Inside Blogotics

‘Un-American’

Wait a minute. … Isn’t the script supposed to be, “Republican accuses Democrats of being un-American; Democrats express outrage at McCarthyism”?

Not in Northern Virginia, notes Jim Geraghty of National Review’s Campaign Spot blog.

“Hey, if you don’t think it’s a good idea to bring Khalid [Shaikh Mohammed] to New York City for a civilian trial, you’re not just wrong, you’re ‘un-American.’ Congressman Jim Moran, Democrat of Northern Virginia, says so,” Mr. Geraghty wrote.

Mr. Geraghty linked to an account at Talking Points Memo describing Mr. Moran’s support for the plan to try Mohammed and four other Muslim radicals suspected in the Sept. 11 attacks and his attacks on critics of the plan.

“They see this as an opportunity to demagogue. They will seize on any opportunity to do that, and that means they’ll even take a stand that’s un-American,” the Democrat said. “It’s un-American to hold anyone indefinitely without trial. It’s against our principles as a nation.”

Mr. Geraghty’s post also provided a quote from Matthew Berry, Mr. Moran’s Republican rival, criticizing the congressman for demagoguery and lack of historical knowledge.

“It is wrong for Congressman Moran to question the patriotism of the millions of Americans who believe that terrorists such as Khalid [Shaikh] Mohammed should be tried by military commissions rather than in civilian courtrooms. Furthermore, Congressman Moran’s comment reflects a basic ignorance of American history. Military commissions were used to try war crimes during the Revolutionary War, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War, and World War II. The use of a military commission to try Khalid [Shaikh] Mohammed would have been entirely in keeping with American history and tradition,” Mr. Berry said.

SEIU I

Hot Air had the scoop Monday morning.

Two conservative groups are demanding an investigation of the president of one of America’s biggest and most powerful unions on claims he has been working as an unregistered lobbyist.

“Americans for Tax Reform and the Alliance for Worker Freedom will deliver a letter to both chambers of Congress and to US Attorney Channing Phillips in Washington DC, demanding a federal investigation of Andrew Stern, president of the [Service Employees International Union]. They will claim that Stern, who stopped registering as a federal lobbyist in 2007, has continued his lobbying efforts. They claim to have compiled evidence of Stern’s lobbying from the recently released White House visitor logs, media reports — and Stern’s own Twitter feed, in what has to be a first for the social networking service,” Hot Air blogger Ed Morrissey wrote in anticipation of Monday morning’s filing.

The conservative groups acknowledge that the available public information does not reveal all of Mr. Stern’s activities or how much time he spent lobbying — a key requirement in the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act definition of a lobbyist.

“Nevertheless, the limited public record that is available indicates that Mr. Stern appears to have met the LDA definition of being a lobbyist by spending at least 16 days during the second calendar quarter lobbying dozens of officials and being the White House’s most frequent visitor,” the filing says, citing White House visitor logs showing that Mr. Stern visited the White House 22 times in seven months.

One particular piece of evidence is Mr. Stern’s Twitter feed, which uses the key term: “Lobbying with Mayor Bloomberg on health care. Leaving Senator [Olympia] Snowe. Mayor big proponent of keeping people healthy and the right public plan.”

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