Free Republic

North Dakota Republican state legislators and officials have had no better luck than anyone else in prodding Gov. John Hoeven for hints about whether he'll run against Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan next year. Four GOP lawmakers who raised the subject in a meeting with Hoeven in his Capitol office last week said the governor gave them no hints about his plans, although one participant said he believes Hoeven will make the race. "I think he feels a responsibility to do it," said Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier. "Maybe I'm a little optimistic in my thinking, but I do believe he's giving...

Dorgan, who chairs the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee, announced a $457,000 federal Energy Department grant to study the feasibility of a new oil refinery in North Dakota. What I’ve never understood is why the Rural Electric Co-Op is getting an earmark to study an oil refinery. And on top of that, why are we spending almost a half a million of our grandchildren’s as-yet-unearned tax dollars on studying the feasibility of an oil refinery in the state ? Plus, we already have one refinery in the state and there’s another one in the works... Other than the fact...

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), one of the most committed broadcast watchdogs on Capitol Hill, is enjoying a 69% approval rating among citizens of North Dakota, despite their Republican tastes when it comes to presidential candidates. But he may be vulnerable nevertheless, if the even more popular Republican Gov. John Hoeven decides to mount a challenge. Dorgan entered the House in 1980, and moved up to the Senate in 1992. According to Politico, he has never faced a tough election. But all bets would be off if Hoeven decides to run for the seat. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has conducted...

Blanche Lincoln, AR 45% Public Policy Polling, March Barbara Boxer, CA 48% Survey USA, June 12-14 Michael Bennet, CO 34% Public Policy Polling, April 24-26 (trails Rep. Beauprez) Christopher Dodd, CO 37% Quinnipiac, April (trails several) Roland Burris, IL 17% Public Policy Polling, April 24-26 (likely to lose primary) Harry Reid, NV 34% Mason-Dixon, June 18-19 Kirsten Gillenbrand, NY 24% Marist (disapproval rating also below 50%) Byron Dorgan, ND (only poll in this red state was commissioned by DailyKOS) Also in possible danger but above 50% approval: Daniel Inouye, HI leads Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, but he'll be 86, and...

Republican Gov. John Hoeven, who has avoided questions about whether he will challenge Democrat Byron Dorgan for his U.S. Senate seat, says he is likely to decide by early September whether he will make the race. North Dakota's Republican state chairman, Gary Emineth, said he hoped to recruit Republicans to challenge Dorgan and North Dakota's Democratic congressman, Earl Pomeroy, by Labor Day, Sept. 7. Candidates against both men will need a long head start on campaigning and fundraising to improve their chances of winning, Emineth said. Hoeven, in an interview, said Emineth's goal is reasonable and said his own decision...

FOXWIRE - American citizens will soon be able to hop on a direct flight to Havana if Congress passes a bill proposed today. "This is a failed policy that has failed for 50 years and it long past the time to change the policy," said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), part of a bipartisan group of 20 senators calling for the removal of the 47-year old ban on travel to Cuba. "Punishing the American people in our effort to somehow deal a blow to the Castro government has not made any sense at all."

The western Democrats like Baucus of Montana and Dorgan and Conrad of North Dakota know that this sort of spending is utterly ruinous to an economy and a currency. Some senators like Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, up for re-election in 2010, know that the voters are recoiling from this orgy of spending already, and absent dramatic evidences of a return to growth will judge the entire enterprise a failure.

President Obama is facing his first trade war after Mexico slapped import tariffs on $2.4 billion in U.S. goods in retaliation for a ban on its trucks from American roads. Congress ignited the trade skirmish last week by killing a pilot program begun in 2007 that had allowed a few Mexican 18-wheelers to deliver goods across the border. "Right now, these trade agreements are contracts and if either side breaks that contract, there's repercussions," said Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, the top Republican on the trade subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. Economy Secretary Gerardo Ruiz Mateo imposed the...

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., met with President Barack Obama and key budget advisers Friday to discuss financial reforms and energy issues under review in Congress. Dorgan was one of four Democratic senators invited by the White House to meet with Obama and his top advisers to discuss the federal budget and other issues. Dorgan said they had "a pretty wide-ranging discussion about a good number of issues." The North Dakota senator said he raised the potential for new financial reforms and regulations to help rebuild the economy. Dorgan has sought more accountability into the expenditure of economic recovery funds and...

More than $9 trillion -- in taxpayer dollars -- has been pledged, committed, lent or spent by the federal government in response to the economic crisis. Some say that if the economy continues to deteriorate, trillions more might be necessary to prevent another Great Depression. Yet no one has investigated how this crisis happened. That is irresponsible. A comprehensive investigation is essential to prevent this from happening again.

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced critical drug importation legislation today that will reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the United States. The Senators said their legislation, the “Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act,” will bring consumers immediate relief and will ultimately force the pharmaceutical industry to lower drug prices in the United States. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would save American consumers $50 billion over the next decade, including more than $10 billion in federal government savings. The bill allows U.S.-licensed pharmacies...

Link only, per FR copyright and posting policy

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan plan to introduce legislation to create a Senate panel to investigate the causes of the financial crisis, McCain’s office said in a statement Monday. If approved, the committee would also make recommendations about how to avoid a similar crisis in the future.

The U.S. Department of Transportation will make no attempt to stop Sen. Byron Dorgan's effort to kill the Cross Border Demonstration Project, The Trucker learned Friday afternoon. Earlier this week, Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, included language in the Fiscal Year 2009 Omnibus Appropriations bill that the senator said would finally bring to an end “the Mexican long-haul trucking program in the U.S. started by the Bush Administration.” The bill, not to be confused with the stimulus package, allocates federal funds for the remainder of the fiscal year. Sources have told The Trucker that LaHood has indicated he will...

Frustration with the federal government’s response to the nation’s economic woes boiled over Saturday as a feisty crowd of about 80 people gave Sen. Byron Dorgan an earful during a town hall meeting at West Fargo City Hall. Dorgan, D-N.D., took a barrage of questions about the proposed economic recovery plan, which emerged from Senate negotiations late Friday with a new price tag of $780 billion after purging $100 billion from the House version. One person asked why the cost of the plan is so high if Congress isn’t sure it will be effective.

Dorgan Won't Be Energy Secretary Sen. Byron Dorgan is no longer under consideration to be secretary of energy in President-elect Barack Obama's administration, a decision based on a belief within the former Illinois Senator's inner circle that the North Dakota Democrat is more valuable to them where he is, according to transition officials. "Senator Dorgan would be a fantastic Energy Secretary but because he is too important as a red state senator and a powerful ally, he is best suited to help advance President-elect Obama's agenda in the Senate," said a transition official granted anonymity to speak candidly about internal...

The Obama Administration will end the Department of Transportation's cross border trucking program, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., a staunch opponent of the project, predicted Friday. "Both President-elect Obama and Vice-President-elect Biden voted to end the program in 2007, and it is expected that the new administration will uphold the intent of Congress and shut down the program in 2009," Dorgan said in a statement. The program, which allows trucks from the United States and Mexico to drive beyond commercial border zones is part of the North American Free Trade Agreement but has garnered bi-partisan criticism from lawmakers and others on...

(CNN) – Two members of the Senate’s Democratic caucus have called for Joe Lieberman to lose his committee chairmanship. On Sunday, North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan didn’t go that far — but did say the Connecticut senator’s actions during the campaign were “not acceptable,” as Republican Sen. Jon Kyl said the GOP would “welcome [Lieberman] with open arms.”

The Countrywide sixBy John Bender web posted June 16, 2008The news that former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson was one of the sleaze bags who enriched themselves with sweat heart deals on mortgages from Countrywide Financial makes it a bipartisan scandal and eliminates the slim possibility that any of them will be brought to justice.  The ruling political class doesn't like to bring its members to justice. But if one political party can gain political advantage by going after a few members of the political class who happen to be in the other party, they will grab...

A geologist who estimated the Bakken formation in western North Dakota has far more oil than the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge died before other scientists could authenticate his study. Leigh Price, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey, published a study in 1999 that estimates the Bakken shales formation, which underlies much of several western and northwestern counties, may hold up to 400 billion barrels of oil. By comparison, the Arctic refuge oil reserve is estimated at 16 billion barrels. Now, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., is pushing the federal agency to complete scientific work on Price’s paper as part of...

WASHINGTON – A senator wants Congress' investigative arm to determine whether the Transportation Department has broken the law by spending federal money on a program allowing Mexican trucks on U.S. roads. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., called for the investigation by the General Accountability Office a few hours after Transportation Secretary Mary Peters warned of economic losses if Mexican trucks are prohibited from driving deep into the U.S. Peters has been fighting in court to prevent the program's end. But Dorgan and others say Congress prohibited spending money on the program last year. “When Congress passes a law that says no...

DeLaney said it should be noted there is no requirement for a demonstration program at all. "We are committed to incremental steps in demonstrating the safety of the cross-border program, but there is no requirement to have a demonstration program," she said. Dorgan's office says a demonstration program is "not needed if they are not interested in demonstrating safety to the American public."

Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan plans to offer an amendment today that would block the controversial federal program allowing Mexican trucks to operate freely on roads across the U.S. Barry Piatt, spokesman for the North Dakota senator, told WND the amendment to the Fiscal 2008 Department of Transportation appropriations bill essentially will say, "None of the funds made available under this Act may be used to establish or implement a cross-border motor carrier demonstration or pilot project or program to allow Mexico-domiciled motor carriers to operate beyond the commercial zones on the United States-Mexico border." Piatt said the amendment could come...

Folks, I'm planning to send a letter to the DoJ as regards last week's attempt by five lib/dem/soc/commie senators to stop the ABC program, "The Path To 9/11". However, since I'm not a member of the legal profession, I'm not sure if I've worded this correctly. I'd appreciate any help or advice you'd be willing to provide. Many thanks. Doc Farmer ************************************************* The Honorable Alberto R. Gonzales Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice Room 4400 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530-0001 12 September 2006 Dear Mr. Attorney General, I write today to request a formal investigation...

Labor unions, which are among the Democratic Party's most loyal supporters, are deeply at odds with the party's push for a guest-worker program, and many Capitol Hill aides say erosion of labor's support undermined the Senate immigration-reform bill last week. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says guest-worker programs supported by top Democrats such as Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Dianne Feinstein are a "bad idea and harm all workers." "They cast workers into a perennial second-class status and unfairly put their fates into their employers' hands," said Mr. Sweeney, whose organization represents 13 million workers in 54 unions. While labor unions...

A conservative group supporting Samuel Alito’s confirmation will launch TV ads in North and South Dakota this weekend that ask moderate Senate Democrats to “stand with mainstream America, not Ted Kennedy.� The Coalition for a Fair Judiciary is spending $100,000 on the TV ads. Two Democratic senators, Kent Conrad (N.D.) and Tim Johnson (S.D.), are targeted in the 30-second commercials. Both remain undecided about Alito's confirmation. Conrad has the most to lose if he chooses to cast a "no" vote. He is up for re-election in November and hails from a conservative state that President Bush easily carried in 2000...

HYPOCRISY n.: AN ACT OR INSTANCE OF SUCH FALSENESS Top Ten Things The Dems Don’t Want You To Know About Their Ties To Jack Abramoff 10. Larry Noble, Executive Director Of The Center For Responsive Politics, A Non-Partisan Government Watchdog Group, Says Democrats Are Just As Caught Up In The Abramoff Scandal. Noble: “I Would Say, Broadly Defined As A Question Of The Tribes’ Buying Influence In Washington, It Includes Democrats.” (Donald Lambro, “Dean Denies Party Ties To Abramoff,” The Washington Times, 1/11/06) 9. 39 Of 44 Senate Democrats, And 1 Of 1 Senate Independents, Have Accepted Contributions From Abramoff...

Jack Abramoff Group (JAG) Scandal: Hypocrite Democrat of Corruption #37 - Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN) Harold Ford, Jr. Says Hilleary, Bryant, & Corker Should Donate "Corrupt Abramoff Money" Tuesday, January 10, 2006 Congressman Harold Ford Jr. called on U.S. Congressional members Van Hilleary, Ed Bryant and Bob Corker "to give to charity any and all contributions they have ever received from corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates." "Van Hilleary, Bob Corker and Ed Bryant should disclose what Jack Abramoff and his associates gave them over the years and they should donate that money to a charity of...

A Justice Department investigation into influence-peddling on Capitol Hill is focusing on a "first tier" of lawmakers and staffers, both Republicans and Democrats, say sources close to the probe that has netted guilty pleas from lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Law-enforcement authorities and others said the investigation's opening phase is scrutinizing Sens. Conrad Burns, Montana Republican; Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota Democrat; and Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, along with Reps. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, and Bob Ney, Ohio Republican. A source working with the Justice Department on the investigation told The Washington Times that Abramoff was questioned during several interviews...

Dems Two-Faced Over Abramoff Bankrupt Of Real Ideas, Montana Democrats Continue Playing Politics With Tenuous Abramoff Connections MONTANA DEMOCRATS DEMANDED A JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL RECUSE HIMSELF FROM ABRAMOFF INVESTIGATION BECAUSE OF HIS TIES TO SEN. BURNS This Week, Montana Democrat Party Chair Dennis McDonald Sent A Letter To U.S. Attorney Bill Mercer Suggesting He Recuse Himself From Any Abramoff Investigation Involving Senator Burns Because Of “A Very Obvious Conflict Of Interest.” (Montana Democrat Party Website, www.montanademocrats.org, Accessed January 6, 2005) Recently, A Montana Democrat Party Spokesman Admitted Lobbyist Jack Abramoff Was A “Centerpiece” Of Their Campaign Against Burns. “Democratic...

Tribal Clients And Associates Of Jack Abramoff Have Contributed Over $3.1 Million To Democrat Party Interests Between 1997 And 2004. (Campaign Finance Analysis Project Website, www.campaignfinanceanalysisproject.com, Accessed December 2005; Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed December 2005) National Democrat Party Affiliated Committees Received Over $1.2 Million From Indian Tribe Clients And Lobbying Associates Of Jack Abramoff. (Campaign Finance Analysis Project Website, www.campaignfinanceanalysisproject.com, Accessed December 7, 2005; Political Money Line Website, www.tray.com, Accessed December 7, 2005; Internal Revenue Service Website, www.irs.gov, Accessed April 21, 2005) The Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) Received Over – $430,000 The Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)...

WASHINGTON'S big story for 2006 is likely to be a scandal with more bad characters than "The Sopranos," uncovered through the exhaustive reporting of the Washington Post. In the center, sits uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose trial in Florida on federal fraud charges -- involving his partnership in a cruise line -- starts Jan. 9. But it is the Washington angle that has revealed rot on Capitol Hill. Abramoff's colleague, public-relations ace Michael Scanlon (and former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas), is singing to federal prosecutors, having pleaded guilty to attempting to bribe public officials and agreeing to return $19...

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a close associate of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, to plead guilty to corruption, other charges, source tells CNN. That is the teaser on CNN. CNN reported that Abramoff has agreed to a prison sentence of a maximum of 10 years, pending his full co-operation with the justice department. Updates will follow.

BY HOLMAN W. JENKINS JR. Monday, January 2, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST Sen. Byron Dorgan, who keeps himself deliberately uninformed about the workings of the private sector lest it cast him into doubt about his easy demagoguery, recently castigated the oil industry for "buying back stock, hoarding cash and drilling on Wall Street." He is one of several who've backed legislation to confiscate the industry's "windfall profits" if companies don't reinvest the money in new energy projects.

WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors and lawyers for Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff consulted briefly Friday with a federal judge in Miami as they put the finishing touches on a plea deal that could be announced as early as Tuesday, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. The plea agreement would secure the lobbyist's testimony against several members of Congress who received favors from him or his clients. Abramoff and a former partner were indicted in Miami in August on charges of conspiracy and fraud for allegedly lying about their assets to help secure financing to purchase a fleet of gambling boats....

Democrats Don't Know Jack??? “It’s very odd that Democrats at the national and state levels have sought to exploit the Abramoff matter for political gain, while in the process throwing countless congressional Democrats under the bus,’ said Brian Nick, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC).” (Charles Hurt, “Dorgan Returns Abramoff Money,” The Washington Times, December 14, 2005) An NRSC Report Shows That Nearly 90 Percent Of Senate “Democrats Have Taken Abramoff-Related Money.” “The NRSC has begun circulating among fellow Republicans new reports showing that all but five of the chamber’s 44 Democrats have taken Abramoff-related money. In addition,...

WASHINGTON - Lawyers for Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff are in discussions with the Justice Department about his possible cooperation in a congressional corruption probe, a person involved in the investigation said Tuesday night. The probe involves a number of members of Congress as well as staff. A former aide to ex-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, has already pleaded guilty. Abramoff would plead guilty under an arrangement that would settle a criminal case against him in Florida as well as potential corruption charges in Washington, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the...

Yvonne Lee - All Headline News Staff Reporter Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Sen. Byron Dorgan is returning $67,000 in donations to dispel any notion that tribal money was directed to him by Jack Abramoff, who has been indicted for wire fraud and conspiracy http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7001460632

The last remaining U.S. independent counsel, David Barrett, after spending $21 million over 10 years, on Jan. 12 finally will close down his investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros' lying to FBI investigators about hush money paid to an ex-mistress. The political significance is that the Barrett report's shocking allegations of high-level corruption in the Internal Revenue Service and Justice Department are likely to be concealed from the public and from Congress. A recently passed appropriations bill, intended to permit release of this report, was altered behind closed doors to ensure that its politically combustible elements never saw the...

WASHINGTON -- All's well, Senator Byron Dorgan of the great state of North Dakota has done come clean. Senator Dorgan is the vice chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. In that capacity he accepted $67,000 in contributions from Indian tribes represented by the recently indicted Jack Abramoff, a fabulous fixer here in the capital of the Free World. Abramoff, a Republican, has obviously been an equal-opportunity fixer, and apparently Dorgan was not above accepting his help, though Dorgan claims he never met the rogue and never backed any of his programs knowingly. Now there is an adverb to contemplate, "knowingly."...

Democrats have their own scandal brewing at the moment, but they are doing much better in covering it up than their Republican counterparts. At issue is the report by David Barrett, the last remaining U.S. independent counsel. Over ten years, Barrett has spent $21 million on the investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros, who lied to FBI investigators about hush money paid to an ex-mistress. The reason the report and the investigation have taken so long is that allies to Cisneros and the legal team of former President Bill Clinton at the powerhouse Washington law firm of Williams and...

WASHINGTON -- The top Democrat on the Senate committee investigating Jack Abramoff's Indian lobbying is returning $67,000 in donations in response to Associated Press reports that he collected tribal money around the time he took actions favorable to those Abramoff clients. While Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., never met Abramoff and didn't take any actions at the lobbyist's behest, he nonetheless wants to return the money to avoid any appearances that tribal money was directed to him by the controversial lobbyist, his office said Tuesday. Dorgan is the senior Democrat on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that has spent more than...

-- New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist in 2002, shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients. A lawyer for the Louisiana Coushatta Indians said Abramoff instructed the tribe to send $5,000 to Senator Byron Dorgan's political group just three weeks after the North Dakota Democrat urged fellow senators to fund a tribal school program for Abramoff's clients. The check was one of about five dozen the Coushattas listed in a tribal ledger as being issued on March 6, 2002, to...

New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist back in 2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients. A lawyer for the Louisiana Coushatta Indians told The Associated Press that Abramoff instructed the tribe to send $5,000 to Sen. Byron Dorgan's political group just three weeks after the North Dakota Democrat urged fellow senators to fund a tribal school program Abramoff's clients wanted to use. The check was one of about five dozen the Coushattas listed in a tribal ledger as...

WASHINGTON - New evidence is emerging that the top Democrat on the Senate committee currently investigating Jack Abramoff got political money arranged by the lobbyist back in 2002 shortly after the lawmaker took action favorable to Abramoff's tribal clients. A lawyer for the Louisiana Coushatta Indians told The Associated Press that Abramoff instructed the tribe to send $5,000 to Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record)'s political group just three weeks after the North Dakota Democrat urged fellow senators to fund a tribal school program Abramoff's clients wanted to use.The check was one of about five dozen the Coushattas listed...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate decided Thursday that it was time to close to a decade-old, $20 million investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros - years after Cisneros received a presidential pardon. The amendment to a spending bill, approved by voice vote, would require that the report of Independent Counsel David Barrett be made public within 60 days, and that the independent counsel close his office within 90 days after the report is published. ``The American taxpayers have spent a lot of money on this report and they deserve the right to see it,'' said Senate Finance Committee...

WASHINGTON - North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan said Tuesday that he will vote to confirm Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. Dorgan, a Democrat, said he made his decision after a Monday meeting with the 50-year-old appeals court judge and former Reagan administration lawyer. "Judge Roberts is clearly a conservative," Dorgan said on the Senate floor Tuesday. "But, from the discussion I have had with him, I also believe he will be a justice who will honor precedent and who will view his high calling to an impartial interpretation of the law." Dorgan said he talked with Roberts about issues that...

WASHINGTON, June 30 - A researcher secretly retained by the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to monitor liberal bias in public radio and television set his sights on several media personalities, including Bill Moyers, Tucker Carlson, Tavis Smiley, David Brancaccio and Diane Rehm, according to documents made public Thursday. Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, released 50 pages of what he called the "work product" of Fred Mann, a researcher who has been connected to conservative journalism centers and who was hired by the corporation's chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson. Mr. Dorgan pronounced the work "a little nutty"...

A Senate rider inserted in an emergency appropriations bill in the dead of the night which would close a rare window into political foul play at the Internal Revenue Service was quietly removed Tuesday in Senate-House negotiations. That offers full disclosure of a major scandal that has been percolating for a decade. The rider would have de-funded the investigation begun in 1995 of then-Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros by Independent Counsel David Barrett. The amendment was sponsored by three highly influential Democrats, purportedly to stop leakage of federal money in a run-on program and end persecution of a no-longer-prominent Democratic politician....

Senators Byron Dorgan, John Kerry and Richard Durbin pulled a fast one last week on their congressional colleagues. They tried to bury forever documents alleging that senior government officials tried to transform portions of the IRS and the Justice Department into a goon squad for attacking political enemies and aiding political friends. Naturally, they didn’t declare their intentions openly. Instead, Sen. Dorgan attached an innocent looking amendment to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill that will fund government operations after September 30. The last-minute amendment read: “At the end of the bill, add the following: “SEC. __ . (a) None of...