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Articles by Stephen Dinan

ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS Sen. John McCain (center) leads a news conference on Capitol Hill on Tuesday prior to the Senate vote on the defense authorization bill. From left: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Lamar Alexander, Sen. John Cornyn, Sen. John Thune and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl.

Republicans block moves on gays, immigration

Congressional Democrats' last-ditch, pre-election effort to pass gay rights and immigration legislation fell victim to a Republican-led filibuster Tuesday, dealing a setback to those trying to lift the ban on openly gay troops serving in the U.S. military.

September 21, 2010

Senate blocks bill to lift military gay ban

Democrats' last-ditch pre-election effort to pass gay-rights and immigration legislation fell short Tuesday after the Senate blocked the defense policy bill and as Republicans questioned Democrats' motives, arguing that now isn't the time for those politically charged debates.

September 21, 2010
**FILE** Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (Associated Press)

Senators say DHS allows backdoor amnesty

A series of new internal rules has effectively created a possible backdoor amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants, Senate Republicans charged on Tuesday in a letter demanding that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano explain the new policies.

September 21, 2010
**FILE** Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat

Politics is local for U.S. Senate candidates

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's re-election hinges in part on his efforts to stop the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository from being built. But a fellow Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray, could hurt her re-election chances if she can't show that she's trying hard enough to get the project restarted.

September 12, 2010

Pa. town’s immigration law falls in court

A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down a Pennsylvania town's immigration ordinances as infringing on the federal government's right to control immigration rules, adding more fuel to the heated battle over how far states and localities can go in trying to push out illegal immigrants.

September 9, 2010
President Obama speaks on the economy at the Milwaukee Laborfest in Milwaukee on Monday, Sept. 6, 2010. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Obama says raise revenue; Boehner says lower spending

Countering President Obama's call for tax rates to return to their past levels, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner said Wednesday morning that Congress should strike a bipartisan deal to lower spending to what it was in 2008.

September 8, 2010

Obama hits bump in road spending

President Obama is not finding many allies in his latest call for bipartisan cooperation on new infrastructure spending and tax breaks, and even Democrats say nothing will get done in the two months before congressional elections.

September 7, 2010

Political stars born of Arizona law

Despite being waylaid by the courts, Arizona's immigration law is still growing as a powerful political force, shaping elections across the country and creating a new generation of campaign stars in and out of the state.

September 6, 2010

Draft alien-detention rules could run afoul of the law, senators say

The Obama administration could be breaking the law if it follows through on guidance that would mean the government detains fewer illegal immigrants, two top Republican senators said in a warning letter to the Department of Homeland Security this week.

September 2, 2010

Conviction overturned for leaving water for illegals

In a test case with border-wide implications, a federal appeals court on Thursday reversed the littering conviction of a man who left gallon jugs of water on a national wildlife refuge to help illegal immigrants cross the remote federal land safely.

September 2, 2010

Survey charts ‘sharp decline’ in illegals

Illegal immigration has been in a "sharp decline" over the past two years, the Pew Hispanic Center said in a report released Wednesday, and the Obama administration immediately touted the data as proof that it has made progress on securing the nation's borders.

September 1, 2010

Does Bush deserve more credit for Iraq?

President Obama made brief mention of his predecessor Tuesday night, but the end of combat operations in Iraq has some wondering whether former President George W. Bush deserves more acclaim for having left in place the framework Mr. Obama is following to wind down the war.

August 31, 2010
President Obama makes a statement Monday on the economy in the Rose Garden of the White House. (Associated Press)

Back in Washington, Obama hits Republicans on small business bill

Fresh off a vacation in Martha's Vineyard, President Obama jumped right back into the political fray Monday, saying he wants to act on boosting the economy but blaming Senate Republicans for holding a key small-business lending bill "hostage."

August 30, 2010

Ariz. governor appeals ruling on illegals law

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Thursday she has asked a federal appeals court to lift a lower court's injunction and let the state's tough immigration law to go fully into effect.

August 26, 2010

Senate tax duel centers on small business

With the economy sputtering, Democrats have signaled they will turn a September Senate showdown on a small-business lending bill into a key test of who is working to boost jobs. But Republicans instead are focusing attention on the impending expiration of Bush tax cuts, which they say would hurt those small businesses.

August 25, 2010
House Minority Leader John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, speaks on jobs and the economy at the City Club of Cleveland on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

Republican leader tells Obama to fire economic team

The top House Republican said Tuesday it's "time to put grown-ups in charge" as he called on President Obama to fire his whole economic team, but the White House shot back that Republicans haven't offered any better solutions to lead the country out of its slump.

August 24, 2010