News

The U.S. ambassador to Albania may have personally approved an effort to cover up the illegal Chinese origins of ammunition shipped to Afghanistan, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said today.

Furthermore, the State Department withheld that information from the committee when it looked into the matter in April, Waxman says.

Major Larry Harrison, the Chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Albania, told Waxman's committee in a June 9 interview that the ambassador had met with Albania's defense minister in November 2007, and that the two decided to aid AEY, Inc. in its destruction of Chinese packaging housing ammunition it was sending to Afghanistan, Waxman said today.

AEY's 22-year old president was indicted last week under allegations of illegally sending Chinese ammo to Afghanistan under government contract. AEY received $300 million in federal contracts.

Harrison also alleged that his input was redacted from a State Department report on the embassy's involvement with AEY. The committee had asked the embassy for information in April, and embassy officials denied his input from a briefing, Harrison alleged.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Waxman today asked that the ambassador and five other embassy officials give transcribed interviews to the committee no later than July 11.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) is returning to her public political life this week after taking a brief break following the end of her presidential campaign.

The New York senator is expected to return to her post this week, possibly as early as Tuesday in order to vote on a mortgage bailout package. Clinton is also scheduled to make her first joint campaign appearance with Barack Obama on Friday in an undisclosed "battleground state."

Clinton made her first public appearance Sunday since ending her presidential bid and endorsing Obama, speaking at a high school graduation in New York.

Last week most indicators pointed toward Clinton taking a longer leave from her Senate duties.

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said last Tuesday that Clinton would return to the Senate "later this summer" and a Clinton senate office spokesman told The Hill she was taking some "well-deserved R&R with her family." Many of her Democratic colleagues expected that she would not return until after the July 4 recess.

But despite being given space and time to recover from a grueling Democratic presidential primary campaign, Clinton seems ready reenter the glaring spotlight that follows her public life. In addition to reassuming her role as one of the most visible members ofthe Senate, Clinton aides have made clear she intends to do "whatever she can" to help Obama win in November.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) today launched a website attacking three economic advisers to John McCain: former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

The site alleges, among other things, that Fiorina supports outsourcing and misunderstands the mortgage crisis. It says Gramm is responsible for the "Enron loophole" that deregulated energy markets in 2000 and that Holtz-Eakin distorts the true cost of tax cuts.

The site, called "McCain's Economic Advisers: With Advisers Like These..." is part of McCainpedia, an online encyclopedia of negative information about McCain that the DNC launched in May.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) said Sunday that being John McCain's running mate is "not something I have designs on."

Pawlenty said on CNN that he and McCain had talked "about family and sports and politics and the like," but they have not talked "about the vice presidential pick."

Pawlenty has received frequent mention on vice presidential short lists and his home state of Minnesota is hosting the GOP convention in September.

"I am very happy being the governor of the state of Minnesota," Pawlenty said.

Elizabeth Edwards, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer, said on "Good Morning America" Monday that Barack Obama' healthcare plan would provide better coverage for her than John McCain's.

"You know, I have cancer. If you have cancer, preexisting conditions, if you have those kind of conditions, Sen. Obama guarantees that you have coverage. Preexisting conditions are covered," she said. "Sen. McCain's is a lot more problematic, and potentially enormously expensive. In his latest suggestion about how it is we cover people with preexisting conditions can be enormously expensive, and contrary to what Sen. McCain says, a huge government-run program."

Edwards had preferred the healthcare proposals of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) over Obama's. But she said that she would "partner with" Obama.

"The idea is that we want to get to universality; we want to make certain that every American is covered," Edwards said.

She later added: "And although I have my particular preferences, it makes a huge difference whether or not it's Sen. Obama's plan or Sen. McCain's plan."

Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) said Sunday on "Meet the Press" that he is not interested in being vice president.

Biden did say that if Barack Obama called to ask, he would accept. "But he isn't going to call," Biden said, "and I'm not interested."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Friday that he will try to get a telecommunications immunity provision stripped when the Senate takes up the FISA rewrite.

"I'm going to try real hard to have a separate vote on immunity,'' Reid said on Bloomberg TV. "Probably we can't take that out of the bill, but I'm going to try."

A FISA rewrite including immunity passed the House earlier Friday, outraging several House Democrats, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) who called the bill "unacceptable."

House Democratic leadership supported the bill's passage.

The Barack Obama campaign unveiled a new campaign symbol Friday during a meeting of Democratic Governors in Chicago.

Instead of the presidential seal's "E pluribus unum" which means "Out of many, one" the Obama sign says "Vero possumus," a rough translation for "Yes, we can."

Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel said Friday that he would "consider" being Barack Obama's running mate.

"If it would occur, I would have to think about it," Hagel said.

"I think anybody, anybody would have to consider it. Doesn't mean you'd do it, doesn't mean you'd accept it, could be too many gaps there, but you'd have to consider it, it's the only thing you could do. Why wouldn't you?"

The Nebraska senator made the remarks during an interview with AP. Hagel did not endorse during the Republican primary and has yet endorse either Obama or the GOP standard bearer John McCain.

Hagel, a Vietnam vet, is not seeking reelection and has been a vocal critic of the Bush Administration, especially on the Iraq war.

The Nebraska Republican would have to reconcile vast difference in many areas with Obama, but Hagel hinted those differences could be reconciled.

"What this country is going to have to do is come together next year, and the next president is going to have to bring this country together to govern with some consensus," Hagel said.

Citing what he called