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The mess at the FEC

Submitted by jzaharoff on Fri, 05/09/2008 - 14:22.

After months without a functioning Federal Election Commission, as reformers called on Senate leadership to find suitable nominees and re-constitute the important -- if often ineffectual -- commission in time for the peak of election season, this week it looked like we might have caught a break.  Sen. Harry Reid's office spoke with the White House, and the White House sent six FEC nominations (three D, three R) to the Senate.

How quickly hopes can crumble.

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Maybe baseball should investigate Congress

Submitted by jzaharoff on Wed, 03/05/2008 - 13:02.

Several years ago, Major League Baseball came under scrutiny as reporters and fans became concerned about the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in the game.

What was MLB's response?

In a nutshell: Don't worry, everything is fine, and we can police ourselves.  And yes, there may be a bad apple here or there, but trust us, we'll find them and keep it clean!

How did that go?

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Dog years and dog days for ethics reform

Submitted by jzaharoff on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 15:52.

Political years must be like dog years, because the Democrats are acting as if 2006 is ancient history.

The sweeping Democratic victories in 2006 were based on perceived  Republican failures on two fronts: 1. the war in Iraq and 2. corrupt and unethical behavior in Congress.  The big stories were the rising violence in Baghdad and the string of congressional scandals starting with Rep. Tom DeLay, peaking with Jack Abramoff, and culminating with Rep. Mark Foley.  In almost every congressional race, Democrats painted themselves as a viable alternative.

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1.2 million home foreclosures: how did it happen?

Submitted by jzaharoff on Tue, 05/08/2007 - 16:33.

Stephanie and her husband, a young couple with a family in Napa Valley, CA, took out loans to buy their first house in 2003.  After making payments for two years, they refinanced to one loan, then their bank sold the loan to a subprime mortgage lender--and they quickly plunged into a financial vortex.

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Blow the lid off, and the money pours in

Submitted by jzaharoff on Tue, 04/24/2007 - 10:17.

No need to blow the lid off a commonly understood political fact: Special interests use campaign contributions to pay for access to lawmakers, no matter which party, and they intend to win favorable policy through these "gifts."

It's not "blowing the lid off," it's looking inside and seeing that groups like Big Agriculture are already lining the pockets of prominent Democrats:

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Clean Elections in Maryland--on the brink

Submitted by jzaharoff on Thu, 03/29/2007 - 19:29.

After passing the bill through committee yesterday, the Maryland Senate will soon consider whether to adopt "Clean Elections," the public funding of state legislative elections.  The powerful Senate President, Mike Miller, has thrown his considerable weight behind the defeat of the bill.  It's not clear why, but he's given some indications.

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Global warming and Fair Elections

Submitted by jzaharoff on Tue, 03/20/2007 - 12:21.

Today Sen. Dick Durbin introduces a landmark bill to bring Maine- and Arizona-style public financing reform to the U.S. Congress.  His Fair Elections Now Act, which is often known as "Clean Elections" reform, is a bipartisan bill that would fundamentally change the way elections are run.  That’s a noble goal: to allow qualifying candidates to run using public funds, forgoing the private money chase that has defined recent campaigns.  But it does a whole lot more.  One issue that’s near and dear to me—indeed, one of the main reasons I came to work on public financing reforms—is global warming.

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