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The House of Representatives is debating the Transportation, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill. Contained in this bill is an appropriation that Hill sources tell me was secured by Rep. Jerry Lewis, the Minority Maker, for a swimming pool in the city of Banning California. The appropriation is for FY 2007 and it is half a million dollars.

That's a lot for a swimming pool...especially considering Lewis secured money for the same pool in the FY 2006 and 2005 versions of the bill. In both of those previous years Lewis secured $250,000 for the pool.

When this bill passes Lewis will have secured a grand total of $1 million for one pool. This thing could be gold plated!

Footnote: In FY 2004 TTHUD bill Lewis secured $325,000 for a pool in Salinas, CA.

UPDATE: Red State is hot on the trail as well:

UPDATE: Andy Roth notes that Jeff Flake is gearing up for another battle against pork like the above mentioned gold-plated swimming pool.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, as if you needed a reminder of the Appropriators' mentality, there is this nugget from the Hill:  

Appropriations members have already vowed to fight any move to strip spending from the bill. “I’m not going to take their crap,” Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) said last week. The Illinois appropriator said he included several projects for his district and would fight to keep them all.

“They think they’ve gotten a little steam building, and we’re going to have to shoot them down,” LaHood said.

Byron York points out some issues that may lay on the horizon for the Daily Kos crowd. After the Yearly Kos convention the phenomenon has received more press than ever. This, says York, will have drawbacks:

Following up on the post below regarding House and Senate Democrats pandering to the most liberal and extremist wing of their party is this column by Michael Barone. Barone characterizes the nature of the extreme left:

Successes are discounted, setbacks are trumpeted, the level of American casualties is treated as if it were comparable to those in Vietnam or World War II. Allegations of American misdeeds are repeated over and over; the work of reconstruction and aid of American military personnel and civilians is ignored.

Hugh Hewitt comments on the Dems dilemma:

UPDATE: Thanks to Jack Kingston's blog for uploading this video of Barbara Boxer fielding a question about impeachment.

UPDATE: Danny Glover rounds up blogospheric reactions to the Yearly Kos convention.

Exhibit A, Virginia Democrat Jim Moran:

Moran, D-8th, told those attending the Arlington County Democratic Committee's annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner on June 9 that while he in theory might oppose the fiscal irresponsibility of “earmarks” - funneling money to projects in a member of Congress's district - he understands the value they have to constituents.

“When I become chairman [of a House appropriations subcommittee], I'm going to earmark the shit out of it,” Moran buoyantly told a crowd of 450 attending the event.

The leftist of the leftists, the Daily Kos acolytes attending Yearly Kos in Las Vegas this weekend, showered praise on liberal congressmen attending the convention. Harry Reid seems to have gone over pretty well:

There's just one problem for the two-fisted frontman of Democrat politics: Outside the convention hall, the Nevadans who sent Mr. Reid to Washington aren't quite so thrilled with the job he's doing.

The second sentence says it all. The Yearly Kos convention is a cheerleading rally exclusively for the uber liberals. It is completely divorced from reality. While Harry Reid is showered with praise in downtown Las Vegas the average Harry Reid voter in the rest of the state is losing respect for him. The contrast highlights a real problem for the Democrats: they must pander to the luny left because they are better at making noise than the average Dem voter. But as they pander to the crazies they disaffect their more moderate supporters.

Meanwhile, it is reported that for what seems like the hundredth time this year Dems plan to roll out a new agenda:

Par for the course...but here's the kicker:

It is a measure of the Democratic Party's yearning for the majority in Congress that the age-old argument over whether its agenda should appeal to liberals or moderates has taken a backseat to strategic disputes over staging and timing.

So they still will pander, but that may have to wait until they learn how to better play politics with the results of their pandering.

Rep. William Jefferson, bolstered by the Congressional Black Caucus, is sticking his finger in Nancy Pelosi's eye. It's fun to watch.

John Fund reports in the Opinion Journal Political DIary email ($): 

Emboldened by support from his fellow Black Caucus members, Rep. William Jefferson has decided to force the hand of Democratic leaders who want him to resign from the powerful Ways and Means tax-writing committee in the wake of allegations that he stored $90,000 in bribe money in his home freezer.

Mr. Jefferson, a New Orleans Democrat, told the 50-member Democratic Steering Committee on Wednesday night that he would fight to keep his seat because he has not been charged with any crime. He thus represents a big political headache for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who has made no secret of the fact that she wants to make Mr. Jefferson an example of how Democrats don't act as if they are part of a "culture of corruption" that tolerates ethical missteps by their members.

Quin Hillyer at the American Spectator likes the Mike Pence immigration reform bill:

"In short, the plan is ingenious. Not only should conservatives rally behind it, but so should the White House. It provides the president with a near-perfect escape from the rock-and-hard-place dilemma of trying to please, all at once, Hispanics, big business, and the mainstream Americans who insist that the first requirement of a guest is that the guest abide by our society's laws.

"Such insistence is absolutely the right thing. But it doesn't, by any means, require that Americans fail to exhibit our usual humaneness, nor does it require that we keep necessary jobs unfilled.

"In sum, the Pence bill offers security and prosperity in equal measure. You can't beat that."

Quin is certainly no pushover or Kool Aid drinker...the Pence folks I am sure are happy to have his support. 

Conservatives in the Senate today held together to defeat the Akaka bill which would have created a race-based government in Hawaii. Conservatives needed 41 votes today to kill the bill and they mustered just that number. The vote on cloture was 56-41.

Kudos to Lamar Alexander, Jon Kyl, John Cornyn, Jeff Sessions and Senate Leadership for holding the team together and defeating this unconstitutional and insulting bill.

Word on the Hill is that Senate Whip Mitch McConnell's office was particularly persuasive behind the scenes with fence-sitting members.

While this is a great victory, the 56 votes cast today in favor of race-based governing should worry conservatives. Supporters of this bill will be back soon. Watch for Akaka and Inouye to attempt to attach this bill quietly to other vehicles moving through the Senate.

UPDATE: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist blogs the outcome:

It is a core moral and constitutional principle of the United States that equal protection of our laws and equal participation in our government should never again be denied to Americans because of race or ethnicity. And it is a clear provision of our Constitution that American states be guaranteed a “Republican Form of Government.” Both would be endangered by Senator Akaka’s Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act, which was just defeated on the Senate floor moments ago.

Senator Akaka’s legislation would have created a new, independent government within our country – a government defined by and composed of a specific racial group. Worse still, Senator Akaka recently made clear that this race-based government would have been under no obligation to remain within the United States or to adhere to the most basic of our political principles: “[T]he governing entity will make a decision as to what happens to independence or returning to the monarchy.”

I am amazed and saddened that some would undo the great success story of Hawaiian assimilation into our country that we’ve seen since the people of Hawaii voted overwhelming to become America’s 50th state in 1959.

Vital issues of the greatest consequence face our Nation. If this to be another American Century, we must affirm and strengthen those principles and values that unite our people and oppose the fragmentation of our government and our society along racial and ethnic lines. That’s why I am proud to have voted to defeat Senator Akaka’s proposal and proud that the United States Senate has shown the common-sense to reject this divisive legislation once and for all.

Erica Little and Todd Gaziano of the Heritage Foundation point out that at the time Hawaiian was entering the Union, Native Hawaiians were adamant about being considered in the same way that all others are. In essence, Hawaiians at the time were adamant that their race not be part of the equation:

The people of Hawaii had the opportunity to raise an issue regarding separate rights for native Hawaiians. Not only did they fail to do so; they went to great lengths to convey that Hawaii did not and would not divide its people by race. That was the understanding of those in Congress and Hawaii who voted to bring Hawaii into these United States. Despite the distorted history of the S.147’s supporters, many Hawaiians with aboriginal ancestry still share that understanding today. They understand that S.147 will change their state from a “microcosm of America” to an environment that pits race against race.

So what has changed Senator Akaka?  

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades...conservatives lost their bid to attain 60 votes to repeal the unjust tax 57-41.

So far, this week in the Senate is shaking out as feared: loss on marriage amendment, loss on Death Tax...is the creation of a race-based government this afternoon pending? 

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist announced this morning that the Senate will vote on cloture on the Death Tax Repeal at 10:45 and then regardless of the outcome of that vote, will vote on the Akaka bill at 12:45.

Did conservatives muster the requisite 41 votes needed to kill race-based governing? Senate sources say it will be a razor thin margin...

In the meantime, read this entry on Red State that makes a valid point. Republicans don't deserve the majority if they let this pass. Granted, there are many outstanding conservatives in the Senate fighting this bill. But their challenge must be to sway the votes of the moderate faction of the caucus who seem intent on voting this majority right out of town. 

Finally, the White House has climbed down off the fence to oppose Akaka's race-based governing bill. In a June 7 letter from Assistant Attorney General William Moschella addresed to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, the White House makes their opposition clear.

"The Administration strongly opposes passage of S. 147," reads the missive. "As the President has said, 'We must honor the great American tradition of the melting pot, which has made us one nation out of many peoples." This bill would reverse that great American tradition and divide people by their race."

The letter is in direct contradiction to Senator Daniel Akaka's claims on the Senate floor that the Administration had cleared the legislation. The letter goes on to cite e US Civil Rights Commission report that opposes the Akaka bill because it divides people by race.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid was carbon copied on the letter.

UPDATE: Read the uploaded letter here.

From my column today:

The taxpayer-funded organization plans to hold a news conference Thursday morning on the West Lawn to tout a bill many critics say would create the first ever race-based government in the United States.

The press conference is part of OHA’s extensive lobbying strategy. Already the group has spent more than $660,000 of taxpayer funds to hire the well-connected D.C. lobby shop Patton Boggs.

OHA wants its lobbying effort to pay off when the Senate votes on S. 147 (maybe as early as Thursday evening). Opponents of the bill need 41 votes to deny cloture and therefore kill it.

Multiple Hill sources confirm that opponents of the bill (a pet project of Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka of Hawaii) have absolutely no idea how that vote will go. This is one of those rare instances in the Senate where the outcome of a scheduled vote isn’t all but certain ahead of time. According to one Senate source, conservatives opposing Akaka may be within one vote of the requisite 41. That should encourage conservatives to keep cranking on all cylinders and apply the necessary pressure to the U.S. Senate.

Best news of the day...

UPDATE: Texas Senator John Cornyn: "Al Zarqawi has made his last video."

UPDATE: RSC Chairman Mike Pence: "I rejoice in the death of no man, but today I'll make an exception."  

...to provide Republican cover for Akaka's bill by taking the Senate floor to speak in defense of race-based governing.

We all know Stevens is a powerful man in the Senate -- his support has helped Akaka tremendously. 

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander is on the Senate floor right now speaking against the Akaka bill. The bill, says Alexander, "is an assault on E Pluribus Unum." The bill "undermines our unity...it would undermine our history of being a nation based not upon race but upon common values of liberty, equal opportunity and democracy."

Exactly.

UPDATE: Akaka is on the floor defending his bill: "At the heart of it, this bill is about fairness and creating a process to achieve it."

UPDATE: Republicans are doing well to control floor time and oppose the Akaka bill. So far this afternoon Senators Alexander (who was outstanding and eloquent), Kyl, Craig, Sessions and Cornyn (on the way) are speaking against the bill. Only Byron Dorgan and Daniel Akaka have had the gall the defend the bill for the Dems.