Entries for March 02, 2007

And then there were two: Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey became the second major political casualty of the scandal at the Walter Reed Medical Center when he resigned this afternoon. In a series of investigative articles, the Washington Post revealed widespread neglect of wounded troops, which yesterday led to the firing of the commander of the military hospital, Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman.

As secretary of the Army, Harvey was responsible for the training and equipping of soldiers. After a visit to Afghanistan and South Korea last October, he spoke with U.S. News's Anna Mulrine about the strains on the military.

This item comes from U.S. News White House correspondent Kenneth T. Walsh, which we took the liberty of coverting into bullet points.

On a week when Sen. John McCain had his coming out on The Late Show With David Letterman, he was battered both from the left and the right. First, here's a rundown of the bad things that happened to him:

• On Wednesday, he told CBS's David Letterman that he would formally announce his presidential candidacy in April -- which had been expected -- but also said the Iraq war had "wasted" American lives. After Democrats complained that he was dishonoring the troops, he withdrew the remark yesterday. "I should have used the word 'sacrificed,' as I have in the past," he said contritely.
• The Arizona Republican is under fire this afternoon from conservatives who are offended that he declined to speak today at the Conservative Political Action Committee conference in Washington, which other GOP candidates will address. This is stirring up another wave of criticism from activists on the right who don't trust McCain to back them on tax cuts and other issues, and who oppose his views on immigration and campaign-finance overhaul.
• Further, McCain's support for President Bush's increase of U.S. troops in Iraq is drawing criticism from Democrats and may be hurting McCain in the polls. A new series of public-opinion surveys show McCain losing ground to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination. The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll gave Giuliani 44 percent support among Republicans to McCain's 21, Newt Gingrich's 15, and Mitt Romney's 4.

And here are the reasons why, according to McCain's spokesman, none of those things matter:

The top stories making the rounds this afternoon:

• President Bush will create a bipartisan commission to investigate military medical facilities in the wake of the Walter Reed scandal.
• The United States is a step closer to building the first new atomic weapons since the Cold War by selecting a new design today.
• The city of New Orleans filed a $77 billion lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers today over flooding that resulted from broken levees after Hurricane Katrina.
• The Associated Press has admitted that it intentionally refused to cover anything related to celebutante Paris Hilton for one week, in part to see whether clients called up to complain. None did, they say.
• U.S. News's Jay Tolson writes about the legacy of historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a Kennedy confidante who died yesterday at 89.

Etc.: Messy Wounds at Walter Reed, on USNews.com

As U.S. News correspondent Chitra Ragavan reported yesterday, former Attorney General John Ashcroft had to cancel a planned pizza party for political appointees from his tenure at Justice after it came out that the department's ethics office had raised suspicions about the gathering.

In an E-mail to the invitees, Ashcroft shows that he at least has a sense of sarcasm about the whole thing.

"Since I care about you, I do not wish to place you in the uncomfortable or awkward position of explaining the circumstances under which you ate pizza with me," he wrote.

A flap over the firings of several U.S. attorneys is back in the news today after a House Judiciary subcommittee subpoenaed four of the ousted prosecutors yesterday.

Chatter on the subject kicked up again after the former U.S. attorney from New Mexico, David Iglesias, said he believed he may have been fired for political reasons. Speculation quickly zeroed in on New Mexico Republicans Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson, McClatchy Newspapers reports, after the rest of the state's fairly small delegation denied any involvement. (The liberal blog TalkingPointsMemo.com has also persistently gone after this story.)

But as we wrote in early February, hard evidence exists that some--though not all--of the ousted attorneys weren't performing up to snuff. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) provides data on, among other things, the total number of prosecutions each attorney initiated and the median prison sentence for those convicted, by category. As one can see, some of the fired attorneys appear to have been doing their job very well, while others do not.

Updating those figures for New Mexico, from 2002 to 2006 prosecutions initiated by Iglesias rose 5 percent. Immigration cases were up 25 percent, while drug/narcotics cases were down 15 percent and weapons charges down 10 percent. Meanwhile, the median sentence for weapons charges was up 14 percent, from 21 to 24 months. Total median sentencing dropped from 12 months in 2002 to 10 months in 2006.

The numbers are only part of the story, of course. More prosecutions can merely mean that prosecutors are going after smaller potatoes, though that fact would show up in a dramatic drop in the median sentence.

In this case, however, no one seems to be paying attention to the numbers at all.

Here's a rundown of where you'll find presidential candidates today and this weekend:

The Democrats:

• Bill Richardson is in Iowa today and tomorrow, attending house parties and meeting with supporters and media.
• Chris Dodd is in South Carolina today for a speech at the University of South Carolina and a meeting with York County Democrats.
• Barack Obama zips between Illinois and California today and tomorrow, attending the NAACP Image Awards tonight in Los Angeles and then back for a healthcare rally in Chicago tomorrow. On Sunday, he'll head to Selma, Ala., to deliver the keynote address at the annual voting rigths march commemoration.
• Hillary Clinton will also be in Los Angeles raising money today and heads to Selma on Sunday. She then flies to Iowa for an event in Dubuque.
• John Edwards travels through California as well, making stops in Fresno today and Berkeley on Sunday.
• Joe Biden makes three stops in South Carolina on Sunday.

The Republicans:

Most of the Republican 2008 hopefuls are in Washington this morning to speak at the Conservative Political Action Committee Conference.

John McCain, meanwhile, is in Pheonix for a rally, and Tom Tancredo heads to Iowa tonight.

In a straw poll in Spartanburg, S.C., last night, Giuliani led early returns, followed by California Rep. Duncan Hunter.

This morning's top stories:

• The Army has axed the chief of the Walter Reed Medical Center after a Washington Post series exposed rampant malfeasance at the facility. Watch Video.
• South Korea is refusing to resuming aid shipments of fertilizer and rice to North Korea until the nation makes good on its pledge to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
• In the House of Representatives, the stage is set for bruising battle over the EPA budget, U.S. News reports.
• The death toll in yesterday's storms has reached 16, the AP reports. Watch Video.

Coming up: which candidates are campaigning where over the weekend.