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Democrats plan scandal offensive
politico.com ^ | April 24, 2007 | Jeff Patch and Patrick O'Connor

Posted on 04/25/2007 6:07:10 PM PDT by neverdem

Democrats plan scandal offensive
By: Jeff Patch and Patrick O'Connor
April 24, 2007 03:27 PM EST

House Democrats plan to recycle their "Culture of Corruption" slogan this week in an attempt to further tar congressional Republicans as scandals continue to plague the GOP. Democratic leaders hope this spring offensive puts Republicans on defense when the majority introduces a lobbying reform package early next month.

Their most recent campaign targets a series of alleged misdeeds, including the controversy surrounding eight fired U.S. attorneys and the recent FBI raids of California Republican Rep. John Doolittle's home in Northern Virginia and a business associated with Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.).

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"Our intention is to keep our foot on the gas as the party of reform," said Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who embraced the reformers' mantle in the spring of 2005 as the Democrats' then-campaign chief.

The scandal that has emerged from the administration's dismissal of eight federal prosecutors is "an umbrella" under which these other scandals fit, Emanuel said. He also criticized the GOP for failing to introduce reform principles even in the minority to govern the interaction between lobbyists and lawmakers and their staff.

Emanuel will focus on the firing of federal prosecutors during remarks Wednesday at the Brookings Institution, according to his office. Other House Democrats will highlight the FBI raids, among other alleged transgressions, in a series of press releases and floor speeches over the next two weeks, said Democratic aides.

"Culture of Corruption" became a popular refrain for congressional Democrats during their march to the majority, but House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) got Doolittle and Renzi to resign from sensitive committee posts in the wake of the FBI raids.

"While Democrats willfully ignore their own problems, Republicans are making good on their promises to confront ethics issues more proactively and decisively," said Brian Kennedy, Boehner's spokesman. "Turning the House into a three-ring finger-pointing circus won't help restore trust between the public and members of the House, but it will help shatter all previously set records for shamelessness and hypocrisy in partisan politics."

This push on lobbying reform comes as supporters were becoming increasingly concerned that the House would not act on legislation. The issue stalled last year in the Republican-controlled Congress. Then in January, the House immediately approved a rules change banning gifts and travel on corporate jets. Democratic leaders promised to move a broader reform package by April to regulate the lobbying community. In contrast, the Senate passed its own lobbying reform legislation as its first order of business.

Democratic House leaders are making this next push as questions continue to haunt the GOP.

"These revelations reinforce in the public mind why they rejected the Republican Congress," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said about the dual revelations regarding the FBI raids and the unfolding U.S. attorneys scandal.

The DCCC is going to release a video on its website highlighting the ethical questions surrounding Doolittle later this week, said spokeswoman Jennifer Crider. The committee has made similar videos to criticize Republican Reps. Gary G. Miller of California and Heather Wilson of New Mexico, who has admitted to contacting one of the fired U.S. attorneys before the attorney's dismissal.

Van Hollen said the firings "are part and parcel with an overall pattern of the Republicans' abuse of power."

Many freshman Democrats campaigned on cleaning up Washington, and these first-year legislators have been pushing their leaders to introduce a lobbying reform package. Twenty of them are circulating a "Dear Colleague" letter in support of an independent ethics enforcement office that has been the subject of a task force run by Democratic Rep. Michael E. Capuano of Massachusetts. Leadership aides said the measure would not be included in the lobbying reform package but could be addressed later.

Public Citizen lobbyist Craig Holman said that creating an outside enforcement mechanism is critical to lobbying and ethics reform because even the most far-reaching laws would be meaningless without effective enforcement.

"I suspect that Capuano wanted to do little to restructure the ethics process, other than tinkering," said Holman, who is helping to circulate the freshman letter to gin up support for his efforts. "But now with the frosh letter, I believe there is additional pressure from Pelosi's office for Capuano to do something, and we may see quite a bit more emerge from the task force."

In an interview, Capuano would not discuss the specific recommendations his task force made to leadership, saying that no single measure holds the key to ethics reform. "The promise was never about a specific item," he said. "The promise was to be more ethical."

Two separate proposals -- one by freshman Reps. Zack Space (D-Ohio) and Baron Hill (D-Ind.) and another by Rep. Mike Castle (R-Del.) -- would create an entirely independent ethics agency. Another idea, offered by Reps. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), would establish an independent investigative office -- the Office of Public Integrity -- within the congressional ethics committee. A coalition of outside reform groups meets weekly to share ideas and plot strategy.

The groups, which include Democracy21, Public Citizen and the Campaign Legal Center, differ on some of the details in a reform package, but they have united around three main issues: full disclosure of bundling of campaign contributions by lobbyists; disclosure of "AstroTurf," or paid campaigns to generate grass-roots responses; and increased revolving-door restrictions.

Groups that oppose some of these changes say they have been locked out of negotiations on the package. "There is a bit of irony that legislation advertised as bringing 'sunshine' to the legislative process is being written behind closed doors by inside-the-Beltway lobbyists," said Lawrence A. Fineran of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Bundling

The bundling provision would require lobbyists to disclose quarterly all the campaign donations they solicit and then give to candidates, the amount of money they raise and the number of fundraising events they host.

Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center, said she sees the bundling provision as "make or break," but she's worried members may recoil from allowing filings by lobbyists that highlight their names. Lobbyists have strongly objected to releasing such information, and many have vowed to stop raising money if the House passes such requirements.

Advocates for lobbying reform say Van Hollen supports the bundling measure, and they take that as a sign that he doesn't think it would seriously affect congressional members' ability to raise money. Van Hollen, along with Meehan, also introduced the idea in another House bill.

However, several associations, including the American Association for Justice, oppose this measure and are lobbying against it.

AstroTurf Disclosure

Reformers want to add a provision to the House bill that forces lobbying groups to disclose paid grass-roots efforts, such as phone calls to Congress generated to create support or opposition to legislation. A similar amendment failed in the Senate bill after a coalition of nonprofits, from the ACLU to the National Right to Life Committee, opposed it as an unfair restriction on free speech.

Meehan worked with advocacy groups on a compromise measure that would affect only lobbying groups that spent more than $100,000 per quarter on paid communications. It's unclear whether members are willing to risk the ire of groups that oppose this, such as the National Rifle Association.

Revolving Door

Activists want to increase the revolving-door time frame from one year to two. They also would expand the lobbying activities covered. Currently, senior staffers who earned at least 75 percent of a member's salary cannot lobby their former office; if reformers have their way, those staffers will not be able to lobby at all. This has been dubbed the "Billy Tauzin provision," after the former Louisiana congressman who became Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America's chief lobbyist after he retired in 2005.

UPDATE: Reps. Space and Hill released their letter to Capuano today, which now has 27 freshman Democrats signed on. The letter strongly urges Capuano to back an independent ethics mechanism, although the letter does not demand a specific solution.

“We believe that building greater independence into the ethics enforcement process, especially in the investigatory phase, is an appropriate response to the problems of the past and will be a safeguard against any recurrences,” reads the bolded portion of the letter.

TM & © THE POLITICO & POLITICO.COM, a division of Allbritton Communications Company



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008election; cultureofcorruption; defeatocrats; democrats; dhimmicrats; dirtypolitics; ethics; firstamendment; howtostealanelection; lobbying; neomccarthyism; partisanwitchhunt; smearcampaign; zogbyism
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1 posted on 04/25/2007 6:07:13 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem
I wish someone would grow some balls and throw it right back in their face.

How about Harry Reid's misdeeds, or that Ford guy from Tennessee? We certainly have enough on them if someone would just use it.

Maybe Duncan Hunter will.

2 posted on 04/25/2007 6:12:57 PM PDT by Slump Tester ( What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: neverdem
"Our intention is to keep our foot on the gas as the party of reform," said Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, who embraced the reformers' mantle in the spring of 2005 as the Democrats' then-campaign chief.

Translation: "There's a sucker born every minute..."

3 posted on 04/25/2007 6:13:47 PM PDT by an amused spectator (Gun Control, the Sequel: More and Morerer)
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To: Slump Tester

“I wish someone would grow some balls and throw it right back in their face. “

____________

Unfortunately the minority party has control of no committees, no hearings, no investigations, no subpoena power.

Moral of the story: Elections matter.


4 posted on 04/25/2007 6:17:06 PM PDT by berstbubble
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To: neverdem
We’ve come a long way from the Whitehouse being Motel 1600 and 3+ million in campaign contributions from Communist China, eh?

Defining scandal down.....

5 posted on 04/25/2007 6:17:09 PM PDT by El Sordo
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To: berstbubble
They could still shout it out on the news once in a while.

But no, they're a bunch of pansys.

6 posted on 04/25/2007 6:25:42 PM PDT by Slump Tester ( What if I'm pregnant Teddy? Errr-ahh Calm down Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it)
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To: neverdem
Congressional Republicans just need one message to stick this back in their faces. Not that they would do that, but it is a thought.

Congressman William Jefferson (D) Louisiana
Congressman William Jefferson (D) Louisiana
Congressman William Jefferson (D) Louisiana
Congressman William Jefferson (D) Louisiana
Congressman William Jefferson (D) Louisiana
Congressman William Jefferson (D) Louisiana
Congressman William Jefferson (D) Louisiana
Congressman William Jefferson (D) Louisiana
Congressman William Jefferson (D) Louisiana
Congressman William Jefferson (D) Louisiana

7 posted on 04/25/2007 6:25:54 PM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (Guns don't kill people. None of my guns ever left the house at night and killed anyone.)
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To: neverdem
This is hot stuff inside the Beltway and frankly nobody inside it realizes that nobody outside it gives a rodent's rectum. The collective yawn with which the federal prosecutor "scandal" was met should have acted as a warning, but for the political class in lalaland it's the very stuff of life.

The real scandal that's building slowly is the Democrats' truly embarrassing behavior with respect to Iraq. Their left wing is demanding steps that will imperil their hearts' desire, the White House in '08, and the self-righteous posturing that is all they are offering for cover isn't going to span the gap. From the right they're getting the derision they richly deserve.

The only way out is a continuation of the endless series of accusation and mud-throwing that has filled the last six years, but that isn't good enough for a majority party. I'm hoping they don't find that out until it's too late.

8 posted on 04/25/2007 6:27:06 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Arrowhead1952

Re: Jefferson from Louisianna.

I still haven’t figured this one out. What’s taking so long. Dd they have something else on him that they are developing or better yet, maybe he’s cutting a deal to turn on bigger Dem fish.


9 posted on 04/25/2007 6:31:01 PM PDT by berstbubble
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To: neverdem

PARTY OF REFORM? Lets try party of traitors.These
Un American bastards are to full of themselves!


10 posted on 04/25/2007 6:32:15 PM PDT by ronnie raygun (ID RATHER BE HUNTING WITH DICK THAN DRIVING WITH TED)
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To: neverdem

They’re gonna find as many Mark Foley’s as they can for one reason: they know it works. The Duke Cunningham-type scandals don’t resonate anywhere near as much as a Mark Foley. They know homosexuality repulses conservative voters enough that they will sit out election day, and Liberals will win. Again.

They saw it work - and like every coach & player knows: you don’t change a winning strategy.

Be prepared-they’ll be a lot more coming. Hillary Clinton has required it.


11 posted on 04/25/2007 6:36:12 PM PDT by antonico
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To: All

They are only voting for “reform” because they think they are on their way to complete power and that as soon as they have it they will neuter any attempt to examine themselves and use it as a tool to prosecute and investigate their enemies.(That would be US for you folks in Rio Linda.)

Tet68.


12 posted on 04/25/2007 6:36:54 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Slump Tester
I wish someone would grow some balls and throw it right back in their face.

They didn't when they were the majority and they're not about to now.

13 posted on 04/25/2007 6:37:46 PM PDT by red-dawg
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To: berstbubble
maybe he’s cutting a deal to turn on bigger Dem fish.

I doubt that. Rats will never turn on another rat. Part of their inbreeding. Just look at NO LA since Katrina and LA for the most part. Reelected the same scum as before the storm. That is liberalism in the real world. BTW, welcome to FR.

14 posted on 04/25/2007 6:37:56 PM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (Guns don't kill people. None of my guns ever left the house at night and killed anyone.)
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To: berstbubble

“I still haven’t figured this one out. What’s taking so long. Dd they have something else on him that they are developing or better yet, maybe he’s cutting a deal to turn on bigger Dem fish.”

Nope. It was buried deep to come out at the right time. Many forgot about Jefferson. The RATS are happy as clams that the records are sealed.

The time is almost upon us that these records will be unsealed. What are the RATS going to do, cry that the records were unsealed? Well what records? The records of a criminal, caught on film who was chosen by the house majority leader to chair a committee?

You know Hillary isn’t throwing the RAT under the bus. But they will have to ask her since she is such a big hit with the CBC.

Get ready. It is coming.


15 posted on 04/25/2007 6:39:14 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Amazing isn't it?)
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To: Billthedrill
With few people paying attention they can throw out lie after lie, inuendo after inuendo. The important thing to the Dems is for the voters to "think" there is corruption. That's all that matters.

Meanwhile, the feckless Republicans are all hiding in the tall grass afraid to come out. When the Republicans held the house and senate the Democrat leadership held a press conference every morning to get their message (propaganda) out on the news. I haven't seen one of those sessions being held by Republican leadership since they became the minority party in January. It's sickening to see how they shrink from a fight.

16 posted on 04/25/2007 6:40:49 PM PDT by Russ
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To: neverdem
The RINOcrat party is quickly becoming no better than the Marxist’s dimocrats. They simply cannot keep from shooting themselves in the feet with stupidity. Damned, I wish there was a REAL party, called the Conservative Party, no RINOs or LIBERALS allowed. Only, true, believing and practicing conservatives!!!!
17 posted on 04/25/2007 6:42:29 PM PDT by RetiredArmy (America has lost its mind and is on its last days as a free country & Republic.)
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To: neverdem

Yea Scandal Harry Reid... and what every happened to Money in the Frezzer William Jefferson... GOP needs to get a set.


18 posted on 04/25/2007 7:04:48 PM PDT by tomnbeverly (Leaving Iraq to defend itself against Al-qaeda is like asking a fetus to protect against abortion.)
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To: Slump Tester

That Ford guy was a State Senator... hardly fare for national politics.
But it is Harold Ford’s uncle.


19 posted on 04/25/2007 7:25:07 PM PDT by bacterialalbatross
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To: neverdem

It so funny to hear this as they try to twist a tale,
their supporters actually believe they got something.


20 posted on 04/25/2007 7:28:43 PM PDT by Son House ( The Presidents enemies, are my enemies.)
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