Lawmaker News

As Congress limps into the July 4th break with its lowest approval ratings in history, a broken appropriations process bedeviled by allegations of corruption, an energy bill that Mike Burgess rightfully called a "lethargy bill," a failed attempt to reform our immigration laws and a lack of progress on ethics reform, most Americans have to wonder why they gave the reins to the Democrats.

The new Democratic majority has proven itself adept at breaking promises, entangling itself in knots and angering not only Republican partisans, but its own base.

What does it have to show for its efforts? A minimum wage increase that was stuck onto a war spending bill. Incredibly, it was the Democratic leaders who stuck that provision into the bill, causing their own top presidential candidates to vote against it. So, on their top accomplishment, their standard-bearers voted no.  Read more...

Republicans hate the immigration bill and are beginning to hate the war. Yesterday was another terrible day for President Bush, as Sen. Richard Lugar's (R-Ind.) criticism inspired other GOP critics and House Republicans closed the door on immigration reform. In a 114-23 vote of their conference House Republicans resolved that "we stand together in united opposition to any bill that rewards illegal behavior with amnesty." With only 23 Republican votes there isn't much House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) could do to help Bush push immigration through the House, even if she liked him.

There is no way for White House officials to rationalize what Lugar did. Lugar, ranking Republican and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is likely the most credible voice on foreign policy in the Republican Party today, "unimpeachable," to use a favorite Washington word. He doesn't lower himself to partisan skirmishes, and his comments do not amount to a defection to the Democratic side of the debate. Listen to his plea: He is asking Bush to lead on this so the Democrats don't, and he wants a redeployment and a U.S. presence in Iraq, not a withdrawal.  Read more...

Bad timing continues to infect the campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). As the former front-runner braces for another quarter of disappointing fundraising and all the inevitable political metaphors of life-support and death vigils that accompany bad news for him these days, he was blindsided by the Supreme Court. Besides an immigration signing ceremony, the last thing the McCain campaign needed this week was another spotlight on the campaign finance reform law that he championed and that is anathema to the very people he now so badly needs.

The ruling, which will once again permit last-minute advertising by interest groups that use names of candidates, isn't good news for any candidate but hits McCain twice. Read more...

Totally misreading the public mood, as always, Democrats and Republicans in the House have reached a deal to include earmarks on the 10 remaining appropriations bills that will pass after the Homeland Security bill goes through without earmarks.

The public wants earmarking stopped! It understands that rather than providing jobs, it is a device lawmakers use to stimulate campaign contributions from the grateful corporate or nonprofit recipients of this largesse. Congress should restore presidential authority to impound money and the line-item veto to fight earmarks. Those who earmark will face tougher scrutiny from the voters than they have ever faced now that the public is alive to earmarking, which consumes $64 billion every year, a healthy slice of total discretionary federal spending.

The Golden Tongue Quote of the Week goes to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) for trying to spin his way out of admitting Democratic defeat yesterday in the face of a GOP victory to oppose secret earmarks.

The Washington Times reports:

“Despite their minority status, Republicans this week used a series of procedural moves to stall the first of 12 spending bills to protest the Democrats' decision to only permit earmarks in Conference Committee.

"'The truth is, we controlled the floor this week,’ said House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, Missouri Republican.

“But Mr. Hoyer said his party ‘had control of the floor at all times. We chose not to exercise that control.’”  Read more...

Here we go again. Just when you thought that congressional Democrats had overplayed their hand and failed to deliver on the promises they made to the American people, they’re back to playing partisan politics once again. At second blush, have they ever stopped since Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has wielded the Speaker’s gavel? (By the way, Six for ‘06 appears to be 0 for 6 in ’07, but I digress.) Read more...

This week finds House Democrats struggling to address their earmark problem, that perennial stain on the floor they thought they could finally scrub clean after all these years. What they had scrubbed along the way was their original promise to expose every special spending item, and now Republicans have their backs against the wall. It practically makes losing on Iraq war votes seem fun.

But there are other messes, too. I learned from listening to Rep. Mark Kirk's (R-Ill.) radio address over the weekend that there is an additional ethics matter the new majority has backed away from, and it isn't pretty.  Read more...

Sure, it was a stretch for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to say that time had run out on a critical debate over immigration reform because the U.S. Senate had to move on to the no-confidence vote on Alberto Gonzales. The attorney general certainly inspires confidence in no one, but any real attempt to impeach him or force his resignation would obviously begin in the Judiciary Committee, where ranking Republican Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) seems ready to help. Democrats held their vote, which failed like they knew it would, but they dragged vulnerable Republicans on the record, just like they wanted to.

Was it Reid's idea or that of Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Oversight and Courts Subcommittee of Judiciary and of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee? The firing of U.S. attorneys from the Department of Justice has turned out to be just the sort of scandal the new majority needs to cement its fragile 51-49 majority in the next election, and not only is Schumer leading the investigation into the firings, he is leading the party's campaign. No matter how you shake it, as he hunts for facts he is hunting for dollars and votes. Read more...

Look for the House to work late into the night on Friday or possibly Saturday as the new majority will encounter its first real test of wills with the minority over earmarks on three Appropriations bills to be considered on the House floor this week.

Earmarks are growing as a symbol of business as usual in the House, and Appropriations Chairman David Obey’s (D-Wis.) unwillingness to give ground to the Republicans will likely spark a huge fight. My sources tell me that the GOP has over 200 amendments prepared to force Obey to relent and open up the earmark process to public scrutiny.  Obey will likely go to the Rules Committee to force a closure of debate on the spending measures, sparking a bigger rebellion amongst the minority.

This test of wills is inevitable. The good news for staff and lobbyists is they are doing it this week, not the week before the July 4 recess. Hopefully this clash will work itself out before it becomes necessary to screw up the vacations of a lot of people in town. Read more...

The president went to Europe and won a big victory. Vladimir Putin has changed his mind and won’t aim missiles at Europe, and actually agreed to talk about cooperation on missile defense.

This is the kind of victory that made Ronald Reagan the icon that all Republicans love today. But for Bush it was largely hidden by the setback on the immigration bill.

It is hard to say whether this immigration bill will be revived. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) says that it will be, but I wouldn’t count on it. The failure in the Senate is a failure of Senate Democratic leadership, but that is not how the majority leader spun it. He blamed President Bush, even though it was Reid’s decision to move forward on a cloture vote that few of the supporters thought was yet ripe. Read more...