Congress: Republicans warm to Burris
Posted: Friday, January 09, 2009 9:11 AM by Domenico Montanaro
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Congress
Now, even Republicans who frowned heavily on the Burris appointment appear to be leaning towards seating him. "[Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell, maintaining his call for a special election to fill Obama's seat, would not speculate on how he or his Conference would vote on the matter, although several Republicans confirmed that Burris' installment was unlikely to be blocked. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas), for one, said he is in favor based on what he knows ‘today.’ "
In a PBS interview, Nancy Pelosi offered little sympathy for the departing president. “ ‘I think the Bush presidency did great harm to America, with this war, with the enormous budget deficits, the challenges to the Constitution of the United States, the financial crisis that we are in,’ Pelosi said. Pelosi said she was puzzled when, during a recent appearance on ‘The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,’ Bush said his proudest achievement was his attempt to privatize Social Security. ‘It was just curious to me that of all things, that the president would have said something that I think was bad policy, but also that he did not succeed with,’ she said. ‘Frankly, that was the beginning of the end for the Republicans in Congress and led to the election of [President-elect] Barack Obama.’ ”
John Kerry says he's ready to embrace his new job as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, and he denies that any reports of his disappointment with being passed over for the nation's top diplomatic post came from him.
Sunday Fun Day! "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) threat to hold a Sunday vote appeared increasingly likely Thursday as neither Republicans nor Democrats signaled any desire to cut a deal over a package of 160 public lands bills that has languished on the chamber floor for more than a year."
Change Congress, a group founded by Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig, has “declared a political ‘donor strike’ pressuring Congress to pass legislation making congressional elections ‘citizen-funded, not special-interest funded,’” a press release says.
