Lawmaker News

DNC Chairman Howard Dean's response to McCain's speech:

John McCain's empty rhetoric today can't change the fact that he has steadfastly stood with President Bush from day one and is now talking about keeping our troops in Iraq for 100 years. His new appreciation for diplomacy has no credibility after he mimicked President Bush's misleading case for a unilateral war of choice when it mattered most. Why should the American people now trust John McCain to offer anything more than four more years of President Bush's reckless economic policies and failed foreign policy?

Dean has attacked John McCain almost daily while he waits for his party to settle on a nominee.

The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter today urging Attorney General Michael Mukasey to take "immediate action" toward investigating the breach of passport information of all 3 leading presidential candidates.

Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) want the Justice Department to examine any possible violations of federal privacy law involved in the breach. Mukasey had said he would wait for a State Deparment investigation to conclude, but Leahy and Specter want him to push ahead.

The passport information of presidential contenders Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) were all viewed by State Department contractors without permission. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has apologized for the breech.

The letter coincides with a push from both Senators to get floor time for their privacy bill, as reported by J. Taylor Rushing.