Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told GOP congressional hopefuls on Thursday that they should not be afraid to criticize both political parties – including Republican members of the House.

During a conference call, the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman instructed candidates, campaign managers and press secretaries that given the anti-incumbent environment, it could be beneficial for House GOP candidates to distance themselves from politicians they may be serving with next year.

“These [congressional approval] ratings are worse than we had on the eve of losing the majority,” Cole said. “Don’t be afraid to say you are disappointed in fellow Republicans… don’t hesitate to be anti-Washington, D.C.”

The NRCC chief discouraged candidates from attending the national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, saying that spending days there would be a “waste of time,” and they would be better off campaigning.

Cole stressed to the congressional candidates that they must capitalize on the energy issue, which has given the GOP a rare burst of political momentum.

“There is potential for a big showdown in the fall on this issue,” Cole said, pointing to the expiration of the executive order banning offshore drilling in September. “The Democrats are going to have to do something proactive on this issue.”

He suggested that Republican candidates call on their opponents to condemn Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for leaving the energy issue to languish over the August break.

“Put them in a box on this issue in any way you can,” Cole said on the call, which The Hill was allowed to listen in on.

Candidates were also advised by NRCC staff to have an operative at each of their opponent’s speaking events and to make sure to record any radio interviews they might do, just in case they can be caught “doing something really stupid.”

In a recess packet distributed to Republican congressional candidates, the NRCC encouraged them to use GOP efforts on the House floor to push the energy issue as the centerpiece of their campaigns as they head into the crucial month of August.

The documents suggest that candidates hold press events at gas stations and details a list of energy bills that the Democratic-led Congress has, and has not, allowed to be voted on during the 110th Congress.

A timeline and a list of Republican-sponsored, energy-related discharge petitions are also included in the recess packet.

In addition to the materials for their candidates, each Democratic candidate will be featured on a “House Energy Report Card” featuring a forlorn donkey and a list of 101 courses such as “Alternative Energy 101” with the word “FAIL” written next to it.

The NRCC also launched a new ad Thursday, modeled after a movie trailer, that accuses House Democrats of having no energy agenda and features interviews with Pelosi on various news programs.

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Doug Thornell dismissed the GOP messaging as insincere.

“The Grand Oil Party is popping champagne corks after a week of reports showing record profits for their Big Oil buddies,” he said. “In fact, Big Oil owes House Republicans a big thank you card for consistently looking out for their bottom line instead of supporting Democratic efforts to lower gas prices for middle-class families.”

Despite Democratic cries of hypocrisy during a year that has brought Republicans little to cheer about, the energy debate has swayed editorial boards and public opinion largely to the GOP.

Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.) warned in the August 2008 district work kit that the GOP must take advantage of the opportunity.

“If we don’t build on this momentum and lock it down now, we don’t stand a snowball’s chance of getting something done and regaining the trust of the American people.”

In addition to energy, the conference recess packet also includes talking points on the economy, security, healthcare and various other initiatives.

While Republicans may currently hold the high political ground on energy, many Americans still lay the blame at the feet of the Bush administration for the cost of gas.

According to a July 31 CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, 54 percent of those surveyed blamed the Bush administration for the cost of fuel, 51 percent blamed the ban on offshore drilling for gas prices and 68 percent blamed the oil companies for the rise in gas prices. Only 31 percent blamed Democrats in Congress.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are trying to achieve a goal that many believe is unattainable: getting the Republican Party energized for the 2008 election.

The lawmakers, who are the co-chairmen of the Republican Platform Committee, told The Hill in an interview last week that they are soliciting opinions from the platform committee’s website, their colleagues and groups hailing from “all walks of life.”

They also plan to craft a shorter platform than four years ago.

“Wasn’t it 44,000 words?” Burr asked, referring to the 92-page 2004 party platform. “If anybody only reads half the document, then they only have half the picture of what the Republican Party is. We’d like to do this in a way that people get the full picture, and if part of that means saying what we need to say more succinctly, then we are going to do that.”

Republicans are not the only audience that the two lawmakers hope picks up their document, which will be officially adopted the week before the Republican convention by 112 state delegates.

Recognizing that this election year promises to be another in which independents will play a major role in who will move into the White House next year, Burr and McCarthy are hoping that independents and conservative Democrats post ideas for the GOP platform at www.gopplatform2008.com.

McCarthy said inclusion is the key to generating excitement about the ideas that will eventually become the official principles of the party.

McCarthy and Burr were only willing to speculate a bit on the principles that might be included in the platform, explaining that they had not finished taking public comment. But they did say the platform was unlikely to please everyone.

“We’re not afraid to debate our issues. We’ve got it out in the open and that’s why, at the end of the day, you come down with a principled theme of where you are going — and I believe the vast majority of Republicans are going to like where they see this thing going,” McCarthy said.

Unity has been hard to come by in the GOP recently. The party has all but adopted an “every lawmaker for himself” approach to campaign fundraising and faces a split on major economic issues such as the housing crisis. In addition, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who as the presumptive Republican nominee will headline the GOP convention in Minneapolis, has bucked his party on a range of issues.

McCarthy and Burr say they are not concerned.

“I would be shocked if we had one Republican that agreed with every word and line of the party platform,” Burr said. “So I don’t think it’s our job, nor would I like to see our party try to limit ourselves to only the people that agree with us 100 percent.”

McCarthy recently said that the convention may feature two platforms, one for McCain’s campaign and another for the convention. McCain’s will not call for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, while the convention platform will likely call for drilling there.

Burr added that “core issues,” such as a strong anti-abortion rights stance and national security, as well as fiscal issues, are staples of the GOP.

“I would imagine one of the pillars or principles of the Republican platform is going to be our tax policy,” he said.

The North Carolina senator also said the global economy will be an area where he expects change from the previous platforms.

There is, he said, “a greater need to talk about the global opportunities, which requires us to be a little more specific on global trade, and the U.S. position on that.”

While McCarthy said he has heard from his House colleagues on many issues they hope will be included in the platform, Burr said he hasn’t been lobbied a lot on his side of the Capitol.

“Which I think is a good sign, because right now they are focused on the immediacy of the legislative challenges that we have in Washington,” Burr said. “I expect that as we grow closer to the end of the legislative business, and certainly as we grow closer to August, I will probably be the recipient of e-mails … When all of the sudden they have begun to think about this.”

When Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) visited then-Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) Washington office several years ago, the former wrestling coach greeted him with a big hug.

“What was that all about?” Young asked.

Hastert told him he thought Young had died, saying, “I was down at the White House and an aide came in and announced you had died of a heart attack.”

The same day, two men walked into Young’s office and began looking around the spacious blue-walled interior. They explained to Young’s wife, Lu, that they were checking out the office space in the wake of her husband’s death.

During an interview with The Hill, Young cited the stories as an important lesson: Politicians have a short shelf life.

The 18-term lawmaker said, “The world doesn’t revolve around you when you are no longer alive or when you are no longer the chairman.”

It was not long ago that many activities in the House revolved around Young. As the chairman of the Resources Committee and later the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, members of Congress and their staffs were well-aware that Young alone made the final decisions on what projects would be included in legislation under his jurisdiction.

But times have changed, and Young is in a very different position today.

Now the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, the 75–year-old lawmaker has been cast by Democrats and some members of his own party as the lead abuser of what they say is the broken system of congressional earmarks. SAFETEA-LU, a bill Young has cited as one of his proudest achievements (the “Lu” is an homage to Young’s wife), has come under scrutiny as a result of his involvement with the so-called “Coconut Road” earmark.

The House and Senate voted in April to support a Department of Justice investigation into the controversial way in which the earmark made it into law.

Back home in Alaska, Young faces his first serious primary challenge since 1992 as his legal fees mount as a result of allegations of illegal campaign donations. He is also reportedly under investigation by the FBI. And to top it all off, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) regularly mocks Young’s earmarks on the presidential campaign trail.

But despite all that, Young appears unfazed.

Throughout the interview, Young appeared strikingly calm and confident, leaning back in a leather armchair surrounded by 36 years of hunting trophies and framed pictures chronicling the nearly four decades he has served in the lower chamber.

His hostility toward the press has been well-chronicled, most notably when he made an obscene gesture at a New York Times reporter who was pressing him on the Coconut Road earmark.Yet Young does not dwell on the idea of getting “fair” treatment — from the media, his congressional colleagues or anyone else.

“You can’t think of being fair and not fair … You can’t and survive,” he said. “If you keep saying, ‘Well, this is not fair,’ you start feeling sorry for yourself, you can’t go forward.”

Young described his transition into the minority as relatively easy. He explained that, given that his first 22 years were spent in the minority, the win in 1994 was more jarring than the loss in 2006.

He doesn’t dwell on his loss of power and acknowledged that fair-weather friends have fallen by the wayside.

“My good friends are still with me and those that are ne’er-do-wells … those that needed me and smiled, and asked me, and received [the request] 90 percent of the time, I knew that they would not be there when I was no longer chairman.

“This is a very cold-blooded business,” he said. Young listed a host of Democratic chairmen as some of his good friends, including Reps. John Dingell (Mich.), Jim Oberstar (Minn.), Nick Rahall (W.Va.) and Collin Peterson (Minn.).
“So, I am not [frustrated in] the minority because I took care of the minority when I was in the majority; they are taking care of me now. And some people don’t understand that,” Young said.

He is a commanding speaker who sputters occasionally when it seems he can’t express a thought quickly enough. He frequently cited reports, articles and books, expressing disappointment that others do not take the time to study history and reflect on how it affects the future.

Young is the eighth-longest serving current member of the House and the third in his party, ranking behind Rep. Bill Young (Fla.) and retiring Rep. Ralph Regula (Ohio). His career has spanned the terms of seven presidents, each of whom he has met.
His tone softens as he fondly recalls the old days when members put aside their differences at the end of the day over a glass of brandy. The softer voice remains and a smile spreads across his face as Lu enters the office to bring him a half-cup of coffee (“You are only getting half a cup,” she says before exiting).

Young was raised in California, served in the Army and captained his tugboat, according to the Almanac of American Politics.

The larger-than-life character attracts attention. Last week, an “intern survival guide” was leaked to a government watchdog group and then made public.

Young says it is true that he doesn’t like ear piercings and hands in pockets — as detailed in the intern guide. But, Young adds, “I’m a good boss.”

Unlike many in the House, Young is not an extremist. He likes to broker deals and enact laws.

He bemoans incremental legislating, saying partisanship yields power to the executive branch.

Young learned early that fostering bipartisan relationships and nurturing friendships over time would be crucial to his ability to function as the sole representative from Alaska — a large part of which, for Young, meant securing earmarks.

“That’s what I’m elected for. What other reason is a congressman here to do? To do what?” he said.

Young has clashed with more than a few on his side of the aisle. He engaged in a fierce debate with Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) on the floor in 2007 over education. Young went toe-to-toe with then-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) in 2004 on a proposed gas tax increase he had pushed for. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.) has said that she has “never had a man talk to me the way Mr. Young talked to me.”

He does have friends in the GOP, some of whom have donated to his campaign, including Sen. Ted Stevens (Alaska) and Reps. Dave Camp (Mich.), David Dreier (Calif.), Jim Saxton (N.J), Bill Shuster (Pa.), George Radanovich (Calif.), James Walsh (N.Y.) and Dave Weldon (Fla.), according to CQ MoneyLine.

Asked whether the Bridge to Nowhere criticism stings, Young responded emphatically, “No,” calling it a “badge of honor.”

“People talk about the bridges to nowhere. That never came out of the budget. It was money raised — dollars — tax dollars from gasoline from uses of automobiles and trucks, so it didn’t hurt too much, but people don’t understand that,” he said.

Young said the earmark moratorium advocated by the House GOP conference was driven by the right wing of the party. He also had some sharp words for the White House.

“The president has huge amounts of earmarks in his budget. What gives him the right to decide [on earmarks] … when an earmark is made by a member of Congress elected by the people and those earmarks are requested by the people?” he said. “What I don’t want is to centralize the power in the executive branch.”

He said earmark opponents “ought to read the Constitution.”

Should Young survive his GOP primary in August, the Democrats will be waiting; they are targeting his seat this cycle. “I don’t plan on losing,” says Young.

But, Young adds, “Life doesn’t stop because you don’t get reelected.”

  House Republican leaders on Tuesday challenged Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to release a plan to lower gas prices that they say Democrats touted when they were in the minority. “Two years ago this week, you stated that House Democrats had a ‘commonsense plan’ to ‘lower gas prices,’ ” the letter said. “In light of the skyrocketing gasoline prices affecting working families and every sector of our struggling economy, we are writing today to respectfully request that you reveal this ‘commonsense plan’ so we can begin work on responsible solutions to help ease this strain.”  

The letter is signed by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (R-Fla.), Policy Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) as well as other members of leadership: Reps. Kay Granger (R-Texas), John Carter (R-Texas), Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Eric Cantor (R-Va.).

In a press release dated April 24, 2006, Pelosi said, “Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down skyrocketing gas prices by cracking down on price gouging, rolling back the billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies, tax breaks and royalty relief given to big oil and gas companies, and increasing production of alternative fuels.”

The letter cited policies put in place during the GOP control of Congress that the Speaker claimed had raised prices on  American consumers to benefit oil companies.   The House GOP leaders’ letter points out that the price of gasoline has spiked $1.18 since Democrats took over in January and stands at $3.51.  

“Once a nightmare scenario, $4 gasoline is now a very real possibility of becoming a summer staple,” the letter stated. “In some cities, including San Francisco and Chicago, it is already a startling reality.” Pelosi’s office did not respond immediately for comment.

The political drumbeat against high gas prices in the House coincidences with that of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has made the issue a key campaign talking point. McCain has called for a suspension of the gas tax to help consumers get through the summer months. The McCain campaign and congressional Republicans have met repeatedly in recent weeks in an effort to coordinate their messages.       

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) has not paid any dues to the House Democrats’ campaign committee since being passed over to head the Intelligence panel a year and a half ago.

Harman and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have had a rocky relationship, which became more strained after Pelosi tapped Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) for the top spot on the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections.

During the 2006 cycle, Harman — as ranking member on the Intelligence panel — contributed $190,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). By this point of the 2006 cycle, Harman had given the committee $75,000.
But she has not paid a dime of her $200,000 dues this cycle, though she has contributed $65,500 to individual Democratic candidates, according to CQMoneyLine. Pelosi selects the head of the DCCC, and she regularly urges her caucus to contribute to the campaign committee.

In a statement provided to The Hill, Harman said, “I’ve given directly to many of our Red-to-Blue and Frontline candidates in this cycle, and will continue to provide maximum support to a Democratic victory in November through my campaign and leadership PAC [political action committee], SecureUS, which has a proven track record of helping Democratic candidates win by honing a tough and smart security message.”

The campaigns of Reps. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.), Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) have received the most from Harman as of March 31, each taking in $4,000.

Harman has $307,388 cash on hand in her campaign war chest and nearly $49,000 in her SecureUS PAC.

During the 2002 and 2004 cycles, Harman gave $100,000 and $150,000 to the DCCC, respectively.
Doug Thornell, a spokesman for the DCCC, declined to comment specifically on Harman.

“Members do their own planning as they determine how and when to best support the DCCC,” he said. “We always appreciate their help, which along with our grassroots and online support allows us to stay aggressively on the offense against Republicans and their numerous 527 partners, like Freedom’s Watch, this fall.”

Unlike Pelosi, Harman voted for the Iraq war in 2002. Shortly thereafter, Pelosi tapped Harman over Rep. Sanford Bishop Jr. (D-Ga.) to replace herself as the intelligence panel’s ranking member.

It remains unclear exactly what led to the friction between the two House lawmakers.

Some say Harman, a centrist who chairs the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Oversight, rubbed leadership the wrong way by not criticizing the Bush administration more when she was ranking member.

Others have said leadership frowned on Harman’s yearning for the spotlight.

Harman has voted with leadership on a range of high-profile issues during the 110th Congress, including on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the 2007 Iraq war supplemental and ethics reform legislation.

During a March 14 floor speech on FISA, Harman said, “I served six years on the Armed Services Committee, eight on the Intelligence Committee and four on the Homeland Security Committee, where I chair its Intelligence subcommittee. I received so-called Gang of Eight briefings on the operational details of the terrorist surveillance program from 2003 to 2006, and I regularly receive classified threat briefings. … Some in this chamber — in both parties — seek my views on security issues, and I hope my advice is helpful.”

House Republican leaders did not mention mortgage foreclosures or the word “housing” in materials given to their members before the March recess.

The 21-page document distributed on March 13 addressed economic concerns ranging from overspending to tax hikes to earmarks but did not address the foreclosure crisis.

Leadership offices on both sides of the aisle routinely distribute “recess kits” to be used by members as reference materials and talking points during prolonged district work periods.
Brian Schubert, a spokesman for GOP Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (Fla.), did not directly address why the housing crisis was not mentioned in the packet, though he said economic security is tackled in the materials.

Putnam’s office last month distributed the recess kits, which state that the economy is “slowing.”

Schubert said Republican lawmakers have diligently worked to warn taxpayers about a budget and Democratic policies that they argue will raise taxes: “Congress has an obligation to provide common-sense solutions that get our economy moving in the right direction and assist needy homeowners who are truly victims.”

A spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) described the omission of the housing crisis as “appalling.”

“It is appalling, but not surprising, that congressional Republicans would ignore the housing and foreclosure crisis and the fact that millions of families are at risk of losing their homes,” said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for Pelosi. “Let’s hope that after spending a couple of weeks with their constituents, Republicans are now prepared to work with Democrats to deal with this immediate problem.”

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke addressed the hot-button issue during his testimony last week to the Joint Economic Committee and identified the housing market as the “center of the problem” threatening the economy. Bernanke advised lawmakers that they should be “looking at housing.”

The Center for Responsible Lending estimates that over 2 million people could lose their homes due to foreclosure over the next two years.

According the recess packet distributed by Pelosi to House Democratic Caucus members, 10 percent of American homes are worth less than the cost of their mortgage.

Addressing the housing situation is a politically tricky proposition for Republicans as they try to strike a balance between helping voters who need assistance and not embracing a big-government solution.

Fiscal conservatives last month began mobilizing against the idea of a federal government-funded solution to the housing crisis.

Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) and 17 other Republicans sent a letter to President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on March 7 urging him to reject anything that resembled a “bailout.”

“The disorder in the housing market is unquestionably serious,” Price said in a statement. “However, a taxpayer bailout would only encourage more dangerous borrowing and lead to future housing instability.”

Putnam told The Hill in March that he would not reject such the idea of a government solution to the crisis “out of hand,” but that he favored a solution that “does not resemble a government bailout.”

“We’re all interested in trying to mitigate the harm in the economy in a market-oriented way that does not reward bad behavior,” he said.

Putnam’s home state of Florida has been one of the hardest-hit by the foreclosure crisis.

Senate Republicans walked a similar line last week after striking a deal with Democrats on housing legislation while successfully killing a provision heavily opposed by the banking lobby that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to revise the terms of mortgages on primary residences.

Some GOP lobbyists and operatives have said that the March recess significantly changed Republican perceptions of the economy.

In late December, President Bush said the economy was growing. Earlier that month, Putnam compared Democratic efforts to address the sub-prime mortgage crisis to “a sledgehammer on a gnat,” claiming it was an exaggerated response to a problem afflicting a relatively small percentage of people.

David Wasserman, House editor of The Cook Political Report, said, “At this point, there is little doubt that the housing crisis will be a key fall issue, and perhaps the dominant economic issue on the national agenda.

… There has not been enough polling released on this issue to say whom it will benefit, but Republicans must be wary of appearing to lack compassion towards those who have felt the brunt of the downturn.”

Jessica Holzer contributed to this article.

House Republicans are looking for more than a few good men and women to fill slots on arguably the most important committee in the lower chamber.

Of the 24 Republican members on the Ways and Means Committee in 2006, only nine will return in 2009 — and that’s assuming every GOP panelist wins reelection this November.

Last week, Ways and Means Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.) announced he will not seek another term. Other Republicans on the panel who are not seeking reelection include ranking member Jim McCrery (La.), Jim Ramstad (Minn.), Jerry Weller (Ill.), Kenny Hulshof (Mo.) and Ron Lewis (Ky.).

Republicans lost decades of experience when Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) retired at the end of the 109th Congress while Reps. Clay Shaw (R-Fla.) and Nancy Johnson (R-Conn.) lost their reelection bids in 2006.

“It’s striking how big a generational shift it is,” said Ways and Means member Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.), now one of the more senior members on the panel.

While Republicans are looking for experience, Democrats have plenty of it. The top five Democrats on Ways and Means have more than 130 years of experience in Congress.

Democrats are hoping to move a slew of high-profile bills through Ways and Means next year, when they hope to have control of Congress and the White House.

English said the GOP retirements give the committee the opportunity to build a strong group of lawmakers who are “politically engaged and engaged on the policy end.”

“We need people to step in to fill Jerry Weller’s role in trade, we need someone to step into Jim Ramstad’s role as our advocate for insurance reform, to fill [roles] from the departure of Clay Shaw and Nancy Johnson who were policy heavyweights,” he said.

Ways and Means member Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said, “We are looking for doctors, for the healthcare issues, for people who know tax policy, for [members] with an aptitude in trade and economics.”

Rep. Tom Price (Ga.), one of several Republicans who have begun jockeying for a slot, thinks he could help cure part of the problem should he be selected for the committee.

“I bring in experience on healthcare that we sorely need,” the two-term lawmaker said, citing his career as a doctor.

Two Texans in their second terms have also expressed interest in a seat on Ways and Means.

As a certified public account, Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) may have a slight advantage, given his role in the National Republican Congressional Committee’s (NRCC) accounting controversy. It was his expertise and insistence that an internal audit be performed earlier this year that exposed years of alleged fraudulent activity.

Asked if he believed that this discovery could give him an edge, Conaway demurred, “I hope it doesn’t hurt.”
Brian Thomas, a spokesman for Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas), said Ways and Means has always been the target committee for the former businessman, who spent 18 years in the Texas legislature.

Thomas added that Marchant enjoyed wide support from the Texas delegation when he ran for the post last fall.

Fundraising plays a large part in the selection of lawmakers for so-called “A” committees, a reality illustrated from the top of the panel down.

Reps. Wally Herger (R-Calif.) and Dave Camp (R-Mich.) picked up their fundraising significantly since announcing their intentions to run for the top GOP slot on the powerful panel.

Herger acknowledged the challenge to fill the committee he hopes to lead.

“We need a member that will [take on] the train wreck of entitlements [such as] the problems with Social Security and Medicare,” Herger said. “They will have to be willing to take that issue head on.”

Shortly after announcing his campaign in December 2007, Herger donated $250,000 to the NRCC. Camp subsequently gave $400,000 to the NRCC.

The House Republican Steering Committee will make its decisions on committee assignments after the 2008 elections.

Ratner, a self-described “proud liberal” who is the TRNS bureau chief, confirmed that  Ney is working for the communications company as the ex-lawmaker stays in a halfway house.

TRNS is a news booking and host service dedicated to serving the talk radio community. TRNS has a Washington office that includes White House, Capitol Hill and Pentagon staffed bureaus, and a New York office with a United Nations staffed bureau, according to its website.

In a telephone interview, Ratner said, “We have never had a Columbus office. Ohio is very important to us.”

Ratner said the TRNS-Ney arrangement had been in the works for months and that she hoped to make Ney a political contributor once he is placed on probation. She hopes to make that transition as soon as August.

“The Bureau of Prisons won’t let him be on air,” said Ratner. “He’s doing our daybook; he does research.”

She added that some TRNS staffers were initially skeptical but are now convinced that hiring Ney was a good move.

In February, Ney was released from a  Morgantown, W.Va., prison to a halfway house in Ohio.

Ney pleaded guilty in 2006 to corruption charges and was sentenced in January 2007 to serve 30 months in prison, but was released early. Ratner was among the family and friends gathered in the courtroom the day Ney was sentenced.

In an October 2006 op-ed in The Hill, Ratner publicly defended Ney.

“While I’m heartbroken about Bob and angry as hell about the Justice Department’s slimy tactics, I don’t worry about him,” she wrote. “I know my friend will look at incarceration not as the end of the road, but as a detour, a long-overdue chance to seek help for the alcoholism that has taken over more and more of his life these past few years.”

She added, “He’ll be strong, and when all this is over, he’ll be a better man, a better husband and father — and he’ll still be my friend.”

In a March 2007 interview the evening before he reported to prison, Ney told The Hill that a return to Washington was unlikely.

“My family’s in Ohio, and that would tend to be where I want to be,” he said at the time.

Rep. Zack Space (D) currently represents Ney’s former district.