The Daily Muck

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Senator and presidential contender Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) threat to filibuster a bill giving immunity to telecom companies that helped the government surveil Americans prevailed Monday, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid decided to postpone the vote on the measure until after the winter recess. The bill would have freed telecoms like AT&T and Verizon from 40-odd lawsuits pending against them in federal court. (Washington Post)

Mike Huckabee, author of the 1988 book Kids Who Kill: Confronting Our Culture of Violence, is facing new scrutiny over allegations that one of his sons was “involved in the hanging of a stray dog at a Boy Scout camp in 1998.” At the time, many people called for an investigation of the incident but the director of Arkansas’s state police told Newsweek that then Governor Huckabee’s chief of staff and personal lawyer pressured him to write a letter officially denying the local prosecutor’s request. (Newsweek)

During his leadership of Bain Capital, Mitt Romney helped investors utilize shell companies in two offshore tax havens to avoid paying their share of U.S. taxes. While the candidate received no personal tax benefits, his tax scheme, which included opening a company in Bermuda that had no office or staff, helped attract billions more investment dollars and increased his personal profits. (LA Times)

A Pentagon report expected today “will accuse Iran of continuing to funnel weapons and training personnel into Iraq.” This assertion will fuel controversy (sub. req.) over the role of Iran in supporting violence and instability in Iraq. The report will also note a decline in violence in Iraq, but “note that Iraq’s political environment remains unsettled.” (Wall Street Journal)

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is accused of weakening his own ethics panel by revising rules so that “a review panel can only consider matters referred to it by two of the department’s top officials.” The move surprised and disappointed critics because it follows a “series of ethics violations at the department, including the conviction of former Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles, who was sentenced to 10 months in prison for lying to senators in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.” (Star Tribune)

Senate Democrats are delicately exploring ways to replace Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee because he may not be physically strong enough for the job. There is “broad discontent” among committee members about Byrd’s management and inability to get important fiscal work completed. (Politico)

A massive new spending bill, all 3,565 pages, is being stuffed full of pork for the holidays. In the Homeland Security section legislators have included 115 new earmarks worth $117 million that are intended to help a few vulnerable Democrats. (The Hill)

In the wake of the scandalous Abramoff golf outing to Scotland, new ethics rules have restricted free travel for members of Congress. However, significant loopholes allow “groups with foreign policy agendas” to jet lawmakers around the globe. Organizations promoting Israel, China and Turkey, all of whom have been “mired in human rights and trade controversies,” were among the biggest trip sponsors this year. (Politico)

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