March 4, 2006
Inside Report
By Robert
Novak
ABANDONING BUSH
WASHINGTON
-- In a closed-door meeting Tuesday of the top House Republican
leadership, the consensus was that President Bush had gotten himself
in deep trouble on the Dubai ports management deal and he was
on his own to try to save it.
Rep. Tom
Reynolds was particularly adamant in separating House Republicans
from presidential wreckage on the ports affair. As the current
chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Reynolds
is responsible for election of enough Republican candidates to
retain control of the House.
A footnote:
Treasury Secretary John Snow was on the phone last week asking
for advice on how to solve the Dubai problem from senior Republican
members of Congress who had not come out publicly against the
ports deal.
PRO-BUSINESS
NANCY
House Democratic
Leader Nancy Pelosi, usually identified as a San Francisco liberal,
has moved to the right of President Bush and the Republicans in
proposing to relieve the Sarbanes-Oxley regulatory legislation's
financial drag on corporations.
Bush and
Pelosi are each pushing a "competitiveness agenda,"
but only the Democrat's plan addresses Sarbanes-Oxley, the hurriedly
drafted 2002 act intended to weed out corporate corruption. Pelosi
is proposing "specifically tailored guidelines" to make
sure that Sarbanes-Oxley requirements are "not overly burdensome"
on small companies.
Bush's "competitiveness
agenda" does not mention Sarbanes-Oxley, reflecting the administration's
negative response to pleas from business for regulatory relief.
Rep. Michael Oxley, the chairman of the House Financial Services
Committee who retires from Congress at the end of this year, has
opposed any change in the statute that bears his name.
SPECTER'S
SUPPORT
The pro-abortion
rights Republican Majority for Choice (RMC), running ads in Pennsylvania
newspapers seeking a Republican primary candidate against anti-abortion
Sen. Rick Santorum, includes the state's other GOP senator, Arlen
Specter, on its advisory panel.
The ad does
not mention Santorum by name, but there is no question of the
target when it attacks "candidates who claim to be Republicans
but instead use the party to further their own personal or religious
agenda." In requesting "real Republican" Senate
candidates, the RMC attacks the GOP's "drift toward extremism."
The deadline for a candidate to file is Tuesday, March 7.
Specter,
a pro-choice Republican, promised to support Santorum's re-election
campaign this year. In 2004, Santorum endangered his own political
base by supporting Specter in the Republican primary against a
serious conservative challenger. Specter told this column that
his "advice was neither solicited nor given on the ad"
and that re-electing Santorum remains his top priority for 2006.
GOP LADIES
AID
While their
husbands work on lobbyist reform, wives of Republican members
of Congress are soliciting corporate representatives in Washington
for big bucks. The lure is getting a photo with Laura Bush at
the 98-year-old Congressional Club's April 27 luncheon.
A letter
faxed to major Republican contributors cites a $5,000 price for
two lunch tickets, plus a photo opportunity with the first lady
and a listing of the company's name in the event program. Twelve
such tickets can be purchased for the bargain price of $50,000.
Although
political contributions are not tax deductible, the letter suggests
the contribution "may be treated as an advertising or business
expense," and therefore could be written off.
DELAY'S DOUGH
In his struggle
for election to a 12th term in his Houston area congressional
district, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is spending heavily
to identify his voters, much as the Bush-Cheney campaign did in
2004.
The political
world was shocked when the latest filings showed that DeLay and
his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Nick Lampson, had about the
same amount of money in cash on hand (just over $1 million). However,
DeLay already has poured about $1.5 million into the district,
outspending Lampson by better than five to one.
If DeLay
was spending all that money to raise a net $1 million, it would
be cause for his concern. But the indicted former Republican leader
is using the money to identify all of his November voters at this
early stage, which may be unprecedented for a House race.
Copyright
2006 Creators Syndicate
