“Sen. Conrad Burns gazed at a debate audience and asked if anyone could guess who was blocking efforts in Washington to control health-care costs. ‘Abramoff?’ shouted a heckler.” Taking a look at the Montana Senate Race, the Post argues that the Casino Jack scandals still aren’t making much of a dent in the midterm elections. Nevertheless, the case continues to play out in official Washington: After agreeing to plead guilty last Friday to corruption charges stemming from the Abramoff investigation, the GOP’s Bob Ney — recently the recipient of a Republican standing O for his flouting of the law — is forced to give up his House chairmanships. Ney hasn’t given up his seat yet, but either way, he’s out in November.
Category: Congress
Arlen’s Tap Dance.
“Despite the Administration’s stonewalling, the Judiciary Committee, which knows even less about the program than the Intelligence Committee, today approved legislation that would not only legalize a program that the Committee does not understand but would also completely gut the FISA law…Expanding executive power at the request of a president who has shown such deep disrespect for the rule of law is exactly the wrong thing to do.” Checks and balances? Bah, humbug. At Dubya’s mandate — and despite Democratic attempts to limit the damage — Spineless Specter and the GOP members of the Senate Judiciary Committee approve legislation legalizing the NSA’s warrantless wiretap program. As the ACLU summed it up: “Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee acted as a rubber stamp for the administration’s abuse of power.” For shame.
Chafee Safe?
In somewhat unhappy news for prospects of a Senate takeover in November, GOP moderate Lincoln Chafee withstands a primary challenge from his right, in the form of Cranston mayor Steve Laffey, 54-46%. Still, Democrat (and son of Chafee’s father’s roommate at Yale) Sheldon Whitehouse is effectively tied with Chafee in recent polls, so the damage from a bruising primary race may still pay dividends for the Dems.
Al Liars.
“‘Saddam only expressed negative sentiments about bin Laden,’ the former Iraqi foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, told the Federal Bureau of Investigation when he was asked about Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda’s leader…’He specified that if he wanted to cooperate with the enemies of the U.S., he would have allied with North Korea or China,’ says a passage in the nearly 400-page report.” A new Senate intelligence report confirms what has become patently obvious: There was no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda before the war. “Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., a member of the committee, said the long-awaited report was ‘a devastating indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration’s unrelenting, misleading and deceptive attempts’ to link Saddam to al-Qaida.”
The Party of Lincoln?
“It is no secret that I have serious questions about this Administration’s policies in the Middle East.” Desperate to shore up his maverick cred before the GOP primary next week, Sen. Lincoln Chafee puts a hold on the GOP’s planned Bolton coronation. (Of course, the UN would never have had to put up with Bolton in the first place were it not for Chafee’s capitulation last year.)
RIP GOP?
“‘The environment for the majority party is extremely bad,’ says political scientist David Rohde of Duke University. ‘There’s certainly plenty of time for things to be shaken up … (but) it would take something really huge” to turn around GOP fortunes.'” Don’t count your chickens, but, with nine weeks to go before Election 2006, the Republicans are still floundering, as more and more GOP seats enter into play and a House takeover by the Dems looks increasingly likely. Thanks, Dubya!
Catch the Wave.
“So is now the time to conclude that a Democratic wave is building that will sweep Republicans out of a House majority in November? The answer, according to Charlie Cook and Stu Rothenberg, is a guarded yes.” The WP‘s Chris Cillizza surveys the trends in several recent polls and finds that the likelihood of strong gains for Democrats this November is building to crescendo.
Monkey Business.
“‘Let’s give a welcome to Macaca, here,’ Allen said. ‘Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.‘” In a weird on-camera display of political self-immolation, Republican Senator George Allen, the fellow who once proudly sported a lynching noose in his law office, strangely resurrects a racial slur from his mother’s days in Tunisia to berate S.R. Sidarth, an Indian-American campaign worker for Democrat Jim Webb. “‘I think he was doing it because he could, and I was the only person of color there, and it was useful for him in inciting his audience, Mr. Sidarth told The Post.” Class act, Senator. Update: Has Macacagate put Allen’s seat in play?
Joe Must Go.
“It surprised me…It seemed almost orchestrated. It’s sort of demeaning to the people of Connecticut…I thought the senator and the vice president were both wrong to use that attack (strategy) on the voters of Connecticut.” In the first full week of the post-primary race in Connecticut (Joe’s up five at the moment), Ned Lamont calls out Lieberman for his recent Cheneyisms. And, in related news, Russ Feingold asks Lieberman to get out of the race on ABC’s This Week: “Joe is showing with that regrettable statement that he doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get it…Senator Lieberman has supported the Bush Administration’s disastrous strategic approach of getting us stuck in Iraq instead of focusing on those who attacked us.”
Nor’easter on the move.
“People around here are anxious and concerned not just about the national state of affairs, but also their personal state of affairs. As a Republican candidate, the challenge is to show you have even a clue about what their lives are like.” After surveying the terrain in Lamont country (which is larger than it looks), the WP finds GOP incumbents in serious trouble in the Northeast, namely New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.