Category: Marty Toohey
Senate Approves Investigation of 9/11
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2002–The U.S. Senate gave its approval to one of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s homeland security amendments on Tuesday, voting to create an independent 10-person commission to examine the events leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks.
The amendment, co-sponsored by Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), had almost no opposition heading into the vote.
The White House initially opposed creating the commission, but reversed its position last week after taking criticism.
“The overriding purpose of this inquiry must be a learning exercise, to understand what happened without political interference or reconceptions about the ultimate findings,” Lieberman said.
Lieberman’s staff compared the commission to ones established after Pearl Harbor, the death of President John F. Kennedy, and the Challenger explosion.
The commission would file its initial report within six months, and its final report and recommendations on how to prevent future attacks within a year.
The Senate approved the amendment, 90-8, with Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) voting against it.
The House approved a counterpart measure in July that would limit the range of the commission’s inquiry to intelligence issues. The Senate version would also grant authority to examine law enforcement, diplomacy, border controls, immigration and the role of commercial airlines.
House and Senate conferees must resolve the differences between the two versions and reconcile different versions of the homeland security bill to which the amendment was attached before President Bush can sign it into law.
Earlier in the day, Lieberman won another small victory as the Senate defeated, by a 70-28 vote, an amendment by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) that would have required Bush to gain additional congressional approval three times over 13 months before the department became a full cabinet agency.
Lieberman, an opponent of Byrd’s amendment, said it would unnecessarily delay creation of the department.
Negotiators are still working to resolve the issue of workers’ rights within the new department. Bush has threatened to veto the Democrats’ version of the bill because, he says, it limits his flexibility in hiring, firing and re-assigning employees within the department. Democrats say granting the president the extra authority would contradict civil rights agreements for federal employees that have been in place since the 1950s.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
Governor’s Conference Draws Connecticut Protestors
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19--Two-hundred-twenty million smackers.
That's how much Connecticut state money vanished into thin Texas air when Enron went belly-up. And Southington's Lisa McKinnon is angry.
"All that money, just gone, because our governor is corrupt and has people that abuse taxpayer money," McKinnon said quietly between hearty shouts of "Gov. Rowland, Kenny Lay, how much did you steal today!?"
McKinnon is one of 50 Connecticut state workers and activists bussed here Thursday on the "Enron Express" to shout their frustrations around a street corner at groups of distinguished looking men and women partaking that evening in $500-a-plate dinners to raise money for the Republican Governors Association, which Connecticut Gov. John Rowland chairs.
The protestors are frustrated over a lot of things Rowland has done while in office, but Thursday their protests centered on a botched $220 million loan made to Enron in 1999 with public funds from, of all places, a quasi-public garbage company run by a member of Rowland's staff.
Rowland's administration was not impressed by the protest, regarding it as nothing more than a political stunt by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Curry.
"I believe their goal is not to get the [loan] money back, but just to get in the news," said Nuala Ford, Rowland's press secretary. "It's disappointing they've taken this negative campaigning on a road trip."
The lost $220 million itself is less an issue for McKinnon than are the allegations, backed by the state Attorney General's office, that former Rowland aides, placed into their positions by the governor, acted illegally in providing the loan, all the while trying to mask the loan's existence from the public. This was happening while Enron sprinkled funds throughout the GOP, including the $60,000 it gave to the governors association 11 days after Rowland became the organization's chairman.
McKinnon and her compatriots said they hoped to belt out a message to a state administration accused of a list of financial indiscretions longer than St. Peter's Atlantic City sin list: We won't take it any more; we want massive campaign finance reform.
"It's about time we get some serious changes," said Tom Swan, coordinator of the protest and executive director of the Connecticut Citizen Action Group. "It's absolutely ridiculous that something like this can happen."
"Something like this" began in 1999, when Michael Martone, Rowland's long-time political director, took a job with law-and-lobby firm Murtha Cullina, which worked on behalf of Enron.
Soon after, Rowland named Peter Ellef, his co-chief of staff, to be chairman of the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority (CRRA), which specializes in trash pickup. Ellef served as CRRA chairman, an unpaid position, while retaining his $125,000-per-year job with the governor.
Murtha Cullina, working on behalf of both CRRA and Enron, brokered a deal that loaned $220 million in state public funds to Enron.
Rowland and Ellef met with Enron executives and consultants four days before the loan became official. Enron then gave $60,000 to the governors association 11 days after Rowland was named its chairman.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, concluded in February that Ellef was improperly named chair of CRRA, that the garbage-collecting organization lied when it depicted the loan as an energy transaction and that the loan exceeded CRRA's legal authority. It was an illegal loan made by a man who should not have been in charge, the attorney general found.
"CRRA sought to do indirectly what it could not do directly," Blumenthal said in his February report. "It employed 'energy' as a euphemism to circumvent the statute's ban on loans of this kind to private companies. An unsecured transfer of $220 million to a private company - especially one in the volatile energy industry - was simply inappropriate for a public agency like CRRA."
Swan stated it more bluntly.
"Martone and his CRRA cronies hid this from the public," he said. "They knew this was a really risky deal."
Things have changed in Rowland's office since Enron's collapse. Ellef resigned both his jobs in March, and Rowland has turned over all litigation strategy to the Attorney General's office while pledging to further clean up his administration.
Blumenthal said he will not comment on whether his office will pursue action against Rowland or his administration, but he said his office is investigating all individuals and organizations related to Connecticut's piece of the Enron scandal.
Blumenthal's office is also suing Andersen, Enron and Murtha Cullina to recover the $220 million, but the office said it does not comment on pending litigation and thus could not offer any predictions.
Swan offered a grim prediction.
"Only a fraction of that money might come back," Swan said, "and I think everyone in Connecticut is affected by this."
Most affected will be the 70 towns that have contracts with CRRA for trash pickup. Because of the loss, the state legislature has increased the fee for trash pickup by $4 per ton. That figure will probably increase soon, either during the next state legislative session or by CRRA itself.
But again, that is not the issue for the 50 protestors and the labor organizations they represent.
"The governor had his chance, and we don't like what he's done," McKinnon said. "It's time for a change."
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
Small Towns Getting $28 Million in Development Aid
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2002--Connecticut is receiving $28.4 million in small-community aid from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, Connecticut Rep. Rob Simmons (D-2) announced Wednesday.
The state Department of Economic and Community Development will distribute the money to cities with fewer than 50,000 residents or counties with fewer than 200,000. Areas with larger populations already receive HUD aid.
The $28.4 million is part of an annual package of "community development block grants" given by HUD. The grants provide aid for low-and-moderate-income residents and supplemental funding to communities so they can produce affordable homes, either through new construction or rehabilitation of old structures.
Simmons encouraged residents and communities around the state to apply for aid.
"The money can be used for housing rehabilitation, public improvements and facilities like parks" as well as economic development programs, he said.
Community development block grants were first awarded in 1974 for communities to foster their own development priorities. The money traditionally has been used for affordable housing, but increasingly is used for economic development.
When HUD releases grant money, it informs members of Congress representing the states involved, and those members make the public announcement.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
Lieberman: Iraq is Bluffing
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2002--Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman once again took a hard-line stance against Iraq, saying the country's announcement that U.N. weapons inspectors will have access is "definitely a ruse."
"We now have to call (Hussein's) bluff," Lieberman said on CNN's "Inside Politics" today. "In our system, we consider people innocent until proven guilty, but we have to consider him guilty until proven innocent."
Lieberman also said he favors a Congressional resolution granting President Bush broad authority against Iraq, a sentiment mirroring that of most Republicans and increasingly more Democrats. Although Lieberman said he anticipates a "rigorous" debate before a resolution passes, he said he expects a final resolution in "a matter of weeks."
Many Democrats, including Lieberman, have pledged to work across party lines to support the president. Republican leaders, meanwhile, have held meetings with White House officials and are believed to be near agreement on a resolution draft.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) is among the Republicans meeting with the White House officials to draft a resolution and said she anticipates one granting straight, simple use of force to the president.
Lieberman was unavailable for Tuesday's Herald story because he was observing the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur on Monday night. Rep. Robert Simmons (R-2) could not be reached Tuesday at deadline for comment. Connecticut's other members of Congress voiced cautious optimism about Iraq's announcement, but warned that Iraq still has yet to prove its willingness to cooperate.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
Senators say Iraq Resolution Should Wait
By Marty Toohey
WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2002--In separate conference calls with reporters Wednesday, Senators Joe Lieberman and Christopher Dodd urged the Bush administration to delay asking Congress for a resolution on Iraq unless there is an overwhelming case for immediate action.
Dodd advocated waiting for international support, and while Lieberman agreed, he said his main concern was that a resolution would be "more thoughtful and less charged with partisanship after the elections."
The administration has yet to make a strong case for immediate action, the two Democratic senators said.
Bush will speak today at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City and was expected to lay out his goal of ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. He was also expected to tell the world leaders that if Baghdad does not agree to allow U.N. weapons inspectors in, the United States might strike unilaterally against Iraq, even without the consent of the U.N. Security Council.
This might estrange the United States from the international community, Lieberman and Dodd said, and if Bush shows the "Clint Eastwood attitude of taking care of all the bad guys in town" he won't win the international support that could pass a resolution through Congress, Dodd, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned.
"This ought not be a burden we bear alone," Dodd said. "To go into the Middle East alone … is a very precarious road to follow."
Lieberman, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said he's felt since the Gulf War that Hussein should be removed from power, and said that everything he's heard "validates that (Hussein) is building weapons of mass destruction" that can reach targets like Israel.
Lieberman also pointed out that in the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 Congress declared it American policy to remove Saddam Hussein from power and establish a democracy in his place.
Published in The New Britain Herald, in Connecticut.
