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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 – Thursday, April 6, 2006
1. Tax-cutting strategy - Washington Times Op-ed
Pro-growth tax policies work, and if Americans vote their pocketbooks this
November they should return a Republican majority to Congress based on the
GOP's economic record.
2. Liberal War on Terrorism Heats Up: DeLay Finally Captured - Ann Coulter
If only liberals were half as angry at the people who flew planes into our
skyscrapers as they are with Tom DeLay, we might have two patriotic parties
in this country. Conservatives live under a jurisprudence of laws, but they
get prosecuted under liberals' jurisprudence of epithets.
3. The Anti-Kelo - Wall Street Journal Op-ed
A heavy government hand isn't necessary for economic development. Some
communities are taking a more freedom-friendly approach to revitalization:
protecting property rights, deregulating land uses, promoting competition,
loosening business restrictions and lowering taxes.
4. Capitol Hill Scuffle Said Headed to Grand Jury - Associated Press
A federal grand jury will soon begin hearing evidence about Rep. Cynthia A.
McKinney's run-in with a Capitol Police officer, a lawyer familiar with the
case said late Wednesday.
5. Schakowsky's Husband Gets Five Months in Check Scheme - Roll Call
The husband of Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D) was sentenced to five months
in prison on Wednesday for bank fraud and failure to pay federal taxes.
For previous issues of the Morning Murmur, go to www.GOPsecretary.gov
FULL ARTICLES BELOW:
By Gary J. Andres
Published April 6, 2006
Last April, Congress hammered out the details of the fiscal 2006 budget
resolution - a five-year fiscal blueprint laying out the broad parameters of
federal spending and tax policies. More than 12 months later, a big piece of
that plan - the part dealing with tax policy - is still on the drawing
board, bogged down by a complicated parliamentary snag in the Senate.
Congressional negotiators are trying to overcome this hurdle and may have an
agreement as early as tomorrow. But at this writing the outlook is still
cloudy.
Political forecasters agree President Bush and his congressional allies have
faced some foul weather since Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on the Gulf
Coast last summer and created its own political storm in Washington. Yet the
continuing strong performance of the economy offers powerful rays of
sunshine. As Mr. Bush has stated repeatedly, America has added almost 5
million new jobs in the last two years. Our unemployment rate is now 4.8
percent - lower than the average of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, real
after-tax income is up 8 percent per person since 2001 and consumer
confidence is at its highest level in nearly four years.
Overcoming the procedural hurdles and pulling Republicans together on an
economic policy victory could provide the White House and Republican
lawmakers with a much-needed shot of political adrenaline as they move
toward the 2006 elections.
Pro-growth tax policies work, and if Americans vote their pocketbooks this
November they should return a Republican majority to Congress based on the
GOP's economic record. Conversely, an economic downturn could be just what
the Democrats need, putting enough seats in play to capture the majority in
both bodies. Failure to extend tax cuts enacted in 2003 on dividends and
capital gains could create such a downturn.
And that's exactly what might happen. The legislation has been stalled due
to behind-the-scenes wrangling about the interpretation of the so-called
Byrd Rule. And as it stands now, the Senate may require a super-majority 60
votes to extend these tax cuts for even two more years - even though
Republicans intended this measure to move in a procedurally protected
legislative vehicle called reconciliation, which was supposed to require
only a simple majority for passage.
First adopted in 1985, the Byrd Rule is a complicated provision aimed at
keeping extraneous items out of procedurally protected (cannot be
filibustered and can pass with 51 votes) reconciliation bills in the Senate.
It also requires 60 votes if a law "would increase the deficit for fiscal
years beyond those covered by the reconciliation measure." How we got to
this point underscores the notion of the New Republic's Ryan Lizza that
"parliamentary procedure is destiny," so please put on your green eyeshades.
Last year's budget resolution, hammered out between the House and Senate,
provided for $70 billion in further tax cuts protected under the
reconciliation process - enough money to extend the capital gains and
dividends reductions set to expire at the end of 2008 for two more years. In
contrast to the 2001 and 2003 tax reconciliation bills, which were 10-year
measures, fiscal and political constraints caused Republicans to craft a
five-year budget (2006-10). They reasoned that if the tax cuts were simply
extended for two years, to 2009 and 2010, within the context of a five-year
budget (2006-10), the Byrd Rule would not come into play.
Yet the Joint Tax Committee scored the 10-year revenue effects of this
five-year budget and showed the legislation increased the deficit in the
so-called out-years (outside the five-year budget), triggering a Byrd Rule
point of order and the 60-vote threshold. Some House and Senate Republicans
strongly disagreed, reasoning the tax bill covered only a five- year period.
But the parliamentarians ruled the legislation did increase the deficit in
the out-years, so the legislation is stuck - needing to get scaled back or
mustering 60 votes.
Fixing the budget problem can be accomplished in several ways, including
adding other tax provisions that Democrats support, scaling back the tax
plan or finding other offsets. But whatever the small fix, Mr. Bush now has
a big opportunity to lead, bringing Republicans together and exposing the
Democrats' attempts to block the legislation for raw political advantage.
Yet Republicans and Mr. Bush should conclude the tax battle quickly, before
leaving for the Easter break if possible. Doing so unifies the party and
energizes the Republican base - all critical tasks as the 2006 midterm
election approaches. Giving Republicans a unifying issue that also
strengthens the economy is something liberals in Congress don't want. But
it's a chance for the president to show leadership on an issue that will
help ensure his party doesn't return to minority status for the last two
years of his term.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060405-091813-7570r.htm
by Ann Coulter
Posted Apr 05, 2006
If only liberals were half as angry at the people who flew planes into our
skyscrapers as they are with Tom DeLay, we might have two patriotic parties
in this country.
Any Republicans who didn't ferociously defend Tom DeLay -- which is to say,
almost all Republicans in Congress, the president, and alleged conservative
writers trying to impress the editorial board of the New York Times --
better hope liberals never come after them. The only proven method for a
Republican to avoid having his name turned into a liberal malediction is to
be completely ineffective. You'll notice there's no "Stop Lamar Alexander
Before It's Too Late" website.
Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Ed Meese, Oliver North, Clarence
Pendleton, Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, Tom DeLay -- all these men saw their
names used as curse words.
Only one of them was ever indicted. To wit, the comical indictment of DeLay
recently brought by political hack Ronnie Earle. To finally get some grand
jury to hand up an indictment, Earle had to empanel six grand juries in
Austin, Texas, which is like the Upper West Side with more attractive
people. In addition, DeLay knows Republican and gambling lobbyist Jack
Abramoff and his associates, who have recently pleaded guilty to various
other incomprehensible charges.
Liberals spit out all these names with more venom than they've ever been
able to muster for names like "Saddam Hussein" and "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi."
Even proud American corporations find their names being turned into curse
words by liberals, such as "Halliburton," which is currently losing money in
Iraq in order to supply food to our troops -- you know, the same troops
liberals pretend to love (but don't lose money feeding).
I spent a couple of hours listening to liberal hate radio this week to try
to figure out what crime against God and man Tom DeLay is even alleged to
have committed. But all I heard was the name "Tom DeLay" and "PRISON!"
mentioned in the same sentence over and over again.
Back when Newt Gingrich still scared liberals, the House Ethics Committee
spent years probing various charges against him, focusing on the charge that
a college class he taught was ... partisan! Meanwhile, they're teaching
Marxism in comp lit classes, Islamic terrorism in Indian experience classes,
and Druidism in divinity classes. As we speak, freshmen in English 101
classes all over the country are rushing to complete their term papers on
how all heterosexual sex is rape. Over a million dollars later, the
committee realized: Wait a second. This is a college class!
But at the urging of the Democrats, the Internal Revenue Service spent 3 1/2
years investigating Gingrich's college course. After all the hullabaloo, the
result was: No crime. The classes "were not biased toward particular
politicians or a particular party" -- thus distinguishing Gingrich's class
from every other college course in America.
To the contrary, Gingrich's college class spent more time praising FDR and
JFK than praising Reagan. (Did you know that FDR's radio broadcast after
Pearl Harbor included an eight-minute prayer? You would have learned that in
Newt's course.)
But the mere mention of the name "Newt Gingrich" was proof of criminal
conduct in the '90s.
When Democrats are accused of wrongdoing, it's usually something more like
what most people think of as a crime, say, punching a Capitol Hill
policeman.
Or perhaps by being captured on tape in hotel rooms stuffing wads of cash
into their pockets from Arab sheiks -- as Democrats were during the Abscam
investigation. This was back when Democrats controlled Congress.
Consequently, Congress responded to this shocking proof of criminality by
their colleagues by ... investigating the FBI for investigating members of
Congress.
The "rule of law" means something entirely different for Republicans and
Democrats. Consider the case of a prosecutor faced with the same possible
wrongdoing by a Republican office-holder and a Democrat office-holder at the
same time.
In the midst of Ronnie Earle's witch hunt of Republican Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchison for allegedly using her office for campaign purposes -- begun days
after she was elected to the U.S. Senate by a 2-1 margin -- employees in
former Democratic Gov. Ann Richards' office admitted that they destroyed
almost three years' worth of long-distance billing records that were
supposed to be preserved -- to ensure the office wasn't being used for
campaign purposes, among other things.
According to the Austin American-Statesman, Earle promptly "cleared
(Richards) and her staff of wrongdoing, saying there was no evidence of
criminal intent."
Conservatives live under a jurisprudence of laws, but they get prosecuted
under liberals' jurisprudence of epithets.
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=13815&o=ANN001
A lawyer says federal prosecutors have taken on the case
involving Rep. Cynthia McKinney.
April 6, 2006
WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury will soon begin hearing evidence about
Rep. Cynthia A. McKinney's run-in with a Capitol Police officer, a lawyer
familiar with the case said late Wednesday.
The lawyer, who declined to be identified because of grand jury secrecy,
confirmed that federal prosecutors had agreed to get involved in the case,
in which the black lawmaker is accused of striking a white officer after he
tried to stop her from entering a House office building without going
through a security checkpoint, as Congress members are entitled to do.
U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said McKinney had turned the
officer's failure to recognize her into a criminal matter when she failed to
stop at his request, and then struck him.
"He reached out and grabbed her and she turned around and hit him," Gainer
said on CNN. "Even the high and the haughty should be able to stop and say,
'I'm a congressman' and then everybody moves on."
"This is not about personality," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.).
"It's not about racial profiling. It's about making this place safer."
McKinney charged anew that racism was behind what she called a pattern of
difficulty in clearing Capitol Hill security checkpoints.
"This has become much ado about hairdo," she said Wednesday on CBS' "The
Early Show." McKinney, a Georgia Democrat, recently dropped her trademark
cornrows in favor of an afro.
The police aren't the ones who are racist, said Republican Rep. Tom DeLay of
Texas.
"Cynthia McKinney is a racist," he said on Fox News Channel's "Fox and
Friends," a day after abandoning his reelection bid under a cloud of ethics
charges. "Everything is racism with her. This is incredible arrogance that
sometimes hits these members of Congress, but especially Cynthia McKinney."
Capitol Police have turned the case over to U.S. Atty. Kenneth J. Wainstein,
who must decide whether to press charges against McKinney. His office had no
comment on any grand jury proceeding.
McKinney has garnered little support among fellow Democrats over the March
29 altercation. No one in her party joined her at a news conference Friday
on the matter.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-mckinney6apr06,1,7973958.story?coll=la-news-a_section
April 6, 2006
By John Bresnahan,
The husband of Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D) was sentenced to five months
in prison on Wednesday for bank fraud and failure to pay federal taxes.
Robert Creamer also will have to serve 11 months of home detention after he
is released from prison, although during that time he will be allowed to
travel between Chicago and Washington.
Federal prosecutors were seeking 30 to 37 months in prison for Creamer, who
pleaded guilty to the two felony charges last August.
Creamer and his attorneys were seeking to avoid any time behind bars, and
Schakowsky expressed unhappiness with the decision by U.S. District Judge
James Moran to jail Creamer, although both she and her husband were pleased
that his sentence was for a far shorter period than recommended by the U.S.
Attorney's Office in Chicago. Schakowsky was not accused of any wrongdoing
in the case.
"I am obviously disappointed that Bob's sentence included incarceration, but
we accept the judge's decision and look forward to the day that we can
finally put this nearly decade-long chapter behind us," Schakowsky told
reporters following her husband's court appearance. "Bob's decision last
fall to enter into a plea agreement was not an easy one ... I'm proud of him
for the way he has handled himself throughout this process. Bob has
apologized, he has learned from this experience, and he is prepared to
accept the consequences."
House Republicans jumped on the news as a way to divert attention from their
own legal and ethical problems. The National Republican Congressional
Committee issued a statement blasting Schakowsky and Democrats as a whole
for hypocrisy in light of the Democratic attacks on the GOP throughout the
Jack Abramoff scandal.
"Hopefully now Congresswoman Schakowsky realizes that mistakes don't land
you in federal prison, crimes do," NRCC spokesman Ed Patru said. "We are
waiting for comment from [Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi and National
Democrats."
Schakowsky's office countered that while serious, Creamer's crimes were not
committed by a Member of Congress, but by a Congressional spouse.
"Republicans are desperate to change the subject from the very serious
criminal charges their Members themselves have been charged with and
convicted of," said Jon Samuels, Schakowsky's spokesman. "They have put the
Congress up for sale to the special interests and now they will do anything
to deflect attention away from that fact."
Creamer, a Democratic consultant, pleaded guilty last August to running a
check-kiting scheme in 1997 while he was executive director of a Chicago
nonprofit group. Creamer manipulated checking accounts at several banks in
order to obtain what federal prosecutors charge were "unauthorized and
unsecured short-term loans" worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Creamer also failed to pay nearly $1,900 in taxes owed to the federal
government.
Following a lengthy investigation, a federal grand jury indicted Creamer in
March 2004 on 34 counts of fraud and tax evasion worth millions of dollars,
although he pleaded guilty to only two counts last summer.
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/51_107/news/12833-1.html
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