Mike Isikoff's piece on Rove's role in the Plame case is now up on the Newsweek website. But the picture it paints seems a bit murkier than what Lawrence O'Donnel suggested. For those of you who journeyed down this dark alley almost two years ago, you know that a lot turns on just when in the timeline someone mentioned Plame's name, who went first, just what they knew, and various other details.
What's implicit in Isikoff's report, however, and in the Tribune too, is that the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald is after Rove for some felony arising out of the case (perjury after the fact? conspiracy?) but not the immediate and original act of leaking the name.
There's one other point worth noting here. As we've seen, federal law recognizes no reporters' privilege or confidentiality. But if recollection serves, there are DOJ guidelines which say that prosecutors should exercise a great deal of discretion when trying to compel testimony from journalists. They're not supposed to do it just to tie up a few loose ends, but only if there's real and significant crime they're trying to prosecute. And before they do so, they're supposed to have exhausted all other possible ways to get at the information.
Now, I'm away from my office. And it's the holiday weekend, so I can't get an expert on the phone to confirm that recollection. So leave that as a contingent assertion. If it turns out I've misrecollected this I'll let you know in a subsequent post. But I think I remember it correctly.
Now, you'll also remember that a couple months back the usual ducks on the right were clucking about the whole investigation coming to an end -- and apparently the whole thing had come to nothing.
That particular cluck never quite computed to me because Fitzgerald shouldn't be pressing matter of jailing journalists unless he thinks he's on his way to prosecuting a serious crime.
So just a question: Would Fitzgerald have pushed to get Cooper and Miller in the slammer if some other party in the White House weren't in a lot of trouble?
And one last question: Cooper and Miller are very different kinds of journalists, swim in very different waters. Are they really in this jam for the same reasons?
--Josh Marshall
I'm told Lawrence O'Donnel said on McLaughlin Group tonight that Matt Cooper's notes will show that Karl Rove was the leaker of the Plame information. That would certainly be an interesting development, if not exactly surprising.
(The claim at least has now been confirmed here.)
One other note along these lines.
I've gotten hints or suggestions from several sources over the last month that new information is bubbling to the surface, not about who leaked Valerie Plame's identity, but who was behind the underlying caper that started the whole drama afoot in the first place: those phoney Niger uranium documents.
As longtime readers of this site know, last year colleagues of mine and I were able to trace the documents back to a former Italian intelligence agent named Rocco Martino. Martino was the 'Italian businessman' who tried to sell the documents to Elizabetta Burba, the journalist who eventually brought them to the US Embassy in Rome.
We were able determine that the documents had been put into Martino's hands by a then-serving member of SISMI -- Italian military intelligence. And this SISMI colonel had done so using a women working in the Niger embassy in Rome, an Italian national, as a cut-out.
This was, as you might imagine, more than enough to make us want to know a lot more. But we were never able to develop any conclusive proof about who or what was behind the SISMI colonel or what the backstory was within SISMI.
Suspicions, we had plenty. But in terms of hard facts, we hit a wall just inside SISMI.
Just who forged the documents? And, more significantly, who put the whole process in motion? And why had SISMI or elements within it involved themselves?
--Josh Marshall
It turns out the use of the word 'raid' for the search on Duke Cunningham's Rancho Santa Fe home was well-chosen. According to a piece just out in the North County Times, the feds who showed up at the house broke the locks on the front door to gain entry.
Now, as you might expect, Duke's lawyers are crying foul, charging the investigators with grand-standing and "an appalling abuse of government power." And I must confess that I was a bit surprised at the rapidity and the no-nonsense style of these raids today at what something like a half dozen locations across the country. (If I'm not mistaken, investigators conducted simultaneous raids/searches at MZM HQ (DC), Mitch Wade's home (DC), Duke Cunningham's home (SD), the Duke Stir (DC) and perhaps other locations.) I think those of us not intimately familiar with law enforcement tactics are often surprised when we see people in power given the same treatment ordinary targets of criminal investigations are given everyday.
That said, this is a United States Congressman. And to the extent there's any politicization at DOJ or the Pentagon, I really doubt it's anti-Duke. So what's up exactly?
Along those lines I noticed this snippet at the end of the piece in the North County Times ...
Back in Washington, Keith Ashdown of the budget watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense said he was surprised at the government's actions."There must be some reason why they had to move this quickly," said Ashdown, the group's vice president of policy and communications. "Remember, this is a U.S. congressman."
It doesn't speak directly to the question. But there's also this passage in the report out in tomorrow's WaPo ...
The search warrants were executed at the company's headquarters two weeks to the day after an MZM official who worked closely with Wade shredded a large stack of documents on the third floor of MZM's Washington headquarters, two sources with knowledge of the incident said independently yesterday. They said the official destroyed the documents on June 17 in a waist-high machine during Wade's final hours in the office, an act that one source described as "weird" because of the timing.Wade and his attorneys agreed the previous evening that he would surrender control of the company to other senior MZM officials, and they also agreed that he could pack up his office papers at a set time on June 17, one of the sources said. But Wade angered the firm's new managers by arriving earlier than agreed, according to this source. Both sources said he was in the building when the shredding occurred.
The nature of the destroyed documents could not be learned, and the executive who did the shredding did not reply to phone calls and e-mails seeking his comment. The shredding was halted when it became apparent to the new company managers, the sources said. Another senior MZM official affixed a note to the door in mid-morning that day, ordering employees of the company not to enter the room where the machine was located, they added. Wade was eventually permitted to take other documents from the building in boxes, under the supervision of company attorneys, the sources said.
Now, one other snippet that may or may not be related. Down in the depths of the A section in tomorrow's Post (A18) is a piece by the irreplaceable Walter Pincus. As Pincus explains, John Negroponte, the new intel czar is going to take a look at changes made at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center, the site of that titanic screw-up over the aluminum tubes. And down at the end of the piece Pincus discusses MZM's role as contractor at the NGIC ...
On Oct. 18, 2002, MZM got the first of what would grow to be a series of orders for NGIC work. This initial one was for a seven-week, $194,000 study analyzing a computer program concept called "FIRES," according to material provided by the Pentagon. FIRES was a program first suggested by an NGIC employee who believed that if U.S. operatives around the world collected blueprints of important buildings worldwide, an important intelligence database could be developed.At the time, the NGIC's senior civilian employee and executive director was William S. Rich Jr. Rich had been the top civilian official at the NGIC since its inception in 1994. In September 2003, Rich retired from the NGIC and thereafter went to work as senior executive vice president for strategic intelligence for MZM, according to former NGIC colleagues and Pentagon documents. Rich has not returned telephone calls, and MZM has refused to comment on its NGIC work.
Other NGIC employees have been hired by MZM. The former sergeant major at the NGIC, George A. Peeterse, is an MZM vice president. Contacted by telephone at home last week, Peeterse declined to discuss MZM or the NGIC. "We have been told to refer all questions to MZM headquarters in Washington," he said.
More on this tomorrow.
--Josh Marshall
With so much DOJ heat coming down on Duke Cunningham you'd almost think he was a Democrat.
Late word has it that twenty federal agents raided Duke's place in Rancho Santa Fe this afternoon. Just so you can keep track, that's the place he bought with Mitch Wade's cash, not the place he sold Wade. And that comes on the heels of the raids earlier in the day at MZM headquarters and down at the Yacht Club on the Duke Stir.
One other point to note: In each of these raids, on hand have been personnel from the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.
As you'd expect from the title, those are the DOD's cops, specifically, the investigative arm of the Pentagon Inspector General's office. They're not there because some backbencher like Duke got paid too much for his house. Almost certainly, they're there because of military contracting fraud, or the suspicion thereof.
And tell me this isn't related to the Pentagon decision earlier this week to halt all new work for MZM, Inc. Just a new interpretation of some obscure contracting, right?
--Josh Marshall
There's an OpEd today in the Post about torture, the US military and the medical profession. It's by Burton Lee, presidential physician to the first President Bush. I really recommend it highly.
--Josh Marshall
This is a passage from a piece Ed Kilgore did today at TPMCafe ...
This appointment represents the giant balloon payment at the end of the mortgage the GOP signed with the Cultural Right at least 25 years ago. Social conservatives have agreed over and over again to missed payments, refinancings, and in their view, generous terms, but the balance is finally due, and if Bush doesn't pay up, they'll foreclose their entire alliance with the Republican Party.Sure, they care about other issues, from gay marriage to taxes to Iraq, but abortion is the issue that makes most Cultural Right activists get up in the morning and stuff envelopes and staff phone banks for the GOP. And for decades now, Republicans have told them they can't do anything much about it until they can change the Supreme Court. With a pro-choice Justice stepping down, the subject can no longer be avoided. And thanks to the Souter precedent (and indeed, the O'Connor and Kennedy precedents), there's no way Bush can finesse an appointment that's anything less than a guaranteed vote to overturn Roe.
This is no great day for Dems. <$NoAd$>And I'm not sure Bush really cares. But this is a tricky day for the institutional Republican party too. Not the wingruts -- happy days are here again for them, or whatever the culturally-appropriate metaphor might be. But for the folks who run for election in big expanses of the country, not a good day.
Like Ed says, the bill's come due.
--Josh Marshall
TPM Reader mail ...
Atrios is correct that Casey was a 5-4 decision. But what he apparently isn't aware of is that one of the dissenters (Byron White), was subsequently replaced by a pro-Roe/Casey justice. Even without O'Connor, there are still five justices on the court who are on the record as favoring at least some kind of constitutional right to termination a pregnancy. Those five are Ginsberg, Breyer, Stevens, Souter and Kennedy. Sure, Kennedy's vote can't be counted on in the more extreme cases, like partial birth abortion. But unless he flip flops (which seems increasingly unlikely after his decision on sodomy), he's still going to strike down anything that resembles a ban on abortion.
Passed on without comment.
(ed.note: Just to be clear, I post this as a correction to my earlier post below.)
--Josh Marshall
Feds bust MZM headquarters and Duke Stir.
Duke better make his pleadings now while O'Connor's still on the Court and there's a few criminal rights left ...
From Roll Call: "A federal task force that includes officials from the U.S. Attorney’s offices in both Washington, D.C, and San Diego, the FBI, Internal Revenue Service and Defense Criminal Investigative Service conducted the searches, according to Debbie Weierman, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Washington office."
(ed.note: Roll Call's got the original story. If you don't have a subscription, see the link above.)
Late Update: Yet more from the North County Times.
--Josh Marshall
Matt Yglesias and Atrios are right on this one. The end of Roe v. Wade is likely to be the most immediate and conspicuous result of today's resignation. But don't forget the effect in the workplace and the economy at large. The decision on who to appoint is in the hands of those who would turn the US economy back to what it was in the latter part of the 19th century, a world in which state and federal legislative action to insure the common good was hamstrung by court decisions that left everything in the hands of the marketplace.
Pre-New Deal, pre-Progressive Era.
It's the Court in the hands of activist radicals.
That, of course, leaves aside how deep in the hock these folks are to James Dobson and other radical right clerics.
Spongebob, head for the border now, buddy.
--Josh Marshall
Hilarious, even for the pitiful standards of Fox News. Apparently C. Boyden Grey, one of the most pivotal players in the court wars of the last two decades (basically the quarterback on the right), is Fox's Supreme Court Analyst. I guess Ralph Neas should be the CNN analyst, right?
--Josh Marshall
So there we are. A semi-surprise: O'Connor retires rather than Rehnquist, though considering the fragile state of the Chief Justice's health, it now appears overwhelmingly likely that President Bush will get at least two Supreme Court nominations, possibly more.
So game on.
We're looking into setting up a limited duration Court battle group blog over at TPMCafe. More soon.
--Josh Marshall
In a mass email sent out today, RNC chieftan Ken Mehlman calls out to the faithful: phone Congress and demand phase-out this year!
"Since his State of the Union speech in February," says the Mehlman, "President Bush has shown remarkable leadership by traveling the country, talking to Americans about the challenges facing Social Security and the need for personal accounts to be a part of that solution. Simply put, personal accounts will help secure Social Security for future generations and allow younger Americans to grow a nest egg they own and can pass on to whomever they want."
As I said below, we're updating our lists and we need your assistance.
--Josh Marshall
Where does your representative stand on the new flimflam private accounts bill Republicans are trying to push through the House? You know, the one that saves the Trust Fund that doesn't exist by blowing it on private accounts.
We're making a (new) list and we're checking it (at least) twice.
So if you've seen coverage in the local press about where your member of Congress stands on the issue, or whether he or she is trying to weasel out of taking a position at all, please let us know.
Send us an email at the comments email up there at the upper left of the site. We need your help.
--Josh Marshall
For those of us who are true connoisseurs of the higher Rep. Cunningham (R-Wade) chicanery, this may fall a bit short of the normal standard we like to set for the Duke. Still, it seems he again broke the rules: this time hawking novelty Navy fighter pilot hero Duke Cunningham buck knives decorated with the seal of the United States Congress. It seems profiting personally from the regalia of office is a no-no.
--Josh Marshall
More on the Rhode Island senate race ...
I should say, by way of explanation and disclosure, that I lived in Rhode Island from 1992 to 1998. So I feel a certain attachment to the place and its politics.
With respect to the post below, one friend wrote in to tell me that I'd misread the new poll showing Linc Chafee just ahead of his nearest Democratic challenger 41% to 36%. "Any incumbent under 50 is in some trouble," he told me.
Yes and no. Certainly, under normal circumstances, any incumbent who's running that far under 50% is in a lot of trouble, by definition. And Chafee still is in a lot of trouble, especially since Rhode Island is such a blue state. But if you've lived in Rhode Island you know that Chafees are sort of like cats with nine lives. They're uncannily hard to beat.
More to the point, if the incumbent Republican is way down in the low 40s, far better that your guy is ahead of him, rather than behind.
I've heard good things about Whitehouse, Chafee's likely opponent. And I think he's got a decent shot at winning. But the stone cold truth is that with Jim Langevin in the race Chafee would be heading back to Rhode Island for good. And now that's not clear.
Of course, the GOP money caucus could still run a primary challenger against Chafee. And that could knock Chafee out for good too.
--Josh Marshall
Unsettling news out of Rhode Island. Chafee back on top in Senate trial heat. (Note to DSCC: if you can't land this one ... Who didn't put the squeeze on Langevin?)
Late Update: A Reader tells me that Chafee has always led Whitehouse and Brown, the two remaining Dems in the race. Thus, it's wrong for me to say he's "back on top". Maybe. The other way to put it would be to say that with Langevin out of the race, Chafee is now leading everyone in the Dem field. True, his numbers still aren't great. Only 41% to 36% over state AG Sheldon Whitehouse. But it all comes down to the same point: Langevin's getting out of the race was a disaster. Who didn't make sure he stayed in?
--Josh Marshall
I didn't take that dreadful MZM money, did I?
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports today that Katherine Harris (R-Money) has offered to return the money that earlier reports suggest may have been coerced from MZM employees. This follows another story in the competitor paper, the Sun-Herald, which earlier reported Harris's place high atop the MZM love-list.
Now, the funny thing is, when you read into the Herald-Tribune piece you see that the emphasis is very much on the word 'offer'. From what I can tell from the article, Harris has now sent letters to each 'contributor', offering to refund their money.
So I guess all these folks have to do is admit their involvement (even as a victim) in what I take it would be a felony and they can have their two or four grand back.
I bet she'll have a lot of takers.
--Josh Marshall
You'll remember that during SpongeBob's time of need, the United Church of Christ was there to stand with him in the face of attacks from the likes of radical cleric James Dobson (actually, Dobson isn't even a cleric, but what I guess you'd call a lay extremist).
They were also the ones who tried to run an ad celebrating their church's message of outreach and inclusion of gays and lesbians only to have NBC and CBS reject it because such a position is, by their lights, too controversial.
In any case, they're having their General Synod this weekend. And they've even got a blog set up to provide some play-by-play.
Okay, I guess 'play-by-play' may be a bit of a sacrilegious way to describe it. But, you get the idea.
Late Update: Here's a good post about how ABC justified running an ad by Dobson's Focus on the Family after rejecting the UCC's ad. And here's another on the UCC president's endorsement of a resolution backing gay marriage.
--Josh Marshall
House GOP wants to vote on a private accounts bill in July. This is where we're going. And it isn't over.
--Josh Marshall
What's Up, Doc?
Chairman Hastings giving way on demand to have his chief of staff run the Ethics Committee?
So says Raw Story.
--Josh Marshall
A TPM Reader called my attention to this choice Tom DeLay quote at the end of an article about a new congressional pay raise ...
"It's not a pay raise," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. "It's an adjustment so that they're not losing their purchasing power."
Maybe someone can file this one away for future use.
--Josh Marshall
This should be fun ...
Congressman Duke Cunningham cordially invites you to his Annual Golf TournamentBelmont Country Club in Ashburn, VA
$1,000 PAC per golfer/ $500 individual per golfer/ $2,500 per foursome
I hear Duke has a set of clubs he's putting up for sale too.
Only $199,000.
--Josh Marshall
According to Steve Clemons's most recent update, the White House and the senate leadership have basically given up on the prospect of getting John Bolton's nomination through the United States senate. And it's worth noting that in itself that is a huge and quite improbable victory for those who started more than three months ago now trying to mobilize opposition to this very unfortunate nomination.
What remains to be seen now is whether President Bush will bypass the senate and install Bolton at the UN by a recess appointment.
For starters, it's worth saying that that's the president's right. Whether it's fair in the abstract is just as irrelevant as the question is about the filibuster.
But it is also becoming increasingly clear that winning on Bolton is more important to the White House than having someone in that position who would be in any way effective in the job by any measure. He would, I assume, be the first UN Ambassador ever to be seated who quite publicly lacked the confidence of the United States senate. And what does it tell you exactly about President Bush's foreign policy priorities today -- and all the challenges that the country currently faces in Iraq and elsewhere -- that he's putting so much into sustaining this single nomination? There's nothing else going on in the world that could use the attention and political muscle more than this?
--Josh Marshall
A TPM Reader goes on a sightseeing tour in the neighborhood of chez Duke and gets pictures.
--Josh Marshall
Interesting. Coleen Rowley, the FBI 9/11 whistleblower has just announced she's going to run as a Dem against Rep. John Kline (R) in Minnesota's 2nd Congressional District.
(ed.note: I came by the information from this post to our 2006 Elections discussion table over at TPMCafe.)
--Josh Marshall
[ed.note: The following is a guest post from our correspondent on the scene at this weekend's Social Security shredding rally on Capitol Hill. Asheesh Kapur Siddique is a student at Princeton University and was one of the organizers of the recent Filibuster against Frist effort.]
This past weekend, the Washington, DC area played host to the College Republican National Committee's annual convention, and as TPM reported, a group called Fix Our Future capitalized on the presence of so many aspiring Ronald Reagans by staging a pro-privatization rally attended by about 50-60 people. Intermittently chanting "stop the raid; I want my PRA," the crowd of (mostly) students listened to speakers not too much older than themselves crisis-monger about the state of Social Security, and call for an intergenerational war against AARP-loving seniors conspiring to "rip us off."
As a blues band jammed before the spectacle began, I chatted with some of the young attendees over warm, though complementary, sodas (it was a blistering 95 degrees, and they didn't have any ice). Wearing a pink shirt emblazoned with the word "HERO" under a black-and-white image of President Bush, Kasie from Utah told me that by the time she retires, "not only is there going to be $0, it's going to be in the negative." The solution, Nathaniel from Virginia advised, is private accounts, because "they allow us to give ourselves a chance to stand outside of government." They all seemed completely sold on the idea that Social Security must be 'saved,' and that privatization is the only way to do so.
The highlight of the rally came when participants formed a conga line in front of seven paper shredders. Dancing to the wails of the musicians' electric guitars, they shredded fake (and a few real) social security statements to express their dislike for the program. I snapped some pictures. As a participant in some recent political theater myself, I've got to compliment the privatizers on creatively expressing their message. But I didn't come away sold on their scheme to gut social security; indeed, I'm more determined than ever to defend a program that's helped so many of our seniors retire with dignity.
--Spencer Ackerman
An interesting note from TPM Reader RW ...
Josh,In case you hadn't caught this, check out this astounding coincidence.
"MZM opened its doors in 1993, but its first federal contract was a $140,000 deal in July 2002 to provide "office furniture" and "custom computer programming services" for the executive office of the president of the United States, according to the Federal Procurement Data System." San Diego Union-Tribune, June 25th, 2005.
"Wade purchased the boat in August 2002 for $140,000 and officially changed its name to the Duke-Stir – an apparent play on Cunningham's nickname – in January 2003, according to U.S. Coast Guard records."
San Diego Union-Tribune, June 28th, 2005.Small world, ain't it?
Interesting<$NoAd$>.
--Josh Marshall
Before the whole Duke mess broke out, MZM Inc. was an awfully popular place.
Buried down in Marcus Stern's piece in today's San Diego Union-Tribune is the news that shortly before the CunningScam story broke someone named Kay Cole James had signed on as the company's "senior executive vice president for national security transformation". She just resigned on Friday.
Before signing on with MZM, Kay Cole James was President Bush's highly-controversial Director of Office of Personnel Management.
--Josh Marshall
It started with Duke Cunningham on the auction block. Now, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune, MZM Inc. itself is on the auction block.
--Josh Marshall
A few days ago one reader who's well-versed in the federal contracting biz told me he thought MZM's (Duke Cunningham's favorite company) profile looked like it was basically trolling for work. What he meant by this was that the company didn't seem to have any particular specialty as much as it was looking for politically-available contracts and then searching out people to do the work on them.
This came to my mind when I saw this graf at the end of the piece in today's Post ..
Government procurement records show that MZM, which Wade started in 1993, did not report any revenue from prime contract awards until 2003. Most of its revenue has come from the agreement the Pentagon just cut off. But over the past three years it was also awarded several contracts, worth more than $600,000, by the Executive Office of the President. They include a $140,000 deal for office furniture in 2002 and several for unspecified "intelligence services."
Office furniture<$NoAd$>? At the White House?
--Josh Marshall
It's always nice to get a nod. But even without it, we're still happy to see the St. Petersburg Times picked up the story we broke back on the 21st about Katherine Harris's special $32,000 one day haul from Mitchell Wade's MZM, Inc.
Late Update: Meanwhile, this column from today's Charlotte Sun suggests that Harris may have a history of bundled or coerced campaign donations.
--Josh Marshall
In other Aqua-Duke news, the North County Times reports -- rather than sensibly, one would have to imagine -- that under fair market value, Duke would have had to pay rent to live on a boat like the Duke Stir. A boat rental expert consulted by the Times, says Duke avoided paying roughly $9,000 in rent.
Presumably that busts through the 50 buck gift limit.
--Josh Marshall
Could this get a lot bigger?
In Tuesday's paper, The Washigton Post reports that the Pentagon has ordered "a halt in new work for MZM Inc. ... under a contract that has brought the company $163 million in revenue during the past 2 1/2 years."
The article goes on to note Pentagon claims that the halt is unrelated to emerging evidence of the firm's serial flimflammery. But a defense procurement expert quoted by the Post seemed unconvinced.
--Josh Marshall
A very unpopular president.
New CNN/USAToday poll has disapproval at 53%, approval at 45%.
According to CNN, President Bush's worst numbers came on the issue of Social Security. He clocked in at 31% approval and 64% disapproval.
(I'd actually be curious to hear from pollsters out there what the lowest ratings for a president has ever been on any significant issue. I mean, how much lower than thirty percent does it go? With the possible exception of Nixon at the very end of Watergate, how often has a president been under, say, 25% on any issue of significance?)
With numbers like that, is there really any reason imaginable why any Democrat should feel even the slightest need to move even an inch toward accomodation with President Bush's agenda of phasing out Social Security? How unpopular would a president need to be before his unpopularity made it safe to follow the dictates of your own principles?
--Josh Marshall
Want a really good example of why progressive politics in this country is so pitiful and anemic?
Here's a post I just did on it over at TPMCafe.
--Josh Marshall
Great moments in improbable causation!
Sen. Santorum says priestly pedophilia is rooted in culture of academic liberalism ...
It is startling that those in the media and academia appear most disturbed by this aberrant behavior, since they have zealously promoted moral relativism by sanctioning "private" moral matters such as alternative lifestyles. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture. When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected. While it is no excuse for this scandal, it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm.
I think this piece from 2002 made <$NoAd$> the rounds back a couple years ago. But I picked it up from these folks this morning.
--Josh Marshall
One party state watch: Congressional Republicans warn Major League Baseball against allowing George Soros to take an ownership stake in the Washington Nationals.
Roll Call reports that the following from Government Reform Chair Tom Davis (R-VA): "I think Major League Baseball understands the stakes. I don't think they want to get involved in a political fight ... I don't think it's the Nats that get hurt. I think it's Major League Baseball that gets hurt. They enjoy all sorts of exemptions" from anti-trust laws.
Do these jokers need to be reminded of the constitution's prohibition of bills of attainder.
--Josh Marshall
Wait, I don't get it. The Denver Three really get a write-up in The New York Times?
--Josh Marshall
As we told you back on Friday, a group of anti-Social Security twenty-somethings who call themselves 'Fix Our Future' got together today on Capitol Hill for a rally-cum-ceremony to proclaim their support for abolishing <$NoAd$>Social Security.
Calling the event the 'Storm for Reform', these fresh-faced Storm Troopers converged on Taft Memorial Park with mobile paper-shredders in tow to shred their own Social 
Security statements for all the world to see.
Who could ever think these gonzos could want to do the program harm when they get together to shred their Social Security statements?
Anyway, the event announcement said that "Social Security Reform supporters will gather from all across the country in one afternoon on Capitol Hill to show their support for Social Security Reform and Personal Retirement Accounts - the issue taking our generation by storm!" And with that introduction, I'd expected at least some floodlights and choreographed marching. But apparently it was a bit more subdued.
In any case, through the magic of Internet communications, we were able to have a special TPM correspondent on hand to record the event. And in addition to the photo you see there to the right, there's also a special photo album here for your viewing pleasure.
--Josh Marshall
Coming later, direct from Capitol Hill, a report from the scene of today's rally of privatization Storm Troopers symbolically shredding the country's safety net. With pictures!
--Josh Marshall
Ye olde Gift Rules of the House of Representatives.
Including golden oldies like House Rule 26: "[T]he restrictions of the gift rule do not apply to "[a]nything for which the [official] pays the market value" (clause 5(a)(3)(A) of House Rule 26). Accordingly, there can be an improper gift to a Member, officer or employee where, for example, he or she is sold property at less than market value, or receives more than market value in selling property."
--Josh Marshall
