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Domenici, P Sen

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baby w/ laxalt dtr lobbyist?!

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Today, Domenici serves the Bipartisan Policy Center as a senior fellow and co-chair of their Debt Reduction Task Force. Domenici also serves as an adviser to the NMSU Domenici Institute.

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aka ISG

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politico-now/2007/07/domenici-is-the-latest-002099

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slate

Adam Laxalt is a lawyer working in Las Vegas, who served five years in the Navy. He provided legal counsel on detainee operations in Iraq. He also served as a law clerk for the U.S. Air Force General Counsel; an aide to John Bolton in the State Department; and a staffer for former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.).

And here's a snippet from Michelle Laxalt's bio on *Politico*'s Arena:

Michelle D. Laxalt is recognized as one of the most prominent and effective government relations practitioners in the nation's capital. In fact, "Washingtonian" magazine named her one of the top 50 lobbyists in a town where lobbying has become a major industry. She was the first Republican woman to form her own consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Laxalt formed The Laxalt Corporation in 1984 and has represented prominent clients whose business interests include international trade, labor law, intellectual property law, oil and gas, federal taxes, tort reform, regulation of tobacco and other important issues that come before the legislative and executive branches of government.

It's worth noting that Laxalt's professional interests likely overlapped with those of the father of her child: During his time in the Senate, Domenici served as chairman of both the Energy and Natural Resources and Budget committees.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/21/michelle-laxalt-s-awful-secret-a-baby-with-pete-domenici.html

Michelle Laxalt, a senator’s daughter, had a baby with her dad’s colleague, Pete Domenici—and kept it a secret for more than three decades. Lauren Ashburn on what Laxalt gained by holding out.

Imagine what was going through Michelle Laxalt’s head 30 years ago when a pregnancy test revealed she was going to have a baby out of wedlock—and the father was a rising star in New Mexico politics, Sen. Pete Domenici.

To complicate matters further, her father was another Republican senator, Nevada’s Paul Laxalt, who worked closely with her lover.

Holy guacamole. Now that’s a scandal with a spicy twist.

Michelle Laxalt is now a big-time Washington lobbyist and former Senate staffer who has worked on several presidential campaigns and frequently appeared as a cable news pundit. But at the time, in the late 1970s, she faced a stark series of choices—all equally fraught with their own kind of pain—that could bring shame, and severe political damage, to two prominent Southwestern families....

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http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pete_V._Domenici

Peter "Pete" Vichi Domenici, a Republican, represented the state of New Mexico in the Senate from 1973-2008.

Contents

  [hide] 

Record and controversies

General information about important bills and votes for can be found in Congresspedia's articles on legislation. You can add information you find on how Pete V. Domenici voted by clicking the "[edit]" link to the right and typing it in. Remember to cite your sources!

National security and foreign policy

In June 1996, with Sens. Richard Lugar (R-N.M.) and Sam Nunn (R-Ga.), Sen. Domenici introduced the Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1996, also known as the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici Amendment to the FY1997 National Defense Authorization Act, as an alternative to the Defend America Act of 1996, which failed to pass in the House of Representatives.

Main article: Defense Against Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1996

Iraq War

Domenici voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq in Oct. 2002.

For more information see the chart of U.S. Senate votes on the Iraq War.

On July 5, 2007, Domenici "called for a change in course in U.S. military strategy in Iraq — without waiting for the September report on the 'surge.' ... Domenici said he supports a bipartisan Senate bill which backs the recent report by theIraq Study Group and would create conditions that could allow for a drawdown of U.S. combat forces in Iraq by next March."[1]

Domenici was also a co-sponsor of the Iraq Study Group Recommendation Implementation Act of 2007, intended to makes the Iraq Study Group's 79 recommendations the policy of the United States, and ask the Bush administration, working with military and diplomatic leaders, to implement those recommendations. The bill is also intended to create conditions that could allow for a drawdown of American combat forces in Iraq by March 2008.

Main article: Iraq Study Group Recommendation Implementation Act of 2007

Environmental record

For more information on environmental legislation, see the Energy and Environment Policy Portal

Energy policy and companies

In 2006, Domenici and Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) sponsored the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. The legislation planned to open 8.3 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico and share 37.5 percent of the new royalty revenues, dedicated to coastal protection, with Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama. The legislation was passed and signed by President George W. Bush.

Main article: U.S. federal oil and gas royalties

Oil Record

Pete Domenici has in favor of big oil companies on 78% of important oil-related bills, according to Oil Change International. These bills include Iraq War funding, climate change studies, oil import reductions, and clean energy.[2] See below for oil money in politics.

Promoting nuclear power

In a five part series on the nuclear revival in the US in January 2007, MSNBC identified Domenici as the "Nuclear Renaissance Man" and Congress’ "chief nuclear apostle".

"If the renaissance that the U.S. nuclear power industry predicts for itself is indeed occurring, then Pietro “Pete” Vichy Domenici, the son of Italian immigrants, may be seen as both its Michelango and its Machiavelli" said the article, noting that the nuclear industry had "showered" him "with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions".

The article highlighted how:

CLEAN Energy Act resistance

Domenici opposed the CLEAN Energy Act of 2007, which addressed royalties and tax breaks previously afforded to oil and gas companies. He claimed the act's strict renewable energy requirements would be too difficult to meet for regions of the country that can produce little wind energy to comply.[4]

Main article: CLEAN Energy Act of 2007#Disagreements over renewable energy

Tobacco issues

Sen. Domenici voted "no" on increasing tobacco restrictions in June 1998, however the bill, known as the McCain bill, would also have also granted the tobacco companies protection from liability, something many health advocacy organizations strongly opposed. in 2003, the American Public Health Association gave Pete Domenici a rating 0%, indicating a stronly anti-public health voting record.[5]

Role in U.S. attorney firings controversy

In early 2007, after he had been fired as the U.S. attorney for New Mexico, David Iglesias alleged that he had been pressured by Domenici about the pace of an investigation of a New Mexico Democrat in late 2006 (weeks before his firing). Domenici initially denied speaking to him. He stated “I have no idea what he’s talking about.” Later, however, he admitted calling Iglesias, stating “I asked Mr. Iglesias if he could tell me what was going on in that investigation and give me an idea of what time frame we were looking at.” [6]

Domenici’s actions appeared to violate Senate rules. In a discussion of Senate Rule 43, the Senate Ethics Manual states that “[t]he general advice of the Ethics Committee concerning pending court actions is that Senate offices should refrain from intervening in such legal actions . . . until the matter has reached a resolution in the courts.” The manual also indicates that senators should not consult with an agency regarding any enforcement or investigative matter. [7]

In a request for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation, CREW alleged that Domenici violated Rule 43 by pressuring Iglesias to “act quickly on a pending corruption investigation.” In addition, because Domenici made the call shortly before the November 2006 congressional elections, he may have violated the clause restricting members from contacting agencies on the basis of political considerations. [8]

On March 7, 2007, Domenici hired Lee Blalack, formerly an attorney for former Rep. :{Duke Cunningham:(style="background-color:#fff200"):}: (R-Calif.), as his legal counsel. [9]

The Senate Ethics Committee confirmed suspicions that Domenici was the subject of a "preliminary inquiry" in the language of a resolution passed on April 17, 2007. The "inquiry" is investigating alleged communication between Domenici and Iglesias. [10]

Admonished by Ethics Committee

On April 24, 2008, Dominici was admonished by the Senate Ethics Committee for “inappropriately” contacting in 2006 one of the nine U.S. attorneys later fired by President Bush.[11]

The light punishment came after the committee found “no substantial evidence” that Domenici tried to influence attorney David Iglesias when he contacted him to inquire about the status of a 2006 investigation into corruption charges on a state Democratic official. A possible indictment could have buoyed the re-election hopes of Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.), who is currently seeking to replace Domenici when the senator retires after his current term. Iglesias charged that Domenici and Wilson were pressuring him to wrap up the investigation before that November’s elections, a violation of ethics rules.[12]

The Ethics Committee, which spent nearly $5,000 to send three staff members to Albuquerque in March and July of 2007 to investigate the matter, said that Domenici’s phone call to Iglesias, in advance of an upcoming election, “created an appearance of impropriety that reflected unfavorably on the Senate.”[12]

Main article: Bush administration U.S. attorney firings controversy

Michael Mukasey nomination

Sen. Domenici voted FOR the confirmation Bush appointee Michael Mukasey as Attorney General of the U.S. on Nov. 8, 2007. Six Democrats and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) joined most Republicans in the 53-40 vote confirming Mukasey. No Republicans voted against him. [1] Mukasey's nomination was surrounded by controversy after he called waterboarding "repugnant" but refused to say whether it was illegal under anti-torture laws.

Main article: Michael Mukasey

Bio

Domenici was born May 7, 1932 in Albuquerque. After earning a degree in education at the University of New Mexico in 1954, taught math at Garfield Junior High in Albuquerque beginning in 1955. He earned his law degree at the University of Denver in 1958 and returned to practice law in Albuquerque. [2]

In 1966 Domenici successfully ran for a position on the Albuquerque City Commission and in 1968 was elected Commission Chairman. This position was equivalent to that of "Mayor" under the structure of the city government at the time.[3]

After making an unsuccessful bid for Governor of New Mexico in 1970, two years later Domenici successfully ran for a position in the U.S. Senate. He was re-elected in 1978, 1984, 1990, 1996, and 2002, making him the longest-serving senator in the state's history.

Domenici is an avid proponent of nuclear power and has published two books on the subject: "A Brighter Tomorrow: Fulfilling the Promise of Nuclear Energy" (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004), which he wrote; and"Advanced Nuclear Technologies - Hearing Before the Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate" (Collingdale, Pennsylvania: D I A N E Publishing Company, 1999), which he edited.

Domenici is the fifth-most senior sitting senator, and second-most senior sitting Republican. If the Republicans obtained a majority in 2008, he would be in line to become President Pro Tempore.

Retirement from Senate

It was expected on October 4, 2007 that Sen. Domenici would announce that he would not seek a seventh term. Second among Republicans in seniority, Domenici has fought health problems in recent years, but Republican leaders had hoped that he would follow through on plans to seek reelection for a seat that Democrats were eyeing. Republican officials close to the senator said that his health concerns took precedence.[13]

A Republican reportedly close to the senator said the chief issue in the decision was health and that Domenici and his wife had concluded that he no longer had the physical stamina to wage a re-election campaign, especially if the race was tough. Domenici has arthritis and was said to appear increasingly frail. [14]

Until the week of October 1, 2007 Domenici appeared to be on a campaign track raising money at a fast pace. The six-term Domenici joined four other Republicans in not seeking re-election: Sens. John Warner, Chuck Hagel, Wayne Allardand Larry Craig. Nine House Republicans had also announced their retirement. [15]

The most likely Republican candidates to seek Domenici’s seat were Reps. {Heather Wilson]] and Stevan Pearce. Potential Democratic candidates included Rep. Tom Udall, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, and former state attorney general Patricia Madrid. Advisors of Gov. Bill Richardson, reportedly the Democrats’ dream candidate, said that Richardson was not interested in the seat and was focused on the 2008 presidential race. Wealthy businessman Don Wiviot was already in the race and had put up several hundred thousand dollars of his own money into the race. [16]

Wilson to seek seat

According to a source familiar with the decision, Rep. Heather Wilson would reportedly run for the New Mexico Senate seat that opened up when Sen. Pete Domenici announced his resignation. Domenici cited health concerns at a press conference on October 4, 2007. “I am not willing to take a chance that the people who have so honored me with their trust for 40 years might not be served as well as they deserve in the United States Senate,” he said. Wilson had reportedly been taken under Domenici’s wing and her name had topped a list of potential heirs. As a strong campaigner she survived several multimillion-dollar challenges in the swing state including a win by under 1,000 votes in the 2006 election, however she also faced the U.S. Attorney scandal that may have affected a Domenici run. [17]

Money in politics

This section contains links to – and feeds from – money in politics databases. cid=N00006515&cycle=2006

Links to more campaign contribution information for Pete V. Domenici

from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.

Links to more campaign contribution information for Pete V. Domenici

from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.

Links to more campaign contribution information for Pete V. Domenici

from the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org site.
Fundraising profile:2006 election cycleCareer totals
Top contributors by organization/corporation:2006 election cycleCareer totals
Top contributors by industry:2006 election cycleCareer totals

Oil Money in Politics

Pete Domenici has received $138,600 in oil contributions during the 110th congress. $57,500 of those dollars were from industry PACS [18] . In total, Domenici has accepted $350,558 from oil companies since 2000, which makes him one of the top recipients of oil money in the Senate.[19] See above for oil and energy voting record.

Committees and Affiliations

Committees in the 110th Congress (2007-2008)

Committee assignments in the 109th Congress (2005-2006)

More Background Data

Wikipedia also has an article on Pete V. Domenici. This article may use content from the Wikipedia article under the terms of the GFDL.

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Resources

Related SourceWatch articles

Local blogs and discussion sites

Articles

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AG scandal:

A Few Good Men (Very Few)

Bobby Kennedy may think that Griffin’s scheme to remove legal voters from the rolls was illegal, but Bush’s Justice Department was not likely to bust one of their own.

Nevertheless, Griffin wasn’t taking any chances. Neither was his boss, deputy chief of staff to the president and consigliere to the Bush reelection campaign, Karl Rove.

They feared there might be honest federal prosecutors. They could cause problems with The Plan to cage and challenge voters in 2004, in 2008, and beyond.

So, a directive came down from Main Justice in Washington to federal prosecutors nationwide: hunt for fraudulent voters. However, the lawmen were not told about an unwritten footnote to the directives: unsuccessful hunters would soon find themselves hunted.

I too was hunting for fraudulent voters—a good journalist should give evil the benefit of the doubt. So I went to New Mexico to bag myself a killer-rapist-illegal-alien-ID-thief voter.

But I was having a helluva time finding even one, despite three million having lost their vote to prevent this terrible crime.

But then, in October 2008, a state legislator in New Mexico, Justine Fox-Young, held up two pieces of paper in the capitol building showing, she said, 28 cases of someone voting with someone else’s name. It wasn’t a crime wave, but a kind of gentle ripple. So I called her and told to her to fax me the evidence. She didn’t. I called again and asked the crimebuster politician, “Justine, you’ve uncovered felony criminals.”

“Oh, yes!”

Cool. So did she turn over these villains to the federal prosecutors?

Uh-huh.

So, did the prosecutor arrest them? Lock 'em up?

“Not exactly.”

The answer was, not even remotely. I called the federal prosecutor, a rising star in the Republican Party, US Attorney David Iglesias. He found Ms. Fox-Young’s evidence just a load of bollocks, though he didn’t use those words, I’ll admit.

Iglesias hadn’t arrested one single person in the entire state for voter fraud, despite the fact that the GOP campaign to prevent “fraud” in the state had resulted in the rejection of 28,000 voters and ballots, almost all Democrats.

In other words, the guy in charge of enforcing the law had not and would not bust a single person for the crime that justified his party’s pogrom against Hispanic voters all across the Southwest.

I wasn’t the only one to note that Captain Iglesias (he had remained in the Naval Reserve as one of the Navy’s top adjutant generals) was not busting Bad Voters.

Around the same time, I discovered that Allen Weh, chairman of the state Republican Party, and Pat Rogers, the party’s lawyer, complained to the White House about Iglesias failing to cuff these Hispanic voters after sending him 50 names, likely from the caging lists.

In 2008, Iglesias was able to tell me he “ran all over the plateaus of New Mexico with FBI agents” tracking down these fraudulent voters and found nothing but good citizens.

That wouldn’t do for the party apparatchiks.

The Republican Chairman Weh, and his counsel, Pat Rogers, brought in an enforcer from the White House: Karl Rove.

In my line of business I hear a lot that could make you shiver, but what Captain Iglesias told me that day in 2008 was one of the most chilling things I’d ever heard from a US official.

The GOP honchos, state and federal, he said, wanted him to lock up voters no matter the evidence. They wanted him to indict innocent people to justify their vote-blocking laws.

Iglesias told me, “I didn’t help them with their bogus fraud prosecutions.”

Rove’s buddies leaned on Iglesias, but they picked the wrong guy. Captain Iglesias was one of the models for the Tom Cruise character, the crusading military defense lawyer, in the film A Few Good Men. Iglesias told the Rove-bots to stick their phony prosecution demands where the votes don’t shine.

So, President Bush fired Iglesias. And he wasn’t the only one. Seven other US attorneys, good Republicans but ethical ones, were removed by the White House and replaced by pliant Rove-bots.

At first, the US press didn’t notice. Iglesias was officially fired for “absenteeism”—because he was placed by the president on active duty and sent to Bosnia to address war crimes.

The press asked no questions, but one of my fans did when he watched my London broadcast on caging for BBC. Congressman John Conyers has always kept abreast of our investigations for BBC television. Conyers called me, then called hearings. He had plenty of evidence that the firings were illegal.

But the problem, Conyers told me, was that his fellow congressmen wouldn’t go after the real issue, the motive for the firings: suppressing the vote of minority citizens. Conyers, dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, had the problem that while he was chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, the majority of them were Republicans or other members of the Congressional “White” Caucus.

The committee would concentrate only on the firings as “political,” and a repeat-a-press-release US media covered it that way, never getting to the real motive. And most important, the Bush White House stonewalled Conyers’ subpoena for cage-meister Griffin’s boss, Karl Rove.

Conyers forced Griffin’s cronies at the Justice Department to cough up their files on Iglesias’ firing which included this smoking pistol: Iglesias -- Underachiever in very important district. That’s the failure to bust innocent voters.

Absentee landlord. That’s his 40-day assignment for the Navy. Firing reserve officers on active duty is a crime, but hell, that’s nothing compared to the next felony on the list.

Domenici says he doesn’t move cases. This is Republican Senator Pete Domeniciwho, said Iglesias, woke him up at home to tell Iglesias to speed up the indictment of a Democrat prior to the election.

Oops. He’s telling a United States attorney to indict citizens, and attacking his failure to “move” when the senator tells him too.

I asked the prosecutor if Rove had him removed as punishment for not bringing the fake cases. “If his intent was, ‘look what happened with Iglesias,’ if that was his intent, he’s in big trouble. That is obstruction of justice, one classic example.”

Iglesias was screwing them bad. The captain and eight other prosecutors were getting all precious about bringing bogus cases. That was undermining the GOP’s attempt to obtain new voter ID laws. The failure to find illegal voters put the lie to their campaign to prove the nation’s top voter registration organization, ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), had registered fraudulent voters. Getting ACORN was Republican operative Pat Rogers’ obsession, which he made into a national cause of the GOP and other politicians in the White Caucus as lawyer for the “nonpartisan” American Center for Voting Rights. It should have been called, American Center Against Voting. Everything the group proposed would cut the number of citizens voting by millions.

I wanted to ask Rogers why he brought in Rove and why he had Captain Iglesias gunned down. But Rogers didn’t want to answer my formal request for BBC TV. But I figured he couldn’t pass up the free champagne they would pour at a GOP victory party. At the soiree to which I obtained press credentials under another name, I caught Rogers in half-sip with an unseen microphone that captured his personal reviews of my reporting skills. “He’s an asshole,” he told a crony before greeting me warmly as the cameras rolled.

“Iglesias was not capable in his job.” Which was, apparently, hunting ACORN.

“ACORN hired a collection of people who fraudulently registered persons who are not eligible to vote. ACORN is working for the Democratic Party,” said Rogers. (He wore a flag lapel pin the party handed to all the champagne sippers. They gave me one of the Republican freebie flags. I still have it in the wrapper. Take a look: Made in China.)

Had Rogers unmasked a conspiracy between ACORN and the Democratic Party—covered up from them by US Attorney Iglesias, a Republican? Wow!

“Conspiracy,” said Rogers mysteriously, “is a loose word.” Rogers is fond of loose words. He’d recently held a press conference waving a list of a half-dozen fraudulent voters registered by ACORN. With his full house of illegal voters, Rogers made a huge splash in the papers. Then Iglesias made a total ass out of Rogers, by not busting even one.

What the hell, even a jerk reporter like me will give Rogers a chance. I checked out all six of these ne’er-do-wells, these fugitives from justice. I began at a diner in Cerritos where I tracked Melissa Tais, notorious for allowing another voter with another signature to use her name so she and her confederate could vote twice.

Actually, what she’d done was fill out one registration form at an ACORN table, but never received the receipt. So, following the law’s requirements, she reregistered, this time signing while holding the form in her hand so the signature was a little shaky—resulting in two admittedly different-looking signatures.

So, did she vote twice? No. County officials hauled her into a hearing and it shook her up so much she wouldn’t vote at all. And that’s what they wanted.

But Iglesias wouldn’t play and ACORN continued to register Hispanic and low-income voters until 2009, when Andrew Breitbart (who has since returned to the bosom of Satan) blew up some cockamamie sting which had nothing to do with voting—and put ACORN out of the registration business. (ACORN’s one-time lawyer, Barack Obama, averted his gaze as the media jackals savaged the poor folks’ group, then paid for his pusillanimity in 2010 when Congress flipped color from Blue to Red.)

The US attorney firings occurred just in time for the 2008 election. Iglesias wasn’t alone, of course. Tom Heffelfinger, Republican US attorney for Minnesota, was on the hit list for defending Native American voters from an attack by the GOP’s Minnesota secretary of state. Iglesias called his buddy in Arkansas who was taken down for similar pangs of conscience, but agreed to step aside without a fight so his friend, President Bush, could make his own choice.

And Bush’s choice was...Tim Griffin.

Now, instead of being prosecuted for crimes, Tim became the prosecutor. At Karl Rove’s behest, Tim Griffin was appointed US attorney for Arkansas.

For more Billionaires and Ballot Bandits visit www.BallotBandits.org [5].