About a week ago, Connecticut Attorney General/U.S. Senate Candidate Richard Blumenthal gathered a bunch of veterans around him to rebut suggestions that he had intentionally misled people about his Vietnam service. He admitted to using the phrase “in Vietnam” instead of “during Vietnam,” but urged on by the guttural objections of the …
Senate
Morning Must Reads: Rolling
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–Rand Paul was on ABC’s “Good Morning America” this morning to run a bit of damage control. It was kind of brutal. He standoffishly dodged the civil rights questions before shifting to a defense of BP and a critique of the minimum wage. Again, the merits of his small government philosophy …
Regulatory Reform Passes the Senate, Now What?
The Senate tonight passed a sweeping overhaul of the rules that govern Wall Street with the aim of better protecting Main Street if the markets were ever to meltdown again. The legislation would greatly empower the Federal Reserve Bank to monitor and oversee financial flows in order to predict and prevent a massive pooling of risk – …
Updated: Financial Regulatory Reform Passes the Senate
Aided by “ayes” from Republicans Scott Brown, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Senate Democrats succeeded in ending debate on financial regulatory reform by a 60-40 vote Thursday afternoon. Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell and Russ Feingold remained in opposition to the procedural motion, hoping to secure more time to consider …
Toomey/Sestak Race Starts Ugly
On Tuesday night as Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter took the stage to give his concession speech he thanked the crowd and remarked at the large number of media in the room – which nearly doubled the size of his audience. “Look at all these reporters, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many,” he said chuckling lightly at his …
Morning Must Reads: Hazard
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–The Senate’s financial reform legislation will get another cloture vote this afternoon. Despite Wednesday’s 57-42 failure, it seems likely the bill will clear today’s procedural hurdle. Arlen Specter, who wasn’t back in Washington for yesterday’s vote, is expected to be present. …
Today’s Winner
Sure, yesterday’s primaries sent the signal that just about everyone outside the Beltway loathes just about everyone inside the Beltway. But there is one guy here who’s coming out of this a king maker. A profile of Senator Jim DeMint and his crop of candidates.
Blanche Lincoln’s Derivatives Plan Survives (For Now)
Updated
So reports the Wall Street Journal. The Chris Dodd compromise I mentioned this morning is being dropped from financial reform as Democratic leadership in the Senate scrambles to line up final votes on amendments and a cloture motion this afternoon.
As Jay suggested the other day, there’s a political angle. Senator Blanche …
Morning Must Reads: Twists and Turns
REUTERS/Jake Stevens
–Mexican President Felipe Calderon is in Washington today for a slew of public meetings and a state dinner with President Obama. Drug violence and immigration will be the issues to get top billing; our colleague Tim Padgett explains why Calderon needs a talking to on police reform and anti-poverty …
Specter Exits Stage Left
Arlen Specter has survived a lot of things: a brain tumor, two bouts with Hodgkin’s lymphoma and five squeaker elections for the U.S. Senate. But in an anti-establishment year where the far right hates the moderates and the far left hates the moderates, Specter – whose voting record over the past 30 years is almost perfectly down the …
War on the Home Front
From TIME’s Pentagon Correspondent, Mark Thompson, who also happens to hail from the Nutmeg State:
Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat seeking to succeed Christopher Dodd in the U.S. Senate, did a lot more fighting over Vietnam Tuesday than he ever did inside the country. That’s because, despite his claims to the contrary, he
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Kentucky Election Day Dispatch: Awesome Nicknames
As you probably know, Trey Grayson is running for Senate in Kentucky. What you might not know is that “Trey” isn’t actually his name. It’s just a handle given to the third in a line of Charles Merwin Graysons. Far from frowning on pseudonymous politicians, the Bluegrass State allows candidates to designate a nickname to run on the …
Morning Must Reads: Looking Ahead
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
–It’s primary day in Arkansas, Kentucky, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Contests between Lincoln and Halter, Paul and Grayson, and Specter and Sestak, as well as a special election between Critz and Burns in PA-12 are widely seen as yardsticks by which to measure this cycle’s anti-establishment …