Day: October 13, 2006

President Bush says he will pursue diplomacy to try to persuade North Korea to abandon its goal of being a nuclear power, as opposed to the military means he used against Iraq, another country he accused of being part of the “axis of evil” but which had no nuclear weapons.

Our words do have a way of coming back to haunt us.

If members of Congress are guilty of anything in the Mark Foley scandal, it is their intense and congenital preoccupation with self-preservation.

Foley was a well-liked, respected member of the House Republican inner circle right up until the second it was disclosed that he had sent inappropriate-sounding e-mails to young male congressional pages. The really steamy e-mails didn’t come until later.

None of his erstwhile friends said, “Gee, Mark, why don’t you get some professional help for that problem? And in the meantime drop by our prayer circle.”

Before Congress passed a port-security bill on Sept. 30, a House-Senate panel deleted a proposed ban by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., on current or future dockworkers convicted of murder, conspiracy, explosives trafficking and transporting hazardous materials, among other felonies. As The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund reported Oct. 2, conferees stripped this language “in the dead of night at the behest of unions fearful that too many of their members could lose their jobs.” Call this measure “No Longshoreman Left Behind.”

Now that he’s resigned from office, just how much money can former Rep. Mark Foley expect to receive in the coming years?

When he turns 62, Foley, who turned 52 last month, will start getting a pension of $32,000 a year, according to the National Taxpayers Union. If Foley is unable to wait until 2016, he could choose to begin collecting a “deferred reduced retirement” plan in 2010, when he is 56. But, then, he would only be able to collect $22,400 a year, depending on cost-of-living adjustments.

Nancy Pelosi stands to make life much tougher for President Bush if the November 7 elections net her a powerful job that puts her just two steps behind him.

The 66-year-old California liberal stands to become the first woman to lead the House of Representatives if she and fellow Democrats win control of the chamber from Bush’s Republicans.

She vows to ensure Congress acts as an equal to the most powerful man in the world.

Disgraced former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley complained to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush two years ago that the White House snubbed him during presidential visits to the state, according to e-mails obtained by the Palm Beach Post.

In e-mails the newspaper excerpted on its Web site (https://www.palmbeachpost.com) on Thursday, Foley asked the governor to intervene on his behalf with his brother, President George W. Bush.

“Have I done something to offend the White House? … I am always getting the shaft,” Foley wrote to Gov. Bush on September 29, 2004.

Pressed by Republican House colleagues to resign, Rep. Bob Ney is the first congressman to fall in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling case, a controversy that has reached the Bush White House and Capitol Hill.

In his sixth term, Ney is to enter a guilty plea Friday to a pair of felonies that could send him to prison for up to 10 years.

Ney signed papers a month ago admitting to charges of conspiracy and making false statements, acknowledging that he had deprived the public of his honest services.

Five conservative nonprofit groups laundered money and wrote opinion pieces for disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and sold their influence with U.S. government officials, according to a Senate report.

The Senate Finance Committee said in the report released on Thursday that the five groups probably violated their tax-exempt status by working closely with Abramoff, the lobbyist at the center of a growing corruption scandal.

Democratic candidates have a big edge on Republicans one month before elections to decide control of Congress, a flurry of new polls said on Monday, with ratings for President George W. Bush and Congress dropping after the Capitol Hill sex scandal.

A USA Today/Gallup poll gave Democrats a 23-point edge on Republicans in the battle for Congress, while a CNN poll gave Democrats a 21-point lead.