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House Democrats passed the 2,032-page Pelosicare bill on a near party-line vote Saturday night 220-215 (roll call here). The only Republican voting in favor of the measure was New Orleans-based Joseph Cao who has long ago proven to be a tax and spend (and spend and spend) liberal. After a week of intense arm twisting, threats and promises from party leaders, more than half of the 52 so-called conservative Blue Dog Democrats voted in favor of the over $1.3 trillion measure. These are the 28 Blue Dogs voting in favor of Pelosicare (who apparently fear the wrath of House Speaker...

California Democrat Jane Harmon tried to sell her influence to end an espionage case against to spies in return for help becoming House Intelligence Committee chairwoman. In a newly released NSA wiretap report, Harmon has been exposed negotiating a quid pro quo deal with an official of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The agreement apparently called for Harmon to sell the influence of her Congressional office by lobbying the Justice Department to reduce espionage charges against two AIPC operatives. In return AIPAC would lobby then minority leader Democrat Nancy Pelosi to name Harmon as the Chair of the...

Rep. Jane Harman, who has come under criticism for what she said in apparently wiretapped conversations with two pro-Israel lobbyists under investigation for espionage, went on CNN today to defend herself, calling the government wiretaps an "abuse of power." "And let's see who else was wiretapped. I mean lots of members of Congress talk to advocacy organizations. My phone is ringing off the hook in my office from worried members who are asking whether I think it could have happened to them. I think this is an abuse of power," she told Wolf Blitzer in an CNN interview. The story...

South Bay Rep. Jane Harman is the richest member of the House of Representatives, according to a new, searchable online database ranking the wealth of congressional members. The El Segundo Democrat, married to multimillionaire audio-equipment manufacturer Sidney Harman, has a net worth in excess of $168 million, and likely much more than that. Two of the other three members of the South Bay's congressional delegation also are multimillionaires, with a net worth of at least $2.2 million, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Even the least well-off of the South Bay's congressional representatives, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,...

Jane Harmon: NY Times Should be Prosecuted In a stunning break with her party, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that the New York Times should be prosecuted for damaging national security by revealing the National Security Agency's top secret terrorist surveillance program authorized by President Bush. "If the press was part of the process of delivering classified information, there have to be some limits on press immunity," Harmon told NBC's "Meet the Press." Moderator Tim Russert then pressed: "But if [the NSA leak] came from a whistleblower, should the New York Times reporter be prosecuted?"...

The Hill is a specialized publication, mostly for Members of Congress and those whose living depends on Congress. Still, an article in The Hill today (Wednesday) is typical of the media coverage of the Senate vote yesterday to require “reports” to Congress on the progress of the Iraq War. The title is “Needed: An Exit Strategy from Iraq.” It is written by Rep. Jane Harmon (D. Calif) and its lede includes these paragraphs. "There is now a strong bipartisan consensus that we need an exit strategy. But yet to emerge is the content of that strategy. "We have two overriding...