House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) said earlier this week that liberals wanted to “coddle” terrorists. Asked about his comments today on Fox News, Hastert expanded his criticisms. According to Hastert, liberals want to take “the 130 most treacherous people, probably in the world…and release them out in the public eventually.” Watch it:

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CNN’s Dana Bash reported just now:

CNN has learned, according to GOP sources, that as you said, Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida has decided not to seek reelection. … Foley did admit to a spokesperson that he had that e-mail exchange with the boy, but absolutely flatly denied that that was an inappropriate e-mail exchange. Now, a GOP source tells us now that essentially Foley is worried that there are other potentially politically damaging e-mail or other messages that may be out there and he has concluded that it’s probably best for him not to seek reelection from Florida. That is what we’re told.

Yesterday, ABC News, AmericaBlog, and Raw Story released a series of questionable emails between Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) and a 16-year-old male page. In the emails, sent from Foley’s personal account, Foley “asks the young man how old he is, what he wants for his birthday and requests a photo of him.” Foley is the founder and co-chair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children’s Caucus.

ABC News reported earlier today:

ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.

In answer to an inquiry on whether he had accepted gifts from Jack Abramoff, White House political adviser Karl Rove simply replied, “afraid not.” The NYT reported this morning, “Rove and his aides sought Mr. Abramoff’s help in obtaining seats at sporting events, and that Mr. Rove sat with Mr. Abramoff in the lobbyist’s box seats for an N.C.A.A. basketball playoff game in 2002.”

General Motors has hired right-wing talk show host Sean Hannity to be the lead spokesman for a car giveaway campaign called “You’re a Great American“:

To stimulate consumer interest in its line of American-built cars, General Motors has turned to radio and Sean Hannity. … Hannity will serve as the spokesperson for GM’s You’re A Great American Car Give-Away, offering radio listeners the chance to pick and win one of five GM vehicles.

Hannity’s hiring comes as GM launches a new patriotic-themed ad campaign. The ads for GM’s Chevrolet Silverado include the slogan “Our country, our truck” and feature images of Rosa Parks and hurricane-damaged houses:

Hannity has a long history of divisive remarks and has repeatedly questioned the patriotism of his political opponents:

– Hannity said a Democratic victory in the midterm elections could be a “victory for the terrorists”

– Hannity said that “making sure Nancy Pelosi doesn’t become the [House] speaker” is “worth … dying for.”

– Hannity defended Ann Coulter’s attack on the widows of 9/11 victims, whom Coulter described as “broads” who were “enjoying their husbands’ deaths.”

– Hannity compared voting for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) to voting for terrorist groups Hamas or Hezbollah.

GM should not make Sean Hannity the face of its promotions.

UPDATE: Read GM’s response.

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Housing and Urban Development (HUD) spokeswoman Dustee Tucker repeatedly misled the press about HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson’s April 28 speech in Dallas, where he admitted canceling a government contract with a business because the CEO was critical of President Bush.

In the HUD Inspector General’s (IG) report, which has not been made publicly available, Tucker admits to misleading the press by making up statements, as well as stating things as “fact” that were actually assumptions. Some examples from the report reviewed by ThinkProgress:

– On May 2 or May 3, the Dallas Business Journal (DBJ) called Tucker and inquired whether the contractor incident in Jackson’s story actually happened. Tucker replied, “I can’t speak to a hypothetical, you know. You’re speaking about a verbal agreement.” But according to p. 17 of the HUD report, when asked if she had “made up” the “concept of a verbal agreement,” Tucker acknowledged she had: “Yes. I probably did when I responded to her.”

– On May 9, Tucker told the DBJ that Jackson’s story was “not a true story. It’s a made-up story.” But Tucker didn’t know it was made up. In her testimony to investigators (p. 20), “Tucker acknowledged that, in her meeting with JACKSON, JACKSON ‘never said the entire thing is made up.’ Tucker further acknowledged, ‘that was my assumption.’”

– On May 9, Tucker told the Dallas Morning News that the contractor who criticized Bush in Jackson’s story “was aggressive and combative.” But according to the HUD report (p. 18), Tucker later admitted that “she did not know if there was, in fact, a real person who was ‘aggressive and combative,’ but ‘assumed’ there was.”

Tucker’s actions don’t seem out of the ordinary in HUD communciations department. Cathy MacFarlane, Assistant Secretary in the Office of Public Affairs, also testified, “And with all I have to do, I am not really interested in finding out the facts. I don’t have enough time to get into contracting facts” (p. 23).

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felt they could have killed Osama Bin Laden in the months before 9/11, but got the ‘brushoff’ when they went to the Bush White House seeking the money and authorization,” Bob Woodward reports in his new book. In an “urgent” July 2001 meeting with Condi Rice, CIA Director George Tenet and his counterterrorism head Cofer Black “went over top-secret intelligence pointing to an impending attack and ‘sounded the loudest warning’ to the White House of a likely attack on the U.S. by Bin Laden. Woodward writes that Rice was polite, but, ‘They felt the brushoff.’“

A House Government Reform Committee report establishes — based on e-mail messages and other records subpoenaed from criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s lobbying firm — that at least 485 contacts occurred between Abramoff’s lobbying team and White House officials between 2001 to 2004.

The Committee documents 13 instances of Abramoff personally meeting with White House staff. Abramoff billed his clients for 32.3 hours for time spent with White House staff.

Last January, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan repeatedly misled the public as to the extent of the relationship between the White House and Abramoff, suggesting there had only been “a few staff-level meetings.”

QUESTION: How about the logs of the people, how many times he came into the White House?
MCCLELLAN: I’m checking into that. I said he’d check into that. I think someone asked that question the other day. I think it is very few times that he has been here in addition to any holiday receptions. [White House Press Briefing, 1/4/06]

QUESTION: Do you have an update for us on the Abramoff visits to the White House beyond the three parties that he attended?
MCCLELLAN: Well, I indicated yesterday that I think there were a few staff-level meetings. But, no, I’m making sure that I have a thorough report back to you on that. And I’ll get that to you, hopefully, very soon. [White House Press Briefing, 1/5/06]

QUESTION: Can you be more specific about the contacts with the senior staff? You said you were going to get back to us on that.
MCCLELLAN: No, I did check. There were a few staff-level meetings. I think I previously indicated that he attended three Hanukkah receptions at the White House. It is actually one two Hanukkah receptions that he attended. … My understanding from the check that we did was that there are just a few staff-level meetings in addition to those. [White House Press Briefing, 1/17/06]

QUESTION: Why not — why are you guys resistant to open this here? What is there to hide, or why not just say, here are the contacts he had, here are the issues he talked about when he came to the White House, here are the people…
MCCLELLAN: Well, I did do a check, and I indicated to you exactly what I just told you. I indicated to you that there were a few staff-level meetings that he attended at least — he attended two holiday receptions, in 2001 and 2002. [White House Press Briefing, 1/23/06]

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