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 »
Nate Silver points out that so far, Democrats have been marching in lockstep support of the Obama agenda at a significantly higher rate than Republicans have been voting against. And this is despite all the attention to the ‘moderate Democrats’ who are trying to reduce the size of the Obama-Reid-Pelosi spending bill: There have already been 13 distinct votes on various amendments and elements related | Read More »
News flash: Congress is an institution with deep and serious rifts. It’s a challenge to build a majority in support of anything, which is partly the reason it has such a bad reputation. In the Senate, it generally takes 60 votes to pass any meaningful legislation. For this reason, a President who cares about his agenda will involve himself closely in negotiations. Barack Obama on | Read More »
The scores are in, and with the exception of a Democrat who served for just one month, the Democrat most ‘loyal’ to the Bush agenda in the last Congress was (former) Democratic Representative Nick Lampson: One House Democrat, Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, supported Bush 100 percent of the time — but she was only a member for about a month, sworn in on Nov. | Read More »
The Chicago Tribune has posted the text of the federal complaint against Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. It’s a fascinating read. And one of the specific charges seems to strongly imply that the Governor or his representatives contacted someone in the Obama campaign seeking to trade the designation of Barack Obama’s successor in the Senate for the job as Secretary of HHS. Did Obama or someone | Read More »
Barack Obama and the Congressional Democrats are clearly determined to extend Detroit a ‘loan’ that runs into the tens of billions of dollars, and which seems unlikely ever to be repaid. But as the Bush administration negotiates with Congress over the package, it’s clear that Democrats in Washington don’t want to ‘save’ the automakers. Rather, they want to run a car company and ensure that | Read More »
Representatives of the UAW, Ford, Chrysler and GM met today with Speaker Pelosi to outline their interest in a big new pot of taxpayer money: Lawmakers jump-started a $25 billion direct loan program for automakers as part of the continuing resolution (PL 110-329) signed into law by President Bush earlier this fall. It remains unclear, however, when those funds will begin to flow, a situation | Read More »
Regardless of who wins Tuesday’s election, the next great argument in Washington is whether there will be a second ‘stimulus bill’ (ie, bailout). Constituencies are already lining up. House leaders have heard from mayors, governors and state transportation officials, looking to Washington to save them from the balanced budget requirements imposed on them. Environmentalists are hoping to add billions to fight global warming, and other | Read More »
Last October, Barack Obama explained why he did not wear an American flag pin on his lapel: “The truth is that right after 9-11 I had a pin,” Obama said. “Shortly after 9-11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security. | Read More »
Rasmussen reports that the percentage of Americans who consider themselves Republicans continued to climb in August — just as it did in July: During August, the number of Americans who consider themselves to be Republicans increased two percentage points to 33.2% while the number of Democrats was little changed at 38.9%. That gives the Democrats a net advantage of 5.7 percentage points, down two points | Read More »
Democrats in Washington state seem to think they’ve latched on to a big issue to bring down the gubernatorial campaign of Republican Dino Rossi: a Democratic operative keeps showing up at Rossi rallies, and recently managed to get himself escorted out of a police union hall.
A Capitol Hill source tells me that House Republicans are starting to hear that the 110th Congress may be just about done. Word is that once Democrats return to Washington in September, they may quickly complete their remaining work and then adjourn. According to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (whose job it is to oversee the legislative calendar), Democrats are planning to work until the end | Read More »
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