In a stunning interview today in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) inadvertently stumbled over the central ethical quandary surrounding earmark legislation:
"If I'm corrupt, it's because I take care of my district," Mr. Murtha said. "My job as a member of Congress is to make sure that we take care of what we see is necessary. Not the bureaucrats who are unelected over there in whatever White House, whether it's Republican or Democrat. Those bureaucrats would like to control everything. Every president would like to have all the power and not have Congress change anything. But we're closest to the people." [emphasis added]
Murtha has come under fire for his connections to the PMA Group, a DC lobbying firm which helps secure earmarks for its clients. The head of PMA is Paul Magliochetti, a former Murtha aide.
Obama critics have said several things he has done would bring down Obama's approval rating. So far, though, Obama's approval rating hasn't dropped very far, except for a few outliers like John Zogby's poll that had him at 50 percent. Will his plan for the auto industry cause his numbers to take a dip?
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Greg Sargent got his hands on an anti-card check newspaper ad set to print tomorrow:
The poll stats listed on the ad:
-74% of likely voters oppose the Employee Free Choice Act
-82% believe a secret ballot election is the best way to protect the individual rights of workers during union organizing elections.
-88% believe that a worker's vote should be kept private in a union organizing election.
-11% support Big Labor's card check agenda
It's no surprise that the angle of attack here involves preserving the secret ballot. Business supporters have focused on the democratic process as a cornerstone of their attack on EFCA, while labor supporters would like to shift the debate to the merits of being unionized and the struggle against business coercion. The poll numbers cited in the ad were likely in response to questions worded in the manner business prefers.
The ad is paid for by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace.
I would imagine this video will make its way around the liberal blogosphere. The Democratic National Committee is trying to fund raise off of the alternative budget the GOP presented last week.
The web ad pokes fun a the Republicans' outline for being light on specifics. Check it out below.
UPDATE: Check out the DNC's email after the jump.
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The leading organized labor group representing auto industry laborers has not voiced complaints toward the Obama administration on its decision on General Motors and Chrysler, one of the administration's leading economic advisers said Monday.
Asked if the United Autoworkers (UAW) union had voiced their displeasure toward the plan, Jared Bernstein, Vice President Biden's senior economic adviser, said: "Not hearing it, no."
"I would argue that the UAW has really made considerable and deep concessions over the course of these deliberations," Bernstein said.
Bernstein also said that the administration was extremely unlikely to revisit the fuel efficiency standards expected to be put in place in exchange for additional government assistance.
"I don't think there's any reason to go there, in terms of conceding territory," Bernstein said. "I don't think it helps anybody to inject new criteria at this point."
Former President George W. Bush will throw the ceremonial first pitch at the Texas Rangers' first game of the season at the Ballpark in Arlington on April 6.
Bush will be the third president to throw out the Rangers' Opening Day first pitch, the Associated Press reports; Gerald Ford tossed the first pitch of the 1976 season and Bush's father, George H.W. Bush, threw out the first pitch in 1991.
Bush moved to the Preston Hollow area of Dallas since leaving office. He is an avid baseball fan and was the managing general partner of the Rangers from 1989 to 1994.
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The above mailer is the Democrats' latest (and probably last) attempt to fight the New York special election for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-N.Y.) former House seat on Republicans' national image. The ad seeks to tie Republican New York Assemblyman Jim Tedisco to Rush Limbaugh, President George W. Bush and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R). It then paints Democrat Scott Murphy as the candidate who will work for the upstate New York district.
The New York State Democratic Committee paid for the ad. The special election for the seat is tomorrow.
The Hill will be compiling additional reaction by lawmakers and key opinion leaders to the bailout for Detroit automakers throughout the afternoon. Read the updates below, after the jump.
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Former Rep. Ed Case (D) said over the weekend that he'll run Congress again next year.
"I'm Ed Case and I'm excited and humbled to ask for your support to again serve the Hawaiian country we love in the United States Congress," Case said in a video statement on his website.
Case will run for Hawaii's 1st District seat that is being vacated by Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D), who is running for governor. Case represented the Aloha State's 2nd District seat for five years until he left the seat to challenge Sen. Daniel Akaka (D) in the 2006 Democratic primary.
Several other Democrats are reportedly looking at the race. They include state Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, Honolulu City Councilman Duke Bainum and Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann.
National Republicans are very high on Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou, who is also running for the seat.
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Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has requested documents detailing what federal officials knew about the reportedly $3.62 billion on bonuses Merrill Lynch handed out to employees after receiving TARP funds.
The bonuses constituted 36.2% of the the federal aid Merrill Lynch received and are 22 times larger than the recent bonuses paid by AIG.
On March 18, Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), Charirman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, sent a similar letter to the CEO of Bank America in an attempt to uncover whether the company misled the panel.
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