Mike Viqueira
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Lots of very glum faces among House GOP members this morning as they emerged from their weekly closed-door session. The political situation is not good, and they aren't even trying to deny it.
Rep. Tom Davis stomped on the concrete floor of the Capitol basement when asked by reporters about Republican fortunes at the moment.
"This is the floor," he said, by way of explanation. "We're below the floor."
Inside the meeting, Davis had just presented his colleagues with what he said was a 20-page memo outlining his prescription for a way out of this mess. He did not offer details to the press, yet did not spare the party and the president scathing criticism in his public comments.
"The president swallows the microphone every time he opens his mouth," Davis said.
He believes Bush's staunch opposition to the Democratic housing bill and the SCHIP bill, for example, is hurting rank and file. Look at yesterday's vote on the SPRO, where Republicans defied the president in droves. Lo and behold, the White House says today that it will not veto the bill.
Today is also the day when the House takes up the farm bill, which the president has promised to veto. It’s expected that this will become the second veto of Bush's administration to be overridden -- though the farm bill has more of a parochial dynamic than the national political one.
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From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Obama was a very popular figure on the Democratic side of the US House today.
He strode onto the floor during a vote when the place was packed and was immediately greeted by wave after wave of Democratic well-wishers, both Clinton supporters and Obama supporters alike, as well as undecideds.
Escorted by Rep. Steve Rothman, who served as a kind of body man, Obama first made his way along the back aisle where he shook hands and slapped backs. One member, Tim Ryan, snapped a picture with a cell phone. Pages rushed over and asked for autographs.
After running the initial gauntlet, he ended up in a place called "The Murtha Corner," where for years Rep. John Murtha has held court with cronies during votes. At first, Murtha -- a Clinton man -- appeared not to see Obama as the senator stood not two feet away greeting well-wishers. Obama was compelled to put a hand on his shoulder, at which point Murtha rose and offered a hearty smile. The two men then engaged in an extended conversation.
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From NBC's Mike ViqueiraHouse Democrats today announced that they will vote to send
President Bush and his successor $184 billion to spend on the war, plus a couple of other items that are politically popular but have not been requested by the president and may be veto bait.
The "emergency" package, to be considered on Thursday of this week, gives the president much of the $108 billion that has asked for the remainder of this year, plus $66 billion that would sustain the war effort into the first months of a new administration.
But the House will also be voting on an extension of unemployment benefits, the establishment of a new GI Bill for educating veterans, $500 million more in international food aid, and money for Louisiana levees. These items will be hard for many Republicans to oppose, though the president has not asked for any of it to be included in the war spending package.
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From NBC's Mike ViqueiraWASHINGTON, D.C. -- A small but very fired up group of Floridians rallied in the street outside the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters here today, demanding that their primary votes be counted and threatening to literally block the doors of the Democratic Convention if they aren't.
"We will shut down the convention!" exclaimed Rep. Corrine Brown. "If we are not seated, then nobody is going to be seated!"
Brown, a superdelegate pledged to Clinton, addressed a crowd of about 150 who had been bused up to D.C. from Florida this week under the auspices of LULAC, an Hispanic advocacy group. Though Brown and another super who spoke -- Rep. Hilda Solis -- are in the Clinton camp, organizers went out of their way to remove any hint that they favored one or the other Democrat in the race. Many in the crowd wore T-shirts with the name of each Democratic candidate, from Kucinich to Dodd to Richardson to Obama, printed across the back in the shape of a rainbow. There was but one Hillary '08 shirt or button to be seen.
"We're not supposed to talk about that," confided Harriet Meltzer, 83, a member in good standing of the Del Ray Democratic Club, though she allowed that she was, in fact, a Clinton supporter. "What's he going to do when he goes to the Middle East?" she asked of Obama, who she deems to be lacking in experience. "Charm them?"
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From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Do-nothing Congress? Well, not quite.
On this very day your US House will vote to express its "sense" that "there should be established a National Watermelon Month." Later this afternoon, the people's House will move to consider whether to similarly express themselves over "National Funeral Director and Mortician Recognition Day." And then, in a separate bill, it will weigh in on setting aside a day of recognition for this nation's letter carriers.
So when the president and Republicans say that this Congress isn't doing much this year, they may have ground to stand on. But that isn't necessarily at variance with what usually happens in an election year -- especially a presidential election cycle where, no matter what, there will be a new administration come January.
So far this year, the stimulus package has passed, and that's about it. It has been slow going, no question. Behind the scenes, the Democratic leaders are still wrestling with the question of how to handle the president's latest request for war funding, this time for $108 billion. They are looking at legislation to ease the housing crunch. The farm bill has been on the verge of closure for weeks, if not months. And Democrats are clamoring for a second stimulus package for the economy, this time focused on extending unemployment insurance, infrastructure spending, and other items that they failed to pass in the first version.
But none of this is going to be easy. And on the fundamental job of Congress -- to pass spending bills to keep the government functioning -- it is quite possible, if not likely, that Democrats will simply punt it all into next year, thereby giving the new president, who they obviously hope will be one of their own, a clean slate on which to enact new policies and priorities.
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today that "a lifetime of political gut" tells her that an Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama ticket is not in the offing.
"Take it from me, that won't be the ticket."
She added that while she has no doubt that there will be a "dream team," it will not include both of the two principals currently battling it out. "I just don't think it's going to happen," she said.
She was asked to clarify remarks she made earlier in the week to school children in Boston, where she was quoted as calling the prospect "impossible."
She also expressed a bit of anxiety about the tone of the Democratic campaign.
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
The brief interlude of cross-aisle love and tenderness is coming to an ugly end in Congress.
Republicans are outraged. Democrats are putting forward a resolution holding White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress. House GOP rank-and-file are planning a dramatic walk out when the vote is called.
Democrats are affronted. Right in the middle of the Statuary Hall service for the late Tom Lantos, a Republican went to the floor -- just steps from the solemn proceedings -- and called a procedural vote, apparently out of pique.
The full House will vote on the contempt resolution. It is likely to pass. The resolution directs the speaker to refer the case to the Department of Justice. DoJ would then have to decide for itself whether to pursue the case.
The vote is expected at around 1 p.m.
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From NBC's Mike Viqueira
Something interesting is happening in your US House.
Kucinich wants to impeach the vice president. We knew that. But today, using special procedures of the House, he put forward his resolution of impeachment.
Before Kucinich could get a debate and a vote, Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer stood up and moved to "table" -- i.e., kill -- the resolution. He knew that Republicans would just as soon see the resolution debated and have Democrats put on the spot to vote for or against the Kucinich measure.
At first, a whole bunch of Republicans voted with Hoyer to kill the resolution. Then they came to their senses and are in the process of switching their votes before the gavel comes down.
*** Update *** Now we are being treated to the spectacle of Democrats who had voted to table/kill the measure changing THEIR votes. They don't want to be in a postion of defending Dick Cheney if they don't have to.
*** Update II *** The House has just voted to refer the Kucinich impeachment resolution to committee. That means it's dead.
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
"What does he have to show for his presidency?" Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked today, with her hands outstretched. She said that the president is talking about his library, but all he will have to put in it is "tax cuts for the wealthy" and "a war with no end that is a failure."
"He stoops to a level that is beneath the office" of the president, she concluded.
Pelosi was responding the the red meat dished up by President Bush in a speech today at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
On the war supplemental monies, she said that the president has "wasted billions" and that the request will be the subject of "harsh scrutiny." Democrats are likely to approve a small portion of the $196 billion now and wait until next year to send the rest.
Yet Pelosi said that she, too, doesn't approve of the job that Congress is doing. She was asked why, despite recent efforts by Democrats to tout their accomplishments this year, Congress has such a low approval rating. You might say her answer was counterintuitive.
"I don't approve of Congress, because we haven't been effective in ending the war in Iraq," she said, adding that "if you asked me in a phone call" from a pollster, she would herself be counted in the disapproval column.
From NBC's Mike Viqueira
The halls of the Capitol are rife with reports of former Speaker Denny Hastert leaving Congress before the end of his term. These reports are only kind of true.
I just spoke with Hastert, who calls the reports a "rumor," and that he has a lot of work still to do for Illinois on transportation, health care, energy, etc. Asked directly if he has plans to resign, he said: "Not at this time." Some reports today had him announcing his plans as early as today. That definitely is not going to happen.
A GOP leadership source says that now the plan is for him to wait until the end of this year or early next to announce his departure. One consideration: the Illinois primary is February 5. If he announces too soon, then the special to replace him would be held that same day, with the state's favorite son --
Barack Obama -- at the top of the ticket, which would work against the Republican candidate to replace Hastert down the ballot.
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