- Jonathan Beale
- 13 Oct 06, 10:10 PM
The Abramoff lobbying scandal continues to wreak havoc among Republicans. Ohio Congressman has now pleaded guilty to corruption charges in connection with Abramoff's dodgy business dealings.
He accepted free meals, tickets, hospitality - including an all-expenses-paid golfing trip to Scotland - in return for political favours and influence for Mr Abramoff and his clients. He has yet to give up his seat in the House of Representatives, but that will come soon.
Congressman Ney's other claim to fame was for calling for "french fries" to be renamed "" after France deserted America in the run up to the Iraq war. It's his betrayal though that will be felt harder among the Republicans of Ohio.
Having said that, the Abramoff lobbying scandal is currently making much less of a political impact than the saga involving Representative - who sent sexually explicit emails to male pages. One politician's (admittedly hypocritical) private life is apparently more shocking than one who is found to be lining his own pocket!
But we haven't heard the last of Jack Abramoff. His name may still haunt Republicans in the days to come - not least because he's still awaiting trial and his reach went beyond just one greedy congressman.
Jonathan Beale is the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s State Department correspondent.
- Justin Webb
- 13 Oct 06, 06:50 PM
There is something healing about America. A trip to the of Minneapolis reminds me of this.
I am here to interview who will almost certainly be the country's first Muslim congressman, but before seeing him I had a chance to meet some of the surprisingly diverse set of people he will represent.
Many Minneapolitans don’t come from these parts. Some are Muslims fleeing war in east Africa, doubly out of place in a part of the world where freezing snow attacks you from a near horizontal angle (yes, in mid-October) and the prevailing religion is Lutheran Christianity.
Now don’t get me wrong. I am sure plenty of east African inhabitants of Minneapolis are miserable, noticing that a culture based on moose fancying and wood carving is not one over which they feel any sense of ownership.
But plonk them down in Europe and the chances are they stay miserable, and stay alienated, and their kids stay that way as well. Plonk them in Minneapolis and transformation is possible.
Omar from Somalia escaped from war and now. He speaks broken English but fluent Arabic; he gets his news from .
And yet Omar says he is thankful for the opportunities given to him. His daughter went to college in Minneapolis and is now a translator. She has, he says in a matter-of-fact-way, not had time to get married yet.
Bingo - Americanisation has begun. If she does get married and have kids they will eat Somali food but think American thoughts.
And America will gain another generation of hopeful people, for whom life is an upward curve.
One thing that might make them hopeful is the fact that the next Democratic congressman here is likely to be of their faith: the first Muslim ever to serve in the House of Representatives.
Some people say Keith Ellison, an African-American who converted to Islam in his teens, is a phoney, a man who espouses kind, gentle, inclusive politics while harbouring the prejudices of his more extreme co-religionists, particularly against Jews.
But it occurs to me that the Americanisation of values is at work here too: Mr Ellison could not get elected if he said Israel should be destroyed or homosexuals should be stoned.
His supporters – some of whom may well believe those things – will not get them from their man.
So Muslims are on the way to getting representation and a voice in Congress. But to get those things they are having to bow to the highest of American values: tolerance and individual freedom.
Justin Webb is the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s chief North America radio correspondent.
- The Reporters
- 13 Oct 06, 02:22 PM
Bloomberg: The decision not to run for president in 2008 by former Virginia Gov Mark Warner - seen as one of the Democrats' most plausible alternatives to Hillary Clinton - may reflect the New York senator's overwhelming early edge.
Chicago Sun-Times blogger Lynn Sweet: President Bush stands firm with the embattled speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, who is under fire for his handling of the Mark Foley page scandal - but do either of them have any coattails to ride?
MSNBC: A guilty plea being filed today by a congressman - to be followed by a court date for a former White House official - will keep disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff in the news less than a month before elections.
- Matt Davis
- 13 Oct 06, 10:34 AM
Both President Bush and his wife Laura turned up - separately - in St Louis, Missouri on Thursday - where an increasingly is raging between Republican Senator Jim Talent and his feisty Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill.
Mrs Bush was attending a private fundraiser for Mr Talent, a dyed-in-the-wool conservative who, records show, has voted with the president some 94% of the time.
It was the popular First Lady's third benefit gig for Mr Talent this year, a sign perhaps that the senator is feeling pressure from Ms McCaskill's campaign to woo some of the Republican-leaning social conservatives in rural parts of this Bible Belt state.
The president, meanwhile, was speaking at a renewable energy conference.
It wasn't a campaign speech, but the president name-checked Mr Talent, and his vision of corn and soy beans being used as the raw materials by future energy producers hit the spot with the Missouri farmers in the audience.
"We should put a couple windmills in Washington DC," quipped Mr Bush, to some laughter.
No word though from either of the Bushes on Mr Talent's recent comments in a TV debate with Ms McCaskill, which - with the president's ratings withering on the vine - were seen as an attempt by the senator to distance himself from the White House.
Asked - on NBC's Meet the Press - how he would rate the president, Mr Talent said: "History judges presidents. History is going to say there were some things he did that were right and some things he did that were wrong."
He added - much to Ms McCaskill's amusement: "Certainly he's going to end up better than Jimmy Carter, probably not as good as Ronald Reagan."
Matt Davis works on the world desk of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website.
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