Don’t get caught flat-footed in front of the press!  Below is a quick rundown of today’s “must reads.” – John T. Doolittle, House Republican Conference Secretary

THE MORNING MURMUR – Thursday, February 16, 2006

1. Iraq’s WMD Secrets – New York Post
Top-secret tapes of Saddam Hussein capture him talking with his son-in-law in the 1990s about how well Iraq hid its weapons of mass destruction. They also reveal Saddam predicting a WMD attack on the United States.

2. Tax Relief is Essential – Washington Times Editorial
As members of the House and the Senate work together to keep taxes low this year, one thing must remain non-negotiable: an extension for the effective reductions in capital-gains and dividends taxes that Congress enacted in 2003.

3. Bush Touts Health Savings Accounts – Wall Street Journal
President Bush on Wednesday outlined his plan to confront rising healthcare costs by giving consumers more choice.

4. The Legal Woes of Rep. Jefferson – Washington Post
Jefferson's woes are unwelcome news for his party and have undercut the Democrats' election-year assertion that Republicans have created a "culture of corruption."

5. Spoiled Brat Media – Thomas Sowell, Columnist
As we’ve seen with the Cheney story, the mainstream media love to wrap themselves in the mantle of "the public's right to know" but there is no such dedication to that right when it goes against the journalists' own prejudices.

For previous issues of the Morning Murmur, go to www.GOPsecretary.gov

FULL ARTICLES BELOW:

1. Iraq’s WMD Secrets – New York Post

By ANDY SOLTIS

Top-secret tapes of Saddam Hussein capture him talking with his son-in-law in the 1990s about how well Iraq hid its weapons of mass destruction.
The tapes also reveal Saddam's top deputy telling him how easy it would be to create a biological weapon, "drop it into a water tower and kill 100,000."

The Iraqi dictator is also heard predicting a terrorist attack on the United States with weapons of mass destruction — but says Iraq won't be responsible.
The disclosures, aired by ABC News last night, come from 12 hours of tape recordings of Saddam and his top aides provided by a former member of a U.N. inspection team.

In one of the most dramatic tapes, Saddam talks with Hussein Kamel, whom he put in charge of Iraq's heavily guarded WMD effort after he married Saddam's daughter Raghad.

Kamel, who later defected and died in a shootout with Saddam's gunmen, is heard boasting how he misled U.N. weapons inspectors about the size of Iraq's biological-weapons program.

"We did not reveal all that we have," Kamel said in the 1995 tape.

"Not the type of weapons, not the volume of the materials we imported, not the volume of the production we told them about, not the volume of use," Kamel added. "None of this was correct."

The tapes, apparently recorded in the mid-1990s in the Iraqi version of the Oval Office, have been authenticated by the House Intelligence Committee, ABC said.
They reveal Saddam predicting a WMD attack on the United States.

"Terrorism is coming," Saddam is heard saying on the tape. "I told the Americans a long time before Aug. 2, and told the British as well, that in the future there will be terrorism with weapons of mass destruction."

The reference to Aug. 2 was not immediately clear. On the tape Saddam adds that stopping an attack would prove difficult.

"In the future, what would prevent a booby-trapped car causing a nuclear explosion in Washington or a germ or chemical one?" he asks.

During the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz is heard saying Iraq is being wrongly accused of bio-terrorism — but adds that an attack would be easy to execute.

"Sir, the biological is very easy to make," he tells Saddam. "It's so simple that any biologist can make a bottle of germs and drop it into a water tower and kill 100,000."

Saddam is heard saying Iraq would never carry out such a bio-attack.

"This is coming. This story is coming out, but not from Iraq," he says.

Bill Tierney, a former member of the inspection team who was translating the tapes for the FBI, gave them to ABC and plans to make them public this weekend at a non-government "intelligence summit" that could revive speculation about an Iraqi WMD arsenal.

http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/61988.htm

2. Tax Relief is Essential – Washington Times Editorial

By Bill Frist
Published February 16, 2006

As members of the House and the Senate work together to keep taxes low this year, one thing must remain non-negotiable: an extension for the effective reductions in capital-gains and dividends taxes that Congress enacted in 2003.
The very existence of taxes on capital gains and dividends ranks among the worst provisions of America's labyrinthine tax system. Those who earn capital gains have already paid income taxes on their initial investments. When the government seizes a portion of profits earned as a company increases in value or issues a dividend, it penalizes saving, investment and risk-taking.
The idea of taxing capital gains and dividends has deep flaws and, in time, we ought to eliminate both types of taxes altogether. For the moment, however, keeping them lower, longer appears a very good economic policy.
After September 11, a series of corporate scandals and the end of the dot-com bubble, tax cuts provided the perfect tonic for the economy. While lackluster economic performance characterized both 2001 and 2002, the tax cuts have now helped produce 10 consecutive quarters of strong growth. The NASDAQ Composite stock index, meanwhile, has increased well over a third in the tax cut's wake. These tax cuts benefited all Americans: More than half of households in our country now own stock and the number of Americans with brokerage accounts has increased for over 20 years running.
People who argue that capital gains and dividend tax cuts only benefit the rich, indeed, haven't bothered to look at the facts. More than half of households reporting capital gains had adjusted gross incomes of less than $50,000. Even many of the capital-gains recipients who appear "rich" on tax returns are ordinary working people experiencing a one-year surge in income as they sell assets to pay for retirement.
As a result, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the most liberal components of the Democratic Party now sing the praises of 401(k) plans and talk about the virtues of growth.
Even those who favor bigger government, indeed, ought to support cuts in taxes on capital gains and dividends. When Congress cut capital-gains taxes 50 percent in 2003, the Congressional Budget Office first predicted that revenue would decline $27 billion. Instead, the tax cut actually encouraged new investment and thus increased revenue by $26 billion. The government, in other words, took in more money when Congress cut taxes. That new amount, by the way, is enough to fund the entire Department of Justice.
As it moves to hammer out a tax bill, Congress needs to consider extensions of other vital provisions as well. In particular, I hope that my colleagues will support including tax-relief policies that encourage small businesses to invest, help parents pay for college and make sure that middle-income families don't have to pay an alternative minimum tax intended for the rich.
Retaining low capital-gains and dividend rates is absolutely vital to economic growth. The bottom line is simple: I will not bring before the Senate any tax measure that does not extend them.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060215-094732-8879r.htm

3. Bush Touts Health Savings Accounts – Wall Street Journal

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
February 15, 2006 9:10 p.m.
WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush on Wednesday outlined his plan to confront rising healthcare costs by giving consumers more choice.

"If patients control how their healthcare dollars are spent, the result is better treatment at lower cost," Mr. Bush said.

He pointed to laser-eye surgery as an example of how market forces can have a positive impact on the price and availability of medical procedures, when third-party payers aren't involved.

The president made the comments in Dublin, Ohio, where he visited the corporate headquarters of Wendy's International Inc. and detailed the health-care proposals he made in last month's State of the Union address.

Mr. Bush hopes to expand the reach of health savings accounts, which let people save money on a tax-free basis to pay for their healthcare expenses. He's also pushing for medical liability reform and increased portability of health insurance.

Health savings accounts are the signature feature of Mr. Bush's health-care initiative. More than 3 million Americans have enrolled in the plans since the start of 2004, though critics say they are more beneficial to those who are healthy and wealthy.

"Many people in our country don't know what a health savings account is," Mr. Bush said. "Health savings accounts are making healthcare more affordable."
Around 9,000 full-time employees at Wendy's have HSAs, helping the company control its costs, the president said.

Mr. Bush's proposals would give HSA owners some of the tax advantages currently enjoyed by employer-sponsored insurance. Premiums for HSA-compatible insurance policies would be deductible from income taxes when purchased outside of work. Also, an income tax credit would offset payroll taxes paid on HSA premiums, and HSA owners and their employers would be able to make annual contributions to cover all out-of-pocket costs under their HSA policy, not just their deductible.

"For many routine medical needs, HSAs mean you can shop around until you get the best treatment for the best price," Mr. Bush said. "In other words, it's your money, you're responsible for routine medical expenses, and insurance pays for the catastrophic care."

The White House says its proposals are projected to boost the number of Americans with HSAs to 21 million from 14 million by 2010.

Mr. Bush touched on the problems encountered in the early stages of the new Medicare prescription drug program, but urged seniors to sign up for the plan, which he said will cut their costs. Around 24 million people have signed up for the plan, he added.

"Now, needless to say, when you have a change that size, there's going to be some things that need to be adjusted in the system," Mr. Bush said. "We're dealing with it."

On the economy at large, Bush was upbeat. "It's strong and it's getting stronger," Mr. Bush said. He acknowledged, however, that parts of Ohio aren't doing as well as the nation on the whole. "Nevertheless, the trends (in Ohio) are in good shape," he said.

To keep the economy healthy, Mr. Bush again called for more technological innovation, math and science education and a permanent research and development tax credit. He also repeated the need for an extension of the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 and alternative energy sources to help kick America's "addiction" to oil. "The tax relief we passed is working," Mr. Bush said.

http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB114005313360375400.html

4. The Legal Woes of Rep. Jefferson – Washington Post
Probe of La. Democrat Provides Fodder for GOP
By Shailagh Murray and Allan Lengel, Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 16, 2006; A01

Around Washington, Rep. William J. Jefferson nurtured a reputation as a serious, even wonkish, lawmaker, a grade-school dropouts' son who graduated from Harvard Law School and was elected Louisiana's first black congressman since Reconstruction.

Then came the allegations last August that Jefferson had orchestrated a corruption scheme. Federal investigators are targeting the Democratic congressman, 58, for allegedly demanding cash and other favors for himself and relatives, in exchange for using his congressional clout to arrange African business deals. A former aide recently pleaded guilty to bribing Jefferson and is cooperating with authorities, and sources familiar with the case say a plea agreement with the lawmaker is being explored.

Jefferson's world is toppling. Tall and lean, he at times has looked ashen as he walks the halls of the Capitol. Those who know him describe him as shellshocked by the turn of events. Depending on Jefferson's fate, his central New Orleans district -- badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina and in need of effective representation in Washington -- could face a rowdy special election. The political scene is so chaotic that Republicans believe they could win the gerrymandered Democratic seat.

"It's all clear as mud," said Edward F. Renwick, a Loyola University political scientist.

Jefferson's woes are unwelcome news for his party and have undercut the Democrats' election-year assertion that Republicans have created a "culture of corruption." If Jefferson is indicted and pleads guilty or is convicted, he will have to step down or face expulsion. But if he is indicted and decides to go to trial, he may remain in Congress and stand for reelection -- the course Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) has followed since being charged last year with violating Texas campaign law.

Federal corruption investigations have produced guilty pleas from former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) and have forced Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) to relinquish his committee chairmanship. Investigations also won guilty pleas and the cooperation of former Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose plea agreement cited only GOP aides and lawmakers.

The investigation of Jefferson and the recent guilty plea by a former aide give Republicans the chance to argue that corruption in Washington has a bipartisan tinge.
Republican groups frequently invoke the Jefferson case in defending their party from broad-brush charges of corruption. Even Public Citizen, a liberal consumer watchdog group, featured Jefferson on an "Ethics Hall of Shame" list recently.

Jefferson has said he did nothing improper. Spokeswoman Melanie Roussell said he is focused on hurricane recovery and has been traveling to his district for field hearings and other storm-related events. Jefferson has begun campaigning for election this fall to a ninth term and has scheduled a March 8 fundraiser. He attended Coretta Scott King's funeral in Atlanta last week.

In his only public statement on the case, Jefferson said he was "disappointed and in some ways perplexed" by former aide Brett Pfeffer's guilty plea on Jan. 11. Jefferson added that he has never "required, demanded or accepted . . . anything to perform a service for which I have been elected." Ron Machen, one of Jefferson's attorneys, declined to comment.

The investigation became public on Aug. 3 when FBI agents raided Jefferson's homes in New Orleans and Northeast Washington, where they found about $90,000 in cash in his freezer, law enforcement sources have said. They also raided five other locations, including the Kentucky and New Jersey offices of iGate Inc., a high-tech firm that has become central to the investigation, along with a house in Potomac owned by Atiku Abubakar, the vice president of Nigeria.
IGate has denied any wrongdoing, as has Abubakar. Pfeffer declined to comment.

Jefferson was raised in Lake Providence, La., one of 10 children. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1972 and served in the state Senate before he was elected to the House in 1990. He is married and is the father of five grown daughters.

As a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee and co-chairman of the Africa Trade and Investment Caucus and the congressional caucuses on Brazil and Nigeria, Jefferson has carved out a niche in Third World trade issues, and he has traveled extensively on privately and publicly funded trips.

"He's someone respected for doing his homework on issues," said Silas Lee, a New Orleans political analyst. "He's viewed as a very serious, very studious person."
Pfeffer, who faces as much as 20 years in prison, paints a different picture of Jefferson, for whom he worked as a legislative aide from 1995 to 1998.

According to court documents and law enforcement sources, Pfeffer, 37, became president of W2 Corp., an investment company that was owned by Lori Mody, a wealthy Vienna, Va., woman. Mody, 41, is the founder of Win-Win Strategies Foundation, whose mission includes helping needy children learn about the high-tech world.

In early 2004, Pfeffer told Jefferson about his new investment job, court records show. Jefferson told Pfeffer about a telecommunications opportunity in Nigeria and about iGate, which held the rights to a technology that enabled copper wires to transport high-speed Internet service to a wide array of consumers.

In mid-2004, Pfeffer brought Mody to Jefferson's office in Washington. There she was introduced to the founder of iGate, who has since been identified as Vernon Jackson. Not long after, Mody's company entered into a licensing and distribution agreement with iGate for the exclusive rights to market and distribute the company's technology in Nigeria.

Mody agreed to invest $45 million for the exclusive rights to iGate's technology and equipment for the Nigerian deal. She put up $3.5 million and agreed to finance the balance through the Export-Import Bank of the United States, a government-run agency that promotes U.S. business exports.

Afterward, Pfeffer told Mody that Jefferson would expect compensation for his "official assistance on the Nigerian deal," according to court documents.

In summer 2004, Pfeffer, Mody, Jefferson and others met in New Orleans at the law firm of one of Jefferson's daughters, who provided the legal work for the business deal. While in the lobby of the law firm, Jefferson approached Pfeffer in private and told him that he would require 5 to 7 percent of Mody's new Nigerian company, the court document said.

Later, in a phone conversation, Jefferson told Pfeffer that he wanted a family member to be put on the payroll of the Nigerian company and to receive about $2,500 to $5,000 in monthly payments, court documents said.

"Pfeffer understood that [Jefferson] was soliciting a bribe in exchange" for the congressman's assistance in "official acts," including influencing high-ranking officials in the Nigerian government via trips and correspondences, and meeting with officials of the Export-Import Bank to help secure financing, the court document said.

Mody, who had grown concerned about the propriety of the transactions, went to the FBI in March 2005. She agreed to record conversations in what became a sting, say law enforcement sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the probe.

On March 31, she gave $2,100 to Jefferson's campaign. And in July, months after approaching the FBI, her Win-Win Strategies Foundation was listed in congressional travel documents as the sponsor of Jefferson's trip to Ghana to promote the broadband technology venture.

Jefferson was accompanied to Ghana by a relative, a staff member, Pfeffer and an iGate employee, according to documents. The trip disclosure form that Jefferson filed with the House lists the purpose of the trip as "education and business development" and lists no accompanying family member. Win-Win Strategies paid $9,248 for Jefferson's expenses, the form shows.

During the trip, Pfeffer was in contact with Mody in Virginia, reporting on Jefferson's "official acts" with high-ranking Ghanaian officials, court papers said. Pfeffer believed that Jefferson would get similar compensation for the Ghanaian project as in the Nigerian deal, the court document said. Jefferson also told Pfeffer that a member of his extended family had been designated as the secretary of the Ghanaian company and would serve in a marketing role, the document said.

Mody said late last week that authorities told her not to comment because of the probe.

Jefferson has attracted controversy over the years. Nicknamed "Dollar Bill" in New Orleans, he is known as a formidable fundraiser with designs on his own political empire. Daughter Jalila Jefferson-Bullock is a state legislator. In helping her get elected, Jefferson was heard on an FBI wiretap soliciting improper fundraising help from his brother-in-law, Jefferson Parish Judge Alan Green, who was sentenced last week to more than four years in federal prison in an unrelated bail-bond corruption case.
Jefferson said in a statement last May that he recalled the conversation with Green but added that his request for help was familial.

"To my knowledge, nothing resulted from the conversation -- the campaign did not receive any money from Judge Green or anyone who may have been prompted by him to contribute -- and there were no further conversations on the matter," Jefferson said.

Jefferson also generated controversy when, in the midst of post-Katrina rescue efforts, he used National Guard troops to help him get belongings from his house in New Orleans.

Jefferson's legal problems have received modest attention in New Orleans, where residents and officials are consumed with rebuilding the city and upcoming local elections. But names of potential challengers are starting to circulate, and political observers are handicapping their prospects.

With only about one-fifth of the district's 500,000 residents believed to be living in New Orleans, it is possible that a white Democrat or even a Republican could take the seat, which was drawn as a black district and which Jefferson had hoped to hand off eventually to his chosen successor. That now looks less likely.

"He's strong, but not that strong that he could withstand an indictment," said John Maginnis, publisher of a weekly Louisiana political newsletter.

Researchers Madonna Lebling and Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/15/AR2006021502752.html

5. Spoiled Brat Media – Thomas Sowell, Columnist
By Thomas Sowell
February 16, 2006

The first revolt of the American colonists against their British rulers was immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as "the shot heard round the world." Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident has now become the shot heard round the Beltway.

The accidental shooting of Harry Whittington, while he was on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney, has nothing to do with government policy or the Vice President's official duties but the mainstream media have gone ballistic over it nevertheless.

They are also angry that the news was not given to them more quickly, which prevented it from becoming the feeding frenzy of the Sunday television talk shows. Whether this delay was deliberate or otherwise, it is being called a "cover-up" in the media, as if there were some crime to cover up.

NBC White House correspondent David Gregory was shouting at White House press secretary Scott McClellan, as if Mr. Gregory's Constitutional rights were being violated. It was a classic example of a special interest demanding special privileges -- as if they were rights.

There is nothing in the Constitution or the laws that says that the media have a right to be in the White House at all, much less to have press conferences.
This has become a customary courtesy over the years, but courtesy is a two-way street, except for those in the media who act like spoiled brats, as if they have some inherent right to whatever serves their institutional, career, or ideological purposes.

The media love to wrap themselves in the mantle of "the public's right to know" but there is no such dedication to that right when it goes against the journalists' own prejudices.

The public's right to know what a "partial birth abortion" is has been consistently disregarded for years by whole networks, even when they have given wide coverage to abortion controversies. Whatever your position on abortions, you need to know what you are talking about but the media recognize no such "right to know."
If you knew, you might not agree with them.

The same journalists who used phony documents to attack President Bush's military service recognize no "right to know" why Senator John Kerry's honorable discharge is dated long after his service was over and during the Carter administration, when less than honorable discharges were allowed to be upgraded to honorable.

The "public's right to know" apparently extends only to such things as will not cause the public to reach conclusions different from those of the liberal media.

My favorite press secretary was Margaret Tutwiler, who treated reporters like misbehaving little boys, which is how they often acted. Nor were the reporters' antics due solely to personal boorishness.

They had before them the example of Dan Rather and Sam Donaldson, who reached the big time on TV by being snotty to Presidents. At the very least, White House correspondents can get more time on the tube by waxing indignant at what they choose to portray as violations of "the public's right to know" while the cameras are rolling.

An off-duty incident in Dick Cheney's private life has been hyped in the media as if it had some real significance for more than a quarter of a billion Americans.
The media want to know when was President Bush informed about this incident? What did the White House press secretary know and when did he know it?

The people who mattered -- doctors and local law enforcement -- were informed immediately about the hunting accident. What was President Bush supposed to do -- other than provide the media with something to print or broadcast?

The media are so full of themselves -- among other things that they are full of -- that they act as if the government exists to provide them with something to publicize. The time is long overdue to put these people in their place. Where is Margaret Tutwiler when we need her?

The New York Times informs us solemnly that, if Mr. Whittington dies, there will be a grand jury investigation.

If Mr. Whittington is so uncooperative as not to die, there will be much disappointment and frustration in Beltway media circles.

Currently, Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution in Stanford, Calif.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-2_16_06_TS.html

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