FEC Adds Fine to Hastert's Legal Bills in Mark Foley Case

Sen. Charles Schumer, a self-described "homebody," dined with troops in Baghdad on Monday, his second trip overseas while in Congress. (Associated Press)

"In a matter of this sort, it is to be expected, based on what happened following the assassination of President Kennedy, to have a wide range of allegations and conspiracy theories," Specter wrote yesterday in a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Schumer Takes Flight

Until this holiday season, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) had taken the old Dick Armey approach to international travel. Armey, the acid-tongued Texas Republican who was House majority leader in the 1990s, once famously degraded global travel, saying, "I've been to Europe once; I don't have to go again."

After 27 years in the House and Senate, Schumer returned yesterday from Iraq, his second official congressional delegation trip ever.

"I was more or less a homebody," Schumer explained to incredulous reporters this week on a conference call from Baghdad. "In the early years, the Codels were far more fun."

Schumer, who apparently didn't like fun, steered clear of them.

But after several years of critiquing President Bush's handling of the Iraq war, Schumer traveled to Israel and Jordan, then spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in Iraq. He met with Army Gen. David H. Petraeus as well as troops from New York. In a market south of Baghdad, Schumer donned a flak jacket and walked around, with 30 soldiers guarding him.

It was an eye-opening experience, one that might even encourage him to do more overseas traveling. "I learned things I don't think I would have learned by staying in Washington," he said.

Senatorial Baggage

Senators, beware. Strange things keep happening to you at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), fresh off of two days of stumping through freezing cold Iowa for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), was trying to get home in time for a New Year's Eve movie date with his wife when airline chaos hit. Conrad's Des Moines-Minneapolis-Bismarck travel schedule was delayed when his plane sat on the Twin Cities tarmac for at least 25 minutes before passengers were allowed to disembark.

The senator raced to make his connection to North Dakota, leaving no time for any restroom stops, not even in the one where Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) was busted seven months ago.

Although Conrad made the Bismarck flight, his luggage didn't.

By dinnertime New Year's Eve, Conrad slogged home without his bags. "New Year's Eve without any luggage -- gotta love it," he told On the Hill.

But Conrad, a self-proclaimed reserved Scandinavian, wasn't letting a lost toothbrush dampen his spirits. The 21-year Senate veteran just endorsed Obama, the first time he's ever weighed in on a presidential primary.

Conrad compares Obama to Abraham Lincoln-- who served two years in the House before becoming president -- and can't stop praising what he saw Sunday night when he introduced Obama to a crowd of 1,000 in South Des Moines. "It was magical," he said.

That magic kept Conrad upbeat even without his luggage. Rather than wait for his bags, he celebrated the holiday by taking in "Charlie Wilson's War."