See Sensenbrenner in the flesh July 6

Come and have your own questions ignored or sidestepped by Congressman Sensenbrenner at his town hall meeting:

Thursday, July 6th, 7pm – Hartford City Hall

Sensenbrenner ducks Latino event

Rep. F. Jim Sensenbrenner has found some convenient scheduling conflicts that keep him from telling a national Latino group, meeting in his backyard, about his get-tough immigration plans. AP reports:

MILWAUKEE - The nation's oldest Hispanic rights group scheduled numerous speakers - both Democrats and Republicans - for its annual convention, but one sought-after name is missing from the agenda.

The League of United Latin American Citizens says it wants to hear from U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner on why he proposed a bill that would make it a felony to be in the U.S. illegally and, among other things, build a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Sensenbrenner, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has not accepted any of its invitations, says the group, which this week is holding its annual convention in Milwaukee, the Republican's backyard.

More than 10,000 people are expected at the convention, which began Monday and wraps up Saturday. The week's programs include sessions on immigration, Hispanics and business, and health care.

Speakers include House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee and Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Sensenbrenner told representatives of the group that he has votes scheduled in Washington through Friday and constituent business on Saturday, said Jeff Lungren, a spokesman for Sensenbrenner and the House Judiciary Committee.

"Therefore, when deciding between serving the constituents that elected him or giving a speech to a special interest group, Congressman Sensenbrenner will choose his constituents every time," Lungren said.

LULAC has been using the proximity of its convention to the home district of Sensenbrenner, nearby Menomonee Falls, to call attention to his proposals. On Sunday night, about five members of the group, including the executive director, attended a town hall meeting held by Sensenbrenner in the Milwaukee suburb of Thiensville, said Gabriela Lemus, director of policy and legislation for LULAC.

She said Sensenbrenner, like several other lawmakers associated with the measure, changed topics when asked by LULAC members about his immigration proposals.

F. Jim loses key vote, goes off -- again

[Update by Jay]: Crooks and Liars has the video.

Judiciary Chair F. Jim Sensenbrenner lost a big vote in his committee Wednesday, and one report says he reacted with his typical temper tantrum and disregard for the rules. This from AP:

'Under God' pledge protection measure fails
GOP members fail to show for vote

WASHINGTON - House Republicans failed Wednesday to advance a bill protecting the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. Only a day earlier, the GOP had placed the measure on its "American Values Agenda" in hopes of bolstering the party's prospects in the fall election.

But Republicans could not muster a simple majority on the issue in a committee where they outnumber Democrats by six.

The legislation tries to strip federal courts of jurisdiction over cases challenging the pledge. It responds to a federal appeals court ruling in 2002 that the pledge is unconstitutional because it contains the words "under God." A district court judge made a similar ruling last fall, citing the appeals court precedent.

Another shot possible
A simple majority is required to report a bill to the House floor with a favorable committee recommendation. The House Judiciary Committee split 15-15 on the pledge bill Wednesday; Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., joined 14 Democrats to oppose it.

Inglis said he is concerned that if the Republican-dominated Congress passes "court-stripping" legislation, a future Democrat-dominated Congress might pass its own bill denying courts jurisdiction of more issues. In addition, he said, the legislation would allow state courts to rule on issues related to the Pledge of Allegiance while denying litigants the ability to appeal to a federal court.

Ten of the committee's 23 Republicans did not show up for the vote. The chairman, Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said he would try again for a majority on Thursday.

On Tuesday, Senate Republican leaders failed by a single vote to pass a constitutional amendment to ban the burning of the American flag.

The GOP's "American Values Agenda" also includes a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which died in the Senate before it even reached a vote; a prohibition on human cloning; and possibly votes on several popular tax cuts.

And this from Raw Story:

Dems say Judiciary Chair breaks rules, closes meeting after losing vote

Chairman of the House JudiciaryCommitteee F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has broken House rules to adjourn a meeting after losing a vote to Democrats, Democratic sources tell RAW STORY.

The vote was on an item from the Republican's "American Values Agenda," which the party says will codify "the American character." Specifically, it aims to bar any court--including the United States Supreme Court--from hearing any legal challenge to the pledge of allegiance.

Sensenbrenner, according to sources, hoped to reverse the vote when the committee reconvened later in the afternoon.

Democrats on the committee, save ranking member John Conyers (D-MI) refused to attend. With many Republicans also absent, there was no quorum present to hold a vote.

Conyers attended, according to sources, only for the sake of raising a point of order, indicating that the previous adjournment had violated rules. Sensenbrenner responded by indicating that he had not heard the objection earlier. However, sources tell RAW STORY that Sensenbrenner actually responded to the earlier statement at the time.

RAW STORY hopes to make a transcript available shortly.

The committee was again adjourned, and is likely to reconvene Thursday. Whether or not they hold another vote remains to be seen, however sources tell RAW STORY that it is likely to happen. Several Republicans on the committee did not cast a vote in the first round.

Developing...

What makes this believable, of course, is that Sensenbrenner has done it before.

No support for national ID card

Hard-line as he may be on immigration, Rep. F. Jim Sensenbrenner remains firmly opposed to any efforts to authorize a national ID card.

The idea is not dead, and some still believe it is needed, the Washington Post reports, but neither house included it in their immigration bills:

"There's just no support for it," said Jeff Lungren, spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), who sponsored the House immigration bill that sparked hundreds of protests this spring. Sensenbrenner wrote his disdain for the idea into his bill. Nothing in the legislation "shall be construed to authorize . . . the establishment of a national identification card," the bill says.

Sensenbrenner favors the expansion of a worker verification system that employers would check through the Internet. In its companion bill, the Senate opted for a similar tactic rather than a national ID system.

Sensenbrenner: Darn that Senate, anyway!

If only there weren't a US Senate, life would be a lot better, Jim Sensenbrenner says. Those pesky checks and balances, and having two houses of Congress, make it so hard to get anything done.

When the Senate's not stopping Sensenbrenner's lock-em-up immigration laws, it's holding up action on property rights. Lack of Senate action puts every one of us at risk that the government is going to seize our homes and give them to Exxon or Halliburton, apparently.

You can almost hear the famous Sensenbrenner whine in this press release:

WASHINGTON, June 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- On the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's terrible decision in Kelo v. New London, House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) today praised President George W. Bush for signing an Executive Order reiterating support for private property rights and opposition to the government's using eminent domain for the economic benefit of private parties. ..

Chairman Sensenbrenner stated, "President Bush should be praised for doing what he can to ensure private property rights are protected by signing this Executive Order. The House of Representatives has acted by overwhelmingly passing by a 376-to- 38 margin the bipartisan 'Private Property Rights Protection Act.' Unfortunately, in the year since the horrendous Kelo decision, the U.S. Senate has not acted."

"The Senate's failure to act leaves every homeowner vulnerable to having the government seize their property and give it to a large corporation for a private business use. It has been 232 days since the House passed this legislation that is vital to protecting the rights of every property owner in America, yet this bill is stuck in the U.S. Senate. That needs to end," added Chairman Sensenbrenner.

Sensenbrenner a Spanish curse word?

Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has become a Spanish curse word for his vicious anti-immigrant legislation, which could imprison nearly 12 million immigrants and anyone else kind enough to serve them food at a soup kitchen.

-- Joel McNally, in a Capital Times column about Wisconsin politicians cashing in on anti-immigrant sentiment.

Town hall meeting: Speak truth to power

Your chance to tell F. Jim Sensenbrenner what you think about what he's doing to embarrass his constituents on immigration and other issues:

Town hall meeting

Sunday, June 25, at 7 p.m.
Thiensville Village Hall
250 Elm Street
Phone: 262/242-3720

Be there or be square.

Spending money to save money

F. Jim Sensenbrenner -- advertising how he saves taxpayer money -- in a taxpayer-paid mailing.

Watchdog Milwaukee has the story.

Sensenbrenner: Lying with impunity

Xoff beat me to the punch on Sensenbrenner's continued abuse of taxpayer money through "junkets." (Aside: If F. Jim is so big on not wasting taxpayers' money for things like hurricane relief, why is he ok with traveling on our dime?) So I'll pick up on a tip from a reader instead.

I heven't spent a lot of time following F. Jim's press releases, but once you get into them, you can find them riddled with lies--lies no one in the Milwaukee-area press seems to be calling him on. For example, from May:

Over the past several months, organized anti-war protests have taken place around the country, including in Wisconsin, at the funerals of servicemen and women killed while fighting in the war against terrorism. These extremist demonstrators harass family members and friends with chants and signs that read, ‘Thank God for dead soldiers,’ ‘God hates you,’ and ‘Thank God for IEDs.’ This behavior is revolting and deeply disrespectful.

Whatever your political persuasion, or stance on the War on Terror, I think we all can agree that family members and friends should be protected during military funerals. [. . .] As a result, I, along with over 100 Republican and Democrat House Members, cosponsored HR 5037, the Respect for America’s Fallen Heroes Act. The bill would prohibit demonstrations on national cemetery grounds, unless specifically approved, and would silence all demonstrations one hour before and one hour following a military memorial service within a 500-foot radius.

Lies. Sensenbrenner clearly labels the protesters targeted here as "anti-war," and with his reference to "political persuasion," implies that said protesters are liberal. This is not true: The resolution came about as a direct result of protests at military funerals by Fred Phelps, an ultra-conservative who is not anti-war, but anti-gay, and feels that the US deserves to have its servicemembers die beczuse of our liberal policies regarding homsexuality in this country. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered Phelps when he brought his circus to Wisconsin, and if F. Jim had bothered to read the paper, he'd know that the protests are not anti-war or liberal in nature.

The New York Times ran an op-ed just this week (behind their stupid subscription wall) in which the writer claimed that liberal anti-war protesters were disrupting military funerals. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) investigated and found that, in fact, it was all Phelps's group, not liberals.

Google all you want; you will not find that liberals--or anyone anti-war--are protesting military funerals.

(Tip on that one from Green opponent to F. Jim, Bob Levis.)

One example ought to be enough, but there's more. This release, for example, lies about what's in the Senate immigration bill. My favorite is possibly this one, which may not be a lie, but is certainly dripping with irony:

The National Taxpayers Union (NTU), an independent tax watchdog group, has awarded Menomonee Falls Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner the ‘Taxpayers’ Friend Award’ for 2005 because of his voting record to reduce and control the tax burden on American taxpayers. Congressman Sensenbrenner, the only Member of the Wisconsin delegation to get an ‘A,’ received the ninth highest score in the House of Representatives. [. . .]

“Ultimately, this is the taxpayers’ money we’re talking about and we’re the ones entrusted to spend it responsibly,” Sensenbrenner concluded.

Who is it being irresponsible with taxpayers' money again?

Travelin' man just keeps on travelin'

-- Stuart Carlson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Spivak and Bice:

Sensenbrenner still traveling on your dime

There he goes again.

Travelin' Jim Sensenbrenner has made it near the top of yet another congressional perk list.

And this time it's the taxpayers picking up the tab so the multimillionaire Republican can see the world

"It's a wonder he has the time to stay in Congress to vote," snapped Tony Raymond, co-founder of Political Money Line, a D.C. watchdog group.

Data compiled by the group shows that since 1994, Sensenbrenner has gone on junkets costing taxpayers $149,248, placing the Menomonee Falls congressman ninth among the 600-plus pols who have been in the House or Senate during that time.

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Most recently, Sensenbrenner went on a weeklong trip costing just under $10,000 to visit Poland, Lithuania and Amsterdam in January.

Last year, he traveled to France for 10 days, a trip that again cost a little less than $10,000.

Over the years, he also has used tax dollars to see Vietnam, Russia, China and Istanbul, among other places.

No other member of the Wisconsin delegation comes close to matching Sensenbrenner for cavorting on the taxpayers' dime. U.S. Rep. Mark Green, the Republican candidate for governor, finished second in the delegation and 173rd overall for taking publicly funded trips worth $24,436, including two jaunts to Africa.

These fact-finding missions, of course, come on top of all of the worldwide excursions Sensenbrenner and his aides have gone on in recent years at the expense of lobbyists, corporations, non-profits and other private interests.

Another Political Money Line study found that since 2000, Sensenbrenner is No. 1 among all federal lawmakers in the total cost of the trips he has accepted from private sources. And earlier this month, yet another report said the combined value of the privately funded junketeering by the veteran Wisconsin congressman and his staff over the past five years placed his office 12th on Capitol Hill.

Overall, Sensenbrenner - often accompanied by his wife - has gone on 33 trips at a total cost to taxpayers and private groups of more than $266,000 since January 2000.

Not a bad perk for a guy who's an heir to the Kimberly-Clark fortune.

Asked specifically about his boss' taxpayer-funded globetrotting, Sensenbrenner chief of staff Thomas Schreibel responded with exasperation: "Here we go again."

Schreibel said Sensenbrenner had to travel more than others in the Wisconsin delegation because he has been the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee since 2000 and was the head of the House Science Committee before that.

"Travel is a part of the job," he said, "where members of Congress learn of problems that other countries are having and problems the United States is experiencing with other countries."

You do have to wonder why being Judiciary chair requires more travel than chairing any of the other many House committees. International Relations is one that comes to mind.

Right vote, wrong reason

Rep. F. Jim Sensenbrenner was one of 19 Republicans who voted "no" on an appropriations bill that poured another $66-billion into the bottomless pits of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sensenbrenner voted against the bill not because he has any problems with the blank check for war, but because it also included money for Hurricane Katrina aid. At least he is consistent in his cold-blooded heartlessness toward Katrina victims, which is well-documented.

Sensenbrenner thinks there's too much waste in New Orleans, but apparently that's not an issue in Iraq.

Capital Times editorial.

Working for Sensenbrenner not always cushy

Working for F. Jim Sensenbrenner isn't always cushy. Cory Liebmann of Eye on Wisconsin reports:

Apparently Sensenbrenner must draw a distinction between his office workers and those that do manual labor for companies in which he has vested interest.

Last month I posted a copy of Sensenbrenner’s disclosure statement, which showed that he owns $100,000 in Halliburton stock. At that time I also mentioned that with all of his tough talk on immigration, he never said anything when Halliburton was busted for using illegal immigrant workers. This happened during the cleanup from Hurricane Katrina. Just last week there was a report of how badly some of these kinds of illegal immigrants were treated.

Work for Sensenbrenner, see the world

It's not only Rep. F. Jim Sensenbrenner and his wife who travel the world for free, thanks the the generosity of public-spirited special interest groups who just want to make sure members of Congress and their staffs get all of the perks information they need, even if they have to fly to an exotic resort to get it.

Sensenbrenner's staff cashes in, too, with 94 trips worth $170,000 in the last five years. Spivak and Bice have details and the staff's attempt at defending the practice.

F. Jim breaks ranks on net neutralilty

Rep. F. Jim Sensenbrenner was one of only 11 Republicans to vote in favor an amendment to put net neutrality into federal law. CNET News reports:

The U.S. House of Representatives definitively rejected the concept of Net neutrality on Thursday, dealing a bitter blow to Internet companies like Amazon.com, eBay and Google that had engaged in a last-minute lobbying campaign to support it.

By a 269-152 vote that fell largely along party lines, the House Republican leadership mustered enough votes to reject a Democrat-backed amendment that would have enshrined stiff Net neutrality regulations into federal law and prevented broadband providers from treating some Internet sites differently from others.

The other Badger Republicans -- Mark Green, Paul Ryan and Tom Petri --all voted no, with all four state Dems -- Gwen Moore, Dave Obey, Tammy Baldwin, and Ron Kind -- in favor.

Sensenbrenner hears only applause

Constituents of F. Jim Sensenbrenner who oppose his total hardheaded, hard line approach on immigration need to speak up a little more loudly. He clearly is not hearing you, as this exchange with US News and World Report illustrates:

What are you hearing in your district about immigration?

A: I'm getting very strong support in my district. There are some church groups that are opposed to what the House of Representatives has done. But over Memorial Day, I did four parades in four distinct parts of my district. I got cheered in all four parades. There were more people that came out in the middle of the street, saying: "I want to shake your hand because you're doing the right thing on immigration."

Read it here.

Avoiding illegals: How F. Jim does it

Rep. F. Jim Sensenbrenner mostly gets a pass in a Chicago Tribune profile, which buys his line that he's "a workhorse, not a show horse."

Some have compared him to just one portion of a horse.

Folks in Wisconsin, or those who have witnessed his temper tantrums in Congress, may be surprised to see him described as a "low-key lawmaker."

How does he know he doesn't aid illegal immigrants himself -- which if he had his way would result in criminal charges?

A careful man, Sensenbrenner says he tries to live what he preaches, even as it relates to immigration. Asked how he avoids doing business with possibly illegal immigrant workers when, say, he goes to get his car cleaned, he said he uses an automatic car wash.

He asks contractors he hires about their legal status and that of their workers. His housekeeper in Washington is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Nicaragua.

Do you think he asks to see the paperwork, or just asks if everybody's legal?

Flamingo Jones on F. Jim

Wisconsin Blogger Flamingo Jones, posting at The American Street, reminds us of an irony:

Gee…we’re not happy that the Justice Dept. and Executive branch are trampling over Constitutional rights, Jim? I wouldn’t have guessed that, based on your pissy attitude when Democrats tried to point out those exact dangers during the Patriot Act debate a year ago.

Maybe that's not irony. Maybe that's hypocrisy.

Or is the F. for Frequent Flyer?

Sensenbrenner in top 10 frequent flyers

A Medill News Service report:

WASHINGTON -- Outside groups representing interests as diverse as nuclear energy and telecommunications have paid nearly $50 million since 2000 to shuttle members of Congress and their staffs around the world, from Kazakhstan to Kansas City, Paris to Palm Springs.

In fact, staffers often outpace their bosses in the number and the costs of trips that they took to far-flung edges of the world.

Overall, members of Congress went on globe-trotting excursions costing $18.9 million. But private interests paid much more -- $30 million -- to finance the trips of congressional staff members, who often are instrumental in shaping policy.

Wisconsin's skinflint frequent flyer, F. Jim Sensenbrenner, who never travels on his own dime if he can avoid it, made the Top 10 list:

Rep. Gene Green of Texas and five other Democrats were in the top 10 traveler list among members of Congress as measured by overall cost. Green topped the list with about $175,000 worth of trips, but Republican Rep. James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, chairman of the Judiciary Committee; Democrat Robert Wexler of Florida, and California Democrat George Miller were not far behind with about $170,000 each.

Flatigious Jim Sensenbrenner

Word for the day: Flatigious. Definition: Shameful, villainous.

The New American blog applies it to none other than F. Jim Sensenbrenner:

It is very rare when our “public servants” actually render a service to the public, and when this happens it is almost always unintentional.

Such is the case with the quite ironic service provided by Wisconsin Republican Representative James Sensenbrenner through his flatigious hypocrisy over civil liberties.

Is that what the F. stands for?

Is hearing a warning to protect GOP?

House Judiciary Chair F. Jim Sensenbrenner has been getting some praise, even from folks like the ACLU, for conducting hearings on the separation of powers in government, probing whether the Dept. of Justice had the authority to raid the offices of Rep. William Jefferson.

Now comes the suggestion that Sensenbrenner's motives may be less than pure, that the hearing is a warning shot to DOJ as it probes Congressional wrongdoing by Republicans.

E. J. Dionne Jr. of the Washington Post suggests Sensenbrenner is trying to send a message:

The hearing was dominated by talk of abuses of power by long-dead monarchs and the need of the people's representatives for untrammeled communication with their constituents.

But Rep. James Sensenbrenner's committee was really sending a message as the House confronts a far-reaching corruption investigation: Nice little Justice Department you have there, Mr. Attorney General. Too bad if anything were to happen to it. Stop messing with us before we mess with you.

How else to explain this from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.): "We have the power to impeach the attorney general. Now, I'm not sure that articles of impeachment are going to come out today. I think we're a couple shakes short of a quorum for that purpose. Although I suspect members would quickly be here if it was brought by the chair."

Why would House Republicans be so concerned with Jefferson, a Democrat from Louisiana who, according to prosecutors, kept $90,000 in cash in his freezer?

One answer is high principle. The more plausible answer is that Republicans are worried that the next shoes to drop in the congressional probes will belong to Republican members. Using a Democrat's case now to protect Republican members in the future is not so much clever as transparent.

If Wisconsin's Sensenbrenner and his fellow Republicans had shown an exquisite concern with civil liberties and accountability in the past, their challenge to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales might be seen as part of a consistent libertarian sensibility.

Read it all.