Political Control of Government Motors
Back when talks about bailing out General Motors started one potential issue was that GM would “encouraged” to make decisions based on political considerations vs. a sound business plan. Looks like there is evidence for such concerns with this story of how Montana’s Congressional Representative and two Senators are pushing to get a contract reinstated with a Montana palladium ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 2, 2009 15:01
Fineman: Chicago Style Isn’t Working
Howard Fineman piles on to the burgeoning -- if thus far unfounded -- Obama overexposed and Obama fatigue memes with an uncharacteristically harsh column. In addition to contending Obama gives too many speeches with too little substance, her goes further: There is only so much political mileage that can still be had by his reminding the world that he is not George ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 28, 2009 14:53
Obama 56, Republicans 30
A NYT/CBS poll finds that President Obama's approval remains strong but support for his handling of key policy issues is dipping. The Republicans are not, however, gaining much ground. At 56 percent, his approval rating is down from earlier in the year but still reasonably strong at this point compared with recent presidents. More Americans are starting to credit his stimulus package ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 25, 2009 05:41
Byrd Emergency
Something happened at Senator Robert Byrd's home this morning prompting the dispatch of a large fleet of emergency vehicles. Manu Raju reports and speculates for Politico: Ambulances and fire trucks were dispatched to the Northern Virginia home of Sen. Robert Byrd Tuesday morning. A neighbor of the 91-year-old West Virginia Democrat said several ambulances were outside his residence in McLean, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 22, 2009 11:55
Biden: Republican House Takeback ‘End of the Road’
Vice President Joe Biden told a partisan crowd that, if the Republicans win the House back in 2010, it would be "the end of the road for what Barack and I are trying to do." Karen Travers for ABC: Biden said Republicans are pinning their political strategy on flipping these seats. “If they take them back, this the end of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 22, 2009 07:57
Heckling the President
In his Daily Beast debut, Alex Massie rises in defense of Joe Wilson's outburst. No, not so much whether Obama was lying in this particular instance but rather the very notion that it's "inappropriate" to heckle the president. The whole piece is worth a read but here's a taste: Trivial though it may seem, this brouhaha highlights a great flaw ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 11, 2009 08:36
Split Health Care Bill
Taking a page out of Soloman's playbook, Congressional Democrats have a brand new plan for passing health care reform. The White House and Senate Democratic leaders, seeing little chance of bipartisan support for their health-care overhaul, are considering a strategy shift that would break the legislation into two parts and pass the most expensive provisions solely with Democratic votes. The idea is ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 20, 2009 09:15
Harry Reid: Protesters “Evil-Mongers”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has termed those who show up at town hall meetings and speak their mind "evil-mongers." Reid coined the term in a speech to an energy conference in Las Vegas this week and repeated it in an interview with Politics Daily. Such "evil-mongers" are using "lies, innuendo and rumor," to drown out rational debate, Reid said. "It ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 13, 2009 17:13
Toomey Leads Specter 48-36 (Rasmussen)
Arlen Specter switched parties to avoid being beaten by Pat Toomey in the Republican primary. A new Rasmussen poll finds Toomey would crush Specter 48 to 36 if the general election were held today. (Which, I always add, it won't be.) The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Pennsylvania voters shows 48% would vote for Toomey if the election were ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 13, 2009 11:02
Congressional Revolution Needed?
Ezra Klein and Steve Benen are recirculating this somewhat interesting chart on political polarization in America by political scientists Nolan McCarty, Keith T. Poole, and Howard Rosenthal. Ezra argues that "this level of polarization makes it virtually impossible to govern in a system that is designed to foil majorities and require a constant three-fifths consensus. It's not good if the country ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 2, 2009 08:08
Democrats Should Embrace States’ Rights
Alex Massie argues that the current inability of the Democrats to pass meaningful health care reform, one of their signature issues, despite overwhelming control of the government shows the system is broken. It's more difficult than it was in LBJ's day, mind you. All the horse-trading that once went on in private now takes place in a world of Twitter and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 30, 2009 14:11
Federalism and Democracy
Continuing a long-running theme at his blog, Matt Yglesias laments that Senators from small states wield so much power. The latest fuel is a NYT feature on six moderates who are supposedly the linchpins to putting together a bipartisan health care deal and who routinely hash out the details of same over snacks. [V]ast power is being wielded by people who, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 28, 2009 14:37
Baby Bites Al Franken
Waiting at DC's Reagan National Airport yesterday evening for a flight to Minneapolis, we caught a photo of this baby biting Al Franken's nose: Okay, so it was our baby. Franken was very gracious and accommodating. One of the joys of being a United States Senator, apparently, is that one can not read a magazine -- or for that matter, sit ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 25, 2009 12:32
CIA Lying to Congress?
The CIA has been lying to Congress about somethingoranother for years now, sources tell NYT. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon E. Panetta, has told the House Intelligence Committee in closed-door testimony that the C.I.A. concealed “significant actions” from Congress from 2001 until late last month, seven Democratic committee members said. In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 9, 2009 08:37
Tale of Two Cites
The Congressional Budget Office, the "nonpartisan" arbiter of the cost of various proposals and plans for the legislature, comes in handy sometimes. Other times, not so much. So House Democrats are discovering anew. Just five days ago Speaker Pelosi vented her frustration with the CBO for its sky high projection for health care reform: “The CBO will always give you the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 23, 2009 00:51
