gaspode: Lipo:
According to the article, it wasn't funded by taxpayer dollars. The trip was pad for by a group relatd to AIPAC.

Which is kind of shocking too.. a huge junket to another country for a load of lawmakers paid for by a lobby for a foreign country would generate enormous pushback if it was a different combination of country and lawmakers.

I'd like to see Obama take the Congressional Black Caucus to Kenya.

ArkAngel: Also this. My question is why the hell the FBI is involved.

To ensure that no Congressman is compromised by Mossad over an embarrassing situation. FBI knows who runs ops against our leaders.

Since nobody became pregnant after the incident we can assume that any rape that happened was legitemate rape.

A GOP congressman you say? I can't believe it was coed.

August 11, 2011
Just when you think your contempt for Congress could not get any higher, our elected representatives manage to do something to ratchet it up another notch. After congressional shenanigans helped spark a major market sell-off and sparked fears of a double-dip recession, you'd think every single one of them would be heading back to their districts to figure out what their constituents wanted and to try to explain how they were going to help make things better. Or maybe a few of them would even spend the recess taking a crash course in macroeconomics and public finance, so that they could start exercising their public duties more responsibly.

But what did 81 of them decide to do instead? You guessed it: they are off on junkets to Israel, paid for by the American Israel Education Foundation, an AIPAC spinoff that has been funding such trips for years. That's right: during the August recess nearly a fifth of the U.S. Congress will visit a single country whose entire population is less than that of New York City.

Such behavior is especially disturbing in light of our current woes; even Greta Van Susteren of Fox News found it appalling (h/t Mondoweiss here and here). But it's not really a new pattern: in recent decades about 10 percent of all Congressional trips overseas have been to Israel, even though it is only one of the nearly 200 countries in the world.

Why do Congresspersons do this, especially at a moment when it is obvious that they ought to be worrying about conditions here at home? Mostly because such junkets burnish a legislator's 'pro-Israel' credentials and facilitate campaign fundraising. Such trips also expose these visitors to the policy preferences and basic worldview of Israel's leaders, which is of course why AIEF pays for them.

August 10, 2011
This week's reports that 20 percent of the U.S. Congress will be visiting Israel this month are stunning. Eighty-one members of Congress -- two thirds of them Republicans, 47 of them freshmen -- apparently think it is more important to be visiting Israel than it is to be at home dealing with the worst economic crisis in modern memory. America's economy is in flames and these guys are taking lobbyist-funded trips to what, watch Israelis take to the streets to protest the high-cost of living in that country?

August 8, 2011
Perhaps seeking a salty dip in the Dead Sea to end a stressful debt debate, nearly one in five members of the House in Representatives will use their summer recess period to visit Israel, The Jerusalem Post reports.
...
Almost all of the week-long trips are sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, which promotes similar trips for Congress every other August, the Post reports.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer will head the Democratic delegation, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor will lead one of the Republican groups.

American Israel Education Foundation is a supporting organization of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, which describes itself on its website as "America's leading pro-Israel lobby...AIPAC works with both Democratic and Republican political leaders to enact public policy that strengthens the vital U.S.-Israel relationship."

I'm guessing the FBI is on this because of new policies after that Secret Service/Columbian whorehouse thing.