Really “lame” lame duck Congress; Pryce wins; P2008 news.
November 27th, 2006
TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE.LAME DUCK CONGRESS MAY QUICKLY ADJOURN; PRYCE WINS; P2008 NEWS.
Roll Call is reporting that a "squabble among Republicans over spending bills makes it increasingly likely that the House will finish its business by the end of next week ... Given that GOP conservatives have prevented their colleagues on the House and Senate Appropriations panels from moving forward with plans to pass the nine remaining spending bills as an omnibus package, Republicans leaders are now expected to punt the issue to next year's Democratic-led Congress rather than take the time to piece together major spending legislation" ... Ohio election officials finally finished the initial counting of ballots in the CD-15 race on Monday. With all votes counted, Congresswoman Deb Pryce (R) defeated Franklin County Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy (D) by 1,055 votes (or 50.2% to 49.8%). However, as the margin was less than 0.5% of the vote, state law requires an automatic recount. Neither side expects the the outcome to change in the recount ... Iowa Republicans selected August 11, 2007, as the date for their non-binding Ames Straw Poll. The vote is a major test of grassroots organization strength. Also, the Boston Globe reported that California, Florida and Michigan -- three giant states -- are attempting to move their Presidential primaries to "as close as possible" to the date of the New Hampshire primary.
Posted by Ron Gunzburger - 11.28.06 | Permalink | postCount('112806a');
FREE SPEECH ZONE.
According to the New York Times, the highly touted Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group just produced a first draft of recommended options that does NOT include any version of a phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. All these newly elected congressional Dems -- and the Dem leadership -- kept saying for weeks they wanted to the see the ISG recommendations before formulating a specific Iraq policy. Now they look likely to be stuck with a "new" plan of options that -- essentially -- consists of "stay the course" variants. US Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) had the guts this week to break with his party and openly call for the start of the phased withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. So, what will it take for the new Democratic leadership to find some backbone and follow suit?
Posted by Ron Gunzburger - 11.28.06 | Permalink | postCount('112806b');
Entry Filed under: Contributions, In the News, politics