Here’s a web story from Scherer and me on the furor over the earmarks in the 2009 omnibus bill passed by the House yesterday. Roll Call’s Keith Koffler also reports today that Obama tried, and failed, to convince Congress to trim some of the earmarks. An excerpt for those of you who don’t have Roll Call subscriptions:
According to a
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Viewers at home may wonder why, when the camera pans to the audience, most of the members of Congress, cabinet, Supreme Court and Joint Chiefs have their heads down. The answer is simple: they’re reading along in prettily bound commemorative copies of Obama’s speech. Why, you may ask, would the the audience be given copies of the speech …
Here’s a web story from me on Eric Cantor. My favorite quote that didn’t make the story: “I do particularly look forward to being constructive not obstructive because the problems facing this country are so large.”
Though little birdies tell me that the nightmares of the Obama administration’s vetting process are very real (Note to Greg Craig: you may want more than 10 people on this spending more than a day per person…?!), they haven’t yet actually deterred many folks from wanting to join up and serve at the pleasure of the president (ahem, …
For a month now we have called Barack Obama president and the baby milestone was marked in different ways by different folks. But my favorite is CBS’s Mark Knoller, who serves it up by the numbers.
Update:
Reader Dee points out that it might be fun to compare coverage of Obama’s first month with other presidents. I agree, so here we …
Because that‘s what really caused the newest Illinois senator’s problems, though probably smart if he’s the subject of an investigation, er, “review.”
The House just passed the stimulus conference report 246-183 with seven Dems voting against it and one simply voting “present.” Despite predictions that the compromise bill would draw at least a handful of House GOP votes, House Minority Leader John Boehner didn’t lose a single member. United they stand, I guess… The Senate is expected …
First Richardson and now Gregg. Obama’s having a tough time filling this slot.
Gregg’s statement:
“I want to thank the President for nominating me to serve in his Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce. This was a great honor, and I had felt that I could bring some views and ideas that would assist him in governing during this difficult
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Okay, so the deal is done and the votes are all but counted. We have ourselves a stimulus plan. And while Obama got what he wanted when he wanted (who secretly replaced the congressional Democratic leaders with people who get things done early??), he didn’t get it in the way he wanted, as the Times’ Dick Stevenson and Slate’s
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Indeed, a deal has been struck and votes are expected as early as tomorrow in the House and before the weekend in the Senate. The final hiccup resolved itself after three hours when Speaker Pelosi compromised by allowed that the $10 billion not be spent specifically on school construction but giving governors the option to spend it that …
Not so fast, say House Dems who have been closeted for the last two-and-a-half hours trying to make heads or tales of the complex bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama’s legislative director Phil Schiliro have been in the speaker’s office with them. At issue, I’m told, is a $10 billion increase to the state …
Following up on Karen’s posts on Pete Hoekstra, here’s a story from me about Congress’s love affair with twitter. And leaders – take note – this can be dangerous as the Virginia Senate proved (hat tip, Indy’s dad Jon Steinman). But what’s fascinating about this to me is the civic journalism aspect: if, God forbid, one day one
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The debate this morning, according to members of the Gang of 18, is about size and scope. The group is meeting in Senate Minority Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office as I type this. Ben Nelson, whom I profiled this morning, and Claire McCaskill both expressed optimism heading into the meeting. As did Reid on the Senate floor this
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