On Monday, Sen. John Cornyn stood up on the floor of the Senate of provided a rationalization for violence against judges. Three days later, he still hasn’t apologized or retracted his statement. Here is what he said to the Houston Chronicle in today’s edition:
The lesson I learned is that Washington is a very tough political environment and if people can take what you say out of context and use it against you, they will.
I guess he missed the lesson on taking responsibility for your actions.
It’s good to know that some senators are doing their research on President Bush’s nominees. Senator Boxer was the star of yesterday’s confirmation hearing for Stephen Johnson, Bush’s nominee to lead the EPA. She dug up information on a little-known program being sponsored by the EPA and the American Chemistry Council in Duval County, Florida.
The program targets low-income African-American families and asks parents to videotape their children crawling around a pesticide-infested environment (their homes). Scientists watch the tapes and regularly test the babies for pesticide exposure. In return, the families can keep the video camera and are paid $970 over two years.
This study, the Children’s Environmental Exposure Research Study (CHEERS) also mandates that parents not be provided information about the proper ways to apply or store pesticides, and they cannot be informed of the risks of exposure to pesticides.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC), which numbers many pesticides manufacturers among its members, is paying $2 million to help sponsor this study. The ACC will have the chance to review the study’s findings prior to their release to the public as well.
Sen. Boxer responded to Johnson’s affirmation that the program had been suspended but not cancelled by saying, “… you should pull the plug on that program tomorrow and if you don’t, I’m going to do everything in my disposal to make that happen.” A single senator can hold up Johnson’s confirmation, and from Boxer’s remarks it appears that she is ready to take this one all the way.
The Defense Department recently announced it wants to provide wounded soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with news in their hospital rooms. No, not CNN, MSNBC or even Fox. Instead, it’s piping its very own, 24-hour, all-news network, called the Pentagon Channel, to the bedsides of returning vets.
The Pentagon Channel features what officials call “CNN-like” programming. The difference, of course, is all of this “news” has been carefully created and vetted by the Pentagon. There’s “Studio Five,” for example, with positive interviews from top Defense leaders and “Freedom Journal Iraq,” a Pentagon-approved daily look at the war.
Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon, keep in mind, doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to a free and open press. Last year, senior Pentagon managers ordered the department to exclude from its morning clip service newsmagazine articles which were critical of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. (Exceptions were made for rosier stories.)
Even top brass admits the Pentagon Channel isn’t there to provide objective news these soldiers can use. As one Pentagon official said, “The Pentagon Channel keeps us all connected with the mission and motivated to serve.”
So the latest, albeit terribly unsurprising, revelation is that the Schiavo memo is indeed very real, came from Sen. Mel Martinez’s office, and was handed over to Sen. Tom Harkin as “some talking points.” But there is still one question left. How long will it take for the conservatives, who quickly named this Memogate, to retract their statements? It might never happen. But here are just some of their more classic, premature rantings:
The American Spectator: “It’s Rathergate all over again, and the same vigilant entities that brought about to the collapse of CBS News could now also cause heads to roll…and further shame multiple news organizations that would appear to have fallen for another document hoax… [T]here is no evidence that the talking points were a Martinez staff product.”
Powerline, Time Magazine’s Blog of the Year: “We have written extensively about the fake ‘talking points memo’ on the Schaivo case that ABC News and the Washington Post publicized, beginning on March 18. We have pointed out, most comprehensively in the Weekly Standard, that there is no reason whatsoever to believe that the memo originated with the Republicans, and considerable reason to think it may be a Democratic dirty trick.”
Accuracy in Media: “The memo may have been written by some Republican somewhere. But there’s no independent evidence at this point that it was authorized by a Republican Senator or written by a top Republican staffer. If the media are confident that the memo is real, let them produce an actual copy and describe in detail how they verified it. There’s no reason we should accept their claims about this memo at face value. Didn’t we learn anything from Memogate?” Read more
In today’s Dallas Morning News, American Airlines spokesman Tim Wagner explains his company’s $5,000 donation to Tom DeLay’s legal defense fund this way:
We were told that Mr. DeLay, a member of Congress from our headquarters state of Texas, was facing substantial legal bills that he was unable to pay personally because of their size and his limited resources.
DeLay’s “limited” resources? From Wednesday’s New York Times:
The wife and daughter of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have been paid more than $500,000 since 2001 by Mr. DeLay’s political action and campaign committees, according to a detailed review of disclosure statements filed with the Federal Election Commission and separate fund-raising records in Mr. DeLay’s home state, Texas.
Maybe next time he needs cash to pay his legal bills – instead of relying on a private company involved in major pending legislation – DeLay should ask his wife for a loan.
The Washington Post reports the author of the infamous GOP strategy memo calling Terri Schiavo “a great political issue” is Brian H. Darling, a Mel Martinez (R-FL) aide and “former lobbyist for the Alexander Strategy Group.”
The Post does not mention that Darling worked for the Alexander Strategy Group as recently as last year, nor that the Group was founded by Ed Buckham and Tony Rudy, former aides to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX). In fact, the Group is a virtual clearing house for former DeLay aides and associates, including former staffer Karl Gallant, who directed DeLay’s controversial Americans for a Republican Majority (ARM) PAC.
It’s probably no coincidence, then, that DeLay used Darling’s supposedly “working draft” talking points on at least three occasions. Jerome Armstrong at MyDD has the details:
TP #3: This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate will be debating this important issue.
DeLay on 3/18: House Republicans knew we had a moral obligation to act, and we did just that.
DeLay on 3/20: The legal issues, I grant everyone, are complicated, but the moral ones are not.TP #8: This legislation ensures that individuals like Terri Schiavo are guaranteed the same legal protections as convicted murderers like Ted Bundy.
DeLay on 3/18: Well, what we’re doing in the bill that passed the Hours and a bill that passed the Senate is exactly what we’re we would do for death row inmates.
Most recently, the Alexander Strategy Group has been in the news for helping finance DeLay’s expense-paid trip to South Korea in 2001, found to be in violation of house rules.
In 2002, DeLay disclosed to Congress that the Alexander Strategy Group paid his wife, Christine DeLay, $40,000 a year.
Washington Times headline, Wednesday:
Was the Schiavo memo a fake?
All 55 Republican senators say they have never seen the Terri Schiavo political talking-points memo that Democrats say was circulated among Republicans during the floor debate over whether the federal government should intervene to prolong her life.
Washington Post headline, Thursday:
Counsel to GOP Senator Wrote Memo On Schiavo
The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night.
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