Political Grapevine: 7/9

" And now some fresh pickings from the political grapevine. Five months after the website recovery dot gov was launched by the administration as a way to track stimulus spending. It is getting a make over that doesn't come cheap. The General Services Administration announced that eighteen million dollars in additional funds are being spent to redesign the site. The press release says. Recovery dot -- two point no we'll use innovative and interactive technologies to help taxpayers see where their dollars are being spent. But information week magazine reports the company awarded the contract smart -- does not list web development expertise on its website profile. Federal records show smart -- executives have contributed 19000 dollars in the past ten years to house majority leader standing order. During the stimulus debate on Capitol Hill Republicans used a very small animal to illustrate a very large point. They mocked the plan to save the endangered saltwater harvest mouse. We -- Cisco Bay Area habitat borders the congressional district of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Republicans were silenced when the mouse was not listed in the final bill that passed. But now it appears a little more than sixteen million dollars of the stimulus funds will go to restoring to Bay Area salt ponds. That prompted house minority leader John Boehner to lament the stimulus isn't creating jobs but instead quote is making sure American harvest mice. Have nice comfortable homes in the midst of the recession. -- his office quickly responded calling the attacks on the mouse it tired and tried tale of Republican desperation. And finally Texas democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee was given. Less than the white glove treatment by -- speaker Pelosi for a proposed resolution honoring Michael Jackson as a global humanitarian. Pelosi was asked today if she would go along she said the subject matter was pop culture. And that she does not field is necessary to have a resolution that might cause a debate over contrary views about Jack's. The social."