I hope you had a great holiday break. Maybe you’re still enjoying some valuable time away from the daily grind. Here are a few political law links from the last few days.
News in Miller lawsuit
Joe Miller won’t contest Murkowski’s certification. AP.
Miller’s announcement late Sunday paves the way for Murkowski – a write-in candidate after losing the Republican nomination to Miller – to eventually be declared winner of the race.
Truth in Caller ID Act
Office of Congressional Ethics update
The Hill says OCE lives.
ROI and lobbying
The Post gave front page treatment to lobbying efforts behind efforts to expand the use of airport scanners. Washington Post.
Timing of contributions and fundraisers in the news
The timing of fundraisers relative to congressional votes is the topic of this front page Post story. Did you catch Politico’s Mike Allen’s Dec. 26th Playbook commentary on this Post story?
PLAYBOOK FACTS OF LIFE: This is a great idea for a story, and could have been a vehicle to illuminate the literal shakedowns that occur in the chaos of a congressional session. Alas, it’s executed in such a dull, shallow, paint-by-numbers way that it’ll sink without a trace. Someone else should do the story again — with a vivid example that might get some traction, and fewer long, cut-and-paste quotes from outside groups yearning to quoted on their outrage. If it’s a grand slam, ya don’t need the Sunlight Foundation to cheer for you in your article!
Use of government vehicles and Rep. Conyers
Rep. Conyers reimbursed the government for use of a vehicle. The Hill.
New House rules on lobbyists in the gym
One of the new proposed House rules refers to lobbyists.
The House of Representatives may not provide access to any exercise facility which is made available exclusively to Members and former Members, officers and former officers of the House of Representatives, and their spouses to any former Member, former officer, or spouse who is a lobbyist registered under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 or any successor statute or agent of a foreign principal as defined in clause 5 of rule XXV. For purposes of this section, the term ‘‘Member’’ includes a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to the Congress.
There are also reports that the new rules have new allowances for mobile devices on the floor of the House.
Who’s behind anonymous site?
Now we know the rest of the story, as they say.
Despite the online confession of one of the authors Thursday, state ethics officials still are refusing to identify the people behind The Cutler Files.
Judges and ethics
Is the topic of this Post report.
Ethics guidelines for the more than 3,000 federal judges are regularly issued and updated by the ethics panel, which includes 15 federal judges. But its advice is mostly given in secret communications to individual judges, and there is no systematic way for others to know what has been decided.
Revolving door “frenzy”
Roll Call reports.
State aircraft in the news
Gov. Barbour explains his use of a state aircraft here.
YouTube political videos for 2010
Politico has a retrospective on political videos on YouTube here.