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    Flap’s Links and Comments for March 10th on 18:49

    These are my links for March 10th from 18:49 to 18:53:

    • Mo-Sen Sen Claire McCaskill billed, repaid taxpayers for political flights – Senator Claire McCaskill's spokeswoman this evening confirmed that the Missouri Senator billed taxpayers for a purely political travel on a private plane co-owned by her family, a violation of Congressional ethics rules that deepens questions around her use of the plane.

      POLITICO's John Bresnahan and Scott Wong reported yesterday that McCaskill billed taxpayers for almost $76,000 for official travel on the twin-engine Piper aircraft, which she co-owns with her husband and other investors. Lawmakers routinely accept reimbursement from the government for their travel, but after the revelation that she used official public dollars to partially subsidize a private aircraft, McCaskill refunded taxpayers — citing appearances, not any violation of ethics rules.

      A cursory examination of the 89 flights for which McCaskill reimbursed the Treasury this week revealed the purely political round trip. On Saturday, March 3, 2007 she flew from St. Louis to Hannibal, MO, and back, for the local Democratic Party's annual Hannibal Days. Her speech at the event, a recollection of the dying former Senator Tom Eagleton, was reported in the local press. And she billed taxpayers $1,220.44 for the travel, according to the public records examined by POLITICO.

      McCaskill spokeswoman Maria Speiser conceded that the bill was inappropriate, and had no immediate explanation for how it had come to be submitted as an official expense.

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      Even though she repaid the costs to the taxpayers, this will undoubtedly show up in 30 second TV spots during her 2012 re-election campaign.

    • Darrell Issa: White House influencing net neutrality – FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is denying a charge that White House officials improperly influenced the commission’s net neutrality rules. 

      In a November 2009 letter to Genachowski, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said media reports suggest “that Obama administration officials had knowledge of and potentially contributed to [the] crafting of” the controversial net neutrality rules.

      Specifically, Issa noted that a 2009 American Spectator article said a draft of the net neutrality rules had been circulated to Obama administration officials — and that Genachowski and President Barack Obama made suspiciously similar remarks about the rules on Sept. 21, 2009.

      Issa — then the ranking member, now the chairman of the House Oversight Committee — asked, among other things, whether then-White House economic adviser Larry Summers had had any contact with the FCC about net neutrality.

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