The House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that calls on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to initiate an investigation of the relationship between oil speculators and the increasing price of oil and gasoline. If the bill passes the Senate, which is by no means a certainty, the CFTC will be authorized to use its emergency powers to launch the investigation. The current head of the little-known federal regulatory agency, Walter Lukken, said that the agency has already formed a task force to look at the issue, which will report back to the Commission on September 15th. But Congress wants the agency to take quicker action.

Republicans have been putting increasing pressure on the House leadership to do something about increasing gas prices. Republicans are pushing legislation that would increase exploration for oil and natural gas in the United States as a means of increasing supply. Democrats generally favor energy alternatives, claiming that new oil production in the U.S. will not have an impact on the market in the near term. But the same can be said for alternative energy sources, for which a viable delivery and distribution infrastructure does not yet exist. Still, Democratic leaders see the price of oil as less a function of market dynamics and more as a conspiracy among wealthy and disconnected oil companies and traders. Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that the CFTC was similarly out of touch with, "the economic pain that the American people are feeling."

"The fact that the CFTC has refused to recognize that there is any speculative component at all to the rise in oil prices despite what we believe is overwhelming testimony to the contrary indicates that they need this push."

The bill will face an uphill battle in the Senate, where it could be subject to a Republican filibuster. But given that all the previous investigations of alleged price gouging and collusion among gasoline distributors and oil companies have turned up no evidence of wrongdoing, Republicans may decide to allow the measure to go through as a means of building more of a case for their position that the price of oil is being driven by a supply shortage. Whatever action the Senate takes, however, the measure does nothing to produce a single drop, let alone a barrel, of oil. As such it will certainly have no impact on prices, just as all the previous investigations have not helped drop the price of a gallon of gas.

Rick Moran is glum about GOP chances to flip the house back.

But then came the scramble for the exits among House Republicans and that vision proved to be nothing but a mirage. Like a bunch of theatergoers leaving at the end of the second act of a really bad show, a parade of GOP Congressmen appeared before the cameras, and one by one over the ensuing months announced their retirement. The list grew to include 22 members - many of them long-serving Congressmen who found themselves facing a well funded, and enthusiastic Democratic challenger for the first time in many years.

...

The math is frightening. With 28 seats up for grabs in 2008 on top of the 18 seat majority currently held by Democrats, there is a very good chance that Democrats, for all practical purposes, could win enough seats this year that the GOP would be a minority party for the next decade - and perhaps beyond. When 98% of incumbents in the House are victorious and redistricting looms in 2012, the chances of Republicans overcoming a 40 or 50-seat Democratic majority in the next couple of election cycles are slim.

This is correct, but it shouldn't have surprised anyway. The only thing that bothers me about this post is the lack of a sense of history even 12 years ago. The same thing happened post 1994 when it was the GOP in the catbird seat. There were many Democrats that retired, and a few that became Republicans (Ben Nighthorse Campbell was one of the higher profile examples). Which of course sank the Democrat chances of retaking the house for what turned out to be 12 years in the wilderness.

Many of the GOP retirees, among them Deb Pryce in Ohio, stuck out longer than they planned to as a favor to the party to keep control. Once control was no longer an issue what was the point. The GOP will not get control back this cycle, but this wave of retirements is overall a good thing for the GOP (and any political party). Fresh blood, new ideas, new faces will ultimately lead to less time in the wilderness.

Congressman Bill Delahunt of Massachusetts today made an amazingly outrageous comment during a House hearing. Watch the clip below:

"I'm glad they finally have a chance to see you?" That would be Al Qaeda? Making matters worse, Delahunt offered an embarrassing effort to clean up his mess, saying he meant that he was happy to see Addington. Seriously.

"I'm sure they are watching. I'm glad they finally have a chance to see you, Mr. Addington, given your penchant for being unobtrusive."

Not much room for interpretation there Congressman.

On Tuesday military officials testified before a House Committee about a huge military contract somehow awarded to a company run by a 22-year-old man from Miami Beach to provide arms to coalition troops in Afghanistan, despite the fact that Diveroli is on a State Department watch list designed to monitor suspected international arms dealers. A $298 million contract was issued to Efraim Diveroli's company, AEY. AEY and a supplier the company worked with were also on the list.

In March, The New York Times published a story about how Diveroli's company, with only a handful of employees, managed to become a successful military contractor. The company, AEY, then supplied ammunition to coalition forces operating in Afghanistan that was more than 40 years old and "in decomposing packaging". That ammunition was cobbled together from aging stockpiles in old Communist bloc and China.

Committee Chairman Henry Waxman lashed out at the contracts saying, "It appears that anyone--no matter how inexperienced or unqualified--can win a lucrative federal contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars." He added that it was "hard to imagine a less-qualified company than AEY." Officials from the defense department could not confirm whether or not AEY is currently supplying troops in Iraq.

Although he was invited, Diveroli did not testify. He cited his fifth amendment right not to incriminate himself, which Waxman accepted because last week Diveroli and three other associates were indicted in Miami on a variety of fraud charges.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif) thinks the U.S. embassy in Albania may have helped an indicted weapons dealer hide the Chinese origin of ammunition sent to Afghanistan, and that the embassy tried to keep information about the ammunition from Congress.

Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, today sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying:

"The Oversight Committee has received information that the U.S. ambassador to Albania held a late-night meeting with the Albanian Defense Minister at which the ambassador approved removing evidence of the illegal Chinese origins of ammunition being shipped from Albania to Afghanistan by a U.S. contractor."

Here's what the chief of the Office of Defense Cooperation at the embassy, Major Larry Harrison, told the committee on June 9:

-Ambassador John Withers and top aides (as well as Harrison) met with the Albanian defense minister on Nov. 19, 2007, to discuss how to respond to a NY Times request to visit a site in Albania where U.S. arms contractor AEY was removing Chinese ammunition from its original packaging before sending it to Afghanistan

-the defense minister then ordered his top general to remove all evidence of Chinese packaging before the next day's inspection, to "alleviate the suspicion of wrongdoing."

-he felt "very uncomfortable" with the decision to remove the Chinese Markings, since AEY was under investigation for illegal arms trafficking involving Chinese ammunition.

Democratic and Republican negotiators have reached a tentative deal in the ongoing battle over funding for the war in Iraq. The Pentagon will receive all of the money requested by the White House for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan without restrictions, while Democrats will get some domestic measures inserted into the bill to help satisfy their political base. Most important politically for the Democrats, however, is that the deal will provide funds for the war through fiscal year 2009; thereby avoiding an election season vote on war funding. The compromise is slated for a vote in the House today.

A House source with knowledge of the deal said that Republican negotiators were able to secure the funding with no restrictions, eliminated funding for Planned Parenthood, and cut two Senate amendments from the final bill which would have added $8 billion in spending on pet projects and prevented the Bush Administration from restricting states from extending access to the the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). In return, Democrats won a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits, although they had wanted 26 weeks, and generous spending on education benefits for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, a new GI Bill, without increasing taxes. The White House has indicated that it will sign the bill once it is passed.

On balance, it appears that Congressional Democrats, in order to avoid a politically tricky vote on the war funding this fall, gave more than Republicans in reaching the deal. Like any good compromise, neither side will be entirely happy with the outcome. But more important than the scoring of who won or lost, is the fact that the troops will receive the funding they need and deserve to continue operations in the war on terror. With violence declining steadily in Iraq, and the Iraqi government demonstrating more control over the country, interruptions in funding for the troops helping to achieve that progress could have been devastating to the growing success there. In Afghanistan, on the other hand, attacks by Taliban militants are up, and the funds are needed to help extend the reach of the government in Kabul.

Having conquered the media adoration circuit, the Scott McClellan book tour winds its way up to Capitol Hill next week, for an appearance before the House Judiciary Committee to testify in a hearing into the Valerie Plame leak case. Not content to let the conclusions of a Federal prosecutor or the admission of the actual leaker be the final word on the subject, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) wants the former White House Press Secretary to testify about the role of top White House Officials, including Vice-President Dick Cheney, in potentially misleading the public about the Administration's role in making the former CIA operative's name public. In his book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception," McClellan says that Cheney, Karl Rove, and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, misled him about their role in the affair, causing him to make false statements to the press from the White House podium. Libby was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice charges for his role in the leak and later had his 30 month prison sentence commuted by President Bush.

McClellan's testimony will shed some light on the inner workings of the White House during the intense media frenzy surrounding the Plame case, but it will likely not reveal anything new about the actual leak. Former Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage has admitted publicly that he was the source for reporter Bob Novak's infamous column that first identified Plame as a CIA employee. However, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald only indicted Libby for lying to the grand jury investigating the leak. Despite an intensive investigation, Rove was never charged. But Conyers will not let the matter rest, and the charges in McClellan's book provide a fresh opportunity for him to try and make the blame for the Plame scandal stick to a higher profile Administration official. The truth in this case is already known, making further investigation nothing but a partisan search for an alternate history.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Henry Waxman wants to look into the Valerie Plame outing, citing a disclosure Scooter Libby made to the FBI in which Libby indicated to investigators that he may have been instructed by Vice President Dick Cheney to out Plame. Waxman wants the FBI to turn over records of an interview they conducted with Cheney during the course of the investigation that ended with the conviction Libby for perjury and the subsequent commutation of his sentence by President Bush.

In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Waxman said that recent revelations from Scott McClellan represent a breach of trust. In an interview with the Today Show last week, McClellan said the President admitted to McClellan that he authorized the leak of Plame's identity. In his book McClellan says Bush and Cheney "directed me to go out there and exonerate Scooter Libby."

Do not expect Mukasey to comply with Waxman's request for documents. Still, the move works for Waxman politically because he can continue to put pressure on the Bush administration at a time when the Plame outing is being re-examined in light of McClellan's book. If the administration blocks Waxman from getting the records he wants, he can argue that once again the're politicizing justice.

Don Siegelman, the former Alabama governor who is free from prison pending an appeal of his June 2006 bribery and conspiracy conviction, received the support of 54 former state attorneys general Friday when they filed a brief supporting his appeal of that conviction. Siegelman says Fox News pundit and former Bush brain and current McCain adviser Karl Rove pushed a politically motivated prosecution and that when the dust settles, this case will make Watergate look like child's play.

Democratic Representative John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, gave Rove a week to testify before the committee about questions stemming from the prosecution of Siegelman and "for so many things, it's hard to keep track". At the time, Conyers said that if Rove didn't testify within a week that the committee would "do what any self-respecting committee would do. We'd hold him in contempt. Either that or go and have him arrested."

That was about two weeks ago. Last week, when the committee subpoenaed Rove, he was given a deadline of July 10 to appear. Stay tuned.

Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., is calling on former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan to testify under oath before the House Judiciary Committee on the Bush administration's "deliberate efforts to mislead" the public heading into the Iraq war.

If you've heard a shred of news today, you know that McClellan is making made tidal waves with his tell-all book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception."

McClellan, who said on the morning talk-show circuit today that the White House wanted him to keep quiet about his experiences, maintains that President Bush stayed in "permanent campaign culture" and allowed his staff to use misleading and incomplete information to "sell" the war. Some of his former colleagues refute the claims in the book. "This does not sound like Scot McClellan," McClellan's predecessor, Ari Fleischer, said last night.

Now, Wexler, who has led a campaign to hold impeachment hearings for Vice President Dick Cheney, wants McClellan to detail to Congress his admissions about the Valerie Plame leak scandal.

"The admissions made by Scott McClellan in his new book are earth-shattering and allege facts to establish that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby – and possibly Vice President Cheney - conspired to obstruct justice by lying about their role in the Plame Wilson matter and that the Bush Administration deliberately lied to the American people in order to take us to war in Iraq," Wexler said in a statement.