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WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- Investigators probing convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with U.S. congressional members said Abramoff allegedly named Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. A spokesman for Reid said the Senate's next majority leader has done nothing illegal or unethical, ABC News said. "We have no idea what Abramoff is telling prosecutors to save his skin but I do know that these kind of old allegations are completely ridiculous and untrue," spokesman Jim Manley told ABC News. A source close to the investigation told ABC that Abramoff alleged that more than $30,000 in campaign contributions to Reid came from Abramoff's...

Harry Reid says: “I believe in ensuring all facts come to light.” However, two years after $1.1 million was paid directly to Reid for the sale of land which he no longer personally owned, he announced he was amending his ethics reports to Congress… to more fully account for the Las Vegas land deal, which was reported last week in a story by the AP. [After initially refusing to discuss the matter - Reid reportedly hung up on the AP reporter when asked about it - he has since offered to amend his financial disclosures link] Reid labeled the AP...

Washington, DC -- The estimate by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), released Friday, that the Senate-passed guest worker amnesty bill (S. 2611) would cost the country a net amount of $127 billion over the next ten years is misleading and grossly underestimates the real fiscal impact, contends the Federation from American Immigration Reform (FAIR). According to FAIR, the CBO estimate includes only the fiscal impact at the federal level, but ignores the much greater impact S. 2611 would have on state and local governments. An estimate of the fiscal impact at the local level by FAIR identifies a cost of...

A vocal former opponent's silence is important enough to Sen. Maria Cantwell's re-election effort to pay him $8,000 a month -- nearly as much as her campaign manager -- to join her campaign staff. The Cantwell campaign initially refused to say last week how much it would pay Mark Wilson to drop his Democratic primary challenge to the senator and his harsh criticism of her opposition to immediate U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq. But campaign manager Matt Butler issued a statement Thursday disclosing Wilson's salary. It isn't much lower than Butler's salary, which, according to Cantwell's quarterly Federal Election Commission...

WASHINGTON -- Key lawmakers have agreed to drop the idea of giving Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney veto power over a proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm, adopting a compromise that could boost the project's prospects. The proposed gubernatorial veto power was widely seen as a crippling blow to the project, which would be located about six miles off Cape Cod. The proposal has stirred controversy for five years. The new bill, breaking weeks of stalemate on Capitol Hill, also ensures the Coast Guard a primary role in deciding the fate of the offshore wind farm — a group of 130 turbines...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats presented two plans for winding down U.S. involvement in Iraq on Monday, one to pull out U.S. combat forces by July 2007 and another to begin withdrawing this year without a deadline for completion. With an election looming in November, Republicans branded the two plans as defeatist and evidence of Democratic disarray. The Senate was to debate the amendments on Tuesday in the annual defense policies bill. "Three and a half years into the conflict, we should tell the Iraqis that the American security blanket is not permanent," said Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting...

On May 24, 2006, against the will of the vast majority of American citizens, in defiance of prudence, fairness, logic, and common sense, and with total disregard of American national interest (see footnote 1), the majority of the U.S. Senate (all but four Democrats and almost half Republicans) passed the so-called "Comprehensive Immigration Reform” Act (CIRA) of 2006. The Act, also known as S. 2611 bill, would (if enacted into the law) Mark Andrew Dwyer One would hope that this despicable act of betrayal of American voters by their elected "representatives" in the Senate, in which the consenting senators promptly...

Final confirmation of Supreme Court nominee expected Tuesday WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Judge Samuel Alito stands just one step away from a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court after a spirited ninth-inning campaign by some Democratic senators to block his nomination fizzled Monday evening.The final vote on Alito's nomination is now scheduled for Tuesday morning, and, with at least 57 senators on board, approval is virtually assured.Alito's supporters in the Senate, as expected, cleared the final roadblock Monday when senators, by a vote of 72-25, decided to cut off debate and proceed to a final vote, rebuffing an attempt by...

DEAN UNDER FIRE FROM PARTY DEMS; NEARLY ALL CASH SPENT Mon Jan 30 2006 10:52:31 ET Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are privately bristling over Howard Dean’s management of the Democratic National Committee and have made those sentiments clear after new fundraising numbers showed he has spent nearly all the committee’s cash and has little left to support their efforts to gain seats this cycle, ROLL CALL reports. Congressional leaders were furious last week when they learned the DNC has just $5.5 million in the bank, compared to the Republican National Committee’s $34 million. Senate and House Minority Leaders Harry...

Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) failed today to address rumors that Nevada Senator Harry Reid will step down next month as Senate Minority Leader. Reid has been stung by revelations that his political action committee (PAC) accepted more than $60,000 in contributions from Indian tribes linked to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Appearing on CNN's Late Edition, Biden avoided discussing either the Reid situation or any upcoming changes in Senate Democratic leadership. Reid is no stranger to scandal, having been the subject of a 1979 Justice Department probe into allegations that Reid — then Nevada Gaming Commission chairman — had received bribes...

WASHINGTON -- Long-smoldering Democratic dissension flared openly Friday as liberals sought support for a last-minute filibuster of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito against the advice of leaders worried about a backlash in the 2006 elections. "I reject those notions that there ought to somehow be some political calculus about the future. ... The choice is now," said Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the party's 2004 presidential candidate and a White House hopeful for 2008. He said it was imperative to fight for "those people who count on us to stand up and protect them." Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., announced she would...

"Senator Clinton will vote against cloture, thereby supporting the filibuster of Judge Alito’s nomination," said Philippe Reines, press secretary to Sen. Clinton.

Filibuster Alito by John Kerry Do I support a filibuster? The answer is yes. Yesterday Senator Kennedy and I spoke with our colleagues about it. I don't have a shred of doubt in my opposition to Sam Alto's nomination. I know Senator Kennedy does not either. He has truly been a great leader in the effort to oppose Judge Alito. I spent a lot of time over the last years thinking about the Supreme Court and who America needs on the highest court in the land. So I don't hesitate a minute in saying that Sam Alito is not that...

The National Enquirer splashes this week with a shocking story about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s secret love child with a Cape Cod woman whom the mag says he dated during his days as a swinging single. According to the tabloid’s source, the boy, named Christopher, just celebrated his 21st birthday and is “mature enough to make his own choices about his background and biological father.” A Kennedy family confidante told the Enquirer, “This is one of the biggest secrets in the Kennedy family and known to only a few people including Ted’s ex-wife, Joan.” As for the senator, his spokesgal Melissa...

OPPOSITION Democrats have gained a one-week delay for a key Senate panel's vote on President George W. Bush's Supreme Court nominee, Samuel Alito. Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the panel's Republican chairman, Senator Arlen Specter, had agree to hold the vote on January 24 instead of today (local time). "I have assured Chairman Specter that no Democratic Senator will hold the matter over on January 24," Senator Leahy said. "He does not anticipate that any Republican Senator will seek to hold it over at that time." Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee...

U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy — who ripped Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito for ties to a group that discriminates against women — says he’s going to quit a club notorious for discriminating against women “as fast as I can.” Kennedy was outed by conservatives late last week as a current member of The Owl Club, a social club for Harvard alumni that bans women from membership. In an interview with WHDH Channel 7’s Andy Hiller that aired last night, Kennedy said, “I joined when I . . . 52 years ago, I was a member of the Owl Club,...

Ted Kennedy told fellow Democrat Charles Schumer to "take the lead” in the grilling of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito before the Senate Judiciary Committee. And the congressman from New York could parlay his prominent position on the committee into what Washington insiders say is his ultimate goal: The Senate Democratic leadership position. On the Thursday before the confirmation hearings began, Schumer gave a speech outlining the Democrats’ plan for questioning Alito. A few hours earlier, Kennedy had done the same. But Kennedy’s briefing "had not gone well,” a report in New York Magazine reveals. "Kennedy, looking tired and haggard,...

The calm judge and the angry senator Published January 12, 2006 It was a stunt, and it failed in ways that prove how Senate Democrats have tossed reason out the window when it comes to Judge Samuel Alito. When the facts don't support you, get dramatic.     Around noon yesterday, during what were until then smooth and uneventful hearings, an angry Sen. Ted Kennedy demanded that 30-year-old documents about the now-defunct Concerned Alumni of Princeton, or CAP, be entered in the record. Would Republicans try to keep the documents from view? Would the documents reveal damning facts about Judge Alito? On...

Hillary Clinton Caught with Abramoff CashUnlike many in her party, 2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has been silent about the influence peddling scandal erupting around lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose plea bargain with the Justice Department is said to have more than a few on Capitol Hill quaking in their boots. Now we know why. Turns out, Mrs. Clinton is among the dozens of Democrats who accepted Mr. Abramoff's tainted contributions. Clinton spokeswoman Ann Lewis told The Buffalo News on Thursday that "after examining our records we found two contributions for $1,000 from tribes which have been clients of Jack Abramoff...

Nevadan told he'll get chilly reception "Don't lump me in with Jack Abramoff. This is a Republican scandal." HARRY REID WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to take on Republicans in their own backyards when he visits five "red states" next month to promote a theme that Republican-led Washington is corrupt and needs to be cleaned up, a spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday.Reid, the Senate minority leader, has scheduled a three-day tour with stops in Phoenix; Denver; Salt Lake City; Pocatello, Idaho; and Omaha, Neb. All are in "Republican red" states that President Bush carried in the 2004 election. "He...