Congress

Mukasey on Arar: It Was Safer to Send Him to Syria than Canada

The Attorney General just managed to say absolutely nothing about why the Justice Dept. won't appoint a special prosecutor to look into the case of Maher Arar.

Arar is a Canadian who the U.S. judged a foreign terror suspect. They questioned him, found nothing, but, then, instead of sending him back to Canada, flew him to Syria.

Mukasey Stumbles Explaining Why He Has Executive Privilege

Two hours into the House Judiciary Committee questioning Michael Mukasey and we're getting into the good stuff.  Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fl.) just asked Mukasey how he defines executive privilege. Mukasey says that executive privilege should be granted to a conversation a president has with closest advisers. How then, Wexler asked Mukasey, does Dick Cheney's interview with the FBI about the leaking of Valerie Plame Wilson's identity qualify as executive privilege?

Bush Changes Heart on Housing

The Bush administration has reversed course over its opposition to Congress's mortgage crisis legislation, announcing Wednesday that the White House will back the measure just two days after it vowed to veto it, The Associated Press reported this morning.

The bill would allow homeowners with troubled mortgages to refinance those loans at rates reflecting today's deflated market. It also contains an amendment (pushed hard by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) offering taxpayer cash to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae -- if it's required to keep the embattled mortgage backers solvent.

Mukasey Hearing Still Not on Topic

Michael Mukasey's opening testimony before the House Judiciary Committee largely focused on his promise that the November elections will be fairly run, thanks to the Justice Dept. Then Rep. Bobby Scott (D-N.C.) and Howard Coble (R-N.C.) asked him about prison overcrowding and patent law. Coble said that people inclined to do intellectual property theft are often linked with organized crime and even terrorists. Now Mel Watt (D-N.C.) -- apparently everybody on the committee is from North Carolina -- is asking Mukasey about ensuring that the upcoming election is clean.

Can Conyers-Mukasey Relationship End Well?

Attorney General Michael Mukasey is testifying before the House Judiciary Committee this morning, where committee chair John Conyers opened the event with a laundry list of what Mukasey is not doing:

-prosecuting White House aides Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, and Joshua Bolten who claimed executive privilege

-turning over Justice Dept. Office of Legal Counsel opinions on detainee interrogation methods

-investigating cases of selective prosecution, including former Alabama Governor Don Siegleman

Congress Bows to Big Oil in Burma

The Senate approved a bill that ups trade sanctions, but abandons an earlier push to punish Chevron.

Former EPA Official: White House For Regulating Greenhouse Gases Before They Were Against It

At a Senate hearing today Jason Burnett, a former Environmental Protection Agency official, testified to how the White House changed its mind on whether the EPA should regulate greenhouse gases. Burnett, who worked with EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to formulate global warming policy, said the White House was totally for regulating global warming-causing emissions in November 2007. But what happened next, Burnett told the Senate environment and public works committee, was "strange indeed."

Burnett sent an email to the White House in December saying that greenhouse gases endanger the public health and that, therefore EPA has no choice but to regulate them (the Supreme Court ruled in May 2007 that EPA must regulate greenhouses if they are proved harmful). Originally, Joel Kaplan, the White House deputy chief of staff, and the Office of Management Budget agreed. But then Kaplan and OMB abruptly told Burnett to say that he "accidentally" sent the email. Burnett refused to do so and the email is still sitting apparently unopened by the White House.

Obama Endorses New Poverty Measure

The tone after yesterday's House hearing promoting a new federal poverty gauge was one lacking in urgency. Though Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) has introduced legislation on the topic, there is no Senate equivalent, and there's probably too little time left in the legislative year to bring it up if there were. McDermott's office said his House bill is a test shot -- designed to jump-start the poverty debate with eyes looking to next year.

Miraculously, it worked.

On Thursday, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), the likely Democratic presidential nominee, threw his hefty support behind the concept, according to Congressional Quarterly, a Capitol Hill news outfit. As campaign spokesman Nick Shapiro told CQ:
 

Homey Seh Whah?

As Suemedha points out, the EPA's recent epiphany that global warming is a threat to human health comes as a surprise only to lobotomites and those still holding faith in the Bush administration. Speaking of whom …

Defining Poverty

With foreclosures on the rise and gas topping $4 a gallon, some economists say it's time to reconsider where the poverty line is drawn.

Suspicion Surrounds Firing of EPA Panel Chair

Dr. Deborah Rice discusses for the first time the circumstances now under investigation by Congress and EPA.

Offshore Drilling and the Hurricane Threat

Facts? Who needs 'em?

Earlier this week, The Washington Post ran an offshore drilling story that finds Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) making a curious claim about the power of new technologies to prevent spills:

Congressional Investigations 101: What Happens In Criminal Contempt?

Today Attorney General Michael Mukasey preempted a vote by the House Oversight Committee to hold him in criminal contempt. President George W. Bush asserted executive privilege for Mukasey, enabling him to further stall in turning over Vice President Dick Cheney's interview with Patrick Fitzgerald about Valerie Plame. But the committee may yet hold Mukasey-- and EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson and who knows what other administration official-- in criminal contempt. What would that portend?

No Push From Bush on Conservation

With gas prices eating deeper into family budgets, most experts agree that reducing demand through individual conservation would prove a much more immediate solution than increasing supply through increased drilling. Hell, even President George W. Bush said yesterday that conservation would remedy the current "imbalance" in energy supply and demand.

But if you think that means the president would call on Americans to be wise about their personal energy use, you'd be perfectly, 100-percent wrong. From the transcript of yesterday's White House press conference:
 

Why Did Mukasey Claim Executive Privilege?

Here at The Washington Independent we just intrepidly combed through the entire six page letter that Michael Mukasey sent to President George W. Bush, asking him to assert executive privilege in the  House oversight committee's Valerie Plame investigation. Here's what it says: Mukasey is fine with handing over an edited version of all interviews Patrick Fitzgerald had with White House officials about the Plame investigation, except for those with George Bush and Dick Cheney. In even allowing these censored interviews, Mukasey writes that he's making an "extraordinary accommodation."

Mukasey Claims Executive Privilege

Attorney General Michael Mukasey pre-empted a contempt of Congress vote by the House oversight committee this morning by claiming executive privilege. Henry A. Waxman's House oversight committee subpoenaed Mukasey to issue a ton of documents related to the Valerie Plame Wilson scandal, including the interview special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had with Dick Cheney.

The oversight committee has spent a year trying to get its hands on interviews Fitzgerald had with Cheney and President George W. Bush about what Waxman calls "the despicable outing of Ms. Wilson." Fitzgerald is fine with the interviews being made public, but the Bush administration isn't. Waxman called the executive privilege claim "ludicrous."

Energy Debate Excludes Conservation

As Congress fights over what to do about the 68 million acres oil and gas companies aren't exploring, neither side is talking about a real energy policy change.

Medicare Bill Is Law

After months of haggling, the saga is over. Congress today voted to override the White House veto of legislation staving off a steep cut to doctors who see Medicare patients. The vote in the House was 383 to 81, while the Senate count was 70 to 26. The debate set two powerhouse lobbying groups -- the physicians and the insurance industry -- against each other, with the docs coming out on top this time around.

Bush Vetoes Medicare Bill

Well, we knew that was coming. President George W. Bush today vetoed Democratic legislation to prevent Medicare doctors from being hit with a 10.6 percent cut this year. Chief among his objections: Bush says the bill will undermine the GOP program under which private insurance companies deliver Medicare services. From today's veto message to the House:

WWJD? (What Will Jesse Do?): Not Run, That's What

As a tight Senate race stews in Minnesota, all eyes have been on Jesse Ventura, the former governor and professional wrestler, whose enigmatic responses to questions of whether he'll run as a wild-card have left the state's prognosticators -- not to mention the candidates -- at the edge of their seats.

But yesterday, in an interview with Larry King, Ventura finally announced his decision, indicating that he's "maybe not religious enough" to win the job.