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The president addressed an audience in Silver Spring, MD, on the benefits of Medicare prescription drug benefit. Members of Congress met with Bush on his upcoming legislative agenda. Many of the major stock indexes have hit 5 year highs; the Dow Jones 30, the SP 500 included. Bush attended the Hungarian Celebration of Contributions to Democracy, marking the 50th year since the Hungarian revolution. Click here for an article, with video links, about Laura Bush and exercising. Laura's shocking confession! "I Was Shamed into Starting To Exercise." =) WELCOME TO SANITY ISLAND!

The pendulum swings both ways. Last year in Denver, it was Mayor John Hickenlooper proposing to replace the city's traditional "Merry Christmas" sign with one that said "Happy Holidays." The mayor wisely backed off in response to the public outcry, as did the Parade of Lights, this year, reversing its policy barring religious floats. Earlier this month, Speaker of the U.S. House Dennis Hastert, issued a directive instructing the architect of the Capitol to drop the name "Capitol Holiday Tree" - adopted in the late 1990s under the authority of no one who's now willing to admit to it -...

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has told federal officials that the lighted, decorated tree on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol -- known in recent years as the "Holiday Tree" -- should be renamed the "Capitol Christmas Tree," as it was called until the late 1990s. The Capitol's senior landscape architect confirmed the name switch yesterday for The Washington Times. "It was known as the 'Holiday Tree' for several years and just recently was changed back to the 'Capitol Christmas Tree.' This was a directive from the speaker," said Capitol architect Matthew Evans. "The speaker believes a Christmas tree...

A defiant Tom DeLay, removed as House majority leader because of a criminal indictment, said Sunday he can do his job even without the title and pledged to continue his close partnership with House Speaker Dennis Hastert in pushing the GOP's agenda. The Texas Republican known for keeping colleagues in line and raising prodigious amounts of cash to help elect GOP candidates said he is only guilty of working to defeat Democrats. "But that's not illegal," he said. Yet some House Republicans said the fundraising conspiracy case in Texas has plunged DeLay back into the GOP pack. "He's lost his...

The speaker's inner circle is a political money-raising machine that provides a window on the way Washington worksWASHINGTON -- In his first campaign for the Illinois legislature nearly a quarter-century ago, Dennis Hastert had a problem. He had plenty of campaign posters, but no wooden stakes to make yard signs. His friend Dan Mattoon had the solution. Mattoon knew where former Rep. Tom Corcoran kept hundreds of wooden stakes and, as lore has it, he took them for Hastert without bothering to tell Corcoran. Since that time, Mattoon, 52, now one of Washington's most powerful lobbyists, and Hastert (R-Ill.), 63,...

Washington, DC, Mar. 23 (UPI) -- House GOP leaders seeking one last chance to intervene in the case of a brain damaged Florida women filed a brief with the Supreme Court Wednesday. The Roll Call newspaper reported that following Wednesday's rebuff of the efforts of Terri Schiavo's parents to have her feeding tube reinserted and case reviewed, Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, and others filed a brief with the court similar to one filed with Atlanta's 11th Circuit prior to their ruling in the case. The move comes after GOP lawmakers made the extraordinary...

Feb. 28 issue - Dan Glickman isn't exactly the Hollywood type. More comfortable in pinstripes than Prada, he's a former Clinton Agriculture secretary, Kansas congressman and president of the Witchita school board—and nothing like the flashy, debonair Jack Valenti, the legendary head of the Motion Picture Association of America. After 38 years at the MPAA, Valenti has become a celebrity in his own right, landing his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. But as Glickman heads toward his first Academy Awards since taking over for Valenti as the industry's chief lobbyist, he's the one schmoozing Hollywood directors and...

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R.-Ill.) has promised disgruntled conservatives that the House's top priority in the 109th Congress is passing legislation that bars illegal aliens from obtaining driver's licenses, language the Senate stripped from the just-passed intelligence bill. House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis.), a strong proponent of the driver's license provision, secured Hastert's assurance once House leaders agreed to vote on the intelligence bill last week. Sensenbrenner helped thwart a November 20 vote on the legislation because the provision was removed. Hastert's spokesman, John Feehery, said the speaker wouldn't hesitate about attaching the language to an Iraq supplemental bill,...

Even though the House of Representatives has now passed an historic intelligence Reform bill, additional steps still need to be taken to make America more safe and secure in the future. Permanency is good news, but it's not enough. This committee will need stature and clout — real jurisdiction — to provide rigorous oversight over the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).[snip]Mr. Hastert recently told the House Republican Conference that he would establish a permanent homeland-security committee in the 109th Congress, which opens in January. He could have let the Select Committee expire and opted for easier fixes, such as establishing...

Saturday, the president, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and Condi Rice met with Pakistan's President Musharraf at the White House. Bush said, "We discussed international politics. I assured President Musharraf that there is an opportunity at hand to work toward the development of a Palestinian state and peace in the Middle East." He gave his radio address, saying, "We must do everything necessary to confront and defeat the terrorist threat, and that includes intelligence reform. By remaining focused and determined in these efforts, we will strengthen the safety of our citizens and defend our nation from harm." Vice President...

the speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, has reached a dangerous new level of partisan zealotry to bolster the Republicans' control of government. For the new Congress, Mr. Hastert intends to cater to what he calls "the majority of the majority" in deciding which bills will get a vote and which won't. He has little use for the bipartisan majorities idealized in civics classes and once seen even in the House. Mr. Hastert first enunciated his approach last year in a speech. "The job of speaker is not to expedite legislation that runs counter to the wishes of the majority...

The Honorable J. Dennis Hastert Speaker of the House of Representatives Room H-232 United States Capitol Washington, DC 20515 Dear Speaker Hastert: On behalf of the 350,000 members of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I write to urge you to enact S. 150, the Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act, which would protect taxpayers from Internet access charges. While NTU would have preferred this legislation also block taxation of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), if the votes are not there to enact both types of safeguards right now, taxpayers at a minimum need immediate protection from money-hungry state legislators seeking to add...

Scott says not allowed at Bush headquarters opening By The Associated Press Jock Scott, the Republican 5th Congressional District candidate left out in the cold when his party embraced ex-Democrat Rodney Alexander, complains he was pushed off the platform at the ceremonial opening of Bush campaign headquarters in Monroe Friday. Republican organizers confirmed that party officials demanded Scott be kept away, since their new favorite -- incumbent Alexander -- was going to be a featured speaker. The congressman caused a furor in August when he switched parties in the final minutes of qualifying; Scott, and Democrats, sued him, unsuccessfully. Ed...

Warming to the state GOP's apparent U.S. Senate candidate, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Friday he would work to get Alan Keyes elected, even lobbying President Bush to make Illinois a campaign destination. "When I am here, I am going to do what I can," Hastert told the Daily Herald editorial board in St. Charles. "I think it is part of my responsibility to help Keyes. … I think it's an important thing to do in Illinois." The Plano Republican stopped short of saying he would personally launch a statewide blitz for Keyes, who is expected to accept the Senate...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- A report Monday that in his upcoming book House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., endorses the elimination of the Internal Revenue Service and replacement of the current tax code with a national consumption tax or flat tax as a top GOP priority in a second Bush administration should come as no surprise, considering that conservative Republicans have been pushing such ideas for years. The Drudge Report's brief on Republican plans for eliminating the federal revenue-collection agency and the laws it enforces in favor of a national sale tax, value-added tax or even a flat tax rate...

Republicans are filled with glee, as Democrats fall all over themselves, trying to diminish the fact that Bill Clinton's former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, was caught stuffing classified documents and national secrets down his drawers, in his jacket, in his socks, and in a leather portfolio, in order to steal them from the National Archives, and to later destroy some of them. (Berger returned some documents, but only after he was caught.) Watergate, meet BVDgate. For the past thirty years, many observers have thought it the height of paranoia for Pres. Richard Nixon's men to burglarize the offices of...

<p>LEXINGTON, Ky. — U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert pledged yesterday, while campaigning for 6th District congressional candidate Alice Forgy Kerr, to bring a tobacco-buyout bill up for a vote in the full House.</p> <p>Such legislation would end a Depression-era government program that controls production and guarantees growers a minimum price.</p>

Hastert visits Elgin: U.S. House speaker talks on immigration, energy, politics issues Elgin – Several weeks ago, President George W. Bush rolled out a program to grant temporary work permits to undocumented immigrants. But before the program can proceed, it needs to pass Congress — which probably won't happen, U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert told The Courier News Editorial Board on Thursday. "I don't think there's support to get that through Congress," the Yorkville Republican said. "But I think this is a chance to start a debate." Hastert acknowledged that immigration problems are growing in the Fox Valley, and with...

WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Lawmakers who want Iraq to repay the United States for its reconstruction voiced growing confidence on Thursday that the U.S. Congress will make part of the $87 billion bill for Iraq in the form of loans, defying President George W. Bush. Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives worked to stem a push among their own members to make Iraq use its future oil wealth to repay some or all of the $20.3 billion Bush has proposed to rebuild it. But a spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, said...

Bush's silence could seal embattled senator's fate President, House speaker meet without Lott to plan agenda 12/18/2002 Associated Press WASHINGTON - Sen. Trent Lott said he "made a terrible mistake" in praising Strom Thurmond's 1948 segregationist presidential candidacy, but the controversy continued Tuesday amid indications from White House advisers that President Bush won't try to save Mr. Lott's job. That could seal Mr. Lott's fate because several other Republican senators are expressing concerns that the Mississippian is a liability to their agenda in Congress and to Mr. Bush's re-election. On Tuesday, Mr. Bush stayed silent on the matter, waving...