Inside the Beltway

Hint, hint

“Rove ran like a lump of sugar to avoid getting wet.”

—Official White House pool report of President Bush’s rain-soaked arrival Tuesday afternoon at Fort Bragg, N.C., accompanied by White House senior adviser Karl Rove.

Skirting a statute

All told, 25 lawmakers on Capitol Hill had 10 or more days of unexcused absences in the 108th Congress, amounting to more than $500,000 in illegal salary payments.

And 17 of those 25 senators and representatives were out campaigning at the time, according to a recent study by the National Taxpayers Union (NTU).

If that’s not outrageous enough behavior, a Senate committee in recent days sent legislation to the floor to repeal the statute requiring congressional absentees to forfeit their pay unless they or a family member are ill.

“Rather than enforce this obscure but still-valid law, the Senate is moving to do away with it, and make it perfectly legal for senators to be absent from Congress and hit the campaign trail, all while collecting a salary from U.S. taxpayers,” the NTU notes. “Imagine a private-sector worker getting paid for not showing up to his job because he’s out looking for another one.”

To no avail, the NTU for the past decade has sought enforcement of what is called the “No Work, No Pay” law. Congress, however, has looked the other way.

Endless cycle

• Estimated amount spent lobbying Congress last year: $3,000,000,000.

• Number of former members of Congress or federal-agency heads who are now lobbyists: 240

— Harper’s Index, July 2005

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