Par for the Course?

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

Not Backing Down

Some members of the GOP quickly backed off their criticism of Dubai Ports World af ter the company said it would divest its interest in U.S. ports, but not Pennsylvania Congresswoman Melissa Hart. She rushed out a press release demanding "further review," saying the "proposed sale of these ports to DP World revealed the weakness of the process to review the sale of critical U.S. infrastructure to foreign-based companies."

Of course, no infrastructure sale was ever involved in the deal. A spokesman blamed Hart's misstatement on "poor writing."

Explaining Boehner's Birdies?

New House Majority Leader John Boehner sports a year-round tan and a six-handicap — and one left-leaning group thinks it knows why. The Campaign for a Cleaner Congress has released a study claiming that Boehner spends more time outside his district than he does at home in Ohio and reports that most of those trips were to exclusive golf resorts.

The group cites publicly available records of Boehner's flights since 1999, noting that he's flown home 149 times while traveling elsewhere 180 times mostly on his Political Action Committee's dime.

But Boehner's office calls that a "patently false accusation by a shadowy liberal group" and notes that Boehner drives 8 hours back to his home district "pretty much every weekend."

Witness Rights

The ACLU is suing to stop California from executing inmates using lethal injection, not to protect the inmates, but claiming instead that the executions violates the first amendment rights of execution witnesses. The ACLU argues that a drug administered to paralyze inmates during the procedure is designed merely to sanitize the execution and prevent witnesses from seeing convulsions, saying the practice, "makes it impossible for witnesses to determine whether death row inmates in California are being subjected to substantial and unnecessary pain before dying."

But California's attorney general says it's a necessary part of the process — effectively stopping the inmate from breathing

Roe v. Wade... For Men?

They are calling it "Roe v. Wade" for men. A group called the National Center for Men on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit claiming that men should have the same right to opt out of responsibility for an unwanted child that women have through abortion. The group is citing the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause in saying that fathers should have the legal right to not pay support for an unwanted child.

Women's groups call that argument "ridiculous," saying it would place the financial burden of raising a child solely on the mother. But the Center for Men says they just want reproductive law applied equally.

— FOX News' Aaron Bruns contributed to this report.