The Washington Post 20100330A

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Politics & The Nation

Delaware, Tennessee win education awards in Race to the Top....A3 9 members of Hutaree militia group charged in plot.....................A4 Under shadow of ’57, Arkansas stays out of health-care fight .......A6 Threat to kill Rep. Cantor leads to arrest ........................................A8 EPA calls BPA a ‘chemical of concern’ ..............................................A8

The World

Iraq panel contests election results................................................A10 Panel: Firms need U.S. guidance to reduce contractors in Iraq...A10 Clinton rebukes Canada for exclusions at Arctic meeting............A11 U.S. and India reach agreement on nuclear fuel reprocessing ....A12 S. Korea: Ship may have hit N. Korea mine ...................................A12 Arms treaty with Russia may go to Hill in April............................A13 Mexican gang leader held in deaths with ties to U.S. Consulate .A13 Bomber struck steps away from top security agency....................A15

Foreign Digest

Pakistani court orders government to reopen corruption cases .A10 Burma: Opposition says it will boycott election ...........................A10

Economy & Business

Consumers remain in a buying mood ............................................A16 NASA to tackle Toyota mystery.......................................................A18 Jail terms portend China’s tougher stance ...................................A18 SEC queries firms on use of repurchase agreements....................A18 Financial increase to foreclosure crisis fund ................................A21 Morgan Stanley picked to handle Citigroup stock sale ................A21

Business Digest

Treasury pick Brainard not on recess appointment list ...............A16 Guilty plea in IBM insider-trading case.........................................A16

WASHINGTON BUSINESS

SEIU lobbying up in fourth quarter...............................................A20 Google denies fault in lawsuit over Web ads.................................A20

The Fed Page

Halting Saturday mail gets support ...............................................A23

Fine Print

Stratcom commander keeps focus on deterrence.........................A23

Opinion

Editorial

In Iraq, slowly building a democracy. ............................................A24 Maryland’s General Assembly, coddling drunk drivers....................................................................A24 Signs of hope in the D.C. battle against HIV/AIDS. ......................A24

U Win Tin

For Burma’s democracy activists, decision time. ..........................A25

Eugene Robinson

A Michigan militia and the rhetoric of rage. .................................A25

Richard Cohen

Google’s lonely stand for rights in China.......................................A25

Fareed Zakaria

Energy Secretary Steven Chu on his policy goals. ........................A25

Post Partisan

Jonathan Capehart on Michael Steele’s spending. .......................A25

6washingtonpost.com

Most-viewed articles, as of 10:30 p.m. yesterday

1. FEC report details lavish Republican spending 2. Superman comic sells for $1.5M, setting record 3. Ricky Martin is livin’ la vida open, says he’s gay 4. Seeds of disaster: Obama’s behavior is self-indulgent 5. Health reform may seem simple compared to the deficit. 6. Clinton rebukes Canada at Arctic meeting 7. Obama’s focus abroad shifts from the people to their leaders 8. Del., Tenn. win education awards 9. "Avatar" director James Cameron blasts Glenn Beck 10. NCAA Tournament: This Final Four has it all

CORRECTIONS

A March 28 Outlook review of Christian Wolmar’s book “Blood, Iron, & Gold: How the Railroads Transformed the World” incor- rectly attributed the creation of the Trans-Siberian railroad to the Russian czar Alexander II. It was his son, Alexander III, who

corrections@washpost.com.

pushed for the railroad’s con- struction.

A March 26 Weekend listing in- correctly said that “Nyet!” was opening March 27 at the Hemp- hill gallery. The exhibit has been canceled.

The Washington Post is committed to correcting errors that appear in the newspaper. Those interested in contacting the paper for that purpose can:

Call 202-334-6000, and ask to be connected to the desk involved — National,

ombudsman@washpost.com.

o this must be what Michael Steele meant when he promised an “off the hook” PR campaign for the Republican National Committee. In its February financial report

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filed with the Federal Election Commission, the RNC itemized its disbursements for the month, including: $53.99 to Staples in Bismarck,

N.D., for office supplies. $123.17 to the Courtyard hotel

in Lansing, Mich., for lodging. $282.01 to Hertz in Dallas for car rental. $1,946.25 to Voyeur in West

Hollywood for, uh, meals. Meals, huh? And quite a menu

they have at Voyeur, according to write-ups in the Los Angeles Times about the new club: “Impromptu bondage and

S&M ‘scenes’ being played out on an elevated platform by scantily clad performers throughout the night.” Chairs “detailed with the

metal hardware and bondage straps of leather fetishists. . . . One with a harness that designer Ted Nemeth calls the Restraint chair.”

“One female performer with a

horse’s bit in her mouth was being strapped to the wall by another.” “The dark, leather-heavy interior is reminiscent of the masked orgy scene” from the movie “Eyes Wide Shut.” “There is also a heavy net suspended above the club’s lounge area where performers writhe above the heads of club-goers. Even more provocative scenes are played out in an enclosed glass booth area adjacent to the club’s dance floor area.” And Al Gore got in trouble for

going to a Buddhist temple? Now, it’s true that Steele promised to reach out to young voters in “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.” But for a political organization relying on a base of religious conservatives

STEVEN SENNE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A bondage club probably wasn’t the venue RNC Chairman Michael Steele had in mind for outreach to young voters.

and family-values types, the Voyeur line item would seem to risk getting Republicans branded “the party of no-no.” Tying up the Senate is one thing, but doing party business where women tie one another up is quite different. Steele’s foray into political masochism began when the Daily Caller noticed the Voyeur line item in the FEC report. Writing about the RNC chairman’s preference for private jets, the story noted: “Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,946.25 at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage- themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.” The Democratic National Committee added to the pain: “Risque National Committee,” it dubbed its rival. Huffington Post went with “The Party of YES!” The folks at the RNC, more

accustomed to bond issues than bondage issues, lashed out. “The story willfully and erroneously suggests that the expenditure in question was one belonging to the chairman,” the party complained of the Daily Caller report. “The chairman was never at the location in question” and “had no knowledge of the expenditure.” It was, rather, the work of a “non-committee staffer” who was later identified as Erik Brown, a direct-mail executive from Orange County who has been active with the Young (and evidently restless) Republicans. This wasn’t the first time Steele found himself tied to a story involving Brown and leather — although the other one was about pigskin. On Oct. 26, Brown sent a tweet that said: “Enjoying the football game with RNC Chairman Michael Steele. (Eagles vs Redskins at FedEx Field).” It was no small irony that the RNC had been collared by the Daily Caller, a Web site started by

DIGEST

ILLINOIS

Great Lakes setup yields no Asian carp

Asix-week mission to catch and

kill Asian carp lurking on the Great Lakes’ doorstep turned up none of the despised fish, suggest- ing few if any have eluded an elec- tric barrier designed to block their path to Lake Michigan, offi- cials said Monday.

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Beginning in mid-February, teams of biologists and commer- cial fishermen combed a network of Chicago-area rivers and canals where Asian carp DNA has been detected in numerous spots over the past year. They spread netting across large areas and used elec- tric stunning prods where they believed the carp were most likely to gather, said Chris McCloud, spokesman for the Illinois De- partment of Natural Resources. The operation yielded more than 1,000 common carp, a simi- lar number of gizzard shad and a few other varieties, but no silver or bighead carp — natives of Asia that have infested sections of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers plus the Chicago waterways south of the electric barrier, some 25 miles from Lake Michigan. The barrier’s effectiveness is a

key issue in the debate over whether to close shipping locks in the waterways to keep the in- vasive carp from entering Lake Michigan, as sport fishing inter- ests and most states along the Great Lakes would like. Notoriously prolific, Asian carp can grow as large as four feet long and 100 pounds and eat up to 40 percent of their body weight daily in plankton, the base of the lakes’ food chain. Scientists say that if the species spreads across the lakes, it could damage the $7 billion fishing industry.

—Associated Press

SWINE FLU

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Virus still active, vaccinations urged

Federal officials urged people

Monday to continue getting vacci- nated against swine flu, noting that flu-related hospitalizations in Georgia have been on the rise in recent weeks.

Alabama and South Carolina are also reporting regional activ- ity of the virus, and some unusual activity has also been noted in Ha- waii and New Mexico, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the

DANA MILBANK

Washngton Sketch

The RNC’s risque assessment

the conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. It was the second prominent instance of intramural sniping among conservatives in recent days. Blogger Debbie Schlussel attacked Sean Hannity and Ollie North over a charity they work with, alleging that the Freedom Alliance “spent millions on cronies and expenses.” The charity denied the allegations, but Schlussel’s reports led Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to file a complaint Monday with the Federal Trade Commission. It alleged that Hannity engaged in “illegal and deceptive marketing practices” by saying that all money from tickets to “Freedom Concerts” went to children of service members who were killed or wounded. The scuffle over Hannity’s

charity was easily dominated by news of Steele’s S&M disbursement. Voyeur’s Web site apparently crashed from the increase in traffic, so those hunting for news about the club had to settle for reviews on Yelp.com: “ . . . two girls simulating oral sex in a glass case. Really understated elegance here. . . . Lindsay Lohan was at our table at one point.” Yet even without whips and chains, Steele could have trouble explaining other items on the RNC’s expense list: $17,514 for private aircraft and $12,691 for limousines for the RNC in February. The chairman has been in trouble on and off since he took over the RNC 14 months ago, usually for using phrases such as “Honest Injun” and “flipping the bird.” His spending has been an issue since his first days on the job, when he dropped $18,500 to redecorate his office, which he found “way too male for me.” He changed the furniture, but the RNC’s leather fetish remained.

danamilbank@washpost.com

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TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010

ELISE AMENDOLA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Norma Fuentes and fellow National Guard members stack sandbags at the Massachusetts Highway Department for distribution around the state. The National Weather Service posted flood warnings and advisories from Maine to the Carolinas with forecasts for 5 to 7 inches of rain over the next few days.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a telephone news conference.

—Associated Press

LOUISIANA

Federal jury sides with trailer maker

A federal jury has rejected a

New Orleans man’s claims that government contractors provided him with a trailer after Hurricane Katrina that exposed him to dan- gerous fumes.

Eight jurors unanimously de- cided that a trailer made by Forest River Inc. of Goshen, Ind., and oc- cupied by 39-year-old Lyndon Wright was not unreasonably dangerous in its construction or design. The jury also found that Shaw

Environmental Inc. of Baton Rouge was not negligent in in- stalling Wright’s trailer. The case is the second of sever- al trials designed to test the mer- its of and possibly resolve other claims over formaldehyde expo-

sure in the trailers. A jury in Sep- tember also found in favor of the companies.

—Associated Press

TENNESSEE

Man pleads guilty to threatening Obama

A Tennessee man pleaded

guilty Monday to plotting to kill then-presidential candidate Ba- rack Obama and 102 other black people in 2008. Under a plea agreement, Daniel

Cowart, 21, faces 12 to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty Mon- day to eight of 10 counts in an in- dictment accusing him of con- spiracy, threatening a presiden- tial candidate and various federal firearms violation. His co-defendant, 19-year-old

Paul Schlesselman, pleaded guilty in January and will be sentenced April 15.

Authorities have described the

two as skinheads who planned a cross-country robbing and killing spree that would end with an at- tack on Obama.

—Associated Press

A couple of weeks to see Mer-

cury: Mercury, the solar system’s most elusive planet, will be easier to see for the next two weeks. As- tronomers say that Mercury and Venus will appear unusually close together between now and April 10. Because Venus is one of the brightest objects in the night sky it can be used as a pointer to find the hard-to-see Mercury. Just look in the lower western sky about an hour after sunset.

Obamas mark Passover with pri-

vate Seder: President Obama marked the start of Passover with a private Seder on Monday night at the White House. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama invited friends and White House aides to mark the Jewish holiday.

Heavy rain in East: Residents

along the East Coast are bracing for heavy rains, flooding and the wettest March on record in some areas. The National Weather Serv- ice posted flood warnings and ad- visories Monday from Maine to the Carolinas.

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