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Feinstein's Office Denies Conflict of Interest Charges By Fred Lucas April 04, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - Breaking nearly a week of silence, Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office Tuesday called allegations of a conflict of interest "nonsense" and said the California Democrat played no role in awarding military contracts that benefited companies owned by her husband. It was reported last week that Feinstein no longer serves on a Senate subcommittee that oversaw military construction. Earlier this year, Metro Newspapers accused Feinstein of a conflict of interest because the subcommittee had oversight of military contracts that often went to defense contractors owned by her...

In a press conference with reporters today on Capitol Hill, Harry Reid described what he's been up to since injuring his face and ribs in an exercising accident: "As some of you know, I'm an avid reader. Read lots and lots of books, even some good ones during the break. So because -- I have not been able to read. They have told me if you have an eye that's healing and you try to overwork your good eye, it puts too much pressure on it. So I haven't been reading. I'm now on rehab so last night for example...

With only weeks gone but years left in California's Senate race, national Democrats appear eager to anoint state Attorney General Kamala Harris as the 2016 successor to Sen. Barbara Boxer's seat. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee weighed in lauding Harris' candidacy after she announced her decision last week, and high-profile sitting senators including Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Cory Booker also feted the new front-runner. But outside the Beltway, another group of Democratic power players and donors is coalescing behind the goal of electing California's first Latino senator, and they already have their candidate in mind: former Los Angeles Mayor...

Source: http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_114_1.htm Vote (Tally) [1] Result Question: Description Issue Date 10 (98-1) Agreed to On the Amendment S.Amdt. 29: Whitehouse Amdt. No. 29; To express the sense of the Senate that climate change is real and not a hoax. S. 1 1/21/2015 9 (54-45) Rejected On the Amendment S.Amdt. 41: Toomey Amdt. No. 41; To continue cleaning up fields and streams while protecting neighborhoods, generating affordable energy, and creating jobs. S. 1 1/21/2015 8 (41-58) Rejected On the Amendment S.Amdt. 69: Durbin Amdt. No. 69; To ensure that the storage and transportation of petroleum coke is regulated in a manner...

Washington (CNN)The U.S. Senate is dealing with a "network outage," the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms confirmed on Wednesday night. The outage downed email addresses and some Senate websites on Wednesday and technicians are working to restore service. "The Senate is currently experiencing a network outage including email and mobility and technicians are now working the issue," Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Frank Larkin said through a spokeswoman.

United States senators are now on the record on the question of whether climate change is "a hoax." The Senate on Wednesday passed a measure stating that "climate change is real and is not a hoax" by a margin of 98-1. The amendment was designed in part as a jab at GOP Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, who has questioned the science of climate change. Inhofe voted for the measure, arguing that the true "hoax" is that climate change is the result of human activity. "Climate is changing, and climate has always changed, and always will, there's archeological evidence of...

Complete Headline: Top Democratic Senator Harry Reid returns to US Capitol with eye bandages and bruises after exercise injury, but will skip State of the Union address Reid, 75, broke ribs and fractured bones in his face when an exercise machine broke and send him flying into cabinets at his new Nevada house He may lose sight in his right eye but is talking about running for a sixth term next year The Democrats' top senator will not attend the State of the Union address He has been taking meetings at his house in Washington, D.C. but hadn't been seen...

Tom Steyer is telling potential supporters that if he were to run for Senate in California, he would set policy goals related to climate change, taxes and public education. If he does not meet certain goals in six years, Steyer would pledge not to run for a second term. The billionaire environmentalist and former hedge fund manager spent $74 billion in the midterm elections in an effort to elect more lawmakers who want to fight climate change. Steyer also wants to ensure that the highest income earners pay effective tax rates that are at least the same level as the...

Recent developments involving the Islamic Republic of Iran can fairly be characterized as grave. Iran has announced that it has begun construction on two more nuclear plants, and the authorities have imprisoned a Washington Post journalist on mysterious charges. **SNIP** On behalf of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Matt Brooks of the Republican Jewish Coalition put out this statement: What exactly was President Obama suggesting when he said opposition to his Iran policy is due to “donors”? No one would say opposition to his Russia policy is due to ‘donors,’ or his Cuba policy is due to “donors,” or his general...

Furthermore, Ms. Feinstein seems to have no regard for thousands of American lives around the world she has put in jeopardy or the droves of new recruits ISIS will enlist because of her reckless actions. She has singlehandedly hogtied the CIA, who, by the way, vehemently disagree with this report (the methods were even defended – to a degree – by Obama’s CIA head, John Brennan), and was put together totally by Democrats, without even interviewing the persons who would have been able to refute their claim that the enhanced interrogation techniques did not provide information that foiled other attacks...

On September 25, the 23rd Arab-American Candidates’ Night Dinner was held in Virginia, attended by 46 Democrats and Republicans seeking office, with former governor and current Democratic Senate candidate, Tim Kaine, as a major speaker. The dinner honored a top Muslim Brotherhood official affiliated with Hamas named Jamal Barzinji, an inconvenient and overlooked fact for Kaine’s campaign team. Tim Kaine was the governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010 and then was the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He was on the short-list to become President Obama’s running mate. He is now running for Senate and will likely face...

In the 2016 cycle, Democrats are defending only 10 seats while Republicans have two dozen of their own seats to hold. 7 of those 24 Republican seats are in states that President Obama won twice: Florida, Illinois, Iowa, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. To win the majority back, Democrats need to win five of those seven seats in November 2016. (If a Democrat, wins the White House in 2016, then Senate Democrats need to win only four of those seven. That's the exact path Republicans took to the Senate majority in 2014 when, needing a six-seat gain, they won...

Saxby Chambliss begins, saying, "There was a very clear and definite outline of undermining the President, the DoD, the intelligenct community; it would truly undermine the opposition in Iraq." Demands that Democrats disavow the memo and its contents.

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan consulted the White House before directing agency personnel to sift through a walled-off computer drive being used by the Senate Intelligence Committee to construct its investigation of the agency’s torture program, according to a recently released report by the CIA’s Office of the Inspector General. The Inspector General’s report, which was completed in July but only released by the agency on Wednesday, reveals that Brennan spoke with White House chief of staff Denis McDonough before ordering CIA employees to “use whatever means necessary” to determine how certain sensitive internal documents had wound up in...

A Senate Democratic aide says Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is likely to return to the Senate next week after missing the first two weeks of business due to injuries sustained in a fall at his new home in Nevada. Reid is suffering from broken facial bones and ribs after slamming into a counter when a piece of exercise equipment broke. He also sustained a concussion. The aide said Reid won't return without the permission of his doctors. The 75-year-old Democrat said in a radio interview this week that the injuries won't prevent him from running for a sixth term...

House Republicans voted Wednesday to overturn President Obama's immigration actions from last November -- and to unravel a directive from 2012 affecting immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children -- sending the bill to the Senate where it faces an uncertain fate. The House voted 236-191 to approve the legislation, which funds the Homeland Security Department through the rest of the budget year to the tune of $40 billion. But as part of that bill, Republicans added provisions to gut the president's immigration directives. Despite deep Democratic opposition, the House voted 237-190 on an amendment to undo executive...

Senate Republicans are willing to use a vital spending bill to fight President Obama on immigration. But not as hard as their House colleagues would like. The House will vote Wednesday to stop funding for Obama's executive action deferring deportations for 5 million undocumented immigrants as part of a measure to fund the Homeland Security Department. Then it will be the Senate's turn, and some House Republicans are already worried about what that chamber will do. "You rarely see this kind of unity from our conference on anything," Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona told National Journal, "and you're seeing incredible...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday he will allow the Senate to vote on an amendment asking if they agree that climate change is impacting the planet. At his weekly press briefing, McConnell said "nobody is blocking any amendments" to legislation that would approve construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The GOP leader had promised to allow an open amendment process on the Keystone bill. But a measure proposed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had raised questions about whether he would stick to that commitment. The Sanders measure asks whether lawmakers agree with the overwhelming consensus of scientists...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is threatening to keep senators working until after midnight Tuesday to break Democratic opposition to moving ahead with approval of the Keystone XL pipeline. ADVERTISEMENT McConnell warned he would keep the Senate in session until the early morning if that’s what is necessary to begin consideration of amendments to the Keystone bill as soon as possible. “Some of our colleagues on the other side continue to filibuster the motion to proceed to this bill. All senators should know that we will get on this bill today and begin the amendment process — either this...

Gas prices are the lowest they've been in five years — a welcome relief for many drivers. But now that fuel prices are falling, some lawmakers are talking in a serious way about raising the gas tax — Republican lawmakers. The debate is at an early stage, and it’s fair to say House conservatives will hate the idea. But a few powerful GOP senators are signaling they're open to the idea. Even House Speaker John Boehner, who personally opposes raising the gas tax, hasn't ruled it out. “Some Republicans in the Senate are speaking up,” says Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's...

**SNIP** After all, a Senate seat is a plum job anywhere, but especially for Democrats in California, where it’s been decades since any of them lost a reelection bid for statewide office. Whoever takes Boxer’s place can expect to become the state’s senior senator after 2018, when the then-85-year-old Dianne Feinstein is also widely expected to retire. But ambitious Democrats should beware: Their eagerness, even greed, could do in their party’s hold on Boxer’s spot. It has happened before in California, and very recently. The field of potential Democratic candidates for Boxer’s slot is large, possibly going beyond obvious prospects...

Billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer is mulling a run for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat, according to a person close to the former hedge fund trader. “My sense is that he will take a look at it and consider it over the next few days or so,” the person said. The person added that Steyer has been approached by some in the liberal community to run for Boxer’s seat, while others have urged him to run for governor of California in 2018. Another option: running for Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat if she retires in 2018. Almost as soon as Boxer announced that...

For a five-month period that ends this week, every single elected Republican in Congress was a white Christian. Let me repeat that: every elected GOP Member of the House and Senate was a white Christian.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — A battle is shaping up between Sens. Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell. McConnell, the Senate majority leader, and Cruz, the conservative firebrand, are competing for influence among the Senate’s 12 Republican freshmen. The outcome, writes the Hill, will potentially shape the agenda for 2015 and beyond. Cruz has reached out to freshman Republicans in hopes they will join his effort to pressure GOP leaders to pursue what he calls a “bold agenda.” McConnell, meanwhile, has consistently told colleagues the only way they can have an impact is by getting legislation to President Barack Obama’s desk. That means...

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) on Wednesday fired back at Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) characterization of the chamber as dysfunctional during eight years of Democratic control. McConnell, speaking on the Senate floor this week, has repeatedly characterized the upper chamber as a body paralyzed by Reid’s iron grip on the agenda. The new Republican majority leader pledged Wednesday to “restore the Senate” by returning to regular order and getting committees working again. Reid said McConnell’s narrative is off-base. “The new majority leader claims the Senate has not achieved, in his words, ‘squat,’ in recent years. The numbers in...

Not everyone wants a kiss from uncle Biden. **SNIP** But on Tuesday during the swearing-in for the 114th Congress, it didn't go over so well. Maggie — the young daughter of Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) — was not having it. And it was pretty awesome.

I'm not a huge fan of McConnell or the current GOP leadership, but I'll take it over what we had.If nothing else gets done until 2017 at least we have this...

WAAAAAAH!!! I don't like my Windows 8 so I think I'll dump it! Okay, no big deal. Most of us are not pleased with that operating system. However, Dylan Matthews of General Electric Vox displays the same glibness which, while perhaps appropriate to switching computer operating systems, is completely absurd when wanting to toss over 200 years of constitutional federalism overboard by deciding to abolish the U.S. Senate because he has decided it is "anti-democratic." Here is Dylan making the case that the Founding Fathers were in error:

Democrats are looking to reclaim their Senate majority in two years, but after losing nine Senate seats in 2014, their path back to that majority won't be easy. **SNIP** Florida: Will Marco Rubio be running for a second term? Jeb Bush's decision to run for president complicates Rubio's own interests for higher office. With many of the freshman senator's most reliable donors lining up with Bush, it's increasingly possible that Rubio will opt to run for reelection. But what's bad for Rubio's national ambitions would be good for the GOP's chances of holding onto the swing Senate seat. If Rubio...

Harry Reid suffers severe injuries from freak exercise equipment accident. Rubber band breaks and smacks him in the face and he falls. Broken bones in face and ribs.

Republicans just won the Senate majority last month. But can they keep it? A cursory glance at the 2016 Senate map shows a slew of endangered Republicans up in two years — with few opportunities for offense as in 2014, when the GOP won nine Democratic-held seats to grab control of the chamber.

The "CRomnibus" government funding bill passed handily last weekend, but not before Senators Lee and Cruz had their say. In a controversial move, the two senators managed to put their colleagues on record voting for or against funding President Obama's latest unconstitutional executive power grab. Many Republican senators, however, protest too much, claiming that Lee and Cruz may have allowed the Democrats to pass a number of executive nominees because of their insistence upon making their point. As the story goes, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had promised to adjourn the Senate after passing the CRomnibus and a couple...

Hey, Jeb, Ted, Rand, Marco, Bobby, Chris and the dozen or more others I'm forgetting, here's something to write on your bathroom mirror in 2015 and beyond: The "P" in POTUS stands for "President," not "Pundit." I understand that the Seinfeldian faux-holiday Festivus is behind us, but I want to get at least this one grievance in for next year a bit early. Republicans have a tendency to tell, not show. They feel the need to explain why they are saying something, rather than work at simply saying what they need to say convincingly. I call it "reading your stage...

Unlike his predecessor as host of Meet the Press, Chuck Todd is an approachable, un-phony presence. He knows politics and clearly enjoys politics. But, boy, is he excitable, especially on the subject of immigration, where he often lets the drama of the moment cloud his judgment. [You need three examples-ed. Got em.] 1. It’s November 7, 2012. Romney has just lost the presidency, something many analysts immediately blame on his poor showing among Latinos. The Beltway mind instantly draws but one conclusion: Republicans need to assuage Latinos by legalizing illegal immigrants, stat. Obama’s ‘immigration reform,’ Todd says, will get “80...

To incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), it is more important for Republicans to be the party of yes than go all-out to defund President Barack Obama’s executive amnesty.According to the New York Times, McConnell “acknowledges that changing the mind-set of opposition” in the next Congress “will be crucial to advancing legislation that will attract Democratic support and force” Obama “into difficult choices over whether to sign measures pushed by his adversaries.” The Times notes “that is why his focus will be lawmakers he thinks he can meld into a governing coalition.”“All of us from time to time make a point,” Mr. McConnell told the...

Today, Senate Conservatives Action (SCA), the super PAC arm of the Senate Conservatives Fund (SCF), released three new radio ads holding GOP House leaders accountable for voting to fund the president's unlawful executive amnesty. The ads will air for one week in the home districts of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA). Over the past week, freedom-loving Americans from across the country pledged to donate over $117,000 to hold these leaders accountable if they voted to fund the president's amnesty. The three radio ads released today carry out...

Once hailed in the press as the Democratic candidate in 2014’s “marquee race,” which could see the Republican Senate minority leader unceremoniously defenestrated by Kentucky’s voters. Grimes’ loss to Mitch McConnell was among the first heartbreak of election night for liberal Democrats when her race was among the earliest to be called for the Republican candidate. When all the votes were counted, Grimes lost by just over 15 points. It wasn’t even close. If you missed Kentucky’s secretary of state, she was not gone for long. Having failed in her mission to oust McConnell, the former Democratic U.S. Senate...

Sen. Mark Begich can still return to the Senate.Even though lawmakers who will not be returning to Congress in January might feel downtrodden, they can find solace in the fact that they retain some congressional perks. Those perks, ranging from floor access to permanent identification cards, were outlined in the Congressional Research Service’s Dec. 5 report titled “Selected Privileges and Courtesies Extended to Former Members of Congress.” CRS American National Government specialist R. Eric Peterson wrote in the report, “Some [privileges] are derived from law and chamber rules, but others are courtesies that have been extended as a matter of...

The new Republican-controlled Senate's first act in January will be approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday. McConnell told reporters that the bill would be based on a measure that failed in the Senate last month that was co-sponsored by North Dakota Republican John Hoeven and Louisiana Democrat Mary Landrieu. "It'll be open for amendment," McConnell said. "I will hope that senators on both sides will offer energy-related amendments but there'll be no effort to try to micromanage the amendment process." Landrieu pushed for a Keystone vote in November in a last-ditch effort to...

Ted Cruz privately apologized to GOP senators Tuesday for interrupting their holiday schedules by his surprise tactics that effectively brought the Senate into session over the weekend. According to five senators who attended Tuesday’s caucus lunch, Cruz offered the apology in unsolicited remarks, saying that he regretted if any of his colleagues’ schedules were ruined by his maneuvering. He didn’t say whether he would do something similar again, senators said. And unlike a contentious lunch last year after GOP senators pointedly blamed Cruz for prompting the government shutdown, no sharp words were directed at the Texas freshman at Tuesday’s lunch,...

WASHINGTON — Two late-night votes in the Senate last weekend provide fodder for party activists already drawing up plans to reward loyalists and punish adversaries as the 2016 U.S. election cycle starts. The litmus-test votes: passage of a $1.1 trillion spending bill that Democrats criticized for being too kind to big banks and campaign donors, and Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz's failed constitutional objection to President Barack Obama's immigration policy. Pressure from the bases of both parties was strong enough that 40 senators -- 22 Democrats and 18 Republicans -- voted against the bill even though it included provisions to...

WASHINGTON - Stepping into an elevator on his way out of the U.S. Capitol Friday night, Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell - the next Senate Majority Leader - bid reporters farewell. "See you Monday," he said. By agreement with Democrats, a budget showdown risking a potential government shutdown had been pushed back a couple of days, creating breathing room for senators in both parties while they made plans for a pre-holiday weekend. Sen. Ted Cruz had other ideas. In a maneuver that would put the junior Republican senator from Texas at the center of another high-stakes political drama, Cruz pressed a...

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid pulled out one of his most familiar threats during perhaps his last week as majority leader, pledging to keep the Senate in session through the weekend to get 23 of President Barack Obama’s nominations confirmed and pass bills extending billions in tax breaks and providing terrorism risk insurance to commercial buildings. The Senate already worked one Saturday this month, so why not another? While the Nevada Democrat is not yet warning senators that the chamber could work on Christmas, his remarks on Monday morning were clearly aimed at getting Republicans to relent on procedurally fighting...

For all of their foresight on other matters, America's founders were somewhat taken aback by the natural development of political parties. It happened anyway, even during George Washington's presidency. And although party ideology has fallen along different lines at various points in American history, it has long governed the allegiance of a majority of American voters in elections. In legislative matters, party ideology takes the form of the modern party caucus system. In order to achieve their goals, partisan lawmakers collaborate, choose leaders, and agree on strategies in advance. On Saturday, lawmakers demonstrated why this system evolved and is necessary....

In the aftermath of the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report focused on Bush-era techniques, the Obama administration's own counterterrorism practices are coming under increased scrutiny. Gruesome details of forced rectal feedings without medical necessity, waterboarding, and sleep deprivation were chronicled in the report's executive summary, dredging up harsh practices employed during the George W. Bush administration. But on Capitol Hill, Republicans charge that the Central Intelligence Agency's approach to counterterrorism has not grown more humane—it's merely shifted. "Obviously, we don't interrogate prisoners anymore," says Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., who chaired the Intelligence Committee during the Bush administration....

Other than the Koch brothers, there is arguably no one outgoing-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid disdains more than the Tea Party. And no one represents the Tea Party in the Senate more than Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Yet, after hours of tedious wrangling, Reid on Friday agreed to allow a vote on a measure from Cruz questioning the constitutionality of President Obama’s executive order on Deferred Action, which does, in effect, grant de facto amnesty to upwards of 5 million illegal aliens. Cruz told Breitbart News that a Senate vote on Obama’s executive action was important for two reasons: “First,...

It’s a question that will prove crucial next year when Mitch McConnell takes the reins of a new Senate: Just how big is the Ted Cruz caucus? Three votes on the “cromnibus” late Saturday night suggest it could be as large as 22 senators — a dangerously high number for McConnell — or as few as a handful. Let’s break down the three votes — on filibustering the $1.1 trillion package, on Cruz’s point of order aimed at targeting the president’s immigration action, and final passage. The high-water mark for the Texas Republican came on his point of order vote,...

The Senate voted 56-40 late Saturday evening to pass a $1.1 trillion spending package that funds most of the government through next September. The vote culminates a week of acrimonious sniping and sends the spending bill to President Obama’s desk for a signature. The debate exposed divisions within the Democratic and Republican caucuses on both sides of the Capitol and sets the stage for what could be a year of internecine squabbling in 2015. Twenty-one Senate Democrats voted against the bill while 24 Republicans voted for it, including every member of the Senate GOP leadership. Democratic opponents included several senators...

Bloomberg is title and link only: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-13/senate-push-on-final-spending-bill-thwarted-by-disputes.html

Congress gave itself until Wednesday to pass a government funding bill after the two Republican senators whose efforts led to a government shutdown in 2013 disrupted legislation that would avert a shutdown. Unable to pass a massive spending bill that would keep the government funded for a year, the Senate on Saturday approved a stopgap measure to prevent a shutdown at midnight. The maneuver came during a rare Saturday session after GOP Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee demanded a vote Friday to defund President Barack Obama's executive actions on immigration, thwarting Senate leadership's hopes to pass a $1.1 trillion...