  urlLink Mother Jones documents some of the preposterous moments, painful candor, and perfidious achievements of the 108th Congress. Here are some of the highlights: Rep. Barbara Cubin (R-Wyo. ) opposed a gun control measure, observing, "One amendment today said we couldn't sell them to anybody under drug treatment. So does that mean if you go into a black community, you cannot sell a gun to any black person? " When the matter of striking her comment from the record came up, Cubin won 227-195, as every Republican voted to support her.
Tom DeLay (R-Texas) , who browbeat a D.C. restaurant manager to let him smoke a cigar at his table. When the manager stood his ground, explaining that because it was a federal building, smoking violated the law of the federal government, DeLay thundered back, "I am the federal government! " Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss. ) offered his Iraq strategy: "Mow the whole place down, see what happens. " Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) was on the speakerphone with Majority Leader Bill Frist, unaware that Frist had a reporter in the room. Chambliss explained that a "major Republican donor" wanted an ambassadorship to some overseas organization.
"I don't even know what the hell it is," Chambliss said as the reporter transcribed, "but he wants it. " Unabashed, Frist asked, "He has a lot of dollar figures down there? " "That's exactly right," Chambliss said, "and he did raise a chunk of money for me. " Frist concluded, "All right. You're a good man. " Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), according to unnamed sources in The Hill newspaper, "unambiguously" pressured the General Accounting Office's comptroller general into dropping a lawsuit against Dick Cheney for the release of his energy task force's documents by threatening to slash the investigative body's $440 million budget.
(Stevens denies intimidating anyone. ) Rep. John Boozman (R-Ark. ) let the domain name boozmanforcongress.com lapse, so that for a while visitors found themselves at a gay porn site featuring "the hottest studs on the Internet. " Shouldn't we try to get the product right before we start exporting it? 
