Financial Leasing Services Inc. (FLS), owned by Paul F. Pelosi, has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker’s “PAC to the Future” over the PAC’s nine-year history.

The payments have quadrupled since Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer of his wife’s committee in 2007, Federal Election Commission records show. FLS is on track to take in $48,000 in payments this year alone – eight times as much as it received annually from 2000 to 2005, when the committee was run by another treasurer.

Lawmakers’ frequent use of campaign donations to pay relatives emerged as an issue in the 2006 election campaigns, when the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal gave Democrats fodder to criticize Republicans such as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. John T. Doolittle of California for putting their wives on their campaign and PAC payrolls for fundraising work.

More at http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm/

Digg is introducing Digg Dialogg, where we take your questions and present them in front of notable people, newsmakers & the like. We’re kicking this off by interviewing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Weds, August 27th live from the Democratic National Convention, and are taking questions until 11:59pm August 26th. Submit your questions today!

A major CodePINK for Peace action disrupted the Unconventional Women symposium Monday morning, delaying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s talk with former U.S. Ambassador Swanee Hunt at the Buell Theater.

When Pelosi sat down on stage, CodePINK protestors who had infiltrated the sold-out auditorium unfurled anti-war banners reading “IMPEACH!” and “STOP THE WAR” and shouted at Pelosi.

 http://www.denverpost.com/politicswestnews/ci_10298316

CODEPINK activists have been steadily, faithfully, and creatively pressuring Congress to impeach the criminals in the White House, and we are starting to see results. Last week, at the Judiciary Committee hearing “Executive Power and its Constitutional Limitations,” impeachment was referenced dozens of times.

In her first days in power, Nancy Pelosi famously announced that impeachment was off the table, but on the popular television show The View this past Tuesday, she admitted that she would hold impeachment hearings if someone could prove that Bush committed a crime. We hope she watched last week as Dennis Kucinich, Liz Holtzman, and Vincent Bugliosi passionately enumerated Bush’s impeachable offenses at a Judiciary Committee hearing. Be sure to watch their stirring testimony — it will inspire and galvanize you.

Impeachment is the means the framers of the Constitution created to safeguard against an elected official’s subverting the best interests of our country. Even though Bush’s days in office are numbered, the damage he has done to our government may outlast his Presidency. Congress must fulfill its responsibility to hold this administration accountable for its flouting of the Constitution and international law. Please call the Judiciary Committee today at 202-225-3951 and demand an immediate impeachment hearing or inquiry.You can be documented in history as a citizen who pushed for impeachment–click here to sign our petition and be part of Dennis Kucinich’s official testimony. He will deliver the list of names on Friday, where it will be added to the Congressional record. Each name makes our case stronger — please add your endorsement today.

You don’t need to stop there; click here to join us at the DNC/RNC conventions in late August and early September where we will keep the pressure on both parties. As we’ve seen, our hard work is paying off.With peace and strength,

Alicia, Anne, Dana, Deidra, Desiree, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Jean, Jodie, Liz, Lori, Medea, Nancy, Rae and Tighe

Alicia, Anne, Dana, Deidra, Desiree, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Jean, Jodie, Liz, Lori, Medea, Nancy, Rae and Tighe

P.S.

Last week we went on CODEPINK Alert after Obama’s trip to the Middle East resulted in talks of withdrawing troops from Iraq only to send them to Afghanistan. We countered with our piece on on Common Dreams and Huffington Post as well as sending out a survey to find out what you THINK and what you KNOW. If you haven’t yet, take the survey here or see the correct answers and some of our favorite comments here.

Impeach Bush crowd dogs Pelosi’s book tour

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco Democrat who last year became the first woman in U.S. history to be elected speaker, is on a book tour.

“Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters,” charts her journey from stay-at-home mom to politician and urges young women to reach their potential.

But in pushing the book, Pelosi is likely to run into a gauntlet of outraged voters who want to know why she will not allow impeachment proceedings against President Bush.

The speaker kicked off her book tour on ABC’s “The View.” Asked by Joy Behar why she won’t impeach Bush, Pelosi said:

If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story … [You can't impeach] unless you have the goods that this president committed these crimes.

We suspect Pelosi’s real argument against impeachment is that it would anger moderates whose votes are needed in November to keep Democrats in power, folks who might be annoyed that Congress is spending its time, money and energy on impeaching a president whose term is almost over instead of addressing core problems like gas prices, the war in Iraq and home foreclosures.

Still, a progressive blog called democrats.com is daring readers to intersect her while she’s out on book tour.

Giving readers a list of the speaker’s book tour appearances, democrats.com is urging “progressive” citizens and journalists to “pin her down” on why she thinks none of the 35 articles of impeachment offered by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) constitute a crime. In fact, democrats.com is holding a citizen journalism contest. The reward: up to $1,000. The task: get Pelosi to give “a direct and substantive answer to this question” and record it on video or audio tape for playback on democrats.com.”

Where to Ask Pelosi about Impeachment

T

he House Judiciary Committee cited Karl Rove for contempt for not appearing at a July 10 committee hearing related to the politicization of the Justice Department, but as has been her habit Speaker Nancy Pelosi could block a final vote.

Rove claimed executive privilege immunity, and didn’t bother to show up for the hearing. Committee chair Rep. John Conyers said in a memo to his committee, “Mr. Rove has refused even to appear before the committee and assert whatever privileges that he believes may apply to his testimony, relying on excessively broad and legally insufficient claims of ‘absolute immunity’ — never recognized by any court — in declining to appear.”

The vote to cite Rove was by party lines, 20-14. Republicans claim that there is no evidence against Rove, and they might not be the Democrats only problem. In order for Rove to be found in contempt, the full House has to vote on the citation, and there is no evidence that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is willing to let this happen.

In a statement about the matter yesterday, Pelosi made no mention of allowing the citation to come to a full vote, “The Judiciary Committee’s ongoing investigation of the politicization of the Justice Department, including the effort to obtain testimony of individuals with knowledge of the improper firing of the U.S. Attorneys, must continue. The American people must find out what happened, and the politicization of law enforcement at the Justice Department must end. “

Pelosi favors the passage of new legislation, “I will be asking Chairman Conyers to consider legislation to ensure that the politicization of hiring of career employees at the Justice Department never happens again.” This has become a regular pattern with Pelosi. She favors investigation, not prosecution. She has taken the same stance with the impeachment question.

Both Pelosi, and her Senate counterpart Harry Reid, routinely block this kind of activity because they are worried about a political backlash from the public. My hunch is that this dies at the committee level. With an election coming up in November, Pelosi won’t want to risk firing up the Republican base, or the appearance of a political witch hunt. This is spineless, but typical of the Democratic congressional leadership.