Representative Bob Ney, whose plea agreement on fraud and conspiracy charges was released on Friday, stepped down this afternoon from his last remaining leadership positions, chairman of the Housing and Community Opportunity Subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee and of the House Franking Commission. Mr. Ney decided over the summer not to run for re-election to his Ohio Congressional seat and stepped down in January as chairman of House Administration.
Currently said to be in an alcohol rehabilitation program and scheduled to enter his plea on Oct. 13, he has not indicated whether he will resign his seat before the term ends, or continue collecting his paycheck as long as he can.
The House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, asked Speaker Dennis Hastert to take whatever steps are necessary to remove him from those positions on Friday, but at this point it is unclear what or who exactly prompted the timing.
Resignation letters to Mr. Hastert:
President Bush landed in New York on Monday. As campaigner-in-chief, Mr.
Bush will be the headliner at a closed Republican fund-raiser in the evening at the Manhattan home of the billionaire Henry Kravis. After his address at the United Nations on Tuesday, he may accompany the first lady on Wednesday to former President Bill Clinton’s three-day Global Initiative Conference in New York.
Then on Thursday, Mr.
Bush heads to Florida, where he is appearing at a fund-raiser for the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Charlie Crist.
Both parties are pushing into the Sunshine State, with leading 2008 hopefuls helping out Jim Davis, a Democrat. And on Sunday, Gov.
Mitt of Massachusetts campaigned for Mr. Crist, and pledged $1 million of the Republican Governors Association s money to help him. It is not even on the schedule, but the fight over the president s military tribunal proposal will no doubt consume the Senate this week.
Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, and the rest of the Republican leadership will have to figure out how to contend with the opposition emanating from three of their Republican colleagues, Senators John W. Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham. The issue is whether to bring the president s legislation to the floor and let the opponents, who appear to have more than 50 votes, try to amend it or to just go ahead and consider the legislation passed last week by the Armed Services Committee under Mr.
Warner s direction.
Mr. Frist doesn t like the Warner bill, which avoids the refinements in the Geneva Conventions sought by the president to allow C.
I.A. interrogation of suspected terrorists.
The leader has ruled nothing out or in about how he will proceed on the floor,' said Eric Ueland, Mr. Frist s chief of staff. He believes that the committee bill makes it really difficult if not impossible to get good information from captured terrorists and creates the possibility of sharing classified information with those who want to attack America and do her harm.
' Despite all the Massachusetts liberals, Democrats are in a tough fight to take back the state s executive office. The Boston Globe’s Lisa Wangsness previews .
Washington state also holds primaries Tuesday.
Seattle s King County marches into the primary . A Republican congressman in the state is fighting to .
, reports Robin Toner in her look at the Virginia Senate race.
The Washington Post has a debate between Senator George Allen and Democratic nominee James Webb.
On scandals, gaffes and politicians’ troubles:
Project BioShield, a project to stockpile remedies for biological attacks, is .
A Chicago Tribune investigation accuses Gov.
Rod Blagojevich of Illinois of . Sunday marked the anniversary of the signing of the constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.
On Monday at 7 p.m., at the Navy Memorial theater, “The Constitution in a Time of National Emergency” will be the subject of a debate between two prominent legal scholars, Judge Richard Posner and Geoffrey R.
Stone. ( ) Students at every school and college that receive federal money must spend some time studying the Constitution each year as a result of a law passed by Congress in 2004.
The , a nonprofit group, also provides a copy of a poster about the constitution to every fifth grader in the District of Columbia.
Because the official anniversary fell on a Sunday this year, most schools will be scheduling their lessons for Monday. Senators Barack Obama and John Kerry were in , and so was former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.
steered clear of 2008 buzz, talking instead about the midterm elections and the war in Iraq at Senator Tom Harkin s annual steak fry.
Mr. Warner, on the other hand, wasn t as coy.
You know and I know that it all starts in Iowa, Mr. Warner said. Do your part.
We re going to take back the Congress this year and then we re going to take back our nation.
C., that concentrates on ethics and public service issues.
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