Sins of Commission?
Critics have long argued that the Federal Election Commission, the agency charged with making sure campaign finance laws are followed, has been, if not completely spineless and useless, perhaps not as aggressive as it could be.
Well, in fairness, sometimes people can get distracted -- especially when the FBI is crawling all over the place with search warrants for the offices and computers of senior officials, including 18-year veteran and then-staff director James A. Pehrkon .
  Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.) has received major fundraising help. (Mark Wilson - Getty Images) |
Sign Up for RSS FeedSeems Pehrkon, according to an FBI agent's recently unsealed affidavit, has been accused of trying to secretly use $100,000 in FEC money to settle a sexual harassment claim against him by another FEC official -- Cheryl Kelley , who directs the office of budget, planning and management.
The affidavit, by FBI Special Agent Frank G. D'Amico , says that on Sept. 14, Pehrkon told Anthony Scardino , the deputy staff director for management, that he wanted to resolve the matter with "a cash settlement of approximately $100,000" and "wanted to use surplus budgetary funds for fiscal year 2005 to fund any such settlement."
Pehrkon also allegedly wanted to do this "in a manner which would prevent the commission from learning about the expenditure."
Scardino, according to the affidavit, told Pehrkon that the commission would have to be told about the situation and approve the 100 large. He also refused to approve a separate $10,000 payment to Kelley's lawyers as part of another settlement proposal.
But, the affidavit said, Pehrkon persuaded John O'Brien , the FEC's longtime budget officer, to approve a $10,000 procurement for "services and consultation" to Kelley's lawyer.
John Mahoney , Kelley's lawyer, said yesterday that "there was no payment, nor was there any such agreement." He said that Pehrkon apparently came up with the plan to "hide his alleged sexual harassment from the commission."
Last Oct. 4, Pehrkon, O'Brien and Lola Hatcher-Capers , the agency's director of equal employment opportunity, who allegedly declined to file Kelley's original complaint in June, were removed from the headquarters and placed on administrative leave, according to a report yesterday in Roll Call.
Pehrkon and O'Brien have since retired, and Hatcher-Capers is no longer there.
Kelley, Mahoney said yesterday, has been placed on administrative leave, "improperly so . . . in reprisal for her discrimination complaint."
Meanwhile, Roll Call, citing an internal FEC memo, reported that the FEC is facing a $2.6 million shortfall in its $54 million 2006 budget. More than 20 percent of that shortfall is because of what the memo said were "settlement and legal services" costs related to Kelley's case and the FBI investigation.
Roll Call and PoliticalMoneyLine broke the news of the agency's turmoil and the FBI investigation.
Sky, and Swamp, Is the Limit
There's been much chatter about Vice President Cheney 's poll numbers, which last week were down to 18 percent favorable. Some churlish folks were wondering whether he'd drop to single digits if he shot someone else.
But polls are meaningless where it really counts: fundraising. And Cheney is still able to pull in the money, as he showed Monday in Boca Raton, where he raised $300,000 at a luncheon for Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.) -- one of the few members of either party who've actually got competitive races.
Of course, that support is minuscule compared with what House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) did for Shaw in his 2000 reelection race. As recounted in our colleague Michael Grunwald's new book about the Everglades, "The Swamp," Hastert was willing to do anything to help Shaw hold the seat for the GOP, including passing a huge Everglades-restoration bill.
"We knew" the control of the House "could come down to two seats," a Hastert aide recalled, "and if that meant we had to spend $8 billion for Mr. Shaw, that's what we were going to do."
Now that's fundraising.
Can You Be More Specific?
Our new pal, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt , speaking at the Brookings Institution on Monday, held up Friday's column item about his viciously anti-American, anti-Semitic musings.
"With me is the article," Jumblatt said, "whereby I've insulted the policy of the States on a personal level and on a political level. I know I have said that, but that's the past. I don't regret it, but I have said that. And it took me a long time, a long political trip, and span in time to come to the States to ask for the States' help against the Syrian dictatorship."
But at a visit yesterday with The Washington Post's editorial board, Jumblatt, when confronted with the column, said he apologizes to the American people.
Presumably this includes the racist pop at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that, for reasons of impeccable good taste, we didn't print?
A Title Not Likely to Be Seen Again
Sometimes the early transcript can get jumbled. Take the State Department's daily briefing Monday by spokesman Tom Casey .
"CASEY: I've got a fairly brief readout for you. It is true -- this morning, the secretary met with Lebanese Jewish leader Walid Jumblatt, and they discussed general developments in Lebanon."
