Tragic News About Tim Russert
Tim Russert’s death is shocking and tragic. He was one of the most influential journalists in this town, if not the most. Because of him, Meet the Press was pretty much required viewing in Washington — and hopefully in parts outside the Beltway.
I knew him but not well. He belonged to the Gridiron Club, a group of Washington-based journalists that exists solely to put on an annual political spoof. In fact, he was the first broadcast journalist to be admitted to the club (in 2005), which until then, had only allowed newspaper and wire service reporters (the club dates to 1885).
His schedule didn’t allow him to make a lot of the meetings or show rehearsals, but when he was there, he was always friendly and engaging. And he was always game to deliver the lines that had been written for him. He’ll be missed.
But he’ll be missed the most at the helm of his show and on MSNBC’s political coverage.
I went to the NBC studio a couple of times to watch him tape Meet the Press, the last time in 2004 when Tom Coburn and Brad Carson were running for the U.S. Senate seat and they appeared with him.
Russert used a lot of the stories that had been generated by local media to pin Carson and Coburn down on issues. He was that day, as he typically was, tough but fair. Which in my mind is the highest compliment you can pay a journalist.
Heavy Artillery
This is the cannon that Sen. Jim Inhofe (pictured) has been trying for years to get to Fort Sill. It’s not there yet, but a prototype was on display on the National Mall this week, and Inhofe, R-Tulsa, was there to welcome it.
The cannon will ultimately replace the one that’s been used by the U.S. Army for decades. Fort Sill, the Army’s domestic artillery training base, will get the cannon once it’s in production. Some final assembly will be done in Elgin, which is near Fort Sill.
The cannon is part of the Army’s Future Combat System, which is aimed at using technology to connect a system of manned and unmanned ground vehicles and other weapons systems.
A few years ago, Inhofe was outraged when former Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld cancelled the Crusader system, which was supposed to be the replacement cannon. The secretary decided it was too big and heavy and not practical for an Army that was supposed to get more mobile and nimble.
After fighting the cancellation, Inhofe and former Rep. J.C. Watts decided to push for a substitute cannon. That was the on the Mall last week.
Inhofe said last week that “the cancellation of Crusader was a blessing in disguise. We took all we had learned about building 21st century artillery and moved it into the concept of the Future Combat System.
“Now it is a critical element of networked platforms, which will revolutionize ground warfare by providing unparalleled access of information to our soldiers. Future Combat Systems pushes the envelope of land warfare.”
Most OK Reps Vote Against More Benefits
Rep. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee, was the only one of the five U.S. House members from Oklahoma who voted Thursday to extend unemployment benefits.
The legislation passed overwhelmingly and now goes to the Senate. It will extend benefits for 13 weeks in Oklahoma and some other states and for 26 weeks in states with higher unemployment rates.
Boren, the only Democrat in the state’s congressional delegation, said he was thinking of the people in Pryor who lost jobs when the Georgia Pacific paper plant shut down this week because of the slump in the housing industry.
“These types of factors can cause job loss in our local economies, and are completely out of the control of hard-working eastern Oklahomans,” Boren said. “That’s why this legislation is critical for those families who have experienced the pain of job loss while the cost of gas, goods, and services is increasing.”
John Albaugh and Lobbyists
A couple of years ago, I did a story about Rep. Ernest Istook writing a letter to the Health and Human Services Department trying to protect the sale of ephedra-based diet pills (after he received major campaign help from a company that made them).
While I was working on that story, I found another Istook letter written to the Health and Human Services Department. This one endorsed a petition to the Food and Drug Administration by the General Mills Corp. to allow the cereal maker to promote its products as good source of whole grains.
I asked Istook’s then chief-of-staff John Albaugh why Istook sent that letter, which is here:
“This statement will have to come from me,” Albaugh said in an e-mail. “I approved the signing of this letter as it seemed consistent with the Congressman’s views on dietary and nutritional issues. The letter was an attempt to bring clarity to what can be confusing assertions about the nutritional content of products.”
Ok. But what prompted the letter?
“The issue was brought to our attention by former Congressman Bill Zeliff, who works with General Mills,” Albaugh replied.
“Works with” is one way of putting it. Zeliff was a registered lobbyist for General Mills.
So, in other words, Albaugh wrote the letter because a lobbyist asked him to.
On Monday, Albaugh pleaded guilty to conspiracy in U.S. District Court here for taking meals and tickets to concerts to sporting events in exchange for helping another lobbyist get road projects for his clients.
Istook has said he was shocked and surprised by Albaugh’s actions.
Istook Reiterates: Not a Target
Former Oklahoma Congressman Ernest Istook reiterated today that he was told by the FBI that he’s not a target in the public corruption investigation that snared his top aide.
In an e-mail exchange, Istook, a Republican who represented the Oklahoma City area for 14 years in the U.S. House, declined to answer whether he had received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury — or whether he had testified before a grand jury.
He did say, again, that he had spoken to the FBI and that he was “shocked and surprised” about Albaugh, who worked for him nearly as long as Istook was in Congress. And he said he was “cooperating with them fully.”
Albaugh pleaded guilty Monday to a single conspiracy charge. He admitted that he helped get road project money for a lobbyist’s clients while the lobbyist was treating him to meals at fancy restaurants and to tickets to sporting events and concerts.
In the year that the acts took place, Albaugh was making nearly $145,000 a year.
According to the Justice Department information about the conspiracy, Albaugh took about $4,000 worth of meals and tickets. But not all of the tickets went to Albaugh alone. Istook benefited from the use of luxury suites at a downtown Washington arena — for an American idols concert — and at the Maryland stadium where the Washington Redskins play. The suites were used for campaign fundraisers for Istook.
The suites were controlled by former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is now serving time in prison for conspiracies in Florida and Washington DC. Istook’s campaign didn’t reimburse Abramoff’s company for the suites until the Abramoff scandal exploded in 2006.
Albaugh’s case is part of the public corruption probe that began with Abramoff and has now snared 13 lobbyists and former public officials.
Boren SuperUncommitted
People following the Democratic presidential race this year — and that’s everyone in America, right? — learned a lot about superdelegates _ how they have the power to make up their own minds and even the power to decide the nominee, which they helped to do this year.
But they also have the power not to make up their minds, or announce support for a candidate. And Rep. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee, seems intent on exercising that power.
Though Boren’s district and the state of Oklahoma voted overwhelmingly for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Boren did not pledge his delegate vote to her.
And when it became increasingly obvious that Sen. Barack Obama was going to win the nomination, Boren did not choose to announce for him (even though his father, current OU president and former U.S. Senator David Boren did).
Though uncommitted superdelegates, including members of Congress, have been flocking to Obama in the last two days, Boren has been sticking to his plan of staying uncommitted.
A spokesman for Boren said last month that the congressman never intended to announce his support for a candidate. There isn’t expected to be a roll call vote of superdelegates at the Democratic convention in August, so it’s not like Boren would ever have to shout out his support for his party’s nominee.
Meanwhile, though, Boren did pay tribute to the late Jack Mildren, on Wednesday, in brief remarks on the House floor.
Hard to go wrong there.
