The GOP: The Grand Old Party, with it's highly touted compassionate conservatism, fiscal responsibilty and big-tent philosophy.
Come again?
Within 10 minutes of opening the web sites of the NYTimes and WaPo, I'd already read these three articles on how Republicans in the Administration and Congress truly care about the health and welfare of children and minorities.
White House Minimized the Risks of Mercury in Proposed Rules, Scientists Say
By JENNIFER 8. LEE
Published: April 7, 2004WASHINGTON, April 5 — While working with Environmental Protection Agency officials to write regulations for coal-fired power plants over several recent months, White House staff members played down the toxic effects of mercury, hundreds of pages of documents and e-mail messages show.
The staff members deleted or modified information on mercury that employees of the environmental agency say was drawn largely from a 2000 report by the National Academy of Sciences that Congress had commissioned to settle the scientific debate about the risks of mercury.
'Dream' PAC Not Living Up To Goal: Little Money Goes To Elect Minorities
By Dan Morgan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 7, 2004; Page A01When Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-Tex.) took charge of an independent political fund called American Dream PAC in 1999, he made clear that its mission was "to give significant, direct financial assistance to first-rate minority GOP candidates."
Since then, only $48,750 -- or 8.9 percent -- of the $547,000 the southwest Texas congressman has raised for his political action committee has gone to minority office-seekers while more than $100,000 has been routed to Republican Party organizations or causes, including a GOP redistricting effort in Texas, a legal defense fund for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) and Bonilla's reelection campaign. Most of the remainder of the money went to legal fees, fundraisers in Miami and other cities, airline tickets, hotels, catering services, consultants and salaries.
Republican and Democratic members of Congress have used independent "leadership PACs" to spread their influence, and in recent years hundreds have been set up. Such PACs enable lawmakers to multiply contributions from special interests and legally avoid the limits set on personal campaign funds. But Bonilla's comes with a twist: It's one of the few PACs, some experts say, that has not lived up to its clear mission statement.
Indian Fund Investigator Angrily Quits
By JOHN FILES
Published: April 7, 2004WASHINGTON, April 6 — The court-appointed investigator who has been seeking for more than three years to determine the finances of an Indian trust fund administered by the Interior Department resigned on Monday. He said the government had routinely allowed energy companies to shortchange Indians on royalties from oil, gas, timber and other leases on Indian land.
The investigator, Alan Balaran, accused the department of a persistent effort to impede his work and said he had found a "systemic failure to properly monitor" the activities of energy companies acquiring oil and gas from Indian land.Judge Royce C. Lamberth of Federal District Court here appointed Mr. Balaran in 1999 as part of a class-action lawsuit filed by Elouise Cobell, a banker and Blackfoot Indian from Montana, and more than 300,000 other Indians. They accused the government of cheating them out of as much as $137.5 billion over the past century.
And it's only 6:30am... Who is next on the GOP's hit list? Grey-haired grannies? Injured puppies? Disabled veterans? (Oh, already made the list previously.)
Posted by MB Williams at April 7, 2004 06:37 AM | TrackBack