The Daily Muck

Larry Craig’s poorly executed bathroom sex may be a case of first impression for the Senate Ethics Committee, but a recent ACLU brief notes that the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled 38 years ago that people who have sex in closed stalls in public restrooms “have a reasonable expectation of privacy.” The ACLU brief, filed on Craig’s behalf, asserts that “the government cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Senator Craig was inviting the undercover officer to engage in anything other than sexual intimacy that would not have called attention to itself in a closed stall in the public restroom.” (Boston Globe)

Representative Ted Poe (R-TX) is furious that he and other lawmakers cannot get an answer from the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding its handling of the case of the woman who says she was raped and sexually assaulted by KBR/Halliburton employees in the Green Zone. So far, DOJ has not filed any charges and has failed to prosecute a similar case in which the accused assailant confessed to physically harassing behavior. Democratic Senators Daniel Akaka (HI), Barack Obama (IL), and Jon Tester (MT) have joined Poe in demanding answers from Michael Mukasey. (ABC’s “The Blotter”)

Tomorrow a federal judge will hear arguments to decide whether Las Vegas casinos can be used as caucus sites in the Democratic primary in Nevada later this week. If permitted, the caucusing on the strip will undoubtedly boost the turnout of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226, which has endorsed Barack Obama. The Nevada State Teachers Union and other plaintiffs in the suit (who support Hillary Clinton) against caucuses on the strip, allege that the plan creates a “preferred a class of voters.” The suit has led to charges that the Clinton campaign is attempting to suppress the voter turnout. (Washington Post)

Just last year the Mississippi Republican congressman Roger Wicker, who will now ascend to Trent Lott’s vacated senate seat, secured a $6 million earmark for the defense contractor Aurora Flight Science. That contractor’s executives just happen to be top contributors to Wicker and Wicker’s former chief of staff John Keast was the lobbyist who brokered the deal between Wicker and Aurora. Keast joined Aurora as a lobbyist just days after leaving the Wicker’s office. (Washington Post)

The office conducting oversight over nearly $4 billion in Iraq war contracts has been moved from Kuwait to Illinois. The Army says that the move is part of a larger project to reorganize the Kuwait office, which had been linked to corruption. (AP)

Conservative activist Linda Chavez is shutting down (sub. req.) her Republican fundraising operations. Chavez’s organizations have faced questions recently after the Washington Post reported last year that very little of the money they raised actually went to candidates. (Roll Call)

Lawyers in a suit against Massey Energy have filed a motion asking that Chief Justice Elliott E. Maynard of the West Virginia Supreme Court disqualify himself from the case because he met with Massey’s chief executive several times while on vacation in Monte Carlo in 2006, when Massey was in the process of appealing a $50 million jury verdict against them. Maynard later voted in favor of the coal company in a 3-to-2 decision. (New York Times)

Lobbying firm Anchor Consulting doesn’t just help its clients gain funding for their projects from Congress, it sometimes finds funding (sub. req.) for projects its clients previously had not planned to carry out. Roll Call reports that Anchor Consulting helped Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) send a request for an earmark for a program linking Grace College in Indiana with the Ventura County Office of Education (VCOE) before some of the VCOE had even been made aware of the project. (Roll Call)

A federal court has ruled that the Clinton-bashing “film” “Hilary: The Movie,” is really a an extended campaign ad and the conservative group (Citizens United) must follow campaign finance laws if it chooses to run the advertisement during the primary season. (LA Times)

Companies that served as suppliers to Enron, Health South, and other corporations that defrauded investors won a major victory in the Supreme Court yesterday. The court’s 5-3 decision makes it more difficult for investors to sue the suppliers of companies that engaged in fraud under the theory that they participated in a “scheme to defraud.” The case, which involved a cable company, had divided the Security and Exchange Commission and the White House. (Financial Times)