Cardin and Co. on Tour--Round up the Usual Suspects
As promised, here's the identity of the Maryland lawmaker who won't be suffering through the Great Digout of 2010: Ben Cardin.
The Democratic senator from Baltimore will soon be winging his way to Europe and the Mediterranean on a nine-day official mission.
Cardin chairs an international commission on security and cooperation in Europe, which holds hearings and issues reports about human rights and other issues related to the 1975 Helsinki Accords.
The Maryland Democrat is a serious legislator, so we seriously doubt he'll be enjoying himself extra-curricularly on the journey, which includes stops in Spain and Morocco, in addition to Vienna, where the organization has its main office.
A total of 18 senators and congressman are members of the group, formally known as the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Informally, it's the Helsinki Commission, named for the site of the Cold War-era meeting in Finland, which the group grew out of in 1976.
Seven American commissioners are scheduled to make the trip, including the non-voting delegate from American Samoa, Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, who owes his seat on the plane to the Speaker of the House, Baltimore's own Nancy Pelosi.
Cardin's sidekick on the commission, and at the trip's main stop, in Austria, is co-chairman Alcee Hastings, a Florida Democrat better known for his inglorious past.
As a federal judge, Hastings was impeached by the House in 1989 and convicted by the Senate for conspiring to extort a $150,000 bribe in a case that he was hearing, lying about the matter under oath and falsifying evidence at his trial.
His response to losing his lifetime seat on the federal bench was to run for, and win, a lifetime seat in the House that impeached him. Hastings' lengthy bio on his official website
points out that many people still call him "Judge," but for some reason that stuff about getting impeached doesn't get mentioned.
Three other members of Congress who apparently have no worries about re-election in a tough election year--a pair of southern Republicans and a California Democrat--will also be in they traveling party. Plus the delegate from American Samoa.
Again, we know that Cardin is all business, but just in case he even owns a bathing suit, the weather in Morocco at this time of year runs in the 60s during the day and the 50s at night, so it might be a bit chilly for a swim in an unheated pool. But like we said....no real chance of that happening.
Here the official release from the commission:
Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission) will lead a Congressional delegation Feb. 11-20 to the Winter Meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Austria, with stops for business meetings in Morocco and Spain.
The delegation will hold bilateral meetings in Morocco and Spain promoting increased cooperation in the fields of security, counter-terrorism and Mediterranean engagement and trade.
In Vienna, the U.S. delegation will join about 240 parliamentarians at the Winter Meeting, the second-largest gathering of the year for the 56-country organization. This year’s meeting will put a special focus on Afghanistan. The delegation will meet with senior OSCE officials and parliamentary counterparts from Russia.
Senator Cardin is vice president of the Parliamentary Assembly. Co-Chairman Congressman Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL), who serves as the OSCE PA Special Representative on Mediterranean Affairs will join the delegation in Vienna. Congressman Robert B. Aderholt (R-AL) is vice chair of the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions-- one of the Assembly’s three general committees at which members will participate.
The U.S. delegation includes:
Helsinki Commission Chairman Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD),
Commissioner Senator Roger F. Wicker (R-MS),
Commissioner Representative Robert B. Aderholt (R-AL),
Delegate Eni F.H. Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa)
Representative Laura Richardson (D-CA)
