"Note to GOP: We make cars in Michigan"

A Sessions Watcher with an eye on the NRCC sends this news clip from Michigan. From Detroit News:

The National Republican Campaign Committee said Friday it will launch a robocall campaign targeting freshman Rep. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, for his vote on the "wasteful spending" stimulus bill. But the research team at the NRCC might want to think a little harder about the "wasteful spending" it cites in Michigan...Peters spokesman Cullen Schwarz responds: "This economic recovery plan means over 100,000 jobs created or saved in Michigan. Congressman Peters has been meeting with local mayors, school administrators, business owners, working families and unemployed residents who are grateful for the job-creating investments and tax cuts this plan will provide. If these guys would get out of Washington once in a while and come talk to real people here, they could see how badly Michigan needs action on an economic recovery plan."

The Detroit News also published the text of the robocall:

"Congressmen like to brag about being fiscally responsible. They all say they are opposed to wasteful spending. But Congressman Gary Peters has not been voting that way. Gary Peters voted for nearly a trillion dollars in wasteful spending. That's right one trillion dollars of your money and more than 30 entirely new government programs. Call Gary Peters at 202-225-3121. Tell him he made a mistake by supporting wasteful spending. Tell him to guard the taxpayers instead. Paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. The National Republican Congressional Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising."

Meanwhile, Gary Peters is speaking to packed houses about the benefits of the stimulus bill to his constituents:

Unemployed residents, small business owners, superintendents and working family members attended the meeting at Peters' Troy offices.

In Michigan, the recovery plan will provide more than $1.2 billion in job-creating infrastructure investments, $926 million for Michigan's K-12 schools, tax relief for four million Michigan residents and increased unemployment benefits for more than one million jobless Michiganians. The plan is estimated to mean more 100,000 more jobs for Michigan.

So it looks like the NRCC just gave free publicity to Gary Peters for supporting a bill which is very popular in his district. (And Sessions Watch would just like to go on the record once again as having tried to warn the GOP about putting Pete Sessions in charge of anything).

Memo to Congress: If you took Stanford's money, just admit it!

This is the problem ordinary people have with our members of Congress, they try to run away from a story instead of taking it on headlong. The latest story about R. Allen Stanford has politicians on both sides of the aisle "scrambling to distance themselves from Allen Stanford," according to Talking Points Memo.

The February 18 edition of Bloomberg, for instance, has this to say about Pete Sessions' relationship with Stanford:

Representative Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican, got $41,375. Spokeswoman Emily Davis said Sessions didn’t know Stanford personally.

But take a look at the January 20, 2006 edition of Bloomberg, which reports on the House Caribbean Caucus, of which Pete Sessions was caucus co-chair:

Sessions's biggest campaign donors for the 2004 elections were employees of Stanford Financial, Federal Election Commission records show. He was asked to join the Caribbean Caucus by Allen Stanford, said Guy Harrison, Sessions's chief of staff.

``Mr. Stanford is very focused on making sure the Caribbean is noticed within the U.S. foreign policy structure,'' said Harrison. He said Stanford never asked Sessions for anything else.

And, of course, Talking Points Memo has dug up pictures of key representatives in photographs with Stanford--like this one, which shows Pete Sessions, R. Allen Stanford, and Donald Payne (D-NJ) at a 2005 trip to Antigua.

In congressional districts all over the U.S., constituents are asking the same thing: if there's nothing to hide, what are you running away from?

R. Allen Stanford's ties to local politicians

The latest billionaire to be charged with investment fraud is Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford, who has given generously to both political parties over the years in the hopes of receiving political favors. From Wall St. Journal:

Texas businessman R. Allen Stanford, whose multibillion-dollar investment empire was ordered seized Monday by a federal judge, has long enjoyed big influence in Washington thanks to a steady supply of campaign contributions, Caribbean trips for lawmakers and fees to lobbying firms.

Mr. Stanford and his affiliated companies have spent more than $5 million on lobbying fees since 2000, federal records show. The businessman and his top executives have also contributed at least $2 million to candidates, including key lawmakers, and additional thousands of dollars on jets and resorts...For the past few years, Mr. Stanford...has been lobbying to preserve and expand tax rules that enable him to pay minimal federal income taxes as a resident there, according to lobbyists. While allies of Mr. Stanford in Congress have managed to fend off attacks on rules, his efforts to expand them further have thus far been unsuccessful, lobbyists said.

Among the recipients of R. Allen Stanford's donations are John Cornyn and Pete Sessions. From Dallas Morning News:

R. Allen Stanford has given generously to Texas lawmakers in both parties. And his company bankrolled a four-day visit to a Caribbean resort island for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn in 2004.

"It was strictly a fact-finding trip. They have offices in Houston, and they were doing a lot of business out of Antigua," said Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin...Cornyn received $19,700, making him the fifth-largest recipient, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, was the second-biggest recipient, collecting $41,375 – nearly all of it in the final weeks of the 2004 race against then-Rep. Martin Frost.

A Sessions aide declined to comment.

Probably no repercussions against politicians who accepted donations from him, the real scandal is that this is another Madoff-style investment fraud swindle. Read more about it at Financial Times, UK, and keep up with the latest news of the ongoing manhunt at ABC News.

"Sessions' Taliban strategy"

From Sunday's letters to the editor, Dallas Morning News:

Re: "Talking Points," last Sunday Points.
My congressman, U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, wishes to emulate the Taliban rather than help put the country back together that his ilk ran into a ditch over the past eight years. He bemoans what he calls the classic liberal doctrine of "tax and spend," but what is the GOP doctrine? Cut taxes and spend?
If only we had half the money Republicans squandered in the past decade we would not have such a bitter pill to swallow today.

At this writing, there are 5 comments on the blog, and Sessions is losing 4-1.
Add your comment at the Dallas Morning News opinion blog.

Sessions makes Olbermann's "Worst Person" list

Commentary on "Mullah Pete" begins at clip position 1:18.

H.R.1--Pete Sessions casts "no" vote

As predicted, Pete Sessions voted against HR 1, which passed the House on a near party-line vote, 246 yea and 183 nay, with 7 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote against it, and no Republicans voting in the affirmative. (See Roll No. 70).

From Congress.Org:

The House agreed to the conference report to accompany H.R. 1, making supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, by a yea-and-nay vote of 246 yeas to 183 nays with 1 voting "present", Roll No. 70.

Pete Sessions on Colbert Report

Pete Sessions' comment was the topic of "The Word" on Tuesday night's edition of The Colbert Report. Check it out!

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