By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
A hearing this week in federal court in Washington involving former Sen. Larry Craig, whose political career crashed after his 2007 arrest for soliciting sex in a bathroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, could have far-reaching ramifications on the future use by lawmakers of campaign cash to pay legal bills.
A federal court hearing in a lawsuit by the Federal Election Commission accusing former Sen. Larry Craig, whose political career crashed after his 2007 arrest for soliciting sex in a bathroom at a Minneapolis airport, of misusing campaign funds was postponed Wednesday until March 6.
Comedians Rachel Dratch and Mo Rocca will be getting down and dirty next month in a play about political sex scandals.
In the scandal kingdom, he's only a duke, perhaps.
Embattled Rep. Anthony D. Weiner defiantly reiterated his stance Thursday that he won't resign after admitting days earlier to sending a lewd photo online, joining the ranks of other lawmakers who have sought to keep their jobs amid sex-related scandals.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a stunning vote that illustrated President Bush's diminished standing, the Senate today ignored his veto threat and added tens of billions of dollars for veterans and the unemployed to his Iraq war spending bill.
On May 14, Republicans demonstrated why, in 2006, they became the minority party.
The debate over illegal immigration could return to the Senate floor as early as today, with an emergency appropriations bill to fund military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Before the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the bill on Thursday, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, and Larry Craig, Idaho Republican, successfully attached an amendment that would grant temporary legal status to an estimated 1.35 million illegal-alien farmworkers over the next five years. This number jumps to at least 3 million when children and spouses are factored in. Moreover, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, these workers would be immune from prosecution for crimes such as stealing someone's Social Security number. The amendment passed on a 17-12 vote over the opposition of Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, West Virginia Democrat.
On May 14, Republicans demonstrated why, in 2006, they became the minority party.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Idaho Senator Larry Craig resigned today after being arrested in an airport sex sting. His guilty plea ignited a flurry of calls to resign among Republican colleagues. He leaves at month's end. VIDEOBLOG REACTION
The flurry of media attention directed at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal has subsided, but not for lack of activity. It is time for exhaustive work to improve the nation's complicated military medical system and veterans' health care inside the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Meanwhile, though, a kind of farce of Washington politics is underway in which the scandal is used by some for political effect, who are then opposed by others who fail to understand the magnitude of the problem and thus sound rather callous.
He was quoted: "I am concerned that if we flood the system and don't fund it, we are in for consequences."
But last week in a contentious Senate Veterans Affairs Committee meeting, Sen. Larry Craig, Idaho Republican, warned against the fiscal consequences of a hybrid-benefits proposal by Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont Independent, in the wake of an Institute of Medicine determination that the VA's means of judging disability is "hopelessly outdated."
