History > 2006 > USA > House of Representatives (V)
Congressman
Criticizes Election of Muslim
December 21, 2006
The New York Times
By RACHEL L. SWARNS
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 — In a letter sent to
hundreds of voters this month, Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of
Virginia, warned that the recent election of the first Muslim to Congress posed
a serious threat to the nation’s traditional values.
Mr. Goode was referring to Keith Ellison, the Minnesota Democrat and criminal
defense lawyer who converted to Islam as a college student and was elected to
the House in November. Mr. Ellison’s plan to use the Koran during his private
swearing-in ceremony in January had outraged some Virginia voters, prompting Mr.
Goode to issue a written response to them, a spokesman for Mr. Goode said.
In his letter, which was dated Dec. 5, Mr. Goode said that Americans needed to
“wake up” or else there would “likely be many more Muslims elected to office and
demanding the use of the Koran.”
“I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United
States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are
necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of
America and to prevent our resources from being swamped,” said Mr. Goode, who
vowed to use the Bible when taking his own oath of office.
Mr. Goode declined Wednesday to comment on his letter, which quickly stirred a
furor among some Congressional Democrats and Muslim Americans, who accused him
of bigotry and intolerance.
They noted that the Constitution specifically bars any religious screening of
members of Congress and that the actual swearing in of those lawmakers occurs
without any religious texts. The use of the Bible or Koran occurs only in
private ceremonial events that take place after lawmakers have officially sworn
to uphold the Constitution.
Mr. Ellison dismissed Mr. Goode’s comments, saying they seemed ill informed
about his personal origins as well as about Constitutional protections of
religious freedom. “I’m not an immigrant,” added Mr. Ellison, who traces his
American ancestors back to 1742. “I’m an African-American.”
Since the November election, Mr. Ellison said, he has received hostile phone
calls and e-mail messages along with some death threats. But in an interview on
Wednesday, he emphasized that members of Congress and ordinary citizens had been
overwhelmingly supportive and said he was focusing on setting up his
Congressional office, getting phone lines hooked up and staff members hired, not
on negative comments.
“I’m not a religious scholar, I’m a politician, and I do what politicians do,
which is hopefully pass legislation to help the nation,” said Mr. Ellison, who
said he planned to focus on secular issues like increasing the federal minimum
wage and getting health insurance for the uninsured.
“I’m looking forward to making friends with Representative Goode, or at least
getting to know him,” Mr. Ellison said, speaking by telephone from Minneapolis.
“I want to let him know that there’s nothing to fear. The fact that there are
many different faiths, many different colors and many different cultures in
America is a great strength.”
In Washington, Brendan Daly, a spokesman for the incoming House speaker, Nancy
Pelosi of California, called Mr. Goode’s letter “offensive.” Corey Saylor,
legislative director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, criticized
what he described as Mr. Goode’s “message of intolerance.”
Representative Bill Pascrell Jr., Democrat of New Jersey, urged Mr. Goode to
reach out to Muslims in Virginia and learn “to dispel misconceptions instead of
promoting them.”
“Keith Ellison serves as a great example of Muslim Americans in our nation, and
he does not have to answer to you, to me or anyone else in regards to questions
about his faith,” said Mr. Pascrell, whose district includes many
Arab-Americans.
The fracas over Mr. Ellison’s decision to use the Koran during his personal
swearing-in ceremony began last month when Dennis Prager, a conservative
columnist and radio host, condemned the decision as one that would undermine
American civilization.
“Ellison’s doing so will embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones, as
Islamists, rightly or wrongly, see the first sign of the realization of their
greatest goal — the Islamicization of America,” said Mr. Prager, who said the
Bible was the only relevant religious text in the United States.
“If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress,”
Mr. Prager said.
In his letter, Mr. Goode echoed that view, saying that he did not “subscribe to
using the Koran in any way.” He also called for ending illegal immigration and
reducing legal immigration.
Linwood Duncan, a spokesman for Mr. Goode, said the Virginia lawmaker had no
intention of backing down, despite the furor.
“He stands by the letter,” Mr. Duncan said. “He has no intention of
apologizing.”
Congressman Criticizes Election of Muslim, NYT, 21.12.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/us/21koran.html
Panel blasts Hastert in Foley scandal
Updated 12/8/2006 11:51 PM ET
From staff and wire reports
USA Today
WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers and aides failed for a
decade to protect male pages from sexual come-ons by former Rep. Mark Foley —
once described as a "ticking time bomb" — but they broke no rules and should not
be punished, the House ethics committee concluded Friday.
The committee harshly criticized Speaker Dennis Hastert,
R-Ill., saying the evidence showed he was told of the problem months before he
acknowledged learning of Foley's questionable e-mails to a former Louisiana
page. It rejected Hastert's contention that he couldn't recall separate warnings
from two House Republican leaders.
"No matter how busy we are, we must always resolve first things first,"
committee chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., said this afternoon. He said the panel
"intended to let the report speak for itself."
"I stand by this report. This is not the jury-rigged result of a series of
compromises," said Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., the panel's ranking Democrat.
A four-member investigative subcommittee has interviewed dozens of witnesses,
including outgoing Speaker Dennis Hastert, to determine whether majority
Republicans took strong enough action against Foley when they learned of his
questionable e-mails and other computer messages.
Hastings said the panel conducted "more than 50 interviews involving more than
100 hours" of testimony. Nearly four dozen subpoenas were authorized but only "a
handful" had to be served, he said.
Foley, R-Fla., became overly friendly with male pages when they served as
errand-runners for lawmakers and — after they left Congress — sent some of them
inappropriate e-mails and lurid instant messages. He resigned in late September
after the scandal became public.
The ethics committee, evenly divided by party, had to resolve several conflicts
in the case.
Hastert's aides could have learned of Foley's inappropriate e-mails as early as
2002 and as late as 2005, depending on who is recounting the events.
Hastert said his aides first learned in the fall of 2005 about questionable
e-mails between Foley and a former page from Louisiana. Foley's former top aide
said he told Hastert's chief of staff about the Florida lawmaker in 2002 or
2003.
Also, Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Republican campaign chief
Tom Reynolds, R-N.Y., said they told Hastert about Foley's inappropriate
behavior last spring. Hastert said he could not recall those conversations, and
did not learn of Foley's conduct until late September when the whole matter
became public.
A top Foley aide said in October that he alerted Hastert's chief of staff to
Foley's behavior at least two years ago, long before Hastert or any other
Republican leaders say they first learned of the problem.
"I had more than one conversation with senior staff at the highest levels of the
House of Representatives asking them to intervene when I was informed of Mr.
Foley's inappropriate behavior," Kirk Fordham, Foley's chief of staff until
2004, said in a statement.
In an interview, Fordham said Hastert's chief of staff, Scott Palmer, told him
that he had informed the speaker of their meeting.
Hastert's office responded with a sharp rebuttal. "What Kirk Fordham said did
not happen," Palmer said through Hastert spokesman Ron Bonjean.
Some of Foley's computer messages — not the most sexually explicit ones — came
to light after the recipient's parents contacted Rep. Rodney Alexander, the
Louisiana Republican who was the young man's sponsor in the page program.
Apart from Alexander and his aides, the ethics committee said, "No one in the
House who was involved in addressing Rep. Foley's conduct ... actually saw the
e-mails. Several people were told about the e-mails and were asked to take
action regarding them, including confronting Rep. Foley and telling him to
stop," the report said.
"The Investigative Subcommittee finds a significant number of instances where
members (of Congress), officers or employees fails to exercise appropriate
diligence and oversight, or should have exercised greater diligence and
oversight, regarding issues arising from the interaction between former Rep.
Mark Foley and current or former House pages," the report said.
On balance, investigators said evidence supports the conclusion that Hastert's
top aide had been told about Foley's conduct in late 2002 or early 2003. The
aide, Scott Palmer, flatly denied to reporters that he was told that long ago.
In testimony to the committee, he said, "I believe it didn't happen. I don't
have any recollection of it."
The report also said that another of Hastert's aides, Ted Van Der Meid, "should
have done more to learn about the e-mails and how they had been handled," in
view of earlier warnings he had received about Foley's conduct.
Apart from Hastings and Berman, the two other lawmakers who participated in the
investigation were Reps. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., and Stephanie Tubbs Jones,
D-Ohio.
The voluminous report was released on the final full day of the Congress,
meaning that any changes in the rules or in the page program must wait until
lawmakers return to the Capitol in January.
Panel blasts
Hastert in Foley scandal, UT, 9.12.2006,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-12-08-foley_x.htm
McKinney introduces bill to impeach Bush
Posted 12/9/2006 2:13 AM ET
By Ben Evans, Associated Press
USA Today
WASHINGTON — In what was likely her final legislative act
in Congress, outgoing Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney introduced a bill Friday to
impeach President Bush.
The legislation has no chance of passing and serves as a
symbolic parting shot not only at Bush but also at Democratic leaders. Incoming
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has made clear that she will not entertain
proposals to sanction Bush and has warned the liberal wing of her party against
making political hay of impeachment.
McKinney, a Democrat who drew national headlines in March when she struck a
Capitol police officer, has long insisted that Bush was never legitimately
elected. In introducing her legislation in the final hours of the current
Congress, she said Bush had violated his oath of office to defend the
Constitution and the nation's laws.
In the bill, she accused Bush of misleading Congress on the war in Iraq and
violating privacy laws with his domestic spying program.
McKinney has made no secret of her frustration with Democratic leaders since
voters ousted her from office in the Democratic primary this summer. In a speech
Monday at George Washington University, she accused party leaders of kowtowing
to Republicans on the war in Iraq and on military mistreatment of prisoners.
McKinney, who has not discussed her future plans, has increasingly embraced her
image as a controversial figure.
She has hosted numerous panels on Sept. 11 conspiracy theories and suggested
that Bush had prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks but kept quiet about it
to allow friends to profit from the aftermath. She introduced legislation
calling for disclosure of any government records concerning the killing of
rapper Tupac Shakur.
But it was her scuffle with a Capitol police officer that drew the most
attention. McKinney struck the officer when he tried to stop her from entering a
congressional office building. The officer did not recognize McKinney, who was
not wearing her member lapel pin.
A grand jury in Washington declined to indict McKinney over the clash, but she
eventually apologized before the House.
McKinney
introduces bill to impeach Bush, UT, 9.12.2006,
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-12-09-mckinney-impeachment_x.htm
Next Chairman for Intelligence Opposed War
December 2, 2006
The New York Times
By MARK MAZZETTI and JEFF ZELENY
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 — Representative Nancy Pelosi, the
incoming House speaker, sent a strong new signal on Friday that Democrats intend
to confront the White House by naming a Texas congressman who opposed the war in
Iraq as the next chairman of the House intelligence committee.
This choice, of Representative Silvestre Reyes to head one of Congress’s most
important committees, ended weeks of closed-door lobbying and public posturing
among Democrats who had been competing for the post. By choosing Mr. Reyes, a
former Border Patrol agent and Vietnam combat veteran, Mrs. Pelosi passed over
the panel’s top Democrat, Representative Jane Harman of California, a more
hawkish figure who voted to authorize the war in Iraq and a political rival with
whom Mrs. Pelosi has long had a stormy relationship.
Mr. Reyes, an affable West Texan, has a far lower profile in national security
circles than does Ms. Harman, an outspoken and strong-willed centrist who has
become a regular guest on Sunday talk shows since the Sept. 11 attacks.
But Mrs. Pelosi chose him over Ms. Harman in part because he has repeatedly
taken a more combative stance toward Bush administration policies like the
invasion of Iraq, military tribunals for terrorist suspects, and the National
Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program.
Mr. Reyes voted against authorizing President Bush to go to war with Iraq, and
in June he said that the failures in Iraq “cry out for oversight.”
In September, Mr. Reyes blasted the White House’s justifications for the
National Security Agency wiretapping program.
“I take very seriously our obligation to provide the president with the tools
that he needs to provide for national security,” he said, “but I also reject the
notion that the authorization for use of military force allows the president to
ignore the Fourth Amendment and conduct warrantless surveillance on American
citizens.”
The choice of an intelligence committee chairman had emerged as the second
controversial decision in the early leadership tenure of Mrs. Pelosi. Committee
chairmanships are normally decided by seniority, but it is Mrs. Pelosi’s
prerogative to choose someone else.
Last month, the Democratic caucus soundly rejected Mrs. Pelosi’s choice for
majority leader, electing Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland over John P. Murtha of
Pennsylvania. Then, the signal by Mrs. Pelosi that she intended to bypass Ms.
Harman for the intelligence post stirred dissent among moderate Democrats,
particularly members of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition, who mounted a
campaign for Ms. Harman.
Ms. Harman made the case publicly that the centrist course she had taken on
national security issues would be crucial to the Democrats maintaining a
majority in Congress. Alcee L. Hastings, a liberal Florida congressman who was
one of Ms. Harman’s competitors for the position, had also been marshaling
support to his side, and had the backing of the powerful Congressional Black
Caucus.
But Mr. Hastings, who was impeached and removed from a federal judgeship in 1989
because of a bribery scandal, was opposed by conservative Democrats and
ultimately deemed by Mrs. Pelosi to be too controversial for the position.
Mrs. Pelosi called Ms. Harman on Friday morning to deliver the news, and the two
Californians spoke for about 10 minutes, according to people familiar with both
sides of the conversation. Mrs. Pelosi thanked Ms. Harman for her “service and
intellectual contribution.”
Ms. Harman, though, beat Mrs. Pelosi to the punch in announcing the news. In a
break of political protocol, she sent out a statement congratulating Mr. Reyes
before Mrs. Pelosi’s office had even made the appointment official. In a
statement on Friday, Ms. Harman gave her “full and enthusiastic support” for Mr.
Reyes and pledged to “stay actively involved in security matters.”
Representative Lincoln Davis, Democrat of Tennessee, was one of the Blue Dog
Democrats who signed a letter to Mrs. Pelosi last month urging her to select Ms.
Harman. It was Ms. Harman’s instruction on intelligence matters, he said, that
helped several Democrats win election and defuse the charge that Democrats are
soft on national security.
“Obviously, some of us would have been happier with Jane Harman. She has a grasp
of national intelligence issues,” Mr. Davis said in a telephone interview on
Friday from his district in Middle Tennessee.
“I really don’t know what the problem is,” he added. “They are both from
California, you know.”
But Mr. Davis also said that Mr. Reyes was an excellent compromise and he
predicted the storm would quickly blow over inside the Democratic caucus.
Representative Anna G. Eshoo, a California Democrat who sits on the Intelligence
Committee and is close to Mrs. Pelosi, said that Mr. Reyes’s low profile would
serve him well in the new job.
“He doesn’t shoot from the lip. He’s not a showboat,” Ms. Eshoo said in a
telephone interview Friday from California. “He doesn’t alienate people when he
offers his views. He’s firm, yet he’s open-minded.”
Born and raised in Canutillo, Tex., a town on the outskirts of El Paso, Mr.
Reyes was drafted into the army and spent 13 months in Vietnam as a helicopter
crew chief. He lost hearing in his right ear when an explosion rocked his bunker
there. Shortly after returning from Vietnam he began what would become a 26-year
career in the Border Patrol.
After retiring from the Border Patrol in 1995, he was elected to Congress the
next year and has served on the Intelligence Committee since 2001. He will
become the seventh Hispanic representative to lead a full House committee.
But he will inherit a committee that in recent years has become one of
Congress’s most dysfunctional and partisan panels.
The past two months have been particularly rancorous, beginning in October when
Ms. Harman released the findings of a committee investigation over the objection
of the panel’s chairman, Representative Peter Hoekstra, Republican of Michigan.
Soon afterward, Mr. Hoekstra suspended the access of a Democratic staff member
to classified material on the suspicion that he was the source of a leaked
National Intelligence Estimate on global terrorism.
The staff member, Larry Hanauer, was later cleared of wrongdoing.
Next Chairman for
Intelligence Opposed War, NYT, 2.12.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/02/washington/02intel.html?hp&ex=1165122000&en=f0aa27022e802aec&ei=5094&partner=homepage
House Approves Spending Bill
November 16, 2006
By REUTERS
The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 (Reuters) — The House approved a
stopgap measure on Wednesday to keep the federal government running through Dec.
8. The Senate is expected to approve the measure this week.
An earlier stopgap spending bill, approved Sept. 29, will expire on Friday. The
measure was needed because Congress left most of the work on regular spending
bills unfinished when it adjourned in early October to allow members to campaign
for re-election.
Many of the spending issues for the 2007 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1,
proved contentious because of demands for more domestic spending at a time when
conservatives were upset over large budget deficits. Senate leaders also failed
to schedule time for floor debate on the bills.
So far, of the 11 regular spending bills, only those for the Pentagon and
domestic security programs have been enacted.
All but one financing bill, a major health, education and labor measure, have
passed the House.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed a measure to pay for building military bases and
provide veterans benefits.
But with the Senate still struggling to pass most of its versions of the
spending bills, the outlook for completing the job was uncertain.
House Approves
Spending Bill, NYT, 16.11.2006,
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/us/politics/16spend.html
Convicted Republican Ney resigns from House
Fri Nov 3, 2006 7:51 PM ET
Reuters
By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Bob Ney of Ohio resigned
from the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday, three weeks after pleading
guilty in the Jack Abramoff political corruption scandal.
Ney submitted a letter of resignation, effective immediately, to House Speaker
Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican who along with other lawmakers had urged
him to step down immediately.
Ney had said in August he would not seek re-election to a seventh two-year term
in the November 7 elections.
By staying on for a bit longer, he remained eligible to receive his paycheck and
benefits, which drew widespread criticism.
Ney was the first lawmaker convicted in the Abramoff influence-peddling scandal,
and the fourth House Republican to step down under pressure in the 109th
Congress.
Their cases have rocked Republicans as they seek to retain control of the House
on Tuesday. Democrats have accused Republicans of "a culture of corruption."
In the race to replace Ney, Democrat Zack Space holds a whopping 58 percent to
33 percent lead over Republican state Sen. Joy Padgett, according to a
Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.
Other corruption-tainted Republicans who left the House were former Republican
leader Tom DeLay of Texas, indicted on state campaign finance charges; Randy
"Duke" Cunningham of California, convicted of accepting bribes, and Mark Foley
of Florida, found to have sent sexually explicit e-mails to former interns.
Ney admitted he illegally accepted trips, meals, drinks, tickets to concerts and
sporting events and other items worth tens of thousands of dollars in return for
official acts performed on behalf of the lobbyist Abramoff and his clients.
Having abandoned his re-election race as federal authorities examined his links
to the convicted Abramoff, Ney said last month he was ashamed of the way his
public service career was ending.
In his letter to Hastert, Ney made no mention of his wrongdoing. He wrote: "It
has been an honor to serve the people of the 18th congressional district of Ohio
for the past 12 years."
"Having completed all outstanding work in my congressional office, I now hereby
resign," added Ney, 52.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, blamed the House
Republican leadership for letting Ney remain on the congressional payroll weeks
after admitting guilt to accepting bribes, calling it "an embarrassment to this
institution and an insult to the American taxpayer."
Convicted
Republican Ney resigns from House, R, 3.11.2006,
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID=2006-11-04T005050Z_01_N03419482_RTRUKOC_0_US-CRIME-ABRAMOFF-NEY.xml&WTmodLoc=Home-C5-politicsNews-2
|