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 ...

Boxer to General: It’s “Senator” Not “Ma’am”

Senator Barbara Boxer upbraids a polite general for addressing her as "Ma'am." "Do me a favor," she said. "Could say senator instead of Ma'am It's just a thing, I worked so hard to get that title, so I'd appreciate it, thank you." It may be a pet peeve of hers but a rather unclassy exchange.  Subordinates tend to address generals as "general" ...

Joe Sestak to Challenge Specter in Democratic Primary

Talking Points Memo is reporting that Rep. Joe Sestak from Pennsylvania will be challenging Arlen Specter in the Democratic Primary. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) is privately telling supporters that he intends to run for Senate, TPMDC has confirmed. "He intends to get in the race," says Meg Infantino, the Congressman's sister, who works at Sestak for Congress. "In the not too distant ...

Sonia Sotomayor and the Politics of Race

[caption id="attachment_36645" align="alignright" width="399" caption="President Barack Obama announces federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor, right, as his nominee for the Supreme Court, Tuesday, May 26, 2009, in an East Room ceremony of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)"][/caption] Kevin Drum notes that he's already tired of the "kabuki" that has emerged in reaction to the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor ...

Titles for Former Officials

Josh Marshall has noted something peculiar in the recent media tour of former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich: He seems to insist with members of the press that he still be referred to as "Speaker Gingrich." And actually his website is speakergingrich.com. Not former Speaker Gingrich, Speaker Gingrich. And it goes beyond him. On Meet the ...

Quote of the Day – Torture Trials Edition

"Well, conservative, conshmervative - even Karl Rove would pay good money to see Pelosi handcuffed to Dick Cheney." - Kate McMillan responding to news that the then-Minority Whip and top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee was briefed on the use of "enhanced interogation techniques" in the fall of 2002 and "gave it her stamp of approval." And, no, the fact ...

Ridge Not Running

The good news keeps pouring in for Arlen Specter.   A day after it looked as if his Senate career had blown up in his face, with the Democrats stripping Specter of his seniority and polls showing that Tom Ridge would crush him in a head-to-head matchup, he's been given the chairmanship of the most important Judiciary subcommittee and Ridge has ...

Arlen Specter Gets Crime and Drugs

Taegan Goddard passes along reports from NBC that, "In an apparent effort to to ease the tension over Arlen Specter's bumpy transition into the Senate Democratic caucus, Sen. Dick Durbin is willing to voluntarily relinquish his chairmanship on a Judiciary subcommittee to Specter" and that therefore "Specter will become the Chairman of the Crime and Drug Subcommittee."  A pretty nice ...

Specter Stripped of Seniority

Arlen Specter, who has continued to embarrass the Democratic Party to which he's just switched, such as announcing his hope that Republican Norm Coleman somehow wins his appeal and is seated instead of Democrat Al Franken, is not keeping his three decades of seniority after all. The Senate last night stripped Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.) of his seniority on committees, a ...

Tom Ridge Maryland Resident, Pennsylvanian?

Taegan Goddard passes on word that Tom Ridge, once Pennsylvania's governor and putatively contemplating running for Arlen Specter's seat representing that state in the Senate, is a resident of Maryland for the purposes of federal tax and lobbying filings. Do these sort of things matter in statewide elections?   Is anyone otherwise disposed to vote for Ridge going to be dissuaded by ...

Specter Disappoints Democrats Now

It appears Arlen Specter is being received by the partisans of his new party about as well as he was by those of his old one. On "Meet the Press" this morning, he denied reports that he told President Obama "i'll be a loyal Democrat." He's demonstrated that, in fact, he's not going to be a loyal Democrat by voting ...

Souter Retiring in June

A couple weeks back, I wrote a post called "Souter Retiring?"  The speculation was apparently well founded, as several outlets are now reporting that Justice David Souter will in fact step down at the end of the current session in June. NPR's Nina Totenberg makes the interesting observation that, "At 69, Souter is nowhere near the oldest member of the court. ...

Rogue Agents Tipped Pelosi To Harman Wiretap

"Intelligence officials, angry that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had blocked an FBI investigation into Democratic Rep. Jane Harman's interactions with a suspected Israeli agent, tipped off Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, that Harman had been picked up on a court-ordered National Security Agency wiretap targeting the agent," CQ's Jeff Stein reports. "In doing so, the officials flouted an ...

Webb Won’t Support Card Check

Ezra Klein passes along word that "James Webb, it seems, will not be supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, and won't even say if he'd support efforts to break a filibuster and let it get to the floor for a vote. That's a significant blow to EFCA, and something of a surprise given Webb's carefully cultivated image as an economic ...

If Firefighters Ran Congress

Ben Mathis-Lilley is not a big fan of "What if Firefighters Ran the World?" an entry in a series of populist ads by a cell phone provider. This basic message works smoothly enough in the steelworker/DMV and roadie/airport bits, which make a simple point about technology improving the speed of procedures that most people find tedious. The target is different in ...