Let's start with more about Malaysian Prime Minister Matathir's $1.2M meeting with President Bush. 

The Prime Minister had some more to add when speaking to the Mayalsian papers. This from Malaysia's New Straits Times: 

"It is true that someone paid the money but it was not the Government," he said.

"I did not touch the money at all. In the US, it is a practice that if you want to meet their leader, you have to go through a lobbyist and the lobbyist has to be paid... That is their system. It is not corruption at all and it is very open, but they don’t reveal names."

A valuable tutorial in U.S. governance, no?

And according to the Prime Minister, though Jack Abramoff was paid $1.2M, the Heritage Foundation deserves more credit than they've been given for the meeting: 

Dr Mahathir said the meeting was arranged by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"They said I would be able to influence (Bush) in some way regarding his policies.

"Secondly, it would be good for Malaysia if the relationship between the two countries improved, and I agreed with that. I thought I could do something good for the country."

Matt Yglesias at Tapped refers us to this Washington Post piece on the Heritage Foundation's involvement with Malaysia. The headline: "Think Tank's Ideas Shifted As Malaysia Ties Grew: Business Interests Overlapped Policy." As Matt says, "That's the polite way of saying they were on the take."

Frank Foer over at TNR's the Plank has some unverified, but very juicy details about some wild Congressional trips over to Malaysia. The details come from a former Republican Congressional staffer:

The Malaysian government has a Congressional affairs operation that centers around trips to Malaysia. They take people on trips. Then they booze them and feed them and ask inappropriate questions. They often ask qusetions that you would only know the answer to if you had a clearance....

They wine you and dine you for 3 days. I had an experience that I refer to as my "Colombian Drug Cartel Decadent Dinner" for our 10 or so people. We did nothing but drink and shop and eat and go swimming and yacht for 3 days. House ethics rules require that if you have 1 day without work, the trip is unethical and you are required to return to the states at your own expense. The Malaysians refused to send the ethics filing that they are supposed to send on such trips.

TNR also has a copy of Abramoff's pitch to the Malaysian government back in 2000.

Bob Ney - Dead Man Running

The AP reports that the Dems failed to recruit an experienced challenger to Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), even though the man's name is scarcely mentioned in a sentence without the words "possible indictment":

Three men with more experience in countywide elected office and greater name recognition than the four Democrats who are running turned down offers by the party's national House campaign organization last year to challenge Republican Rep. Bob Ney.<snip>

Tom Wiseman, a political scientist at Bowling Green State University and former Democratic mayor of the northwest Ohio city of Defiance, said the first three Democratic recruits — Boccieri, state Sen. Charlie Wilson and former state Senate Minority Leader Greg DiDonato — "are considered big hitters. They have the track record, experience and base, as opposed to the other two."

Brian Usher, a Democratic political strategist editing the forthcoming edition of the book "Ohio Politics," agrees that Sulzer, who was a state legislator in the 1990s, and Space, in his first elected office, don't have the same impact. Still, he said, the Democrats' chances for success remain in Ney's hands.

"It will be a dogfight all year, unless Ney is indicted and stays in the race. Then the Democrats have a very good shot," Usher said.

Haley Barbour, Governor/Lobbyist

From the NY Times:

It seems hard to imagine that in the age of Jack Abramoff, being a former lobbyist may be a good thing for a politician. But the back-slapping prowess of Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a Republican who is legendary on K Street, Washington's Great White Way of influence peddling, has proved invaluable to this storm-rattled state.

In mid-December, as Congress was rushing toward its Christmas break, negotiations stalled on a multibillion-dollar bill to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina here and in Louisiana. Tempers flared as House conservatives dug in against the cost. It was a bottom-of-the-ninth impasse, ready-made for a heavy-hitter lobbyist.

Enter Mr. Barbour, a fireplug of a man whose soft Delta accent and gentle Southern manners mask a stiletto-sharp approach to politics.

In a private meeting that began on Dec. 16 and lasted well past midnight, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and the Republican whip, Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, questioned Mr. Barbour about the package.

It may have helped that Mr. Barbour's answers were crisp. But it was also probably beneficial that Mr. Barbour, as chairman of the Republican National Committee in the 1990's and later as a prominent lobbyist, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Mr. Hastert and other House Republicans.

Either way, the logjam broke and the House agreed to the Senate's higher number, $29 billion. In the process, Mr. Barbour helped ensure that Mississippi got nearly as much housing money as Louisiana, even though his state had far less damage.

P-rk

Salon reports that "many of the leading tacticians of the conservative movement moonlight as pork-procuring lobbyists."

DeLay staggers from the ashes

When in doubt, attack George Soros:

An interesting television ad went up last week in Rep. Tom DeLay's (R) Houston-area congressional district. The ad attacks Democrat billionaire philanthropist George Soros for his alleged funding of attacks on DeLay.

Reform - The Unthinkable

It remains extremely unlikely to go very far, but a GOP senator might be coming onboard:

Sen. George Voinovich, Ethics Committee chairman and a sometime gadfly to Republican leadership, is warming to Democratic-backed proposals for public financing of federal elections.

Voinovich (R-Ohio) told The Hill that he has met with Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) to discuss collaboration on the public-financing pitch Durbin is crafting with Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.).

Specifics on their plan are still to come. 

Pentagon Recalls Jerry Lewis' Staffer

A couple of weeks ago, the Hill reported that Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, had a Marine officer in his office for over a year, an ethics no-no. Now the Pentagon has taken him back.

Did we miss something? Was there local coverage in your area we should know about? Email us at talk@talkingpoin tsmemo.com with the Subject line "Daily Muck" and let us know.