I just love this. And we don't often get to see the bad karma boomerang back quite this quickly!

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been hit with an ethics complaint after a leaked tape revealed he was discussing with aides how to take on potential opponent Ashley Judd.

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has asked the Senate ethics committee and the FBI to investigate whether McConnell was having a discussion about potential Judd weaknesses -- including her mental health and religion -- on government time.

“Using taxpayer-funded resources to pay staffers to dig up dirt on political opponents isn’t just an ethics violation, it’s a federal crime,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan.

“As Sen. McConnell requested, the FBI is investigating the recording. A thorough and fair investigation necessitates the bureau also inquire into whether Sen. McConnell himself violated the law.”

What topics do you suppose they want them to teach? I'm guessing it's about the benefits of a for-profit, barely-regulated health insurance industry, but that's just a wild guess. I wonder how many cancer treatments they disallowed to pay for this?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Insurance giant Aetna inadvertently disclosed more than $7 million in donations to conservative political groups in a regulatory filing made earlier this year, according to a Washington-based advocacy group.

Documents obtained and distributed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington show that Aetna made a $3 million donation to the American Action Network and a $4.05 million donation to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2011.

Aetna made the disclosure in a year-end regulatory filing with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, an organization that sets insurance industry standards and provides regulatory support.

A subsequent amended filing, made in June, does not list the donations. The authenticity of the documents was confirmed to CNNMoney by the NAIC.

Advocates of campaign finance reform say the disclosures, first reported by trade publication SNL Financial, are extremely unusual, and represent the first known major donations from a publicly traded company to political organizations that are not required to reveal the source of their funding.

American Action Network is organized as a 501(c)(4) group, and has deep roots in conservative circles. Former Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota, is on the board of directors, as is former Rep. Vin Weber, a member of Mitt Romney's economic team.

The Chamber of Commerce is Washington's most powerful business lobby. While the organization does not endorse candidates for president, it is expected to spend tens of millions of dollars this election cycle to influence other races.

The regulatory filing puts the insurance company in the unusual position of having voluntarily disclosed donations to groups that are attractive for the very reason that they do not reveal the source of their donations.

"I think Aetna screwed up. I don't think they needed to disclose this," said Melanie Sloan, the executive director of CREW, an advocacy group that opposes corporate political spending.

Continue reading »

View the ad.

The so-called "Center for Union Facts" launched a $10 million ad campaign against unions in the Friday New York Times by comparing unions to Kim Jong Il and his successor Kim Jong Un. The full-page color ad ran on page A5.

"In North Korea, people don't get real change," the ad states, along with a picture of the late Kim Jong Il and his successor Kim Jong Un. "American union members don't either."

"Fact: Fewer than 10% of employees in unions voted to join their union. In most cases, the employees who voted for the union are dead or gone. The Employee Rights Act provides union members a guaranteed vote every three years on whether to continue paying union dues. It's time for a new labor day."

The falsely-named "Employee Rights Act," sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC), is little more than an attempt to weaken the rights of working families so that they can be paid less, have benefits like pensions and health care taken away, be fired more easily and be forced to work in less safe conditions.

The logic of the ad is particularly bad. Supporters of the ad opposed the recall of Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin, showing that they don't really care about the right of the people to democratically have a chance to change their mind about the results of an election. Furthermore, the supporters of the ad aren't calling for the Constitution to be re-ratified every three years, or for citizens to have the right to approve every individual spending item that government pursues. Certainly, for instance, they would oppose the idea that the public have an opportunity to vote on defense spending and things like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Not to mention that the idea of comparing unions, who fight for the rights of working families, to communist dictators who murder people and deny them all rights, is not only an insult to working families, but to the victims of those dictators as well.

The Center for Union Facts is a conservative front group that does anything but provide facts about unions. It is a project of Rick Berman, who does little more than try to bust unions on behalf of his corporate benefactors. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington describes him:

Richard Berman is a Washington, D.C.-based hired gun who uses front groups to defend his corporate clients against the public interest. Using his lobbying and consulting firm, Berman and Company, as a revenue vehicle for his activities, Berman runs at least 23 industry-funded projects, such as the Center for Union Facts, and holds 24 "positions" within these various entities.

CREW is calling for a criminal investigation into her use of campaign funds, so it looks like Christine O'Donnell will have a lot of explaining to do.

But last night I interviewed a high school classmate of hers, a 37-year-old Texas immigration attorney, a Democrat named Laurel Scott who gave me a new perspective on O'Donnell's candidacy -- or "Chris," as she called her

"We both came from large families. My older sister was friends with her, her little sister was in my class. The person I knew in high school was a wonderful, wonderful person. She’s a sweet person. Even though I don't agree with what she stands for politically, I have to say that," she said.

She said O'Donnell's family was "very liberal, I’m surprised she’s gone over to the Tea Party. Moorestown a town of progressive Republicans, very feminist. You were expected to excel in math, for instance."

But, as she points out, "It was a very wealthy town, and she was not from a wealthy family. I know there were situations where that was uncomfortable for her."

She also knew Christine because they both hung out with the "very liberal" theater crowd. "The whole witchcraft thing has been blown out of proportion. If she did anything, all she did was dabble. She wasn’t into anything dark or illegal -- she was very open, very honest, very sincere. She may have dabbled, but she may have done it and then just stopped. I think in your late teens, early twenties, it’s healthy to try things," Scott added.

"I always found her to be very inclusive, she didn’t shut anybody out. I disagree with her [positions], but I think her personality would be very refreshing in politics. She’s not a millionaire like most of the people in Congress, she doesn’t come from money," she said. "And I'm a Democrat."

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Were these "standard IT issues," as a former Bush spokesman claims -- or an attempt to obstruct justice? The fact that the Bush administration's senior officials routinely used personal email accounts to avoid leaving records convinces me we'd be silly to give them the benefit of the doubt:

Top aides to President George W. Bush seemed unconcerned amid multiple warnings as early as 2002 that the White House risked losing millions of e-mails that federal law required them to preserve, according to an extensive review of records set for release Monday.

The review, conducted by the nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, follows a settlement reached last December between President Obama's administration, CREW and the National Security Archive, a George Washington University research institute. The groups sued the Bush White House in 2007, alleging it violated federal law by not preserving millions of e-mails sent between 2003 and 2005.

The settlement resulted in the restoration of 94 days worth of e-mail and the release of documents detailing when the Bush White House learned of the missing e-mails and how it responded. The restored e-mails are part of the National Archives and Records Administration's historic record of the Bush administration, but presidential historians and others seeking information in the coming decades about the major decisions of Bush's presidency likely will be starved of key details, including messages sent between White House officials and drafts of final policy decisions, according to CREW.

"The net effect of this is we've probably lost some truly valuable records that would have provided insight" into the administration's decision-making process on several policy issues, said CREW Chief Counsel Anne L. Weismann, who led the review.

Amygdala: Always trust your government. Just don't trust anyone else's

The Reality-Based Community: Grampa McCain on net neutrality: NO

The Pump Handle: Congress demands more info on Labor Secretary Chao's mystery proposal for risk assessment.

Wonk Room: What kind of economist is Phil Gramm?

Pharyngula: Fight back against phony-baloney Catholic, Bill Donohue!

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: The Black Snob, Prairie Sun Rising, Lambasted!, earth family alpha,
Actors and Crew

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington blog:

Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics asking for an investigation into whether Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) violated the Senate gifts rule by accepting lodging from Republican operative Jeff Larson. The pdf copy of the complaint can be found here.

According to National Journal, in July 2007, Sen. Coleman began paying Mr. Larson $600 per month to rent a portion of a basement apartment in a Capitol Hill townhouse owned by Mr. Larson. After the magazine began making inquiries about the senator’s living arrangement, Sen. Coleman “discovered” that he had failed to pay rent in November 2007 and January 2008, and his wife gave Mr. Larson a personal check for the $1,200. Last year, Sen. Coleman sold Mr. Larson some furniture -- a couch, table and chairs and a desk -- to cover one month’s rent, and Mr. Larson held onto Sen. Coleman’s March rent check for three months, until June 17, before cashing it only days after National Journal began asking questions.

Mr. Larson runs the telemarketing firm FLS Connect, which has been paid over a million dollars by Sen. Coleman’s campaign committees and leadership PAC since 2001. Mr. Larson is also the PAC’s treasurer and FLS has been providing it with office space in St. Paul. In addition, Mr. Larson’s wife, Dorene Kainz, has been working in Sen. Coleman’s St. Paul office, but after National Journal asked about her position, Sen. Coleman’s office announced that she would soon be leaving the office.

Unsurprisingly, Coleman went on the attack:

The only surprise is that it took Al Franken’s surrogate this long to file a politically motivated attack against Senator Coleman. The Executive Director of CREW, Melanie Sloan, was a featured guest who made at least 50 appearances on Al Franken’s radio show - appearances that were marked with theme music dedicated to her and made her a reliable attack dog for the Democrat Party. We will probably see pigs flying before she gets around to filing an ethics complaint against her former boss, and current political ally, DSCC Chairman Chuck Schumer, for his own rental arrangement. The record is clear that Senator Coleman paid fair market value for a cramped basement bedroom, and attacks by Franken’s surrogates won’t change those facts.

Yeah well, while Melanie Sloan did appear on Al Franken's Air America show frequently, CREW is hardly the only organization noticing the cozy relationship between Coleman and Larson.

I took this yesterday. Maybe it's higher today....I knew it was all ANWR's fault... On the Saturday Stock shows tomorrow---I'm sure the wall street welfare crew will blame Obama's run at the presidency for the escalating prices along with environmentalists. They lie, lie, lie.

David Vitter will not be investigated.

The Senate Ethics Committee has decided not to investigate Louisiana Senator David Vitter.

The Republican was linked to an elite Washington prostitution ring owned by Deborah Jean Palfrey. Palfrey committed suicide May 1st, two weeks after being convicted of racketeering and money laundering.

The bipartisan ethics panel says it decided against a probe because the conduct occurred before Vitter became a senator. And it says it didn't result in any criminal charges or involve the improper use of his public office or status.

He gets off on a technicality. Wow, another shocker. CREW sums it up nicely:

“The Senate Ethics Committee has once again done what it does best: nothing.

I wonder if the Senate Republicans gave him another standing ovation? That might be something. And poor Mr. Super Tuber just can't get no respect from his buddies.

Download | play Download | play (h/t BillW)

A surprise to no one, Eliot Spitzer, wife Silda at his side, resigned from his position as Governor of New York. Lt. Governor David Paterson will replace Spitzer and be the first African American and the first legally blind governor in New York state history. While I cannot condone what brought Spitzer to this point, I do have to give him credit for this statement:

"I have demanded that people – regardless of their position or power -- take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less from myself"

It's that simple. CREW asks when David Vitter will take similar measures.