Another signature piece of legislation and another untimely death of a Senate institution. Massimo Calabresi has this great look at Byrd’s legacy. But in the meantime whither financial reform? The Senate was scheduled to pass it this week and send it to the President’s desk to be signed into law. But Byrd’s passing leaves them down a …
Senate
Morning Must Reads: Byrd
Win McNamee / Getty
–Robert Byrd, the longest serving congressman in U.S. history, died at 92 early Monday:
For more than a third of its 144-year existence, the state of West Virginia was represented in the U.S. Senate by one man: Robert C. Byrd. So encompassing was Byrd’s 50 years of service in the Senate and so encyclopedic
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Barney’s Good Day
As Adam notes, early this morning negotiators wrapped up work on the most sweeping overhaul of the rules that govern Wall Street in a generation. While the conference didn’t make for must see TV, conference chairman Barney Frank did provide a certain amount of comedy relief with his biting set-downs of the opposition. A look at Frank’s …
Morning Must Reads: The Dodd/Frank Act
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
–Final language for financial reform is more or less done. The marathon 20-hour session that only wrapped up a few hours ago saw House and Senate negotiators run out of paper and conferees fall asleep at the table, but ultimately produced a product that (likely) has the support to make it to the president’s …
Nevada’s Sharron Angle
A short piece from me in this week’s dead tree edition about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s GOP opponent.
Morning Must Reads: Holding the Line
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–Petraeus’s words prove prescient.
–House and Senate conferees are trying to wrap up their negotiations on financial reform today. You can watch on C-SPAN 3.
–They’ve saved the best (read: most difficult) for last.
–Blanche Lincoln is still defending her derivatives language, …
Morning Must Reads: The Mission
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
–Obama and McChrystal are meeting face-to-face this morning and the administration’s full AfPak team will convene shortly thereafter.
–More consequential than any personnel decision is the overall direction of the war.
–McChrystal is reportedly telling administration officials he’s …
Morning Must Reads: McChrystal
Official White House Photo
–You can read Rolling Stone‘s full piece on Stanley McChrystal here. The general and his inner circle were something beyond cavalier and insulted a lot of people, but probably the most troubling aspect to the White House is that the commander of American forces in Afghanistan brazenly impugned the …
Morning Must Reads: Renminbi
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–Ahead of this week’s G20 summit in Toronto and in wake of intensive lobbying efforts by Timothy Geithner, China has announced plans to allow its currency to float against the dollar. It’s widely viewed as a strategic concession, and the long-term impact of the decision is still largely …
Morning Must Reads: Riddled
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–A National Journal Insiders Poll finds 91% of the Democrats surveyed said unemployment is a greater political liability than government spending and 54% of Republicans agreed.
–The cut down “tax extenders” bill was nonetheless stymied again last night in the Senate.
–Cap-and-trade …
Re: BP Finds a Champion
Democrats have pounced on Rep. Joe Barton’s statements this morning in a House Energy Committee oversight hearing apologizing to BP for the White House’s “shakedown” of the company, referring to the $20 billion fund for damages BP agreed yesterday to set up. Barton’s remarks:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tj1lrvNDkCE]
In …
Morning Must Reads: Mulligans
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–BP CEO Tony Hayward is testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee this morning. You can watch the brutal proceedings unfold here.
–If criminal charges come down the pike, BP is on the hook for a lot of money.
–Scott Brown throws cold water on cap-and-trade, which …
Sessions on Kagan
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtSoUNCpz0E]
About six minutes in to the speech Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, focuses on a center for Islamic studies founded at Harvard during Elena Kagan’s tenure as the Dean of Harvard Law. An excerpt:
Around the same time that Dean Kagan was
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