The Note: Hotter Than a Match Head

— -- WASHINGTON, May 3

NEWS SUMMARY
"Solved" by Washington standards: the budget, Medicaid, immigration, energy, NCLB, prescription drugs, Afghanistan, PBOR, steroids.

"Loggerheads" by American standards: judges, Iraq, Social Security, North Korea, oil prices, the dollar, Stern v. Sweeney, the estate/death tax, Romney '06 v. Romney '08.

"Pending" by Note standards: DeLay, DeLay fallout, Bolton, John Wilhelm's possible AFL run, Rumsfeld's remaking of the military, lobbying reform, Abramoff investigations, bin Laden, Christine Gregoire's hold on the Washington governor's office, Anthony Weiner's ability to turn "buzz" into dollars and votes, Gov. Schwarzenegger's reform agenda, tax reform, CAFTA, which party goes where on immigration, the life lessons provided by George W. Bush's first SCOTUS nominee, whether Howard Dean can truly delink the Democratic Party from the chains of big institutional donors like labor, whether Ken Mehlman's '06 GOTV program (formerly the 72 Hour Task Force) is superfabulous or merely very excellent; NCLB II, Patriot Act II, the Federal Marriage Amendment, a stem cell research compromise, 2006 Sen. Clinton opponent, 2006 seats in play, 2008 nominees.

The man who is -- as John Tierney can tell you -- absurdly familiar with these three lists, President Bush, talk up his Social Security plan at the Nissan plant in Canton, MS, at 1:05 pm ET.

The Freedom Forum holds a ceremony to rededicate its journalists memorial, adding the names of 78 journalists who died covering the news in 2004. Judy Woodruff will be among those who will speak. The reading of the names begins at 8:00 am ET, and the rededication ceremony begins at 11:00 am ET.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) holds a pen and pad briefing with reporter at 11: 00 am ET.

At 1:00 pm ET, House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) holds a news conference to announce the reintroduction of the D.C. Fairness in Representation Act, which would give DC a full voting member of the House of Representatives. Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and others will speak.

Treasury Secretary John Snow delivers a speech to the Council of the Americas at 3:15 pm ET.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) gets an award for "leadership in public communications" from Franklin Pierce College in Manchester, NH.

Social Security:
Josee Valcourt of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger Notes that production will temporarily cease at the Nissan plant in Canton, MS, when the President arrives today so he can talk to workers on the line for about 45 minutes about Social Security. Gov. Haley Barbour and the states' congressional delegation are also expected to be on hand. LINK

Robert Pozen, writing in the Wall Street Journal, adds a payroll tax hike to the mix of proposals he would favor as a way to attract Democrats to the table. He does seem a bit more sanguine about Democratic love for tax hikes than most Democrats, and we're not sure he assesses the politics correctly.

"If Congress is attracted by a package of Social Security reforms combining a milder form of progressive indexing with a 2.9% surtax on earnings above $90,000, it must provide high earners with retirement benefits attractive to them. One possibility would be to devote 1.45% of the surtax to Social Security solvency, and to allow the other 1.45% to be allocated to a personal account invested in market securities. Since such an account would not divert existing taxes away from Social Security, it would not involve any increase in government borrowing. In short, the combined approach would let both parties win -- Democrats would get a mix of higher taxes and progressive benefit changes, while Republicans would get personal investment accounts and constraints on benefit growth. And the solvency of Social Security would be restored for all American workers."

USA Today's Susan Page looks at her paper's poll taken over the weekend with Gallup and CNN showing a solid majority of Americans expecting Social Security benefits to be cut or their taxes raised in order to keep the system solvent, and Notes that President Bush racks up his worst rating on the issue so far: 35 percent approval, 58 percent disapproval. And "progressive indexing" went over like a lead zeppelin, opposed 54 percent to 38 percent. The positive spin: 45 percent of Americans said changes should be made to Social Security in the next year or two; 36 percent said the changes need to come within the decade; and the President's approval rating held at 48 percent. LINK

Poll results: LINK

Note to Jan: let us know what is wrong with the question wording!!!

E.J. Dionne writes that President Bush and the Republicans in Congress have the fix in on Social Security overhaul, and therefore that Democrats shouldn't even be playing the game. LINK

Code-breaking paragraphs:

"That the president is fixing the Social Security reform game should be obvious. The most basic corruption of the process is the way the Republican congressional leadership has transformed the bargaining that once took place between the House and the Senate."

"In the old days, when each house produced different versions of the same bill, a 'conference' committee typically including members of both parties from both houses would thrash out the details and reach a compromise. Now the Republicans will concede whatever is necessary to get a bill out of the Senate, even as the lockstep-Republican House produces a right-wing version of the same proposal. In conferences, Republicans routinely freeze out all but the most pliable Democrats. The supposed 'compromise' that emerges is not a compromise at all. Democrats who go along become enablers of a game being played with a stacked deck."

Dick Johnson of the Mason City Globe-Gazette writes that though Sen. Chuck Grassley took questions from Hampton, IA voters on immigration, Iraq, Taiwan, and NATO during a town meeting yesterday, ultimately all roads led back to Social Security -- particularly its solvency. People would rather deal with it now, Grassley said, because they recognize "it's a lot cheaper to deal with it today than tomorrow -- by $600 billion a year from one year to the next if you spread that out over the next 75 years," and he tried to quell fears about the hows of the proposed private accounts. LINK

Jane Norman of the Des Moines Register writes that middle-class Americans are beginning to wonder about their long-term financial security under the (proposed) indexing system, and reacting with "cautious interest" to the proposal. "In Iowa, that would be plenty of people -- the median earnings for a man working full time in 2003 were about $36,000 and for a woman about $27,000, according to census data." LINK

Filibuster battles:
"The gradual disappearance of other levers of influence is an often overlooked cause of the battle over judicial nominations that is raging in Washington. Both parties have played a part, with the result that the Senate stands on the brink of a governmental crisis," writes Jeanne Cummings in the Wall Street Journal.

People for the American Way has a new 30-second TV spot, "Neighbor," in response to the Progress for America ad. It's designed to remind viewers that more than 95 percent of President Bush's judicial nominees have been confirmed, and calls the push to change Senate rules to limit debate a move for unchecked power. The spot also specifically goes after the judicial records and philosophies of nominees Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown. PFAW and the People for the American Way Foundation plan to spend more than $1 million on TV, radio, and print ads over the next two weeks.

Richard Simon of the Los Angeles Times looks at the back-and-forth ad volleys this week between Progress for America and People for the American Way airing in Alaska, Arkansas, Maine, Nebraska, North Dakota and Rhode Island, including both a nice "don't waste your money" comment from Sen. Ben Nelson's office and a little elbow-throwing toward Ben Ginsberg from Ralph Neas. LINK

AP wraps the air war as well. LINK

House Republican aides are working on a coordinated strategy and message with their Senate counterparts for the "nuclear winter" expected to follow if Senate Majority leader Bill Frist pulls the trigger on the rules change to limit debate on judicial nominees, Roll Call's Emily Pierce reports. And the House will be in charge of the legislative agenda.

A Wall Street Journal editorial castigates Sen. Bill Nelson for a hold he's placed on an Interior Department nominee.

Bolton:
The New York Times' Douglas Jehl was given transcripts of three former officials who have told Congress that John Bolton bullied them and was intolerant of their views on intelligence. LINK

Farah Stockman of the Boston Globe profiles John Bolton's controversial working style over the years and interviews those who have worked with him closely. As one former United Nation inspector, Terence Taylor, who worked with Bolton points out, ''He had a very strong argument unfortunately, those arguments have been lost in the delivery . . . if you want your policy to gain international support, it has to be packaged with diplomacy, and I think that is the problem with Mr. Bolton."LINK

The politics of national security:
The Los Angeles Times' Mark Mazzetti reports that Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sent a report to Congress Monday that said the U.S. military, under strain from its missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, is at greater risk this year for being unable to successfully challenge and fight enemies around the world as Pentagon plans outline. LINK

"Myers' conclusions were couched in highly diplomatic language. But they represented the most candid acknowledgment thus far by a senior Pentagon official that the U.S. involvement in Iraq -- which has cost far more in lives and money and taken much longer than predicted -- has led to a reassessment of what the U.S. military can and cannot do abroad."

Thom Shanker of the New York Times fleshes out Myers' classified report to the Hill yesterday that the Iraq and Afghanistan deployments are straining the military's resources beyond what others in the Administration have claimed. LINK

"General Myers cited reduced stockpiles of precision weapons, which were depleted during the invasion of Iraq, and the stress on reserve units, which fulfill the bulk of combat support duties in Iraq, as among the factors that would limit the Pentagon's ability to prevail as quickly as war planners once predicted in other potential conflicts."

AP reports that the Army missed its recruiting goal in April, making three consecutive months that recruiting fell short. The Army reached 85 percent of its goal for the first five months of the fiscal year, which began Oct. 1. LINK

America can handle North Korea's nuclear threat, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday. LINK

USA Today's Thomas Frank reports that airport security screeners aren't getting the training they need because of staff and high-speed Internet shortages, according to a GAO audit which concluded that "[f]rom July to October, screeners at 75% of the 450 airports in the USA didn't get the three hours of weekly training required by the government." LINK

The politics of preparedness:
The Washington Post's John Mintz uses many column inches and the paper's front page to report that the U.S. government has failed to adequately prepare either first responders or the public for a strike by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons, according to reports and experts' findings. LINK

Bush agenda:
Karl Rove rallied the GOP faithful of Butler County, OH at their annual Lincoln Day Dinner. LINK

"Before U.S. Rep. John Boehner introduced Rove, he gave the tallies: Butler County scored the largest plurality of Republican votes of any county in Ohio in November. Bush received 109,866 votes in Butler County to Democratic opponent John Kerry's 56,234."

"'Because you made that happen in this county and in this part of the state, we won a fantastic victory because of it,' Rove said.'So thank you, on behalf of a grateful president -- and more importantly, on behalf of my wife and child, who didn't know what I'd be doing if I lost my job.'"

Jason DeParle of the New York Times turns in an examination of Nueva Esperanza, one of the largest recipients of faith-based grants provided by the federal government. It's a story that scholars of government and critics of Big Government conservatism will clip-n-save. LINK

"Viewed in one light, the compassion fund reflects decades of serious thought about fortifying civil society: by empowering grass-roots groups, it seeks a third way between cold government and cool indifference. Yet with much of the money flowing to conservative supporters of President Bush, the fund is also a tool of realpolitik, which Mr. Cortes readily invokes in mapping his partisan loyalties."

"Administration officials resist the idea that the fund is being used to court a political base -- applications are reviewed by outside experts -- but Luis Cortes delights in the thought. Mr. Bush's initiative has changed federal grant making 'in such a way that allowed me to get in,' he said. 'Friends take care of friends - that's politics.'"

"Indeed, political leverage is one of the skills Nueva Esperanza seeks to teach. Scores of participants attend the Hispanic prayer breakfast in Washington each year, then fan out to meetings on Capitol Hill. In arming the new community of federal grant seekers, the compassion fund is a philosophical oddity -- a conservative program that explicitly encourages more petitions for federal aid. The fund, through its training, also encourages grass-roots programs to seek private support."

"Gov. Jon Huntsman signed a measure Monday defying the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act despite a warning from the federal education secretary that it could cost $76 million in federal aid," AP reports. LINK

The Wall Street Journal editorial board blames higher gas prices (in part) on liberal environmentalists.

FLOTUS kills:
The President's "Laura Leno Bush" remark in the Rose Garden yesterday garnered the First Couple some more glowing New York tabloid coverage. LINK

John Tierney's column today about Laura Bush and media "cognitive dissonance" is about a stereotype of a stereotype of a stereotype.

Example: "For the mainly Democratic audience -- this was a crowd of Washington journalists and luminaries from Hollywood and Manhattan -- it was an evening of cognitive dissonance. How to reconcile this charming image on stage with the Bush they love to bash?" LINK

Leader DeLay:
Bennett Roth and Eric Hanson of the Houston Chronicle profile Tom DeLay's strong support for the recent House energy legislation which gives oil companies a subsidy to drill underwater for oil reserves. President Bush has questioned if the oil companies need the money with barrel prices being so high in cost, but DeLay's push for the legislation which would boost the economy in his home district raises some eyebrows. LINK

Immigration:
The New York Times' David Kirkpatrick and Matthew Wald write of the Real ID bill, "The new rules have been propelled by an unlikely combination of factors. House conservatives have said they will not consider an expanded temporary worker program, a goal of President Bush and business groups, until what they call border security measures are adopted. Strategists working with the White House say they have accepted the need to accommodate the conservatives to win support for a package of changes in immigration law." LINK

Gov. Phil Bredesen's legislation to decouple Tennessee's driver's license from being used as an identification document serves as the kicker.

The Los Angeles Times' Mary Curtius also looks at the agreement between House and Senate negotiators on Monday to establish for the first time national standards for drivers licenses, preventing states from issuing the documents to illegal immigrants. If a state doesn't comply, the drivers licenses issued to all of its citizens and legal residents would no longer count as valid federal ID. Another provision would tighten the rules for asylum seekers, and yet another would complete the border fence between California and Mexico. LINK

2008: Republicans:
A tempest at Middlebury College over an upcoming Rudy Giuliani commencement speech might end with protests of his visit there. LINK

We'll give you a sneak preview of Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's new book, "Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork" later this week, but take a gander in the meantime at who blurbed:

Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D) praises Huckabee for his "great personal story" and says Huckabee is "in a powerful position to make good public policy to help people get healthier." And Warner apparently cannot resist adding, "I've adopted many of his programs in Virginia."

Next, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) praises Huckabee's "good-natured humor and understanding" and says that "his advice is sound, straight-forward and easy to follow."

Arnold Schwarzenegger calls "Hucakbee's fantastic lifestyle change" an "inspiration."

And Bill Clinton, who appears today with Huckabee in New York, lauds Huckabee's "efforts to provide an example for young people and adults alike."

Jake Thompson of the Omaha World Herald writes that at a Manchester, NH reception on Monday night, Sen. Hagel didn't mention whether or not he's running in 2008, but he sure acted like a presidential candidate. And he got some positive reviews from those present. LINK

Hagel continues his three-day tour of the Granite State, perking up ears with talk about national leadership and bipartisanship, writes Don Walton of the Lincoln Journal-Star. LINK

2008: Democrats:
The New York Times' Raymond Hernandez reports that Peter Paul, embroiled in the ongoing saga over Hillary Rodham's Clinton 2000 Senate campaign finances, has joined with a conservative California group to form the Hillary Clinton Accountability Project. Eventually, reports Hernandez, a Web site, LINK

Writes Hernandez: "In [an] . . . interview, Mr. Paul . . . predict[ed] that the case could thwart any political aspirations that Mrs. Clinton has beyond New York. 'This fund-raiser will ultimately be viewed as her Chappaquiddick and cost her the presidency,' he said. 'I've already got her campaign finance director indicted.'"

(Note Note: we're sure that last statement will burnish his credibility at trial.)

Continues Hernandez: "The timing of all this is troublesome for Mrs. Clinton, the junior senator from New York, who is up for re-election next year. While Mrs. Clinton is apparently not a subject of the investigation, questions about the 2000 fund-raiser have given her political enemies plenty of ammunition."

The Clintons of Chappaqua:
The Clinton Foundation and the American Heart Association unveiled today what will be an ongoing relationship with many initiatives in terms of dollars raised/spent and joint public events. The former president is expected to become more involved with the initiatives than merely being a spokesman.

The first initiative which is being announced this morning at Public School 128 in Manhattan (with the help of Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AR)) is aimed at preventing childhood obesity and encouraging healthier lifestyles for young people.

President Clinton appeared with Gov. Huckabee and Dr. Robert Eckel of the American Heart Association (nice tie coordination, gents) on "Good Morning America" this morning (remotely from the cafeteria of PS 128).

The former Commander-in-Chief told ABC News' Diane Sawyer that his recent heart surgery and "decades of poor eating habits" brought him to this cause on which he expects to be working for at least the next 10 years. Clinton wouldn't take Sawyer's bait on finding political significance in the program, but he did state that (with his newfound health) he hopes to outlive Republicans and Democrats alike.

House of Labor:
The Teamsters kick off their annual conference next week in Las Vegas, and five leaders of a reformist faction of the AFL-CIO will meet to plan the next phase of their revolution. Several union officials said they expect John Wilhelm of UniteHere to announce his candidacy for AFL-CIO president, but others close to Wilhelm say he hasn't decided whether to run. (Much of the "expectation" here is probably more accurately labeled as "hope.")

Teamsters honcho James Hoffa, Wilhelm, Bruce Raynor of UniteHere, Andy Stern of SEIU, and Terrence O'Sullivan of the Laborers will address the Teamster audience in a "show of solidarity," according to a Teamster spokesperson.

Stern's long-standing threat to take his union out of the AFL-CIO remains the group's most powerful trump card, but even Stern's allies are not convinced he will ultimately take that step.

With or without Stern, with or without a candidate to take on current AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, expect to see the dissident unions begin to lay out their action plan for the two months leading to the AFL-CIO convention in July, where Sweeney's re-election will be ratified (if he's not opposed) and his reform proposals in all likelihood adopted.

Today, at the AFL-CIO headquarters on 16th Street, all the major conference rooms are booked, which led outsiders to speculate that the first round of AFL-CIO lay-offs is imminent.

That's not exactly true: the six unions representing the AFL-CIO's central staff will get a close look at the labor body's reorganization plan. No one will be fired today, but the unions will get to see what types of positions won't be funded in the future. The AFL-CIO plans to devote more resources to organizing and political mobilization, which will require it to trim costs in other departments.

In other, perhaps more important labor news, hundreds of health care laundry workers at Angelica Textile Services, the largest linen cleaning company in the U.S., plan to strike Thursday in seven states unless the management agrees to significantly revamp its health and safety practices.

The nation's largest health care union, the SEIU, promised that some of its workers would honor picket lines, potentially affecting as many as several dozen hospitals in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.

A union official admits that striking linen launderers could leave as many as a 100,000 patients without clean sheets, but said the unions had no other leverage to bargain with.

Workers at seven Angelica plants plan to strike unless the company agrees to a solution. If the strike begins, workers at several other Angelica plants would join them. All the Angelica plants in the Los Angeles area would be affected.

The union seeks a "fair living wage," better health care, and uniform, enforceable safety guidelines.

The company has said in the past it has contingency plans for a strike, and its stock price rose slightly yesterday even after the unions announced their plans.

Angelica workers are employed at more than 1,000 hospitals with a combined 170,000 beds.

The Schwarzenegger era:
"As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger decides whether to call a special election to put his proposals before voters, corporations, individuals and unions report that they have donated more than $40 million to initiative campaigns and other causes so far this year," reports Dan Morain of the Los Angeles Times, who provides an excellent scorecard of the money pouring into both sides' efforts. LINK

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his foes are spending millions to go public with policy disputes that used to be resolved with quiet negotiations. Political observers say it's a worrisome sign of things to come in an increasingly partisan state," writes John Wildermuth of the San Francisco Chronicle as political consultants quickly update their revenue projections for this off-year. LINK

2006:
Joan Vennochi of the Boston Globe analyzes why well-liked Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly is maybe already losing in his campaign to be the next state governor. Republicans have labeled Reilly a flip-flopper and he has been unable to reach out and inspire voters. Furthermore Reilly's Democratic competitor Deval Patrick has a campaign that looks progressive and innovative, she writes. LINK

Bay State liberals are calling Gov. Romney's death penalty legislation "pro killer." LINK

Roll Call's Chris Cillizza looks at Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's unorthodox, low-key campaign to potentially challenge Texas Gov. Rick Perry in the Republican gubernatorial primary that had her ending March with $7.2 million in the bank.

The New York Post caused us a ton of agita this morning with its malfunctioning Web site. However, if you were to gander at a copy of the Post you would see Fred Dicker's pick-up of an Albany Times Union story from yesterday that former U.S. Surgeon General and current New York State Health Commissioner Antonia Novello "is considering a run against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton next year" according to state Conservative Party leader Michael Long.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Sen. George Allen (R-VA) is raising money in New Hampshire -- for his 2006 Senate reelection bid. LINK

2005:
The New York Daily News' Michael Saul leads his story with Rep. Charlie Rangel's nearly month-old endorsement of Virginia Fields before getting to former Mayor David Dinkins' (as yet undecided in 2005 race) flirting with the press corps. LINK

Washington gubernatorial race:
"Judge John Bridges kept Republicans' legal challenge to the November election alive yesterday when he said he would consider statistical analysis showing how many illegal votes each candidate likely got in the governor's race," reports David Postman of the Seattle Times. LINK

The method approved Monday would require that, as evidence of illegal votes are presented in court, a statistically proportional number of votes be subtracted from the official total, ABC News' Marc Ambinder reports.

That means: if the judge finds evidence that 100 votes were illegally cast or counted in precinct "A", and if the Democratic candidate happened to receive 70 percent votes in that precinct and the GOP candidate received 30 percent, seven votes would be "deducted" from the official total for every three Republican votes.

Since Republicans have claimed that Democrats engaged in voter fraud (and expect to present evidence of fraud -- mainly, lots of felons voting -- in Democratic counties), clearly, the Democratic candidate-now-Governor Christine Gregoire, would be hurt the most.

Though both sides know that the state Supreme Court will ultimately rehear the case, having the GOP's statistical method as a baseline is bound to help the Republican candidate, Dino Rossi, unless Democrats can find an equal number of validated illegal votes in Republican-leaning precincts.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Gregory Roberts Notes that Democrats got a hand with some rulings over motions for the trial as well. LINK

Media:
Last week, we paid homage to CNN's Judy Woodruff, one of the greatest political journalists of her generation, as she announced her intention to leave her daily role at CNN and anchoring "Inside Politics."

Now we Note yesterday's Washington Post announcement about the career change of another political journalism legend.

If you have enjoyed the top-ranked political and congressional reporting of the Washington Post over the last few presidential cycles, you have Maralee Schwartz to thank.

As the paper's national politics editor, Schwartz has shaped the paper's coverage through the Clinton and Bush years in a way that has been a credit to the Graham family and the entire community of political journalists.

With her trademark tagline of "I'm all business," Schwartz taught David Maraniss how to write; Dan Balz how to be fair; Tom Edsall how to relate to people; David Broder how to think straight; and John Harris how to meet a deadline.

As a reporter before she was an editor, Schwartz wrote one of the finest pieces of political journalism of all time -- about the politics of the House gym basketball court. And, Notably, Bill Clinton once referred to her as the "only fair person over there" at the paper.

After many a long day and night, Maralee will be moving on to another influential position on the desk, helping the paper grapple with the urgent challenge of creating more attractive and readable newspapers.

Replacing her: John Furby Harris, a man whose book "The Survivor" about Bill Clinton is already racking up impressive pre-release reviews, and who does the finest Doug Wilder imitation in the world.

Politics:
Adam Nagourney sees what Deaniac Karen Hicks is up to in Britain; turns out she's data-mining Labour lists, trying to use her magic (and brains and brawn) to boost turnout in underperforming areas. LINK

U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) has tried to intervene in a hospital case of a terminally ill baby girl in Houston. Jackson Lee is asking that the baby not be taken off life support saying she is concerned that family members are, "being left out of the decision-making process." Since 1999 Texas law allows hospitals to stop patient treatment even if the patient's family members disagree.LINK

The Washington Post's Brian Faler looks at the different stances over whether the FEC should be able to regulate bloggers who take money from political campaigns -- an exchange that seems wildly easy to conceal. LINK

A cool new Web site, www.sunshineingovernment, tells us it offers "up-to-date reports on current legislation, statistics and background on FOIA, links to open-government resources and examples illustrating the need to strengthen FOIA."

"Congressional and public support for FOIA reform has been growing since the introduction of the OPEN Government Act of 2005, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Pat Leahy (D-Vt.). Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) introduced the bill to the House of Representatives, where a hearing is scheduled by a Government Reform subcommittee on May 11 to discuss FOIA reform."

The Millions More Movement, a rally in Washington this fall to mark the 10th anniversary of the Million Man March proposed by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton, is already facing criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, AP reports. LINK

Correction: For unknown reasons, we have of late taken to referring to Erin Billings of Roll Call as Erin Phillips. Whomever Erin Phillips is, we're sure she's nice, but she's no match for the reporter we read every day. We regret the error.