Lawmaker News

Gotta hand it to Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who joins Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) in breaking a major Republican campaign pledge almost after immediately after the election.

While McConnell says the first priority is not finding jobs, but destroying President Obama in 2012, Cantor wants to choose the leader of the Democrats in the House. Gotta love these guys, they sure do violate their promises real quick.

It was Benjamin Disraeli, the famous English statesman, who said, “If you are not very clever, you should be conciliatory.”

By that reckoning, Mitch McConnell is very clever indeed.

Sen. McConnell (R-Ky.) has summed up the situation pretty well with his statements since the midterm elections of 2012.

I should have realized, when our pilot warned of “moderate turbulence” as we flew into Halifax, Nova Scotia, for an international security conference, that our white-knuckle flight was only the beginning.

That was on Friday. On Saturday, a bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators flew into town, having been forced to spend the night in Bangor, Maine, because of the strong winds buffeting Halifax. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) marched into the first panel of the day and kicked up his own storm by urging President Obama to “neuter the regime” in Iran. Read more...

At the height of the summer corruption scandals involving Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), I wrote that corruption is picking winners and losers.

A progressive government as large and intrusive as ours functions by taking from some in order to give to others. A perfect example is the “Cash for Clunkers” program, through which Congress took $4 billion from taxpayers(losers) to boost the failing auto industry and individuals in the market for a new car at the time (winners).

Presidential hopeful Sen. John Thune (R) of South Dakota is trying to walk a fine line when it comes to his vote in favor of TARP — the Troubled Asset Relief Program — and his verbal gymnastics point to the fundamental flaw in Republican messaging on bailouts and deficit spending.

Thune defended his vote for TARP to C-SPAN. He claims he supported TARP because “when somebody comes to you and says, 'The economy is in a meltdown, the credit markets are frozen up,' these are all the experts on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans. That was a very compelling argument at the time, and there was a lot of fear that if we didn't take steps, it could have been disastrous for the country. And so in light of imminent financial meltdown, it was, I felt at the time, the right vote to make."

Democrats have left town without passing a budget or any appropriations bills, nor have they answered the question Americans in every tax bracket are asking: What will my tax rate be come January 2011?
 
The focus for Democrats now is not on legislating, nor on touting their unpopular accomplishments, but rather on attack ads calling into question the personal records of their Republican opponents — taxes, business dealings, divorce proceedings. It isn't likely to be so effective, but, under the circumstances, what choice do they have?

When Denny Hastert started as Speaker of the House, he promised, after four tumultuous years of Newt Gingrich, to bring regular order back to the lower chamber.

To Hastert, regular order meant that the House would do its business in the right order. First, it would do a budget. Then it would work on its 13 appropriations bills, and if there were reconciliation instructions, that too would come after the budget was completed.

Aside from what will likely be meaningless lame-duck sessions in November and December, the 111^th Congress is a wrap, and wrapped along with it is the hope and change America voted for in 2006 and 2008.

We sit on the eve of the 2010 midterm elections, which pundits unanimously agree will see tremendous gains for the Republican-Tea Party and possibly the takeover of one and possibly both Houses of Congress. The election, though some 30 days away still, has already been framed by the Republicans and the media as a rebuke of President Obama’s policies, from healthcare to energy, from the economy to Wall Street reform. “Hope and Change,” according to them, had a two-year shelf life.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) released a missive today attacking the Republican agenda with assertions that would make carnival barkers blush — digging at Republicans for, get this, not supporting small businesses and opposing paperwork-reduction measures. Combined with the standard outsourcing-of-jobs claim, Hoyer’s tired act is running thin across America.

For anyone not paying attention, here is the Pelosi/Hoyer/Reid record since they came to power in January 2007:

As Congress slowly crawls back to work this week, with members dreading every day they have to spend in the “swamp” versus back home campaigning for their lives, the White House is renewing its assault on Republican obstinacy. More specifically, the administration has set its sights on a lone troublemaker — House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Never mind that even Ohioans in neighboring cities struggle to pick Boehner out of a congressional lineup. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and his minions are taking to the airwaves to lift up Boehner then publicly vilify every public policy stance he takes.