Strange Bedfellows

Livingston County has been abuzz with the "news" of Mike Rogers' divorce... well, at least the Press & Argus has been abuzz, with 2 consecutive front-page articles yesterday and today. Sad for his family, not a surprise to most folks, not really above the fold material.

I came across some non-divorce coverage of Rogers today, which had a different take on his recent earmark spat with John Murtha (D-PA). You will recall that Rogers, with full Boy-Scouty indignation, was shocked, shocked to find Murtha upset about Rogers' attack on funding a drug intelligence center in Murtha's district.

[Hmmm. Guess Mr. Rogers (a/k/a Mr. Deputy Whip) wasn't ever in the room when Tom "The Hammer" DeLay was earning his nickname]

The MSM has spent a lot of time praising Rogers' "courageous" stand, and painting Murtha as a vindictive greedhead. No one has spent much time looking at the bigger picture, until this article in Executive Intelligence Review. It discusses why the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) was established and what it does.

The claims that NDIC is redundant within the group of anti-drug agencies (the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, to name just a few), and that intelligence can be gathered by the El Paso (Texas) Intelligence Center, are false. The NDIC was created in 1993, explictly to remedy the problem that the activities of all the organizations involved in anti-drug activity lacked overall intelligence-sharing and coordination. That is the mission of the NDIC. The El Paso center, established in 1974—almost two decades before NDIC—has never done this job; its intelligence function is operational, as befits the entity manning a front-line drug entry point into the United States.

Why did the White House decided to shut down NDIC less than a year after praising its efforts in 2006? This article connects the dots between Murtha's untiring -- and highly credible -- opposition to the war, and a White House that views dissent in the same way as the Corleone Family.

With his attack on Mr. Murtha, Mr. Rogers has shown that he once again is happy to attack on behalf of the Bush administration, facts be damned.

Rogers threat stunt garners the attention he craves

With his party in the minority and Mike Rogers shuttled to the sidelines with the Democratic majority, he has found a new way to both continue his role as Bush’s biggest cheerleader and lackey by going after the biggest Republican target and getting the most recognition and attention he has ever had in his entire political life.

As you are aware, Rogers tried last week unsuccessfully to strike from an intelligence spending bill an item that would restore $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center, a facility in Rep. Jack Murtha's Pennsylvania district.
According to Rogers' account, the Pennsylvania Democrat – the chair of House Defense Appropriations Chairman - angrily told Rogers he should never seek earmarks of his own because "you're not going to get any, now or forever." Rogers took the unusual step and called on the full House to reprimand Murtha. Rogers introduced what is called a "privileged" resolution charging Murtha violated House ethics rules when he allegedly threatened to cut off "now and forever" any earmarks for Rogers' district. Luckily, the measure was killed.

For that ridiculous threat, Rogers made just about every newspaper in the country, he was allowed to make the weekly GOP radio address where he attacked Murtha and he was also talked about on my favorite radio show, “The Stephanie Miller Show.” The point they made is this is the way politics have been conducted for years, and he should stop being a whiny baby. I agree. One lawmaker had this to say about Rogers, “put on your long pants and grow up.” How is this an ethics violation? If you need an ethics violation you just need to hear the names Bob Nye, Duke Cunningham and Jack Abramoff.

I challenged people earlier in the week to show what “earmark” – his job – Rogers has brought back to the 8th Congressional District. I’m still waiting. People here in Livingston County complain that we are a donor county because we send more money to Washington, D.C. than we get back, but somehow Rogers has painted properly representing your district as an ethics violation. Isn’t bringing some of that money back to the district what we sent him there for? I guess that’s why he never does, but I thought that was his job?

Murtha did take the high road and apologized to Rogers, but, according to Rogers' spokesperson, he also took the low road and declined not to accept it, “Congressman Rogers does accept the apology, but he is truly hopeful that this whole episode will change the way Congress spends the American taxpayers' money." Please. If Rogers does not accept an apology and his “privileged" resolution is going nowhere, what does Rogers want? He wants to smear Murtha and score political points.

This is from Rogers radio address, “Last Friday, House Republicans discovered that a Member of Congress had hidden a wasteful earmark -- or pet pork project -- worth tens of millions of dollars into a bill designed to fund America's Intelligence operations. It comes down to a choice between spies catching terrorists or pork barrel spending in a Congressional District. We are a nation at war, and when we find wasteful spending, we must stop it. “

Really.

The “pet project" in question is the National Drug Intelligence Center in Johnstown. The center “continues to play an important role in assessing the drug threat, identifying the patterns of distribution and gathering information from documents to help arrest drug traffickers,” Murtha said.

So let’s see if I got this right. Rogers is criticizing Murtha for trying to keep a facility open in his district that provides jobs and helps fight terror, and Rogers has done nothing for our biggest employer and simply watches as plat after plant closes and moves jobs overseas? Great job Mike.

Is it just me or does anyone else remember being bombarded a few years ago with public service commercials saying that by buying illegal drugs you were funding terrorists and terrorism?

Apparently Bush does. President Bush said that drug users aid terrorists who get their money from global trafficking in narcotics. "If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terrorism," he said. Mr. Bush offered a new argument in the fight against drugs while signing a bill to expand a federal anti-drug program over the next five years. The administration has linked the al-Qaida network in Afghanistan to heroin trafficking. The terrorist group, led by Osama bin Laden, is suspected in the Sept. 11 attacks on America.

Has that changed?

Rogers uses threat MO to attack respected colleague

It appears Rep. Mike Rogers is the latest weapon in the GOP’s quest to discredit U.S. Rep John Murtha, D-PA.

The Associated Press is reporting that during a series of House votes Thursday, Murtha walked to the GOP side to confront Rogers, a former FBI agent. This month, Rogers had tried unsuccessfully to strike from an intelligence spending bill an item that would restore $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center, a facility in Murtha's Pennsylvania district.
According to Rogers' account, which Murtha did not dispute, the Democrat angrily told Rogers he should never seek earmarks of his own because "you're not going to get any, now or forever."
"This was clearly designed to try to intimidate me," Rogers told The Associated Press on Friday. "He said it loud enough for other people to hear."

If anyone can tell me what funding Rogers has brought back to the 8th Congressional District I would sure like to hear it. Rogers appears to be fitting into his role as the minority quite well, and after being a cheerleader for Bush’s ill-conceived Iraq fiasco, he now appears to be serving it in a new role as the attack dog.

Rogers said he planned to file a "privileged resolution" Monday that would seek a House vote on whether to reprimand Murtha.

Rogers also claims Murtha made the alleged threat in front of a lot of people, and they are all, of course, Republicans. However, as of Sunday no one has come forward to back up Rogers’ yard.

Murtha, a harsh critic of Bush’s botched Iraq policy, has long been a target of the Republicans. During the last election season an offshoot of the Smear Boat Vets for “truth” that smeared every veteran who ever earned a medal, citation or commendation in their quest to get Sen. John Kerry formed something called “boot Murtha.” It operates just like the smear vets, and it smears all veterans, a tactic taken by the Bush Administration that pays mere lip service to their “support the troops” mantra.

Murtha is a Vietnam combat veteran, and apparently they don’t like that Murtha won two Purple Hearts. Murtha is also a retired Marine Colonel.

This is not a new tactic for Rogers. A few years back, around 2002, the Rogers camp claimed a former staffer named Bill Nowling - who was working for a political consulting group called Persuasion, Inc at the time that was representing a large telecommunications, At & T, I believe- tried to blackmail Rogers. The Rogers people claim Nowling said if Rogers didn’t vote for a telecommunications bill the group’s client wanted passed there would be hundreds of the company’s employees picketing in his office the next day. Now, Nowling claims it never happened, but the Rogers people sure made a big deal out of it at the time. I am still looking for the article that ran in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus.

UPDATE (Pohlitics): Here is the resolution introduced by Mike Rogers.