By: Beltway Whispers (Diary)  |  July 27th at 07:50 AM  | 

Readying to resign his Congressional post amid fresh sexual misconduct allegations and broader questions about his psychological fitness, Rep. David Wu’s plummeting political fortune has become a liability for those Democratic lawmakers whose campaign coffers were filled years past by donations from the Oregonian and his leadership fund. The National Republican Senatorial Committee highlighted on Tuesday a series of Wu’s yet-returned campaign donations to Democratic | Read More »

By: Beltway Whispers (Diary)  |  May 13th at 11:45 AM  | 

With a looming fight over raising the debt limit and how to get a handle on our $14 trillion debt, there is one issue that keeps popping up in Congress as a blatant example of government redundancy and pure waste: catfish inspection. Yes, you read correctly. There is a brewing fight over the regulation of catfish. Special interest groups slipped language into a bill that | Read More »

By: Beltway Whispers (Diary)  |  April 21st at 12:30 PM  | 

A campus-wide recruitment solicitation by University of Iowa College Republicans was met Monday with a vulgarity from the unlikeliest of people: A faculty member. “F— you, Republicans,” professor Ellen Lewin fired off to the GOP group, who a day earlier asked conservative students to get involved in club activities. The message came from Lewin’s university account. “Conservatives in Iowa City, it is now time to come | Read More »

By: Beltway Whispers (Diary)  |  April 17th at 10:35 PM  | 

While the debate rages among conservatives on the merits of the budget deal lawmakers struck with President Barack Obama, add an additional point of contention: Czars, of which the appropriations measure reached last week eliminated four. At least, that’s what House GOP’ers thought. The spending bill as written prohibited the White House from devoting funds to those czars directing the administration’s policy agenda for health | Read More »

By: Beltway Whispers (Diary)  |  April 16th at 05:10 PM  | 

Did national Democrats’ recruitment of former Iraq commander Ricardo Sanchez transform the Texas Senate race from a blow-out into a marquee 2012 contest? Not a chance, say Republicans eyeing the race. For deep red Texas GOP’ers, the most significant task is clearing the primary field, which includes former solicitor general Ted Cruz, ex-railroad commish Michael Williams, former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and car dealer-turned-secretary of | Read More »

By: Beltway Whispers (Diary)  |  April 14th at 07:00 PM  | 

As Nevada Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley announced her Senate bid Thursday and quickly won the backing of her party’s campaign arm, other prominent Senatorial prospects in New Mexico and Connecticut linger without the support of their party. The less fortunate pair, Reps. Chris Murphy and Martin Heinrich, were not extended the Beltway blessing because the former already faces a primary opponent and the latter is | Read More »

By: Beltway Whispers (Diary)  |  April 12th at 07:00 PM  | 

The Republican National Committee announced Tuesday it had raised north of $7 million last month, though federal election reports indicate it remains buried in lingering debt from the 2010 election season. While fundraising figures have not yet been reported to campaign finance regulators, RNC staff said today its renewed efforts to court disaffected major donors was paying dividends — and rapidly reducing the $24 million | Read More »

By: Beltway Whispers (Diary)  |  April 12th at 04:30 PM  | 

There’s party strife in them thar hills. Missouri’s Democratic Attorney General, Chris Koster, entered Monday a brief in the Florida case looking to upend President Barack Obama’s health care reforms. And he hopes Florida succeeds, kind of. The bill’s mandate that individuals purchase health coverage “would imbue Congress with police powers rejected by the Founding Fathers,” Koster’s brief reads, while noting later he still favors | Read More »

By: Beltway Whispers (Diary)  |  April 6th at 06:00 PM  | 

President Barack Obama on Tuesday tapped Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to succeed former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine atop the Democratic National Committee after its members gather later this month. The Florida firebrand was an obvious choice for Obama, who faces a contentious re-election bid next year and counts Wasserman Schultz among his fiercest defenders. But the president’s new attack dog’s talking points don’t always jibe | Read More »