Think Progress

Under the Radar

ETHICS -- FBI RAIDS ABRAMOFF-LINKED CONGRESSMAN'S HOME: FBI agents searched the home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) yesterday, who is "under scrutiny over his ties to convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff." Doolittle's ties to the disgraced lobbyist are quite extensive, as he "received $64,500 from Abramoff, his partners, and clients between 2001 and 2004. Abramoff let Doolittle hold fundraisers in his sky box for free, and paid to send Doolittle's top aide to Puerto Rico. He hired Doolittle's then-chief of staff, Kevin Ring, who in turn helped hire Doolittle's wife. Julie Doolittle, who owned a consulting firm, was brought on by Abramoff and his firm, Greenberg Traurig, to do fundraising for Abramoff's charity." Despite these other clear connections, Dolittle maintains that Abramoff's ties to Doolittle's wife's business are the only reason for the FBI's raid. "My wife has been cooperating with the FBI and the Justice Department for almost three years and that cooperation is going to continue in the future. I support my wife 100 percent and fully expect that the truth will prevail," he said in a statement yesterday. As Roll Call notes, Doolittle is seemingly quite embarrassed about the allegations, as he has not "made any attempt to personally inform House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) of the event. Doolittle has been on the Hill all week and voted on the floor Wednesday."

ADMINISTRATION -- POLITICIZATION CONTINUES IN NON-POLITICAL RANKS OF DOJ: A "Group of Concerned Justice Department Employees" have sent an anonymous letter to both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees revealing that "the non-political ranks of Justice employees...are consistently and methodically being eroded by partisan politics." As Politico explained, "Under normal circumstances, the various divisions at Justice review applications from potential hires, set interviews and send the list to the Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management, which gives the green light to proceed." The letter detailed, however, that the recruitment office is "no longer the final step...because the list had to go higher" -- to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty. The letter continues that "when the list of potential interviewees was returned, it had been cut dramatically...many sections were left with fewer potential interviews than vacant slots to fill." In a Dec. 5, 2006, meeting scheduled in response to the complaints, McNulty's chief of staff was "offensive to the point of [being] insulting" and claimed that his "screening panel" had struck people from the list because of "grades, spelling errors on applications, and inappropriate information about them on the Internet." Justice Department staff, however, found that among those individuals rejected by McNulty's office, "one common denominator appeared repeatedly" -- they had "interned for a Hill Democrat, clerked for a Democratic judge, worked for a 'liberal' cause, or otherwise appeared to have 'liberal' leanings." The letter concluded that "while the current political appointees repeatedly remind everyone that the U.S. Attorneys 'serve at the pleasure of the President,' the Department's career attorneys serve the people of the United States" and urged Congress to "include this politicizing of the career ranks in your questioning of Attorney Gonzales and his staff." The Justice Department has refused to comment on the letter.

ENVIRONMENT -- NEW POLL SHOWS AMERICANS WANT ACTION NOW ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENERGY INDEPENDENCE: The majority of Americans "feel new urgency" for "immediate action to tackle global warming and achieve energy independence," according to a new poll for the Center for American Progress conducted by GreenbergQuinlanRosner Research. On the heels of Al Gore's Oscar-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth" and a series of reports by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, over three-quarters of Americans now believe that global warming is real and apparent. Sixty percent of those surveyed not only believe that "the increasing pollution of the past few decades has set global warming into motion," but also that "we must take action now or it will be too late to stop it." This sense of urgency crosses party lines, as "huge majorities of Independents (59 percent) and Democrats (76 percent) support action now along with a significant bloc of Republicans (41 percent)."  The poll also found that the vast majority of Americans are ready and willing to move from oil and coal as fuel sources to alternative fuels. Even when presented with the point of view of critics, the survey shows "strong public support for a series of proposals to move to clean, alternative energy, institute higher mileage standards for automobiles, and cap carbon emissions from industry to tackle our dependence on oil and stop global warming." "This new poll demonstrates that legislators can support clean alternative energy and limits on global warming pollution with the confidence that the American people will enthusiastically applaud such efforts," write Center for American Progress President John Podesta, Senior Fellow and Director of Climate Change Strategy Daniel J. Weiss, and Senior Vice President for Communications Laura Nichols. "Conversely, the public will disapprove of inaction or efforts that expand our reliance on conventional fuels or more global warming pollution."

Think Fast

78: Percentage of Americans who believe undocumented immigrants now in the United States should be given a chance at citizenship, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll, showing "the American public appears to have reached a consensus on the question."

Senate conservatives "blocked legislation yesterday that would have allowed the federal government to negotiate Medicare drug prices." Eighty-five percent of Americans support such negotiations.

"For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates. ... On virtually every significant decision affecting election balloting since 2001, the division's Voting Rights Section has come down on the side of Republicans."

"Congressional Democratic leaders are moving to make their proposed timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq 'advisory' as they seek to reconcile two versions of war spending legislation into a single bill that they plan to pass next week, according to several House members." 

Terrorism strikes the poor in Iraq: "While Baghdad remains in shock over the massive bombings that targeted...the poorer areas of the city, and caused hundreds of casualties in crowded marketplaces and neighborhoods, Iraqi politicians who inhabit the safe, guarded quarters of the capital are busy in their attempts to fortify their positions in the political system."

A senator has placed an "anonymous hold" on "legislation moving through the Senate that would require lawmakers' campaign finance reports to be electronically filed, meaning quickly made public."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee today in a "make-or-break appearance" about the Bush administration's prosecutor purge. Four legal experts, including ousted U.S. attorney David Iglesias, pose questions they would ask Gonzales.

"Children in Sudan are press-ganged, coerced to join armed groups, raped and used as forced labor or sex slaves, according to a new report by humanitarian groups."