May 24, 2010 12:42 am
USA Today (AP), “GOP wins House seat in Obama’s Hawaii home district”
Republicans scored a midterm election victory Saturday when Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou won a Democratic-held House seat in Hawaii in the district where President Obama grew up — the latest triumph for the GOP as it looks to take back control of Congress.
Djou’s victory was a blow to Obama and other Democrats who could not rally around a candidate and find away to win a congressional race that should have been a cakewalk. The seat had been held by a Democrat for nearly 20 years and is located where Obama was born and spent most of his childhood.
“This is a momentous day. We have sent a message to the United States Congress. We have sent a message to the national Democrats. We have sent a message to the machine,” Djou said. “The congressional seat is not owned by one political party. This congressional seat is owned by the people.”
USA Today (AP) article continues here.
May 18, 2010 9:54 pm
Yahoo! News (AP), “Specter rejected by Pa. Dems in bid for 6th term”
by Marc Levy
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter on Tuesday was defeated in a Democratic primary in his bid for a sixth term after taking the risky step of switching from the GOP.
Voters picked U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak as the party’s nominee and rejected the 80-year-old Specter in his first Democratic campaign since his Republican Party defection.
With 79 percent of precincts reporting, Sestak received 435,630 votes, or 53 percent; Specter received 384,027 votes, about 47 percent.
Yahoo! News (AP) article continues here.
May 18, 2010 9:05 pm
Yahoo! News (AP), “Paul rides tea party support, takes GOP nod in Ky.”
by David Espo
Political novice Rand Paul rode support from tea party activists to a rout in Kentucky’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday night, jolting the GOP establishment and providing fresh evidence of voter discontent in a turbulent midterm election season.
Paul had 59 percent of the vote with returns counted from 29 percent of the precincts, compared to 37 percent for Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who was recruited to the race by the state’s dominant Republican, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
In a Democratic primary that commanded far less national attention, Attorney General Jack Conway led Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, 49 percent to 39 percent.
Yahoo! News (AP) article continues here.
May 3, 2010 2:27 pm
“Show us your papers.”
The Hill, “Dems spark alarm with call for national ID card”
by Alexander Bolton
A plan by Senate Democratic leaders to reform the nation’s immigration laws ran into strong opposition from civil liberties defenders before lawmakers even unveiled it Thursday.
Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure.
The proposal is one of the biggest differences between the newest immigration reform proposal and legislation crafted by late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
The national ID program would be titled the Believe System, an acronym for Biometric Enrollment, Locally stored Information and Electronic Verification of Employment.
It would require all workers across the nation to carry a card with a digital encryption key that would have to match work authorization databases.
“The cardholder’s identity will be verified by matching the biometric identifier stored within the microprocessing chip on the card to the identifier provided by the cardholder that shall be read by the scanner used by the employer,” states the Democratic legislative proposal.
The Hill article continues here.
April 26, 2010 11:42 pm
Yahoo! News (AP), “Democrats push bank controls; GOP delays action”
by Jim Kuhnhenn
Undaunted by a Senate setback, Democrats appeared increasingly confident Monday they will be able to take advantage of Americans’ anger at Wall Street and push through the most sweeping new controls on financial institutions since the Great Depression.
The Senate, in a 57-41 vote, failed to get the 60 supporters needed to proceed on the regulatory overhaul. One Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, joined with the Republicans.
But the evening vote was just part of a legislative ballet keeping bipartisan talks alive. At the end, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid switched his vote to “no,” too, but that was just a maneuver that will enable him to call for a new tally as early as Tuesday.
Yahoo! News (AP) article continues here.
April 21, 2010 6:12 pm
Breitbart (AP), “NYC mayor defends Wall Street before Obama visit”
by Sara Kugler
As Congress debates sweeping legislation aimed at guarding against another financial meltdown, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has become Wall Street’s spokesman and defender amid a chorus of populist voices.
With President Barack Obama set to visit New York to push for passing financial reform, the billionaire mayor, who got his start on Wall Street in the 1960s and is considered a national expert on financial matters, argues that too much regulation could endanger the economy as much as others say it would protect it.
“The bashing of Wall Street is something that should worry everybody,” Bloomberg declared last week.
Breitbart (AP) article continues here.
April 19, 2010 9:26 pm
Fox News, “Senate Committee Subpoenas Administration for Fort Hood Documents”
Two top senators served the Obama administration Monday with subpoenas for information on the mass shooting at Fort Hood last November, claiming the administration’s stonewalling left them with no other choice.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine — respectively, the chairman and the ranking Republican on the Senate homeland security committee — notified Attorney General Eric Holder and Defense Secretary Robert Gates of the decision in a letter Monday.
They said the committee had sent four formal requests for information to the Pentagon and two to the Justice Department, and received little response.
Fox News article continues here.
April 10, 2010 2:52 pm
Politico, “Rep. Bart Stupak to retire, putting seat in play”
by Mike Allen and Josh Kraushaar
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), who had a central role in the health reform fight as the leader of anti-abortion Democrats, plans to announce Friday that he will not run for reelection, a Democratic official said. Without Stupak on the ballot, the seat becomes an immediate pickup opportunity for Republicans.
“Now with health care done, he’s retiring,” a friend said. “He has thought about retiring for the last three cycles, but was always talked into staying: to elect John Kerry to help end the war, to elect a Democratic majority to get health care done.”
President Barack Obama called Stupak on Wednesday and asked him not to retire. Stupak, 58, also resisted entreaties from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), the dean of the Wolverine State delegation.
Politico article continues here.
April 10, 2010 2:51 pm
Yahoo! News (AP), “Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens retiring”
by Mark Sherman
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the court’s oldest member and leader of its liberal bloc, is retiring. President Barack Obama now has his second high court opening to fill.
Stevens said Friday he will step down when the court finishes its work for the summer in late June or early July. He said he hopes his successor is confirmed “well in advance of the commencement of the court’s next term.”
His announcement had been hinted at for months. It comes 11 days before his 90th birthday.
Yahoo! News (AP) article continues here.
March 31, 2010 2:51 pm
Politico, “John Boehner: Drilling decision falls short”
by Jake Sherman
The top House Republican says the White House’s decision to begin offshore drilling across huge expanses of ocean is a “positive step,” but he’s still blasting the Obama administration for keeping areas on the West Coast closed to such exploration.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said that the administration “continues to defy the will of the American people,” who he says supported a 2008 congressional decision to allow oil exploration off the Pacific Coast and Alaska.
“Opening up areas off the Virginia coast to offshore production is a positive step, but keeping the Pacific Coast and Alaska, as well as the most promising resources of the Gulf of Mexico, under lock and key makes no sense at a time when gasoline prices are rising and Americans are asking ‘Where are the jobs?’” Boehner said in an e-mailed statement Wednesday morning.
Politico article continues here.
