The Week
Congress: Delay Reaction
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is known in Congress as "the Hammer" for the arm-twisting tactics he employs to spin votes his way. But the House ethics committee, for the second time in six days, last week said the Republican Texas lawmaker went too far. In a stinging rebuke, the panel hit the House's second-highest ranking member for asking federal aviation officials to track a plane carrying Democratic legislators from his home state involved in a redistricting battle and, also, for suggesting that political contributions might influence legislative action. "If the Republican majority wants the American people to believe that it takes ethics seriously, it must insist that Mr. DeLay resign his post," said Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. So will he resign? In a word: No. Republican allies, urged on by a defiant DeLay, rallied to his defense.
Don't expect voters to dump him, either. DeLay, 57, has served 10 terms and is expected to win again handily in November. But pols say his ethics woes could put a wrench in his plans to succeed Dennis Hastert when the House speaker steps aside.
Congress: No draft
Worried the draft might be reinstituted as violence continues in Afghanistan and Iraq? You're not alone. The Internet has been abuzz with chatter that President Bush plans to bring back the draft if re-elected. The truth? Such a move doesn't have a prayer--at least not now. The reason: Almost nobody --not Bush, not the Pentagon, not Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry, and certainly not the public--supports a mandatory draft, which was replaced with a voluntary military in 1973. To wit: When the House last week voted 402-2 to nix a measure to restore it, even sponsors of the bill voted " no," noting the legislation--suddenly brought up for a vote by GOP leaders--was a symbolic gesture to highlight that minorities and low-income people make up the bulk of today's troops. But not everyone's convinced that the issue's dead.
"That was a phony vote that was only held to allow members of Congress to say, 'I'm not going to send your sons or daughters to war.' But that's a promise that down the road they may not be able to keep," says Jay Strell of Rock the Vote, which raised the draft issue in its quest to spur the 18-to-30-year-old crowd to register to vote. "^Neither side has offered up what they're going to do to meet the current and future military needs." Oy.
Courts: Do not call!
Maybe this will finally convince phone solicitors to hang it up. The U.S. Supreme Court last week put the kibosh on telemarketers' attempts to void the federal "do not call" registry by claiming it violated their free-speech rights. (Oh, puhleeze.) The high court let stand a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that upheld the ballooning list of more than 64 million phone numbers as a "reasonable" government attempt to protect privacy and limit telemarketing abuse. Under the 2003 law, solicitors face fines of up to $11,000 per violation if they call people on the registry.
Case closed. So stop calling--now.
Media: Radio daze
Schlock jock Howard Stern really shocked listeners last week when he announced that he's taking his act to satellite radio, becoming the highest-profile radio personality to defect to the new medium. Stern, 50, who routinely gets stations in trouble with his graphic chit chat, said he's jumping to Sirius Satellite Radio in January 2006 after signing a five-year, multimillion-dollar deal. "The Super Bowl did us in," he said on his show last week, referring to Janet Jackson's halftime costume "malfunction," which prompted the Federal Communications Commission to step up enforcement of indecency regs and Congress to mull over hiking fines to $500,000 for violations. "It's time to go," Stern said. "I believe more in satellite than I do in radio." Stern's contract with Infinity Broadcasting runs through the end of next year. This could herald a new era for satellite radio, which is also courting other shock talent.
Lest you think satellite will be all dirty talk, all the time, Satellite radio (XM in this case) also picked up laidback Bob Edwards, who was unceremoniously sacked by National Public Radio as host of its newsy Morning Edition . Nothing like variety.
This story appears in the October 18, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.