Romney's Mormonism Attracts More Scrutiny . . . and a Whisper Campaign

Trips Down, Except Ethics Chief's

The outcry over privately funded congressional travel stirred by the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal has slowed the pace, according to lawmakers' 2006 financial disclosure forms , but not for everyone.

According to PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan research group, private trips by lawmakers declined to 623 last year, from a high of 1,303 in 2001. When Democrats tightened travel rules after taking over the House in January, the decline continued, with just 164 private trips reported in the first five months of 2007.

One member who hasn't slacked off is Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio), the new House ethics committee chairman, who reported reimbursements for 13 trips last year. The former prosecutor visited Jamaica and Barbados in January 2006 on visits that were spaced two days apart. According to PoliticalMoneyLine, Jones is Congress's second-most frequent traveler, logging 80 trips from 2000 to May 31, 2007. She has taken at least four additional trips this year.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) reported 17 privately funded trips in 2006 and four more through May, for a total of 83 trips since 2000. Frank's 2006 travel sponsors included several gay and lesbian organizations -- Frank is one of the few openly gay members of Congress -- as well as the New Yorker magazine. He was reimbursed $2,022 for flying to Los Angeles to appear on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher."

Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), reported five trips in 2006, including jaunts to Jamaica, Turkey and Poland that were paid for by the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan public policy forum and the top private sponsor of congressional travel. Waxman's three Aspen-funded trips were valued at nearly $23,000, according to his financial reports.

Another globe-trotting chairman is Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who heads the Homeland Security Committee. He took six trips, including one with his wife for a three-day "congressional workshop" in Naples, Fla., sponsored by the American Shipbuilding Association. Other destinations included Hawaii, Panama, Cuba and Mexico.

5 days: The Republican Party of Iowa holds its auction for space for the Ames Straw Poll on Aug. 11. In 1999, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush paid more than $40,000 to ensure that his campaign secured prime real estate. With former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sen. John McCain of Arizona not competing in the straw poll this summer, will the price drop? And will former senator Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), who remains undecided about Ames, take part in the auction?

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