Inside Politics

Waxman’s denial

Rep. Henry A. Waxman, California Democrat, denied he is conducting or ever planned to conduct a congressional investigation of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin and called on a conservative magazine to retract its report that he asked investigators to compile information on the popular conservative talk-radio hosts, Nathan Burchfiel reports at CNSNews.com.

“The American Spectator report about a congressional investigation into talk radio is completely false,” Mr. Waxman, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told Cybercast News Service yesterday. “There is no investigation.”

Mr. Waxman referred to a report published Monday that said he “has asked his investigative staff to begin compiling reports on Limbaugh, and fellow radio hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin based on transcripts from their shows” to build a case for bringing back the Fairness Doctrine.

When asked whether there were ideas or plans to compile reports on the talk-radio hosts, a spokesman for Mr. Waxman said, “No, there were not.”

Mr. Waxman called on the Spectator to “immediately retract the item and apologize for the confusion its fictitious report has caused.”

Passing the test

“First things first: He didn’t stumble, he didn’t mumble, he didn’t yawn and he didn’t forget his lines, so Fred Thompson beat the incredibly low expectations facing him in his first Republican presidential debate” Tuesday, New York Daily News columnist Michael Goodwin writes.

“But Thompson did more than just pass a dumbed-down test. Although the former senator started out slowly — why couldn’t he clear his throat before he went on stage? — he soon got into a comfortable groove and gave good and sometimes very good answers. He spoke clearly and concisely on the economy, taxes and the war, and, in contrast to some of his stump appearances, seemed to know what he believes and what he wants to say,” Mr. Goodwin said.

“He was bullish on the virtues of free trade, forceful on the need to fight ’Islamic fascism’ and savvy on the alternative minimum tax. Saying we had to first reduce spending before we abolished the tax, he argued the short-term fix was to index the tax for inflation so it wouldn’t hit so many middle-class Americans.

“And Thompson had his folksy Tennessee wits about him enough to draw laughs with some one-liners. ’I thought I was going to be the best actor here,’ he good-naturedly fired back after Mitt Romney used a clearly rehearsed line to make a joke at Thompson’s expense.

“My scorecard says Thompson’s impressive performance will boost his already-solid spot in the polls. He is second in most national surveys and in some key state races. He probably won’t grab the lead, but, for two hours at least, he proved he can play in this league.”

Balance, at last

A British judge ruled yesterday that Al Gore’s climate-change documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” can be shown in schools, but its numerous inaccuracies must be presented to prevent political indoctrination.

High Court Judge Michael Burton’s decision follows legal action brought by a father of two last month claiming Mr. Gore’s film contained “serious scientific inaccuracies, political propaganda and sentimental mush.”

Stewart Dimmock wanted to block the government’s pledge to send more than 3,500 secondary schools in England and Wales a DVD of the documentary to demonstrate the need to fight global warming, Reuters news agency reports.

Judge Burton said the Oscar-winning film should be accompanied by government guidance notes pointing out 11 falsehoods in the film. But the victory was only partial, as Mr. Dimmock failed to get the film banned from schools. The truck driver said after the case that he was “elated,” but disappointed he had not secured an outright ban.

“If it was not for the case brought by myself, our young people would still be being indoctrinated with this political spin,” he told reporters.

Drafting Gore

“My inbox is getting flooded with news from Al Gore fans who are trying to draft him to run for president,” Christina Bellantoni writes in her “On the Democrats” blog at www.washingtontimes.com.

“Since my story was published in Monday’s paper about how the state movements are strengthening, draft organizers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, among others, have dropped me a line,” Ms. Bellantoni said.

“I gave a little update Monday, but the Draft Gore folks wrote [yesterday] morning about their full-page New York Times ad featuring an open letter to the former VP. There were more than 143,000 signatures on the Draft Gore petition when I last checked, and organizers estimate they are getting 750 new signatures per hour today.

“The letter tells Gore: ’You say you have fallen out of love with politics, and you have every reason to feel that way. But we know you have not fallen out of love with your country. And your country needs you now — as do your party and the planet you are fighting so hard to save.’ ”

Getting their shots

House Homeland Security Committee staffers are on a peculiar mission to study “public health issues at events involving mass gatherings,” which has personally insulted Rep. Robin Hayes, North Carolina Republican.

The event — NASCAR.

The rub, reports Audrey Hudson of The Washington Times: a requirement that Democratic and Republican staffers attending first be immunized against hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, diphtheria and influenza.

“I have never heard of immunizations for domestic travel, and as the representative for Concord, North Carolina, I feel compelled to ask why the heck the committee feels that immunizations are needed to travel to my hometown?” Mr. Hayes, a Republican, wrote in a letter to Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and committee chairman.

“I have been to numerous NASCAR races, and the folks who attend these events certainly do not pose any health hazard to congressional staffers or anyone else,” Mr. Hayes said.

A committee staffer said the Republican staffers declined the shots, but that two Democratic staffers were immunized before attending the race at Talladega, Ala., last weekend.

A phone call to the committee spokesman was not returned.

• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@ washingtontimes.com.