Update: Since I posted on this earlier, Roll Call reports that Visclosky’s Chief of Staff has resigned his post. Does he know something about the pave and possible outcome of the DoJ investigation? Chuck Brimmer, chief of staff to Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.), has resigned, leaving the lawmaker without a longtime senior aide as he confronts a federal investigation into his ties to the now-defunct | Read More »
When the Democrat leaders in Washington were negotiating Arlen Specter’s party switch, they were eager to assure him that they would do all in their power to ensure him a clear path to the Democratic nomination for Senate. It’s becoming clear that in doing so, they promised something far outside their power to deliver. In the 2010 race for U.S. Senate, by a 63/28 margin | Read More »
U.S. exporters are currently trying to figure out how to continue to sell products to Mexico — our third-largest trading partner — notwithstanding tariffs imposed against them because the U.S. has violated NAFTA. It appears that a whole new range of companies may soon face the same problem, since the U.S. has also violated our NAFTA obligations toward our largest trading partner — Canada: International | Read More »
John Murtha has disgraced his office in a host of ways since he was first elected to Congress: from his willingness to entertain bribes during the Abscam investigation, to his delivery of millions in taxpayer dollars into the hands of friends and associates, to his slandering of former Marines. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that he’s also willing to forego | Read More »
The race to succeed Senator Mel Martinez in the US Senate is about to get a new entrant: U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville, confirms that she is launching an exploratory campaign for U.S. Senate, and said an internal statewide poll shows her comfortably ahead of any Democratic contender including Kendrick Meek. “Experience,” she said, when asked why the 17-year U.S. House member would be a | Read More »
In my weekly column for the American Issues Project today, I take a look at Congress’ failure to address the ongoing problems encountered by our servicemen and -women as they attempt to exercise their right to vote. in every election, a disturbing percentage of our men and women in active duty have their votes go uncounted through no fault of their own. And Congress – | Read More »
The Connecticut State Senate is rushing through legislation to strip (Republican) Governor Jodi Rell of her power to appoint a successor to Senator Chris Dodd, if he should resign his office: In another controversial bill, the Senate Democrats voted early Friday morning to remove Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s power to appoint a U.S. Senator in case of a vacancy. Instead, there would be a | Read More »
Barack Obama campaigned on a promise of ‘restoring good relations’ with key US partners, but it’s hard to tell from the way he’s governed so far. From evicting the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, to sacrificing East European allies for better relations with Russia and Iran, to starting trade wars with Canada and Mexico, Obama has done nothing but go renege on | Read More »
According to the Hill, Congressional Democrats are planning to run up a trial balloon on comprehensive immigration reform in June, and then take a crack at passing a bill late this year or next: Senate Democrats may be close to 60 votes on a measure that would represent the first step towards immigration reform under President Obama. The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors | Read More »
Today I attended the RNC Chairmen’s Meeting in Maryland, just outside DC. The headlines say that Steele faces a rebellion from some members of the Committee, who are trying to take away some of his authority over Committee pursestrings. The message here is that Republicans are completely united – save for 6 or 8 members, in a committee of more than 150 – and that | Read More »
On Friday I posted a summary of a briefing I received regarding the outlook for 2010 House races. Several readers offered comments or questions about specific races. Yesterday I received an E-mail from NRCC Political Director Brian Walsh, who has some responses on specific points: I would like to thank everyone for providing feedback on Brian’s post about the upcoming 2010 elections and candidate recruitment. | Read More »
I recently had the opportunity to have a lengthy discussion (on background) with a source at the National Republican Congressional Committee, regarding the state of their planning for 2010. My strongest impression is that this is a team of professionals that has learned the lessons of the last few cycles and who are doing a good job setting the table for a strong cycle. No | Read More »
What can you say about a video that speaks so clearly for itself? If you don’t believe Pelosi is lying through her teeth at this point, you never will. Her story has changed repeatedly, and the one she’s telling now makes no sense. You get the feeling that about halfway through her appearance, she suddenly realizes that the press isn’t going to simply reprint her | Read More »
Speaker Pelosi claims that the CIA lied to her about its handling of terrorist detainees held by the United States. She claims not to have been informed about the methods being used to get information from prisoners. Obviously, this is almost certainly false. Why would the CIA have informed other lawmakers about interrogation methods, but not Pelosi? But even if we take her at her | Read More »
ABC and others report that the Obama administration has invited union representatives to participate in conference calls with state and local officials, which have been held to set guidelines for how ‘stimulus’ money is spent. As first reported in the Los Angeles Times, California officials have said that representatives of the Service Employees International Union were given unprecedented access to an April 15 conference call | Read More »
It seems that good Lindsey Grahama has locked the bearded, alternate universe Lindsey Graham in a closet, and showed up at the first session of the Democrats’ terrorist interrogation show trial: “I don’t want to retry Nancy Pelosi, that’s not my goal but if you’re going to accuse these people in the Bush administration of being evil and committing a crime, then if she was | Read More »
I have consistently argued that the ‘Blue Dog’ label is essentially meaningless – that it is nothing more than an advertising slogan to help Democrats get elected in conservative districts while voting with liberals in DC. Blue Dogs in Congress claim to have no higher priority than deficit reduction and balanced budgets, but they have acted as accomplices to Pelosi, Reid, and President Obama, as | Read More »
The Spectator’s Phil Klein alerts us to the release of the Annual Report of the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees. The Trustees have found that due to the recession, benefits paid out are overtaking revenues brought in even faster than projected. The trust funds for these programs will be bankrupt sooner than expected but more importantly, the programs will become a serious drain | Read More »
Looking back at recent political history, one of the common features of wave elections is a nationally-known, toxic incumbent who becomes the face of the unpopular incumbent party. In 2006, Tom DeLay and Mark Foley were the unpopular faces of the Republican party whom Americans were forced to look at and hear about on the news each night. In 1994, it was people like Dan | Read More »
‘Bipartisan’ has different meanings to different people. For example, the stimulus bill got just 3 2 Republican votes. Was that a bipartisan effort? According to Reid, one vote is enough to make a bill bipartisan. And based on his comments here at least, a bill can be bipartisan even when only Democrats vote for it: Remember, “bipartisan,” as we learned with the effort on the | Read More »
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