News

Questions surround Massa's resignation
CNN.com - Politics | 3/10/2010
Embattled former Rep. Eric Massa sought Tuesday night to turn attention away from sexual harassment allegations swirling around him in the wake of his resignation.
House Democrats seek to limit earmarks to show commitment to ethics
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/10/2010
Seeking to reclaim the reform mantle amid a series of scandals, House Democratic leaders are advocating a move that would shake up the multibillion-dollar practice of awarding no-bid contracts known as congressional earmarks.
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washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/10/2010
Massa investigated for allegedly groping staffers
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/10/2010
Not long after Eric Massa joined Congress in January 2009, several male staff members began to feel uncomfortable with the sexually loaded language their boss routinely used, according to accounts relayed to the House ethics committee.
On health-care reform, Republicans target Democrats' division over reconciliation
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/10/2010
As Republicans work to prevent a health-care bill from reaching President Obama, they are scrambling to exploit divisions between Democrats in the House and the Senate.
Obama's plans for NASA changes met with harsh criticism
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/10/2010
Harrison Schmitt's credentials as a space policy analyst include several days of walking on the moon. The Apollo 17 astronaut, who is also a former U.S. senator, is aghast at what President Obama is doing to the space program.
Lawmakers insist shower run-ins like the one Massa alleges are far from norm
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/10/2010
It's no secret that members of Congress broker deals on the treadmill or in the weight room of the House and Senate gyms. But former congressman Eric Massa's accusation that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel once berated him in the gym's shower over his vote against President Obama's budget left Washington watchers wondering how much business politicians conduct while naked.
House Ways and Means Chairman Levin says job creation will be top priority
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/10/2010
As he takes the reins of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Sander M. Levin is vowing to raise the profile of a once-powerful panel that, in recent years, has been overshadowed by the ethics troubles of its previous chairman, Rep. Charles B. Rangel.
Emanuel in the political cross hairs
CNN.com - Politics | 3/9/2010
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is accustomed to working in the shadows, but he now finds himself in newspaper stories.
Activists picket at health insurance conference
CNN.com - Politics | 3/9/2010
Progressive activists ratcheted up the pressure for health care reform Tuesday, picketing in front of a hotel where a group of insurance industry leaders were meeting.
Financial reform key as Obama meets with Greek leader
CNN.com - Politics | 3/9/2010
Global financial reform is expected to top the agenda Tuesday as President Obama huddles with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, whose country is at the center of Europe's debt crisis.
Republicans work to split Democrats, block health-care bill
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/9/2010
As Republicans work to prevent a health-care bill from reaching President Obama, they are scrambling to exploit divisions between Democrats in the House and Senate.
Unemployment benefit bill moves forward in Senate
CNN.com - Politics | 3/9/2010
A nearly $140 billion bill to extend unemployment benefits and a host of expiring tax cuts cleared a procedural hurdle Tuesday in the Senate on a vote of 66-34, setting up passage of the bill possibly later in the day.
Same-sex couples marry in D.C.
CNN.com - Politics | 3/9/2010
Dozens of same-sex couples plan to marry in the District of Columbia on Tuesday, the first day that such unions will be legal in the nation's capital.
GOP health care 'no' backfire?
CNN.com - Politics | 3/9/2010
Julian Zelizer says the GOP, by digging in its heels and opposing the health care bill, is taking a risk that could be costlier than the party thinks.
Court to hear protests at soldiers' funerals case
CNN.com - Politics | 3/9/2010
A small Kansas church that has gained nationwide attention for protesting loudly at funerals of U.S. service members will receive a Supreme Court hearing over free speech rights.
Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary?
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/9/2010
Millions of Americans have been forced to rely on unemployment payments for extended periods as the nation struggles through its longest period of high joblessness in a generation, and critics are taking aim, saying that the Depression-era program created as a temporary bridge for laid-off workers is turning into an expensive entitlement.
Greece seeks U.S. help regulating speculators
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/9/2010
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will seek President Obama's support at the White House on Tuesday for a European campaign to crack down on global financial speculation that critics say has exacerbated Europe's worst debt crisis in decades.
House liberals force vote on pullout from Afghanistan
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/9/2010
Liberals in the House, who have spent much of the past year complaining that other congressional Democrats and the White House are insufficiently progressive, will get a chance this week to vent about one of their biggest concerns: the war in Afghanistan.
Obama launches attack on health insurance companies
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/9/2010
The White House is mounting a stinging, sustained broadside against health insurance rate increases as President Obama and his aides enter what they hope will be the final stretch of a year-long political war over health-care reform.
Former congressman Massa says Democrats set him up over health care
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/9/2010
Conservative activists rallied Monday to the side of a liberal New York Democrat who had resigned from the House, after he charged that his party's leaders had conspired to oust him over his opposition to President Obama's health-care legislation.
Obama nominates Robert A. Harding to lead TSA
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/9/2010
President Obama nominated retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert A. Harding on Monday to lead the Transportation Security Administration, selecting someone unknown to the aviation industry and federal unions to lead one of the government's most visible agencies.
Analysis finds uneasy mix in auto industry and regulation
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/9/2010
Dozens of former federal officials are playing leading roles in helping carmakers handle federal investigations of auto defects, including those for Toyota's runaway-acceleration problems.
Obama scorches private insurers
CNN.com - Politics | 3/8/2010
President Obama tore into private health insurers for recent rate hikes Monday, taking a more aggressive rhetorical turn as he pushes for final congressional passage of his top domestic priority.
Obama nominates ex-Army general to head TSA
CNN.com - Politics | 3/8/2010
President Obama tapped a former Army general Monday to lead the Transportation Security Administration.
Iowa governor faces tough reelection as another state sours on incumbents
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/8/2010
MASON CITY, IOWA -- Republican Terry Branstad's lines have a familiar ring as he campaigns to return to the governor's office after 11 years away. He blasts the incumbent Democrat for "mismanagement," promising an "economic comeback" and the end of "more government than we can afford."
Bo Xilai's charm offensive is paying off politically in China
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/8/2010
BEIJING -- Of the nearly 3,000 members of China's ruling elite in the country's capital this weekend to kick off the biggest political gathering of the year, only one has the state media and online commentators abuzz: Bo Xilai.
Key vacancies give Obama a chance to steer financial reform
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/8/2010
President Obama has the chance during his first term to appoint leaders for each of the federal agencies that oversee banks, an important opportunity to reshape the government's approach to regulation even as the White House struggles to push structural reforms through the Senate.
Ethics clouds over Rangel and Paterson are the talk of political Harlem
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/8/2010
NEW YORK -- Few will deny that the political landscape here in Harlem has yielded rich and galvanizing story lines. The arcs of those narratives have been taught and shared in classrooms across America.
Filing deadlines loom for House incumbents
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/8/2010
Sometimes doing what you say in politics comes as a surprise.
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washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/8/2010
Democratic activists channel anger into Arkansas Senate race
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/7/2010
Democratic activists flooding money into a primary challenge against Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) say the race isn't simply about defeating the incumbent. It is also about rebuking a Democratic-controlled Congress that they say isn't pursuing an aggressive, populist agenda.
Thin wall separates lobbyist contributions and earmarks
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/7/2010
House Appropriations defense subcommittee member James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) works hard at fundraising: Two to three times a week, he telephones contributors to ask for more. Yet, according to the account he supplied to the Office of Congressional Ethics last year, he is unaware of "who made donations" or how much they gave, and so that information plays no role in his earmarking -- the systematic granting of public funds for mostly private purposes.
Brown's election may ending up being a positive for health-care reform
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/7/2010
Remember how Republican Scott P. Brown's victory in January's Senate race in Massachusetts was supposed to represent a mortal blow to health-care reform?
Washington lawyer Bob Barnett is the force behind many political book deals
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/7/2010
In "I, Alex Cross," the new bestseller set in Washington by James Patterson, fictional detective Alex Cross scans the ego wall in the office of a senator he's investigating:
As Iraq votes, U.S. content to keep its distance
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/7/2010
As Obama administration officials tried in recent weeks to anticipate what could go wrong in Sunday's elections in Iraq, they realized with some relief that they are largely powerless to control what happens.
Sunday Take: For fed-up voters, a buffet of gaffes
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/7/2010
Mark down this past week as a case study in why so many people are so angry with politicians and the practice of politics.
Obama must decide degree to which U.S. swears off nuclear weapons
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/6/2010
President Obama's top national security advisers will within days present him with an agonizing choice on how to guide U.S. nuclear weapons policy for the rest of his term.
RNC's finance director behind controversial fundraising pitch
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/6/2010
In the three days since the leak of a confidential and crude Republican fundraising pitch, the party's leaders have scrambled to distance themselves from the 72-page PowerPoint depiction of President Obama as a socialist Joker -- and from the man behind it. Michael S. Steele, the Republican National Committee chairman, declared the pitch inappropriate and said it was the work of a "staffer."
Iraqi elections should give a hint of democracy's chances
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/6/2010
BAGHDAD -- When Iraqis go to the polls Sunday, they will do more than elect a new government to run a country still reeling seven years after the United States invaded it.
House committees seek more answers from Toyota
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/6/2010
Separate House committees are demanding more information from Toyota and government regulators after executives from the embattled Japanese automaker appear to have given conflicting answers about the causes of runaway vehicle acceleration plaguing the company.
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washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/6/2010
Massa resigns; Democrats' ethical lapses could threaten hold on power
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/6/2010
Congressional Democrats reclaimed control of Congress in 2006 by pledging to "drain the swamp" after Republican ethics scandals rocked Capitol Hill. Now, a series of controversies involving Democratic members has robbed the party of its claim to hold the higher moral ground -- and could threaten its hold on power in this fall's elections.
Experts: Pentagon shooter, others strike symbols of 'power for the powerless'
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/6/2010
The setting was seemingly random: an outer gate at the Pentagon at evening rush hour. But John Patrick Bedell's violent rampage Thursday made him only the latest in the growing ranks of the disaffected and disturbed to take aim at a symbol of official Washington.
In e-mails, lobbyists perceive ties between campaign cash, earmarks
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/6/2010
Lobbyists and corporate officials talked bluntly in e-mail exchanges about connections between making generous campaign donations and securing federal funds through members of an important House Appropriations subcommittee, according to not-yet-public documents reviewed by ethics investigators.
Michigan's Sander Levin replaces Rangel as House Ways and Means chairman
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/5/2010
House Democrats elevated Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.), a pro-union, anti-free-trade liberal who is a close ally of the auto industry, to chairman of the Ways and Means Committee on Thursday.
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washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/5/2010
Michigan's Sander Levin replaces Rangel as House Ways and Means chairman
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/5/2010
House Democrats elevated Sander M. Levin (D-Mich.), a pro-union, anti-free-trade liberal who is a close ally of the auto industry, to chairman of the Ways and Means Committee on Thursday.
Over Turkish protests, House panel calls killing of Armenians 'genocide'
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/5/2010
A congressional committee voted Thursday to label as "genocide" the Ottoman-era slaughter of Armenians, shrugging off a last-minute warning from Obama administration officials that it would alienate Turkey, a key U.S. ally.
Obama intensifies health-care efforts
washingtonpost.com - Politics RSS | 3/5/2010
An aide to President Obama urged lawmakers on Thursday to make substantial progress on his health-care plan before he leaves on a foreign trip in mid-March, as Obama summoned wavering House Democrats to the White House for a private sales pitch.
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