Tag Archives: politics

Sunlighting the Lobbyists

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The Sunlight Foundation and the National Journal are trying to crowdsource the identities of lobbyists:

On May 11, the Senate Judiciary Committee's Antitrust Subcommittee held a hearing on the proposed AT&T and T-Mobile merger. Titled "Is Humpty Dumpty Being Put Back Together Again?" the hearing was concerned with possible antitrust issues, questions of competition, access to wireless service, rising costs and the loss of jobs.

Of course, Washington lobbyists had their own concerns and not surprisingly, the room was packed. In concert with National Journal, we at Sunlight decided to turn the cameras around 180 degrees to see who was watching the hearing. Our hope is that you can help us identify D.C.'s power brokers and assorted lobbyists who have an interest in influencing the Senate's view on the proposed merger.

Something tells me that RayBans and hoodies are going to be popular at Hill meetings in the near future.

 

Pigs Flying in Frozen Over Hell

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If you live long enough you're bound to see the damndest things:

As part of a legal settlement, the N.C. Republican Party is offering a very public mea culpa to former Democratic Rep. Jimmy Love Sr…

Shortly before last year's election, the GOP mailed an attack ad in the home district of Love, a seven-term Democrat from Sanford.

The ad said Love owned a piece of land and suggested it was bought by the N.C. Department of Transportation in a "sweetheart deal." The text of the mailer called Love a "swindler," featured his photo and falsely quoted him as saying, "I Love Gettin' Rich Off The Taxpayers!"…

Now, House District 41 voters who were sent the ad last year are finding another message from the Republican Party in their mailboxes.

"The accusations made against Mr. Love in the mailer were unjustified and the facts stated in support of the accusations were false," the new mailer says. "Accordingly, the North Carolina Republican Party hereby retracts the statements made in the mailer, apologizes to Mr. Love, and expresses its sincere regret for any distress or embarrassment caused to Mr. Love, his family, or his supporters."

Field Reporting from the Wilds of Greensboro

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Former Charlotte mayor and '08 Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory spoke to my Rotary Club at lunch today.  He did a nice job, and during the Q&A he indicated that at this point he's definitely planning on running for governor again in '12.  Not exactly news, but if nothing else it has me already thinking about what should be an incredibly active campaign season over the next two years.

Let Me Tell You How America Works

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Found at the ever interesting local blog The Seventh Sense is this quote from the Washington Post's election coverage:

"Let me tell you how America works," says Foley, who wears a plaid shirt, a mallard-print tie and a woodpecker feather in his fedora. "You have Democrats voting for Democrats and Republicans voting for Republicans and then you have these people down the middle who are — " he lowers his voice " – undereducated, and are trying to make a living and do the best for their children, but they're so busy that they realize two weeks before an election that, 'Gee, I better start watching TV to get some news,' and by then the richest [expletives] in America have shoved their [expletiving] money into attack ads and that's what this middle group of people sees, and they vote accordingly and they're the ones who steer the country."

Our Strange State of Affairs

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I was in DC last weekend for a wedding, and although I'd totally forgotten about the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, I was quickly reminded that it was being held Saturday when I saw the massive lines of people trying to get into the Vienna Metro station to catch a ride down to the Mall.  What a strange state of affairs these days when the two largest "political" gatherings of the year were staged by media misfits.  First we had the conservative gathering in August organized by an ex-DJ/current cable TV Whack Job and called "Restoring Honor." Then this weekend we had the aforementioned Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" organized by two comedians best known for faux-news. Sheesh. 

Ah well, I guess we just need to roll with it.  Here's a montage of some of the signs at Saturday's rally, many of which are pretty funny:

 

Sign Montage from the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear from ekai on Vimeo.

Influence Explorer

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The Sunlight Foundation has an interesting little project up and running that allows you to produce a postcard showing how different candidates' campaigns for Congress have been funded. You can even have the postcard mailed to friends or family before the election. Pictured is the postcard for NC-5 which features Virginia Foxx vs. Billy Kennedy:

NC-05-large

Here's Foxx only:

FoxxPostcard

And here's Kennedy only:

KennedyPostcard

Millionaire’s Club

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Greenwald's reaction to the O'Donnell reaction is spot on I think:  

You want to know why it's so unusual for a U.S. Senate candidate to have what Rove scorned as "the checkered background" of O'Donnell, by which he means a series of financial troubles?  In his interview with me earlier this week, Sen. Russ Feingold said exactly why.  It's not because those financial difficulties are rare among Americans.  This is why:

"It's not a new thing; it's been going on for a couple of decades. If you look even in the Senate, I'm one of the very few people in there who doesn't have a net worth over a million dollars; my net worth is under half a million dollars, after all these years. "

And as poor as Russ Feingold is relative to his colleagues in the Senate, he's still a Harvard Law School graduate who owns his own home and has earned in excess of $100,000 as a U.S. Senator for the last 18 years.  People with unpaid Farleigh Dickinson tuition bills and home foreclosures just aren't in the U.S. Senate.  And there are a lot of people — those who see nothing wrong with the U.S. Senate as a millionaire's club and as an entitlement gift of dynastic succession – who want to keep it that way.  

If you don't feel like clicking through to Greenwald's column I can summarize it for you: he disagrees with much of what O'Donnell says and stands for, but he thinks a big part of the establishment reaction to her is the fact that you're more likely to find her at WalMart than at Macy's. I think he's right.

Another Reason to Stay Out of Politics

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There are a gazillion reasons to stay out of politics, but one that never occurred to me until I read this post at YES! Weekly is that when you're stumping you'll likely have to deal with people in various stages of undress.  It's bad enough dealing with this at the pool, where you're at least expecting it, but I don't think I could handle it as part of what's the equivalent of a job interview. Ick.

Not Your Daddy’s RNC, or Maybe It Is

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I've never registered with a political party.  My brother once said it was because I've never taken a hard stand on anything (of course I disagree), but it's really because I can find enough distasteful about any political party's platform that I don't want to be associated with it.  Besides, I vote for the individual, not the party, so my lack of party affiliation has never bothered me.  Once I read this piece on RNC chair Michael Steele's expense account I was reminded why I've stayed independent:

While Steele has not purchased a plane, he continues to charter them. According to federal disclosure records, the RNC spent $17,514 on private aircraft in the month of February alone (as well as $12,691 on limousines during the same period). There are no readily identifiable private plane expenses for Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine in the DNC’s last three months of filings.

The RNC explains that Steele charters jets only when commercial service is unavailable, or when his tight schedule requires it. “Anytime the chairman has taken any private travel has been a either to a route that doesn’t exist or because of connections and multiple travel to where he just wasn’t able to do so,” Heye said. Yet Steele’s office repeatedly refused to explain in specific terms the circumstances of the February charter flights.

Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.

RNC trips to other cities produced bills from a long list of chic and costly hotels such as the Venetian and the M Resort in Las Vegas, and the W (for a total of $19,443) in Washington. A midwinter trip to Hawaii cost the RNC $43,828, not including airfare.