Summary: In the latest development in a political controversy that stemmed from the Bush White House’s failure to install a properly working electronic record-keeping system, computer technicians have found 22 million missing White House e-mails from the administration of President George W. Bush. The Bush White House e-mail archiving problems became publicly known in 2006, when federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald disclosed the irregularities during his criminal investigation of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on December 14, 2008, Aubrey Immelman reported that a federal draft report depicted the U.S.-led reconstruction of Iraq as a $100 billion failure doomed by bureaucratic infighting, ignorance of basic elements of Iraqi society, and waves of violence. The report, “Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience,” was compiled by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, led by Stuart Bowen Jr., a Republican lawyer.

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Summary: Politico reports that U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) was one of the House of Representatives’ biggest spenders on congressional office expenses in the first quarter of 2009. “While businesses across the country are cutting back, members of the House saw their own office budgets increase by an average of 7 percent between 2008 and 2009. [An] analysis of the first-quarter 2009 MRA reports shows Michele Bachmann spent more than $380,000 during the three-month period — more than $100,000 more than the average first-quarter spending.”

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Summary: As Minnesota 6th Congressional District constituents ring in the New Year, they can look back on the historic election year of 2008 with some measure of pride in the knowledge that their representative in Congress made a strong showing (of sorts) in several “Year in Review” lists. That’s no easy feat, considering the U.S. House of Representatives has 435 members, each vying for attention.

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Summary: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s 2008 Most Embarrassing Re-Elected Members of Congress report, which lists elected officials who have misused their position through illegal, unethical, or just plain outrageous conduct, features U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.

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