Posted on 04/15/2006 7:03:14 PM PDT by RWR8189
HARRY THE GREAT
WASHINGTON -- The talk of Washington during the first week of the congressional Easter recess was how Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid has seized control of the Senate despite a 10-seat advantage by the Republicans.
Just before the recess began, Reid blocked immigration reform legislation scheduled by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. Earlier, the minority leader had torpedoed asbestos litigation reform, also put on the Senate floor by Frist. No minority leader has so dominated the Senate since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1953-54.
Actually, Frist had turned over floor management on both immigration and asbestos litigation to the Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter. That makes Specter one for three against Reid, who lost out on the two U.S. Supreme Court confirmations.
IMMIGRATION POLITICS
New national polling data shows, to the surprise of many politicians, that the immigration issue is one of the very rare areas where President Bush is gaining rather than losing strength.
The conventional wisdom has been that Bush's guest worker proposal runs sharply against mainstream Republican opinion and contributes to the president's loss of party support. However, current polls show Republican opinion on the issue is split, as are the Democrats, with a national majority actually backing Bush (while he continues to drop in nearly every other category).
Some Republican members of Congress have reported back from Easter recess to say that their constituents are less outraged by leaky borders than the possible loss of immigrant workers, some from their own households.
HILLARY'S LINE
While Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's recent impromptu remarks have been so undisciplined that they have alarmed her supporters for president, she has moved toward the center in scripted remarks -- especially her address Tuesday night to the Chicago Economic Club.
Clinton's first major economics speech quoted from Ronald Reagan, praised supply-side Republican economist Lawrence Lindsey and talked about her collaboration with Republicans Bill Frist and Newt Gingrich. She did criticize President Bush's economic record, but did not attack him by name.
In contrast, Clinton was off message in a Bloomberg News interview last week when she suggested "this administration has been very willing to talk about using nuclear weapons [against Iran] in a way we haven't seen since the dawn of a nuclear age." There have been no such statements by President Bush or his aides. Earlier, she gave her supporters pause by saying Jesus Christ would be opposed to the House-passed immigration bill.
BUCKS FOR BOEING
At the same time that the U.S. government has joined with the European Union in fighting government subsidies for aircraft production, the Export-Import Bank's annual report shows a majority of its financing in the last fiscal year subsidized Boeing's jet sales.
Measured by dollar value, Boeing received 52 percent of Ex-Im's long-term loan guarantees. That marked the fourth year in a row that Boeing was given a majority of the Bank's subsidies.
Rep. Don Manzullo of Illinois, the chairman of the House Small Business Committee, has complained about not enough Export-Import Bank loans going to small business. Ex-Im Acting President James Lambright has replied that 80 percent of the bank's loans have gone to small businesses, but he is measuring by number of loans rather than dollar amounts.
TARGETED DEMOCRAT
Rep. Alan Mollohan, the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, is being targeted by Republicans for his supposedly safe West Virginia district because of multiple ethics allegations against him.
Federal investigators are looking into Mollohan's use of his interest in Remington Corp. as collateral for a $2.3 million loan while filing a congressional report reflecting his interest in the company at less than $30,000. Mollohan, who reported 1999 assets between $179,012 and $562,000, did not disclose a $2.3 million promissory note that year.
Mollohan, a moderate, is a major political figure in West Virginia who has been considered a possible eventual successor to Sen. Robert C. Byrd.
Don't that just beat all.....
No, it isn't. Frist has proven himself ineffectual as a leader. He's going to try and run for President by appealing to the evangelicals. If they vote for him in any major way you can kiss the Republican party good-bye
this surprises you???
who plays like they have the advantage? The Republicans or the rats???
the Republicans in charge today tiptoe around, afraid to wrankle feathers....
as much as I hated to see Delay decide not to run it may be for the best- he's not afraid to openly kick-some-azz....notice how quickly he spoke out and had cynthia mckinney backtracking...
has First or anyone else ever done anything like that??
not even close...
****Some Republican members of Congress have reported back from Easter recess to say that their constituents are less outraged by leaky borders than the possible loss of immigrant workers, some from their own households.******
I live just outside Washington and it isnt Easter yet, and they are reporting back? These Senators have been talking to their constituents who have servants? Illegal servants? Maybe they should try talking to the less rich amongst us.
Harry Reid runnng the Senate? No surprise there. Frist wouldnt say crap if he had a mouthful. Spectre is a Rino Pos and the rest of the republicans are nothing to brag on either.
As for Hillary I never believed she actually talked with Eleonor Roosevelt and I am sure Jesus Christ never spoke with her and gave an opinion on the immigration bill.
Frist will not win POTUS in '08. NO Senators as president (unless they have been re-elected governors).
Fer shur! His political career should be over.
But he seems to be a good doctor, and I approve of his trips to Africa. That's what his future should be.
I am thinking that these A-holes will have their hands full when they get back to DC! I wouldn't waste my precious Easter week going to one of my Rep's events, whattajoke!
I did shoot off about 50-100 faxes and phone calls and plan on doing it again on Monday.
Of course, I live in Assachusetts ! I don't hink Jawwnny Boy showed and The Swimmah did about 10 minutes in town! John Tierney is such a tool of these two that I have better things to do..like getting the flu and going to a funeral.
Reid is a doddering clown and Frist isn't bold. They're all a bunch of bores, for the most part.
The Congressional Republicans
...40 years to gain the majority
...40 minutes to demonstrate they didn't know how to govern.
And that continues to this day. They, and particularly Frist, are a disgrace.
Frist is fine. Not great or awae inspiring, but fine. What interests me is that the Republicans have been putting the moderates out front in the senate this year. It's all Susan Collins and Arlan Spectre. Must be a stategy.
And Frist's chances at becoming President aren't any better. AND Frist is risking the seat in TN by bailing out after only one term without a clear successor lined up.
There's so much misinformation I don't know how we would tell what america really wants here.
I know that people with legal immigrants working for them are afraid that the bill would make them leave the country. Which of course it doesn't. We've seen protests where legal immigrants have complained that they would be kicked out of public schools, or be denied access to college -- neither of which is true.
Nobody wants to see their legal friends sent away. Most of the pro-border-security crowd support legal immigration (there are some who are Buchanonites who wish to close the borders down and revoke all legal immigrant status, but that is surely a small minority).
IMHO Alito is a far better replacement for O'Connor than Miers would have been. Roberts is a fine pick although I would have liked to see Scalia as CJ right now, maybe Roberts later.
Sorry, but I've got to disagree. I like my leaders, especially in times of war, to have a spine. He may be a fine man but I think he is wholly unsuited for the post of Majority Leader, especially in these times.
I like to associate with people who are realistic.
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