Day: May 2, 2006

In Nebraska and other states, challengers are trying to portray incumbents’ pet projects as waste.

The debate between liberal and conservative women’s groups goes as follows: Liberals: women continue to face routine workplace discrimination and gender bias in hiring, promotion and pay. Conservatives: women’s lack of advancement is their own choice; they’d rather stay home to raise kids than command higher salaries and success in the world outside the home.

A wise Washington observer once counseled that whatever the information, it is always to someone’s advantage that it is made public, and that can include the person occupying the Oval Office.

When Lawrence Lindsey, then President Bush’s top economic adviser, said in September 2002 that the war in Iraq might cost the United States as much as $200 billion, other top aides rebuked him and Bush fired him three months later.  Turns out, Lindsey’s projection was indeed way off the mark — way low off the mark.

Rep. Tom DeLay raised more money to pay legal fees after abandoning any effort to return as majority leader than he did in the immediate months following his indictment in Texas last year on money laundering charges.

State judges approved a growing number of secret wiretaps in criminal investigations in 2005, while federal criminal wiretaps dropped 14 percent, according to court data released Monday.

Social Security and Medicare trustees say the financial condition of the government’s two biggest benefit programs deteriorated slightly over the past year.

A congressional watchdog group asked the Justice Department on Monday to investigate whether Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Fla., attempted to obtain a $10 million appropriation for a defense contractor in return for his financial support.

The Secret Service has agreed to turn over White House visitor logs that will show how often convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff met with Bush administration officials — and with whom he met.

Strange things are happening in Congress. The playground bully in the Senate — the Appropriations Committee — actually took a loss last week at the hands of senators determined to strip so-called pork barrel projects from a bill that’s supposed to be devoted to the war in Iraq and hurricane relief. And the House this week will vote on requiring members to attach their names to “earmarks” — those hometown projects slipped into spending bills. The idea is that the sunshine of public scrutiny will mean fewer wasteful, silly sounding projects like $500,000 for a teapot museum in Sparta, N.C.