Putting aside the White House for the moment, nearly all of the Republican congressional leaders at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue are mired in scandals of their own.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is under investigation for all manner of improprieties, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) caught hell for secretly inserting a special provision for Philip Morris into a House bill dealing with domestic security last summer, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has been accused (on more than one occasion) of having inappropriate personal and financial ties to the HCA hospital chain, the nation’s largest for-profit health care franchise. There, are of course, many more.
To his credit, House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has generally avoided these kinds of problems, at least until last week.
Bob Novak, who apparently was able to tear himself away from Clinton’s memoir long enough to do some real reporting, has found Hastert engaging in some questionable lobbying activities.
Unfortunately, this is a little complicated. Here’s the deal in a nutshell: United Airlines, hoping to stave off bankruptcy asked the Air Transportation Stabilization Board to approve a $2 billion loan. The board, including a Treasury Department official, said no. But after Hastert pressured the Treasury Secretary John Snow, the agency quickly reversed itself, overrode the department’s representative at the ATSB, and invited United to prepare a new loan request.
This prolongs the loan stabilization program some three years after it was created to preserve America’s airline industry after Sept. 11, 2001. The extension is traced to the speaker, third in line for the presidency, pressuring a Cabinet member on behalf of a home state corporation.
Under normal circumstances, the Treasury Department doesn’t intervene to offer corporations fresh chances for federally-guaranteed loans, and hardly ever rejects the decision of the department’s ATSB official, so the announcement raised some eyebrows and generated questions about what, exactly, Hastert’s role was in the decision.
The Federal Reserve and the Department of Transportation were apparently upset about Snow’s announcement, but the real problem for Hastert is that at least one senator wants a congressional inquiry into Hastert’s lobbying efforts. You might be surprised, however, which senator is involved.
As the Financial Times reported:
Senator Peter Fitzgerald, who represents Illinois, where United is based, told the Financial Times [late last week], he was considering convening “a Senate government affairs hearing to investigate whether any inappropriate political pressure” was being applied to the (federal) board.
Mr Fitzgerald, a firm opponent of providing aid to the airline, added: “I hope the members of the board stick to their consciences. It appears to me the board followed the statute, and their common sense and it would be very unseemly if that has been an effort to apply political muscle to an independent board. This is a highly irregular series of events.”
I guess those rumors of hostility between Hastert and Fitzgerald are true.
If he wants to, Fitzgerald can make things pretty difficult for Hastert. As a member of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, Fitzgerald could launch hearings into the Speaker’s questionable lobbying efforts (with the likely approval of committee Dems) and could cause weeks of headaches for Hastert in an election year. Stay tuned.