Obama's Globetrotting: Campaign Funded or Senate Junket?
The official reason (tip):
The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign.
Paid for by the campaign? But I thought this trip wasn't a campaign (erh, political) event?
"The trip is not at all a campaign trip, a rally of any sort," spokesman Robert Gibbs said. Estimated attendance at the Berlin speech? 200,000. And only hours later, "[Obama] campaign manager, David Plouffe, sent out a fundraising solicitation using the speech to raise campaign cash."
Missing from the speech: foreign service personnel. The State Department labeled the German speech as "partisan political activity." Because of this, foreign service personnel were prevented from attending: "we always maintain that no U.S. government Foreign Service person overseas should be seen to be advocating one side or the other."
The State Department has also advised its embassies "to limit the help they give visiting presidential candidates Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain so as to avoid violating U.S. law and policy."
But why did Obama cancel his visit with troops in Germany? The Pentagon notified Obama that "the [troop] visit would be viewed instead as a campaign event." One assumes because of the funding of the trip; media on the ground in Germany didn't provide details.
The Obama campaign did an excellent job of combining one taxpayer-funded event with one campaign-funded event ... and making them appear seamless. How good a job have the press done in making it clear that these are two trips combined into one?
Iraq and Afghanistan
The trip to Iraq and Afghanistan was as part of an official congressional delegation (CODEL) that included Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE). In 2006, Obama conducted a controversial solo CODEL to Africa.
CODELs are supposed to be bi-partisan and official. Hence the need to include Hagel, a staunch critic of the Iraq War who is Republican and serves on the Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees. Obama is also on the Foreign Relations Committee. Only Reed serves on the Armed Services Committee.
The Iraq and Afghanistan trip was reportedly made on a private plane. On this "super CODEL," Obama et al played a game of "hopscotch" -- sans reporters. "Obama gave his first news conference when the Codel part of the overseas trip was officially over."
Have you heard anything from Hagel or Reed? Probably not unless you live in Rhode Island or Nebraska.
On Thursday, Hagel criticized the presumptive presidential candidates for "arguing over the success of last year's troop surge."
"Get out of that. We're done with that. How are we going to project forward?" the Nebraska senator said. "What are we going to do for the next four years to protect the interest of America and our allies and restructure a new order in the world. ... That's what America needs to hear from these two candidates. And that's where I am."
And the Washington Post indirectly criticized media characterization of Obama's Iraq proposal: "neither U.S. commanders nor Iraq's principal political leaders actually support his strategy."
But most of the reporting has been glowing.
What's A CODEL?
A CODEL is a congressional delegation trip. They are funded by US taxpayers. When the CODEL is in Iraq or Afghanistan, the military runs the schedule.
In the case of this CODEL, media coverage was left up to in-country reporters; congressional rules allow only "the Senate Majority Leader or a full Committee Chairman [to] bring a traveling press corps" on CODELs. Here's the post-event joint press statement.
Congress provides no one-stop shopping for CODEL information. Here are a few Google helped me find:
- Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), July 2008. "as co-chairman of the U.S. Helsinki Commission, I led a U.S. Congressional Delegation trip to Islamabad, Pakistan to meet with President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gillani and U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson. "
- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), January 2007. CODEL to Iraq and Afghanistan with Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Rep. John M. McHugh (R-NY).
- Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), December 2007. Visited Afghanistan, Pakistan and India with CODEL led by Sen. Bob Bennett (R-TU) and accompanied by Rep. David Dreier (R-CA), Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Joe Wilson (R-SC).
- Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), April 2006. As Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Enzi led a group of senators and officials from the Administration to India, Italy, Kuwait and Sri Lanka.
- Sen. Kay Hutchison, February 2008. Four-day CODEL to Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
- Sen. Barack Obama, January 2006. CODEL to Iraq led by Sen. Bayh. "After a two-day Iraq tour, Obama is to travel to Jordan and Israel on his own."
- Rep. Nancy Pelosi, April 2008. Led Congressional delegation to India.
How do they get scheduled? Here you go, based on this description from Obama's 2006 CODEL to Africa:
- Apply to appropriate committee chair
- Chair writes appropriate executive agency for support for the trip.
- Taxpayers foot the bill for Senator and an aide.
- Campaign financing covers "costs of official business not paid for by the government."
I'm not a fan of global CODELs, as a general statement. In this case, what, pray tell, would the Pentagon tell/show these Senators (one of whom is not running for re-election) that they didn't already know or that would help them make a decision on pending legislation? Committee chairmen: yeah, maybe. But until the Senate and House publish details of all of them, I remain a skeptic.
Left on the campaign portion of the trip: Israel, France and Great Britain.
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