John McCain returned to the Senate in 2000 a virtual liberal: throwing bombs at his Republican leaders (and especially George W. Bush).
John McCain returned to the Senate in 2009 a virtual conservative: a model Republican and leading critic of President Obama – especially, these days, on the war in Afghanistan.
McCain’s …
A few weeks ago I was on the phone with Stu Rothenberg, editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report, which tracks congressional races, who was remarking to me that of the five open seats Dems must defend next November – Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Colorado and Delaware – few looked truly in danger. Indeed, …
Or, in Senator Ensign’s case, what happens in Washington and is sent back home to Nevada. Both Senators from the Silver State are increasingly deep political doo-doo, though for vastly different reasons. And one’s scandal may end up helping the other.
Or so the former Senate Republican Leader, a surgeon who has written a new book on health care, told me a few minutes ago in an interview.
Were he still in the Senate, “I would end up voting for it,” he said. “As leader, I would take heat for it. … That’s what leadership is all about.”
This is not to say that Frist is entirely …
As Kate notes in her story today, yesterday’s defeat of the public option by the Senate Finance Committee has focused a lot of attention on the next big test, which is Senator Olympia Snowe’s amendment to put the public option on a “trigger“–that is, to establish one only as a fallback if private insurance companies fail to create a …
Although the prospects of a public option finding its way into the Senate Finance Committee health reform bill are bleak, Chairman Max Baucus seems ready to devote the bulk of today’s markup to the topic.
The committee spent most of its morning session rehashing the arguments for and against the creation of a public health …
If you haven’t already noticed on CSPAN2, the Senate has begun debate on the FY2010 Defense Appropriations bill. Typically, defense is the last of the 13 spending bills to be passed because it’s a must pass – ie, you can’t not update military funding in a time of war – and it often becomes a Christmas tree for all the pork that …
There they go again. Now that the “death panel” lie has snookered nearly half the country, the Washington Times is going for the other half in an editorial headlined “Death Panels By Proxy.” Cue the scary music for this one:
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is thinking about running for the GOP nomination against California Senator Barbara Boxer next year. Earlier this week, she put up a campaign website that got what could charitably be described as unenthusiastic reviews. “A little weird,” wrote Holly Bailey of Newsweek. CNN added that even her …
Democratic Senators Jay Rockefeller and Chuck Schumer said Thursday evening that they plan to turn debate on the Senate Finance Committee toward a government-run public option on Friday. No public option is included in Chairman Max Baucus’s current health care reform bill and none is expected one to be added, simply because there are not …
Not really, but his promises are – namely, his health reform promise that “if you like what have, you can keep it” and his campaign pledge not to raise taxes on American families whose income is less than $250,000 year. Republicans are doing their best to keep these promises fresh in everyone’s mind, while pointing out how they …
We’ve heard a lot of threats back and forth about the risks of Dems going it alone on health care reform. Here’s a story from me on the challenges for both Democrats and Republicans in flying solo and, in a twofer Monday, here’s another story from me on the 2010 Senate landscape.
For all that Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus moved frustratingly slowly the last five months – especially to those of us standing in the hall in front of his office waiting for an agreement — he’s moving lightning quick to the mark up. The bill that he will be moving through his committee tomorrow will already have some of the …
