Lubrigate: Interior Dept. Gaffe Led to Billions Lost
“A top Interior Department official was told nearly three years ago about a legal blunder that allowed drilling companies to avoid billions of dollars in payments for oil and gas pumped from publicly owned waters, a report by the departmentâs chief independent investigator has found.” (The New York Times)
Gonzales: We Want Judges who Drink the Kool-Aid
Yesterday, Attorney General Alberton Gonzales delivered a speech on the judiciary and the war on terror to the American Enterprise Institute. Gonzales explained that, in nominating a federal judge, the Bush administration wants “to determine whether he understands the inherent limits that make an unelected judiciary inferior to Congress or the president in making policy judgments.” He continued: “That, for example, a judge will never be in the best position to know what is in the national-security interests of our country.” (AP)
Ethics Bills Stalls in Senate
Ethics legislation will have to wait, at least for now, after “a procedural question turned into a feud between the Democratic and Republican leaders, each accusing the other of failing to address a major theme of the fall elections.” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will ask for another vote this afternoon, but if it fails again he will set the bill aside. At issue is a “Republican proposal to include in the ethics bill a version of a presidential line-item veto, a provision that Mr. Reid said was irrelevant to ethics.” (The New York Times)
Dems’ Package Could Raise $15 Billion for Energy Research
“Newly empowered House Democrats are optimistic they can push through an energy package of $15 billion in fees, taxes and royalties on oil and gas companies,” and plan on shifting the funds to renewable-energy programs. (AP)
Dems Oppose Spouse Lobbying Ban
“A proposal by Sen. David Vitter, R-La., that would ban senators’ spouses from lobbying the chamber has triggered intense debate with key senators such as [Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.] and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., promising to oppose it if it affects senators already married to lobbyists.” (USA Today)
Ousted Republican Lawmakers Won’t Go Hungry
It may have been a tough fall for Republicans, but many of the lawmakers leaving government can at least look forward to fatter paychecks. Dick Armey â the former House Republican leader who is no stranger to this transition â estimated that former members of Congress who take new jobs can expect their salaries to jump from $165,200 to between $250,000 and $2 million. (Bloomberg News)
House Subcommittee to Address Media Ownership
A new House subcommittee chaired by Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) will “turn its oversight to a range of government agencies, particularly the Federal Communications Commission,” Kucinich announced Friday. The committee “will hold holdings criticizing the FCC on the issue of media ownership.” (The Center for Public Integrity)
DoD Refusing to Reveal Iraqi Army’s Readiness
Comptroller General David M. Walker said Wednesday that the Defense Department “has not complied with repeated Government Accountability Office requests for evaluations of Iraqi troop preparedness, known as transitional readiness assessments.” (GovExec.com)
Dems Want to Grill Bremer
Democrats are hoping Paul Bremer, former head of Iraq’s Coalition Provisional Authority, will answer some questions about the earlier phases of the occupation. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Cali.), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, “sent a letter to Bremer [yesterday] asking that he testify before the panel on Feb. 6.” (WSJ’s Washington Wire)
The Jury’s Still Out on These Prospective Jurors
The Scooter Libby trial’s jury selection proceedings are underway, and some of the potential jurors have proven entertainingly clueless. One, “a young woman with degrees from Swarthmore and Emory University[,] said she had no opinion about the Bush Administrationâs case for war with Iraq.” She made it to the next round, and the judge instructed her to âContinue to not listen to the news or read the paper.â (MSNBC’s Hardblogger)
Haditha Attorney Claims Pentagon Deception
An attorney for one of the Marines implicated in the Haditha massacre said “the original 2006 investigation report. . . fully cleared his client and other Marines of wrongdoing.” (Reuters)
Marine to Plead Guilty
“A Marine corporal has agreed to plead guilty to unpremeditated murder in the death of an Iraqi man last year.” (AP)
