Giuliani Offers Up 12 Steps to a Better Future

An e-mail from the former vice president and 2004 Democratic nominee showed up Tuesday, raising more than a few eyebrows.

With the subject line "W Doesn't Care," the e-mail urged recipients to donate to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to help Democrats expand their narrow margin in the chamber.

"Nowhere has Republican obstruction been more blatant and more damaging than in the United States Senate," Gore wrote, adding later: "If we want progress on the issues we care about, we absolutely must expand the Democratic Senate majority in 2008."

The goal, Gore said, is to raise $500,000 by midnight on June 30, the end of the current fundraising period. Calling Republicans in Congress "supine," he warned that they could take over again in 2008.

"We can't let that happen," he wrote.

-- Michael D. Shear

Obama Targets FEC Commissioner

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), a 2008 presidential contender, raised questions about the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky to the Federal Election Commission, saying von Spakovsky, who previously worked in the voting section of the Justice Department, does "not demonstrate the evenhandedness required of an FEC Commissioner."

The commission enforces campaign finance law and is responsible for regulating contributions to and spending by 2008 presidential contenders.

Obama charged that von Spakovsky was instrumental in the creation of a law in Georgia that required voters to provide certain government identification at the polls, then defended the Justice Department's approval of that law as not violating civil rights. A court later struck it down.

"Reports indicate that Mr. von Spakovsky joined other senior officials in overruling the recommendations of several career staff lawyers who had reviewed the Georgia voter ID law and determined that it would unduly hinder the ability of black voters to cast their ballots," Obama wrote in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Rules Committee, which will hold a confirmation hearing on von Spakovsky and three other FEC commissioners today.

Obama wrote that von Spakovsky's active encouragement of the Justice Department's pursuit of voter fraud cases "raises significant questions about his ability to interpret and apply the law in a fair manner." Obama said von Spakovsky, who is serving as an FEC commissioner as a recess appointment, should not be confirmed unless he can "provide legitimate explanations for his conduct."

Von Spakovsky did not reply to an e-mail seeking comment. He previously suggested that he did not play a large role in policy decisions at Justice.

-- Zachary A. Goldfarb