[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 21003-21004]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       WITHHOLDING STIMULUS FUNDS

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an editorial 
from the August 7 Arizona Republic be printed in the Record, called 
``Cabinet Chiefs Play the Heavies.''
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                    Cabinet Chiefs Play the Heavies

       The political hit job perpetrated--reportedly--by infamous 
     tough guy Rahm Emanuel, the president's chief of staff, 
     against Arizona Republican Sen. Jon Kyl continues to roll.
       And it continues reminding us that hardball, hyperpartisan 
     tactics did not suddenly disappear from the White House when 
     Karl Rove left the building.
       Indeed, in some ways, the tactics have gotten worse. Since 
     when are Cabinet secretaries supposed to act like wise guys 
     in a political goon squad?
       On July 12, Kyl went on the Sunday Washington talk show 
     This Week and criticized the $787 billion economic-stimulus 
     program. He said the program was ineffectual and suggested it 
     be wrapped up and ended.
       The administration came down on the senator like a ton of 
     Chicago-baked bricks.
       The very next day, four Cabinet secretaries sent letters to 
     Arizona's Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, asking if she still 
     wanted the state's portion of the stimulus cash, or if she 
     felt compelled to fall in with Kyl. The letters arrived 
     almost simultaneously and were similar in structure and 
     language, each suggesting that projects important to Phoenix 
     and Arizona were in jeopardy.
       Clearly, their delivery was orchestrated to embarrass Kyl.
       Few doubted the manipulative hand of Emanuel in the letter-
     writing campaign. And, indeed, the online political news 
     service Politico reported July 16 that ``Emanuel directed 
     that the letters from the Cabinet secretaries be sent to 
     Brewer, according to two administration officials.''
       It would be an intellectual insult to suggest otherwise. 
     Emanuel is notorious for such back-alley tactics and is the 
     only person in a position to organize such a campaign 
     literally overnight. But on July 24, at a hearing of the 
     House Budget Committee, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood--
     author of the snarkiest of the four letters--insulted away.
       Asked repeatedly whether he had been encouraged or told by 
     anyone within or without the administration to write his 
     letter, LaHood--finally--gave a straight answer. ``No,'' he 
     said.
       As most Washington-watchers know, honesty does not come 
     easily to many of the political class. But couldn't LaHood, 
     an Illinois Republican, simply have taken the Fifth? It would 
     have been in keeping with the tenor of things.
       Rahm Emanuel used the president's Cabinet for his political 
     goon squad.
       If anyone ought to be protesting this staged theater, it 
     isn't so much Kyl or Brewer as the Cabinet secretaries who 
     were so demeaned by being forced to deliver cheap political 
     threats that are laughable on their face and utterly 
     transparent.

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, the editorial reports on what they call a 
political hit job perpetrated ostensibly against me. It didn't bother 
me, but as reported, the Chief of Staff of the President enlisted four 
Cabinet officers to write letters to the Governor of Arizona, which 
were seen by some as veiled threats to withhold stimulus funding 
because I had dared to criticize the stimulus program and suggest that 
after the first couple years of spending, the outyears might be saved 
and spent in better ways. That generated criticism by these four 
Cabinet Secretaries,

[[Page 21004]]

who wrote almost identical letters, which clearly were designed to try 
to intimidate.
  That is not the right way for the administration to make its point. I 
am happy to debate the success or failure of the stimulus package with 
anybody from the administration who would like to debate it. I welcome 
that kind of conversation. But there seems to be too much effort now to 
either shut people up or intimidate them from speaking.
  There have been a lot of reports with respect to the stimulus and the 
so-called health care legislation, and in other areas, to be 
coincidence. There seems to be a pattern developing, and it is not 
good. Senator Cornyn, yesterday, spoke to that issue with respect to a 
new Web site that the White House started asking people to send in 
their observations of people who are criticizing the administration's 
plans, if they think some of the criticism isn't accurate or they said: 
If you think there is something fishy, let us know about it.
  These are the kinds of tactics that might go over well in certain 
cities that have had a history of political bosses, but it is not the 
kind of tactic you would expect from the White House. I hope the folks 
at the White House have learned their lesson and, frankly, will knock 
it off.

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