Reidblog [The Reid Report blog]

DeLay to spend election night with lobbyists

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom DeLay, whose association with lobbyist Jack Abramoff has left him politically vulnerable, is spending Texas' primary night Tuesday at a fundraiser hosted by two Washington lobbyists.

DeLay faces three opponents in the Republican primary. For the first time in the 22 years he's held office, he is up against a serious challenge after being forced out of his job as House majority leader amid corruption and campaign finance scandals.

The fundraiser is being held by lobbyists Bill Paxon and Susan Molinari, both former members of Congress from New York. The event will raise money for DeLay's re-election campaign.

Harris `Circling the Wagons'
Candidate cancels campaign stops as questions about contractor linger.

PORT CHARLOTTE -- Already trying to avoid the media, Longboat Key Republican Katherine Harris is now canceling campaign stops in Southwest Florida as questions swirl about her ties to a Washington, D.C., defense contractor at the center of an ongoing national bribery scandal.

Harris, who is running for the U.S. Senate, abruptly canceled a stop in Charlotte County on Saturday, and four other events planned for Lee and Collier counties were removed from her campaign Web site.

It's another sign that Harris' struggling campaign is now in full crisis mode. Political consultants say that shying away from the public right now is also a bad strategy.

"She can't hide and expect this to go away," said David Johnson, a Republican political consultant. "It looks like her campaign is circling the wagons."

Harris organized a conference call on Friday with her most loyal supporters in which she downplayed her connections to MZM Inc., saying, "There is nothing to it except for the press trying to be negative."

The company's owner admitted in federal court that he gave $32,000 in illegal campaign donations to Harris.

Continuing with the conference call, Harris described a campaign on a roll and gaining momentum daily. She said prominent national politicians, like U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, RTenn., hosted a fundraising event for her in Washington last week, proof that all is well.

"Now there is a buzz in Washington," Harris said on the call.

Harris' ties to defense contractor MZM Inc. have been under the microscope since Feb. 24.

That's the day when MZM founder Mitchell Wade admitted to bribing one member of Congress and giving Harris illegal contributions in March 2004.

Over a private dinner in Washington, D.C., Wade and Harris talked about "obtaining funding and approval" for a Navy counterintelligence program that Wade wanted to open in Sarasota, Justice Department records show.

After that dinner meeting, Harris put in a $10 million budget request to the Defense Appropriations subcommittee to fund the project. Days later, an employee in Harris' congressional office went to work for Wade at MZM.

The funding for the project never was approved.

Tampa Tribune: Gov. Jeb Bush's office is refusing to release documents or answer questions about a $400,000 tax credit awarded to MZM Inc., whose former chief executive pleaded guilty last week to bribery and illegal campaign contributions. ...

...MZM, of Washington, stood to receive $320,000 from the state and $80,000 from Tampa and Hillsborough County after promising in 2004 to create 80 high-paying jobs in the area.

The former CEO, Mitchell Wade, spent $1.08 million buying a four-story office building at 601 E. Twiggs St. in downtown Tampa on May 20, 2004. That was two months after Wade met U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris and gave her $32,000 in campaign contributions from his employees.

In his plea deal Feb. 24, Wade admitted to bribing U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, of California. He also acknowledged giving his employees cash to reimburse them for contributions to Harris and to Virginia Rep. Virgil Goode, which is illegal. All three Congress members are Republicans. ...

The judge for Jack Abramoff's SunCruz fraud case in Florida has pushed back his sentencing there to Wednesday, March 29th. His business partner Adam Kidan will be sentenced the same day. It's earlier than the two had wanted, because they're busily talking to prosecutors and worried that doing some of that talking in public might hurt their plea deal. Or as Abramoff's lawyer put it: "We will name names. We will provide the public with evidence of what is going on out there."

Here's the plan from Peter King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER KING (R-NY), CHAIRMAN, HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Satisfy the issue of security that Dubai Ports would subcontract out the operation of the American ports to an American company. I don't think a subsidiary will be satisfactory, but a separate American company could do it so long as there was no access to the information or to the operations at all by Dubai Ports. Dubai Ports can still be the contractor, but the actual work and access to everything would be controlled by a totally separate American company.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: Now, company officials have said they have no plans to change this contract, and the White House so far has told Congressman King, we'll get back to you. He said it's been a few days, he has not heard back from them since he first presented this proposal. But the pressure is growing a bit, because just a short while ago, Republican senator Susan Collins, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said that she, too, has presented a similar compromise plan to the White House. She's also still waiting word back.

Senators Rockefeller and Durbin May Take Lie Detector Tests

During the Bush Administration, a nexus of politicians, government workers and members of the news media have worked overtime in leaking classified information. From the secret terrorist prisons to the National Security Agency's super-secret surveillance program, intelligence officials and the Bush Administration have had to watch their counterterrorism efforts neutralized for political reasons.

Special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation recently interviewed dozens of employees at the CIA, the NSA and other intelligence agencies as part of an intense and wide-reaching investigation. Many employees who possess security clearances at the CIA, FBI, the Justice Department and other agencies received letters from the Justice Department forbidding them from discussing even unclassified intelligence programs.

But people such as former deputy-undersecretary of Defense Jed Babbin don't think the Justice Department investigators and prosecutors have the guts to indict a US senator. Babbin said it would cause a battle royal on the Hill, if not a constitutional crisis.

He did say however, that any senator or Congressional staffer that holds a security clearance can be asked at any time to take a polygraph. The individual can of course refuse to take the test, but failure to do so is reason to remove that person's security clearance. Babbin further said that Senators Rockefeller, Durbin, and Wyden, and some on their staffs will soon be requested to take polygraphs. ...