As the Massa implosion fades, Capitol Hill returns today to health care reform with both chambers considering obscure parliamentary procedures in order to pass legislation before Easter recess, which officially starts March 28. The House is on a shorter leash, with the White House pushing them to get something done before President Obama …
Senate
That Was Quick
This morning Ben Smith over at Politico floated the idea that billionaire Mort Zuckerman might challenge Kirsten Gillibrand for Hillary Clinton’s old Senate seat in New York. This evening in a post on the New York Daily News, a paper he owns, he says he’s not gonna run. With Harold Ford out as well, this has been a good week for …
Make ‘Em Filibuster: Bunning Edition
Senate Democrats are looking to force Jim Bunning, who has single handedly blocked a bill extending unemployment insurance benefits (amongst other provisions) causing them to lapse on Sunday, into an actual filibuster. Well, sort of. Roll Call reports that Dems are lining up a series of senators who will attempt to move for a vote on the …
Bunning Hijacks the Senate
I didn’t think it was possible for Senator Jim Bunning, a Kentucky Republican, to get more unpopular with his colleagues: he was forced, feet dragging, to announce he wouldn’t run for reelection after fellow Kentuckian and minority leader Mitch McConnell wouldn’t even endorse him. But tonight, he is pariah to a whole new level. …
Broken Government: Term Limits
As Karen and Michael noted we all did stories for the Broken Government project with our sister company CNN. Mine was on term limits (thank you deconstructiva for reminding me to post). Love ’em or hate ’em, they aren’t likely to happen any time soon as, thanks to a 1995 Supreme Court ruling, it’ll take a constitutional amendment to enact them.
Health Care Summit: Not So Great Expectations
There’s little bipartisan agreement on what President Barack Obama’s health care summit on Thursday will truly be, though low expectations are popping up across the political spectrum.
“What’s disturbing is the continued media reports that [Democrats] already have their plan to move forward … no matter what the result is of …
Jobs Bill Vote Tonight
Tonight the Senate will vote for cloture on Harry Reid’s stripped down jobs bill. No one knows – not Mitch McConnell and not the majority leader – if Reid will have the votes (so their offices say). But tonight’s vote is exactly the kind of thing that American voters have come to hate about the Senate: the bill is widely …
Could the Public Option Get a Third Lease on Life?
I’m not a fan of making health reform-related predictions – especially after the Scott Brown election – so I won’t say No. But I am comfortable saying that it’s EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY unlikely.
But hey, you can’t blame public option devotees for trying. Sixteen Democratic senators and 119 House Democrats have now signed freshman …
McCain Gets a Primary Challenger
Sure, McCain’s had two primary opponents for months, but this one is so big that one of those original challengers — Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. founder Chris Simcox — actually stepped down and endorsed the new challenger. The newcomer isn’t really all that new, former Arizona Rep. J. D. Hayworth, who lost his seat in 2006. Hayworth …
The Jobs Bill: What Went Wrong
In case anyone was wondering what an earth happened last week with the jobs bill hokey pokey, here’s a time.com story from me looking into what went on behind the scenes. The most troubling aspect of all this? That Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin are apparently further screwing up a screwed up Senate in their fight over Reid’s corpse. …
Evan Bayh To Retire
Chris Cillizza is reporting that the Indiana Senator will announce his retirement at a news conference today. That almost certainly hands his seat over to the Republicans, and makes the prospect of the Democrats losing the Senate this fall seem more than a theoretical possibility.
Republicans have been saying that Indiana was the …
Today’s Health Care Checkup – GOP Plans Under the Spotlight
Perhaps to President Obama’s relief, Republican health reform plans are the ones being scrutinized now, in advance of the Feb. 25 bipartisan summit on health care that the president called for over the weekend.
* David Herzenhorn of the New York Times sees a way that the summit could be useful, informative and game changing…if …
The GOP Twitter Kings
Everyone thinks of Obama-land and the Dems as the rulers of new media after their successful harnessing of facebook and social media networking during the 2008 campaign. Apparently, Congressional Republicans have caught on quick. According to a new Congressional Research Study, House Republicans are responsible for the majority of …