As I mentioned yesterday afternoon, we ended up getting about eight hundred ticket requests to the Serenity screening Wednesday night. But we only had around two hundred seats.
We've now sent out notifications to everyone we were able to provide seats for. So if you haven't heard back, we were not able to give you a ticket.
Separately, there was similarly high demand for the tickets to screenings in other parts of the country. And the studio publicity folks handling those screenings were similarly overwhelmed with not enough seats for all the requests.
Unfortunately, in their case, this apparently led to their sending out emails about screenings in the wrong cities and emails about different ticket offers and a bunch of other confusion.
So please accept my apologies for whatever hassles anyone had with requests to the studio publicity folks for tickets for screenings in those other cities.
--Josh Marshall
We're running a tad late on the email notifications about who got tickets for Wednesday night's screening. Give us till about 1:30 PM this afternoon.
--Josh Marshall
Okay, no more requests for tickets to see the Joss Whedon movie Serenity in Union Square next Wednesday. We've had an overwhelming response. And, honestly, we have about four requests for every ticket at the moment.
TPM has been up and running for just about five years. And over that time I've gotten very good and understanding and predicting the ebb and flow of traffic, what sort of response we'll get when we have contests or raise funds. But I didn't have much to go on in trying to figure out what the demand would be for tickets to a movie screening in one geographically confined, if also densely populated, area. By the time I plugged back in this afternoon we had about 800 requests for about 200 tickets.
Obviously we won't be able to provide seats for everyone who requested one. But I understand that it'll be very helpful to find out sooner than later whether you got a ticket, to be able to plan and so forth. So I am going to make every effort to make sure everybody hears back from us no later than noon tomorrow. If you requested tickets and haven't heard from us by then, check the site and we'll have some update.
The movie looks like a lot of fun. And I look forward to seeing a lot of you on Wednesday night.
Unrelated to this particular movie event, we have plans for more TPM events in the New York area in the near future. So for those of you who would like to meet fellow readers, we have more fun stuff coming up.
--Josh Marshall
For all of us who criticize from the sidelines, sometimes it's hard to appreciate the sort of tireless, behind-the-scenes efforts that the White House puts into into screwing the middle class and abandoning those displaced and uprooted by Katrina.
From the LAT ...
Two days after Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced plans to issue emergency vouchers aimed at helping poor storm victims find new housing quickly by covering as much as $10,000 of their rent.But the department suddenly backed away from the idea after White House aides met with senior HUD officials. Although emergency vouchers had been successfully used after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the administration focused instead on a plan for government-built trailer parks, an approach that even many Republicans say would concentrate poverty in the very fashion the government has long sought to avoid.
A similar struggle has occurred over how to provide healthcare to storm victims. White House officials are quietly working to derail a proposal by leading Republican and Democratic senators to temporarily expand Medicaid. Instead, the administration is pushing a narrower plan that would not commit the government to covering certain groups of evacuees.
There's plenty more in the <$NoAd$> piece.
Just for the sake of discussion, and I'd be particularly eager to hear from TPM's right-leaning readers on this one, isn't the idea of giving rent vouchers to refugees rather than stacking them up in mobile housing projects something that folks on both sides of the aisle should be able to agree on?
On the hand, who gets to build and fit out the gazillion standard issue mobile homes? Halliburton residential? I guess that's the answer.
--Josh Marshall
Now down to a mere thirteen Democrats who haven't yet signed on as cosponsors of H.R. 3763, the bill to overturn the Gulf Coast Wage Cut ...
1. Mr. Sanford D. Bishop Jr. of Georgia
2. Mr. Dan Boren of Oklahoma
3. Mr. Rick Boucher of Virginia
4. Mr. Allen Boyd of Florida
5. Mr. Robert E. "Bud" Cramer Jr. of Alabama
6. Mr. Henry Cuellar of Texas
7. Mr. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee
8. Mr. Bob Etheridge of North Carolina
9. Mr. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina
10. Ms. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia
11. Mr. John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina
12. Mr. John S. Tanner of Tennessee
13. Mr. Melvin L. Watt of North Carolina
The number of Republicans who have signed on as cosponsors has now risen to zero.
--Josh Marshall
Another Iraq War vet to run for Congress, Bryan Lentz. He's going to run against Rep. Curt "Freelance Spy/International Man of Mystery/Shaken not Stirred" Weldon (R-PA).
--Josh Marshall
We had Rep. Ferguson (R) of New Jersey down as a Wage Cut Wiggler. But now it seems he's a 'Serious Concerns' man -- one the moderate Republicans (signers of the LoBiondo letter) whose concerns are serious enough to send a letter asking the president to set a date when he'll stop docking wages but not serious enough to vote for the bill to end the Wage Cut right now.
Dumpmike.com has just posted a copy of the letter Ferguson has sent to his constituents.
--Josh Marshall
Big Truba? AP: "Hospital operator HCA (HCA) said Friday that federal prosecutors have issued a subpoena for documents the company believes may be related to the sale of its stock by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. A release from the company said the subpoena came from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York."
--Josh Marshall
Okay, let's fill in a few of the blank spaces in this new Post article about Jack Abramoff and Karl Rove.
The story, as we get it in today's article, is that Timothy E. Flanigan is the General Counsel of Tyco and now President Bush's nominee for Deputy Attorney General. A couple years ago when Tyco was interested in fending off legislation that might have required them to pay their taxes, Abramoff was hired to do a little of his magic for them and get Tyco off the hook. Abramoff reported to Flanigan on the account. And in the course of that work he first boasted of his juice with Karl Rove and later claimed he had in fact contacted Rove about Tyco's needs.
Fair enough.
But this Newsweek article from a few weeks ago notes that Flanigan worked at the White House before he went to Tyco. In fact, he was Deputy White House Counsel. And Abramoff didn't just report to Flanigan. Flanigan hired Abramoff.
Now, the Post piece treats it as an open question whether Abramoff was just puffing or blowing smoke, as lobbyists sometimes will, when he talked about his ties to Rove and his ability to get action from him.
But Flanigan had already been Deputy White House Counsel. That tells me he knew pretty well how the Bush White House operated and the juice Abramoff had there. The odds that Abramoff just bamboozled Flanigan seem surpassingly low.
Another point ...
In the Newsweek article from a month ago, a spokesman said on Rove's behalf that he had "never spoken to [Abramoff] about any of his clients." In today's Post piece the spokesman says Rove "has no recollection" of Abramoff's contacting him about Tyco.
I'm told that in the clinical literature this is called the 'Safavian effect'.
And one more point ...
The Post reports that Flanigan says that if he's confirmed as Deputy AG he'll recuse himself from any decisions relating to Abramoff and Tyco. Imagine that.
The Justice Department's Public Integrity Section is involved in a massive investigation of Abramoff, his business affairs and his ties to major Republican political figures like Rove and Tom DeLay. The investigation has already led to the arrest of one White House official. Abramoff himself has been indicted in a case that is nominally separate from the Washington investigation but is in fact closely tied to it.
Flanigan worked at the White House. He then left the White House, only to turn around and hire Abramoff to lobby the White House and Rove in particular.
Somebody tell me with a straight face that this guy can ethically deal with anything tied to the Abramoff case. Face it: from the word go at DOJ this guy has to recuse himself from everything having to do with Abramoff.
--Josh Marshall
A tip for the folks in the White House press corps or other enterprising reporters.
We know now from the Post that David Safavian had some awkward connections with certain people later accused and/or convicted of ties to Islamic terrorism.
But I hear the Secret Service had serious concerns about Safavian's ties too and did not want to give him a badge to work at the White House. And I hear these concerns came up not just with the OMB job but in the earlier one at GSA as well.
Needless to say they were overruled and Safavian got his clearances.
--Josh Marshall
AP: "When Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist asked a trustee to sell all his stock in his family's hospital corporation, a large-scale sell-off by HCA Inc. insiders was under way."
--Josh Marshall
WaPo:"Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff bragged two years ago that he was in contact with White House political aide Karl Rove on behalf of a large, Bermuda-based corporation that wanted to avoid incurring some taxes and continue receiving federal contracts, according to a written statement by President Bush's nominee to be deputy attorney general."
--Josh Marshall
(ed.note: As of about 5 PM on Friday afternoon, we're no longer accepting requests for tickets to the movie below. -- jmm)
Do you live in the New York City <$NoAd$>area?
Do you like TPM?
Next Wednesday night, September 28th, at 7:30 PM TPM is hosting a special advance screening of Serenity at the Union Square Stadium theater.
Serenity is the new film by Joss Whedon, the guy behind the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. This showing is only for TPM Readers. And it's free.
If you'd like to join us. Send in an email to movie@talkingpointsmemo.com with the subject line Serenity. Include your name and how many seats you'd like to reserve. 
(Two tickets per person; if you have other friends or family who want to attend too, have them email in as well).
Now, a bit of disclosure and transparency. Studios do advance screenings like this to generate buzz for a new movie. And that's what they're doing here. We're not getting paid anything for doing this. They get some publicity and some word of mouth buzz. We get to host a couple hundred readers at a movie in New York. And our readers get to meet fellow readers and see a free movie. I'll get to meet a bunch of you in person too; and that will be a treat for me.
So that's the score. And we were happy to give it a try on that basis.
And one last thing: If you don't live in the New York City area, don't fret. The studio has a bunch of preview screenings of Serenity around the country next week. And they've set aside seats for TPM Readers at each venue. Click here to find out how to request tickets.
--Josh Marshall
Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) on why she supports the President's Gulf Coast Wage Cut (note distinction between 'permitting' and 'requiring') ...
Thank you for contacting me about the suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act in the Hurricane Katrina disaster area. I appreciate hearing from you.The Davis-Bacon Act, which dates back to 1931, requires every construction contract in excess of two thousand dollars to which the federal government is a party to pay all laborers and mechanics not less than the locally prevailing wage. Under Section 6 of the Act, the President may suspend the requirements of the Act during a "national emergency." Over its long history, the Act has been suspended several times for various types of national emergencies including war, economic emergency, and natural disaster. Suspension of the Act permits, but does not require, that less than the prevailing wage be paid on the covered contracts.
Now that we have entered the cleanup and rebuilding phase following Hurricane Katrina, the evacuees wish to be able to return home as expeditiously as possible. I would like to see this happen and this will require a lot of rebuilding.
The Davis-Bacon act can add weeks to federally financed construction projects and it increases costs to the taxpayers - also producing delays in construction since the available funds will be limited. President George H. W. Bush temporarily suspended the Davis-Bacon Act during the recovery from Hurricane Andrew in 1992 to help rebuild that area of Florida in an expeditious and affordable fashion.
Again, thank you for contacting me. Please continue to contact me about issues that are important to you. While I commute from my home in Albuquerque to Washington D.C. , for voting and committee hearings, you can always check my web site for upcoming community events to find where you can catch me around town.
More soon<$NoAd$>.
--Josh Marshall
Sen. Evan Bayh: "On the Gulf Coast, we aren’t just rebuilding cities - we’re rebuilding lives. The workers whose wages would be cut are the same women and men struggling to support their families and find new homes to replace the ones they lost in the hurricane. They deserve all the support we can give them, not a cut in pay when they can least afford one."
--Josh Marshall
I knew the House Republicans couldn't be trusted managing the federal budget. But I had no idea it was this bad.
To great fanfare a group of House Republicans has announced what they call Operation Offset, an effort to make up for new Katrina spending and save the president's tax cuts by proposing a whole slew of new cuts in the federal budget. As we noted below, a huge amount of the cuts come out of Medicare. And there's also a very timely cut in CDC funding.
But if you go to page 17 of the 'Operation Offset' budget plan they're circulating, you'll see they propose to "eliminate attache positions in the Foreign Agricultural Service." And by this they claim they'll get more than $37 billion of savings just next year. $347 billion over ten years.
Who knew attaches made such high salaries!
If you look down into the explanation section, it notes that the savings are in millions, not billions, on this and the item below on cuts at the Department of Education. Yet, they push this transcription error through the whole document. So about half a trillion dollars worth of savings they claim doesn't even exist.
(ed.note: Special thanks to sharp-eyed TPM Reader TW.)
--Josh Marshall
I was looking over the list of budget cuts proposed by House Republicans to save the president's tax cuts. And the big thing that sticks out is just how much comes out of Medicare. But a bit down further into the document which they put out there's a $1.8 billion annual cut in funding for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). That's great thinking, seeing as though we don't need to worry about Avian Flu from South Asia or other contagious diseases any more.
--Josh Marshall
Scott McClellan responded yesterday, though that may be a generous characterization, to press questions about the president's Gulf Coast Wage Cut. I've posted the transcript here.
--Josh Marshall
Just another note on <$NoAd$> the 'LoBiondo letter' -- the letter from House Republicans calling on President Bush to call off the Gulf Coast Wage Cut. It doesn't really ask him to call it off. The letter, which is supposedly going to be released tomorrow, asks for him to leave it in place for no more than sixty days. Specifically, the signatories speak of
our severe concerns with your decision to issue a presidential proclamation suspending indefinitely the application of the Davis-Bacon Act in areas along the Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina. We respectfully urge you to immediately provide a date certain for the termination of the proclamation suspending Davis-Bacon of no later than November 8, 2005. Such an action on your part will help prevent potential legislative action by the Congress, and help restore federal procurement stability in the reconstruction effort.
But, really, why even wait sixty days? It was a bad idea to start with. And all the excuses about cutting red tape are bunk. Can't they do better?
--Josh Marshall
TPM Reader LH reports <$NoAd$> in ...
A brief note on the evacutation of the Houston area. Galveston and all the coast was successfully evacuated but Wednesday night there occured throughout Houston a simultaneous mass (hysterical) evacuation. All the freeways and highways leaving Houston are at a dead standstill as of 11am Thursday. People have been in their vehicles as long as 12 hours without traveling more than 40 miles. Now they are running out of gas and there will soon be another chaotic storm evacuation situation. The local government and the mayor of Houston don't seem to realize that cars need gas and folks need facilities. The city has waited too long to open all freeway lanes to outbound traffic. The truth is, the feds, state, and locals do not know how to evacuate a major metropolitan area. Another catastrophe is only a day away.
Let's hope not.
--Josh Marshall
Mark Schmitt hits the nail on the head. Santorum dumping on Bush on Social Security phase-out -- aka, the fat lady singing on privatization.
--Josh Marshall
As The Carpetbagger Report notes, the anti-Wage Cut bill in the House is picking up steam. It's got 15 more cosponsors, for a total of 186. As it was yesterday, every one is a Democrat.
I've also heard that the LoBiondo letter is going to come out tomorrow. That's the letter circulating among moderate House Republicans (basically the standard northeasterners, as near as I can figure) calling on the president to undo the Wage Cut.
Apparently, though, they're refusing to sign on to H.R. 3763 because it's too tied to the Dems.
--Josh Marshall
There's a lot of discussion and detail in Thursday's Post story about the Frist stock sale. But this passage at the end sticks out like a sore thumb ...
According to Thomson Financial, a reporting service, seven senior HCA executives sold 574,882 shares worth $19,942,610 between May 17 and June 10. A company spokesman, Jeff Prescott, said the executives are entitled "like other stockholders [to] make personal decisions . . . about when to sell." He said the executives complied with "blackout restrictions" imposed by the SEC to prevent dealing within a certain period prior to restatements of earnings.An SEC spokesman said it is the commission's policy not to comment on investigations, and would neither confirm nor deny that it is probing insider trading at HCA.
The passage is left sort of <$NoAd$> hanging there, without context or further explanation. In fact, that last graf is the end of the article. Is Frist in some real trouble over this? And if he is, who can explain how a guy with such vaunting ambitions for higher office would do something so foolish and, it would appear, easy to detect?
--Josh Marshall
More on blind trusts from TPM Reader PW ...
Speaking from experience, someone who puts assets in a blind trust but still sees their own tax returns will generally have a decent-to-exact idea of what original assets are in the trust, because sales generate accountings of gross proceeds and bases (even if the stock names are blocked out). Unless you were completely out of touch with your holdings, that's enough to know what's still in the trust and what's gone. It's not unusual for the trustee and the beneficiary to talk in general terms about investment strategies, and occasionally in more specific terms. Any "instruction" about what to sell and what to hold, of course, would violate at least the spirit and possibly the letter of the trust.(The trustee -- who is it for frist? -- is between a rock and a hard place here, because once they have good reason to believe that a transaction will serve the beneficiary's financial interests, they have a fiduciary duty to execute it; it's not clear that there's an exception for insider information there.)
(The question of who the trustee is might be important for other reasons -- if it's a family member or close associate, the relevant flow of information might have been in the other direction, and it would be very significant to see which other members of the clan also sold in the same period. By claiming to have given instructions, Frist might be covering for the trustee.)
More <$NoAd$> soon.
--Josh Marshall
TPM Reader JS points us to this definition of 'blind trust' at investopedia.com ...
A trust in which the executors have full discretion over the assets, and the trust beneficiaries have no knowledge of the holdings of the trust ... Blind trusts are generally used when a trustor wishes to keep the beneficiary unaware of the specific assets in the trust, such as to avoid conflict of interest between the beneficiary and the investments.
Guess that mean some unnamed Senate Majority Leader didn't really have a blind trust?
--Josh Marshall
With this now-bubbling issue of Sen. Frist's blind trust and the quite timely sale of his shares in the family company, I've got to say that maybe I didn't understand what a 'blind trust' was.
The press accounts make it sound like he put in a call to the trustee of the trust much like other folks might put in a call to their broker.
I thought the whole point of a blind trust was that you retain ownership of the assets but give up both the knowledge of what the funds happen to be invested in (at least going forward from the creation of the trust) and the power to control the investments. Sounds like neither applied to Sen. Frist. So how was it a blind trust?
--Josh Marshall
Yesterday we did yet another update of our Katrina Timeline Project. And now the WSJ has what I guess you'd call a real-time timeline of Rita, updated as we go.
--Josh Marshall
In all the Abramoff business I'm surprised there has not been more mention of Susan Ralston. In Jack Abramoff's heyday at Preston Gates and then later at Greenberg-Traurig, Ralston was Abramoff's executive assistant, the one who helped dole out the skyboxes, basically administratively ran his whole shop as near as I can figure.
Then when Karl Rove came to town, she took pretty much the same job with him, becoming his gatekeeper at the White House. She was of course one of many Team Abramoff players who got seconded into the administration. Given the close relationship between Abramoff and Grover Norquist, it's probably not surprising that she also had an arrangement with Norquist in which he gave her direction on who to let through to Rove.
I've been a little unclear on whether Ralston still works for Rove. And today when I called the White House I was told that she's no longer his 'executive assistant'. When I asked what her title was I was told only that she now worked for him "in a different capacity."
We're hearing a lot now about David Safavian, another White House appointee who just got arrested on multiple charges of obstruction of justice. But I'm surprised we haven't heard more about the Ralston connection to Rove and Norquist since she must have known about pretty much everything Abramoff did in his high-rolling years prior to mid-2001.
Just as an example, recently I've been working through a sheaf of emails exchanged betwixt and between various members of Team Abramoff back in the days while Ralston was still working for Abramoff.
In this one from April 20th 2000 (just added to the TPM Document Collection), for instance, Ralston writes to a colleague explaining the guidelines and rules for how Abramoff's various skybox tickets will be distributed.
In this one, from three months later, Abramoff writes to Ralston (just added to the TPM Document Collection). He explains that Adam Kidan, with whom he was then in the process of buying the now-defunct SunCruz casino boat line, wanted to get SunCruz to buy into the skybox operation. He asks for details about just which Indian tribes paid for which allotments of skyboxes and how much -- information Ralston duly provides.
It seems like Ralston was right in the thick of all this. And she's been a top Rove aide for years, seemingly continuing to be involved in various of Abramoff's and Norquist's projects.
Thoughts? We're discussing it here.
Late Update: As of two months ago, National Journal gave Ralston's title as "Special Assistant to the President & Assistant to the Senior Advisor."
--Josh Marshall
From the National Hurricane Center, 2 AM ...
DATA FROM THE KEY WEST NOAA DOPPLER RADAR INDICATE MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE NOW INCREASED TO NEAR 115 MPH...185 KM/HR... WITH HIGHER GUSTS. RITA IS NOW A CATEGORY THREE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. ADDITIONAL STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS...AND RITA IS EXPECTED TO BECOME A CATEGORY FOUR HURRICANE SOMETIME LATER TODAY.
--Josh Marshall
A TPM Reader checks in ...
You may want to point out that Gerhard Schroeder is using the Bush-Cheney 2000 playbook in Germany. He knows the fracture point in that coalition is between the CDU and the CSU and he’s playing a Rovian game all the way. He got on national TV at the same table as Merkel and said to her face that he was the only one who could form a government. Even the hosts were shocked. To say that his type of talk makes conservative Bavarians squirm is an understatement. Look for Stoiber to chuck Merkel soon, especially if the SPD wins in Dresden’s election. Irony of ironies.
Interesting observation.
--Josh Marshall
My kingdom ... well, I have no kingdom, but a TPM mug for anyone who will bring me one single Republican member of the House willing to co-sponsor H.R. 3763, the bill to overturn President Bush's Gulf Coast Wage Cut.
Now, if a member of the GOP Caucus is willing to come forward themselves and claim their mug on the basis of changing their vote, that works for me. But of course what I'm thinking is that eventually some Republican has to stand up against President Bush's decision to dock the wages of the folks who are going to rebuild the Gulf Coast. And if you're the first emailer to notify me, the prized mug is yours.
As we told you this morning, Rep. LoBiondo (R-NJ) is apparently circulating a letter calling on the president to rescind the wage cut. And Rep. Walsh (R-NY) is making pretty clear he's likely to sign it. So maybe keep an eye on those two as possible high-potential mug quarry.
I'm focusing on Republicans since H.R. 3763 already has 171 cosponsors. And every single one is a Democrat.
Yet, even in their sadly depleted state, admittedly, there are more than 171 members of the Democratic caucus.
So I thought I'd send along this list of those House Dems who haven't yet signed up. 'FFA' signifies a Fainthearted Faction Alumna/us, a member who was at one point or another a member of the Faction, even if they later achieved Social Security redemption ...
Mr. John Barrow of Georgia
Mr. Sanford D. Bishop Jr. of Georgia
Mr. Dan Boren of Oklahoma
Mr. Rick Boucher of Virginia
Mr. Allen Boyd of Florida (FFA)
Mr. James Clyburn of South Carolina
Mr. Robert E. "Bud" Cramer Jr. of Alabama (FFA)
Mr. Henry Cuellar of Texas
Mr. Jim Davis of Florida
Mr. Lincoln Davis of Tennessee
Mr. Chet Edwards of Texas
Mr. Bob Etheridge of North Carolina
Mr. Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania
Mr. Harold E. Ford of Tennessee (FFA)
Mr. Charles A. Gonzalez of Texas
Mr. Mike McIntyre of North Carolina
Ms. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia
Mr. Martin Meehan of Massachusetts
Mr. Gregory Meeks of New York
Mr. Dennis Moore of Kansas (FFA)
Mr. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania
Mr. Ed Pastor of Arizona
Mr. John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina
Mr. John S. Tanner of Tennessee (FFA)
Mr. Melvin L. Watt of North Carolina
Hard to figure where Marty Meehan isn't going to oppose the Wage Cut. But as far as I hear, he's still a hold out.
--Josh Marshall
Rep. Jeb Bradley (R-NH) got <$NoAd$> asked about the Gulf Coast Wage Cut at a townhall meeting last weekend. And Bradley said ... well, not clear what he said precisely.
But here's how the Laconia Citizen recounted the conversation ...
Resident Mike McGuigan said he was angry to hear that Halliburton — a huge construction company with ties to the Bush administration — already has "its hooks in the relief process" despite past problems with how it handled rebuilding in the Middle East.McGuigan said he takes great issue with possible plans to suspend the Davis-Bacon Act (minimum wage law) to allow companies like Halliburton to provide faster relief.
One woman said the response is already showing a trend toward America becoming a country dominated by the "have and have nots."
Bradley said he supports moves to get construction crews into the area as fast as possible.
"You need to get people on the ground," said the congressman.
However, he noted that he is committed to ensuring that the long-term rebuilding process won't include a "no-bid" process.
Sounds like a Wiggler.
(ed.note: Special thanks to TPM Reader PS for the catch.)
--Josh Marshall
H.R. 3763 is Rep. George Miller's bill to overturn President Bush's Gulf Coast Wage Cut. The bill currently has 171 co-sponsors, all of them Democrats. So if you want want to know where your member of Congress stands on this issue, that's a good place to start.
--Josh Marshall
Over at Auction House, Ellen Miller explains why that indictment of David Safavian had Rep. Ney's (R-OH) name written all over it.
--Josh Marshall
I heard from a member of Sen. Obama's staff this afternoon. And as you'd expect, the senator does oppose the president's Gulf Coast Wage Cut.
I've also gotten more than a few emails from present and former hill staffers, many of them friends, on this matter of calling and trying to find out where your member of Congress stands on a given issue.
So a few words.
First, as many of these folks point out, the folks who field phone calls from the public are often interns or new hires working for more or less dismal wages. They are often under instructions not to get into conversations about what their boss's position on an issue probably is until the press or communications folks have put together a release or some definitive statement.
This doesn't change the essential calculus of the importance or utility of trying to get the person who represents you to tell you where they stand on a key issue. But it is a good reason, as I'm sure you already are, to be polite and courteous with the person on the other end of the phone because their hands are often tied in terms of what they're allowed to say.
So, briefly, be nice.
Having said that, though, members of Congress generally like to keep their options open as much as possible. On many issues, all things being equal, they'd just as soon not take any position at all, certainly not a definitive one.
And it is telling (with all respect to my friends) that on an issue so clear-cut on the substance and so potent on the politics that so many Democratic offices still don't know what the issue is even about when constituents call -- or at least haven't prepared a statement from the member or senator.
Voters have every right to ring up their member of Congress and ask where they stand on a given issue. And they should get answers -- not just have their opinion marked off as for or against on the issue in question.
So yes, a bit of understanding is in order. Maybe your Rep. or Senator is still putting together a statement. And maybe the person answering the phone doesn't know the boss's position or doesn't want to say before they've been given the go-ahead.
But this is a clear-cut issue. You are not a bystander. You're part of the process. And asking your representatives where they stand puts them on notice that you're watching and want answers.
--Josh Marshall
Rep. Charles Taylor (R) of North Carolina tells constituents why he supports the Gulf Coast Wage Cut.
See if you can identify the key points of bamboozlement ...
Thank you for contacting me to inquire about the suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act. I always appreciate hearing from constituents and greatly benefit from knowing your views.Davis-Bacon dates from 1931 and states that workers employed in a project involving a government contract must be paid the local prevailing wage rate. As you are certainly aware, the President issued a proclamation which suspends the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act in the areas of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama affected by Hurricane Katrina. The Davis-Bacon Act has been suspended from time to time in accordance with federal law (40 U.S.C. Section 3147) which states that the President may suspend the act during a national emergency. President Roosevelt suspended the Act in 1934 in order to deal with administrative adjustments with regards to the New Deal, for example. President George H. W. Bush suspended the Act in 1992 to expedite construction contracts in the recovery areas in Florida, Louisiana, and Hawaii in the wake of hurricanes Andrew and Iniki. It should be noted that the provisions of the 1974 Stafford Act, which empowers FEMA to repair and rebuild after a natural disaster, reject the application of Davis-Bacon to repair or reconstruction projects involving state or local public facilities, private nonprofit facilities, and owner-occupied private residences following a major disaster. Simply put, for more than thirty years Congress has held on a bipartisan basis that national recovery from severe natural disasters must take precedence over matters of locally prevailing wages in the construction industry.
Suspension of Davis-Bacon to facilitate the rebuilding of the devastated Gulf Coast was the right judgment call. Hurricane Katrina stands as the worst natural disaster in our nation's history. As public and private resources are marshalled at unprecedented levels to assist its victims, now is the time to put aside matters of political self-interest and instead focus on rebuilding as a nation. No one could rationally argue that the victims of hurricane should be forced to wait for months, if not years, in temporary shelters while the Washington labor union bosses flex their special interest muscles. Congress built into the Davis-Bacon Act the power to set aside its prevailing wage provisions at times of the most dire of national emergencies -- even the most selfish union apologists must agree that the victims of Hurricane Katrina deserve such consideration at this moment.
Although you and I may disagree regarding this matter, I hope that you will continue to write and share your thoughts with me.
Remember, Taylor was the <$NoAd$>guy who couldn't come up with a straight story for his constituents about whether or not he cast a vote on CAFTA.
--Josh Marshall
We'll be having more on this shortly. But as you may know, the wife of yesterday's arrestee, David Safavian, is chief counsel for investigations for Rep. Tom Davis's Committee on Government Reform.
Here's her December 9th, 2003 recusal letter. This was when President Bush appointed Safavian to his job at OMB. Another interesting question is what the plan was when he was at GSA.
--Josh Marshall
Unfortunate (from a reader trying to get word about her representatives' stance on the Gulf Coast Wage Cut) ...
This is the first time I've ever contacted my congressional representatives' offices, and I can't believe how frustrating it is. I haven't been able to get a straight answer on Schakowsky, Obama, or Durbin. These are hard-core Democrats--it shouldn't be that vexing of an issue. But the people who answer the phones don't have a clue what I'm talking about, and they don't offer to forward me to someone who does. If anything, they say they'll take my comments and pass those on--hardly reassuring when they don't have the slightest idea about the issue to begin with.This is experience is kind of depressing. It's making me realize how little influence we mere citizens really have.
Can we do <$NoAd$>better?
--Josh Marshall
Anti-Gulf Coast Wage Cut Republicans?
As we reported yesterday, Reps. Ferguson (R-NJ) and Capito (R-WV) seem to be leading up the list of Wage Cut Wigglers, members of Congress unwilling to give their constituents any clear answer on whether or not they support the president's Gulf Coast Wage Cut.
But Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) is circulating a letter among House Republicans calling on the president to rescind the Wage Cut.
TPM Reader MDT found out about the letter this morning when he called the office of Rep. James Walsh (R-NY), whose staffer said the congressman was planning to sign.
We're waiting to hear more from Rep. LoBiondo's office. We'll let you know when we hear.
Is your Rep. a Wiggler? Let us know.
--Josh Marshall
House-Senate Katrina probe dies as Dems refuse to participate in GOP-controlled probe.
Mammalian biologists cite development as new evidence for late-stage testiculogenesis.
--Josh Marshall
Yep, it was already pretty obvious. But if you want any more evidence that the feds are trying to flip David Safavian, check out this new AP story.
--Josh Marshall
Imagine that.
From Government Executive magazine, June 14th, 2004 ...
"He doesn't have a lot of background in procurement, so the hope is that he's a good learner," says Steven Kelman, who served as federal procurement administrator in the Clinton administration. "I don't know where David Safavian comes out on [acquisition reform]," says Allan Burman, another former procurement chief. Angela Styles, who held the top acquisition post until last September, says Safavian has "no apparent philosophy" on procurement issues. The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee approved Safavian's nomination on June 2.
(ed.note: Thanks to TPM Reader CF.)
--Josh Marshall
More info on Safavian, the man of the hour.
Also, for future reference, keep this in mind. It was little mentioned, but those Katrina emergency funding bills included a host of made-to-order crony-empowerment(aka: contracting deregulation and streamlining) provisions courtesy of Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) that haven't yet gotten much play.
More on this to come.
--Josh Marshall
Oh that's a good sign.
The Office of Federal Procurement Policy <$NoAd$> handles procurement policy for the White House's Office of Management and Budget.
Until Friday the Administrator of the office was David Hossein Safavian.
Today he was arrested on a three count indictment.
This, from the DOJ press release ...
David Hossein Safavian was arrested today based on a three- count criminal complaint filed at federal court in Washington, D.C. The complaint charges Safavian with making false statements to a GSA ethics officer and the GSA-OIG, along with obstruction of a GSA-OIG investigation.The affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint alleges that from May 16, 2002 until January 10, 2004, Safavian served as Chief of Staff at the GSA. During that time he allegedly aided a Washington D.C. lobbyist in the lobbyist's attempts to acquire GSA-controlled property in and around Washington, D.C. In August 2002, this lobbyist allegedly took Safavian and others on a golf trip to Scotland.
The false statement and obstruction of the investigation charges relate to Safavian's statements to a GSA ethics officer and the GSA-OIG that the lobbyist had no business with GSA prior to the August 2002 golf trip. According to the affidavit, Safavian concealed the fact that the lobbyist had business before GSA prior to the August 2002 golf trip, and that Safavian was aiding the lobbyist in his attempts to do business with GSA.
Did I mention that before he signed on with the Bush administration Safavian worked for Jack Abramoff at Preston Gates?
Well, he did. Now reread those three grafs and see if they read any different. Golf trip to Scotland? Right. Small world.
He's also a former business partner of Grover Norquist.
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase 'flip-flop'.
--Josh Marshall
Campaign for America's Future has set up a special section of its website with more information about the Gulf Coast Wage Cut and help sending your member of Congress a letter letting them know whether you're for or against.
--Josh Marshall
We're working now on putting together our first list of confirmed Wage Cut Wigglers. But it seems Rep. Mike Ferguson (R-NJ) is going to be pretty near the top of the list.
Back on Friday, we got this note from TPM Reader SF ...
I just called the DC office of Congressman Mike Ferguson (R - NJ7), my rep (unfortunately) and asked "does the congressman support the suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act of 1931 as it relates to the reconstruction in New Orleans" and was told "this is an area of deep concern for the congressman - he's working now to make sure that the suspension is only temporary." "How temporary?" I asked. "Well, that's the million dollar question, and we're working really hard on that right now."My take is that he supports the suspension and this is the PR response. Of COURSE it's temporary - as soon as the reconstruction of New Orleans is complete the suspension will be lifted.
As SF says<$Ad$>, of course it's temporary. The president has no authority to permanently bar enforcement of the law. However long the Wage Cut stays in effect, it will always be by definition 'temporary'.
So this is just more attempted bamboozlement.
Later, SF is now in touch with DumpMike.com and the site is trying to see if any other Ferguson constituents have had any better luck getting a straight answer out of his office.
We put in a call this morning too. But no one was available to speak with us. And we were invited to leave a voice mail which so far hasn't been returned.
So have you heard from Ferguson's office? Has he come up with a position yet?
--Josh Marshall
No wigglin' from Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA)! He's a down-the-line Gulf Coast Wage Cut man.
From his press press, says Pitts: "Simply put, absent the suspension of Davis-Bacon, the Gulf Coast's entry-level workers would not have been able to work on projects that they were funding with their own tax dollars. Everyone deserves the opportunity to help put back together their homes, lives, and livelihoods."
--Josh Marshall
Great new way discovered to make it harder for poor and elderly to vote!
--Josh Marshall
TPM Reader RB tells us that Rep. Todd Akin's office (R-MO) is telling constituents that the Gulf Coast Wage Cut is standard operating procedure after a natural disaster. As far as we can tell, that's a crock since the Davis-Bacon Act has only been suspended in response to a natural disaster once since it was enacted in 1931. That was by the president's father in 1992 in response to Hurricane Andrew -- and that mainly because he needed to appeal to right-wingers in the lead-up to the election. (For those of you who are too young. Believe me, it was a different day.)
In any case, that's not standard operating procedure. At best it's a congenital predisposition. Who else has heard from Rep. Akin? Has his staff given you the same line?
--Josh Marshall
ABC's The Note, still dumb as a door post ...
The press and the Democrats are still demonizing Karl Rove's involvement in anything and everything, expressing shock and horror that a deputy White House chief of staff with wide-ranging applicable experience is helping to oversee the Katrina response.
Then there's Kurtz at the Post ...
Delmar, N.Y.: Has their been an official announcement from the White House that Karl Rove is in charge of the Gulf reconstruction efforts? If not why have their been some reports such as from Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo website that this is the case? If it is true where is the outrage? Rove's qualification as a political operative who is currently under scurtiny in the Plame matter would seem to make him as qualified to oversee reconstruction as Michael Brown was to be head of FEMA.Howard Kurtz: Whatever you think of Rove, that strikes me as unfair. He's a political guy, sure, but he's the deputy chief of staff and was involved in the substance of almost all major domestic issues in the first term. The symbolism of naming Rove might be a problem, since he is a divisive symbol, but in terms of policy he's no Michael Brown.
One other note, George Stephanopoulos <$NoAd$>seems to be the only member of our list from last week to raise the Rove question.
He got a standard party-line response from George Will. But, hey, he tried.
--Josh Marshall
Back in April, when asked about her position on Social Security privatization, West Virginia Representative Shelley Moore Capito (R) told Knight-Ridder news service, "I'm glad I'm undecided. I don't want to react to something that's never going to come down the pike."
She seems ready to make a similar profile in courage on the president's Gulf Coast Wage Cut.
This morning one of our readers gave us the heads up that Capito's office was telling callers that she doesn't have a position on the Wage Cut but is "open to listening." One reader was told that it was okay to temporarily roll back wages since this would spur business to invest in rebuilding. I'm not sure whether that makes much sense since what we're talking about is rebuilding by federal contractors -- though I suppose you could argue that there'd be a ripple effect out into private sector efforts.
In any case, TPM just put in a call to Capito's office in Washington, DC. And sure enough, she's a finger in the wind. A Capito representative told us that Rep. Capito has "not taken a position [on the Wage Cut] but is in the process of formulating one."
Is your Rep. gettin' wiggly on the Wage Cut too? Let us know.
--Josh Marshall
Weaselhood in the water?
We're getting in emails from readers who have contacted their members of Congress to find out whether they are supporting or opposing President Bush's Gulf Coast Wage Cut. And let's just say a lot of them seem to be getting some pretty wiggly answers.
One of the favorite answers from swing-district Republicans has them saying they're 'concerned' about it and want to make sure it's temporary.
That's some Grade A government-issue bamboozlement.
Sort of like, they want to make sure there isn't a permanent state of emergency in Mississip and Louisiana from now until the end of time.
Of course the suspension is temporary. It has to be temporary. It can last for a long time. And I'm sure the president wants it to. But he has no power to permanently overturn the law in the area. So the whole, 'we're going to try to make sure it's only temporary' line is just mumbojumbo.
--Josh Marshall
As we announced last Friday, tell us where your member of Congress stands on President Bush's Gulf Coast Wage Cut, we're makin' a list.
Send us what you're hearing. Anybody have an update on Sherry Boehlert? How about Shelley Moore Capito? Heather Wilson?
Virgil Goode was an early member of the Social Security Conscience Caucus. But after he got outed as a prime recipient of cash from Duke Cunningham's sugar daddy, Mitchell Wade, it's all been downhill from there. He was actually one of the thirty-two members of the House who wrote President Bush begging for the Wage Cut back on September 7th.
--Josh Marshall
TPM is looking for a new web intern who’ll be responsible for various aspects of on-going site design, site maintenance, assistance administering the TPM community site, TPMCafe, and work on our various projects like the TPM Document Collection, the Katrina Timeline, and our new tracking of which members of Congress are supporting President Bush’s Gulf Coast Wage Cut.
From past experience, the ideal candidate is likely a college student or recent college grad. But we’re interested in hearing from anyone who has ten to fifteen hours a week to work on the site, is an enthusiastic reader of TPM and/or TPMCafe and has at least a basic knowledge web site design and maintenance skills. Reliability and dependability are key.
This is an unpaid internship. But you’ll get lots of hands on experience working on one of the oldest and most-read political blogs in the country. If you’re interested and/or have questions, send us an email at the comments address on the upper left hand sidebar and include the subject line ‘TPM Web Intern’.
--Josh Marshall
It's been light posting here over the weekend. But this week we're going to be digging in to the president's Gulf Coast Wage Cut and trying to find out where everyone stands on the issue.
We'll be bringing you more details on how we'll be running the project hopefully this evening and no later than tomorrow morning.
But if you've already been able to find out where your member of Congress stands on the Gulf Coast Wage Cut, send us a note at the regular comments email address on the left. Maybe you called their office and asked, or saw some mention in the paper or a press release on their website. Whatever, let us know what you've heard. We want to know who's for the Wage Cut and who was against it. We've already heard reports of some pretty squirrelly answers from some of the usual characters. So more on that later.
--Josh Marshall
