Category: Fall 2006 Newswire
Lieberman Urges Extension of Office for Iraq Watchdog
SIGIR
The Norwalk Hour
Jamie Hammon
Boston University Washington News Service
11-14-06
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 —The Senate Tuesday voted to extend the life of the watchdog for the billions of taxpayer dollars spent in Iraq.
Without that vote, the office of Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction would expire next Oct. 1.
The Senate action came only hours after Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and a bipartisan group of Senators called for approval of a bill to extend the term of the agency.
With the extension, the office would continue to operate through late 2008.
“The special inspector general must be allowed to continue his aggressive work on behalf of our country and our taxpayers as long as their money, our money, is being spent in Iraq,” Lieberman said at a press conference.
Initiated as an amendment to the 2003 Defense Authorization Bill, the office was created to oversee the billions of dollars being spent on Iraq reconstruction. The new bill proposes that the office continue to exist until 10 months after 80 percent of the Iraq reconstruction money has been expended.
Lieberman and other Senate co-sponsors said they never saw the version of the bill Congress approved before the elections that included the early-termination provision.
“I don’t believe that the leaders of the committee on the Senate side or their staffs knew it was in there, and I think we can determine it was put in by House staff – but anyway, it’s pretty clear that this shouldn’t have been in there,” Lieberman said.
Lieberman called Stuart Bowen, who heads the special office, an “extraordinarily able and appropriately aggressive individual.”
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), who co-sponsored the bill, agreed.
“I have to give the Bush Administration credit – they appointed an excellent person, and they stood behind Stuart Bowen, who has issued report after report and been diligent in coming back to me and Sen. [Susan] Collins (R-ME), and is showing the work of this program,” he said.
Lieberman said that Bowen and his team have found evidence of enormous amounts of waste and fraud in U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq. The office has reported that the U.S. government can not account for nearly $9 billion distributed to the Iraqi government and that the U.S. government lost track of thousands of nine-millimeter pistols, as well as hundreds of assault riffles and other weapons distributed to Iraqi authorities.
It also reported that defense contractor “Halliburton wasted $75 million on a failed pipeline project, after ignoring consultants’ advice that the project should be further studied before their work on it began,” Lieberman said.
“I will add that the oversight efforts by other agencies have quite frankly been inadequate,” he said.
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Conn. Democrats Welcome Their Freshmen
CTFROSH
New London Day
Margaret Stevenson
Boston University Washington News Service
November 14, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 —Democratic members of the Connecticut delegation gathered on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to welcome presumptive incoming colleagues Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy.
“I want to welcome Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney to Washington,” Sen. Christopher Dodd said.
Speaking at a podium flanked by Connecticut flags, Dodd said that last Tuesday’s election results showed the nation that the people wanted change. He said both Courtney and Murphy ran good, strong campaigns and really talked about the issues.
“It is an honor to be here,” said Courtney, who as of Tuesday afternoon had a slim lead over incumbent Rob Simmons in the 2nd District race that has yet to be officially decided.
Courtney said he was very excited to get to work in two months in the 110th Congress.
“This is a very exciting day for the congressman-elect,” said Brian Farber, spokesman for Courtney. Farber said Courtney met with likely Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and had been busy going through new member orientation.
Even though the recount process in his race was not expected to be completed until late Tuesday evening, Courtney has been considered the congressman-elect because he held a lead. Farber said the results from the last towns were expected Tuesday evening.
Courtney said it was still premature for him to discuss expectations about his actions in the 110th Congress.
Dodd joked that he was confident in Murphy because Murphy is Dodd’s mother’s maiden name. Dodd said he was confident in Courtney because the 2nd District is the district Dodd represented in the House in the 1970s before being elected to the Senate.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of the 3rd District advised the new members to “savor the moment.”
She added that making a difference in the lives of the people is what service in Congress is all about
“That’s why Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy are here,” DeLauro said. “We stand united together and we are going to show this nation that we can govern.”
Rep. John Larson from the 1st District said, “Connecticut will expect great things and we will deliver.”
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Dodd Discusses His Future Chairmanship on Banking Committee
CTDODDBANK
New London Day
Margaret Stevenson
Boston University Washington News Service
November 14, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 —Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) vowed Tuesday to work closely with his Republican counterpart as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and hinted about a possible presidential run in 2008.
Dodd is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate in two years.
“One of the things we don’t get to do enough of is get around the country,” Dodd said. “One thing I can guarantee is if I decide to [run for president], is that I’ll get around the country.”
Dodd, who has served on the committee since 1981, will become chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in January.
“I don’t know if anyone has served this long on a committee and not been chairman,” he joked.
Dodd and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the committee’s current chairman, held a joint press conference in the Capitol to discuss the changes expected under the Democratic majority in the 110th Congress, convening in January.
Dodd is also in line to become chairman of the Rules and Administration Committee, but will forego that chairmanship in favor of the Banking Committee. He said that his new position would not factor into his decision on a presidential run.
Dodd emphasized that he and Shelby would work together, noting that the two had come from a breakfast where they discussed future actions of the committee.
Dodd said that Shelby had done a good job as chairman, describing him as “the one [GOP] committee chairman you could count on to get things done.”
Shelby congratulated Dodd and said that Dodd was an old colleague of his from the House and that he looked forward to working with him.
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New Hampshire Native Is Outstanding Fellow
- Photos by Jill Connor
NH Fellow Eggers: Navy Lt. Commander Jeffery Eggers, a white house fellow from Exeter New Hampshire stands in front of the south side entrance of the white house. He works across the street in the Eisenhower Executive Office building.
Eggers
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
11-14-06
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – There isn’t much New Hampshire native Jeffrey Eggers can’t accomplish once he sets his mind to it. Degree in aerospace engineering from the United States Naval Academy? Check. Masters degree in mathematics and philosophy from Oxford? Check. Lieutenant Commander in the Navy with a tour of duty in Iraq? Check. One of only 14 selected nationally to a prestigious White House Fellowship? Check.
Sewing machine repair expert? Maybe not.
Eggers’ mother, Barbara, still laughs about the time her mechanically curious three-year-old son dismantled her sewing machine.
“He wanted to see how things work,” Barbara Eggers said, recalling the incident.
“She doesn’t let that one go,” Jeff, now 35 and just as curious, said. “She still accuses me of being the reason that her sewing machine never worked right.”
Although his curiosity may have killed, or at least injured, the sewing machine, Eggers’ parents, who live in Chichester, agree that it’s their son’s inquisitive nature, not drive, which has taken him so far in life; all the way to the White House, in fact.
“Driven is not a word I would use to describe Jeff,” Barbara Eggers said. “He’s very curious, involved in different things and wants to learn more.”
When asked if he agrees with his mother’s description, Eggers replied, “I think that’s a very astute observation. Coming from my mom, she’s going to be the one most qualified to make such a careful observation.”
Eggers’ father Jim, a retired Air Force officer, noted that “there’s not much mechanical that Jeff won’t tackle or try to understand. He will take things apart just to see how they work.”
The parents and son have a mutual respect for each other.
Eggers said his father, as a military officer, “made a deliberate attempt, somewhat to the sacrifice of his career, to put his family first.” Eggers’ younger sister Jennifer, 33, is a doctor who now lives with her husband, Ashish Chaudhari, and son, Cole, 2 1/2-years-old in Concord.
“That afforded us the ability to stay in New Hampshire for grades Kthrough12 and gave both my sister and I a lot of stability, which is unusual for military kids,” Eggers said.
Eggers was a “very good student,” in elementary and middle school in Durham and later in high school at Phillips Exeter Academy, according to his mother, who is on a one-year sabbatical from the elite prep school after several years of being dean of the faculty there.
“I was aware that he did well in school and was pretty smart,” said Eggers’ sister, Jennifer. “I tried to copy that to some level, but he was much smarter in math and building airplanes and wind tunnels and I wasn’t really interested in that. I was more interested in biology. We had different interests, but he was someone that I thought I should be like in terms of being smart and working hard.”
Added Jeffrey Eggers: “We were raised in a household that really respected and put a lot of attention on grades and academic pursuits. My father really planted and fostered and grew an intellectual and academic curiosity in both my sister and I.”
With “above-average” schooling, which Eggers said was made possible by his mother’s teaching jobs, Eggers was accepted into several prestigious colleges, both military and civilian.
Although he had already accepted admission to Stanford, Eggers had a change of heart after what he said was an “epiphany” that finally connected his desire to become a naval officer with going to a naval college.
“He went right down to the wire in making that decision,” Barbara said.
Eggers said he had to call Stanford and say, ‘I was kidding. I’m going to the Naval Academy.’ ”
As a laid-back kid with long hair, Eggers found the initial transition into the Naval Academy difficult.
“All of a sudden I shaved my head and was getting barked at and marching around,” he said.
After the initial shock wore off, Eggers found normalcy in athletics and other extra-curricular activities. He played ice hockey throughout his four years at the academy, something that had been a part of his life as far back as he could remember.
“Our whole family was on the ice rink from an early age,” Eggers said. “My father was an ice hockey referee. My mother was a figure skating coach. My sister was a figure skater. And I was an ice hockey kid. We had a pond next to our house that would freeze over in the winter. On weekends, it wasn’t uncommon that all four of us would end up with ice skates on our feet at some point.”
Dave Ismay, who met Eggers while they were both in their second year at the Naval Academy, said Eggers was a “natural athlete.”
Going away to Annapolis deprived Eggers of the stability with which he grew up. After graduating with a degree in aerospace engineering, he went to England for two years on a Navy scholarship to study mathematics and philosophy at Oxford.
It was another abrupt transition, but also a “rich and rewarding experience that was a contrast from the experience of the Naval Academy, which even in the classroom is very rigid,” Eggers said.
Then, “literally the day after I finished my last exam at Oxford, I flew to San Diego and reported for my first training command there,” Eggers said.
His sister traveled from New Hampshire to San Diego to see her brother.
“If we have the opportunity to be close, there wasn’t a question about whether or not we’d be there,” Jennifer said. “I was definitely excited to be there and see him.”
From there, Eggers’ military career would take him around the world, to places like Southeast Asia and Hawaii, where he was able to put his mechanical skills to good use doing research and development on a mini-submarine for the Navy’s special operations community.
Eggers remained in close touch with his family in New Hampshire. Packages and letters from home started arriving while he was at the Naval Academy and “continue to this day,” Eggers said.
In April of last year, Eggers was deployed to Iraq as commander of the Naval Special Warfare Task Unit assigned to train Iraqi soldiers and police officers in the Anbar province.
“It was a mother’s worst fear,” Barbara said, of her son’s deployment to Iraq. Eggers often talked with his parents about friends killed in the Navy.
Although Eggers knew the task of training entire police and army units would take years, he said that in his seven months in Iraq he witnessed “small tactical victories.”
“We were able to watch certain Iraqi units that we’d spent the whole time with go from being unable to organize to be organized, trained, equipped and led to conduct their own independent operations,” Eggers said. “That was very fulfilling.”
And the packages from home continued. “I would drink a lot of coffee over there to stay awake,” Eggers said. “And most of it was supplied fresh by my parents.”
His parents welcomed him home in October, 2005, flying out to San Diego to see him.
Although Eggers admits that he never really thought of a career in the Navy when he first reported for training after completing his Masters degree from Oxford, he now recognizes how much the Navy has given him.
“It’s been a continual string of very rewarding and exciting opportunities,” he said.
The latest of which is his fellowship at the White House.
“I’m still working in the government, but it’s a very different kind of work – wearing a suit everyday instead of a uniform,” said Eggers, who is assigned to the National Security Council. “It’s a very unique opportunity that not a lot of people get to enjoy.”
Now, he said, he looks forward to those “rare opportunities I have to wear my uniform and stay in touch with my Navy community.”
Throughout the application process, Eggers looked to family and friends for advice.
None of his close friends or family was surprised by Eggers’ decision to apply. And the only person who was surprised when he was selected was Eggers himself.
“I don’t think it felt like it was actually happening until I got here,” Eggers said.
Eggers talked with Ismay throughout the process, sharing some of the other applicants’ impressive bios with him. But in Ismay’s mind “it was a no-brainer. Jeff was by far the most attractive candidate,” he said, noting that his best friend is “freakishly high achieving.”
As with past challenges, Eggers faces the duties of his fellowship and his placement with the National Security Council, where he serves as director for weapons of mass destruction terrorism, maritime security, hostages and special operations in the Directorate for Combating Terrorism, head on.
In that position, he helps Stephen Hadley, the national security advisor, and shapes U.S. policy by working with federal departments and agencies to check for consistency with other existing programs and initiatives and to ensure that resources are properly deployed to achieve national strategies.
Eggers said he enjoys the fellowships’ “well-rounded approach to leadership” that has allowed him and the 13 other fellows to meet with senior officials in all branches of the government.
While he was appointed by President Bush, Eggers has yet to actually meet his commander in chief. He and the other fellows will get their chance in December when they sit down with the president.
And while they are excited for their son, Barbara and Jim Eggers, who now call Chichester home, have other reasons to love his appointment to the White House Fellowship.
“This is the first time the family’s been in the same time zone in 13 years,” Barbara said. “So he’s going to come home for Thanksgiving.”
It is a trip Eggers also is looking forward to.
“There’s something very pleasant and enjoyable about New Hampshire in the fall,” he said. “So the holidays are particularly nice to go home to. If we’re lucky, we’ll get a white Christmas.”
But for right now, Eggers is looking forward to a Thanksgiving with his family and his mom’s home cooking.
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Bill Would Extend Term of Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
INSPECTOR
Bangor Daily News
Lauren Smith
Boston University Washington News Service
11/14/06
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – The Senate Tuesday voted to extend by about a year the life of the agency that acts as a watchdog over the billions of dollars being spent on Iraq’s rebuilding.
The vote, on an amendment to the military construction bill, came only a few hours after
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) joined three other senators to press for legislation that would keep the office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction alive into late 2008. Otherwise, the inspector’s term would expire next October.
The Senate was expected to approve the military construction bill later this week. Similar legislation has been introduced in the House.
The work of the inspector general’s office, led by Stuart Bowen, is critical and has effectively rooted out millions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse and therefore must be continued, the senators said at a press conference.
“The inspector exposed numerous cases of waste, fraud and abuse,” Collins said. “Its work has led directly to conviction, and its simply inconceivable to me that this office would be eliminated before its work is done.”
The office is responsible for the oversight of approximately $32 billion in Iraq reconstruction contracts and grants. The financial impact of the inspector’s audits, investigations and inspections, Bowen estimated, has been approximately $1.87 billion, far exceeding the office’s expenses of $72 million, according to a press release from Collins’ office.
“It is necessary to have an IG who can follow the money, who can cross departmental lines regardless of where the source of the funding originated,” Collins said.
The office has issued 71 audit reports and 65 project assessments, and its work has resulted in the arrest of five people and the conviction of four, with more than $17 million in assets seized.
On Thursday, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Collins chairs, will meet to vote on the bill to extend the inspector’s term. Originally the inspector’s duties were to end 10 months after 80 percent of funds for Iraq reconstruction had been expended.
But the recently enacted defense authorization bill includes a provision that would end the inspector’s oversight responsibilities next October. The new bill, as well as the amendment the Senate adopted Tuesday, would restore the 10-month target.
The press conference was attended by the principal sponsors: Collins, Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.).
Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) is one of 18 co-sponsors of the bill.
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Bradley Considering a Run in 2008
Bradley Exit
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
11-14-06
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – A large trash bin overflowing with old papers, folders and discarded knickknacks sits outside Rep. Jeb Bradley’s Capitol Hill office door, awaiting removal. Inside, another bin occupies the office sitting area and is halfway to capacity.
Surveying the two rows of baseball hats that line the top of the office’s walls, which were given to the representative by constituents and friends, Bradley’s press secretary, Stephanie DuBois, remarked, “We’re going to have to find a box for those.”
No one in Bradley’s office saw it coming.
“I had gone into the election day feeling pretty good; I felt we had run a good campaign,” Bradley said in an interview in his office. “And then we came up short,” he continued, recalling his defeat a week ago by Democratic opponent Carol Shea-Porter.
Bradley attributed his loss to President Bush’s declining approval as well as the recent scandals involving Republican members of Congress and the popularity of New Hampshire’s Democratic Gov. John Lynch.
With the next two years now open, Bradley said he hopes to get back to his passion for mountain climbing, something he didn’t have much time for while in Washington.
“I’d like to complete the 4,000-footers in the winter,” the avid hiker said of climbing all of New Hampshire’s 48 mountains that have elevations more than 4,000 feet. “Now, if the weather’s right and I feel like climbing Mount Washington, I can climb Mount Washington,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean Bradley is ready to give up politics altogether. After taking some time off after the new Congress takes charge in January, Bradley said he “expects to be pretty actively involved politically” while back home in New Hampshire.
“Running for elective office is something that I will certainly be considering,” Bradley said.
Although he would not specify which office he would be seeking, Bradley said a 2008 bid is something “in all likelihood” he is considering.
“I feel that in 2008 things will be different,” Bradley said, while sitting on a chair in his office under a picture on the wall marked with a small yellow Post-It note.
The other photos on his office walls, and the family photos on his desk, are all similarly marked; those are the keepers and will not be joining the other office throwaways in the Dumpster.
Looking back on his four years in the House, the collaborative effort between the New Hampshire and Maine delegations to keep the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard off the military base-closing list was among his most important accomplishments.
“That took a lot of different people coming together,” Bradley said.
As a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Bradley said veterans’ issues were “near and dear” to him.
Before this session adjourns, Bradley said, he hopes that Congress will pass appropriations bills and “establish reasonable levels of spending.”
From New Hampshire, Bradley said he will carefully “observe” and “monitor” the new delegation, which includes incoming Democratic freshman Paul Hodes.
Hodes defeated Rep. Charles Bass, whom Bradley said he worked closely with during their four years they spent together in Congress.
“Charlie and I are good friends,” Bradley said. “We worked very well together, and he’s obviously become a good friend.”
Bradley called the Republican to Democrat turnover in New Hampshire a “historic change” but said that he thinks it will “be somewhat temporary in nature.”
“We’ve got to get back to talking about things that unite Republicans,” Bradley said.
For now, Bradley said, his top priority is to find jobs for his staff, many of whom have been with him from the beginning.
“I’ve had more staff that have been with me for the full four years than most offices have,” Bradley said. “My top priority is to find placement for my staff and help them transition.”
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Maine State Day Celebrated at National Cathedral
Maine State Day
Bangor Daily News
Lauren Smith
Boston University News Service
11/12/06
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 —A stained glass window in the Washington National Cathedral tells the story of a seasoned sea captain out on the water. A schooner sets sail in the background. On the opposite wall, the Maine state flag hangs amidst other state flags.
On Sunday morning the Maine state flag was marched down the aisle as the Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Maine, the Rev. Chilton Knudsen, joined other clergy in celebrating Maine State Day at the Cathedral.
To a small group of Mainers gathered before the service, Benjamin Bradburn, the National Cathedral’s program coordinator, said the Maine state prayer. It speaks of a chowder “concocted so delectably of pine needles and potatoes, of herring and clams and lobsters in their rocky lairs, of blueberries and new-mown hay and a thousand lakes and little boats brave upon the deep.”
“It’s really a celebration of the people of the state and their service to their neighbors and the nation,” Bradburn said.
Each state has its own day once every four years to five years, when the Cathedral welcomes people who have ties to the honored state and provides them with opportunities for worship, prayer and fellowship.
Linda and Bill Rhine were two of those people. The Wells couple are the Cathedral’s regional volunteer leaders. Bill Rhine read a lesson during the ceremony.
“There’s nothing quite like looking up at the Cathedral,” Linda Rhine said. “Or looking at it from a distance from the Washington Monument. It just blows you away.”
In the gothic cathedral, buttresses fly hundreds of feet into the air and stained glass windows shine down on gray limestone. The commanding organ, that blasts notes from its 2,560 pipes, played to more than a hundred people gathered for the Sunday service.
“It’s always important for people to come here and see the Cathedral,” Linda said. “To think of how many years it took for people to create this all–through wars and depressions. The people who thought of this are brilliant.”
The National Cathedral’s foundation stone was set in 1907, but construction continued for 83 years, and was not completed until 1990. Although Anglican, the Cathedral is a place for people of all denominations and faiths to worship.
A stained glass window picturing Episcopal, Catholic and Quaker leaders,, acts as a reminder of that.
“It’s a house of prayer for all people,” said Jim Rose, a docent at the Cathedral who summers in Prouts Neck. “This is an Episcopal church, but it has many windows which honor all faiths.”
Bangor native and past president of the Maine State Society in Washington, Wayne Hanson, also took part in the ceremony, carrying the Maine flag in the procession.
Barb Rich and daughter Anna, 14, and Val Bemis and two daughters Vanessa, 13, and Violet, 9, drove 12 hours down to Washington just for the ceremony. The girls, representing the Girl Scouts of Kennebec Council, wore green sashes and their troop number and carried wine to the altar before communion.
“It was special,” said Rich, a Rockland resident. “Well worth the drive.”
The mothers and daughters, who made the same trip for the last Maine State Day four years ago, said they were excited to be a part of it again. The Bemises are from Rockport.
The Maine state flag will rest at the front of the altar for the duration of the week, beside the pulpit where Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu and the Dali Lama have spoken. All prayers during the week will be offered for the people of Maine.
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Fantasy Congress Takes Political Gaming To The Next Level
POLITICAL GAMES
The Keene Sentinel
Lauren Katims
Boston University Washington News Service
11-9-06
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 —In the real-life Congress, Republican Sens. Judd Gregg and John Sununu are New Hampshire political leaders. In Fantasy Congress, they are just average guys who are not at the top of their game.
Inspired by fantasy sports games, Fantasy Congress, a new non-profit, non-partisan political Web site, allows players, or “citizens,” to compete against other players by picking teams of legislators and scoring points by their team’s activities in Congress.
Created by four seniors at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California and launched a month ago, the league’s Web site, www.fantasycongress.org, has already attracted more than 24,000 participants eager to “play politics.”
And with Democrats becoming the majority in the House and perhaps the Senate in January, people will be more interested in seeing how the new freshman class will legislate, said Andrew Lee, one of the creators.
“We’re hoping to not take on Congress, but change the way people think of it,” he said. “If they can think of it like a sport, like stats, then we can evaluate legislators in an objective way.”
Although the site may appeal to competitive people, it’s not meant to be only a game; it’s also a way to learn about politics, Lee said.
“A lot of this information is already out there, but the problem is it’s not easy to use or easy to find,” he said. The key to the Website is that it’s engaging, and that’s what keeps people coming back, he added.
But even though Fantasy Congress is the most interactive on-line political game, it’s not the first.
In the 2004 presidential election, the political gaming industry exploded, with many games matching Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) against President Bush, but those games never reached the mainstream population.
But Fantasy Congress is different, bringing political games to broader audience, said Rachel Summe, a political science teacher at Keene High School.
Summe teaches the 9th to 12th grade students. She said her students are interested in politics and want to talk about issues, but she admitted it has been hard finding a tool that keeps them excited and engaged. Fantasy Congress, she said, could do the trick.
The rules of the game are similar to those of sports fantasy games.
The game comes with a diagram that explains the rules, showing the user how a bill becomes a law and how each step in the legislative process earns points for members of the congressional team: Team members get five points for introducing a bill or an amendment, and receive more as the measures move successfully through the legislative process.
Then the user chooses a league, which bear names such as “Free Pizza and Beer” and “New Hampshire Clearly Deserves the First Primary.”
After that, the player drafts a team of 16 legislators, which must include Representatives and Senators with different levels of seniority.
Sununu leads New Hampshire legislators with 647 points, ranking him 65th among all members of Congress. Gregg, with 437 points, is ranked 106th. Much lower on the list are Republican Reps. Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley, who lost their seats on Election Day. Bass, with 107 points ranks 357th; Bradley has 172 points and ranks 276th.
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) leads with 1,991 points.
Lee said the strategy for winning is simple: pick legislators who will be steadily active. It’s not always the best choice to pick a “showboat,” he said, because one week the lawmaker could be very active and the next week do nothing.
Sununu, Lee said, isn’t a bad choice.
Each week players can reshape their teams by picking up lawmakers who can be expected to be more active the following week.
In terms of public understanding, Lee said, “Congress is probably one of the murkiest places in the country.” But if the information is packaged differently, he said, people may start getting more excited about important issues.
“It's one way to learn,” said Dennis McCauley, editor of GamePolitics.com, a Web site that covers gaming and politics. “And it's a good way because it draws people into the mechanics of the legislative process in a way that they might not care to
experience otherwise.”
But right now, most of the people playing are “political junkies, the same people who watch ‘Meet the Press’ and read political blogs,” McCauley said, and he’s not sure political games will transcend that niche market.
Jerome Climer, president of the Congressional Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit group in Washington that educates the public about congressional issues, agreed, saying that political games are missing the “human element,” which has kept them out of the mainstream.
It’s easy to take a member of Congress’ position on any given issue and look to see how the member votes on legislation, he said. But in real life, he argued, constituents are not going to vote based on in-depth congressional issues; instead, they will side with the member of Congress with whom they sympathize and with whose party they can identify, he said. And it’s difficult to put that into a game.
Other critics note that a legislator’s job cannot be simply quantified by tallying the number of bills introduced. Although it is an important part of their job to create new legislation, said Dr. Stuart Shulman, editor of the Journal of Information Technology and Politics, it’s easier for senior members – which may be a downside for the new Democratic freshman class trying to win points.
Lee said that he is planning on including media mentions in the point system, but he warns that there is no guarantee that the low-ranked members will go to the top. “But you know, that’s politics,” he said.
It’s doubtful that members of Congress are familiar with political games like Fantasy Congress, experts agree. Lee admitted he has not gotten any feedback from the lawmakers but said he knows of some staff members who have joined teams.
But the Web site has received mainstream attention. National publications, such as The New York Times and Time Magazine, have written about it, and Lee said he’s received e-mail messages from fantasy sports fans looking for a game to play during the off-season.
Summe, the Keene High teacher, said she will use the Web site in her classroom next year to teach students about politics. She has experimented with other political Websites, but when she showed Fantasy Congress to her class, her students were “intrigued,” she said. Many of them showed interest in forming teams.
Summe said that interactive teaching methods, especially about politics, are a key factor in getting kids interested in learning about Congress. She said Fantasy Congress impressed her because unlike in a newspaper or a textbook, her students can look up how their local members of Congress voted and compare their stances to those of other lawmakers.
Now students can understand issues in Congress and how much time the democratic process consumes, she said.
The real excitement, Lee said, will come when Congress returns for a lame-duck session to vote on pending issues.
Then for the first time the site will be dealing with real-time congressional action, he said, and people have no idea what will happen.
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Now in Majority, Massachusetts Democrats Continue Dominance in Congress
MassDems
Cape Cod Times
Paul Crocetti
Boston University Washington News Service
November 9, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 —For the sixth straight Congress, Massachusetts voters have sent all Democrats to the House and Senate.
As a result, the state continues its reign as the most heavily populated in the nation with an all-Democratic delegation.
For the first time in 12 years, though, the Democratic Party will be in the majority in both the House and the Senate. And with that majority comes a great amount of new power for the 12 Massachusetts legislators, especially the longtime members who may ascend to committee chairmanships.
Rep. Barney Frank is likely to become chairman of the Financial Services Committee. Frank is now senior Democrat on the committee.
Sen. Edward Kennedy will probably resume the chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Sen. John Kerry is in line to become chairman again of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.
“These are very powerful members of Congress,” said David King, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. “They’ve been on the outside looking in.”
Rep. William Delahunt, a member of the International Relations Committee, may take over the chair of its Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
“[The chair] will give him considerable power,” King said. “He will have the ability to subpoena and he will conduct real investigations as to foreign policy.”
All 10 of the Massachusetts members of the House, along with Kennedy, won easy reelection Tuesday. Kerry’s term is not up until 2008.
When Kennedy was first elected 44 years ago, he occupied a seat once held by his brother, John F. Kennedy. The last time a Republican held Kennedy’s seat was during the World War I era, when John Wingate Weeks was senator from 1913 to 1919.
The last time Massachusetts Republicans held seats in the House was in the 104th session, when Rep. Peter Torkildsen and Rep. Peter Blute were in office. Current Reps. John Tierney and Jim McGovern defeated those members, respectively, in 1996.
With two senators and two House members each after Tuesday’s elections, Rhode Island and Hawaii have the next largest all-Democratic delegations.
In terms of years of combined service, Massachusetts ranks near the top. The most junior representative, Stephen Lynch, will begin his fourth term next year. As of the end of the current session, current Massachusetts members of Congress will have logged a total of 214 years of service.
Only the much larger Democratic delegations in New York and California have worked more combined years than those from Massachusetts.
Most Southern states historically had all-Democratic delegations, according to Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.
“Otherwise it is very rare for large states, and arguably unwise,” he wrote in an e-mail message.
Congressional control in the South began to switch to the Republicans in the 1970s, after President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law.
Now the major Democratic strongholds are in the Northeast and the Pacific West.
A political party can only do so much when it is in the congressional minority.
“The state is in great shape when Democrats are in power, but when the GOP rules the roost, Massachusetts is out in the cold,” Sabato wrote.
King, the Harvard faculty member, noted that Democrats reign in the Massachusetts State House as well.
“It reflects the fact that Massachusetts is a liberal state,” he said. “All regions of the state are fairly liberal.”
Even districts in the state that went for Republican Kerry Healey in the governor’s race, such as parts of Cape Cod and Northeastern Massachusetts, have elected liberals to Congress for some time now.
Kennedy, whom King described as the “unquestioned voice for liberals in the Senate,” is already looking ahead to the next session of Congress.
“The people of Massachusetts make it clear that as our nation continues its march to progress, they want their elected officials to be trying to break down the walls of discrimination, to give all Americans the good schools, good jobs and good health care they all deserve, and to give our troops and veterans the support they need and have earned,” Laura Capps, a Kennedy spokeswoman, wrote in a statement.
In a similar vein, Brigid O’Rourke, Kerry’s Massachusetts press secretary, highlighted Iraq and health care as two key issues for the Democrats.
“This mandate reflects the trust and confidence the voters have placed in the Democratic Party, and Sen. Kerry is eager to get working in the new Congress to help Massachusetts move forward,” she wrote.
But with their new power, Democrats have to be careful about reaching too far to the left.
“They’ve been in the minority the last 12 years, so they know how quickly it can go away,” King said.
The power of the majority could lead to investigations of the Bush Administration, according to King.
Massachusetts Democrats, such as Kerry and Delahunt, are in position to lead the charge.
“The Massachusetts delegation now has tremendous strength,” King said.
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A Marine Comes Home, Just in Time For Veteran’s Day
VETERANS DAY
The Norwalk Hour
Jamie Hammon
Boston University Washington News Service
11-09-06
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 –Lance Corporal Jimmy Louis heard a shot ring out, saw a muzzle flash and sparks hit his jacket, and felt shrapnel hit his face.
When he looked down, he realized he’d been shot.
The young Marine had been caught off guard while cordoning off a portion of a street in Fallujah, Iraq. Distracted by an old man who was causing raucous with some members of Louis’ unit, his chest had become the target for the sniper positioned two buildings away.
Louis returned to his Norwalk home on October 25, healthy and walking tall at 6’4”. In his bags were the mementos of his eight-month term of service in Iraq: the bullet pierced jacket and body armor that had saved his life, and the shrapnel that had cut his face.
“To walk around and not answer to anybody, not to wonder if you’re going to live or die the next day – anything remotely civilized is what you miss,” Louis said.
He became a Marine on June 1, 2003, just a few months after the United States invaded Iraq, when he joined Charlie Company 1st Battalion 25th Marines Regiment. He told only his immediate family of his enrollment, and it wasn’t until the young recruit went off to boot camp that his friends realized the warm and polite “Jim Lou,” as they called him, would probably be deployed to Iraq.
“I was not happy about it,” said Chris Sacco, a friend of Louis’ since high school. “He’s like a brother to me, and I know everything that’s going on in Iraq. I was like, ‘dude – no.’”
Louis has returned just in time to be one of the millions of veterans honored internationally this weekend at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. It is the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I, known in the United States as Veteran’s Day.
With a theme of “Honor Our Veterans – Support Our Troops,” Norwalk’s Veteran’s Day activities will kick off at 9:30 a.m., with a concert at the Norwalk Concert Hall at City Hall. Ceremonies will begin at 10:30 with keynote speaker Mort Walker.
As is tradition around the world, a moment of silence will be observed at 11 a.m.; a time to reflect, with appreciation, pride, love and sadness, the sacrifices made by service men and women everywhere.
“They had their mixed emotions,” Louis said of his family’s reaction to the news that he would be sent to Iraq. They asked him questions like: Why are you going? Is it your choice? Is there a way you can get out of it?
“I was scared, really scared,” said Janine Andre, Louis’ mother. “I didn’t think he was going to go so soon.”
But Louis, a 2001 graduate of Brien McMahon High School, said he knew what he was getting into, that he desired the challenge, and wanted a “kick in the butt.”
Louis’ time in Fallujah was a “rollercoaster.” He experienced the chaos and terror on the streets of Fallujah, saw close friends die, and had his own close encounter with death on July 26.
Louis owes his life to the body armor all Marines are required to wear. The additional body armor was recently issued to the Marines, and though many complain that it is cumbersome – Louis estimated the plate and jacket totaled a combined 50 pounds – it is clearly effective.
“He showed me the bulletproof jacket he was wearing, and the hole that was there, it was – oh man – it was so deep it went down to the last layer of the steel plate and the Teflon underneath that,” said Sacco. “So thank God for that. Definitely thank God for that.”
The bullet was armor-piercing, Louis recalled.
“It went all the way down to the last sheet of metal,” he said. “I still came out with a cut about a centimeter away from my heart.”
Louis suffered only extensive bruising on his chest and about a week and a half in recovery. But the shot that would have otherwise killed him caused Louis more psychological than physical damage.
“My life flashed before my eyes,” Louis said. “I thought, ‘You’re alive – do you really want to keep doing this?’”
He did keep doing it, for another three months, but he had to avoid thinking about the things back home that he missed, or else he would lose concentration.
While there, he enjoyed hanging out with the other members of his unit, many of whom will now be lifelong friends. They listened to music, watched bootlegged American movies and television shows with Iraqi subtitles, and played basketball.
Louis also continued with a pastime he has enjoyed since kindergarten – art. He kept up a sketchbook while overseas, often sketching the members of his platoon, and plans on pursuing his artistic inclinations to graphic design by enrolling at Southern Connecticut University in the spring.
“He is warm, friendly, willing to take risks in his artwork,” said John Tate, who was Louis’ art teacher from kindergarten through high school.
Louis arrived back in Hartford with his unit on October 25.
“It was the most anticipated day of everyone’s life in the whole unit,” Louis said. “While we were going down the stairs we saw mobs of people – everyone cheering, yelling, screaming. The guys started to tear up, and some couldn’t even go out they were so nervous.”
“We stood in formation and then our [commanding officer] said, ‘Your tour in Iraq is over. You’re done.’”
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