The Lie of the Mobile Labs
A secret team of experts dispatched by the Pentagon reported conclusively that two trailers captured in the early days of the Iraq war could not have been used as “biological laboratories,” but the Bush administration repeated the false claim for more than a year, the Washington Post reports this morning. They give a great timeline.
The CIA wouldn’t talk to the Post‘s Joby Warrick for the story. Also mum: former CIA director and Medal of Freedom recipient George “Slam Dunk” Tenet, who continued to push his analysts’ trumped-up mobile labs theory as “plausible” even after David Kay’s Iraq Survey Group debunked the myth — a second time — a year after the secret group filed its report.
We assume this was all “in the public interest.” (Washington Post)
Phone Jamming-o-Rama
So, let’s review.
Monday, the AP reported that the White House had received hundreds of calls from the RNC’s James Tobin in the weeks preceding and following the crime on Election Day, 2002. (AP)
On Election Day, Tobin called the White House shortly after speaking with the NH GOP for the first time that day. (TPMm)
A NH GOP strategist called the White House that day after earlier consulting two attorneys. (TPMm)
Howard Dean called on the RNC’s Ken Mehlman to identify the staffer who was receiving these calls. (TPMm)
The number at the White House belonged to Alicia Davis, the White House’s regional political director at the time. (TMMm)
Ken Mehlman has denied that any of his staffers discussed the jamming with Tobin or anyone else. (TPMm, AP)
Josh wants to know if Mehlman will issue a similar blanket denial for staffers at the RNC and RNSC. (TPM)
Jack Abramoff might have been involved. (TPMm)
The Hotline thinks this is all much ado about nothing. (Hotline)
AP Gets More Abramoff Emails
The emails show Jack Abramoff’s team maneuvering to get their client, the Michigan Saginaw Chippewa, $3 million to fund a school building project over the objection of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) and Rep. Charles Taylor (R-N.C.) ended up being the tribe’s champion. (AP)
Kaloogian, We Hardly Knew Ye
GOP candidate Howard Kaloogian pulled in fewer than 10,000 votes to finish a disappointing fourth in the special election to fill the Congressional seat vacated by Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who’s now in federal prison. We don’t normally fall for such scoundrels, but Kaloogian won a spot in our hearts with endearing antics like misidentifying photos of a war zone, misrepresenting his trip to Iraq and claiming political endorsements he never received.
Democrat Francine Busby won a plurality of the vote, and will face top GOP vote-getter Brian Bilbray in a June runoff election. (San Diego Union-Tribune, LA Times)
Hillary Delivers for Contributor
Think Hillary is too liberal to run for president? Fear not — she’s just as capable of serving corporate interests as the next lawmaker, the New York Times reveals this morning. New York-based Corning Inc. has contributed $137,000 to Hillary’s 2006 campaign, and gotten big favors in return, from government contracts to relaxed tariffs overseas. (NYTimes)
The K Street Project (All Rights Reserved)
Grover Norquist is sick of GOPers and others besmirching the K Street Project’s good name, so he’s filed a trademark request. With such protection, Norquist says he’ll be able to “sue anyone who says it wrong and make lots of money.” (The Hill, TPM)
Abramoff, the CNMI, and Guam – National Security Implications
For a number of years, Jack Abramoff successfully stifled a federal report that showed that the lax immigration standards of the Northern Mariana Islands was a national security risk. (GuamPDN)
Cannon’s Ties to Abramoff and Gambling Industry
The Salt Lake Tribune reports on old Abramoff pal Rep. Chris Cannon’s (R-UT) ties to David Safavian and the gambling industry. Cannon is opposing the current push to pass the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. (SLT)
The Alaska Native Shell Game
The Government Accountability Office reviewed 16 no-bid contracts awarded to Alaska Native corporations, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and thinks it smells something. We agree. Here’s what stinks: Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) writes into law provisions making it easy to give no-bid contracts to ANCs, as they’re called, because they’re “small and disadvantaged.” Major contractors set up deals with shell companies run by Alaska natives; those companies win the no-bid contracts, and subcontract just about all of the work to the major contractors. (AP)
In Other Muck
A Democratic Congressman sounds the alarm on what he sees as the next Dubai ports deal. . .(link)
IBM secretly collaborated with the Treasury Department to draft rules on pension plans, the Wall Street Journal reports. At the same time, IBM was involved in a lawsuit over its pension plan. And lawmakers were considering whether to restrict Treasury’s ability to make rules that would overturn an earlier federal court ruling against Big Blue. . . (link)
The Hill‘s Elana Schor visits a meeting of tomorrow’s lobbyists…(link)
Covered Yesterday
Kentucky Lawmaker Won’t Cough Up Dirty Dough…(link)
Could Tom DeLay Become a Lobbyist?…(link)
