The Center for Public Integrity

President Bush's decision to abandon his campaign pledge to limit carbon dioxide emissions was routed through a key Bush aide who had lobbied for one of the world's largest manufacturers of automobile exhaust systems.

As their top lobbyist, Andrew H. Card Jr. led a $25 million lobbying campaign on behalf of the "Big Three" U.S. automakers, often fighting against higher environmental standards.

While he was attorney general of Missouri, John Ashcroft made use of a state employee to conduct fund raising and other election activities, used letterhead with the attorney generals seal to solicit donations from contributors, and had an associate solicit campaign contributions from a business consultant to a company being investigated by Ashcroft's office, court records show.

Now that George W. Bush has been duly sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States, he immediately faces an unavoidable political situation that has previously proved intractable. His chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination last year, Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., is forcing a roll call vote on the issue of campaign finance reform, as the Senates first order of business.

Remarks at the 22nd annual conference of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws in Tampa, Fla., December 5.

As the Republican and Democratic parties have frantically sought private money since Election Day to fund their candidates' recount efforts, they have entered an area where the Federal Election Commission has only limited jurisdiction. In this gray zone, the two parties can raise unlimited amounts of cash without necessarily having to disclose the donors or report on the amount of money they've raised or spent, according to legal and political experts. But these same experts warn that in the current, heated political climate, the parties should voluntarily reveal all information to the public.

If anyone doubted that huge campaign war chests reap big political payoffs, just look at the House and Senate races this year.

Complying with a new federal law, Political Animals registered with the Internal Revenue Service by the August 1 deadline.

George W. Bush, who advocates a reduced role for the federal government, received more than twice as many campaign donations from the employees and political action committees of the nation's top 25 federal contractors as did his opponent, Vice President Al Gore, a Public i study has found.

1922WASHINGTON, October 27, 2000 — 1912: Out of concern for the long-term availability of oil supplies for naval ships, President Taft establishes Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 1 near Bakersfield, Calif. Over the next few years, his administration adds two more oil and three oil shale reserves in the West to the program. They remain essentially undeveloped until 1976.