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nytimes.com
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House and Senate Democrats are planning a symbolic vote on Bush’s escalation of the Iraq war, partially to force Republicans to take a stand on the issue. While they haven’t ruled out more aggressive—and meaningful—measures, the Dems agreed that demonstrating their opposition was the least they could do.
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House Democrats are on a legislative roll, but the security bill they just passed by a wide margin is expected to meet with tougher opposition in the Senate. The legislation would implement recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission, including beefing up port security.
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whitehouse.gov
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President Bush has finally been forced to capitulate when it comes to the judiciary, after igniting a firestorm by announcing he would stand by the nominations of three conservative judges that had been blocked by Democrats. Bush conceded on Tuesday, announcing that all three nominees had withdrawn from the process.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., whose sudden illness last month briefly threatened the Democrats’ control of the Senate, has been given a medical status upgrade from critical to fair. We wish him well.
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AP / Reed Saxon
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By Joshua Scheer — In a Truthdig interview, the author of “Born on the Fourth of July” argues that Americans this week have a patriotic and generation-defining duty to speak out against Bush’s proposal to escalate the war in Iraq with more U.S. troops.
“If you love this country, you’re going to step over that line that you’ve not stepped over before. You’re going to find the courage to do that.”
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Before Democrats and Republicans can come together to solve our nation’s problems, they’d have to agree on common goals. Don’t hold your breath for that….
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Nancy Pelosi, appearing on “Face the Nation,” said the Congress will not fund a troop escalation without justification. Pelosi maintained that the Dems have no intention of cutting off funds for the war in general, although she insisted a “new direction” is necessary.
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npr.org
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Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid sent a joint letter to the president on Friday, warning him that they would fully resist any effort to send more troops to Iraq: “Adding more combat troops will only endanger more Americans and stretch our military to the breaking point for no strategic gain.”
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nytimes.com
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Within hours of taking power in the House, Democrats successfully pushed through ethics legislation by a telling margin: 430 to 1. Either it’s politically untenable to vote in favor of corruption (except for Dan Burton of Indiana) or the bill was watered down enough, as critics alleged, that it wasn’t worth opposing.
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The same George W. Bush who presided over record deficits and never vetoed a spending bill made an effort on Wednesday to co-opt the Democrats’ goal of balancing the budget by 2012. Exactly how he’ll reconcile that aim with making his tax cuts permanent remains a mystery, although Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., has an idea: “Talk is cheap.”
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nytimes.com
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Democrats are set to blitz Congress with a legislative agenda that tackles stem cell research, the minimum wage, ethics, 9/11 commission recommendations, oil subsidies, education and prescription drugs—all before President Bush arrives at the capital for the State of the Union address Jan. 23.
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By Andy Borowitz — In a survey designed to determine who is naughty and who is nice, the naughty outnumbered the nice by a whopping 3-to-1 margin, the University of Minnesota revealed today.
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According to one of his doctors, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., is “recovering as expected from brain surgery and his brain pressures continue to be in the normal range,” though he remains in critical condition. Johnson’s sudden illness last week raised the possibility of a Republican takeover of the Senate.
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The Pentagon has asked the White House for an additional $99.7 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for a total increase of $50 billion over last year’s record spending. According to the Congressional Research Service, military spending on Iraq, Afghanistan and other operations has exceeded $500 billion so far.
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AP Photo / Ron Edmonds
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By Robert Scheer — Here we go again: A new secretary of defense and yet another call for ending the war in Iraq by escalating it. What are they smoking in the Bush White House?
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cnn.com
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GOP senators may take a page from the Democrats’ playbook and filibuster the normally routine procedural vote that determines committee chairmanships. The tactic is meant to protect against the possibility, as it did for the Dems after the 2000 election, that Republicans might regain a majority in the Senate.
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house.gov
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Incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced that the Democrats plan to form a new House intelligence committee based on recommendations of the 9/11 commission. The panel would combine elements of the current intelligence and appropriations committees with the aim of achieving better oversight.
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state.sd.us
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Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) appears to have suffered a stroke and remains under evaluation at George Washington University Hospital. Should Johnson have to resign because of illness, the governor of South Dakota, a Republican, could appoint a replacement from his own party, taking away the Democrats’ majority in the Senate and giving Vice President Dick Cheney the tie-breaking vote.
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Wikipedia
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Democrats picked up another House seat on Tuesday when a victim of Texas redistricting ousted the incumbent in a Supreme Court-ordered runoff election. The upset victory brought the Dems’ total gain of House seats to 30.
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Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said in a statement Monday that he will run for president in the 2008 election, prompted in part by his own party’s decision to continue funding for the Iraq war. Kucinich discussed the funding issue at length in an interview with Truthdig.
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Image: AP; composite: Karen Spector / Truthdig
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By Joshua Scheer — Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) criticizes the leadership of his own party for announcing Tuesday that it would support a massive increase in spending for the Iraq war.
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svt.se
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The power shift in Washington has sent lobbying firms scrambling to snap up Democrats, and left some interest groups—the pharmaceutical industry, for instance—wondering who their friends are. On the other hand, Melinda Pierce, who lobbies for the Sierra Club, couldn’t be happier.
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Mike Luckovich
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By Molly Ivins — In keeping with the season, we can start by expressing our appreciation to the right-wingers for the chuckles they’ve given us since Election Day.
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By Ellen Goodman — Post-election polls show that while men were angry at Bush, women cast their votes seeking real improvement. But will the Democrats be able to deliver on women’s expectations?
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Left: senate.gov / Right: law.harvard.edu
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Democrats in Congress are split over proposed anti-corruption legislation that would limit lobbyists’ access to lawmakers. Critics say the law doesn’t go far enough to address “earmarks” and campaign finance problems, and argue that an independent watchdog should be formed to enforce the rules.
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Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer breaks down the race for speaker, Lieberman’s threats, the reason the education system is broken and O.J.‘s revolting hypothetical.
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wndu.com
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On Sunday’s “Meet the Press,” Joe Lieberman acknowledged that he might switch parties if the going gets tough with the Democrats. While characterizing the election as a win for moderates, Lieberman also thanked the 70 percent of Republicans who voted for him for their support.
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The “Daily Show” canvasses Bush’s reckoning of the common ground he shares with Democrats like Dick Durbin: Essentially, they both speak English. Watch it
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By Molly Ivins — Having watched election coverage nonstop all week, I sometimes wake up screaming, “Bipartisanship!” and scare myself.
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By Marie Cocco — The media have largely ignored the role women played in swinging the election, as well as the unprecedented power they’ll now wield in Congress.
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Left: Think Progress / Right two: Media Matters
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With the battle to frame the meaning of the election ongoing, the media have started to weigh in with a vote for the center. Time, which referred to the ‘94 Republican takeover of Congress as a “GOP Stampede,” calls the center the “new place to be,” while Newsweek’s cover bizarrely claims the election validates the “centrist” politics of George H.W. Bush. (h/t: Think Progress)
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wkrn.com
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Nancy Pelosi has thrown her support to ally John Murtha in the race for House majority leader with a letter sent to House Democrats, citing his campaign against the Iraq war as a major factor in the Democrats’ recent midterm victory. (h/t: Crooks and Liars)
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whitehouse.gov
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The Iraq Study Group, set to meet with the president on Monday, may offer more in the way of political cover than genuine solutions to the problems facing Iraq. According to Iraq experts familiar with the panel’s work, many of its recommendations either have already been attempted or are unlikely to succeed.
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softvote.com
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According to the latest Newsweek poll, President Bush’s approval rating has sunk so low he’s in Dick Cheney territory at 31 percent, a record for the president. The same data confirms the suggestion that Bush’s unpopularity did more to win Congress for the Democrats than did their own candidates.
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usatoday.com
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A spokesman for Joe Lieberman says the senator intends to serve in the next Congress as a full-blown Democrat, not an independent who merely caucuses with Democrats.
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mnpublius.com
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Now that they’re in the majority, Democratic leaders have promised to step up oversight of the war in Iraq and demand a timetable for troop withdrawal.
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The political satirist reports on an ingenious plan by the leadership of both parties to rest up for negative campaigning in 2008.
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AP Photo
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Nancy Pelosi, set to become the first woman, Californian and Italian-American speaker of the House, defied the odds to drive her party to victory. According to a San Francisco Chronicle profile, Pelosi’s determination and cold calculation had as much to do with the Democrats’ success as President Bush’s unpopularity.
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New York Times
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George Allen, the man who some say could’ve been president, has finally conceded to challenger Jim Webb, at long last putting an end to speculation and granting the Democrats total control of both houses of Congress.
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epic-usa.org
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Americans weren’t the only ones watching election returns late into the night. Iraqi politicians, dependent on America for money, power and protection, held a meeting to debate the impact of a Democratic Congress.
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Bush still doesn’t seem to realize that millions of Americans voted to signal their displeasure with the GOP for abandoning the poor and middle class.
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By Ellen Goodman — This year, voters valued their ability to shoot down draconian abortion laws, to raise the minimum wage and to send an unequivocal message to the warmongers in the White House.
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The sheer pleasure of getting lessons in etiquette from Karl Rove and the right-wing media passeth all understanding.
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AP / J. Scott Applewhite
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Democrats won control of the House last night, but the Senate is hanging on the outcome of two races:
Virginia, where the Democrat Webb leads the GOP incumbent Allen 1,170,564 to 1,162,717 (50% to 49%), with 99% of precincts reporting.
Montana, where the Democrat Tester leads the GOP incumbent Burns 174,045 to 172,302 (49% to 48%), with 91% of precincts reporting.
(All numbers current as of 7:20 a.m. EST Nov. 8.)
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According to the latest USA Today/Gallup Poll, the Democrats’ advantage among likely voters has shriveled from last month’s high of 23 points to 7. Still, the numbers bear a close similarity to results heading into the 1994 election that gave Republicans control of Congress. (h/t: Slate)
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According to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, Iraq is the most important election issue to voters, 29% of whom approve of Bush’s handling of the war, while 81% believe the Democrats would reduce or end the occupation of Iraq, and 52% of registered voters intend to vote for a Democrat.
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