The Daily Muck

Reps. Murtha (D-PA), Moran (D-VA) and Visclosky (D-IN) have a friend in PMA. The three lawmakers have made the group their lobbyist firm of choice, steering over $100 million in earmarks to PMA clients this year. Meanwhile, the firm and its clients now represent one quarter of the three representatives’ fundraising money, bringing in over $500,000 in campaign contributions. (Roll Call)

The New Republic has an article on Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour (R) entitled “The K Street evil genius who took over Mississippi,” which encapsulates the story nicely. Disregard the disturbing cartoon of Barbour and dive into an examination of the GOP political machine that made a national lobbyist into a rural Governor (who thought he was still a national lobbyist). (TNR)

Iraq has joined an “elite club”, of weapons buyers from the U.S. According to General Petraeus, Iraq has agreed to buy $1.6 billion in arms with the “possibility of up to $1.8 billion more.” Critics of Iraq policy, already aware of the nearly 200,000 weapons that went missing under Petraeus’ watch in 2004-05, warn that “a war zone flooded with weapons that could be turned on U.S. soldiers, or supply huge firepower for a full-blown civil war.” (Salon)

Break out the Congressional district map, the TPMmuckraker archives, and a whole lot of gambling money. It’s time to guess who made CREW’s 3rd annual list of the 22 most corrupt members of Congress. Just in case you can’t quite remember which scandal goes with which lawmaker, there’s a rundown for each member on the list. (CREW)

The Justice Department never charged Chiquita executives for buying protection from both right wing and left wing terrorist groups, but yesterday the company paid its first
$5 million installment of a $25 million fine. Chiquita’s plea agreement also placed the company on five years probation and has forced it to establish an internal ethics training program. (McClatchy)

There’s one group who is benefiting from Congress’ new ethics reforms: lawyers. As the rules get more complicated, lawmakers increasingly rely on the advice of experts in exciting topics like campaign finance. Lobbyists too are looking for legal love as the rules for what can and cannot be done to court a member of Congress have become more convoluted. (The Politico)

“Freedom’s Watch,” a conservative group founded by former Bush officials is being sued by the conservative activist Larry Klayman. Klayman is concerned that a name that he copyrighted several years ago (Freedom Watch) is being used “for something that promotes chaos” and not freedom. (ABC News)

Bush has promised to veto the extension of a bill that provides terrorism insurance for major buildings and projects. But local officials in New York are worried that without it, they won’t be able to rebuild the World Trade Center. (NY Times)

John McCain is growing! Well, at least on Wikipedia, which has has logged hundreds of suspect entries from Senate offices. Suddenly, the Arizona senator has risen from 5’7” to 5’9″ and “negative-sounding” language in the profiles of Senators Biden and Feinstein has been “tinkered with. Wikipedia suspects “summer help,” like the interns who noted that “Sen. Martinez now has a talented group of interns.” (CQ.com)

Here’s one way to cut down on spending. Bush is using his Cabinet secretaries to fight Congress’ funding. In efforts to bone up his small-government credentials (about six years too late), the President is having his secretaries write to the legislature asking that their departments not receive funds in excess of Bush’s budget. Never mind that this Congress is seeking $22 billion over budget while last year’s obtained an extra $55 billion without a peep from the President. This is a principled stand. (NY Times)