Just POlitics

U.N. not cooperating

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, is not happy with U N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s comments that the U.N. is cooperating in getting to the bottom of the Food-for-Oil Scandal. He sent the following letter:

 February 8, 2005

Mr. Mark Malloch Brown

Chief of Staff

Executive Office of the Secretary-General

United Nations Secretariat

One United Nations Plaza

New York, NY 10017

Dear Mr. Brown:

As I am sure you are aware, the House Energy and Commerce Committee ("the Committee") is conducting an investigation into the United Nations' Oil-for-Food Program ("the Program"). In fact, the Committee has sent several letters to the United Nations ("U.N.") seeking its cooperation in the investigation. Unfortunately, the U.N.'s response to each of these requests has been to assert that, at least for the time being, it has limited access to relevant U.N. documents and witnesses only to the Independent Inquiry Committee chaired by Paul Volcker ("the Volcker Committee"). That is why I was somewhat surprised by your statement during a news interview last Friday that the U.N. is cooperating with Congressional investigators.

On October 18, 2004, the Committee sent a letter to Secretary General Annan requesting, among other things, U.N. internal audits of the Program and "[a]ll records relating to alleged bribes, kickbacks, and surcharges under the Program." Secretary General Annan responded on October 29:

"I have also instructed that all documents related to the Oil-for-Food Programme in the possession of the United Nations be secured and directed that all United Nations staff fully cooperate with the [Volcker] inquiry. The Independent Inquiry Committee has now commenced its investigation and has taken charge of all documents related to the Oil-for-Food Programme....

"I trust that you will appreciate the importance of my refraining from taking any action that might be contrary to or interfere with the policies of the Independent Inquiry Committee. For that reason, I am not in a position to accede to your request for documentation and I would suggest that you direct your inquiry to Mr. Volcker."

After seeing a letter from Edward Mortimer, the U.N.'s Communications Director, in the November 24, 2004 edition of The Washington Post, I again contacted the U.N. and asked that "the U.N. Secretariat reconsider its position and voluntarily make available all documents and witnesses relating to alleged abuses under the Program." Mr. Mortimer responded on December 9, instructing the Committee to seek information directly from Mr. Volcker.

Now comes your statement during a news interview last Friday afternoon that "we promise them [Congress] cooperation, and the documents they sought, principally the audits, were released to them some weeks ago. The whole issue is one that Washington well understands, which is the sequence in which information is shared between overlapping investigations. Whenever you have a special prosecutor in Washington, there's always a debate between him and her, and the congressional committees as to who gets what when, so as not to compromise each other's investigations. That's what's happening here, but we are cooperating."

In light of the U.N.'s repeated refusals to provide this Committee with specific relevant documents and witnesses, the assertion that "we are cooperating" with Congressional investigations is puzzling, if not disingenuous. No special prosecutor exists in this case, and there is no credible threat that the Volcker panel might compromise a Congressional inquiry, or vice versa. In fact, as noted above, this Committee has requested far more from the U.N. than merely the internal audits, which the Volcker Committee released to the public several weeks ago. To date, however, the U.N. has not produced to this Committee any other responsive documents, nor has it made available any U.N. officers or employees with knowledge of the Program.

Once again, I respectfully urge the U.N. Secretariat reconsider its position of asserting cooperation in public while withholding it in practice. No valid reason exists for the United Nations to refuse the United States Congress prompt access to essential information on this important matter.

Sincerely,

Joe Barton

Chairman

cc:

The Honorable John D. Dingell, Ranking Member

The Honorable Ed Whitfield, Chairman Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

The Honorable Bart Stupak, Ranking Member Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

Bush approval rating jumps

Looks like it's more bad news for liberal... Bush's approval rating is at 57% in a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken shortly after Iraqi elections.

USA Today offers these other results:

·        55% say the United States did not make a mistake sending troops to Iraq, up from 47% last month.

·        53% say things are going very or moderately well in Iraq, compared with 40% last month.

·        64% say it is very or somewhat likely a democratic form of government will be established in Iraq, up from 47% last month.

·        10% say more U.S. troops are needed in Iraq, down from 24% who felt that way before the elections.

·        50% say they approve of how Bush is handling Iraq, up from 42% last month; 48% say they disapprove, down from 56% last month.

Rove promoted

Karl Rove will become a deputy White House chief of staff in charge of coordinating policy between the White House Domestic Policy Council, National Economic Council, National Security Council and Homeland Security Council.

[Rove will] "make sure we have an open and fair process for the development of policy and to make sure the policy is complementary and consistent with the various councils," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

FDR’s Social Security reform

James Taranto’s Best of the Web offered insight into Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s clear understanding that the generational transfer of wealth was not the way to finance Social Security:

In Friday's Political Diary (subscribe here), John Fund offered an interesting bit of Social Security history:

In an address to Congress on January 17, 1935, President Roosevelt foresaw the need to move beyond the pay-as-you-go financing of the current Social Security system. "For perhaps 30 years to come funds will have to be provided by the States and the Federal Government to meet these pensions," the president allowed. But after that, he explained, it would be necessary to move to what he called "voluntary contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age." In other words, his call for the establishment of Social Security directly anticipated today's reform agenda: "It is proposed that the Federal Government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans," FDR explained.

"What Roosevelt was talking about is the need to update Social Security sometime around 1965 with what today we would call personal accounts," says one top GOP member of the Ways and Means Committee. "By my reckoning we are only about 40 years late in addressing his concerns on how [to] make Social Security solvent."

Today's reform opponents, in other words, are backward-looking even by the standards of 70 years ago.

Democrat obstructionists

The Hill reports on Democrat strategy to obstruct President Bush:

House and Senate Democrats have decided against introducing an alternative Social Security reform plan yet, preferring instead to focus attention and criticism on President Bush’s proposals, according to a number of senior Democratic aides.

Democrats have been consistently critical of the president’s plan to create personal retirement accounts as a way to salvage the Social Security system, but they have not yet introduced a plan of their own.

Media Wars over Social Security reform

USA TODAY reports on the media wars that are online to begin today over the Social Security reform proposed by President Bush:

Powerful combatants in the fight over President Bush's plan to overhaul Social Security have launched a lobbying war that's turning into the biggest since the battle over health care in 1994.

Just days after Bush unveiled part of his proposal, tens of millions of dollars are being raised and spent on ads, including some that begin today. The battle pits business and conservative groups against seniors, organized labor and liberals.

Specter soft peddling

The Washington Times reports that Sen. Arlen Specter wants to negotiate more with the Democrats before going to a strong arm tactic to end the Democrat’s filibuster of judicial nominees:

The new Senate Judiciary Committee chairman favors more negotiations with Democrats over the so-called "nuclear option" Republicans could use to push President Bush's judicial nominees through Democratic filibusters.

"I'm trying to set the stage to get the job done without going to the nuclear option," Sen. Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania Republican, said in a wide-ranging interview Friday with The Washington Times.

Sen. Specter as Judiciary Committee chairman continues to cause concerns His latest action has been to hire Hannibal Kemerer, the tainted assistant general counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, to handle judicial nominations.

Kemerer's boss had to resign after a series of memos showed she called upon Sen. Ted Kennedy to make sure no Sixth Circuit judicial nominees would have hearings until her affirmative action case had gotten through that court, and Kemerer has not distanced himself from the scandal.

Cox versus Clinton

Edward Cox, who married Richard Nixon’s daughter Tricia, is considering running against Hillary Clinton for U.S. Senate. He has stated that he will not run if Gov. George E. Pataki, or former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani want to run.

Thompson supports stem cell research

Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson stated to Wisconsin Newspaper Association that he supported stem cell research and didn’t think President Bush’s position hurt that effort.

Thompson is a possible Republican candidate for President in 2008.

Spanish weasels blocked

The Prague Post reports that the Czechs have successfully blocked Spain's Communist government attempts to block Cubans from dissenting against their communist government:

In their first foreign-policy victory since joining the EU, Czech officials in Brussels have blocked a proposed ban on inviting Cuban dissidents to receptions at European embassies in Havana.

The ban would have suspended a 2003 resolution that called on EU countries to support anti-Castro dissidents by inviting them to parties celebrating national holidays.

Spain proposed the ban as part of a package of measures -- including the resumption of EU missions to Cuba -- designed to ease tensions with Havana. It became a sticking point when the Czechs threatened to use their veto in the 25-member Council of Foreign Ministers, where unanimity is required on policy decisions.

Rice picks General

The NY Times reports on Rice's pick for security advisor to Israel and Palestine:

An Army general selected to be the new security coordinator between Israelis and Palestinians honed his skills during tours as the senior American military officer in Egypt and as commander of the NATO peace-enforcement mission that ended bloodshed between religious rivals in the Balkans.

The officer, Lt. Gen. William E. Ward, the deputy commanding general of United States Army forces in Europe, is described by senior officers as being able to defuse anxieties in the hallways of the Pentagon or in difficult overseas assignments.

Rich pay more

President Bush’s chief budget director Josh Bolten stressed that the rich will pay more under the administration’s proposed budget according to Drudge:

"If you look at the president's tax cuts as a totality, the income tax, those at the upper end of the spectrum are now paying a larger share of the income tax than they were before," Bolten explained.

"An example, the top 5 percent in income in this country -- that's people making above about $140,000 -- without the president's tax cuts that top 5 percent would be paying about less than 52 percent of our total income tax revenue.

"After the president's tax cut that group is paying more than 54 percent of our total tax revenue. So the notion that the president's tax cuts have somehow made the code less progressive is wrong. The president's tax cuts have made the tax code more progressive."

Departments’ proposed budgets at a glance

Department of Agriculture

AMTRAK

Department of Commerce

Department of Defense

Department of Education

Department of Energy

Environmental Protection Agency

Department of Health and Human Services

Department of Homeland Security

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Department of Interior

Department of Justice

Department of Labor

NASA

National Science Foundation

Small Business Administration

Social Security Administration

Department of State

Department of Transportation

Department of Treasury

Department of Veterans Affairs

Other Agencies