Here's a surefire way to make lawmakers unhappy:
The White House told a Republican member of Congress last summer about its plans to fire a U.S. attorney in Arkansas and replace him with a former aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove, but it did not tell Democratic lawmakers, according to a new Justice Department e-mail released yesterday.
The White House called Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark.) "and pretty much told him what they are doing with this appointment and how they are going about it," according to a July 6 e-mail from Bud Cummins, then the U.S. attorney in Little Rock.
At the same time, Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR) and other Democrats report being stonewalled with their own questions. The entire Arkansas delegation was unhappy with how the situation was handled, especially because Cummins was popular. Cummins was replaced with Tim Griffin, a former aide to White House advisor Karl Rove and opposition researcher for the RNC. Also, they weren't very happy with this:
Boozman said that when he spoke with Justice officials last summer, they told him Griffin would be subject to Senate confirmation. However, Gonzales appointed Griffin as interim U.S. attorney, using authority that has since been repealed by Congress.
It's finally Friday!
Elections in Florida demonstrated the enormous problem of incumbent advantage.
In California the "revolving door" between the state legislature and the lobbying industry is so intrenched that it even has its own title - the state's Third House.
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle's campaign finances are under scrutiny again.
Shady (and illegal) fundraising by a Maryland congressional campaign causes a stir.
New Jersey Governor Corzine is challenged to formally endorse a ban on pay-to-play.
I caused some drama in the Common Cause office by criticizing the New York Yankees for billing the city for lobbying done by the team of the city.
The Arkansas Secretary of State is in trouble for using a statewide voters' guide to seemingly promote his own candidacy.
New York's campaign finance laws are a bloody mess, and need to be fixed immediately.
The battle to define ethics reform rages on in the North Carolina senate.
Common Cause California endorsed Proposition 89, which would create a voluntary system of public financing of campaigns.
A former Rhode Island state senator was fined a record $130,000 for ten ethics violations dating back to 2000.
As always, use the Comments section to tell us about anything that's happened in your state recently that you don't see here.
On Monday, an ethics complaint was filed against Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels (D) for producing a state-financed voter guide that many view as nothing more than a reelection advertisement.
The back cover of the "Voting 101 Pocket Guide" distributed to county courthouses statewide bear the words "Arkansas Secretary of State Charlie Daniels" beneath "ELECT," an acronym for "Energetic Leadership Educating Citizens Together," which is included in smaller type.
Daniels maintains that it "was never intended for [the guide] to be subtly or otherwise a campaign piece." Moreover, thousands of identical voter guides have been used for educational purposes since 2004, before he was a political candidate.
It should be interesting to see what the Ethics Commission says about the booklet.
And whether or not the guide amounts to an abuse of political office, Daniels may have a tough reelection bid ahead of him. Republican challenger Jim Lagrone has held Daniels responsible for voter machine malfunctions throughout the state during the May primary, citing programming glitches and ballot-counting delays.
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