Inside the Beltway

POST-IT PRICE

Like presidents before him who even signed flesh, George W. Bush has grown accustomed to autographing anything ink will adhere to — now including “Post-its” handed to him by unprepared CIA employees after the president’s impromptu lunchtime remarks in the agency’s cafeteria in recent days.

Don’t laugh. Hollywood Collectibles, as we speak, is peddling a 3x5 index card signed by former President George Bush for $175.

BOYDA’S HOLIDAY

Controversy surrounding the August congressional recess is hanging tough like the heat.

Now it’s Rep. Nancy Boyda, Kansas Democrat, coming under fire from the National Republican Congressional Committee, which says after “casting the deciding vote to give Congress a monthlong vacation, Boyda is now disingenuously claiming she had nothing to do with it.”

“Nancy Boyda is desperately hiding from the fact that she cast the deciding vote to send Congress on a monthlong vacation instead of addressing critical energy legislation to lower the cost of gasoline,” says NRCC spokesman Ken Spain.

The final vote tally to vacate Washington was a razor-thin 213-212.

So, says Mr. Spain, while Congress is taking its vacation against the wishes of Republicans, “families all across the country have had to cancel their vacations because of the high gas prices.”

BELK BILK

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has closed the unusual case of one-time U.S. Senate candidate Marcus Belk and his phony National Democratic Congressional Committee (NDCC).

Under a settlement with the Justice Department, Mr. Belk admitted to operating his so-called NDCC as a political committee without registering and reporting with the FEC.

“In addition … he admitted that he knowingly and willfully received excessive contributions, commingled NDCC funds with his personal funds and fraudulently misrepresented himself as acting on behalf of a political party,” the FEC says.

“Mr. Belk also acknowledged other knowing and willful reporting violations related to his own campaign for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina in 2004.”

Mr. Belk was sentenced to 36 months’ probation, ordered to pay restitution and perform 100 hours of community service. Furthermore, he is prohibited from working or volunteering in federal campaigns in a capacity involving finances or disclosure reports for a period of 10 years, says the FEC.

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