U.S. Congress

As part of our efforts to cut to the facts of issues in Congress, Congresspedia has gone back through the major votes on the Iraq War and summarized what was at stake in each. In this election season, we were reminded of the brouhaha over the 2004 remark by Sen.

When writing about members of Congress that are under investigation you always run the risk of being quickly out of date, at least with this Congress. Case in point: on Monday we told you about the nine current and three former members of Congress that are under investigation. Today we learned that the total now runs at eleven current members under investigation.

Fully 50 percent of Americans think that most members of Congress are corrupt and 36 percent think their own member of Congress is corrupt, according to a poll released Thursday by CNN. A quick stroll over to my personal favorite part of the Congresspedia wiki, the Members of Congress under investigation page, shows why: at least a dozen current and former members of Congress are under investigation for everything from covering up the Mark Foley page scandal to laundering campaign contributions to bribery. And don't take comfort in the fact that three of those dozen are no longer in Congress: each was forced to resign in just the last year in the wake of investigations or guilty pleas related to actions they took while they were still in Congress.

Each of these current and former members of Congress has detailed explanations of the allegations against them on their Congresspedia profile pages, but the mind-boggling litany of allegations begs for a quick rundown:

The much-debated Military Commissions Act of 2006 is now the law of the land.

President Bush signed the bill yesterday which effectively strips detainees labeled as suspected terrorists by the president of rights traditionally guaranteed in American courts. Under the bill, suspects will have only a limited ability to view evidence used against them, and also be denied habeas corpus protection.