Think Progress

ETHICS -- NEW REPORT REVEALS LAWMAKERS' USE OF 'CAMPAIGN FUNDS TO PAY RELATIVES': A report released today by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) finds that "96 members [of the House of Representatives] from 33 states: 44 Democrats and 53 Republicans" have used their positions to "financially benefit their family members." Of those 96, CREW found that 72 members "spent $5.1 million in campaign funds to pay relatives or their relatives' companies or employers during the past six years." While the practice of paying one's spouse or relatives for political work with campaign funds is not illegal, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) argues that "there's simply been too much abuse." The new report finds that "Rep. Randy Forbes's (R-VA) campaign committee paid his three children over $45,000" and that "Rep. Zoe Lofgren's (D-CA) campaign committee has paid her husband's two businesses almost $350,000, mostly for event management, accounting and fundraising services." Schiff and Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE) have "introduced a bill this month that would prohibit congressional candidates from paying their spouses with campaign funds and require campaigns to disclose close relatives on the payroll." Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT), who "paid six of his eight children, in the range of $1,000 to $33,000, over the six-year period," defended his actions. His spokesman said, "It's cheap labor...they put in a lot of work, and [Cannon] doesn't really have a problem with them collecting a paycheck for it." CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan argues, however, that "paying relatives with campaign money gives the impression that Congress members use their 'position as a profit center for the family.'" Furthermore, she notes that "[a] member of Congress would not be allowed to put that family member on their office payroll. ... [W]hy should they [be allowed to] put them on the campaign payroll?"

MILITARY -- WALTER REED NOT EQUIPPED TO DEAL WITH MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS: The Veterans Affairs administration is "battling a crisis in mental health care." Veterans returning from Iraq, one-fourth of whom display post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental illness symptoms, "enter a VA system that chronically loses records and sags with a backlog of 400,000 claims of all kinds." Outdated diagnosis methods, medical records "riddled with obvious errors," and shortages in trained personnel and treatment options contribute to the crisis. According to a report commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, "there is not a coordinated effort to provide the training required to identify and treat these non-visible injuries, nor adequate research in order to develop the required training and refine the treatment plans." At Walter Reed Medical Center, where the majority of soldiers diagnosed with mental problems are transferred, "the Army has no PTSD center...and its psychiatric treatment is weak compared with the best PTSD programs the government offers." The Army's top hospital "lacks enough psychiatrists and clinicians to properly treat the growing number of soldiers returning with combat stress" and rarely offers individual or group therapy for PTSD. Medical experts and "even VA's chief of mental health" have also admitted that the Army's rules for mental health coverage and compensation "deny thousands of claims." According to the Washington Post, "to qualify for compensation, troops and veterans are required to prove that they witnessed at least one traumatic event, such as the death of a fellow soldier or an attack from a roadside bomb, or IED." Under the system, soldiers living "in dread of exposure" to a roadside bomb or death "don't qualify" for compensation. Those who do are "over-medicated and treated with none of the urgency given the physically wounded."

IRAQ -- LOW EFFECTIVENESS OF ESCALATION RAISES QUESTIONS OF LONG-TERM OCCUPATION IN IRAQ: Last week, a fatal bombing that destroyed the Samarra Askariya mosque, which was also severely damaged one year earlier, raised questions as to the efficacy of the U.S. troop escalation. U.S. News and World Report reports this week that "[e]arly indications are far from encouraging" for the escalation. "While sectarian killings appear to have declined at least temporarily in the capital, the Pentagon reports that overall violence levels nationwide remain as high as ever. Indeed, even as U.S. troops boost their presence in some Baghdad neighborhoods, many insurgents appear to have simply moved to outlying provinces that now have a much thinner security presence." Insurgents continue to attack American soldiers at record levels, for example, with May being one of the deadliest months for American forces in the entire war. Despite the clear evidence against the escalation's effectiveness, administration and military officials are attempting to play down expectations of progress by this fall and instead are endorsing a protracted troop presence. Last week, Gen. David Petraeus, the commanding U.S. general in Iraq, stated that "we haven't even started the surge yet," despite nearly all of the 28,000 troops being in place at the time. Yesterday, on Fox News Sunday, Petraeus admitted that he didn't expect the "surge" to be done by September, the date set for Petraeus's supposedly make-it or break-it report to Congress. Petraeus then went on to endorse the "Korea model" for Iraq, which envisions keeping troops in the country for decades. "[T]ypically, I think historically, counterinsurgency operations have gone at least nine or ten years," he said.

In Iraq's Diyala province, U.S. soldiers are willing to risk teaming up with Sunni militias to fight insurgent groups. Ali al-Adeeb, a prominent Shiite lawmaker, said the United States is "trusting people who have previously attacked American forces and innocent people. They are trusting people who are loyal to the regime of Saddam Hussein."

Fallout from the U.S. attorney scandal is "starting to hit the [Justice] department in federal courtrooms around the country." Defense lawyers are "raising questions about the motives of government lawyers who have brought charges against their clients," and "are citing the furor over the U.S. attorney dismissals as evidence that their cases may have been infected by politics."

"A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., has heard evidence about a remodeling project at Sen. Ted Stevens' (R-AK) home as part of a burgeoning investigation into corruption in Alaska." 

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will take up "a major reversal of energy tax policies," legislation that would "raise about $14 billion from oil companies over 10 years and would give about the same amount of money on new incentives for solar power, wind power, cellulosic ethanol and numerous other renewable energy sources."

"Seven children were killed in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike targeting suspected al-Qaida militants in eastern Afghanistan, a coalition statement said Monday. The strike came hours after the deadliest insurgent attack since the Taliban fell in 2001."

White House loyalists have begun arguing for a Libby pardon. "[S]everal Republicans, who sense a movement in Libby’s favor, said a more likely possibility might be a presidential commutation -- a reduction or elimination of Libby's 2 1/2-year federal prison sentence.

Robert Novak writes that President Bush plans to go on a "veto offensive." Bush has pledged to veto the homeland security appropriations bill. After that, "Bush next plans vetoes of the energy-water and interior-environment bills." Novak predicts Bush's vetoes will "trigger an epochal political struggle in the months ahead."

And finally: For Father's Day, First Lady Laura Bush gave the President "several ties she purchased during their recent trip to Europe," and his daughters "gave him a CD they had made for him to listen to while exercising." President Bush also "squeezed in a bike ride at his ranch" and "spoke to his father, former President George H.W. Bush, over the phone."