Who Knew? Susan Collins Sure Didn't

Speaking of ethics, both ends of the Capitol have internal investigations into alleged misbehavior at airports. Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, faces an investigation by the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct for his Aug. 19 arrest on misdemeanor assault and battery charges involving a United Airlines employee at Dulles International Airport. The case is being handled in a Loudoun County court beginning Oct. 2 -- six days after Craig's hearing in the Twin Cities.

On that same day, the trial of Brent R. Wilkes is to begin in San Diego's federal courthouse. Wilkes is accused of conspiring to steer hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to then-Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) in exchange for tens of millions of dollars for government contracts. Wilkes is also accused of bribing Dusty Foggo, then a top CIA official. Wilkes has taken the unusual approach of subpoenaing 13 current members of the House to testify in his trial, a request currently being rejected by the House general counsel.

Some of the subpoenas involve lawmakers who served on key panels with Cunningham. But at least one lawmaker has no obvious connection to Cunningham: Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.).

Weller, who may be poised to announce his retirement, has other problems to contend with. He continues to maintain silence in response to questions about his undeclared financial holdings in Nicaragua, a neighbor to Guatemala, which is his wife's homeland and is where his father-in-law was a reputed dictator. Weller is back in the House after ducking votes all last week.

It has been two weeks since the Chicago Tribune published an exhaustive investigative piece on Weller's land deals in Nicaragua, which he did not report on his financial disclosures. A Weller spokesman declined to comment on the Tribune story. Amid reports that Weller might retire, Democrats are coveting the seat.

NFL Primary

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) is taking his idea to have the NFL run presidential politics to new analogous heights. This time, the analogy hits home -- for Redskins fans and a certain underdog presidential candidate.

Yesterday, testifying before the Senate Rules Committee on his legislation to revamp the early presidential nominating process, Alexander explained: "If professional football were presidential politics, 'SportsCenter' would pick the Super Bowl teams after two preseason games."

Just look at what happened to the New England Patriots in 2003, Alexander said: They were clobbered by the Buffalo Bills in the season's first game. "Then the next week, the Washington Redskins ambushed the Patriots, which was as unlikely as it would have been for Dennis Kucinich to upend John Kerry in the New Hampshire primary."

To which Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), a fellow former presidential candidate and co-sponsor of legislation with Alexander to create a federal system for the presidential primary system, said: "Right. The only problem that will follow Lamar now is to explain to the legion of Redskins fans here why he compared them to Dennis Kucinich. But I'll leave that to him."