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Wednesday, November 1, 2006

Sunshine on Congress

By Rebecca Carr | Wednesday, November 1, 2006, 10:48 AM

Want the goods on your congressman or senator?

The Sunlight Foundation has just the answer. The nonpartisan group created a new guide that offers step-by-step instruction on how to dig up financial data on members of Congress.

The guide covers how to uncover who donates to their campaigns; their net worth; how they spend their campaign cash as well as how to find out if someone is a lobbyist.

Watchdogging101: A How-To Guide for Citizen Oversight gives answers to some of the most basic questions citizens may have about the inner-workings of Congress. “Who is my Member of Congress?â€? and “Where can I check to see if someone’s a lobbyist?â€? is answered by the new guide as well as more challenging questions like “How does my representative compare to others in money raised from industry X?”

The online tutorial can be found at www.sunlightfoundation.com/watchdogging101.

The goal is to “shine more sunlight on Capitol Hill,� said Ellen Miller, executive director of the foundation.

“The internet has allowed for previously obscure information to be presented in a very user-friendly format,” Miller said. “But, as with any tools, some basic training is needed to allow someone to fully utilize its power.”

Miller hopes the public will send in questions on how to find certain types of information about lawmakers, lobbyists, or donors.

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Stuffed Suit

By Ken Herman | Wednesday, November 1, 2006, 10:07 AM

Deputy White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, not heretofore known for one-liners, lobbed a couple of them today at a morning briefing with reporters.

One of them referred back to a Tuesday comment by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry when he responded to Press Secretary Tony Snow’s criticism of a Kerry comment that seemed to question the intelligence of military personnel.

“I’m not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium or doughy Rush Limbaugh,” Kerry said in a statement.

Perino, asked why Snow was not doing today’s morning briefing, told reporters, “Tony’s at the seamstress getting his suit stuffed.” (Snow actually was doing some TV interviews).

Perino’s other quip concerned Limbaugh, who had an interview with Bush today. Perino said she did not know when the interview would air.

“We control a lot of things, but not that,” she said of Limbaugh’s radio show.

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