The Daily Top Five: March 22, 2007

1. Steny Hoyer raising money legally! The Horror!, the Horror!!. Brad Smith and Paul Sherman have the story>:

Last week, the Center for Public Integrity ("CPI") released a report, Passing the Bucks, in which it accuses House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md) of "exploiting" a "loophole" in federal law to raise funds for other Democratic candidates. What nefarious activity has Rep. Hoyer done?

It seems that Majority Leader Hoyer has done something that CPI admits is legal, but which they obviously think ought to be stopped. What is it he has done? Well, it appears that he used his perfectly legal Leadership PAC to "accept many small contributions designated for particular candidates and forward them to those campaigns." Are you alarmed yet? Is there no end to the scandal?

The Center for Public Integrity wants you to be alarmed. At least, that's the only reason we can figure for releasing this non-path breaking report at all, let alone larding it with phrases such as "loophole," "sidestepped statutory limits," "conduit," "pass through," and (quoting former Representative Joe Hefley (R-Colo.)), "a disgrace and a scandal just waiting to break open."

Will the madness ever end?

2. Jane Galt posted 25 Statements about U.S. Education none of which are particularly flattering, leading with these three:

1) The American educational system sucks.

2) It particularly sucks for poor and minority kids

3) It has sucked in approximately the same way for at least forty years.

Darren poses this question:

Let's see if we can narrow the focus a bit. Are there three which you absolutely think are egregiously false? If so, why do you think they're false?

I actually disagree with the first three, the ones I posted. I don't think the U.S. education system sucks, but I do think it can be a lot better for more people. The suckiness of the system has changed over time, one need not look hard for supporting data. Finally, while the system is demonstrably worse for poor and minority, that condition is not uniform across the country and results from a host of other factors.

3. Take a look at the picture of Al Gore on the front page of Politico.com. Does anyone else think he looks like Alec Baldwin?

4. Boy, I am just shocked that the Senate Judiciary Committee issued subpoenas.

5. Code Pink planned to take over Nancy Pelosi's office. According to the Hill:

"CODEPINK is expecting arrests."

You think!?