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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 – Monday, May 22, 2006
1. New Iraqi Government Meets - Associated Press
Despite the media's insistence on focusing on the negative in Iraq, this
weekend's historic meeting of the new Iraqi government carried with it signs
of progress and optimism, as the new Prime Minister and his parliament look
to take control of their country.
2. FBI says it recorded lawmaker taking cash - Seattle Times
Rep. William Jefferson was caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100
bills from an FBI informant whose conversations with the lawmaker also were
recorded, according to a court document released Sunday. Agents later found
the cash hidden in the congressman's freezer.
3. Heard the Good News? - U.S. News & World Report
Things are better than you think. If we look at numbers other than polls,
we'll find that we are living not in the worst of times, but in something
much closer to the best.
4. Teaching Johnny About Islam - Investor's Business Daily
In our brave new schools, Johnny can't say the pledge, but he can recite the
Quran. Yup, the same court that found the phrase "under God"
unconstitutional now endorses Islamic catechism in public school.
5. Days of Rage - Wall Street Journal Op-ed
The great mistake that leading Democrats and anti-Communist liberals made
during Vietnam was not speaking up against a left that was demanding retreat
and sneering at our war heroes. Will any Democrat speak up now?
For previous issues of the Morning Murmur, go to www.GOPsecretary.gov
FULL ARTICLES BELOW:
1. New Iraqi Government Meets -
Associated Press
May 21, 2006 1:20 p.m.
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's new government met for the first time
Sunday and he emerged saying he would soon fill two important vacancies in
his cabinet: ministries that control the country's army and police.
On Saturday, parliament inaugurated Mr. Maliki and the new government, which
hopes to improve the Iraq's military and police forces, persuade the
insurgents to lay down its weapons and disband militias, reduce sectarian
violence and restore stability to Iraq. The formation of the national unity
government followed five months after the election of Iraq's parliament and
prolonged bitter period of wrangling over the cabinet posts.
Political infighting has left three important cabinet posts only temporarily
filled -- the defense ministry, which controls Iraq's army; the interior
ministry, which is responsible for police; and the ministry of state for
security affairs, which plays an advisory role.
Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, has said he is determined to soon find independent,
nonsectarian officials to fill those three portfolios in his government. "I
do not think that the naming of defense and interior ministers will take
more than two or three days," he said at a news conference. The prime
minister also said his government would use "maximum force in confronting
the terrorists and the killers who are shedding blood" in Iraq.
He added that the government would try to reduce public support for
insurgent groups by promoting national reconciliation, improving the
country's collapsing infrastructure, and setting up a special protection
force for Baghdad, one of Iraq's most violent cities. He said Baghdad "must
end its crisis of sectarian violence that is causing many families to flee
their homes."
If that can be done -- and there is no certainty that it can -- it would set
the stage for the eventual withdrawal of tens of thousands of U.S. and other
foreign troops.
President's Remarks
President Bush on Sunday said the inauguration of Iraq's new government
marks a new era in relations with the country that the U.S. has occupied for
more than three years. "The formation of a unity government in Iraq is a new
day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in peace," Mr. Bush said.
"And the formation of the unity government in Iraq begins a new chapter in
our relationship with Iraq."
Mr. Bush said he called President Jalal Talabani, Mr. Maliki and parliament
speaker Mahmoud al Mashhadani to congratulate them on working together. "I
assured them that the United States will continue to assist Iraqis in the
formation of a new country because I fully understand that a free Iraq will
be an important ally in the war on terror, will serve as a devastating
defeat for the terrorists and al Qaeda and will serve as example for others
in the region who desire to be free."
Mr. Bush briefly spoke to reporters from the White House to highlight the
political development without mentioning the violence that still rages in
Iraq.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iraq has made "extraordinary
progress politically" by inaugurating the government even though sectarian
infighting has stalled the selection of cabinet posts for overseeing the
army, police forces and national security.
"They want to make sure that they have it right," Ms. Rice said. "I think
it's quite obvious that when you take this kind of time, it shows the kind
of determination and maturity."
About 132,000 U.S. troops are now in Iraq, with U.S. military commanders
sending several hundred more to bolster security as the government in
Baghdad takes shape.
Continuing Bloodshed
In his remarks, Mr. Bush did not speak of the spree of bombing, mortar
rounds and a drive-by shooting that killed at least 19 Iraqis and wounded
dozens -- most of them hit by a suicide bomber who targeted a Baghdad
restaurant during Sunday's lunch hour.
That attack killed at least 13 people and injured 17 when the suicide bomber
blew himself up in the Safar restaurant, which is frequented by police. The
attack was part of a spree of roadside bombs, mortar rounds and a drive-by
shootings.
Meanwhile, the victims of the restaurant attack included three police
officers, said Police Col. Abbas Mohammed. The Safar restaurant was located
in a two story building Baghdad's mixed Karradah neighborhood and the
explosion occurred at 1:20 p.m. during the crowded lunch hour. Police said
the bomber was apparently wearing an explosives vest.
Violence continued elsewhere in the capital.
Two roadside bombs exploded at about 10:30 a.m. local time in a crowded
fruit market in New Baghdad, a mixed Shiite, Sunni Arab and Christian area
in an eastern part of the capital, said police Lt. Ali Abbas. Police found
the first bomb and detonated it after trying to evacuate the market, said
Mr. Abbas. But a second hidden bomb exploded a moment later, killing three
civilians and wounding 23, all of whom had ignored the evacuation order, Mr.
Abbas said. At about 8 a.m., four gunmen in a speeding BMW killed Ali
Abdul-Hussein al Kinani, 57 years old, who was standing outside his food
store in the mostly Shiite neighborhood of Ubaidi, said police Maj. Mahir
Hamad Moussa.
Also in Baghdad, the roadside bomb missed its target -- a police patrol --
and Baghdad instead killed a bystander and injured 15 others. Three other
attacks took place in Dora, one of Baghdad's most violent areas. Mortar
rounds hit two separate houses, killing a 4-year-old girl and wounding her
mother in one dwelling and injuring a man and his son in the other, police
said. A roadside bomb narrowly missed a U.S. convoy but wounded three
civilians.
At least 33 people were killed in a series of attacks across Iraq on
Saturday, and police found the bodies of 22 Iraqis who apparently had been
kidnapped and tortured by death squads that plague Iraq.
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Saturday that the new
government would begin planning the withdrawal of its troops from Iraq next
week. In Japan, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi refused on Sunday to say
when the country's troops would leave Iraq, saying the government was still
discussing whether and when to pull out, despite a media reports suggesting
a July withdrawal.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB114820325477258894.html
2. FBI says it recorded lawmaker taking
cash - Seattle Times
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - A congressman under investigation for bribery was
caught on videotape accepting $100,000 in $100 bills from an FBI informant
whose conversations with the lawmaker also were recorded, according to a
court document released Sunday. Agents later found the cash hidden in his
freezer.
At one audiotaped meeting, Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., chuckles about
writing in code to keep secret what the government contends was his corrupt
role in getting his children a cut of a communications company's deal for
work in Africa.
As Jefferson and the informant passed notes about what percentage the
lawmaker's family might receive, the congressman "began laughing and said,
'All these damn notes we're writing to each other as if we're talking, as if
the FBI is watching,' " according to the affidavit.
Jefferson, who represents New Orleans and is also the subject of a House
ethics-committee probe, has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing.
"As I have previously stated, I have never, over all the years of my public
service, accepted payment from anyone for the performance of any act or duty
for which I have been elected," he said this month. His press secretary,
Melanie Roussell, declined to comment Sunday.
As for the $100,000, the government says Jefferson got the money in a
leather briefcase July 30 at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Arlington, Va. The
plan was for the lawmaker to use the cash to bribe a high-ranking Nigerian
official - the name is blacked out in the court document - to ensure the
success of a business deal in that country, the affidavit said.
All but $10,000 was recovered on Aug. 3 when the FBI searched Jefferson's
home in Washington. The money was stuffed in his freezer, wrapped in $10,000
packs and concealed in food containers and aluminum foil.
Two of Jefferson's associates have pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges
in federal court in Alexandria. One, businessman Vernon Jackson of
Louisville, Ky., admitted paying more than $400,000 in bribes to the
lawmaker in exchange for his help securing business deals for Jackson's
telecommunications company, iGate Inc., in Nigeria and other African
countries.
The new details about the case emerged after federal agents searched
Jefferson's congressional office on Capitol Hill. About 15 FBI agents
entered Jefferson's office in the Rayburn House Office Building about 7:15
p.m. Saturday night and left about 1 p.m. Sunday. Authorities said it was
the first time the FBI had raided a sitting congressman's office.
The search was intended to include all areas of Jefferson's office, and
could entail computer hardware and software, as well as other electronics
and closed or locked containers, according to the affidavit. "There is
probable cause to believe" that Jefferson's office "contains property
constituting evidence of the commission [of] bribery of a public official,"
and wire fraud, it said.
Jefferson's lawyer, Robert Trout, said there was no immediate reason for the
raid. "The government knew that the documents were being appropriately
preserved while proper procedures were being followed," he said.
The FBI declined to comment, as did Ken Melson, the first assistant U.S.
attorney in Alexandria.
The nearly 100-page affidavit for a search warrant, made public Sunday with
large portions blacked out, spells out much of the evidence so far as
federal investigators move closer to deciding whether to seek Jefferson's
indictment.
The document includes excerpts of conversations between Jefferson and Lori
Mody, a business executive from northern Virginia. She agreed to wear a wire
after she approached the FBI with complaints that Jefferson and an associate
had ripped her off in a business deal.
Trout contended that the prosecutors' disclosure was "part of a
public-relations agenda and an attempt to embarrass Congressman Jefferson."
"The affidavit itself is just one side of the story which has not been
tested in court," he said in a statement.
The affidavit says Jefferson was caught on videotape at the Ritz-Carlton as
he takes a reddish-brown briefcase from the trunk of Mody's car, slips it
into a cloth bag, puts the bag into his 1990 Lincoln Town Car and drives
away.
The $100 bills in the suitcase had the same serial numbers as those found in
Jefferson's freezer.
While the name of the intended recipient of the $100,000 is blacked out,
other details in the affidavit indicate he is Abubakar Atiku, Nigeria's vice
president. He owns a home in Potomac, Md., that authorities have searched as
part of the Jefferson investigation.
Jefferson assured Mody in their coded conversations that he paid the money
to the Nigerian official, even though the money was still in Jefferson's
possession when agents searched his home Aug. 3.
On Aug. 1, two days after Jefferson took the $100,000, Mody called Jefferson
to ask about the status of "the package."
Jefferson responded: "I gave him the African art that you gave me, and he
was very pleased."
When Jefferson and Mody had dinner at a Washington restaurant May 12, 2005,
the FBI was listening. Jefferson indicates he will need an increased stake
in the profits of one deal, the affidavit said. Instead of the 7 percent
stake agreed upon, he writes "18-20" on a piece of paper and passes it to
the informant.
That is when negotiations move ahead and notes go back and forth, ending
with Jefferson's laughter about the FBI watching it all.
Throughout the conversations, Jefferson makes attempts to deflect direct
connections to any bribes.
He tells Mody at one point that money should be paid to businesses operated
by his children. "I make a deal for my children. It wouldn't be me,"
Jefferson said, according to the affidavit.
In a different conversation, he seeks to distance himself from bribes that
must be paid to Nigerian government officials to facilitate transactions.
"If he's gotta pay Minister X, we don't want to know. It's not our deal,"
Jefferson told the witness, according to the affidavit. "We're not paying
Minister X a damn thing.
That's all, you know, international fraud crap. We're not doing that."
The affidavit also spells out "seven other schemes" in which Jefferson was
involved; nearly all were blacked out.
Jefferson, who has pledged not to resign from Congress in the face of the
bribery investigation, speculated about his political future in one of the
recorded conversations.
When the informant Mody asked Jefferson about his political plans, he
responded: "I'm gonna get your deal out of the way ... and I probably won't
last long after that."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003010596_jefferson22.html
3. Heard the Good News? - U.S. News &
World Report
By Michael Barone
Things are better than you think. Yes, I know, most Americans are in a sour
mood these days, convinced that the struggle in Iraq is an endless cycle of
bloodshed, certain that our economy is in dismal shape, lamenting that the
nation and the world are off on the wrong track.
That's what polls tell us. But if we look at some other numbers, we'll find
that we are living not in the worst of times, but in something much closer
to the best.
What do I mean? First, economic growth. In 2005, as in 2004, the world
economy grew by about 5 percent, according to the International Monetary
Fund, and the IMF projects similar growth for several years to come. This is
faster growth than in all but a few peak years in the 1980s and 1990s, and
it's in vivid contrast to the long periods of stagnation or contraction in
history.
The great engine of this growth is, of course, the United States, which
produces more than one-quarter of world economic product and whose gross
domestic product has been growing at around 4 percent -- 4.7 percent in the
latest quarter. Other engines are China and India, each with about a sixth
of the world's people, and economic growth of 10 percent and 8 percent,
respectively. But other areas are growing, too: Eastern Europe (5 percent),
Russia (6 percent), East Asia (5 percent), Latin America (4 percent), even
the Middle East (6 percent) and sub-Saharan Africa (5.5 percent).
Lagging behind are the Euro area (1 percent) and the rest of Western Europe
(2 percent). Lesson: Sclerotic welfare states produce mass unemployment and
stifle initiative and innovation. In contrast, the Chinese and Indian growth
rates show how freeing up an economy produces rapid growth, and the
continued contrast between the United States and Europe makes the same
point. Free market economic growth is enabling millions of people to rise
out of poverty every year. Even more than the experts expect -- as the IMF
writes, "The momentum and resilience of the global economy in 2005 continued
to exceed expectations."
It's worth noting, as the IMF does, that this growth is being achieved with
minimal inflation. "The present era of globalization and low inflation has
an important precedent: 1880-1914, the era of the classical gold standard,"
it notes. That period ended with the outbreak of World War I, and there is
no guarantee that the current low-inflation growth will continue. There are
always downside risks in the economy. But we seem to be living by far in the
best economic times in human history.
But aren't we also living in times of record strife? Actually, no. Just the
opposite. The Human Security Centre of the University of British Columbia
has been keeping track of armed conflicts since World War II. It reports
that the number of genocides and violent conflicts dropped rapidly after the
end of the Cold War, and that in 2005 the number of armed conflicts was down
40 percent from 1992.
Wars have also become less deadly: The average number of people killed per
conflict per year in 1950 was 38,000; in 2002, it was just 600. The conflict
in Iraq has not significantly changed that picture. American casualties are
orders of magnitude lower than in the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, and
precision weapons have enabled us to vastly reduce the civilian death toll.
After our victory in the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama proclaimed that we had
reached "the end of history," by which he meant the end of any serious
argument over what constitutes the best kind of society. That is disputed by
the Islamist fascists, who have made it clear that they will do whatever
they can to inflict harm on our civilization.
As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in his recent letter to
President Bush: "Liberalism and Western-style democracy have not been able
to help realize the ideals of humanity. Today, those two concepts have
failed."
That's obviously nonsense, of course. Free markets and democracy are
chalking up one ringing achievement after another -- as we can see from the
surge in world economic growth and the reduction of armed conflict -- while
the Islamists can achieve their goals only through oppression and slaughter.
Yes, they can inflict severe damage on us by asymmetric warfare, as they did
on Sept. 11, and we must continue to take determined action to prevent them
from doing so again. Yes, a nuclear Iran is a severe threat. But we
shouldn't lose sight of the fact that, in most important respects, our
civilization is performing splendidly.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060529/29barone.htm
4. Teaching Johnny About Islam -
Investor's Business Daily
Education: In our brave new schools, Johnny can't say the
pledge, but he can recite the Quran. Yup, the same court that found the
phrase "under God" unconstitutional now endorses Islamic catechism in public
school.
In a recent federal decision that got surprisingly little press, even from
conservative talk radio, California's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled it's OK to put public-school kids through Muslim role-playing
exercises, including:
Reciting aloud Muslim prayers that begin with "In the name of Allah, Most
Gracious, Most Merciful . . . ."
Memorizing the Muslim profession of faith: "Allah is the only true God and
Muhammad is his messenger."
Chanting "Praise be to Allah" in response to teacher prompts.
Professing as "true" the Muslim belief that "The Holy Quran is God's word."
Giving up candy and TV to demonstrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of
fasting.
Designing prayer rugs, taking an Arabic name and essentially "becoming a
Muslim" for two full weeks.
Parents of seventh-graders, who after 9-11 were taught the pro-Islamic
lessons as part of California's world history curriculum, sued under the
First Amendment ban on religious establishment. They argued, reasonably,
that the government was promoting Islam.
But a federal judge appointed by President Clinton told them in so many
words to get over it, that the state was merely teaching kids about another
"culture."
So the parents appealed. Unfortunately, the most left-wing court in the land
got their case. The 9th Circuit, which previously ruled in favor of an
atheist who filed suit against the words "under God" in the Pledge of
Allegiance, upheld the lower court ruling.
The decision is a major victory for the multiculturalists and Islamic
apologists in California and across the country who've never met a culture
or religion they didn't like - with the exception of Western civilization
and Christianity. They are legally in the clear to indoctrinate kids into
the "peaceful" and "tolerant" religion of Islam, while continuing to
denigrate Judeo-Christian values.
In the California course on world religions, Christianity is not presented
equally. It's covered in just two days and doesn't involve kids in any
role-playing activities. But kids do get a good dose of skepticism about the
Christian faith, including a biting history of its persecution of other
peoples. In contrast, Islam gets a pass from critical review. Even jihad is
presented as an "internal personal struggle to do one's best to resist
temptation," and not holy war.
The ed consultant's name is Susan L. Douglass. No, she's not a Christian
scholar. She's a devout Muslim activist on the Saudi government payroll,
according to an investigation by Paul Sperry, author of "Infiltration: How
Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington." He found that for
years Douglass taught social studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy just
outside Washington, D.C. Her husband still teaches there.
So what? By infiltrating our public school system, the Saudis hope to make
Islam more widely accepted while converting impressionable American youth to
their radical cause. Recall that John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban,"
was a product of the California school system. What's next, field trips to
Mecca?
This case is critical not just to our culture but our national security. It
should be brought before the Supreme Court, which has outlawed prayer in
school. Let's see what it says about practicing Islam in class. It will be a
good test for the bench's two new conservative justices.
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=20&artnum=3&issue=20060519
5. Days of Rage - Wall Street Journal
Op-ed
John McCain and Joe Lieberman feel the wrath of the antiwar left.
Monday, May 22, 2006 12:01 a.m.
Two events last Friday speak volumes about the direction of modern liberal
politics, and it's not an encouraging trend, especially if you're a Democrat
who wants to take back the White House.
The first is that antiwar candidate Ned Lamont captured a third of the
delegates at Connecticut's Democratic Party convention, thus winning the
right to challenge Senator Joe Lieberman in an August primary. The second is
the nasty treatment of Senator John McCain by faculty and students during
his commencement address at the New School in New York.
Rude college kids and left-wing professors are hardly a new story. But the
ugliness of the New School crowd toward Mr. McCain reveals the peculiar rage
that now animates so many on the political left. Dozens of faculty and
students turned their back on the Senator, others booed and heckled, and a
senior invited to speak threw out her prepared remarks and mocked their
invited guest as he sat nearby. Some 1,200 had signed petitions asking that
Mr. McCain be disinvited.
"The Senator does not reflect the ideals upon which this university was
founded," said senior Jean Sara Rohe, which makes us wonder what ideals, and
manners, she learned at home. "I am young and though I don't possess the
wisdom that time affords us, I do know that preemptive war is dangerous. And
I know that despite all the havoc that my country has wrought overseas in my
name, Osama bin Laden still has not been found, nor have those weapons of
mass destruction."
Speaking of "havoc," Ms. Rohe spoke only blocks from the site of the former
World Trade Center. The Senator who spent years in the Hanoi Hilton reacted
with admirable restraint to these insults, and readers who want to see his
remarks can find them posted here.
Mr. McCain was invited to the New School by its president, former Democratic
Senator and Congressional Medal of Honor winner Robert Kerrey. When Mr.
Kerrey spoke, he was also heckled, with someone shouting, "You're a war
criminal!" It'd be comforting to dismiss all this as mere Manhattan
derangement, but these passions have become common in liberal media and Web
precincts and are spilling into national politics.
Take Connecticut, where the left is targeting Mr. Lieberman for political
extinction because of his pro-war views. Their vehicle is Mr. Lamont, a rich
Greenwich businessman who decided to run after the Senator wrote an op-ed
piece in The Wall Street Journal supporting U.S. policy in Iraq. Mr.
Lamont--who was featured in our Weekend Interview on May 13--needed 15% of
the delegates to get a place on the primary ballot, but in the event rolled
up 33%.
That's a remarkable showing against a three-term incumbent who as recently
as 2000 was on the party's national ticket and ran for President in 2004.
"They are saying this war was a mistake and bring the troops home," Mr.
Lamont declared. Mr. Lieberman will still be favored to win the primary, but
angry-left activists around the country will now descend on the state and
the fight may well turn vicious.
The left's larger goal is to turn the Democratic Party solidly against the
war on terror, and especially against its Iraq and Iran fronts. Mr. Lamont's
performance will be noticed by Democratic Presidential hopefuls, some of
whom (Al Gore, John Kerry) are already maneuvering to get to Hillary Rodham
Clinton's antiwar left. Well before 2008, this passion will also drive
sentiment among Democrats on Capitol Hill. If they recapture either the
House or the Senate this fall, a legislative drive to withdraw from Iraq
cannot be ruled out.
We doubt all of this will help Democrats with the larger electorate, which
whatever its doubts about Iraq does not want a precipitous surrender.
Americans haven't trusted a liberal Democrat with the White House during
wartime since Vietnam, which is when the seeds of the current antiwar rage
were planted. The great mistake that leading Democrats and anti-Communist
liberals made during Vietnam was not speaking up against a left that was
demanding retreat and sneering at our war heroes. Will any Democrat speak up
now?
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110008410
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