Conor Kenny's News Articles

TheWeekInCongress (March 19-23, 2007)

by Conor Kenny — March 23, 2007 - 5:35pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, Democracy, U.S. Government

    • Capitol Hill was on center stage this past week, as Congress took on a number of high-profile issues. This week, as usual, we turn to Robert McElroy's TheWeekInCongress for a thorough look at the bills debated and passed since Monday. Follow the headlines below to the Congresspedia articles covering the respective issues, which in turn link to and heavily rely on McElroy's analyses.

    Congress to consider spending bills calling for 2008 U.S. combat withdraw from Iraq

    by Conor Kenny — March 22, 2007 - 5:30pm
  • Topics: Iraq, U.S. Congress, Politics, U.S. Government

    • With the Iraq War now in its fifth year, both the House and Senate are (for the first time) poised to consider supplemental appropriations bills which would call on President Bush to remove U.S. combat troops from the country by 2008. In the House, a vote is expected soon on a $124 billion spending bill which includes a binding provision demanding withdraw by September 2008.

    Congressional Corruption Cases at Issue in Attorney Firings

    by Conor Kenny — March 21, 2007 - 6:44pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, Politics, U.S. Government

    • Guest poster: Paul Blumenthal of the Sunlight Foundation:

    The controversy around the firing of several U.S. attorneys in December has dominated the news coming out of Congress this week and Congresspedia’s staff and citizen editors have been busy tracking developments on our thorough page on the subject. Of central importance to the controversy is the issue of why those eight particular U.S. attorneys were fired. I’ve been looking into the analyses of the documents released by the Justice Department, and they show that the attorneys were at least partially judged by their willingness to toe-the-line — or, as one internal administration document put it, to be good “Bushies” — and were deemed expendable if they moved too far from administration priorities. In the case of some of the fired attorneys, it appears that the offense committed may have been their investigations into Republican officials, including members of Congress, in the lead-up to the 2006 congressional elections.

    Here is a look at four of the attorneys at issue and their respective corruption investigations:

    Sunshine Week: Shedding Light on Government

    by Conor Kenny — March 20, 2007 - 7:05pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, U.S. Government

    • Last week was a busy one for our friends at the Sunlight Network as they celebrated Sunshine Week, which was created to promote policies of increased transparency in government. Sunlight Network National Director Zephyr Teachout gave us the following updates on the state of transparency in the federal government and the current legislative proposals for reform.

    Congresspedia's "Congress in the News" updates, Feb. 8-Mar. 1, 2007

    by Conor Kenny — March 20, 2007 - 2:08pm
  • Topics: Congresspedia News Updates, U.S. Congress, U.S. Government
    • Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) announced his intention to seek the presidency in 2008. (Election Central story)
    • House Republicans announced that they would attempt to block a bill that would appoint Rep.

    The "Friedman" Pundit Punt on the Iraq War Lives on in Congresspedia

    by Conor Kenny — March 19, 2007 - 3:16pm
  • Topics: Iraq, U.S. Congress

    • Blogger Atrios lamented today that the Wikipedia entry for "Friedman (unit)" has been targeted for deletion through a merger into the "Atrios" article. A "Friedman", in the parlance of pundits and politicians discussing the Iraq War, is six months. Atrios coined the term on his blog to deal with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's constant invocation of "just six more months" to see how things were going in Iraq, something he began doing on November 30, 2003 and continued to do as late as May 11, 2006. While Friedman has lately moved on to saying that the U.S. should stay in Iraq for "10 months or 10 years," many government officials, pundits and politicians continue to move the goalposts on when it is acceptable to ascertain true progress in Iraq, and six months is an eerily common benchmark.

    TheWeekInCongress (March 12-16, 2007)

    by Conor Kenny — March 16, 2007 - 2:17pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, U.S. Government

    • This past week was an active one in both the House and Senate, as a number of legislative proposals were taken up on the floor. For a summary of the issues which were debated and considered, we at Congresspedia will again turn to TheWeekInCongress, a project by Robert McElroy. His site is a great resource for citizens wishing to keep track of what their members are up to on Capitol Hill, and we urge you to check it out.

    TheWeekInCongress (March 5-9, 2007)

    by Conor Kenny — March 9, 2007 - 5:45pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, Democracy, U.S. Government

    • This past week was a busy one on Capitol Hill, as both the House and Senate were in session all five days. To summarize the items which were debated and considered on the floor, we will turn to TheWeekInCongress. As we first told you earlier this week, Congresspedia will be cross-posting stories covered on this site (a project of Sunlight friend Robert McElroy) at the end of each week in which at least one chamber was in session.

    Another Senator's Schedule Posted on Congresspedia

    by Conor Kenny — March 8, 2007 - 6:46pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress

    • Our friends at the Sunlight Network are still working on their Punch Clock Campaign, which is aimed at getting members of Congress to post their daily schedule online so their constituents can see what they're up to in Washington. Thus far, Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Sen.

    Help Solve the Mystery - For Whom Were the Fired U.S. Attorneys Pushed Aside?

    by Conor Kenny — March 7, 2007 - 6:55pm
  • Topics: U.S. Congress, Democracy, U.S. Government

    • The nation's capital has been in an uproar this week over the U.S. attorney firings controversy. Both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees held hearings Tuesday on the matter, where six of eight former U.S. attorneys (all fired in late 2006) testified that they had been the target of complaints, telephone calls and threats from either a high-ranking Justice Department official or members of Congress in the days and weeks preceding their abrupt dismissals. The replacements for the attorneys are rumored to be political appointees with little prosecutorial experience.

    The story dates back to March 2006, when President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act. The bill included a provision (inserted by a staffer to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) at the request of the Justice Department) allowing the DOJ to appoint U.S. attorneys indefinitely without a presidential nomination or Senate confirmation (previously, this type of appointment could last only a maximum of 120 days). In late 2006, the administration fired eight U.S. attorneys, insisting each dismissal was motivated by performance.

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