Tom DeLay thinks the federal treasury is his personal piggy bank. DeLay slipped “a $1.5 billion giveaway to the oil industry, Halliburton, and Sugar Land, Texas” into the energy bill.

But this isn’t a normal case of government pork. DeLay has completely dispensed with the democratic process. From a letter Rep. Henry Waxman just sent Speaker Dennis Hastert:

The provision was inserted into the energy legislation after the conference was closed, so members of the conference committee had no opportunity to consider or reject this measure.

The $1.5 billion won’t be administered by the government by a private consortium in DeLay’s district:

The subtitle appears to steer the administration of 75% of the $1.5 billion fund to a private consortium located in the district of Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Ordinarily, a large fund like this would be administered directly by the government.

Hastert and DeLay need to explain themselves immediately. No member of Congress who takes taxpayer dollars seriously should vote for the energy bill until this matter is resolved.

The following is a text of a letter from Sen. Joseph Biden asking the Bush administration to clarify whether John Bolton has testified before the grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame leak:

July 27, 2005

The Honorable Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Madame Secretary,

I write in connection with the nomination of John R. Bolton to be Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

On July 21, 2005, MSNBC reported that Under Secretary Bolton testified before the federal grand jury in Washington that is investigating the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame as an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency.

I write to request that you or the nominee inform the Committee whether Mr. Bolton did, in fact, appear before the grand jury, or whether he has been interviewed or otherwise asked to provide information by the special prosecutor or his staff in connection with this matter, and if so, when that occurred. As you know, the Committee questionnaire, which the nominee completed in March, requires all nominees to inform the Committee whether they have been “interviewed or asked to supply any information in connection with any administrative (including an inspector general), Congressional or grand jury investigation within the past 5 years, except routine Congressional testimony.”

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Ranking Minority Member

Bolton letter

Yesterday, the White House said that the tax returns of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts were off limits:

The White House said [yesterday] that under a policy enacted in 2001 it would neither examine Roberts’s tax returns itself nor provide them to the Senate.

But at today’s press briefing, Scott McClellan admitted the White House has reviewed Robert’s tax returns as part of their vetting process:

Now, in terms of Judge Roberts, and as part of the vetting process, we did ask for his tax returns from the past three years, and we have received those.

But McClellan still won’t commit to providing the documents to the Senate. Question: If the tax returns are relevant to the White House’s vetting process, why aren’t they relevant to the Senate’s process?

The White House may be bringing Karen Hughes back to Washington to fix America’s image abroad but Chief of Staff Andy Card probably wishes she’d help him out with the administration’s image here at home. Considering the President’s plunging poll numbers and the Plamegate scandal, Card must be breathing a sigh of relief that she’s back in the administration at all. Remember, in 2002, when he bared his soul to Esquire magazine about why he was so freaked over Hughes’ departure:

“She’s leaving when the president has one of the highest approval ratings on record. From here, it can only go down. And when it does, you know who they’re going to blame. They’re gonna blame Andy Card!”

[snip]

“The key balance around here has been between Karen and Karl Rove. That’s what I’ve been doing from the start of this administration. Standing on the middle of the seesaw, with Karen on one side, Karl on the other, trying to keep it in balance. One of them just jumped off.” He throws himself onto the couch to demonstrate, then he exhales again and talks about how he might restore balance, a balance that he knows will be needed if this presidency is not to suffer. “I’ll need designees, people trusted by the president that I can elevate for various needs to balance against Karl. They are going to have to really step up, but it won’t be easy. Karl is a formidable adversary.”

This week, Congress is expected to pass an $80 billion energy bill. The bill is filled with billions in pork for the energy industry.

The Washington Post provides insight into how carefully the conservative-run Congress spends your money:

As House-Senate conferees worked late into the night this week on the final paragraphs of the legislation, a proposal was made, and approved, to provide $250,000 for a study of “irradiated fuel” — although many of the conference participants acknowledged they had no idea what that was.

In case anyone in Congress cares, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, “irradiated fuel” is a type of high-level, radioactive waste “discharged from commercial nuclear power reactors.”

UPDATE: I’m told that, in this case, “irradiated fuel” refers not to waste from nuclear power plants (which is the standard meaning) but the use of irradiation in refining.

Somebody’s been surfing the Internets…

The president told the assembled guests that “groups like MoveOn-dot-something” have been attending congressional town-hall meetings and “raising cane” about Social Security reform.