Just POlitics

Frist can break filibuster

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has the votes to change the filibuster rules employed by Democrat Senators to block President Bush’s judicial appointments according to the Washington Times:

"We need to restore the over 200-year tradition and precedent of allowing every nominee of the president who has majority support an up-or-down vote on the floor of the United States Senate," Mr. Frist told The Washington Times on Thursday.

Sen. Arlen Specter, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, recently stated that he wanted to try to negotiate with Democrats before employing the nuclear option as the changing of the rules is known as.

Oil-for-Food bribe

The NY Times reports that Senate investigators indicate the proof that U. N. inspectors took over a $100,000 bribe in order that Iraq might sell an additional illegal $9 million worth of oil to France:

According to two letters in Arabic from Iraq's former oil minister, payments totaling $105,819 were authorized by "the leader God saves," or Saddam Hussein, to a Portuguese oil inspector named Armando Carlos. The letters say the money was for the man's services in helping a French company export two extra shipments of Iraqi oil in 2001 that were not authorized by the oil-for-food program. Copies of the letters were provided to The New York Times by Iraqi critics of the program.

Saybolt officials have confirmed that an employee was being investigated in the case, and a records search listed one of the company's inspectors as a Portuguese man named Armando Carlos Oliveira. In response to questions yesterday, Senate officials confirmed that Mr. Oliveira was the focus of their investigation.

Contacted in Portugal by telephone yesterday, Mr. Oliveira, who identified himself as the manager of Saybolt's operations in the country, denied that he had received payments from Iraq or that he had ever worked there.

Secretary General Kofi Annan claimed that this was probably the only incident where this occurred and offered numerous other excuses as to why the U. N. would not in the end be hurt by the scandal:

"I think when the report comes out the public will begin to understand how complex this scheme was," Mr. Annan said. He said the program was "a political arrangement, a transaction intended to force Saddam Hussein to comply with inspection requirements, disarmament requirements, and in the process concessions were also made to him."

Mr. Annan said those concessions were made because Mr. Hussein was resisting the program and indifferent to the suffering of his own people. "In retrospect one may criticize it, but at the time because of the urgency and the need to help the Iraqi people, some concessions were made," he said.

House Democrats divided on Iraq

The Hill reports on House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Iraq working group meeting. It seems the Democrats are divided on what their position should be:

Reflecting its divided membership, the group did not arrive at a consensus on whether troop levels should be reduced or if the caucus should support administration requests for additional money. But members of the group said that they were unanimous in demanding greater accountability for how funds — both American and Iraqi — are disbursed, especially in regards to reconstruction money, according to lawmakers who attended the meeting.

Unprecedented election in Ohio

The AP reports on an Ohio study by five political science professors who studied Ohio’s presidential election:

Kerry and his Democratic allies spent $61 million on television ads compared with $39 million by President Bush and Republican groups. Together, the two campaigns spent as much on television ads as Bush spent nationwide to win the 2000 Republican nomination, the study said.

Both sides also spent an estimated $50 million for mailings, door-to-door contacts and phone calls, the study said.

Germans: scrap NATO?

The German Chancellor proposed setting up a new trans-Atlantic organization between Europe and America. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld opposed the idea and supported NATO.

The Associated Press reported:

Germany's defense minister proposed more direct coordination between the European Union and the United States. NATO "is no longer the primary venue where trans-Atlantic partners discuss and coordinate strategies," said Peter Struck, reading a speech on behalf of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who was ill.

Struck also recommended appointing a commission to study the idea.

But Rumsfeld said: "NATO has a great deal of energy and vitality. I believe they are undertaking the kinds of reforms to bring the institution into the 21st century. The place to discuss trans-Atlantic issues clearly is NATO."

Rumsfeld’s tone at the NATO conference was light and conciliatory as witnessed by the following comment:

"That was old Rumsfeld," he said. "Our collective security depends on our cooperation and mutual respect and understanding."

Hollywood’s frustrations

Hollywood’s frustrations with the Democrat Party came out during one of Washington’s annual events according to Drudge:

Actor Ron Silver lit into freshman Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) at the party following the Washington Press Club Foundation's annual Congressional dinner Wednesday night.

Silver launched into a lengthy, disjointed lecture about everything that's wrong with the Democratic Party * its policies, its politicians. Bean could barely get a word in edgewise, as Silver kept interrupting and wagging his finger at her, ROLL CALL reports.

"Speaking dramatically, Silver told his life story. His family came through Ellis Island. He's the son of blue-collar, working class Democrats, first person in his family to go to college, yadda yadda yadda."

Defining budgets

The Washington Post does a hit piece on President Bush’s budget arguing that the tax cuts and reforming Social Security coupled with the Medicare and Medicaid rising costs will cripple future Presidents spending initiatives:

For President Bush, the budget sent to Congress last week outlines a painful path to meeting his promise to bring down the federal budget deficit by the time he leaves office in 2009. But for the senators and governors already jockeying to succeed him, the numbers released in recent days add up to a budgetary land-mine that could blow up just as the next president moves into the Oval Office.

Defining Social Security

The Washington Post offered a second Democrat attack piece titled, "Democrats mobilizing on Social Security":

Meanwhile, Democrats also plan to use last week's revelations about the growing projected cost of a new Medicare prescription drug benefit as evidence that Bush cannot be trusted on Social Security. "Have you noticed that every reform means you pay more, and Wall Street and the pharmaceutical companies walk out with more profit?" said Rep. Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), chairman of the House Democratic campaign committee. "That's what we're going to hit him with."

Trying to exploit Republican trepidation, House Democratic leaders said in a recent memo to the party's lawmakers that they should "have already scheduled at least one Social Security Town Hall in your district in the month of February," and urged them to "mail postcards to targeted constituents" and "network with local senior centers."

Republican congressional leaders are arming the rank and file with videotapes and PowerPoint presentations making Bush's case on Social Security, and the White House is sending top officials to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a clinic to answer questions before the lawmakers head for their states and districts. Party strategists said Republicans will return to the Capitol either chastened or emboldened.

So the parties' competing town hall meetings during the Presidents' Day break will be a milestone in the Social Security momentum battle.

The aggressive campaign that Democrats will roll out next weekend shows how successfully Bush has dominated the nation's political conversation, forcing some Republican lawmakers into a pursuit that they do not relish and had resisted throughout his first term. But it also reflects the calculation by Democrats that the issue, if skillfully parried, could help them regain seats in Congress in 2006.

"I actually hope, politically," Holt said, "that Republicans can hold together long enough to really be held accountable for this horrendous mistake -- if they don't splinter sooner, and get off the hook."

Lebanon bombing

The former Prime Minister of Lebanon was killed in a car bombing. The White House spokesman offered the following comments:

"We condemn this brutal attack in the strongest possible terms. We extend our condolences to [Rafik

al-] Hariri's family and to his many friends and followers in Lebanon," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Hariri "worked tirelessly to rebuild a free, independent and prosperous Lebanon following its civil war and foreign occupation."

"This murder today is a terrible reminder that the Lebanese people must be able to pursue their aspirations and determine their own political future free from violence and intimidation and free from Syrian occupation," McClellan said.

The cost of war

Reuters reports on President Bush’s request for funding of the wars on terrorism and aide to tsunami victims:

President Bush (was sending Congress on Monday an $82 billion package to fund U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing the total for both conflicts to nearly $300 billion.

The supplemental budget request, previously set at $81 billion, includes $600 million in new aid for Asian nations hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami, pushing the total U.S. contribution to $950 million.

Teddy and Osama

James Taranto’s, Best of the Web, offers a real zinger against Sen. Ted Kennedy:

A new al Qaeda tape is out, purportedly from Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's No. 2 man. "The new Al-Qaeda tape argued that US allies in the region were the problem not the solution," according to Agence France-Presse--or, as someone else put it recently, "The U.S. military presence has become part of the problem, not part of the solution."

Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for comment.