October 12, 2006

Blogometer Extra

BLOGGERS VS. BELTWAY: Gone Amuck

  Paul Kiel at TPMmuckracker can hardly contain himself.  Three databases that "provide some excellent tools for muckrakers" have been made available to the public.

  First up is FedSpending.org, a "searchable database of federal grants and contacts," as Kiel describes it.  "Curious what contracts add up to Lockheed Martin's $24,779,249,050 this year?  You can find out there."

  Then there is the Center for Responsive Politics' Personal Financial Disclosure Reports site, which is "a rundown of the net worth of every member of Congress and the administration, as well as breakdowns from their financial disclosure statements."  You'll see that as of 2005, Sen. John Kerry is ranked as the 4th wealthiest politician on the Hill (Sen. Herb Kohl is tops), with a max net worth of $234 million, while at the other end is Rep. Alcee Hastings, whose max net worth is "negative $7,335,000," per the chart.  And you thought YOUR bills were bad.

  Lastly is a Travel Database, also from CRP, where "you see the sponsored trips taken by each member of Congress in the past two years."

  The databases, as Kiel notes, "were funded by grants from the Washington-based nonprofit the Sunlight Foundation."  "Bit by bit," adds Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, "this stuff is becoming more accessible.  Will that make a difference?  It will, if people want it to make a difference.  And they should."

Beltway Vs. Beltway: Jesus Tweaks

  Considering its source, Tucker Carlson made a startling assertion on the Chris Matthews show the other day:

CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though.  The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power.  Everybody in...

MATTHEWS: How do you know that?  How do you know that?

CARLSON: Because I know them.  Because I grew up with them.  Because I live with them.  They live on my street.  Because I live in Washington, and I know that everybody in our world has contempt for the evangelicals.  And the evangelicals know that, and they're beginning to learn that their own leaders sort of look askance at them and don't share their values.

MATTHEWS: So this gay marriage issue and other issues related to the gay lifestyle are simply tools to get elected?

CARLSON: That's exactly right.  It's pandering to the base in the most cynical way, and the base is beginning to figure it out.

  "Brutally honest" is how The Daily Dish's Andrew Sullivan described Carlson's booked revelations.  "No one could have ever imagined," AMERICAblog's John Aravosis quips, "that the Republicans would hate the intolerant, doctrinaire, all-demanding and never-happy bigost in their own party."

Hastertous Waste

  House Speaker Dennis Hastert is enduring rough times, a page right out of a horror story, in the wake of Foleygate.  The gaffes, finger-pointing and outright peculiarity that Hastert's been caught up in couldn't have come at a worse time for the Republicans, who face slumping polls less than a month from Election Day.

At first, Hastert blamed his own staff, even describing it as a "cover up."  Judd at Think Progress writes:

  At a press conference this morning, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) set up his staff to take the blame for the Mark Foley scandal.  Asked if he was satisfied with how his staff handled the matter, Hasert said, “I understand what my staff told me.  And I think from that response, they’ve handled it as well as they should.”

  Hastert, however, raised the prospect of a “cover up” led by senior members of his staff, and noted that they will be interviewed “under oath.”  He told reporters, “If they did cover something up, they should not continue to have their jobs.”

  It will be tough for Hastert to succeed in his efforts to pin the blame exclusively on his staff.  Hastert was directly informed of Foley’s inappropriate emails last spring by both House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-NY).

  Clearly feeling the pressure behind the scenes, the embattled Speaker is turning to friends for support.  And also, as Justin Rood at TPMmuckraker describes him, "nut-job evangelist" K.A. Paul.  Rood:

  You're House Speaker Dennis Hastert.  You're up to your wattle in the recriminations and repercussions of the Foley page scandal.  You probably lost whatever chance you had of keeping your party in the majority.  You're trying to save your own skin, much less the skins of your loyal staff, while multiple investigations are digging into your side about who knew what, when, and what they did or didn't do about it.

  So you decide to take a meeting with a globe-hopping, PR-happy evangelist who (if accounts can be believed) faked his own leper colony?

  After the 30-minute meeting between Hastert and Indian-by-way-of-Houston Christian evangelist K.A. Paul today, Hastert had no comment for the press.

  Rood writes that Paul, on the other hand, had lots to say afterward.  "I am humbled with his humility and simplicity," he told the AP.  He also said that he was "trying to get Hastert to step down."  "We don't want the Foley scandal when we have 100 more important things to do."

  As for the leper colony story, the Houston Press has the goods on it as well as other anecdotes from the bizarre history of Paul, such as "interfering with a murder investigation in India" and "abandoning an 11-year-old girl after checking her into a hospital."  For his part, Hastert claimed he was duped by Paul, believing him to be a supporter, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

  As if that weren't all enough for Hastert, he inexplicably held a press conference before, of all places and in full view of CNN cameras... a cemetery.

Posted by Conn Carroll at October 12, 2006 04:39 PM