foreign dog-race gamblers, Oldsmobile dealers and bow-and-arrow makers, to name a few.” Hmmm…might be time to invest in bow-and-arrow futures. Update: The bill passes the House.

The Dubya Effect.

Democratic House candidate Stephanie Herseth wins in GOP-leaning South Dakota, and the Dems’ prospects in the South brighten. How much do you want to bet Karl Rove is pushing hard right now for a refocus on catching Osama before November?

Chairman Cheney Pads his Pocket.

Typical. Despite being oversight-crazy during the Clinton era, the Congressional GOP refuses to hold hearings about the “smoking gun” e-mail connecting Cheney’s office to a sweetheart Halliburton deal in Iraq. (And, as with the energy probe, Cheney’s office is stonewalling.) Good lord, what shadiness…is there no level below which these guys won’t stoop? Once again, the Bush administration and its Congressional cronies have proved themselves a national embarrassment of historic proportions.

Running Scared.

Well, it’s a well-run campaign, midget’n broom’n whatnot. The Washington Post scrutinizes the Bush campaign’s continued resort to misleading attacks and outright lies when discussing Kerry’s record. And, in related news, Dana Milbank (one of the co-writers of the article above), surveys Dubya’s penchant for bashing straw men. “Bush is obviously not the first politician to paint his opponents’ positions in absurd terms…But Bush has been more active than most in creating phantom opponents…[and]There seems to be no end to the crazy positions the straw men take.“

A GOP Blood Feud.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, Democrats abused their majority status at about a level 5 or 6,”[conservative think tank AEI’s Norman] Ornstein observed. “Republicans today have moved it to about an 11.” Salon delves into the growing rift between Tom DeLay and Dick Armey over conservative politics and principles. Hmmm…Mordor orcs or Isengard orcs, take your pick.