Last Sunday, in "Alaska: All Your Taxes Are Belongs To Us", I guessed that if any Senator was the one to have placed a 'secret hold' on pending legislation creating an online database of Federal funding, bringing pork projects out into the light, it would be Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska.
This concerns S.2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006. It had passed the committee vote and would be ready for a vote of the full Senate, but will not be voted on as long as there is a hold on it. The hold is secret because the Senator who has put the hold on it does not want it known that he did this. Surprisingly, this is an acceptable tactic in the Senate. Sounds shady to me.
Well, this did not stop bloggers on the left and right (an amazing feat in itself!) from calling Senators for confirmation that they were not the one holding up a piece of good-government.
The list of suspects is here at Porkbusters and has quickly gone from almost all other than the sponsors to only eight; one of them being my bet, Senator Stevens. There has been no end of bloggers trying to get him on the record one way or the other. Seems like this is the best we have so far, from Red State:
The list of suspects is here at Porkbusters and has quickly gone from almost all other than the sponsors to only eight; one of them being my bet, Senator Stevens. There has been no end of bloggers trying to get him on the record one way or the other. Seems like this is the best we have so far, from Red State:
Of all the senators I called, only one would not give me a definitive "no." Senator Stevens's office said he does not comment on holds and, in any event, they did not know if he had a hold. They also told me they had gotten "lots" of calls. That last bit is interesting because a friend also called the office the day before I called -- he called in the afternoon and I called the next morning. He was told the office had gotten no calls on the legislation and the office was not aware of the legislation. That does not add up. - More at Red State
More here:
Alaska: All Your Taxes Are Belongs To Us - FFI
Is Senator Stevens Holding Up Coburn-Obama? - Red State
'Fess Up, Tubemeister! - Wonkette
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