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(03/26/10 5:13am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WASHINGTON — Capping an epic struggle, congressional Democrats put the final touches Thursday to historic legislation enshrining health care as the right of every citizen. Republicans vowed to campaign for repeal in the fall election season, drawing a quick retort from President Barack Obama: “I welcome that fight.”The president spoke in Iowa as the Senate voted 56-43 for legislation making changes, including better benefits for seniors and low-income and middle-class families, to the bill he signed into law with a flourish at the White House on Tuesday.The House added its approval a few hours later, 220-207, clearing the way for Obama’s signature on the second of two bills that marked the culmination of what the president called “a year of debate and a century of trying” to ensure coverage for nearly all in a nation where millions lack it. Obama is expected to sign the legislation early next week.Taken together, the two bills also aim to crack down on insurance industry abuses and to reduce federal deficits by an estimated $143 billion over a decade. Most Americans would be required to buy insurance for the first time, and face penalties if they refused.The second of the two bills also presented Obama with another victory, stripping banks and other private lenders of their ability to originate student loans in favor of a system of direct government lending.After a monthslong battle in Congress, the political struggle was morphing into a new phase, where public debate was tinged with violence — and politicians accused one another of seeking to exploit it for their own advantage.Apart from their impact on nearly every American and an estimated one-sixth of the American economy, the week’s events marked Obama’s biggest political triumphs since he took office more than a year ago. A pending arms control agreement with Russia, announced on Wednesday, added to his resume, and White House officials said they hoped the momentum would translate into further political successes in the run-up to the midterm elections.More than 10 lawmakers in the House said they had received threats or worse as a consequence of the health care debate, most of them Democrats who voted in favor of the legislation. There were reports of bricks through windows, a cut propane line to a grill and numerous obscene and threatening phone calls and faxes. An undisclosed number of lawmakers were under increased police protection.Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the GOP leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, both denounced the threats and incidents of violence. But Democrats said Republicans had been too slow to respond, drawing an outraged response in return.“By ratcheting up the rhetoric, some will only inflame these situations to dangerous levels,” said Republican Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia. “Enough is enough. It has to stop.”An aide to Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, head of the Democratic 2010 campaign effort, responded: “This is straight out of the Republicans’ political playbook of deflecting responsibility and distracting attention away from a serious issue.”“Repeal and replace” was the new slogan for Republicans as they pivoted away from earlier attempts to kill the health care legislation. Officials said it was meant to appeal to tea party activists — who staged an occasionally unruly demonstration outside the Capitol over the weekend — as well as to independent voters eager for changes in the health care system but fearful the Democrats went too far.“Republicans fought on behalf of the American people this week and will continue to fight until this bill is repealed and replaced with commonsense ideas that solve our problems without dismantling the health care system we have and without burying the American dream under a mountain of debt,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.Repeal was far-fetched in the extreme since Republicans are now deep in the minority in both houses and would need a two-thirds majority to overcome a certain veto by Obama.But Republicans circulated polls showing public backing for the overhaul at no better than 40 percent, despite months of Democratic efforts to rally support. Attacking the bill as a government takeover of health care paid for in higher taxes and Medicare cuts, they taunted House Democrats who voted for it, saying those lawmakers had cleared the way for their own defeat this fall.Democrats said any unease was the result of months of Republican distractions — as far back as last summer’s debunked charges of “death panels” — and predicted the public would warm to the new law once its first benefits take effect.That was Obama’s pitch in Iowa, where he trumpeted a “set of reforms” that will take effect before the elections.He said small businesses would be eligible for tax credits to help them cover the cost of insurance for employees, including a $250 rebate from the government for seniors with high prescription drug costs.“This year, insurance companies will no longer be able to drop people’s coverage when they get sick, or place lifetime limits or restrictive annual limits on the amount of care they can receive,” he said.“This is the reform that some folks in Washington are still hollering about. And now that it’s passed, they’re already promising to repeal it. ... Well, I say go for it,” he said.Senate passage of the follow-up measure was nearly along party lines. Democratic Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska joined 39 Republicans in opposing the legislation. Republican Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who is hospitalized, did not vote.The House vote followed the same pattern, with 32 Democrats joining 175 Republicans in opposition.Democrats had hoped the Senate’s vote would end their yearlong campaign to overhaul the health care system. But Republicans forced the deletion of two minor student loan-related provisions, and that required a revote in the House.The day’s events marked the final stages of a rescue mission that Obama and Democratic leaders mounted more than two months ago, after Republicans unexpectedly won a Massachusetts Senate seat and with it, the ability to slow final action on health care legislation.Under a revised strategy, the House agreed to approve a Senate-passed bill despite numerous objections, on the condition that both houses would follow quickly with a fix-it measure. The one finally brought to a vote on Thursday added more than $20 billion to subsidies for lower- and middle-income individuals and families who will be required to purchase insurance and about $8 billion over a decade for states that already provide more generous than average Medicaid benefits.The Senate vote took place with Vice President Joe Biden presiding, a symbolic gesture since his vote was not needed.Moments before approving the legislation, the Senate paused for a moment of silence in memory of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who died last year after a career of more than 45 years in which he relentlessly pursued legislation to enact national health care.
(03/22/10 4:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WASHINGTON — Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage.Widely viewed as dead two months ago, the Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote. Republicans were unanimous in opposition, joined by 34 dissident Democrats. Indiana representatives voted along party lines, with all five Democrats in support and all four Republicans against the bill.Obama watched the vote in the White House’s Roosevelt Room with Vice President Joe Biden and about 40 staff aides. When the long sought 216th vote came in — the magic number needed for passage — the room burst into applause and hugs. An exultant president exchanged a high-five with his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.“We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things,” the president said a short while later in televised remarks. “We proved that this government — a government of the people and by the people — still works for the people.A second, smaller measure — making changes in the first — was lined up for passage later in the evening. It would then go to the Senate, where Democratic leaders said they had the votes to pass it.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the legislation awaiting the president’s approval would extend coverage to 32 million Americans who lack it, ban insurers from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions and cut deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade. If realized, the expansion of coverage would include 95 percent of all eligible individuals under age 65.For the first time, most Americans would be required to purchase insurance, and face penalties if they refused. Much of the money in the bill would be devoted to subsidies to help families at incomes of up to $88,000 a year pay their premiums.Far beyond the political ramifications — a concern the president repeatedly insisted he paid no mind — were the sweeping changes the bill held in store for millions of individuals, the insurance companies that would come under tougher control and the health care providers, many of whom would face higher taxes.Crowds of protesters outside the Capitol shouted “just vote no” in a futile attempt to stop the inevitable taking place inside a House packed with lawmakers and ringed with spectators in the galleries above.Across hours of debate, House Democrats predicted the larger of the two bills, costing $940 billion over a decade, would rank with other great social legislation of recent decades.“We will be joining those who established Social Security, Medicare and now, tonight, health care for all Americans,” said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, partner to Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in the grueling campaign to pass the legislation.“This is the civil rights act of the 21st century,” added Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the top-ranking black member of the House.Republicans readily agreed the bill would affect everyone in America, but warned repeatedly of the burden imposed by more than $900 billion in tax increases and Medicare cuts combined.“We have failed to listen to America,” said Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, leader of a party that has vowed to carry the fight into the fall’s midterm elections for control of Congress.The measure would also usher in a significant expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor. Coverage would be required for incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level, $29,327 a year for a family of four. Childless adults would be covered for the first time, starting in 2014.The insurance industry, which spent millions on advertising trying to block the bill, would come under new federal regulation. It would be forbidden from placing lifetime dollar limits on policies, denying coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions and canceling policies when a policyholder becomes ill.Parents would be able to keep children up to age 26 on their family insurance plans, three years longer than is now the case.The final obstacle to passage was cleared a few hours before the vote, when Obama and Democratic leaders reached a compromise with anti-abortion lawmakers whose rebellion had left the outcome in doubt.The president issued an executive order pledging that no federal funds would be used for elective abortion.
(02/14/09 5:43pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, savoring his first major victory in Congress, said Saturday that newly passed $787 billion economic stimulus legislation marks a "major milestone on our road to recovery."Speaking in his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama said, "I will sign this legislation into law shortly, and we'll begin making the immediate investments necessary to put people back to work doing the work America needs done."At the same time, he cautioned, "This historic step won't be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but rather the beginning. The problems that led us into this crisis are deep and widespread, and our response must be equal to the task."The bill passed Congress on Friday on party-line votes, allowing Democratic leaders to deliver on their promise of clearing the legislation by mid-February.Obama "now has a bill to sign that will create millions of good-paying jobs and help families and businesses stay afloat financially," said Sen. Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat who was a leading architect of the measure."It will shore up our schools and roads and bridges, and infuse cash into new sectors like green energy and technology that will sustain our economy for the long term," he added in a statement.Hours earlier, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell offered a different prediction for a bill he said was loaded with wasteful spending."A stimulus bill that was supposed to be timely, targeted and temporary is none of the above," he said in remarks on the Senate floor. "And this means Congress is about to approve a stimulus that's unlikely to have much stimulative effect."Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, in the GOP radio address Saturday, contended Democrats settled "on a random dollar amount in the neighborhood of $1 trillion and then set out to fill the bucket."In a struggle lasting several weeks, lawmakers in the two political parties both emphasized they wanted to pass legislation to revitalize the economy and ease frozen credit markets. But the plan that the administration and its allies eventually came up drew the support of only three Republicans in Congress — moderate Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.Their support was critical, though, in helping the bill squeak through the Senate on a vote of 60-38, precisely the number needed for passage. Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown cast the 60th vote in favor in a nearly deserted Senate, hours after the roll call began. He arrived after a flight aboard a government plane from Ohio, where he was mourning the death of his mother earlier in the week.The House vote was 246-183.The legislation, among the costliest ever considered in Congress, provides billions of dollars to aid victims of the recession through unemployment benefits, food stamps, medical care, job retraining and more. Tens of billions are ticketed for the states to offset cuts they might otherwise have to make in aid to schools and local governments, and there is more than $48 billion for transportation projects such as road and bridge construction, mass transit and high-speed rail.Democrats said the bill's tax cuts would help 95 percent of all Americans, much of the relief in the form of a break of $400 for individuals and $800 for couples. At the insistence of the White House, people who do not earn enough money to owe income taxes are eligible, an attempt to offset the payroll taxes they pay.In a bow to political reality, lawmakers included $70 billion to shelter upper middle-class and wealthier taxpayers from an income tax increase that would otherwise hit them, a provision that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said would do relatively little to create jobs.Also included were funds for two of Obama's initiatives, the expansion of computerized information technology in the health care industry and billions to create so-called green jobs the administration says will begin reducing the country's dependence on foreign oil.Friday's events capped an early period of accomplishment for the Democrats, who won control of the White House and expanded their majorities in Congress in last fall's elections.Since taking office on Jan. 20, the president has signed legislation extending government-financed health care to millions of lower-income children who lack it, a bill that President George W. Bush twice vetoed. He also has placed his signature on a measure making it easier for workers to sue their employers for alleged job discrimination, effectively overturning a ruling by the Supreme Court's conservative majority.
(02/11/09 8:22pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WASHINGTON – Moving with lightning speed, key lawmakers announced agreement Wednesday on a $789 billion economic stimulus measure designed to create millions of jobs in a nation reeling from recession. President Barack Obama could sign the bill within days."The middle ground we've reached creates more jobs than the original Senate bill and costs less than the original House bill," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, one of the participants in an exhausting and frenzied round of bargaining.The bill includes help for victims of the recession in the form of unemployment benefits, food stamps, health coverage and more, as well as billions for states that face the prospect of making deep cuts in their own programs.It also preserves Obama's signature tax cut – a break for millions of lower and middle income taxpayers, including those who don't earn enough to pay income taxes
(11/03/08 10:46pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>WASHINGTON – Barack Obama swept to victory as the nation’s first black president Tuesday night in an electoral college landslide that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself. “Change has come,” he told a jubilant hometown Chicago crowd estimated at nearly a quarter-million people.The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, the Democratic senator from Illinois sealed his historic triumph by defeating Republican Sen. John McCain in a string of wins in hard-fought battleground states — Ohio, Florida, Iowa and more. He captured Virginia, too, the first candidate of his party in 44 years to do so.On a night for Democrats to savor, they not only elected Obama the nation’s 44th president but padded their majorities in the House and Senate, and in January will control both the White House and Congress for the first time since 1994.A survey of voters leaving polling places showed the economy was by far the top Election Day issue. Six in 10 voters said so, and none of the other top issues — energy, Iraq, terrorism and health care — was picked by more than one in 10.Obama’s election capped a meteoric rise — from mere state senator to president-elect in four years.Spontaneous celebrations erupted from Atlanta to New York and Philadelphia as word of Obama’s victory spread. A big crowd filled Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House.In his first speech as victor, to an enormous throng at Grant Park in Chicago, Obama catalogued the challenges ahead. “The greatest of a lifetime,” he said, “two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.”He added, “There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face.”McCain called his former rival to concede defeat — and the end of his own 10-year quest for the White House. “The American people have spoken, and spoken clearly,” McCain told disappointed supporters in Arizona.President Bush added his congratulations from the White House, where his tenure runs out on Jan. 20. “May God bless whoever wins tonight,” he had told dinner guests earlier.Obama, in his speech, invoked the words of Lincoln and seemed to echo John F. Kennedy.“So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder,” he said.He and his running mate, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, will take their oaths of office as president and vice president on Jan. 20, 2009. McCain remains in the Senate.Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, returns to Alaska as governor after a tumultuous debut on the national stage.
(02/11/08 4:40am)
WASHINGTON – Sen. Barack Obama swept the Louisiana primary and caucuses in Nebraska and Washington state Saturday night, slicing into Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s slender delegate lead in their historic race for the Democratic presidential nomination.\nThe Illinois senator also won caucuses in the Virgin Islands, completing his best night of the campaign.\n“Today, voters from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast to the heart of America stood up to say ‘yes we can,’” Obama told a cheering audience of Democrats at a party dinner in Richmond, Va.\nHe jabbed simultaneously at Clinton and Arizona Sen. John McCain, saying the election was a choice between debating the Republican nominee-in-waiting “about who has the most experience in Washington, or debating him about who’s most likely to change Washington. Because that’s a debate we can win.”\nClinton preceded Obama to the podium. She did not refer to the night’s voting, instead turning against McCain. “We have tried it President Bush’s way,” she said, “and now the Republicans have chosen more of the same.”\nShe left quickly after her speech, departing before Obama’s arrival. But his supporters made their presence known, sending up chants of “Obama” from the audience as she made her way offstage.\nObama’s winning margins ranged from substantial to crushing.\nHe won roughly two-thirds of the vote in Washington state and Nebraska, and almost 90 percent in the Virgin Islands.\nNearly complete Louisiana returns showed Obama with 57 percent of the vote, to 36 percent for the former first lady. As in his earlier Southern triumphs in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, Obama, a black man, rode a wave of African-American support to victory in Louisiana. Clinton won the white vote overwhelmingly.\nIn all, the Democrats scrapped for 161 delegates in the night’s contests.\nIn incomplete allocations, Obama won 72, Clinton 40.\nIn overall totals in The Associated Press count, Clinton had 1,095 delegates to 1,070 for Obama, counting so-called superdelegates. They are party leaders not chosen at primaries or caucuses, free to change their minds. A total of 2,025 delegates is required to win the nomination at the national convention in Denver.\nMcCain flunked his first ballot tests since becoming the Republican nominee-in-waiting. He lost Kansas caucuses to Mike Huckabee, gaining less than 24 percent of the vote. Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, got nearly 60 percent of the vote a few hours after saying, “I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them.” He won all 36 delegates at stake.\nHuckabee also won the Louisiana primary, but fell short of 50 percent, the threshold necessary to pocket the 20 delegates that were available. Instead, they will be awarded at a state convention next weekend.\nMcCain won the third Republican race of the night, Washington’s caucuses. None of the state’s delegates will be awarded until next week.\nFor all his brave talk, Huckabee was hopelessly behind in the delegate race. McCain had 719, compared with 234 for Huckabee and 14 for Paul. It takes 1,191 to win the nomination at the national convention.\nThe Democrats’ race was as close as the Republicans’ was not, a contest between Obama, hoping to become the first black president, and Clinton, campaigning to become the first female commander in chief.\nThe two rivals contest primaries on Tuesday in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, all states where Obama and his campaign are hopeful of winning.\nPreliminary results of a survey of voters leaving their polling places in Louisiana showed that nearly half of those casting ballots were black. As a group, African-Americans have overwhelmingly favored Obama in earlier primaries, helping him to wins in several Southern states.\nObama was gaining about 80 percent of the black votes statewide, while Clinton was winning 70 percent support among whites, the exit poll showed.\nOne in seven Democratic voters and about one in 10 Republicans said Hurricane Katrina had caused their families severe hardship from which they have not recovered. There was another indication of the impact the storm had on the state. Early results suggested that northern Louisiana accounted for a larger share of the electorate than in the past, presumably the result of the decline in population in the hurricane-battered New Orleans area.\nMcCain cleared his path to the party nomination earlier in the week with a string of Super Tuesday victories that drove Romney from the race. He spent the rest of the week trying to reassure skeptical conservatives, at the same time party leaders quickly closed ranks behind him
(02/06/08 6:03am)
WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain swept a string of delegate-rich, East Coast primaries Tuesday night, reaching for command of the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama traded victories in an epic struggle from Connecticut to California.\nThe former first lady said, “I look forward to continuing our campaign and our debate about how to leave this country better off for the next generation.”\nMcCain, the early Republican front-runner whose campaign nearly unraveled six months ago, won in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware to gain all 198 delegates at stake there. He also put Illinois and Oklahoma in his column.\nFormer Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won a series of Bible Belt victories, in Alabama and Georgia as well as his own home state. He also triumphed at the Republican West Virginia convention, and told The Associated Press in an interview he would campaign on. \n“The one way you can’t win a race is to quit it, and until somebody beats me, I’m going to answer the bell for every round of this fight,” he said.\nRomney, the former governor of Massachusetts, won a home state victory. He also took Utah, where fellow Mormons supported his candidacy. He, too, breathed defiance. \n“We’re going to go all the way to the convention,” he told supporters in Boston. “We’re going to win this thing.”\nDemocrats played out a historic struggle between Clinton, seeking to become the first female president, and Obama, hoping to become the first black to win the White House.\nClinton won at home in New York as well as in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Arkansas, where she was first lady for more than a decade. She also won the caucuses in American Samoa.\nObama won Connecticut, Georgia, Alabama, Delaware, Utah and his home state of Illinois. He also prevailed in North Dakota, Minnesota and Kansas, three caucus states.\nAfter an early series of low-delegate, single-state contests, Super Tuesday was anything but small – its primaries and caucuses were spread across nearly half the country in the most wide-open presidential campaign in memory.\nThe result was a double-barreled set of races, Obama and Clinton fighting for delegates as well as bragging rights in individual states, the Republicans doing the same.\nPolling place interviews with voters suggested subtle shifts in the political landscape, potentially significant as the races push on through the campaign calendar.\nFor the first time this year, McCain ran first in a few states among self-identified Republicans. Romney was getting the votes of about four in 10 people who described themselves as conservative. McCain was wining about one-third of that group, and Huckabee about one in five.
(01/28/08 3:01am)
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially charged South Carolina primary Saturday night, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates.\n“The choice in this election is not about regions or religions or genders,” Obama said at a boisterous victory rally. “It’s not about rich versus poor, young versus old and it’s not about black versus white. It’s about the past versus the future.”\nThe audience chanted “race doesn’t matter” as it awaited Obama to make his appearance after rolling up 55 percent of the vote in a three-way race.\nBut it did, in a primary that shattered turnout records.\nAbout half the voters were black, according to polling place interviews, and four out of five of them supported Obama. Black women turned out in particularly large numbers. Obama, the first-term Illinois senator, got about a quarter of the white vote while Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina split the rest.\nClinton flew to Nashville as the polls closed, and looked ahead. “Now the eyes of the country turn to Tennessee and the other states voting on Feb. 5,” she said, adding “millions and millions of Americans are going to have their voices heard.”\nEdwards finished a distant third, a sharp setback in the state where he was born and where he scored a primary victory in his first presidential campaign four years ago. Even so, he vowed to remain in the race. His goal, he said, is to “give voice to all those whose voices aren’t being heard.”\nThe victory was Obama’s first since he won the kickoff Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. Clinton, a New York senator and former first lady, scored an upset in the New Hampshire primary a few days later. They split the Nevada caucuses, she winning the turnout race, he gaining a one-delegate margin. In a historic race, she hopes to become the first woman to occupy the White House, and Obama is the strongest black contender in history.\nThe South Carolina primary marked the end of the first phase of the campaign for the Democratic nomination, a series of single-state contests that winnowed the field, conferred co-front-runner status on Clinton and Obama but had relatively few delegates at stake.\nThat all changes in 10 days’ time, when New York, Illinois and California are among the 15 states holding primaries in a virtual nationwide primary. Another seven states and American Samoa will hold Democratic caucuses on the same day.\nObama took a thinly veiled swipe at Clinton in his remarks.\n“We are up against conventional thinking that says your ability to lead as president comes from longevity in Washington or proximity to the White House,” Obama said. “But we know that real leadership is about candor, and judgment, and the ability to rally Americans from all walks of life around a common purpose - a higher purpose.”\nLooking ahead to Feb. 5, he added that “nearly half the nation will have the chance to join us in saying that we are tired of business-as-usual in Washington, we are hungry for change and we are ready to believe again.”\nNearly complete returns showed Obama winning 55 percent of the vote, Clinton gaining 27 percent. Edwards had 18 percent and won only his home county of Oconee.\nObama also gained 25 convention delegates, Clinton won 12 and Edwards eight.\nOverall, Clinton has 249 delegates, followed by Obama with 167 and Edwards with 58.\nObama also gained an endorsement from Caroline Kennedy, who likened the Illinois senator to her late father, President John F. Kennedy.\n“I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them,” she wrote on The New York Times op-ed page. “But for the first time, I believe I have found a man who could be that president - and not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”
(01/08/08 3:51pm)
Her voice quavering, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton struggled Monday to avoid a highly damaging second straight defeat in the Democratic presidential race. \n“You’re the wave, and I’m riding it,” Sen. Barack Obama, the new Democratic front-runner, told several hundred voters who cheered him in 40-degree weather after being turned away from an indoor rally filled to capacity.\nObama has been drawing large, boisterous crowds since he won the Iowa caucuses last week, and a spate of pre-primary polls showed him powering to a lead in New Hampshire as well.\nClinton runs second in the surveys, with former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina third, and the former first lady and her aides seemed to be bracing for another setback.\nAt one stop, she appeared to struggle with her emotions when asked how she copes with the grind of the campaign – but her words still had bite. “Some of us are ready and some of us are not,” she said in remarks aimed at Obama, less than four years removed from the Illinois Legislature.\nObama won his Iowa victory on a promise of bringing change to Washington, trumping Clinton’s stress on experience. She has struggled to find her footing in the days since, at the same time insisting she is in the race to stay.\nSen. Clinton’s aides have urged her to show more passion and emotion – including laughter – to give voters a sense of her warmer side.\nBy coincidence or not, she did so as she set out on a final day in New Hampshire.
(11/15/07 5:00am)
1. Band of Horses -- Cease To Begin \n2. Castanets -- In The Vines \n3. Iron & Wine -- The Shepherd's Dog \n4. Sigur Ros -- Hvarf-Heim \n5. Muscles - Guns Babes Lemonade
(06/13/07 11:29pm)
WASHINGTON – His party divided and his polls sagging, President Bush prodded rebellious Senate Republicans on Tuesday to help resurrect legislation that could provide eventual citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.\n“It’s a highly emotional issue,” said Bush after a session in which several lawmakers bluntly told him their constituents do not trust the government to secure the nation’s borders or weed out illegal workers at job sites.\nTo alleviate the concerns, the president said he was receptive to an emergency spending bill as a way to emphasize his administration’s commitment to accelerated enforcement. One congressional official put the price tag at up to $15 billion.W\n“I don’t think he changed any minds,” conceded Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., a supporter of the legislation. But Martinez added that the president’s appearance had helped nudge “people on the fence” to be more favorably inclined.\nOne Republican widely viewed as a potential convert, Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, said he was not yet persuaded. \n“At the end of the day, I’ve got to be able to sit down and know myself that we are going to secure our border,” he said. “Today, I do not feel that way.”\nBush’s trip to the Capitol marked only the second time since he became president that he attended the weekly closed-door senators lunch, a gesture that underscored the importance he places on passage of comprehensive immigration legislation.\nDespite the president’s commitment, many conservatives in his own party have criticized the measure, calling it an amnesty for millions of lawbreakers. Additionally, job approval ratings in the 30-percent range make it difficult for the president to bend even Republican lawmakers to his will.\nCompounding the challenge is a stream of statements from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., which say it is up to Bush and the Republicans to produce enough votes to revive a measure that was sidetracked on the Senate floor last week. “We’ll move on to immigration when they have their own act together,” he told reporters during the day.\n“Fourteen percent of the Republicans supporting the president’s bill won’t do the trick,” he said, referring to the fact that only seven GOP senators supported a move to free the bill from limbo last week.\nSeveral participants in the Republican meeting described the session as friendly and rancor-free and said Bush had even made a joke at one point when addressing Sen. Jeff Sessions, the Alabama Republican who is one of the bill’s fiercest critics.\nOne senator quoted Bush as telling Sessions, “Don’t worry, I’ll still go to your fundraiser. We disagree about this, but we are friends.”\nSessions was among the senators to question the president, pointing to polls showing widespread opposition to the legislation. Bush responded that other polls show support, according to participants. They spoke on condition of anonymity, citing confidentiality rules covering the closed-door meeting.\nThese officials said numerous senators told Bush the public lacks confidence that the government would carry out the enforcement measures in the bill.
(05/29/07 3:13pm)
WASHINGTON – Flinching in the face of a veto threat, Democratic congressional leaders neared agreement with Bush administration Tuesday on legislation to pay for the Iraq war without a troop withdrawal timeline.\nSeveral officials said the emerging $120 billion compromise would include as much as $8 billion for Democratic domestic priorities – originally resisted by the White House – such as disaster relief for Hurricane Katrina victims and farmers hurt by drought.\nAfter a bruising veto struggle in which Bush vetoed one Democratic-drafted measure and threatened to reject another, congressional leaders in both political parties said they hoped the compromise would be cleared for President Bush’s signature by Friday.\nIn power less than five months, Democrats coupled their war-related concession with a vow to challenge Bush’s policies anew, and quickly.\n“We’re going to continue our battle, and that’s what it is, to represent the American people like they want us to represent them, to change the course of the war in Iraq,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.\nLawmakers in both parties claimed victory in legislation that contained no binding limitation on Bush’s powers as commander in chief.\n“I view this as the beginning of the end of the president’s policy on Iraq in this war,” said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. “It ends the blank check of more troops, more money, more time and more of the same. And it begins the notion that we have to have a new direction to Iraq that has accountability, standards that you can measure progress and not.”\nEmanuel, Reid and other Democrats pointed to a provision setting standards for the Iraqi government to meet in developing a more democratic society. U.S. reconstruction aid would be conditioned on progress toward meeting the goals, but Bush would have authority to order the money to be spent regardless of how the government in Baghdad performed.\nAnd despite the Democratic claims of success, Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters she is unlikely to vote for the war money because it lacks “a goal or a timetable” for troop withdrawal.\nRepublicans said that after weeks of struggle, they had forced Democrats to drop their demand for a troop withdrawal timetable.\nRep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House GOP leader, said, “Democrats have finally conceded defeat in their effort to include mandatory surrender dates in a funding bill for the troops, so forward progress has been made for the first time in this four-month process.”\nBut Republicans agreed to concessions, as well, in terms of billions of dollars in domestic spending that Democrats wrung from them and the administration. Republican leaders had hoped to persuade the White House to make a tougher stand against the Democratic demands, but it appeared that they were undercut by the desire of the GOP rank and file for money for farmers and others.\nFinal details of the measure remained in flux, although Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said at an early evening news conference, “We’re very close to having things tied down.”
(03/09/07 5:00am)
WASHINGTON – In a direct challenge to President Bush, House Democrats unveiled legislation Thursday requiring the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the fall of next year. The White House said Bush would veto it.\nSpeaker Nancy Pelosi said the deadline would be added to legislation providing nearly $100 billion the Bush administration has requested for fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.\nShe told reporters the measure would mark the first time the new Democratic-controlled Congress has established a “date certain” for the end of U.S. combat in the four-year-old war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,100 U.S. troops.\nSenior White House adviser Dan Bartlett, accompanying Bush on a flight to Latin America, told reporters, “It’s safe to say it’s a nonstarter for the president.”\nWithin an hour of Pelosi’s news conference, House Republican Leader John Boehner attacked the measure. He said Democrats were proposing legislation that amounted to “establishing and telegraphing to our enemy a timetable” that would result in failure of the U.S. military mission in Iraq.\n“Gen. (David) Petraeus should be the one making the decisions on what happens on the ground in Iraq, not Nancy Pelosi or John Murtha,” the Ohio Republican added. Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, has been heavily involved in crafting legislation designed to end U.S., participation in the war.\nAccording to an explanation of the measure distributed by Democratic aides, the timetable for withdrawal would be accelerated if the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki did not meet goals for providing for Iraq’s security.\nDemocrats won control of Congress last fall in midterm elections shadowed by public opposition to the war, and have vowed since taking power to challenge Bush’s policies.\nPelosi made her announcement as Senate Democrats reviewed a different approach – a measure that would set a goal of a troop withdrawal by March of 2008. Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada called a closed-door meeting of the rank-and-file to consider the measure.\nIn the House, Pelosi and the leadership have struggled in recent days to come up with an approach on the war that would satisfy liberals reluctant to vote for continued funding without driving away more moderate Democrats unwilling to be seen as tying the hands of military commanders.\nThe decision to impose conditions on the war risks a major confrontation with the Bush administration and its Republican allies in Congress.\nBut without a unified party, the Democratic leadership faced the possibility of a highly embarrassing defeat when the spending legislation reaches a vote, likely later this month. establishing a deadline for troop withdrawals.\nTalking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Bartlett called it “a political compromise in the Democratic caucus of the House aimed at bringing comity to their internal politics, not reflective of the conditions on the ground in Iraq.”\n“It would unnecessarily handcuff our generals on the ground, he said. “Obviously, the administration would vehemently oppose and ultimately veto any legislation that looks like what was described today.”
(11/09/06 4:02am)
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down Wednesday, one day after midterm elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses.\nPresident Bush said he would nominate Robert Gates, a former CIA director, to replace Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.\nAsked whether his announcement signaled a new direction in the war that has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 U.S. troops, Bush said: "Well, there's certainly going to be new leadership at the Pentagon."\nBush lavished praise on Rumsfeld, who has spent six stormy years at his post. The president disclosed he met with Gates Sunday, two days before the elections in which Democrats swept to control of the House and possibly the Senate.\nLast week, as he campaigned to save the Republican majority, Bush declared that Rumsfeld would remain at the Pentagon through the end of his term.\nRumsfeld, 74, was in his second tour of duty as defense chief. He first held the job a generation ago, when he was appointed by President Gerald Ford.\nWhatever confidence Bush retained in Rumsfeld, the Cabinet officer's support in Congress had eroded significantly. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the House speaker-in-waiting, said at her first postelection news conference that Bush should replace the top civilian leadership at the Pentagon.\nSenate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who had intervened in the past to shore up Rumsfeld, issued a statement saying: "Washington must now work together in a bipartisan way -- Republicans and Democrats -- to outline the path to success in Iraq"
(11/08/06 6:52am)
WASHINGTON -- Democrats swept toward control of the House on Tuesday, ending a long turn in the minority. By 11 p.m., Democrats had picked up 19 House seats in Republican hands. They needed 15 to win the majority in the House, and a final result would depend on dozens of races yet uncalled.\nA loud cheer went up in a Washington, D.C., hotel ballroom a few blocks from the Capitol, where Democrats had gathered in hopes of celebrating an end to a dozen years in the minority.\nHouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California -- in line to become the first woman speaker in history if her party wins control -- said early in the evening, as the returns rolled in, "We are on the brink of a great Democratic victory."\nWith the polls still open in the West, Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman conceded nothing about the House. \n"I think we will hold control of the Senate," he added.\nRep. Nancy Johnson lost in her bid for a 13th term in Connecticut; Anne Northup fell in Kentucky after 10 years in the House; and Rep. Charles Taylor was defeated in North Carolina.\nScandal likely cost Republicans a seat in Ohio, where Democrat Zack Space won the race to succeed Bob Ney, who pleaded guilty to corruption this fall in the Jack Abramoff scandal.\n"It's very hard to watch," lamented Dick Armey, who was House majority leader from 1995 to 2003.\nSurveys of voters at their polling places nationwide suggested Democrats were winning the support of independents with almost 60 percent support, and middle-class voters were leaving Republicans behind.\nAbout six in 10 voters said they disapproved of the way Bush is handling his job, that the nation is on the wrong track and that they oppose the war in Iraq. Voters in all groups were more inclined to vote for Democratic candidates than for Republicans.\nOver half of the votes registered disapproval with the way Republican leaders in Congress dealt with former Rep. Mark Foley and his sexually explicit computer messages to teenage pages. They voted overwhelming Democratic in House races, by a margin of 3-to-1.\nThe surveys were taken by The Associated Press and the networks.\nHistory worked against the GOP, too. Since World War II, the party in control of the White House has lost an average 31 House seats and six Senate seats in the second midterm election of a president's tenure in office.\nAll 435 House seats were on the ballot along with 33 Senate races, elections that Democrats sought to make a referendum on the president's handling of the war, the economy and more.\nCongressional Democrats, locked out of power for most of the past dozen years, needed gains of 15 seats in the House and six in the Senate to capture majorities that would let them restrain Bush's conservative agenda through the rest of his term.\nBush was at the White House, awaiting returns that would determine whether he would have to contend with divided government during his final two years in office.\nPelosi was in Washington, waiting to learn whether her party would wrest control of the House from Republicans.\nSeveral veteran senators coasted to new terms, including Republicans Orrin Hatch in Utah and Richard Lugar in Indiana and Democrats Robert C. Byrd in West Virginia and Edward M. Kennedy in Massachusetts.\nDemocrats also gained the majority of governorships.
(11/08/06 5:41am)
WASHINGTON -- Resurgent Democrats grabbed Republican Senate seats in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Rhode Island Tuesday in midterm elections shaped by an unpopular war in Iraq and scandal at home.\nIn a comeback unlike any other, Sen. Joe Lieberman won a new term in Connecticut -- dispatching Democrat Ned Lamont and winning when it counted most against the man who prevailed in a summertime primary. Lieberman, a supporter of Bush's war policy, ran as an independent but will side with the Democrats when he returns to Washington.\nSen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania became the first Republican senator to fall to the Democrats, losing his seat after two consecutive terms to Bob Casey Jr., the state treasurer.\nIn Ohio, Sen. Mike DeWine lost to Rep. Sherrod Brown, a liberal seven-term lawmaker.\nLincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, the most liberal Republican in the Senate and an opponent of the war, fell not long afterward to Sheldon Whitehouse, former state attorney general.\nThat left a fistful of heavily contested races uncalled.\nIn Virginia, Republican Sen. George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb were locked in a seesaw race, neither man able to break ahead of the other.\nIn Tennessee, former Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker held a narrow lead over Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr., campaigning to become the first black senator from the South in more than a century.\nIn Missouri, Sen. Jim Talent held a lead over Democratic challenger Claire McCaskill with almost 25 percent of the precincts counted.\nAmong the GOP losers, Santorum and DeWine all won their seats in the Republican landslide of 1994 -- the year the GOP grabbed control of the House and Senate from the Democrats and launched a Republican revolution.\nVoters in Vermont made Rep. Bernie Sanders, an independent, the winner in a Senate race, succeeding retiring Sen. James Jeffords. Sanders is an avowed Socialist who will side with Democrats when he is sworn into office in January.\nDemocrat Amy Klobuchar, a county prosecutor, won the Minnesota Senate race to replace retiring Sen. Mark Dayton, a fellow Democrat.\nIn Maryland, Democratic Rep. Ben Cardin captured an open Senate seat, defeating Lt. Gov. Michael Steele.\nNext door in Ohio, Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown was defeating Sen. Mike DeWine by a double-digit margin.
(11/03/06 11:47am)
WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush headed west to stump for Republican candidates Thursday after reaffirming his confidence that the GOP will maintain control of both the Senate and House in next week's elections.\n"I don't believe it's over until everybody votes," Bush said Wednesday in an Oval Office interview. "And I believe that people are concerned about the amount of taxes they pay, and I know many people are concerned about whether or not this country is secure against attack."\nThe president was campaigning in Montana and Nevada Thursday before spending the night in Missouri in advance of appearances there Friday.\nSen. John Kerry, meanwhile, Bush's opponent in the 2004 race for the White House, was regrouping a day after apologizing to service members for remarks that many interpreted as an insult to U.S. forces in Iraq -- and which knocked him off the trail, at least temporarily.\nKerry had been campaigning actively for Democratic candidates coast-to-coast but canceled appearances in three states after a furor generated by his remarks Monday evening at a California college.\nThe Massachusetts senator's future role in the run-up to next Tuesday's election was uncertain as Democratic Senate candidates from Montana to New York distanced themselves from his remark.\nRep. Harold Ford, seeking to win a Senate seat for Democrats in Tennessee, was among those calling for Kerry to apologize to the troops Wednesday a few hours before he did so.\nKerry apologized to "any service member, family member or American" offended by remarks deemed by Republicans and some Democrats alike to be insulting to U.S. forces in Iraq. Kerry has characterized the remarks as the result of a botched joke.\nBut six days before the election, he said he wanted to avoid becoming a distraction in the final days of the battle for control of Congress. He added he sincerely regretted that his words were "misinterpreted to imply anything negative about those in uniform."\nIn a brief statement, Kerry attacked Bush for a "failed security policy." Yet his apology, issued after prominent Democrats had urged him to cancel public appearances, was designed to quell a controversy that party leaders feared would stall their drive for big gains on Nov. 7.\nWith polls showing the public opposed to the war in Iraq, Democrats have expressed increasing optimism in recent days that they will gain the 15 seats they need to win control of the House. Democrats must pick up six seats to win the Senate, a taller challenge, and both parties made last-minute efforts to increase the number of competitive races.\nDemocrats cringed at the prospect of Kerry becoming the face of the party for the second consecutive national campaign. "No one wants to have the 2004 election replayed," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., like Kerry, a potential contender for the 2008 nomination.\nCongressional candidates in Iowa and Minnesota swiftly made plain that Kerry was no longer welcome to appear at scheduled rallies, and the senator scrapped an appearance in Philadelphia.\n"It was a real dumb thing to say. He should say sorry," said Democrat Claire McCaskill, running in a tight Senate campaign in Missouri.\n"Senator Kerry's apology to the troops for his insulting comments came late, but it was the right thing to do," said Dana Perino, the deputy White House press secretary.\n"Anybody who is in a position to serve this country ought to understand the consequences of words," Bush said in an interview with conservative talk-radio personality Rush Limbaugh.\nFirst lady Laura Bush, campaigning in Ohio, did not refer directly to the Kerry flap, but said Americans discussing the war in Iraq -- especially politicians -- should be careful what they say.\n"Responsible candidates understand that the men and women of our military are risking their lives for us and that we must conduct our debate here at home in a way that does not jeopardize our troops in harm's way," she said, calling for "conversations conducted with civility and respect."\nKerry stirred controversy when he told a group of California students that individuals who don't study hard and do their homework would likely "get stuck in Iraq." Aides said the senator had mistakenly dropped one word from his prepared remarks, which was originally written to say "you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq." In that context, they said, it was clear Kerry was referring to Bush, not to the troops.\nDemocratic officials said the leaders of the party's campaign committees had relayed word to Kerry for him to avoid becoming a distraction.\nDemocrats have privately told outsiders they have locked up 10 of the 15 GOP-held seats they need and claim to be on track to defeat four Republican incumbents.
(04/07/06 5:22am)
WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans and Democrats closed in on a last-minute compromise Thursday on legislation opening the way to legal status and eventual citizenship for many of the 11 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.\nPresident Bush praised the lawmakers' efforts, noting the details were unfinished, and encouraged them "to work hard and get the bill done." Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he had been assured the president supports the emerging measure.\nAs outlined, it would provide for enhanced border security, regulate the future flow of immigrants into the United States and offer legalized status to the millions of men, women and children in the country unlawfully.\n"We've had a huge breakthrough" overnight, said Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.\nSen. Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, agreed, but cautioned that the agreement had not yet been sealed.\nEven so, the presence of both leaders at a celebratory news conference underlined the expectation that the Senate could pass the most sweeping immigration bill in two decades, and act before leaving on a long vacation at the end of the week.\nThe developments marked a turnaround from Wednesday, when it appeared negotiations had faltered. The key sticking point involved the 11 million illegal immigrants in the country, and the struggle to provide them an opportunity to gain legal status without exposing lawmakers to the political charge that they were advocating amnesty for lawbreakers.\nWhile final details were not available, in general, the compromise would require illegal immigrants who have been in the United States between two years and five years to return to their home country briefly, then re-enter as temporary workers. They could then begin a process of seeking citizenship.\nIllegal immigrants here longer than five years would not be required to return home; those in the country less than two years would be required to leave without assurances of returning, and take their place in line with others seeking entry papers.\nStanding before television cameras after an appearance Thursday in Charlotte, N.C., Bush said he was pleased that Republicans and Democrats were working together.\n"I appreciate their understanding that this needs to be a comprehensive immigration bill," the president said. "I recognize that there are still details that need to be worked out. I would encourage the members to work hard to get the bill done prior to the upcoming break."\nNot everyone was satisfied.\n"I'm not impressed," said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who has criticized earlier versions of the measure as too lenient on lawbreakers. Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Jon Kyl of Arizona joined him in criticizing the measure, as did Georgia Republicans Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson.\nBeyond the illegal immigrants, there were other thorny issues to be clarified. Senate leaders had yet to publicly unveil draft legislation to make sure that only legal workers were hired in the future, for example.\nNor was it clear what type of assurances, if any, Democrats had received from the White House and Republicans about compromise talks with the Republican-controlled House later this year. The House has approved legislation limited to border security, and while GOP leaders have signaled support for a broader measure, Democrats have expressed concern in recent days that they will be pressured to make unacceptable additional concessions to achieve a final compromise.\nThe breakthrough occurred overnight, after Frist had unveiled a revised Republican proposal that he credited to Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Mel Martinez of Florida. Officials said McCain and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who have long been trying to show the way toward bipartisan agreement on the issue, spoke by phone several times to review potential changes.\n"Our plan is tough and fair, and I'm encouraged that the president now supports it," said Kennedy in a statement. "The American people have made their voices heard in their churches, in their schools and in the streets and the Senate has listened."\nThe closed-door negotiations proceeded as the Senate moved toward a test vote on an earlier Democratic version of immigration legislation.\nDemocrats needed 60 votes to prevail, and as expected, they fell far short. The attempt gained only 39 votes, while 60 senators opposed the bill.\nIn an ironic juxtaposition, the vote unfolded at the same time Frist, Reid and more than a dozen other senators were celebrating the breakthrough at the news conference.\n"While it admittedly is not perfect, the choice we have to make is whether it is better than no bill, and the choice is decisive," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
(04/05/06 4:56am)
WASHINGTON -- Succumbing to scandal, former Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Tuesday he will resign from Congress in the face of a tough re-election race, closing out a career that blended unflinching conservatism with a bare-knuckled political style.\n"I have no fear whatsoever about any investigation into me or my personal or professional activities," DeLay said in a statement to constituents. At the same time, he said, "I refuse to allow liberal Democrats an opportunity to steal this seat with a negative, personal campaign."\nHe said the voters of his Houston-area district "deserve a campaign about the vital national issues that they care most about ... and not a campaign focused solely as a referendum on me."\nDeLay relinquished the post as House majority leader last fall after his indictment in Texas as part of an investigation into the allegedly illegal use of funds for state legislative races. He decided in January against trying to get the leadership post back as an election-year corruption scandal staggered Republicans and emboldened minority Democrats.\nLast week, former DeLay aide Tony Rudy pleaded guilty to conspiring with lobbyist Jack Abramoff and others to corrupt public officials, and he promised to help the broad federal investigation of bribery and lobbying fraud that already has resulted in three convictions.\nNeither Rudy, Abramoff nor anyone else connected with the investigation has publicly accused DeLay of breaking the law, but Rudy confessed that he had taken actions while working in the majority leader's office that were illegal. DeLay has consistently denied any wrongdoing.\nSen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a major player in congressional investigations of Abramoff and the lobbyist's involvement with Indian tribes, said Tuesday that he respects DeLay's decision to step down, and added, "I think there are other aspects of the Abramoff scandal that will be unfolding in the weeks ahead."\nMcCain spoke to reporters following a speech to a Hispanic conference.\nPresident Bush said Tuesday that DeLay had informed him of his decision Monday afternoon.
(03/10/06 2:25am)
WASHINGTON -- Bowing to ferocious opposition in Congress, a Dubai-owned company signaled surrender Thursday in its quest to take over operations at U.S. ports.\n"DP World will transfer fully the U.S. operations ... to a United States entity," the firm's top executive, H. Edward Bilkey, said in an announcement that capped weeks of controversy.\nRelieved Republicans in Congress said the firm had pledged full divestiture, a decision that one senator said had been approved personally by the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.\nThe announcement appeared to indicate an end to a politically tinged controversy that brought President Bush and Republicans in Congress to the brink of an election-year veto battle on a terrorism-related issue. The White House expressed satisfaction with the outcome.\n"It does provide a way forward and resolve the matter," said White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.\n"We have a strong relationship with the UAE and a good partnership in the global war on terrorism and I think their decision reflects the importance of our broader relationship," he said.\nA leading congressional critic of the ports deal, Rep. Peter King R-N.Y., applauded the decision but said he and others would wait to see the details. \n"It would have to be an American company with no links to DP World, and that would be a tremendous victory and very gratifying," he said.\n"This should make the issue go away," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The Tennessee Republican was one of several GOP leaders to tell President Bush earlier in the day that Congress was ready to ignore his veto threat and scuttle the deal.\nSeveral Republican officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Frist and Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, had been privately urging the firm to give up its plans.\nAfter weeks of controversy -- and White House veto threats that spokesman Scott McClellan renewed at midmorning Thursday -- the end came unexpectedly.\nThe House Appropriations Committee voted 62-2 on Wednesday to block the deal, and GOP congressional leaders privately informed the president Thursday morning that the Senate would inevitably follow suit. Senate Democrats clamored for a vote, increasing pressure on Senate Republicans to abandon the president.\nIt was unclear how DP would manage the planned divestiture, and Bilkey's statement said its announcement was "based on an understanding that DP World will not suffer economic loss."\nThe firm finalized its $6.8 billion purchase Thursday of Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co., the British firm that through a U.S. subsidiary runs important port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia. It also plays a lesser role in dockside activities at 16 other American ports.\nDespite the furor, the company's U.S. operations were never the most prized part of the global transaction. DP World valued its rival's American operations at less than 10 percent of the nearly $7 billion total purchase.\nBut that portion of the deal set off a political chain of events unlike any other in Bush's five years in office. Republicans denounced the deal, saying they were worried about the effects it would have on efforts to make ports safer from terrorist threats. Democrats did likewise, and capitalized on the issue as well as a way to narrow the polling gap with the GOP on issues of national security.\nBush defended the deal, calling the United Arab Emirates a strong ally in the war on terror and pledging to cast a veto if Congress voted to interfere.