Reid Does His Own “Dead-of-Night” Legislation
“Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, who has pledged to stop ‘dead-of-night legislating,’ did a little of his own in the final hours of this year’s congressional session.
“Reid slipped two home state projects into the last major bill Congress passed last week: a transfer of federal land in Nevada to state and private control that’s almost two-thirds the size of Rhode Island; and a $4 million grant for a hospice. Neither had been approved by any congressional committee.
“Reid said the land measure will help Las Vegas and other cities in his state grow and the hospice money rights a flawed Medicare ruling. One senator and some government watchdog groups criticized the actions, pointing to promises by Reid and the new Democratic majority in Congress to change a lawmaking process known for targeted funding and secretive deals.
“‘Doing anything last minute shoved into an irrelevant measure â that’s exactly what Harry Reid said he was going to stop,’ said Steve Ellis, vice president of programs at Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based nonprofit that monitors government spending. ‘It goes against the grain of transparency and openness.'” (Bloomberg)
Incoming Dem Chairmen Ready to Investigate
“Incoming Democratic committee chairmen say they will hold a series of hearings and investigations early next year to build the case for their call for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and for possible action against defense contractors found to have wasted billions in federal funds.
“The emerging plans to grill administration officials on the conduct of the war are part of a pledge for more aggressive congressional oversight on issues such as prewar intelligence, prisoner treatment at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, and the government’s use of warrantless wiretaps.
“Among the most eager incoming chairmen is Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), a lawyer with a professor’s demeanor and a prosecutor’s doggedness. As head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Levin, 72, will be his party’s point man on the Iraq war and on the Democrats’ call to begin withdrawing troops in the coming months.” (WaPo)
Half of Gitmo Detainees Now Free
“Thirty-three detainees who had been held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were returned to their home countries over the past week, part of a government effort to reduce the facility’s population to a core group of terrorism suspects who could be held indefinitely. . . .
“According to Pentagon figures, approximately 380 detainees have departed Guantanamo for at least 29 countries since 2002, meaning the facility’s current population represents slightly more than half of the suspects captured and transferred to U.S. custody in Cuba. An additional 85 detainees are slated for transfer or release to their home nations pending the outcome of diplomatic discussions. Their departure would leave the number of detainees at Guantanamo at about 310.” (WaPo)
Gitmo Conditions Get Tougher
“After two years in which the military sought to manage terrorism suspects at Guantánamo with incentives for good behavior, steady improvements in their living conditions and even dialogue with prison leaders, the authorities here have clamped down decisively in recent months.
“Security procedures have been tightened. Group activities have been scaled back. With the retrofitting of Camp 6 and the near-emptying of another showcase camp for compliant prisoners, military officials said about three-fourths of the detainees would eventually be held in maximum-security cells. That is a stark departure from earlier plans to hold a similar number in medium-security units.
“Officials said the shift reflected the militaryâs analysis â after a series of hunger strikes, a riot last May and three suicides by detainees in June â that earlier efforts to ease restrictions on the detainees had gone too far.
“The commander of the Guantánamo task force, Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., said the tougher approach also reflected the changing nature of the prison population, and his conviction that all of those now held here are dangerous men. ‘Theyâre all terrorists; theyâre all enemy combatants,’ Admiral Harris said in an interview.” (NYTimes)
Bush-Congress Confrontation Looms Over Domestic Spying
“Federal agents continue to eavesdrop on Americans’ electronic communications without warrants a year after President Bush confirmed the practice, and experts say a new Congress’ efforts to limit the program could trigger a constitutional showdown.
“High-ranking Democrats set to take control of both chambers are mulling ways to curb the program Bush secretly authorized a month after the Sept. 11 attacks. The White House argues the Constitution gives the president wartime powers to eavesdrop that he wouldn’t have during times of peace.
“‘As a practical matter, the president can do whatever he wants as long as he has the capacity and executive branch officials to do it,’ said Carl Tobias, a legal scholar at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
“Lawmakers could impeach or withhold funding, or quash judicial nominations, among other measures.
“The president, however, can veto legislation, including a law demanding the National Security Agency obtain warrants before monitoring communications. Such a veto would force Congress to muster a two-thirds vote to override.” (AP)
Judge Might Hold Hearing On Padilla Treatment
“A federal judge in Miami will soon make one of the most important rulings in the Bush administration’s war on terrorism and decide whether to publicly explore evidence that an accused terrorist was brutally mistreated for years inside a one-man isolation cell.
“The allegations involve Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen once portrayed as one of the most dangerous Al Qaeda operatives ever arrested. Padilla’s lawyers have asked U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke to set him free because of the abuse they say he suffered.
“Though federal judges rarely dismiss criminal charges before trial, the allegations are so extreme that they may prompt Cooke to hold a pretrial hearing in what would be the first public court examination into how detainees were handled after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“Padilla’s lawyers also hope to shut down his case by proving that his incarceration as an ‘enemy combatant’ at a Navy brig for more than three years without charges had left him incompetent to stand trial.
“Any hearing before the trial, scheduled for next month, could prove explosive, as defense lawyers are leaning toward putting Padilla on the witness stand. That too would be a first â a Sept. 11-era detainee testifying about his treatment.” (L.A. Times)
Snow: Bush Will Join Dems On Earmark Cuts
“Setting priorities for next year, the White House said Friday President Bush will push to cut back on the thousands of home-state projects that lawmakers slip into spending bills.
“Democrats who will take control of Congress in January already have pledged to rein in the projects, known as ‘earmarks,’ which exploded in number under Republican control of Congress over the last 12 years.
“‘It’s important that when you have a budget process, that things are not tucked in without consideration by members of Congress,’ presidential spokesman Tony Snow said.
“Snow suggested that budget reform was an area where Bush and the Democrats could cooperate after years of growing hostility and suspicion. It is expected to be one of the subjects raised by Bush in his State of the Union address in late January.
“Snow said there should be ‘a concerted effort to cut down’ on earmarks ‘to allow people to have full confidence that everything that’s in the budget, that their money is being spent in a way that reflects deliberation by members of Congress.'” (AP)
Bush Puts Forth Earmark Reform Plan
“President Bush said Saturday that his administration will outline a series of changes that would clamp down on the common Capitol Hill practice of slipping pet projects into spending bills.
“These projects, called earmarks, are spending provisions that often are put into bills at the last minute, so they never get debated or discussed, Bush said in his weekly radio address.
“‘It is not surprising that this often leads to unnecessary federal spending, such as a swimming pool or a teapot museum tucked into a big spending bill,’ he said.
“The president said his administration’s proposal would make earmarks more transparent, make lawmakers more accountable for the earmarks they propose, and help reduce the overall number of earmarks.” (AP)
Coingate’s Tom Noe Seeks Appeal
“Attorneys for Tom Noe filed a notice Friday in the Ohio 6th District Court of Appeals. The paperwork did not state the grounds for the appeal.
“‘Everything that we have to say will be said in court,’ Noe’s attorney, William Wilkinson said Saturday.
“Noe was convicted last month on charges that he stole from a $50 million investment in rare coins that he managed for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. The former GOP fundraiser was sentenced to 18 years in prison and ordered to repay the state $13.7 million.
“During Noe’s trial, defense attorneys argued that Noe’s contract with the bureau give him broad authority over the funds and that prosecutors failed to prove their case.” (AP)
Interior Department Under Investiation Over Royalties
“The Justice Department has begun two criminal investigations into the Interior Departmentâs Minerals Management Service, which is already the focus of several inquiries into its collection of royalties for oil and gas produced on federal property.
“The new investigations are still in the early stages, said Congressional officials who were briefed this week by Earl E. Devaney, the Interior Departmentâs chief independent investigator.
“The investigations are an unexpected development in what has already become a broad examination of the Interior Departmentâs oversight of companies that pump more than $60 billion worth of oil and gas each year from publicly owned land and coastal waters.
“One Justice inquiry involves Interior Department officials in Denver who manage the governmentâs fast-growing program to collect ‘royalties in kind,’ which are royalties in the form of oil and gas rather than in financial payments, people briefed on the investigation said.
“That investigation is being run by the Justice Departmentâs Public Integrity Section, which examines suspected criminal violations by federal employees. The focus of the second investigation is unclear, but it is being conducted by the inspector general with help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” (NYTimes)
Obama Regrets Land Deal That Catches Him In Rezko Scandal
“Antoin ‘Tony’ Rezko is a political insider, an energetic Chicago dealmaker and campaign fundraiser often in the headlines for being on the wrong side of good government. Indicted in October on influence-peddling charges, he also has a habit of befriending prospective political stars.
“One of them was Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who was offered a job by Rezko in the early 1990s while a top student at Harvard Law School. Obama did not take it, but over the years, the two men stayed in touch, and Rezko backed Obama’s successful 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, raising money and contributing his own.
“In June 2005, in what Obama now describes as a ‘boneheaded’ mistake, Obama and Rezko’s wife bought adjacent properties on Chicago’s South Side, closing the deals on the same day. Seven months later, wanting a bigger yard for his $1.65 million house, Obama bought a slice of the Rezko property for $104,500.
“After news of the deal broke last month in the Chicago Tribune, Obama said he had erred by creating the appearance that Rezko had done him a favor by selling him a portion of the lot. For the first time since he entered the national spotlight, the 45-year-old freshman senator found himself on the defensive, discussing a personal decision he had come to regret.” (WaPo)
DeLay: Redistricting Still Worth It â It Sunk Martin Frost
“DeLay still defends his hard-fought redistricting plan, at the root of so many of his problems, saying recently in a published report that redistricting succeeded because it ‘made a political has-been out of Martin Frost.’
“And what does Frost, of Dallas, a former Democratic congressman who represented portions of Tarrant County for 26 years, have to say about that?
“‘I look forward to the day when Tom DeLay gets to spend some time as a guest of the government,’ Frost said. DeLay is under indictment in Texas on charges of violating state election laws, and his former aides and associates have pleaded guilty to corruption in the Justice Departmentâs ongoing Jack Abramoff investigation.
“‘Thereâs a very fine federal facility in southeast Fort Worth,’ Frost, now a lobbyist, said with a chuckle of the prison in his former district. ‘That would be the ultimate irony.'” (Star-Telegram)
