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Their power ebbing, Senate Democrats launched a last-minute drive Saturday to confirm roughly 20 of President Barack Obama's nominees, and several Republicans blamed tea party-backed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for creating an opening for the outgoing majority party to exploit. Lawmakers took a break in their intrigue long enough to send Obama legislation that provides funds for the government to remain open until Wednesday at midnight, easing concerns of a shutdown. A separate, $1.1 trillion long-term funding bill remained in limbo. Republicans tried to slow the nomination proceedings, but several voiced unhappiness with Cruz, a potential presidential candidate in 2016....

WASHINGTON – Republican aren’t mincing words about some in their own party as the political divide grows and the deadline to pass a spending bill nears. Heading into a rare Saturday session, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News he was surprised that GOP Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah went over his head Friday night and help up a vote on the $1.1 trillion spending bill. A senior GOP source lashed out at Cruz and Lee, calling the move “hamfisted” and “amateurish.” Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid told reporters that he was surprised by...

Sen. Ted Cruz, the firebrand conservative freshman from Texas, has blown up the Senate leadership’s plans to have a peaceful weekend by forcing round-the-clock votes on President Obama’s nominees and the $1.1 trillion omnibus.Cruz took to the floor late Friday to castigate congressional leaders for trying to pass the 1,600-page spending bill after only a few hours of debate and questioned the resolve of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to fight Obama’s executive order protecting five million illegal immigrants from deportation.“Even though millions of voters rose up just one month ago to protest how...

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., says she probably won't run for office again. "Oh Lord, no," Landrieu, 59, told reporters when asked if another campaign, perhaps for governor in 2015 or the Senate in 2016, was in her future. "Well, let me say, I'm not going to say a definite 'no' about any of those two," Landrieu said. "I've been trained to never say no. But it is highly, highly unlikely." [Snip] Matthew Lehner, her communications director, said he expects her farewell address later Thursday to be upbeat, and reflect on some of the contributions - such as oil and gas...

After hours of debate on the massive government spending package, the Senate adjourned until Saturday, pushing a fight that dominated Congress for days into the weekend. The Senate is expected to vote Monday on the $1.1 trillion package, which has already passed the House, Sens. Mitch McConnell and Barbara Mikulski said late Friday. Members from both parties in the Senate are trying to make last-minute changes to the bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a procedural move Friday that would set up a vote on final passage in the Senate no later than Monday. In a surprise development, the...

Senate Republicans huddled over lunch Friday afternoon in the Capitol to discuss strategy on the House-passed spending bill and other pending legislation, exiting the meeting with a resounding message: Let's get this done and get the heck out of here. But that feeling of optimism was quickly squashed. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had been negotiating with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Friday afternoon to bring up a vote on the omnibus bill later in the evening, keeping the government's doors open and allowing senators to take the weekend off. Many members on both sides of the aisle were hopeful that...

If some (i.e. Harry Reid) in the Senate seek unanimous consent to go straight to a vote on Cronybus, but Cruz (and others who may wish to join him) delay this move by forcing Reid to hold a cloture vote - and thus stall the vote in the Senate on Cronybus by 30 hours - would you support this if it led to a short-term funding measure? While this move may upset Boehner, who has now bent his will to Obama's desire, would you support Cruz (or whomever may wish to do this - Warren?) doing this?

Rapp felt his anger stir a bit. “Senator, I have been shot on three separate occasions in the service of this country. I received this nice little scar at the ripe old age of twenty-five.” Rapp showed her the left side of his face and craned his neck to show her fellow committee members the white mark that ran nearly four inches along his jaw-bone. “It was delivered by the man who was behind the terrorist attack on Pan Am flight one-oh-three. One hundred seventy-nine Americans were on that flight. Thirty-five of my classmates from Syracuse University perished, including a...

In the 219-206 vote, 67 Republicans rejected the spending bill, largely because it failed to take action to stop Obama's executive immigration order. But that was offset by 57 Democrats who voted in favor. Shortly after passage, both the House and Senate passed a 48-hour extension to allow the Senate more time to consider the measure. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid said it would be debated on Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's now up to the Senate to pass a huge $1.1 trillion spending bill to keep the government running, but not before a battle between old school veterans and new breed freshmen such as tea partier Ted Cruz and Elizabeth Warren, a liberal with a national following.

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Thursday morning slammed a provision in the pending spending bill that would repeal a piece of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and expressed doubt that enough Democrats could support the package if that rider remains. “I just spoke to Nancy Pelosi. The Democrats believe this is an odious provision that should not be included. Many of us feel the same way,” said Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “[Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)] can take it out in the bat of any eye, and I hope he will....

As CIA chief John Brennan defended the spy agency's interrogation program for terror suspects Thursday, a senior senator whose committee published a damning report on the practice contested his claims. Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein's staff repeatedly used the hashtag #ReadTheReport on the senator's Twitter feed during Brennan's rare press conference broadcast live from CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Brennan said it was "unknowable" whether key information from suspects subjected to so-called enhanced interrogation techniques (EITs), which critics have equated to torture, could have been obtained through other methods. But Feinstein's staff responded: "Study shows it IS knowable: CIA...

The House narrowly approved a vital spending bill Thursday night despite deep misgivings among liberals and conservatives alike, sending the measure to the Senate as a funding deadline looms. The bill passed on a 219-206 vote, following an intense lobbying effort by House Republican leaders and the White House. Current government funding technically runs out at midnight Thursday, and lawmakers still are expected to move a stopgap measure to buy time as the Senate considers the main $1.1 trillion spending package. That debate could last through the weekend and potentially into Monday. Passage in the House followed hours of urgent...

Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blasted Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, his soon-to-be successor, and other Republicans, vowing Democrats will wage "a new battle" with the GOP when the Senate reconvenes on Jan. 6. “Is there enough they can do to help Wall Street? I don’t think so. Big banks? I don’t think so,” Reid told the New York Times in an exit interview published Wednesday. “That’s where the new battle is going to be.” The 75-year-old Nevada Democrat said Republicans are at odds with Americans when it comes to environmental protection laws. “They want to eviscerate Clean Air, Clean...

Sen. Harry Reid Eviscerates GOP Leaders In New York Times Exit Interview Asked whether any of his Republican counterparts could become president, outgoing Senate majority leader replies, 'Of what?' By Dylan Stableford Outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blasted Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, his soon-to-be successor, and other Republicans, vowing Democrats will wage "a new battle" with the GOP when the Senate reconvenes on Jan. 6. “Is there enough they can do to help Wall Street? I don’t think so. Big banks? I don’t think so,” Reid told the New York Times in an exit interview published Wednesday. “That’s where...

Of course. And those responsible for releasing it must have foreseen this, and allowing their desire for political gain to overwhelm any residual sense of responsibility they might still have felt to protect American citizens. “Senate Torture Report Is Propaganda Bonanza for Islamic Militants, Feds Say,” by Mike Levine, ABC News, December 9, 2014: The Senate’s newly-released report on alleged torture of terror detainees after the 9/11 attacks is “unlikely” to inspire near-term attacks inside the U.S. homeland, but it is “very likely” to be used by terrorist groups for their future propaganda, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security...

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is reminding Americans that no civilized nation should ever torture prisoners. “Torture is wrong, unambiguously. Period. The end. Civilized nations do not engage in torture and Congress has rightly acted to make absolutely clear that the United States will not engage in torture,” Cruz said during the Q-and-A portion of a speech at the Heritage Foundation.

"I don't know that the report that was released yesterday is that historically accurate. It reads like a prosecutorial screed rather than a historical document."- Michael Hayden, Former CIA Director from May 30, 2006- Feb 12, 2009 For the most part, the narrative that the CIA tortured, that methods were "brutal", that the program wasn't effective in obtaining intelligence, that it played no role in the finding and killing of OBL, that those involved are war criminals- all of that is pretty much cemented in the minds of a number of Americans who are only reading the headlines and buying...

Starting next month, Mary Landrieu is going to have a lot more time on her hands. That can be a great thing if you’re really looking forward to finally catching up on the Grand Theft Auto online game series, but such pursuits don’t really do much to pay the bills. The soon to be former Senator probably won’t have to worry about that too much, though. She’s reportedly a very hot topic on K Street . Mary Landrieu may have lost her Senate seat, but the Louisiana Democrat is a hot commodity on K Street. Several headhunters, veteran lobbyists...

The CIA’s use of torture failed to gain any intelligence on imminent terrorist threats, didn’t lead to any high-level terrorists – including Osama bin Laden – produced fabricated information and was far more brutal than the agency has portrayed to policymakers and the public, according to a long-awaited Senate report released Tuesday.