BREAKING NEWS: Report reveals White House attempted to influence Congressional elections

re: BREAKING NEWS: Report reveals White House attempted to influence Congressional elections

sconner — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:09:05 GMT

Crime, after crime, after crime. Maybe that's why it's called the "criminal justice" system. Just a guess...

re: BREAKING NEWS: Report reveals White House attempted to influence Congressional elections

tgdvw — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:08:17 GMT

As always, why is this not on the front page of major newspapers?

re: BREAKING NEWS: Report reveals White House attempted to influence Congressional elections

honestbleeps — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:29:51 GMT

At first, my response was "uh, who is ohmygov.com and why should I believe anything at all that comes from it?"

Then I saw the first link in the article - a direct link to the report, hosted on house.gov ...

It's real -- just not being picked up on by CNN and the rest of the useless repeat-bots yet.

re: BREAKING NEWS: Report reveals White House attempted to influence Congressional elections

jmt123 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:25:10 GMT

Why am I not surprised? Those guys are crooks and will do anything to keep themselves in power.

re: BREAKING NEWS: Report reveals White House attempted to influence Congressional elections

uncreative_name — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:24:50 GMT

Actually, they don't. From the wikipedia article on the Hatch Act.

The original Act forbids intimidation or bribery of voters and restricted political campaign activities by federal employees. It prohibits using any public funds designated for relief or public works for electoral purposes. It also forbids officials paid with federal funds from using promises of jobs, promotion, financial assistance, contracts, or any other benefit to coerce campaign contributions or political support.

The most restrictive measure was brought about by Republicans in the Senate. It dictates that persons below the policy making level in the executive branch of the federal government must not only refrain from political practices that would be illegal for any citizen but must abstain from "any active part" in political campaigns.

An amendment on July 19, 1940 extended coverage to state and local employees whose salaries include any federal funds. This amendment also set an annual ceiling of $3 million for political parties' campaign expenditures and $5,000 for individual campaign contributions.

re: BREAKING NEWS: Report reveals White House attempted to influence Congressional elections

oconostota — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:24:32 GMT

Gasp... The Bush administration? Break a law? The hell you say!

9/11/2001 is all I got to say about that.

re: BREAKING NEWS: Report reveals White House attempted to influence Congressional elections

Dillenger69 — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:24:15 GMT

Can we add a filter to remove BREAKING NEWS from headlines as they are submitted?

Or maybe, make it twice the font size and blinky!

re: BREAKING NEWS: Report reveals White House attempted to influence Congressional elections

jcmcbeth — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:23:48 GMT

It makes me wonder if anything will happen as a result of this. The efforts for the impeachment hearings of Bush and Dick Cheney, the firing of the U.S. attorneys, the white houses abuses of executive privilege to ignore subpoenas, and the loss of over a year of white house e-mails. What has been the result of any of this? If someone could point me to an recent investigation that has held anyone accountable with more than a slap on the wrist, i'd would be very interested to hear about it.

re: BREAKING NEWS: Report reveals White House attempted to influence Congressional elections

MrDanger — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:23:12 GMT

Time for a permanent office of independent investigators to oversee the executive with the power to arrest people and bring them to trial.

re: BREAKING NEWS: Report reveals White House attempted to influence Congressional elections

Liebre — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:22:47 GMT

Good thing we can count on the Justice Department - legal guardians for the People.

Oh, wait...