Day: October 14, 2006

Federal prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation into a camping trip that an Arizona lawmaker took with two former pages and others in 1996, according to a law enforcement official.

Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., took the former pages as well as staff members and National Park Service officials on a Fourth of July rafting trip in the Grand Canyon in 1996, his spokeswoman Korenna Cline said Friday.

The Justice Department is investigating whether Republican Rep. Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania traded his political influence for lucrative lobbying and consulting contracts for his daughter, according to sources with direct knowledge of the inquiry.

The FBI, which opened an investigation in recent months, has formally referred the matter to the department’s Public Integrity Section for additional scrutiny. At issue are Weldon’s efforts between 2002 and 2004 to aid two Russian companies and two Serbian brothers with ties to strongman Slobodan Milosevic, a federal law enforcement official said.

A congressman who is a key figure in the House page scandal conceded Friday that Republicans have mishandled the matter.

“I think there’s stuff that everybody would have done differently” in hindsight, said Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., after he testified for more than three hours before the House ethics committee. The panel is investigating former Rep. Mark Foley’s sexually tinged Internet communications with teenage pages over several years.

The House ethics committee, the existence of which you might have understandably forgotten, is back in business, investigating the handling of a now former member’s unhealthy interest in young male congressional pages.

The ex-congressman, former Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley, is beyond the committee’s jurisdiction, having resigned just over two weeks ago.

A Republican congressman pleaded guilty on Friday in the Jack Abramoff political corruption investigation, becoming the first lawmaker convicted in an election-year scandal that has reached into Congress and the Bush administration.

Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio admitted he had illegally accepted trips, meals, drinks, tickets to concerts and sporting events and other items worth tens of thousands of dollars in return for official acts performed on behalf of the lobbyist Abramoff and his clients.

A taxpayer funded medical plan covers the type of alcohol rehabilitation program that former Rep. Mark Foley is using, a spokeswoman for the clerk’s office at the U.S. House of Representatives said Friday.

“Most, if not all (lawmakers), have some coverage as far as rehabilitation for drug and alcohol,” said Salley Collins, a spokeswoman for the House clerk’s office.

Count on this: Nothing will budge embattled Pentagon chief Don Rumsfeld from his post, at least until December ends.

If he can stick it out that long _ and those who know him say he’s not even contemplating leaving before President Bush exits in January 2007 _ Rumsfeld will reach the historic milestone of being the longest-serving defense secretary ever.

Republicans are in danger of losing control of the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 7, their brief September hopes for a surge of momentum burst by a barrage of bad news.

Republicans are on the defensive over Iraq, the Mark Foley House page scandal and nationwide angst about the country’s direction, according to reports from key House races and interviews with independent analysts in Washington and battleground districts.