SELLING BOOKS AND CAMPAIGNING BY THE BOOK. The Post. “You would never know on the campaign trail that Newt Gingrich is no longer at the helm of his for-profit enterprise. There, his presidential candidate activities and book-selling business mingle as one.” Politico has an overview of the book race this cycle here. “At critical times in their day-to-day campaign trail schedules, Gingrich, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann all displayed a hunger to move product that seemed to overshadow their interest in the presidency.”
WITNESS DISCLOSURE. Roll Call. ” In addition to the basic background documents, nonprofit groups are required to disclose all lawsuits they have filed against the federal government for the past four years, any foreign donations the group has received over the same period, and three years of the group’s tax returns.”
HOLIDAY PARTY SEASON. Of course, there’s a political law angle discussed here. “In an environment where non-fundraising social interactions between K Street and Capitol Hill are increasingly few and precious, the December party scene provides a flurry of relationship-building activities.”
ROKITA’S ELECTION LAW EXPERTISE. The Hill. “When Rep. Todd Rokita (R-Ind.) came to Washington he thought the chapter of his life dealing with election laws was over. But members of Congress have been proposing and debating voter identification laws — something with which he’s all too familiar.”
CAPITOL PUNISHMENT BOOK REVIEW. The Post reviews Jack Abramoff’s book here. “It’s not every day that a veteran Washington insider — one who, at the zenith of his career, was the city’s highest-paid lobbyist — writes a 300-page account of his political triumphs, serial lawbreaking and unethical conduct, all of which ended in his imprisonment for fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy.”
HOW BUSY WILL 2012 BE? The Post. “Election years are known to be historically quieter for lobbyists, who often hold off until the last quarter — after the election of lawmakers — to get to work.”
CLEAN UP GOVERNMENT ACT ENDORSED. Here. “In a rare instance of Congressional bipartisanship, the Senate and House Judiciary Committees have quietly approved badly needed measures to tighten the anticorruption laws applicable to members of Congress.”
THE HOME ALONE COMMISSION. A press release from Rep. Harper’s indicates that the last two members of the Election Assistance Commission resigned. Miss the release? You could have caught it on his Twitter account, too.
AMENDING THE FIRST AMENDMENT. Story here. “Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday proposed an amendment to the Constitution to exclude corporations from First Amendment rights to spend money on political campaigns.”
FOR-PROFIT COLLEGES LOBBYING. The Times. “The story of how the for-profit colleges survived the threat of a major federal crackdown offers a case study in Washington power brokering.”
SUPER PAC NEWS REPORT. From CBS. “The case of the parallel Perry ads fuels the doubts of those who don’t believe Super PACs and the campaigns they support can be truly independent.”
BLUMAN ON THE DOCKET? Check here. More on the background of the case can be found here.
DOOLITTLE A LOBBYIST. Story here (warning, there was an annoying pop-up ad with sound at that link). “Doolittle was one of several lawmakers caught up the turbulent wake of Jack Abramoff,the Republican uber-lobbyist who was released recently after serving three and a half years in prison on mail fraud and conspiracy charges.”
FACEBOOK ADS. The Hill. “President Obama’s reelection campaign has sponsored ads on Facebook knocking the leading Republican candidates for saying foreign aid to Israel should start at zero.”
EARMARKS FOUND. The Post. “A six-month study of this year’s defense authorization bill has identified 115 spending proposals as earmarks worth $834 million, including 20 by Republican freshmen who campaigned against the pet projects, according to a copy of the report provided to The Washington Post.”
SENTENCE FOR LESLIE JOHNSON. The Post. “U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte was not swayed and sentenced the former Prince George’s County Council member to one year and one day in prison. She also was ordered to serve two years’ supervised release, to perform 240 hours community service and to pay a $15,000 fine.”
NO CASE AGAINST CHURCH. Story here. ” Minnesota’s Campaign Finance Board has thrown out a complaint against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis for a DVD mailed to 400,000 Catholics before the 2010 election.”
HAVE A GREAT DAY.