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Bennie Thompson of the 2nd District in Mississippi is one of the most liberal members of Congress. Bill Marcy is fighting an uphill battle against him but that doesn't stop him from showing up at one of Bennie's town hall's last week in his campaign bus to ask him some questions. Thought you might like to watch the video. Starts off with Marcy asking him why his district is the poorest in the country.

At a hearing in late March, the nation's credit card companies faced the threat of expensive new rules from an unlikely regulator: the House Committee on Homeland Security, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). The committee had never before dealt with credit card issues, but Thompson warned Visa, MasterCard and others that Congress might need to impose tighter security standards costing millions of dollars to protect customers from identity theft. Behind the scenes, some of Thompson's staffers sensed a different motive -- an attempt to pressure the companies into making political donations to the chairman, according to several former committee...

Concerns that the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee may have used a credit card bill to woo donations from credit card companies has prompted the chamber's ethics panel to open an investigation. The Washington Post first reported on Friday that staffers to Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) suspected foul play as early as this summer, after the committee unexpectedly took up a tough bill that would have implemented new fees to protect against credit card identity theft. According to the Post, Thompson collected about $15,000 in donations from the industry shortly after those hearings began, but no bill was...

Six Democratic members of Congress enjoyed a Caribbean junket sponsored by Citigroup after Congress had approved the $700 billion bailout of financial services firms in October. The National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group, has asked Neil Barofsky, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for a formal review of the Citigroup’s sponsorship of the trip by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel and five others. The NLPC says the trip violated House rules. The purported purpose of the Nov. 6-9 junket was to attend the Caribbean Multi-Cultural Business Conference on the island of...

The top House Democrat overseeing the Department of Homeland Security is demanding that officials there explain how and why they wrote and released a controversial report identifying veterans as potential terrorist threats. Rep. Bennie G. Thompson of Mississippi, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano that he was "dumbfounded" such a report would be issued. "This report appears to raise significant issues involving the privacy and civil liberties of many Americans -- including war veterans," Mr. Thompson said in the letter sent Tuesday. • Click here to download a PDF of...

Congress is keeping Andrews Air Force base plenty busy this year ferrying lawmakers all over the globe at taxpayers’ expense. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi took his wife, nine Democrats and two Republicans - Reps. Dan Lungren of California and Mike Rogers of Alabama - on a whirlwind tour of the Caribbean last week. After stops in Honduras and Mexico, they stopped in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the delegation stayed at the five-star Caneel Bay resort. In a separate trip to the Caribbean last week, Rep. Eliot Engel of New York squired his wife and four Democratic members to...

A Mississippi Democrat in line to become chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has warned the nation's largest uniform supplier it faces criminal charges if it follows a White House proposal to recheck workers with mismatched Social Security numbers and fire those who cannot resolve the discrepancy in 60 days. Rep. Bennie Thompson said in a letter to Cintas Corp. it could be charged with "illegal activities in violation of state and federal law" if any of its 32,000 employees are terminated because they gave incorrect Social Security numbers to be hired. "I am deeply troubled by Cintas' recent...

Tireless campaigner made a strong showing in GOP primary. Clinton B. LeSueur amply demonstrated in Tuesday's congressional primary that he is no flash in the pan. The indefatigable fellow knows how to get votes. LeSueur set up a November rematch with incumbent Rep. Bennie Thompson after easily dispatching two challengers for the Republican nomination. Although the turnout was terribly light, LeSueur did a good job of showing the Republican Party leadership that his campaign will be worth investing in. He more than doubled his vote total from the 2002 GOP primary while capturing 85 percent of the vote. He still...

Jackson, MS -- Stephanie Summers-O’Neal, a Jackson native and local business owner, announced her historic candidacy for Mississippi’s second congressional district during press conferences in Jackson and Greenville today. Summers-O’Neal will be the first African-American, female, Republican elected to the U.S. Congress when Mississippians send her to Congress next November. “As a citizen of the Second District, I believe we deserve the best this country has to offer. We deserve better job opportunities so we can build better lives, quality education so our children can contribute to society, access to the best in health care, and strong communities in which...

<p>Carol Moseley Braun Less than 1 percent.</p> <p>Fourteen percent were undecided.</p> <p>Wesley Clark, in Jackson to court Mississippi voters on his Southern "True Grits Tour," vowed to reach out to millions of Americans without health insurance and took aim at President Bush's Iraq strategy.</p>

<p>WASHINGTON — Because Republicans think they're the most vulnerable, the GOP is bashing 35 House Democrats — including Missisippi Reps. Gene Taylor and Bennie Thompson — for votes against President Bush's tax cuts, the Medicare prescription drug plan and other White House priorities.</p>

Black lawmakers have joined with other prominent Democrats in an attempt to mend a serious and growing rift between Democratic National Committee (DNC) and frustrated minority groups who feel shut out of party decision-making. To solve the imbroglio, members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are demanding that the DNC award more contracts to minority political consultants. Responding to caucus members' complaining questions at a meeting last week, DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe revealed that the DNC had not signed a contract with any African American political consultants for the 2002 election, an attendee said. McAuliffe also divulged that the committee...