Tuesday Afternoon Quick Hits
More problematic is Davis’ relationship to the Tysons Corner-based consulting company ICG Government. The firm is run by his close friend Donald Upson, who, according to a damning article published last July in The Washington Post, trades on the relationship to drum up business. Among other things, the Post reported, “The firm has arranged for clients to meet with Davis in his congressional office. Upson has set up dinners and receptions with the lawmaker for his clients. And ICG has arranged for clients to testify before Davis’s committee.” The firm also has employed Davis’ wife, Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, as a consultant, and paid her a total of $78,000 in 2005 for working “10 to 20 hours a week,” mostly from home, using her cell phone.Did somebody say "Republican Culture of Corruption"? (H/T: Political Insider)
“The House Judiciary Committee released today what are known as ‘privileged’ logs — brief descriptions of e-mail and telephone communications among Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty and other high ranking Justice officials.” A sample:A "bunch" of phone messages, huh? Must have been a pretty urgent call. With more evidence trickling out and the Senate Ethics investigation ongoing, Domenici ain't scrubbing this scandal off of him anytime soon. And, as his plummeting poll numbers indicate, eventually it may be too late.
– A bunch of “phone message slips” from early December regarding Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. The senator called David Iglesias, the fired U.S. attorney from New Mexico, to ask about an on-going investigation of a state Democrat a few weeks before last November’s election that put the Democrats back in charge of Congress.
posted by Senate2008Guru | 4:23 PM
5 Comments:
Only you could find a way to put a negative spin on the fact that there are multiple people thinking about challenging Lautenberg.
And I'm a bit confused about the Davis alleged "scandal-in-waiting". Davis is a sitting Congressman in a leaning Democrat district, so its not as if people would sit on the story before trying to use it to smear him. And the story was published last July, or a full 10 months ago. If nothing has happened in the last 10 months, what makes you think something will happen in the future, especially when he's done nothing illegal, and any attempts to make political hay out of it will (rightly) be seen as a partisan smear attempt?
I know its tiny, and doesnt indicate a heck of a lot. But in one of the few red areas of NJ there was a special election tonight for a local race and the Dem ended up winning by a pretty large percentage.
Random story I saw was that one precinct has 440 Registered Republicans and 140 Registered Dems and the Dem carried the district.
NJ is deep blue, but it might be trending even more so. Or this might just be a special election with no larger meaning.
Interesting Hill look at the NRSC's woes.
Of course the Post would sit on the story. They sat on the story of the "Black Hole Prisons" for 2 years. They sat on the story of President Ford calling Bush the worst President in history for years. They sat on the Walter Reed scandal since 2005.
Tom Davis forced the design of the Springfield, VA interchange to change just for the Washington Post delivery trucks for it's Springfield printing plant. Tom Davis worked on baseball in DC to boost their pitiful sports section. When the ICG story ran, the Post had held it for a Friday in July. They held the follow-up for months, till Thanksgiving. Who reads the paper on Thanksgiving? Davis could not have asked for better timing.
If you missed Bill Moyers PBS special on the media, you should try to catch it on re-play. He interviewed Post reporters like Walter Pincus saying they were told to leave Republicans alone. The Post ran 27 editorials about how we whould bomb Iraq while Knight-Ridder was uncovering the "fake yellowcake" story.
The Post didn't report that Davis was one of Tom DeLay's and Jack Abramoff's biggest helpers, giving them their biggest donation. The FEC said it was "money-laundering" of campaign contributions. Davis was one of only 3 Congressmen to get money directly from Jack and Pam Abramoff. He was one of a few Congressment to get donations directly from Abramoff's Indian tribes. The tribes testified they only donated to politicians hand-picked by Abramoff as in on their pay-to-play deal.
tomdavistruth.com
I'm not talking about the Post sitting on the story (though since we're talking about how the Post doesn't attack Republicans, let's forget the 156 articles published that mentioned or referenced "macaca" and the borderline-fellatio of James Webb during the '06 campaign). I'm talking about the fact that Tom Davis is in a district that's trending away from him, and as a sitting Congressman, faces re-election every two years. The Post story broke six months before he was re-elected. Why, in those six months, did we hear nothing about it, from either the Post or from Andrew Hurst about these issues?
Maybe its because there's a lot of specious logic in these attacks and from the hopelessly skewed "tomdavistruth.com", and people realized that voters would not be receptive to a blatant partisan smear concerning a matter which is neither illegal nor unethical.
There is no such thing as a "scandal-in-waiting" if the bombshell was dropped ten months ago and nothing happened.
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