Sen Reid writes WaPo..&..3 Congressmen win lotteries...

From American Progress:

Think Fast...

In a letter to the Washington Post, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) responds to the paper's opposition to the Senate's recent all-night debate on Iraq. "On reading the July 21 editorial 'The Phony Debate,' it became clear why The Post's editorial writers have been such eager cheerleaders for the Bush administration's flawed Iraq policies -- the two share the same disregard for the facts en route to drawing dubious conclusions," Reid writes.

"In a little-noticed addition to legislation requiring the July and September assessments on Iraq from the White House, Congress mandated a third report" from the Government Accountability Office, which has "quietly done the most work to track the missteps, miscalculations, misspent funds and shortfalls of both the United States and Iraq since the 2003 invasion."

As part of the debate over the farm bill, "House Democrats proposed legislation that would make it harder for overseas companies to use tax havens to avoid taxes on U.S. profits, drawing immediate opposition from the Bush administration."

"The commanding general at Fort Lewis, Wash., the third-largest Army base in the nation, on Wednesday rescinded a plan calling for a once-a-month collective memorial service rather than individual ones for soldiers killed in action."

"One of the largest American contractors working in Iraq, Bechtel National, met its original objectives on fewer than half of the projects it received as part of a $1.8 billion reconstruction contract, while most of the rest were canceled, reduced in scope or never completed as designed, federal investigators have found in a report released yesterday."

And finally: The new "CQ's Politics in America 2008: The 110th Congress" is "an intriguing compilation of trivia." One tidbit is that three congressmen -- Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-WI), and Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) -- are all lottery winners. Gregg "donated a portion of his $853,492 in winnings to a charity," Sensenbrenner "put his $250,000 toward charities and investments," and McCarthy used his $5,000 to "open Kevin O's Deli."

Wrap...