How Jack ‘The Big Fish’ Murtha Got Away

Luckily for Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), his constituents weren’t too offended. The folks he labeled “redneck” and “racist” wound up reelecting him by an overwhelming margin – 58 percent to 42 percent – despite polls showing he was toast.
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GOP pushing Pelosi as boogeywoman not working

For more than two years, Nancy Pelosi has played a starring role in Republican attacks on Democratic congressional candidates. Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) warned of the liberal horrors of a Pelosi regime in the runup to the 2006 elections, and so far this year Republicans have tried to use the current House speaker [...]

GOP open seats boost Democrats House chances

A rush of Republican retirements has positioned Democrats to pick up 20 or more seats in the House and transform what might otherwise be a march to modest gains on Election Day into a wave to a lopsided majority.  Across the country, GOP departures — many in districts the party has controlled for decades — [...]

New Gang of 14 won’t back McCain

At least 14 Republican members of Congress have refused to endorse or publicly support Sen. John McCain for president, and more than a dozen others declined to answer whether they back the Arizona senator. Many of the recalcitrant GOP members declined to detail their reasons for withholding support, but Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.) expressed major [...]

Democrats Bow to Bush’s Demands in House Spending Bill

Billions Trimmed From New Requests
House Democratic leaders yesterday agreed to meet President Bush’s bottom-line spending limit on a sprawling, half-trillion-dollar domestic spending bill, dropping their demands for as much as $22 billion in additional spending but vowing to shift funds from the president’s priorities to theirs.
The final legislation, still under negotiation, will be shorn of [...]

Senate Backs Freeze on Tax Without Cost Offsets

Trying to find a way out of a sticky tax problem, the Senate on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to prevent the alternative minimum tax from hitting millions of middle-class Americans without replacing the $50 billion that would be lost.
The move represented a bitter retreat for Senate Democrats who, in taking over Congress this year, pledged to [...]

Reid aims to block recess appointments

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in a showdown with the White House over executive branch nominations, Friday refused to formally adjourn the chamber for a planned two-week Thanksgiving break to thwart President Bush’s ability to make recess appointments.
Rather than taking a full break, Reid employed a rarely used parliamentary tactic of scheduling “pro forma” [...]

Suddenly, impeachment hearings are looking like a strong possibility

Kucinich, by bringing his Cheney impeachment resolution to a floor vote in the House, has shaken up the politics of impeachment, and looks like it may end up putting Cheney in the dock.
You wouldn’t know it if you just watch TV news or read the corporate press, but this past Tuesday, something remarkable happened. Despite [...]

House Defies Bush and Passes Insurance Bill

Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the vote “a step forward” even though it fell short of the majority needed to override a veto.
Once again defying a veto threat from President Bush, the House on Thursday passed a bill to provide health insurance for 10 million children. But supporters did not have enough votes to override the [...]

McConnell has Taxpayer Subsidized Health Care

Opposes expanding taxpayer subsidized care, which he has…
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has warned about the slippery slope leading to “government-run health care for everyone” while rallying his colleagues against expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP.But as a U.S. senator, McConnell gets government-run, taxpayer-subsidized insurance through the Federal Employee Health [...]