Congressional_Climate_logo
Lobbyit.com Logo
Table of Contents
ISSA DEMANDS NYT RETRACTION
RNC POURING FUNDS INTO NY SPECIAL ELECTION
KUCINICH: TAKE NATO GENERALS TO COURT
Congressional 
Climate Bill Tracking 
Keyhole Image H.R.658 - FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011
Keyhole Image H.R.164 - Damaged Vehicle Information Act
Keyhole Image H.R.514 - FISA Sunsets Extension Act of 2011
Keyhole Image H.R.1 - Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2011
Keyhole ImageH.R.4 - Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act of 2011
Keyhole Image H.R.96 - Internet Freedom Act
Keyhole Image H.R.605 - Patients' Freedom to Choose Act
Keyhole Image S.244 - State Health Care Choice Act

Video Of The Day

5.8 earthquake in Virginia felt in Washington, New York City, North Carolina Aug 23, 2011

5.8 earthquake in Virginia felt in Washington, New York City, North Carolina Aug 23, 2011


Join Our Mailing List
Follow us on Twitter
Find us on Facebook
View our profile on LinkedIn
 
2010 constant contact allstar

 

Greetings!  
Please enjoy today's issue of the Congressional Climate newsletter, brought to you by Lobbyit.com!
Today's Hill Action: 

 

THE SENATE:

 

The Senate will meet at 2:30 p.m. for a pro forma session.

SENATE COMMITTEES:

 

No meetings scheduled for today.

 

THE HOUSE: 

 

No meeting scheduled for today.

 

HOUSE COMMITTEES:

 

No meetings scheduled for today

Issa demands front-page NYT retraction after 'error-ridden' 'hit piece'

 

8-23issa

House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa is demanding that The New York Times publish a front-page retraction for an "error-ridden front page story" it published about him on Monday. In the article, Times reporter Eric Lichtblau attempted to connect Issa's private business interests with his public service as a congressman.

 

With one exception, the Times has not corrected or retracted any of the errors Issa's office publicly identified almost immediately after the story ran. On Friday morning Issa's office blasted out a lengthy evidence-packed release alleging that nearly everything Lichtblau wrote isn't true.

 

Issa had pointed to what he said were errors beginning with the story's first sentence, which said Issa's Southern California "gleaming office building" overlooks a golf course. Issa's office publicly stated on Monday that the office the Times referred to doesn't overlook a golf course. Issa's team subsequently released a video showing that the Times' characterization was false.

 

Without citing any sources, Lichtblau also contended that DEI Holdings, a car alarm company Issa founded, is a "major supplier" to Toyota. He asserted that Issa went "easy" on Toyota during a Congressional investigation into the company's vehicles' safety because of the relationship Lichtblau claimed exists between DEI and Toyota.

 

Issa and Toyota have both now publicly stated that DEI, also known as Directed Electronics, is not a "major supplier" to Toyota, nor is it a direct supplier at all. 

 

According to a story by Heritage Foundation reporter Lachlan Markay, Toyota said it's possible that some independently owned and operated dealerships use DEI products. Issa and Toyota say it's inaccurate, though, to write that Toyota and DEI are financially connected.

 

Lichtblau's story also failed to inform readers that Issa no longer has a financial interest in DEI.

 

The Times also alleged foul play on Issa's part because he withdrew much of his family foundation's assets from the stock market several months before it crashed. Lichtblau wrote that Issa's foundation made a nearly 1,900 percent return on its investment in less than a year. Issa's office originally contended that this conclusion was wildly inaccurate.

 

"In one 2008 sale, months before the stock market crashed, his family foundation earned $357,000 on an initial investment of less than $19,000 - a return of nearly 1,900 percent in just seven months, the foundation reported to the Internal Revenue Service," Lichtblau wrote. "It reported acquiring the security, then known as AIM International Small Company Fund, at a cost basis representing a tiny fraction of the market value. In addition, Mr. Issa sold at least $1 million in personal holdings in the same fund that year but was not required to report what he paid."

 

Lichtblau and the Times have stuck to their reporting, refusing to issue a correction even after Issa's office published a document proving his family foundation's initial investment was $500,000, not "less than $19,000." The document shows that Issa's family foundation actually lost more than $125,000 from the investment.

 

Lichtblau also wrote that a medical complex Issa purchased in 2008 appreciated in value from $10.3 million to $16.6 million "at least in part because of the government-sponsored road work" the Congressman supported. If true, this assertion would mean Issa's private business interests benefited from his actions as a congressman.

 

Issa's office released documentation this week, however, proving that he purchased the property for $16.6 million - almost exactly the same amount as its current value.

In his article Lichtblau criticized Issa for objecting to the Treasury Department's forced sale of Merrill Lynch, implying that Issa was acting unethically.

 

"After the forced sale of Merrill Lynch in 2008, for instance, [Issa] publicly attacked the Treasury Department's handling of the deal without mentioning that Merrill had handled hundreds of millions of dollars in investments for him and lent him many millions more," Lichtblau wrote.

 

Issa's office, however, insisted in a Friday press release that the Congressman has followed all ethics rules while handling his financial relationship with Merrill Lynch: "The New York Times fails to note that Rep. Issa's transactions with Merrill Lynch have been appropriately disclosed in his annual ethics filing."

 

The Times has corrected one factual error, arising from Lichtblau's report that Issa "split a holding company into separate multibillion-dollar businesses."

The Times' correction read: "An earlier version of this article incorrectly described value of businesses that resulted from splitting a holding company owned by Representative Darrell Issa. They are multimillion-dollar businesses, not multibillion-dollar businesses."

 

New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades-Ha told The Daily Caller on Monday that the newspaper will stick to its story and believes it told the truth. "We believe the story to be an accurate and fair account," she said in an email. "Of course we will have a look at any factual issues his staff has raised. However, there is nothing in the Congressman's complaint that questions the heart of the story. The Times has made several attempts to reach the Congressman - by phone and by email - to get his comment. And he has declined."

 

Rhoades-Ha has not responded to TheDC's latest request asking if the Times will run a front-page retraction of the story, now that Issa has documented its factual inaccuracies.

RNC dives into Anthony Weiner district special  

 

8-23RNC

Sensing the opportunity for an upset, the Republican National Committee plans to fund a portion of the get-out-the-vote efforts ahead of the surprisingly close special election to fill Anthony Weiner's House seat in New York.  

 

The RNC will pay for the Phone From Home program and work in coordination with the New York state Republican Party during the remaining three weeks before the Sept. 13 special, POLITICO'S Morning Score first reported. 

The move demonstrates a hope among Washington Republicans that they could pull off an upset against Democrat David Weprin, who might be vulnerable despite his party's three-to-one registration advantage because of President Barack Obama's unpopularity in the district. 

A Siena College poll conducted this month, which put Weprin ahead by just six points, found that Obama's unfavorable rating is 45 percent. 

Republican nominee Bob Turner, a former businessman, has sought to capitalize on this by tying his opponent to the Obama administration. 

The RNC effort is similar to what the committee did before the Wisconsin state Senate recall elections earlier this month. 

The exact amount that will be spent was not divulged, but it is likely not very much. An RNC official said it will be less than the National Republican Congressional Committee, which announced Monday that it has sent an unspecified five-figure sum to Turner. 

The whole campaign is mostly symbolic since the 9th District will likely be eliminated during redistricting. 

Republicans have a poor track record at closing in Empire State specials, losing the special election in New York's deep-red 26th District this May.

8-23kucinich

NATO commanders who authorized the Libya bombing campaign should be "held accountable" to international law and hauled before the world court for civilian deaths, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Tuesday.

 

"NATO's top commanders may have acted under color of international law, but they are not exempt from international law," Kucinich said in a statement released by his office.

 

"If members of the Qadhafi regime are to be held accountable, NATO's top commanders must also be held accountable through the International Criminal Court for all civilian deaths resulting from bombing. Otherwise, we will have witnessed the triumph of a new international gangsterism."

 

Kucinich, who in March suggested President Barack Obama's authorizing of airstrikes on Libya were "an impeachable offense" and sponsored a July measure to defund the military effort there, criticized what he called an evolving rationale for the NATO offensive.

 

The seven-term Cleveland congressman released his statement just as forces loyal to Qadhafi appeared to have abandoned their defense of his heavily fortified Tripoli compound. It was not clear where Qadhafi is, though a Russian chess official said he spoke with the dictator and reported he remains in the capital.

 

"The reasons for the U.S./NATO intervention in Libya keep changing," he said. "First, it was about the potential for a massacre in Benghazi. When the massacre did not materialize and once the war against Libya was under way, the reasons for intervention changed."

 

And Kucinich questioned the motivation behind U.S. intervention in Libya.

"Was the United States, through participation in the overthrow of the regime, furthering the aims of international oil corporations in pursuit of control over one of the world's largest oil resources?" he asked. 

 

"Did the United States at the inception of the war against Libya align itself with elements of Al Qaeda, while elsewhere continuing to use the threat of Al Qaeda as a reason for U.S. military intervention, presence and occupation?"

Until tomorrow,


Lobbyit.com