Think Progress

Under the Radar

ETHICS -- WHITE HOUSE HIDES PRESIDENT'S EARMARKS FROM PUBLIC SCRUTINY: As the LA Times reports, the total amount of money appropriated by earmarks has tripled in the last decade and reached a record $71.77 billion in 2006. In his most recent State of the Union address, President Bush called on Congress to end the practice of earmarking federal funds, saying he wished to "expose every earmark to the light of day and to a vote in Congress." Yesterday, the President's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) updated its "online list of all the pet spending projects lawmakers tucked in the federal budget for the 2004-05 fiscal year." The OMB's list, however, lacks any "earmarks the president and his administration requested" and, according to the OMB, "cannot accurately be used, to identify the individual sponsors of congressional earmarks," nor can it be used in all cases to identify the "ultimate beneficiary" of particular earmarks. As the Wall Street Journal has noted, "Presidents like pork, too," and Bush is no exception, using the federal budget process to "reward political supporters, campaign contributors and sometimes members of Congress" for votes on a presidential priority. Despite his recent focus on transparency, Bush has not once vetoed any of Congress's pork-laden spending bills. His earmarks often "appear only in closely held supplements separate from the public budget books." Additionally, "as head of the executive branch, the president often doesn't need earmarks: Once federal agencies get funding from Congress, his appointees are fairly free to steer sums to places, programs and vendors as the administration decides."

ETHICS -- BUSH USES RECESS APPOINTMENT TO SNEAK SWIFT BOAT FUNDER PAST SENATE: President Bush used his recess appointment powers yesterday to bypass the Senate and appoint Republican fundraiser Sam Fox as U.S. ambassador to Belgium. The appointment of Fox, whose nomination the White House admits "would not have passed" the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is controversial not only because he donated $50,000 to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, but because it may also be illegal. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), the target of the Swift Boat smear campaign that Fox helped fund, said of the appointment that it was "sad but not surprising that the White House would abuse the power of the presidency to reward a donor over the objections of the Senate." Bush has also announced that he will recess-appoint Susan Dudley as his "top regulatory czar" at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Previously, Dudley worked as the director of the Regulatory Program at the Mercatus Center, an "industry funded, anti-regulatory advocacy organization," where she urged the destruction of major public safeguards. Additionally, Bush yesterday appointed Andrew Biggs, a supporter of Social Security privatization, to the No. 2 spot at the Social Security Administration. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) said the move "could derail any chance of a Social Security overhaul." Bush has such reserved recess appointments for some of his most controversial allies, including John Bolton as U.N. ambassador, right-wing Charles Pickering as U.S. Appellate Judge, and Ellen Sauerbrey, a staunch opponent of reproductive rights, as Assistant Secretary of State for Refugees, Population, and Migration. According to congressional expert Sarah Binder of the Brookings Institution, Bush's use of recess appointments has "outpaced that of Bush I and of President Clinton," which is "pretty striking" because they have been made during "a period of unified party control of Congress and The White House." 

IRAQ -- PENCE CLAIMS BAGHDAD BAZAAR IS LIKE 'ANY OPEN-AIR MARKET IN INDIANA IN THE SUMMERTIME': On Monday, Republican lawmakers visiting Iraq tried to argue that President Bush's escalation in Iraq has made Baghdad -- especially the Shorja market -- safer. Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) told reporters that Shorja -- where a suicide bomber killed 88 people in January -- is now "like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime." On his blog, he wrote, "I didn't mean that Baghdad was as safe as the Bargersville Flea Market; I just meant that that was what it looked and felt like...lots of people, lots of booths and a friendly relaxed atmosphere." But Indianans find any similarities between Bargersville and Baghdad ludicrous. "There've been no shootings or car bombings" at that market since it opened a few years ago, said Robin Gibson, assistant metro editor of the Star Press in Muncie, IN. "Maybe some overeager dogs jumping at people," she ventured. "Avon Waters, a former features editor and writer for the Herald Bulletin in Anderson, the other relatively big town in Pence's largely rural congressional district, said he never wore a flak jacket and 'never felt afraid' when he spent a couple of recent years covering farmers markets in Madison County." Iraqis also disagreed with Pence's assessment of the Shorja market's "friendly relaxed atmosphere." Karim Abdullah, a textile merchant at Shorja, said that the lawmakers "were laughing and talking to people as if there was nothing going on in this country or at least they were pretending that they were tourists. ... To achieve this, they sealed off the area, put themselves in flak jackets and walked in the middle of tens of armed American soldiers." A day after the congressional delegation visited Shorja, 21 Shorja market workers were "ambushed, bound and shot dead north of the capital."

Think Fast

In an editorial entitled "Cheney's Chance," the New York Sun encourages Vice President Cheney to run for president. The Sun claims that, were he in the race, "it's hard to imagine that the president's approval ratings would not be five or 10 points higher" because the administration would have "a defender on the campaign trail." Note: Cheney's approval is even lower than Bush's.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) said this week of purged U.S. attorney Carol Lam, "She's a former law professor; no prosecutorial experience; and the former campaign manager in Southern California for Clinton." In fact, Lam served as a prosecutor for 15 years, and according to Lam, was neither a law professor nor a Clinton campaign worker.

The Justice Department's White House liaison Monica Goodling yesterday "refused a request from the House Judiciary Committee to answer questions in a private interview." Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) earlier indicated that if Goodling refused to grant the private interview, she may be required to attend a public hearing and invoke the Fifth on a "question-by-question basis."

A new Amnesty International report states that conditions at Guantanamo Bay prison have worsened. "Most detainees have suffered harsh treatment throughout their detention," the report says, and a new facility opened in December "has created even harsher and apparently more permanent conditions of extreme isolation and sensory deprivation."

10,328: The number of housing complaints received in 2006 by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Fair Housing Assistance Program agencies, "up 65% from the 6,270 complaints received in 1996." Last year's number was a record, "with disability and race as the leading reasons for filing a complaint."

"A newly formed consulting firm hired to account for more than $7.3 billion in Iraqi reconstruction money did not deliver a database that could help investigators track waste and fraud. ... The result: Two years after uncovering one major fraud case, auditors still haven't determined whether there was more graft in the spending of Iraqi oil proceeds."

And finally: Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) has been greeted at events recently by someone dressed up as a dolphin, dubbing himself Flip, who is highlighting Romney's "flip-flops" on various issues. Earlier this week, Flip tried to enter a campaign event "but was caught in a net of young Romney staffers. 'You need to leave the building,' bellowed one, as he porpoisely pushed out the heckler." The dolphin "would only admit to being a student from Davenport, Iowa. Asked what he school he went to, Flip offered: 'The University of the Pacific Ocean.'"