WASHINGTON IN BRIEF
Friday, October 27, 2006; Page A04
Rights Group Fires Worker in Foley Case
The Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, has fired an employee who admitted to the first publication on a Web site of then-Rep. Mark Foley's e-mails to a former male page.
The e-mails and later disclosures of sexually explicit computer messages from the Florida Republican to other teenage male pages sparked a campaign-season scandal that threatens the GOP's majority in Congress.
"He inappropriately used Human Rights Campaign resources. He was fired," David Smith, the organization's vice president, said of the employee. "The Human Rights Campaign believes in being very aboveboard in our political activity."
Smith would not identify the employee by name, citing privacy concerns, but said he was a junior staff member who worked as a coordinator in Michigan.
On Sept. 24, the Web site published Foley's e-mails to a former page from Louisiana. Four days later, ABC News reported its own account of the e-mails on its Web site.
Foley resigned Sept. 29 after ABC questioned him about sexually explicit computer instant messages the network says it received from another page.
Bill Proposes Halt to Control of Indian Trust
The government would end its long and controversial responsibility for managing American Indian trust lands under a proposed change to a bill settling a decade-old lawsuit by Indians against the government.
John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and Vice Chairman Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) filed the bill last year to overhaul the trust system and end the lawsuit. The senators had discussed settling for $8 billion, but they have struggled to find a plan everyone can accept.
The latest proposal, posted this week on the panel's Web site, is endorsed by the Bush administration.
Indians allege in their class-action lawsuit that the government has mismanaged more than $100 billion in oil, gas, timber and other royalties held in trust from their lands dating to 1887.
Besides making Indians responsible for managing their trust lands, the new plan would consolidate ownership of Indian lands.
Intelligence Panel Challenge Likely
As top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, Rep. Jane Harman would seem positioned to take the gavel if her party wins control of the House on Nov. 7.
Instead, Harman faces being sidelined by either of two lawmakers now viewed as front-runners: Reps. Alcee Hastings of Florida and Silvestre Reyes of Texas, the second- and third-ranking Democrats on the panel.
Harman, 61, used her seniority on the committee to build a national profile on intelligence and defense. But her hawkish views hardened an ideological gulf between her and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the liberal House minority leader. Both are Californians.
"There is no seniority on the intelligence committee. Not a person who's on there now is on there the first day of the Congress," Pelosi said in a recent interview.
Harman declined to be interviewed but issued a statement through her office: "I love my work on the committee and hope to continue it. House Intelligence Committee activities are directly relevant to the major concerns of my constituents."
-- From News Services
