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Politics
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An 18-month recruitment drive by the Democrats has produced nearly a dozen strong candidates with the potential for unseating House Republicans, but probably not enough to take back control of the House absent a massive anti-incumbent wave this fall, according to House political experts.
Democratic leaders have been heartened by the quality of the candidates they have recruited to challenge vulnerable Republicans in congressional seats in Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and they insist that there is a strong chance they can narrow the Republicans' 30-seat majority. Their efforts are being helped by widespread public dissatisfaction with Congress and with President Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, a situation that has driven down the Republicans' approval ratings to less than 40 percent. But Tuesday's special election north o...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), a primary architect of the Republican majority who became one of the most powerful and feared leaders in Washington, said this morning that he will give up his seat rather than face a reelection fight that appears increasingly unwinnable.
In a videotaped message aired this morning on stations in his home district, DeLay said that "the voters in the 22nd District of Texas deserve a campaign about the vital national issues they care most about . . . and not a campaign focused solely as a referendum on me. So today I am announcing my intention to resign my seat in the House." The decision came three days after Tony C. Rudy, his former deputy chief of staff, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay's leadership offices. Rudy's plea agreement did not implicate DeLay in any ...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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An emotional and intensely personal debate over immigration engulfed the Senate on Thursday, opening the first visible fractures among Democrats, even as supporters of the biggest overhaul of U.S. immigration law in two decades declared the momentum is on their side.
Republicans wrestled with family values and immigrants dying in the desert. Democrats struggled with low-wage competition against U.S. workers.
Few could resist telling their own family histories that inevitably included an immigrant arriving on U.S. shores, from Lithuania, Italy, Ireland or Russia.
An extraordinary bipartisan Senate coalition has emerged -- including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who reversed her long-standing opposition -- behind legislation to offer a path to citizenship to 12 million illegal immigrants and at least 400,000 new migrants each year, along with tighter border controls.
The ele...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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House conservatives criticized President Bush, accused the Senate of fouling the air, said prisoners rather than illegal farm workers should pick America's crops and denounced the use of Mexican flags by protesters Thursday in a vehement attack on legislation to liberalize U.S. immigration laws.
"I say let the prisoners pick the fruits," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, one of more than a dozen Republicans who took turns condemning a Senate bill that offers an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants an opportunity for citizenship.
"Anybody that votes for an amnesty bill deserves to be branded with a scarlet letter A," said Rep. Steve King of Iowa, referring to a guest worker provision in the Senate measure.
Their news conference took place across the Capitol from the Senate, where supporters and critics of the legislation seemed determined to heed admonitions from ...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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A few weeks ago, President Bush's spokesman dismissed talk of an impending staff change as "inside Washington babble."
White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr.'s resignation yesterday suggests that Bush was listening. Through one full term and the first year of the second, a signature of this administration was the indifference -- even contempt -- it showed for the capital's political and media culture, and for the endless flow of commentary and unsolicited advice that its inhabitants deliver daily to all presidents.
Bush, his advisers say, has by no means changed his view of what he derisively calls the "chattering class." But the Card move is only the latest sign that -- with his presidency under the stress of low public approval ratings, an unpopular war and a stalled legislative agenda -- Bush is more often deferring to the expectations of Washington conventional w...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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Both Republicans and Democrats risk alienating coveted supporters as they attempt to find the right balance between toughening enforcement and expanding legal opportunities for millions of low-skill foreign workers to take jobs in the United States.
As the Senate begins debate on revamping the nation's immigration laws, the issue poses multiple challenges for both political parties, while offering no clearly expedient solution. Two huge electoral prizes, the Southwest and Florida, are potentially up for grabs, as are millions of Hispanic votes elsewhere. But also in play are the votes of angry residents in border states and beyond who feel overwhelmed by the rising tide of illegal immigration. "In some ways, the rhetoric of this debate is as important politically as the policy that eventually emerges," said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington research o...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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In October 2001, executives from a small start-up with a promising technology approached their congressman, Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), for help getting Pentagon notice. Reynolds, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, was intrigued, but he said Logical Images Inc. needed professional help. He recommended a few lobbying firms, including Martin Fisher Thompson and Associates.
Within weeks the firm was hired, and this year the lobbying bore fruit: Logical Images secured $1.5 million in the 2006 defense spending bill to help the Army buy the company's computer-aided medical diagnostic system. The transaction bore fruit for Reynolds, too. Four months after his referral, Martin Fisher's money started flowing -- $6,000 to Reynolds and the NRCC. These mutually beneficial transactions are legal under House ethics rules. As long as there is no explicit quid pro q...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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While many members of Congress appear eager to toughen control of the nation's borders, a showdown over plans to accommodate millions of undocumented immigrants already settled in the United States illegally could prevent any changes from winning approval in this election year.
Senators from both parties are advocating a plan that, while tightening enforcement, would also let many of the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States pay fines for breaking the law, pay taxes, learn English and -- after several years -- apply for citizenship. The Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the plan Monday, with a debate in the full Senate scheduled for later next week.
But should such a plan win approval, it will place the Senate at odds with the more conservative House. That body already has approved a bill that imposes stricter border control without making allowanc...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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President Bush's effort to secure lawful employment opportunities for illegal immigrants is evolving into an early battle of the 2008 presidential campaign, as his would-be White House successors jockey for position ahead of next week's immigration showdown in the Senate.
Bush called on Congress yesterday to tone down the increasingly sharp and divisive rhetoric over immigration, as he renewed his push for a guest-worker plan that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to continue working in the United States. But Bush's political sway is already weakened by public unease about the war in Iraq and by Republican divisions. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), whom Bush helped elect as party leader, is threatening to bring a new immigration bill to the Senate floor early next week. It would tighten control of the nation's borders without creating the guest-worker progra...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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For years, conservatives have complained about what they saw as the liberal tilt of federal grant money. Taxpayer funds went to abortion rights groups such as Planned Parenthood to promote birth control, and groups closely aligned with the AFL-CIO got Labor Department grants to run worker-training programs.
In the Bush administration, conservatives are discovering that turnabout is fair play: Millions of dollars in taxpayer funds have flowed to groups that support President Bush's agenda on abortion and other social issues. Under the auspices of its religion-based initiatives and other federal programs, the administration has funneled at least $157 million in grants to organizations run by political and ideological allies, according to federal grant documents and interviews.
An example is Heritage Community Services in Charleston, S.C. A decade ago, Heritage was a tiny organizati...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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Republican efforts to craft a policy and political agenda to carry the party into the midterm elections have stumbled repeatedly as GOP leaders face widespread disaffection and disagreement within the ranks.
Anxiety over President Bush's Iraq policy, internal clashes over such divisive issues as immigration, and rising complaints that the party has abandoned conservative principles on spending restraint have all hobbled the effort to devise an election-year message, said several lawmakers involved in the effort. While it is a Republican refrain that Democrats criticize Bush but have no po...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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While most senators recoiled last week from Sen. Russell Feingold's resolution to censure the president, many of them agreed with one of its basic premises: that the wiretapping of Americans without a warrant is against the law.
Doubts about the legality of the government's once-secret domestic surveillance program can be found among both liberal and conservative scholars and on both sides of the aisle in Congress.
In other words, unlike his proposal for censure, Feingold's claims about "illegal wiretapping" are well within the mainstream of congressional debate on the issue.
But...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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Some of Washington's top lobbyists say that they expect to find ways around congressional efforts to impose new restrictions on lobbyists' dealings with lawmakers in the wake of the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal, and that any limits will barely put a dent in the billions of dollars spent to influence legislation.
Though Congress may ultimately vote to eliminate a few of the more visible trappings of special pleading, such as gifts, free meals and luxurious trips, lobbyists say they have already found scores of new ways to buy the attention of lawmakers through fundraising, charitable a...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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The Senate on Thursday narrowly passed a $2.8 trillion budget blueprint for 2007 after disputes between moderate and conservative Republicans over spending nearly scuttled its passage.
The 51-49 vote came after Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu decided to vote for the bill in exchange for GOP promises of billions in funding for levees and wetlands restoration in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast region.
Vice President Dick Cheney was on Capitol Hill to break a tie vote if needed.
But congressional aides predict the budget resolution will hit a roadblock in the House of Representa...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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The Senate voted Thursday to allow the national debt to swell to nearly $9 trillion, preventing a first-ever default on U.S. Treasury notes.
The bill passed by a 52-48 vote. The increase to $9 trillion represents about $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. The bill now goes to President Bush for his signature.
The measure allows the government to pay for the war in Ir...Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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