By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
Congress on Wednesday signaled it won't close the prison at Guantanamo Bay or allow any of its suspected terrorist detainees to be transferred to the U.S., dealing what is likely the final blow to President Obama's campaign pledge to shutter the facility in Cuba.
Elections have been pretty mundane in Wisconsin's 7th Congressional District the past four decades, with re-electing Capitol Hill stalwart Rep. David R. Obey a mere formality for most of his 21 terms. Not so in 2010.
A weekend media blitz by the Army's public relations master sent a clear message: It's not time to hit the panic button in Afghanistan, but success in the nearly 9-year-old war won't come quickly.
Republicans came to President Obama's rescue Tuesday, providing him the votes needed for quick passage of a $59 billion emergency war-spending bill to fund his 30,000 Afghanistan troop surge.
Funding for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq could be held up by the war brewing on Capitol Hill among congressional Democrats and the White House. When the Senate returns to take up the $45.5 billion supplemental appropriations bill that passed the House on July 1, the central issue to resolve will be how best to appease Big Labor.
The first spending bill to begin moving through Congress since House Republicans pledged to forgo earmarks shows the vow is working: The bill contains nearly 50 percent less in pork-barrel spending than last year's version.
The Bush administration says the Democrat-controlled Congress is trying to shortchange the lone federal agency responsible for ensuring unions spend their dues legally — an effort Republicans consider political payback that must be rebuffed.
The Bush administration says the Democrat-controlled Congress is trying to shortchange the lone federal agency responsible for ensuring unions spend their dues legally — an effort Republicans consider political payback that must be rebuffed.
Pro-gun rights Democrats teamed up with House Republicans yesterday to block local governments and law-enforcement agencies from gaining routine access to gun-purchasing data.
Pro-gun rights Democrats teamed up with House Republicans yesterday to block local governments and law-enforcement agencies from gaining routine access to gun-purchasing data.
House Democratic leaders have been "sloppy" custodians of Congress and broken several of their key promises to voters, Republicans charged yesterday, prompting the Democratic congressional leadership to offer a list of their key accomplishments in response.
House Democratic leaders yesterday bowed to Republican pressure and abandoned their plan to permit the addition of "pork-barrel" projects to annual spending bills after the two chambers had voted on the measures.
House Republicans introduced a measure yesterday to restore earmark reforms passed last year that they say were "gutted" by the Democratic leadership.
House Republicans are threatening to stall action on the annual appropriations process to highlight the Democratic-led Congress' approach to "pork-barrel" projects.
For all the fanfare surrounding the announcement of the House Democrats' Iraq war plan, few members seem to understand the specifics in the bill or when it would actually bring troops home.
BUDGETEER: Rep. David R. Obey, Wisconsin Democrat and Appropriations Committee chairman, wrote the House version of the spending bill.
"I hope it does not represent too great an inconvenience to members of this body, who are much more comfortable providing budget-busting tax gifts to the economic elite in this country," said a bitterly sarcastic Rep. David R. Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who wrote the bill as chairman of the Appropriations Committee.
