Senate

+397 days ago

Kay Bailey Hutchison Calls It Quits

By Adam Sorensen

The three-term Senator from Texas announced today that she won’t seek reelection after-all. From the Houston Chronicle: In an open letter to Texans, Hutchison said she wanted to live “full-time in Texas with my family” and was “forever grateful for the privilege of working for you in the United States Senate.” … “I intended to [...]

+397 days ago

EPA Nixes Mountaintop Mine, Stokes Political Fire

By Adam Sorensen

Our colleague Bryan Walsh reports the Environmental Protection Agency today vetoed the largest mountaintop mining removal permit in West Virginia’s history. The move, which red-lights the 2,300-acre Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, comes the morning after acting Democratic Governor Earl Ray Tomblin vowed to “aggressively pursue” legal action against the EPA in his [...]

+398 days ago

Morning Must Reads: Opportunity

By Adam Sorensen

–In this week’s newsstand edition of TIME: David Von Drehle retells the Tucson shooting as a war on normalcy, observers from Glenn Beck to Deepak Chopra weigh incivility, Fareed Zakaria considers a combative China in transition, and more. –Obama’s speech last night in Arizona is worth watching in full if you haven’t already seen it. [...]

+400 days ago

Morning Must Reads: To Tucson

By Adam Sorensen

President Obama and the First Lady take part in a moment of silence on January 10 in honor of the victims of the shooting in Tucson. (REUTERS/Jim Young) –President Obama will travel to Arizona Wednesday to speak at a memorial for the victims of Saturday’s shooting. –Gun control advocates Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Carolyn [...]

+404 days ago

Re: Creepy Joe Biden

By Jay Newton-Small

Thanks to C-SPAN, you can watch the entire day’s worth of swearing in ceremonies. As Massimo notes — it’s highly, um, entertaining. But there are also genuinely funny moments. The Vice President is clearly an experienced Grandpa — witness the horse trading he does with Sen. Wyden’s toddler son. I wonder if he took the [...]

+405 days ago

Morning Must Reads: Legit

By Adam Sorensen

Senator Lisa Murkowski hands Vice President Joe Biden one of her campaign t-shirts after the ceremonial re-enactment of her swearing-in in the Old Senate Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, January 5, 2011. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst) –Today’s weekly unemployment report appears to foreshadow sunnier numbers for December due out tomorrow. –Democratic identification drops to a [...]

+406 days ago

Morning Must Reads: Next

By Adam Sorensen

(Tom Williams/Roll Call) –John Boehner is poised to take the Speaker’s gavel today. Alex raises the curtain. –Ahmed Rahsid reports on the incredibly precarious path ahead in Afghanistan. –Biden chief of staff and all-around White House heavyweight Ron Klain will depart for the private sector. –Steve Schale, Obama’s Florida director in ’08, argues the state [...]

+Tea Party | 406 days ago

The Longest Day

By Jay Newton-Small

Those waiting for a change in the Senate filibuster rules may be waiting a while. Senate Democrats have been toying with the idea of softening the rules to ease the logjam in the Upper Chamber for years. The dawn of the 112th seemed like an ideal time to make the change, especially in the face [...]

+407 days ago

Morning Must Reads: Back to Work

By Adam Sorensen

(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images) –President Obama, on his way back to Washington from Hawaii, says he expects congressional Republicans to work with him. –A flurry of reports suggest Bill Daley, former commerce secretary and current J.P. Morgan bigwig, is a finalist to join the White House as chief of staff. Daley is definitely a member of [...]

+Tea Party | 419 days ago

Obama’s Not-So-Lame Record

By Jay Newton-Small

Just over a year ago, Saturday Night Live lampooned President Obama for his record, or lack thereof. “There are those on the right that are angry, they think that I’m turning this great country into something that resembles the Soviet Union, or Nazi Germany,” said actor Fred Armisen, portraying the President. “But, that’s just not [...]