Oh, hello, dears, and welcome to my world. We really need something new into which we might sink our investigative teeth, so to speak. Whom might we investigate today?
Posted on 07/20/2002 6:32:59 AM PDT by mountaineer
What a great thread yesterday.
Thanks for all the fun.
???: Mary Mother of God make it stop.
Mulletude: 6 Aggressiveness: 9
Hobbies: freaking people out. drawing mustaches.
Sightings: I don't want to know
Favorite Band: Morbid Angel.
M - you and Mr. M have a Super day avoiding the mullets. See ya soon. JL
A coat button camera (top) with aperture adjustment and trigger from the pocket is on display at the International Spy Museum in Washington, July 19, 2002. The museum features a large collection of spy-related artifacts from many parts of the world. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang
This will curl their mullet, secretly slip it into a burly girls fanny pack:
Bayou Butt Burner, Ass In The Tub, Butt Twister, Rectal Rocket Fuel, Kiss Your Ass Goodbye, and Sir Fartalot. Get great laughs from the "other end." Your fanny will never be the same. Heat levels range from 7 to 8. Link
You and Mr. M have a great time.
No spy would be without a set of these:
Bimp to the top!
Here's a bit of info on Linda from The Washington Monthly Online Link to a very long article. I think it might have a few tid-bits to work off of.
Blinded by Ethics
So here's a case where a senator's wife gets a high-ranking government job, which in turn boosts her earning power as a lobbyist. She then represents clients who have business with and give money to her husband. Those clients pay her big bucks to help fight safety regulations and to win government money---money which helps pay the senator's mortgage. Yet so far, the press and congressional ethics hawks have largely given the Daschles a pass. So why isn't this a bigger story?
Mostly because no one in Congress has the slightest interest in raising it. Democrats certainly don't want to attack one of their own, and as they point out in defending the Daschles, Republicans are married to lobbyists, too. In addition, both Republicans and Democrats are beneficiaries of Linda Daschle's clients. "This town is so bizarre that Linda Daschle may even deliver campaign contributions to Trent Lott," says the Heritage Foundation's Ron Utt. Indeed, she freely admits to giving campaign contributions to Republicans.
So who's left to scrutinize the relationship? The answer is the press. But Daschle has them covered too. [sure... the press will be a big help] Unlike Hillary a decade ago, Linda Daschle is a Beltway insider who understands the rules of the game. The main rule is that the effects of your actions, no matter how dubious---say, weakening airline safety---are never grounds for a scandal so long as you first, disclose your actions, and then, don't violate the ethics rules in the process. If Tom or Linda Daschle had secretly taken a free pair of Superbowl tickets from Northwest Airlines and then pushed the airline bailout plan, that would be a big story. But the fact that Tom Daschle takes thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Northwest and his wife's firm collects $200,000 a year to lobby for them is no problem at all.
Congress has no rules prohibiting members' spouses from lobbying. Notoriously porous, congressional ethics rules were written on the not so unreasonable theory that it's impossible to forbid each and every potential conflict of interest, and that in the end, the voters are the ultimate arbiters of congressional behavior.
Linda Daschle's reputation for scrupulously adhering to the ethics rules shows just how well she understands the rules. But when it comes to a presidential election, a different set of rules comes into play: Win at all costs. And at this game, the Republicans have proved themselves uncommonly adept and not just within the chamber of the Supreme Court. If Tom Daschle poses a legitimate threat to Bush, his wife's lobbying will attract more attention from partisan Republicans and investigative reporters.
These attacks on his wife may not hurt Tom Daschle in Washington, where politicos find very little unseemly. But the American voter is a different animal. Voters may not buy Linda Daschle's defense of keeping her career at all costs. Nor are they likely to swallow the claim that her work has absolutely no bearing on her husband's. If Linda Daschle lobbied one arm of Congress to weaken airline safety and give away billions of taxpayer dollars to corporate clients, the voters are likely to assume that her husband was in there, too. And they'll probably be right. After all, American voters may not understand the inner workings of Washington politics, but they do understand the inner workings of marriage.
Seems like if you've got nothing to hide and you're so ethical it wouldn't be a problem to release your tax return.
They're even more fun with an adustable ankle collar!
JANET IS BROKE
Janet Reno's campaign finance disclosures, showing that she does not have sufficient funding to even run television ads in her campaign for governor of Florida, came as an unwelcome revelation to managers of Republican Gov. Jeb Bush's re-election effort.
The Bush campaign views former Atty. Gen. Reno as a weaker general election foe than millionaire lawyer Bill McBride, her Democratic primary opponent. Although the better known Reno is far ahead of McBride in the polls, he has more than $1 million in campaign cash on hand compared to her $220,000.
The Florida Education Association last Wednesday began a multi-million dollar campaign in McBride's behalf. The announcement by the state's Democratic Party that it will pay for TV ads by the party's contenders may help Reno.
Townhall.com Robert Novak
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