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Earlier today, Jonathan Martin pointed out the new www.phoneyFred.org website: Clearly, though, this is no amateur effort.   The volume of information and the way that it’s sourced reeks of a grasstops hit-job.   Repeatingly calling Thompson "Phoney Fred" in the on-message style of political operatives, the site offers up unflattering quotes with the standard attribution style [...]

This really isn’t a surprise, but Roll Call has the news. Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) will not run for re-election. The FBI raid was making this swing seat even harder to keep, and there was a lot of pressure from the NRCC to get out. There will undoubtedly be a nasty primary. The one Renzi [...]

Fred Barnes has another great piece, this time in the Journal: The recipe for Republicans is to stop acting like, well, Republicans–that is, Republicans of recent vintage. In Congress, they’ve been soft on earmarks, the source of so much corruption. They practically invited Democrats to trump them on ethics and lobbying reform. And they’ve allowed [...]

Here’s a piece of clarity for the morning. The guys at Granite Grok caught up with Senator John McCain in New Hampshire. They asked him a question about earmarks, and they recorded the answer. Transcribed: Transparency and knowledge are the only antidote to the corruption that is bred by earmarks, the gateway to corruption. I [...]

The Cleveland Plain Dealer blog is reporting that Zack Space flipped his vote on the motion to recommit on the Agriculture bill last Thursday: Either facing pressure from their party leaders or getting last-minute facts — accounts vary — several members of Congress from both parties, including Dover Democrat Zack Space, began changing their votes. [...]

I grew up in the city of Chicago. I have watched polls in Philadelphia. I have been threatened with physical violence by union goons for offering people a piece of GOP literature. Urban Republicans like me often have an acute sense of Democratic corruption, especially as it applies to the voting process. When Steny Hoyer [...]

And, perhaps, well he should. From the Sac(ramento) Bee: But in a telephone news conference Monday, NRCC Chairman Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., indicated that the political ground has a way of shifting. "There’s a factor outside of normal politics that needs to be resolved," Cole said. "We’re keeping a close eye on the situation. We [...]

McCain calls the ethics bill a "sham and a joke".  "It is just the same as it was before." "There are some good things it" but "it was an opportunity because of the dissatisfaction of the American people… and I’m sorry that we have failed. … it will further contribute to the cynicism of the [...]

Yesterday, Bob Novak said about the ethics bill: Because their leadership has not cared for this struggle from the start, Senate Republicans will likely be forced to vote for this weak bill simply because they will otherwise look like they are obstructing reform. There was however, one alternative, John McCain, once described by Hotline as [...]

You have got to be kidding me. Check this out: But in a closed-door lunch with fellow Republican senators yesterday, Stevens (R-Alaska) himself threatened to block the measure, objecting that the legislation’s new restrictions on lawmakers’ use of corporate jets would unfairly penalize members of Congress who live in distant states, such as himself. Poor [...]