Tea Partyers to IRS: Prepare to Be Flash-Mobbed

In the wake of revelations that IRS officials unduly targeted right-leaning groups, a number of tea party supporters plan to publicly shame the tax man by amassing outside the agency’s headquarters on Tuesday for a lightning-fast gripefest.

(Screenshot)

The proposed “IRS Flash Rally” — “We will NOT have a permit, so be prepared to keep moving on the sidewalk,” one of the organizers counseled online — is scheduled to go down at the corner of 10th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest from noon to 1 p.m.

Tea Party WDC founder Lisa Miller told HOH she’s been in contact with a slew of sympathetic organizations champing at the bit to vent about IRS abuses, ranging from established political players (Americans for Prosperity) to fellow grass-roots entities (Northern Virginia Tea Party, Alexandria Tea Party).

Full story

Whoops! Looks Like ‘Mark Sanfrod’ Was Sworn In

Updated 3:45 p.m. | Moving in. It can be quite the adjustment. Just ask the team of newly sworn-in Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., which was greeted with a press release sent out under the auspices of the new congressman with this headline: “Representative Mark Sanfrod Sworn Into Office.”

A horrified staff saw this — as well as an HOH blog post noting the misspelling and other snafus on Sanford’s official congressional website — and explained what went down.

“Rep. Sanford’s official website was updated by the US House without the prior knowledge, or consent, of our office and they have acknowledged their error,” Sanford’s office said in a statement. Specifically, responsibility for the error lies with the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer.

Sanford, who was sworn in on Wednesday, certainly is one of the most colorful figures to return to Capitol Hill in quite some time. But the release was more than colorful:

(Screenshot)

Full story

Softball: ‘Debbie Is Gonna Make Us Practice in the Rain’

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., is not happy with her softball team’s practice rain-out policy.

Wasserman Schultz, second from left, is not happy with her team’s rain-out policy. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Wasserman Schultz captains the Congressional Women’s Softball team, a group of female lawmakers who play against female Washington press corps members every June to raise money for the Young Survival Coalition, a breast cancer charity.

It seems that on Monday evening, the Congressional team’s organizers canceled their Tuesday practice — set for 7 a.m. — in anticipation of rain.

But the rain didn’t come. Full story

Reid Has Nothing to Do With Domenici Anymore

Reid, left, and Domenici, center, were once close colleagues. (Scott J.Ferrell/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to see former Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M., recently because of Domenici’s affair with the daughter of his friend and one-time opponent, former Republican Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada.

“I don’t mention Domenici anymore because of what he did to Michelle [Laxalt],” Reid said in an hourlong interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week.

“He asked to see me last week, but I wouldn’t meet with him. But that’s another story,” Reid said.

Reid is close with Laxalt, 90, who walked him to the well of the Senate to be re-sworn in after his tough 2010 re-election campaign. The two grew close after Laxalt defeated Reid for the Senate seat in 1974 by fewer than 1,000 votes, one of the closest races in history. Reid replaced Laxalt after he retired in 1987.

Full story

Air Force Sex Assault Arrest Highlight’s Filmmakers’ Quest

A key point in last year’s Academy Award nominated documentary “The Invisible War” was that the military was structurally incapable of adequately policing sexual assault in the armed services. As if to bolster the filmmakers’ case, the Air Force officer in charge of its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Branch has been arrested and charged with sexual battery.

“The DoD estimates that, on average, there are more than 50 sexual assaults involving military personnel each day. The only thing unusual about this particular assault is that the accused was actually arrested and charged, and that senior officers in his chain of command cannot intervene to prevent his prosecution,” Kirby Dick, the director of “The Invisible War,” told CQ Roll Call. His film’s key tenet is that the military does not follow standard criminal justice procedures in sexual assault cases, keeping them within the chain of command, and that this has helped lead to an epidemic of sexual assault in the armed forces.

Filmmakers Kirby Dick, left, and Amy Ziering promoted their film “The Invisible War,” about military sexual assault, in Washington last year. (Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Lt. Col. Jeff Krusinski was arrested by Arlington County, Va., police on Sunday in a Crystal City, Va., parking lot, as first reported by ARLnow. According to the police report “a drunken male subject approached a female victim in a parking lot and grabbed her breasts and buttocks. The victim fought the suspect off as he attempted to touch her again and alerted police.” Krusinski was arrested, charged and held on a $5,000 unsecured bond.

Full story

Booze in the Rayburn Basement

Uh oh … look what HOH found in the basement of the Rayburn House Office Building on Thursday afternoon:

(Julie Ershadi/CQ Roll Call)

A garbage dolly loaded with empty boxes and bottles of Stella Artois beers and Robert Mondavi vino. Let’s just hope it was a celebration, not a mourning.

Rangel Kinda Sues Boehner

HOH loves any good story that begins with the phrase “Eyebrows raised on Capitol Hill,” particularly when it concerns two old bulls such as Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., and Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, and a lawsuit!

Such is the case with this post by our own David M. Drucker about the lawsuit filed by Rangel seeking to vacate his censure by the Ethics Committee from a few years ago. It turns out that while, yes, Boehner is named in the suit, he’s not really the intended target. Instead, the suit takes aim at the bipartisan committee, which was then led by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Rangel claims the House was “knowingly deceived” by members of the ethics panel.

Of course, Lofgren is no longer the Ethics chairwoman (or on the panel at all). Chalk it up to reason #3,452 that the Ethics committee chairmanship, as members all know, is the most thankless job in Congress.

McCotter Sues Former Staffers for Forged Ballot Signatures

Ex-Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., is taking two former staffers to court, suing them for the fraudulent nomination petitions that ultimately led to his resignation from Congress in July.

In the lawsuit filed in Michigan’s Wayne County Circuit Court on Thursday, McCotter alleges that the two aides deliberately submitted forged ballot petitions to foil his re-election efforts, according to The Associated Press.

The former fringe 2012 GOP presidential hopeful filed the suit against his former deputy district director, Don Yowchuang, 34, and former intern, Dillon Breen, 20. Full story

Mark Sanford’s Argentine Love At Victory Celebration

Former South Carolina Gov. and Rep. Mark Sanford continued his comeback from the Appalachian Trail on Tuesday with his onetime mistress, now fiancée, at his side.

On Tuesday night, as Sanford was celebrating his victory in South Carolina’s 1st congressional district runoff election for the Republican nomination, María Belén Chapur congratulated him at the watch party, and took her place to his right when he spoke to the crowd.

In 2009, Sanford made headlines, and put the final nail in his marriage’s coffin, when he went missing for several days. Aides were stuck telling the press that the then-governor was hiking the Appalachian Trail. He was actually in Argentina with Chapur, whom he later described as his “soul mate.”

After returning from his South American tryst, Sanford gave an infamously honest press conference wherein he admitted the infidelity and proclaimed his love for Chapur. The couple announced their engagement in August 2012.

Several weeks ago, Scott English, Sanford’s former chief of staff, tweeted a joke about the pope in which he referenced the ex-governor’s disappearance. The Internet laughed out loud.

A Crapo Fundraiser’s Interesting Optics

Not quite four months since Sen. Michael D. Crapo was arrested in Virginia and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, the Idaho Republican apparently feels right at home heading to a fundraiser at a private townhouse owned by a liquor conglomerate.

Crapo — who was pulled over on Dec. 23 in Alexandria, Va., and failed multiple sobriety tests — is hosting the event Thursday afternoon for his Freedom Fund PAC at the privately owned Diageo Townhouse at 310 Sixth St. SE.
Full story

Kinzinger’s Kegerator Mystery

It’s been a long day. Votes have been cast. Emails have been sent. Finally, it’s beer o’clock.

Most House and Senate members and staffers have to reach into the office mini-fridge to pass around a long-neck bottle, or else they have to throw on their coats and make the multiblock trek to the nearest bar for a draft.

Unless, of course, you’re Rep. Adam Kinzinger and his Longworth Office staff.
Full story

Troubles Visit the Folger’s Exhibit

A current exhibit at the Folger Shakespeare Library that aims to highlight Irish-English relations in the 16th and 17th centuries as “more than a binary story of oppressor and oppressed,” has received strong criticism from a top Irish scholar in Washington.

Cóilín Owens, professor emeritus at George Mason University, had some harsh words for the curators of the new exhibit in a letter sent to the Irish Embassy in Washington, the two exhibit curators and the Folger Shakespeare Library itself. Owens’ letter, however, was leaked to IrishCentral.com, a website aimed at the global Irish diaspora, igniting some unintended media controversy.
Full story

Staffer’s Divorce Becomes Object of Hill Protest

Demonstrations are a dime a dozen on Capitol Hill, but it’s not every day that a group shows up to protest the actions of a Hill staffer.

Yet on Thursday, a Jewish organization plans to do just that, staging a protest against Aharon Friedman, a senior aide to Michigan Republican Rep. Dave Camp.

Friedman, an Orthodox Jew, was civilly divorced from his wife, Tamar Epstein, in April 2010. However, according to the group, he’s refused to grant Epstein a “get,” or a Jewish writ of divorce. Without a get, Epstein is considered an agunah — the Hebrew term meaning “chained wife” — and is not permitted to remarry within the faith.
Full story

Eight Evidently Wasn’t Enough for Pete Domenici

(CQ Roll Call File Photo)

In what’s fast becoming a trend on Capitol Hill, former Sen. Pete V. Domenici, R-N.M., has admitted to fathering a son outside of wedlock — with the daughter of ex-Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev.

Domenici has eight other children from his marriage to wife, Nancy.

As first reported by the Albuquerque Journal, Domenici had a son, Adam Paul Laxalt, currently an attorney with Lewis and Roca in Las Vegas, with Michelle Laxalt back in the 1980s. Adam Laxalt is an Iraq War veteran and served as a staffer in the office of former Sen. John Warner, R-Va.

“One night’s mistake led to pregnancy more than 30 years ago,” Michelle Laxalt said in an official statement.

Full story

Good-Buy, Jesse Jackson Jr.

(CQ Roll Call File Photo)

We’ve spent all weekend trying to wrap our head around why anyone, particularly a public official, would knowingly siphon work-related funds to satisfy personal fetishes.

To be fair, former Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr., D-Ill., has copped to being exhausted/bipolar/depressed since dropping from view last summer. But, as became apparent with the filing of an official plea deal Feb. 15 — a mea culpa acknowledging Jackson and his wife, Sandi, illegally directed about $750,000 in campaign funds during the past decade for personal expenses — Jackson has clearly been out of his mind for quite some time.

Some of his mind-boggling splurges include:

• $43,000 for a gold Rolex;
• $27,000 for Michael Jackson memorabilia, including a $4,600 fedora;
• $10,000 for Bruce Lee collectibles;
• $5,000 for a football signed by “American presidents.”

While we never condone embezzling, Jackson could have at least saved a few bucks on his road to professional ruin.

Full story