by Paul West

This year's election promises to be one of the great experiments in U.S. history.

Is the country ready for an African American president? No one knows for sure. It's increasingly clear, though, that the '08 vote will be a referendum on the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas.

Inevitably, racial attitudes are going to influence that choice. But there is growing evidence that race is losing its potency as a determining factor in U.S. politics.

Some of it comes from a pair of statewide elections in 2006. Both featured breakthrough tries by black Democrats who, in effect, were trailblazers for Barack
Obama. And top Obama strategists were involved in each one.

by Naftali Bendavid

Any number of analysts have rushed recently to proclaim the virtual end of the Republican Party. Or at a minimum, many years in the wilderness.

"Republicans face crisis," declared the Washington Post recently. A current article in The New Yorker, in a slightly different vein, is headlined "The End of Conservatism." A cable host recently asked hyperbolically, "Is it the end of the [Republican] Party?" Even one blogger on a conservative web site estimated the Republicans would lose seven seats in the Senate and 40 in the House. "We're going down," he observed glumly.

The gist of much of the commentary is that the nation is reaching the end of a major historical cycle. Modern conservatism, and its marriage with the Republican Party, arose from the ashes of Barry Goldwater's 1964 landslide defeat. It attained major victories with Ronald Reagan's victory in 1980 and the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, and peaked during the years in which President Bush ruled with a Republican Congress.

But now, the theory goes, with Democrats likely to expand the congressional majorities they won in 2006 and a Democrat given a good shot of winning the presidency, the Republican coalition is in tatters and the conservative movement out of ideas. This will require a building process taking decades, some say.

by William Neikirk

The coach quit today.

Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, who served as House speaker longer than any other Republican, announced that he's leaving the House and will be gone by the first of the year.

The former high school wrestling coach leaves on a sad note for his party, having lost his job as speaker when the GOP lost control of the House in last year's elections. .

The quiet, unassuming Hastert, 65, bowed out with a gracious speech on the House floor and received standing ovations from both sides of the aisle. His wife was in the gallery, and also was recognized.

Now there will be a special election in his district in suburban Chicago, which includes Aurora and Elgin--and Yorkville, where he was the wrestling coach. The district leans Republican, although Democrats are expected to compete for it.

Posted by Naftali Bendavid at 11:40 am CDT

Commenter "Jim G." wrote:

To say Dems got ruthless is over-stating what happened. They were no-where ruthless enough. Katrina, Deficits, Iraq-- shed light on the fact that Repubs are all propaganda and no substance. Im sure Rahm Emanuel was tuff and all, but the Repubs did themselves in. Just like they did when they caused the great depression. I can't see this nation surviving too many more Repub majorities.

Bruce and Den (Jerry White & John D also)...gather up all your propaganda and take a hike.
May 8, 2007 10:27:46 AM

Another commenter, "Clarence Darrow," wrote:

A big wet, kiss for Rahm Emmanuel. One word why the Democrats got their edge in Congress, "Iraq".

Let's be honest. Rahm's balliwick is raising money. He is the money man. That's why he went into "investment banking" after the White House. He has the phone numbers, he pays the debts. He is everything wrong with the political system. He shovels the Democratic creed, and the naive press just laps it up, paying attention to all the window dressing, like how "tough" he is (LOL), how he cusses like a sailor, how he really gives it to the Republicans.
May 8, 2007 10:42:08 AM

There is no question that the main reason the Democrats won last November was the Iraq war, followed closely by the response to Hurricane Katrina, the Tom DeLay-Jack Abramoff corruption scandals, the Mark Foley sexual e-mail mess and so on. The Republicans imploded in a way rarely seen in American politics, given that in early 2005 some Republicans were talking confidently about being the ruling party for decades to come. I'm not sure anyone could dispute that the GOP was largely responsible for its own undoing, and it's a point I make clearly in the book.

Posted by Naftali Bendavid at 11:32 am CDT

Commenter "not happy" wrote:

Ruthless, indeed. Just ask anyone who worked on Dan Seals' campaign for congress (Il 10th); Rahm and his merry men completely ignored Dan's bid to take the wealthiest (and certainly one of the most influential) districts in the state. Dan ended up losing by only a few more votes than Tammy Duckworth, who Rahm and the DCCC poured money and resources into.

May 8, 2007 8:39:28 AM

One of the challenges facing any national congressional campaign is deciding which candidates to back and which to ignore. It's one of the areas guaranteed to bring criticism, because the party will inevitably pour money into some candidates who lose--and some of those the party ignores will come painfully close to winning. That is certainly true of the 2006 election.

Many of those who criticize Emanuel say it's not just a matter of his making a few understandable mistakes; they feel his entire strategy was wrong. The country was ready to back bold populists, this argument goes, and instead Emanuel supported bland establishment candidates like Tammy Duckworth.

Posted by Naftali Bendavid at 10:33 am CDT

Commenter "Weinerdog43" wrote:

I'll be very curious to see if Mr. Bendavid discusses Rahm's taking credit for the 2006 election, despite overwhelming evidence that it was Howard Dean's 50 state strategy that delivered.
Good luck Mr. Bendavid. Here's hoping it's a good read. You've got some interesting characters to work with.
May 7, 2007 6:25:10 PM

I do talk in the book about the relative credit due Rahm Emanuel and Howard Dean.

Dean supporters argue that it was his 50-state strategy that was responsible for the Democrats' victory. By placing activists and putting money into states the Democrats did not traditionally win, the argument goes, they enabled the party to pick up seats in places like Indiana and Kentucky.

Emanuel's supporters counter that it was his aggressive recruitment of moderate candidates, like Heath Shuler in North Carolina and Brad Ellsworth in Indiana, that led the Democrats to victory. For too long the party insisted on an ideological orthodoxy that resulted in purist nominees who got clobbered, according to this way of thinking.

Posted by Frank James at 9:08 am CDT

Martin Frost, the former Democratic congressman from Texas who once headed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has a column worth reading on the FoxNews website.

It's on Rep. Rahm Emanuel, his successor as head of the committee and occasioned by the new book, "The Thumpin' " by Naftali Bendavid, the Chicago Tribune's deputy Washington bureau chief.

In short, Frost says Rahm's success in regaining House control for the Democrats was based on being prepared so that when the political winds shifted, Democrats were in a position to take advantage. More proof of the old adage, "Fortune favors the prepared mind."

Posted by Frank James at 2:18 pm CDT

Our own Naftali Bendavid, deputy chief of the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau, has a new book “The Thumpin’, that chronicles Rep. Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats’ takeover of Congress. The title comes from President Bush’s characterization of the defeat Republicans experienced at Democratic hands last fall.

The book grew out of a post-election article Naftali wrote based on his exclusive year-long access to Emanuel, the peppery and profane Chicago-area congressman and former Clinton White House political operative who ran the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s successful efforts in 2006.

To mark the book’s publication by Doubleday and its going on sale Tuesday, Naftali has agreed to blog tomorrow about Emanuel, the book, and the House Democrats.

So even though we know Swampers haven’t had a chance to read the book, don’t let that stop you from weighing in on Emanuel or joining our “Ask Naftali” session. Look for his posting early tomorrow and send in those questions or comments.

Posted by Frank James at 2:25 pm CDT

Some commenters to Pete Souza's photo post showing Tammy Duckworth's artificial legs resting under a table as she testified on Capitol Hill took issue with our putting the photo up on The Swamp.

It was an arresting photo, at least to us. So we thought we'd share it with you. No greater political message was intended.

The sight of those metal and plastic legs, reminded us of what she has lost, that's true. That would be true regardless of what war she fought in.

Prosthetic limbs are also fascinating. They combine the science and art of their manufacture and the determination of the wearer. They declare the user's desire to be whole, to be independent. At least, that's what they seem to say to me, a person who, for now, still has all my limbs.

One commenter asked, justifiably, for the substance of what Duckworth, who heads Illinois's Department for Veterans' Affairs, had to say. This video clip provides that.

(Chicago Tribune photo by Pete Souza)

Posted by Pete Souza at 12:24 pm CDT

Iraq war veteran and former congressional candidate, Tammy Duckworth, now director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs, testifies before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee during an oversight hearing on VA-DoD cooperation in health care issues March 27, 2007 on Capitol Hill.

Next to Duckworth is retired Army Capt. Jonathan D. Pruden and Denise Mettie, mother of Evan Mettie, who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury.

Guest Posted by David Lightman at 6:08 a.m. CST

The Federal Election Commission is questioning whether the Connecticut Senate campaigns of Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman and Democratic challenger Ned Lamont fully disclosed all of their contributions. Here's the rest of my story in today's Hartford Courant.

Posted by Frank James at 8:13 am CST

The Washington Post has a story today about the four-day celebration House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi has planned to mark the historic moment in January when she takes up the House gavel and becomes the first woman speaker in the nation's history.

As the story relates, the festivities will include Pelosi's returning to the working-class Baltimore neighborhood she grew up in where a street will be named in her honor.

Posted by David Lerman at 12:41 CST

He was just a 20-year-old college kid with a camcorder.

But S.R. Sidarth— a son of Indian immigrants who was called ``macaca”—helped foil the re-election of Virginia Sen. George Allen, tipping control of the U.S. Senate to Democrats.

Sidarth, whose videotape of Allen’s ``macaca” stumble spread across the Internet like wildfire, became an overnight celebrity.

Posted by Frank James at 11:12 am CST

House Speaker-elect Rep. Nancy Pelosi has named Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen to be the new Rahm Emanuel, that his the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

As the head of that committee, Rep. Emanuel of Illinois, received a large share of the credit for the Democrats' success in taking control of the House after 12 years of Republican control.

Posted by Josh Drobnyk at 12:00 pm CST

Look out Bank of America. Bank of Santorum could soon be nipping at your heels.

Pennsylvania’s outgoing Republican senator, Rick Santorum, is considering founding a bank in the Keystone State, according to a source close to the lawmaker.

Add that possibility to reports that Santorum, who Pennsylvania voters gave the boot in last month’s election in favor of Democrat Bob Casey, is negotiating a deal with Fox News to have a show on the cable network.

That’s not all. He’s also said to be shopping a book to publishers that picks up on the “Gathering Storm” theme he hit home on during the dying days of his campaign. In a two-day statewide tour at the end of the race, Santorum gave a series of speeches that talked of the looming threat from Iran and “Islamic fascism” while invoking the title of Winston Churchill’s World War II book “The Gathering Storm.”

Posted by Frank James at 12:35 pm CST

The Hill, a newspaper that covers Congress, has a story today by reporter Jackie Kucinich about Tom DeLay (yes, that Tom DeLay) who has created a blog in order to help Republicans regain the majority.

There are many interesting things about this story. First, the story was written by the daughter of Dennis Kucinich (yes, that Dennis Kucinich,) the way left-of-center Cleveland congressman who just announced today that he is running, once again, for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Posted by David Lightman at 9:25 a.m. CST

Less than 100 votes cost Rob Simmons his seat in Congress but the Republican is still focused on his future as I write in today's Hartford Courant.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 11:55 am CST.

Had it not been for a Democratic political operative, former Republican Rep. Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to under-age former pages might never have come to light.

Among the many fascinating details contained in the 89-page House Ethics Committee report on the Foley scandal is the chain of events that led to broader dissemination of Foley's e-mail exchanges.

It all started when a junior staffer in a congressional office received a complaint from a former page about Foley's e-mails to him and was rebuffed when she tried to raise the matter with another staff member in the office.

She then did what many many people now do when pondering an e-mail: She forwarded it to a friend. And as often happens, the forward button was pressed again and again, until it reached a Democratic operative.

Here is the chain of events, as laid out in the report:

Posted by Frank James at 8 am CST

A lot of people probably don't know that defeated members of Congress get to attend an outplacement session, something akin to what's provided to the most fortunate laid-off workers (Yes, that's an oxymoron.)

Peter Overby, a National Public Radio reporter, did a small segment on it on "All Things Considered" last night. Unlike most laid-off workers, they get to keep a few perks, including a "parking plate" that still gets them great parking on Capitol Hill, a very tough neighborhood for parking.

The entertaining segment prominently features Katherine Harris, the Florida congresswoman who gained infamy as that state's secretary of state in 2000 for certifying President Bush's razor-thin victory in that state over Vice President Al Gore. Even in defeat, Harris has a way of thrusting herself in towards the center of the story.

The short piece is worth checking out.

Posted by Frank James at 10:46 am CST

A University of Michigan scientist has created interesting depictions of the familiar red-blue voting-pattern maps.

Using cartograms, Mark Newman, an associate professor of physics and complex systems, wanted to give a truer sense of the population distribution of Republican and Democratic votes in the recent House elections than do typical maps which are based on congressional districts rather than population densities.

Traditional maps skew things because they are based on acreage, not population, Newman says.

"We can correct for this by making use of a cartogram, a map in which the sizes of districts are rescaled according to their population," he says. "That is, districts are drawn with a size proportional not to their sheer topographic acreage – which has little to do with politics – but to the number of their inhabitants, districts with more people appearing larger than districts with fewer, regardless of their actual area on the ground."

Here's a traditional map:

But here's a map based on population:

As you can see, it's a much different-looking map. Fairly weird-looking, actually.

Read Newman's entire document.

Posted by Frank James at 4:58 pm CST

The Pew Research Center for People and the Press has a new poll which suggests that Sen. Barack Obama is sneaking up on fellow Sen. Hillary Clinton to become her closest rival, at least in terms of popularity or name recognition, for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In the survey of 1,479 registered voters done in the days after the recent mid-tem elections, 23 percent of the Democrats who were asked who should get the Democratic presidential nomination said the senator from Illinois should.

Posted by William Neikirk at 1:19 p.m. CST

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, an Illinois Democrat, is starting to read books on high finance. That’s not like him. He’s a fiery congressman who likes to fight for the rights of immigrants and against companies that engage in predatory lending.

But now he figures he’s in line to become chairman of a subcommittee of the Financial Services Committee that deals with with domestic and international monetary policy, trade and technology. And he’s frank to admit that he doesn’t know that much about these areas. He wants to be ready.

Posted by David Lightman at 8:37 am CDT

It was like all that turmoil, all the agony over losing to Ned Lamont in August, then fighting hard to win the general election...like none of it ever happened, as Joe Lieberman returned to his Senate homestead Tuesday.... Read my article in today's Hartford Courant.

Joe And Senate Democrats Playing Nice Again

By DAVID LIGHTMAN
Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON -- The old Senate gang was back in town Tuesday, and it was like Joe Lieberman had never left.

Posted by Jill Zuckman at 4:18 pm CST

The wait is finally over: Senate Democrats announced committee assignments for the 110th Congress Tuesday afternoon. Sen. Dick Durbin, the incoming assistant majority leader, will continue his work as a member of the Appropriations Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the Rules panel.

But Illinois’ junior senator, Barack Obama, has made some changes. He is jettisoning his seat on the Environment and Public Works Committee and adding two new assignments on the Homeland Security Committee and the HELP Committee, which handles health, education, labor and pension issues. He will also keep his membership on the Foreign Relations Committee and the Veterans Affairs panel.

posted by Christi Parsons at 3:15 p.m. CST

Like many fellow Democratic politicians, Sen. Barack Obama is no stranger to the pulpit.

But in December, Obama will go where few progressive Democrats usually venture -- to a large, conservative evangelical church that boasts a Sunday attendance of more than 20,000 people.

Even more unusual is that he’ll attend at the invitation of mega-church Pastor Rick Warren, evangelical icon and author of the popular Christian Living book “The Purpose-Driven Life.”

Posted by Frank James at 10:17 am CST

Soon-to-be Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) just announced his new leadership team for the next Congress, the one in which Democrats will have control of the Senate by one vote.

There were no surprises, really. Illinois has pretty good representation. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois becomes the Senate Majority Leader. And Terrance Gainer, former Illinois State Police Director and former U.S. Capitol Police Superintendent becomes the Senate's Sergeant at Arms.

Here's the press release:

For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON, DC—Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) today announced the Senate Democratic Leadership for the 110th Congress.

Posted at 9:13 am CST

(New members of the House of Representatives walk down the steps of the U.S. Capitol today after posing for their class picture. The new members are in town for orientation. Chicago Tribune photo by Pete Souza.)

Posted by Mark Silva at 4:10 pm CST

In the aftermath of the mid-term elections that cost President Bush's party control of Congress, there will be a lot of handwringing over opinion polls -- why were some surveys, in some cases in the field at the same time in the same races, so skewed? Has the soft science of polling gone astray?

Not in Ohio, it seems: Where the University of Cincinnati's last election survey predicted that Democrat Sherrod Brown would collect 55.7 percent of the vote in his bid to unseat Sen. Mike DeWine (R, Ohio), one of the wins that handed the Democrats the Senate. Brown pulled 55.9 percent.

Posted by Mark Silva at 11 am CST

Joshua Bolten, the president's chief of staff, says President Bush is "ready to make course adjustments'' in the war in Iraq, provided that these adjustments meet his ultimate goal of achieving victory there.

"Always been ready to make course adjustments,'' Bolten said today, making the round of Sunday morning news shows, with these comments excerpted from his appearance on CNN with Wolf Blitzer. "You know, nobody can be happy with the situation in Iraq right now. Everybody has been working hard. But what we have been doing has not worked well enough or fast enough.''

Bolten also delved into the president's thinking about a calculated and misleading answer he gave the week before Election Day, when he told reporters that he expected Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to serve out the remainder of his term. If Bush had told the truth, his press secretary has said, he could just imagine the headlines days before the election: President considering dumping Rumsfeld. He was, of course.

Posted by Frank James at 8:12 am CST

And now it can be told, and told well at that.

Naftali Bendavid, deputy bureau chief of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau, spent months during the just-ended campaign reporting on the efforts of Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat, who led his party's campaign to recapture the House.

Bendavid was granted rare, behind-the-scenes access to Emanuel and his operations at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on the condition that his story not be published until after the election.

What emerged was a compelling, fast-paced portrait of the profane, edgy Emanuel and his take-no-prisoners approach that contributed to a larger Democratic victory than most of those in the minority party had ever allowed themselves to believe was possible.

The story captures Emanuel's cut-throat pursuit of power on behalf of a political party which had become to accustomed to losing. But it also gives glimpses of the mellower father, husband, brother and friend behind the fierce partisan facade.

It's a must read.

Posted by William Neikirk at 8:08 a.m. CST

Juicy news of the day related to the Democratic victory:

--Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) wants to boot Vice President Cheney from the Veep's office in the House of Representatives.

Rangel told reporters in New York that the vice president "enjoys" an office on the second floor of the House "that historically has been designated for the Ways and Means Committee chairman." In January, the veteran congressman will become chairman of the powerful tax-writing committee.

Posted by Frank James at 7:14 am CST

The reports are this morning that Ken Mehlman, chairman of the Republican National Committee, intends to step down when his term ends in January.

In a Washington Times interview, Mehlman said he had intended to leave the post regardless of what happened on Tuesday. That may be true.

But if Republicans had held onto control of Congress Tuesday, Mehlman would have likely been able to change his mind and stay in the chairman's post if he had wanted to. That's a freedom of choice foreclosed by Tuesday's Democratic successes.

The Washington Times story goes on to say that some senior Republicans would like to see Michael Steele, who lost his bid for a Senate seat from Maryland, become the first African-American to lead the Republican National Committee.

(Democratic Senators (l to r) Chuck Schumer, N.Y.; Harry Reid, Nev., and Dick Durbin, Ill. at a victory rally on Capitol Hill. Reid will become the new Senate Majority Leader. Chicago Tribune photo by Pete Souza.)

Posted by Christi Parsons at 3:11 pm CDT

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has often evoked memories of the charismatic Chicago Mayor Harold Washington over the past few months, as he publicly entertained the idea of running for the big office in City Hall.

But it was another legendary Illinois politician whose image Jackson summoned to mind on Thursday, when he announced that he will not run for mayor so that he can remain in Congress and work with the new Democratic majority to bring the bacon back to his home city and state.

"I feel like Dan Rostenkowski," Jackson said, referring to the former Democratic Chicago-area congressman who once wielded such influence on behalf of Illinois interests in Washington.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 1:57 pm CST.

Rahm Emanuel, who led his party’s successful campaign to take control of the House, will not try to ride the wave from the election victory into the high-visibility congressional leadership post of Majority Whip.

Instead, he will run for the chairmanship of the House Democratic Caucus, the fourth highest post among House Democrats.

The 46-year old Chicago Democratic congressman had been weighing a bid for party whip, which will be the third-ranking post in the House Democratic leadership in the next Congress and would have given Emanuel a place in the top rank of the leadership only four years after he arrived in Congress. He will announce his decision to sit out the whip race later today.

A bid for the whip’s post would have put him in a contest with Rep. James Clyburn, an African-American congressman who is strongly backed by the Congressional Black Caucus. Clyburn is currently the Democratic Caucus Chairman.

"I seek this post, and not any other, because I believe what we need now is a unified Democratic caucus, focused squarely on the business of moving this country forward," Emanuel said.

Posted by Frank James at 11:16 am CST

Sen. George Allen, the Virginia Republican, has scheduled a 3:00 pm eastern time news conference. We don't know exactly what he's going to say but we believe he'll concede the tight-as-a-tick-on-a-dog's-back Senate race to Democrat James Webb which would give Democrats the 51 seats they need to control Congress.

That's certainly what Senate Democrats are expecting and they have pretty good sources. They had scheduled a 2:30 pm press conference to discuss their new control of the Senate but have moved their event back an hour to 3:30 pm. And now they are calling it a rally that "will mark the dawning of a new Democratic Majority in the U.S. Senate..." The outdoor rally is being held in what's called the Senate Swamp.

Posted by William Neikirk at 4:45 p.m. CST

There will be many people who will miss the Coach, that incredible hulk and former wrestler named Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the speaker who will soon lose his position. He showed himself to be a consummate insider who could whip the troops into line to pass big legislation.

He proved himself naturally skilled at political negotiation. He was, according to his colleagues, a self-effacing, unselfish, and loyal leader of the Republicans. No one can deny that he got things done for his party and for President Bush.

But life is unfair. He lost one of the more memorable elections in modern American history when Democrats, led by a liberal woman from San Francisco, took over the House of Representatives.

Posted by Pete Souza at 3:29 pm CST

(President Bush reacts to a reporter's question during his press conference in the wake of Democrats taking over the House and perhaps the Senate. Photo by Pete Souza of the Chicago Tribune.)

Posted by Frank James at 2:37 pm CST

Rep. Mike Pence, an Indiana Republican, as expected, has thrown his name into contention to be the next leader of House Republicans, now that Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, has said he won't seek to become the minority leader when the Democrats take control next January.

What follows is his press release and his "Dear Colleague" letter to his fellow Republicans, an attempt to persuade them that he is the right man to lead them out of the political wilderness.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 8, 2006

"I am running for Republican leader because we didn't just lose our majority, I believe we lost our way....

Posted by William Neikirk at 2:55 p.m. CST

In one of the enduring rituals of American democracy, the winners and the losers of a big U.S. election suddenly became mannerly and respectful today, shockingly to each other. From President Bush and speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi came calls for bipartisan cooperation by both parties.

Democratic and Republican candidates who fought fiercely during the campaign, exchanging insults and innuendo and character assassination, called for closing ranks to get things done. This is perhaps out of respect for voters who sent a powerful message they wanted more political civility. But history teaches that such "make-nice" eras never last very long. This one might be an exception, but don't count on it.

Posted by Frank James at 1:58 pm CST

House Speaker Dennis Hastert has issued a press release today saying he is doing what many expected he would, stepping down from Republican leadership with the start of the next Congress, the 110th.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

"This morning I called Nancy Pelosi to congratulate her. At the beginning of the next Congress she will make history as the first female Speaker of the House. Her achievement follows from a lot of hard work and determination, and I respect that.

Posted by Mark Silva at 1:20 pm CST

Moving quickly to confront public unrest over the conduct of the war in Iraq – which President Bush has acknowledged as a major factor in his party's stunning loss of the House and possible loss of the Senate – Bush today replaced Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, architect of the Iraq invasion and its aftermath.

In replacing Rumsfeld, chief of the Pentagon for nearly six years, a longtime ally of the vice president and one of the most powerful members of the Bush administration, with former CIA director Robert Gates, the president is demonstrating a willingness to discuss new tactics for the war in Iraq.

Yet, at the same time, the president has signaled again that he is unwilling to consider any immediate withdrawal of American troops, and asserted that, whatever new policy is devised, his unswerving goal will be achieving "victory'' in Iraq.

Posted by Frank James at 12:26 pm CST

Just last week President Bush said Defense Sec. Donald Rumsfeld would stay till the end of his administration. So what does it mean that Rumsfeld has resigned the day after the election?

It may mean that the president really thought Republicans would hold onto the House and was shocked by the magnitude of the Republican losses last night into finally seeing how large a political liability Rumsfeld was.

"Actually, I thought I was going to be fine in this election. Shows you what I know," Bush just said in the press conference happening now.

In the press conference, Bush tried to play down the connection between yesterday's results and the election, at least any causal relationship.

He said he told reporters who met with him last week that Rumsfeld was staying because he didn't want to change the dynamics of the mid-term elections.

To that end, he said he held a series of discussions with Rumsfeld about installing a new defense secretary before the election but didn't answer reporters as directly last week when the question of Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney's tenure came up, again because he didn't want to inject the fact that he was considering a change into to the election.

Posted by Frank James at 8:32 am CST

"There are a lot of drunken Democrats in there," said a televison producer who returned to the room assigned to the media from a trip to the packed Hyatt Regency hotel ballroom where the Democrats held their victory party last night.

And indeed, Democrats enjoyed themselves as they hadn't for a very long time. Probably not since the last Clinton inauguration in 1997 had Democrats experienced such happiness. Even the drenching rain some had to walk through on the way to the hotel wasn't going to dampen their spirits.

Posted by Andrew Zajac at 1:57 a.m. CST

Maybe they knew it was going to be a bad night.

Republicans dispensed with the custom of renting hotel ballrooms for election night Tuesday, preferring to hunker down in House and Senate campaign headquarters on opposite sides of Capitol Hill.

The normally engaging and effective Republican press operation was uncharacteristically silent.

Posted by Frank James at 9:24 pm CST

At the Capitol Hill Hyatt Regency Hotel where congressional Democrats are holding their Election Night party, the mood is one of controlled joy.

There's the sense that this will be a good night for House Democrats but anxiety about the Senate races.

"It's going in the right direction. Just not fast enough," said Bill McLaughlin, a Democrat from Moscow, Idaho. He's a University of Idaho natural resources professor in Washington on business. "It's a lot closer than I thought. We're not seeing the big wave yet." This was around 9:10 pm eastern.

Posted by William Neikirk at 6:45 p.m. CST

Reporters have been cautious about national exit polls since they proved misleading in the 2000 presidential election, but they provided some startling results about voter attitudes in today's mid-term elections.

For example, three-fourths of the voters surveyed said that corruption and scandal were important to them--and they were more likely to vote Democratic in House races as a result. (See story: Download ExitPoll.doc

Posted by Jill Zuckman at 1:04 pm CST, updated 3:18 pm CST

While most ordinary people might think that there is little to do but wait for the results of today’s elections, that’s not the case for zealous party officials.

A public relations battle has broken out with both Republicans and Democrats on the look out for dirty tricks that they can quickly publicize to embarrass the other side.

Democrats, for example, announced that GOP poll workers are handing out “fake and misleading” flyers at polling sites in Prince George’s County, Maryland today.

The flyer says that three leading black Democrats had endorsed both Republican Bob Ehrlich for Governor and Republican Michael Steele for Senate, which is false. (The Washington Post reports that some sample ballots misleadingly described the Republicans as Democrats.)

The Maryland Democratic Party also said it had received word that homeless people from Philadelphia have been bused in to do the Republicans’ dirty work.

Posted by Frank James at 11:26 am CST

Scanning the wire-service reports, it appears sporadic voting problems are being reported but nothing so far that looks systematic.

A lot of the problems appear to be related to election workers not being adequately trained on some of the new electronic machines. In Ohio, for instance, here's part of what the Associated Press has reported:

In Cleveland, voters rolled their eyes as election workers fumbled with new touchscreen machines that they couldn't get to start properly until about 10 minutes after polls opened.

"We got five machines — one of them's got to work," said Willette Scullank, a trouble shooter from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, elections board.

Posted by Frank James at 10:25 am CST

When any president travels, he has with him a small group of reporters and photojournalists from major news organizations who take turns being in the "pool."

It's the job of those who pull pool duty at any given time to be the eyes and ears for the rest of the White House press corps, the thought being it would be too unwieldy for the White House to drag along the entire press corps when the president travels.

This morning's White House pool report was written by Joseph Curl of the Washington Times. It's a great read. "Trailblazer" is, of course, the Secret Service handle for Bush who is also known as POTUS with the First Lady being FLOTUS.

Pool Report #1
Nov. 7, 2006
POTUS/FLOTUS vote
Crawford Fire Dept. & Ambulance

Of course, your pooler almost didn't hear this, having barely (barely) made the 4:50 a.m. call (way late). But boy, was getting up before dawn worth it. After caravaning in the darkest dark to the gates of the Prairie Chapel Ranch, where we were swept so thoroughly that we all smoked a cigarette afterward, we sat. We also sat some more. And then, there was the sitting.

Posted by Frank James at 9:10 pm CST

In their final, pre-election forecast in what is called Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball, Sabato and David Wasserman of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics predict Democrats will win control of both the Senate and House, with Democrats picking up six Senate seats and 29 House seats.

Their analyses of the races makes worthwhile reading, especially their take on the race they have probably followed the closest, the freakish Virginia Senate race between Sen. George Allen, the Republican, and Democrat James Webb, the former Reagan Administration Navy Secretary who was a Republican until he switched parties to make the Senate race.

Posted by Frank James at 7:51 pm CDT

Charlie Cook, one of Washington's most respected handicappers of congressional races with his Cook Political Report, is warning today that the conventional wisdom that Republicans have significantly narrowed the gap with Democrats is wrong.

We should know in about 24 hours if he's right that Democrats stand to pick up 20 to 35 House seats. But he definitely has an air of certainty about what's likely to happen tomorrow.

Here's part of what Cook says:

All Monday there was considerable talk that the national picture had suddenly changed and that there was a significant tightening in the election. This was based in part on two national polls that showed the generic congressional ballot test having tightened to four (Pew) and six (ABC/Wash Post) points.

Posted by Mark Silva at 7:50 pm CST

DALLAS, Tex. – "Everything I've learned, I learned here in Texas,'' President Bush said tonight at a campaign-closing rally in Texas, a tradition for the president's campaigns.

Several thousand people filled an arena in downtown Dallas, not far from the famed "grassy knoll'' of 1963 infamy. And although protestors lined up outside with banners the people who filled this hall tonight were happy to see the president's homecoming, his 15th rally in 10 states in five days.

President Bush's campaign closing rally is also a Texas homecoming. Photo By Mark Silva

Posted by Frank James at 1:03 pm CST

Somewhat ironically, I have received a deluge of emails since last night from Democrats complaining about the flood of last-minute phone calls Republicans are making to voters in an effort drive down the Democratic vote tomorrow.

The e-mailers are upset about “robocalls”—pre-recorded, automated phone calls containing anti-Democratic political messages.

Posted by Mark Silva at 11:48 am and updaed at 1:38 pm CST

PENSACOLA, Fla. – A few years back, the popular Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was preparing for an election-eve "fly-around,'' a victory lap really, in which the governor would draw thousands to airport rallies. Charlie Crist, the Republican candidate for attorney general, wanted to climb on board to share in the love. But Bush had no room for Crist on the plane.

Today, President Bush has arrived in Florida for an election-eve rally for the Sunshine State's Republican ticket – a rally at which Attorney General Charlie Crist, running for governor to replace the retiring Jeb Bush, was supposed to introduce the president.

But Crist has bowed out as emcee. The GOP's candidates for governor in Arkansas and Texas will introduce the president at rallies today in Little Rock and Texas, but the GOP's candidate for governor in Florida has other plans. With his own seven-city fly-around, Crist plans to join Republican Sen. John McCain at a rally in Jacksonville today.

The Crist campaign says he can't fit the far northwestern panhandle outpost of Pensacola into his schedule. Others see one more Republican running from Bush, and into the arms of the more popular McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona planning a campaign for president.

Republican Charlie Crist is a no-show today at the president's rally planned for the Republican candidate for governor in Florida. But Katherine Harris, far right, is here to bask in the president's appearance -- despite the fact that Jeb Bush, the president's younger brother, tried to push her out of the Senate race. Photo by Mark Silva

Posted at 11:39 am CST

In today's Hartford Courant, David Lightman has a good description of the electoral climate on the eve of the mid-term elections.

Voter Mood Still In Flux

Tuesday's election is about Iraq and President Bush, and whether people are like Carlos Fidalgo - so angry about both the war and the commander-in-chief that they'll use their vote to send Republicans a loud message.

Posted by Frank James at 10:01 am CST

Now that it's Election Day eve, let's look at what the polls are showing in some of the nation's most closely watched House races. The charts in most cases represent averages of multiple polls in some of this year's most significant races and are courtesy of Pollster.com.

In the race to replace Republican Rep. Henry Hyde in Illinois' Sixth Congressional District, here's what the contest between Democrat Tammy Duckworth and Republican Peter Roskam looks based on voter surveys.

Rep. Melissa Bean is a Democratic incumbent in the traditionally Republican Eighth Congressional District. Her Republican challenger is David McSweeney.

Rep. Tom Reynolds, (R-N.Y.,) the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee is in a tough re-election bid against Democrat Jack Davis because of his involvement in the case of former congressman Mark Foley who had inappropriate contact with teenager who worked as pages in the House.

Posted by Frank James at 10:49 pm CST

Pollster.com has an insightful analysis of recent polling that indicates that the Democrats hit a high water mark about 10 days ago in voter preferences and that Republicans since then have regained ground.

That analysis tracks with the Pew Research Center survey which showed a similar Republican recovery.

All of this points to Tuesday evening being a very exciting night, especially for all of us political junkies who can't wait to assess the success, or lack thereof, of the respective ground games and other features of the these particular mid-term elections.

Suffice it to say that given the trends we're seeing, if Democrats wind up gaining control of the House, it could be by a much slimmer margin than pundits have been predicting, making the lower chamber even more fractious than it already is, as hard as that may be to believe.

Posted by Frank James at 6:35 pm CST

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has its final, pre-election poll out today and it indicates that Republicans have significantly improved their position heading into Tuesday's mid-term election. Download pew_election_weekend_survey.pdf

The poll suggests that Republicans have narrowed the gap with Democrats, raising the possibility that Republicans could keep control of the House, the chamber that for months has been thought the most likely to shift into Democratic hands.

Here are some key paragraphs from Pew's report:

A nationwide Pew Research Center survey finds voting intentions shifting in the direction of Republican congressional candidates in the final days of the 2006 midterm campaign. The new survey finds a growing percentage of likely voters saying they will vote for GOP candidates. However, the Democrats still hold a 48% to 40% lead among registered voters, and a modest lead of 47%-43% among likely voters.

Posted by Frank James at 8:24 am CST

The first reactions from Washington types to the Saddam Hussein death sentence verdict are starting to come in. By the way, the White House has alerted reporters that President Bush will talk with the journalists with him in Waco, Texas at 2:00 pm CST.

Mark Silva, the Chicago Tribune's White House correspondent, tells me that he's been told by Bush administration people that the president will "say today is that the trial and sentence represents the work of 'an independent judiciary' created in Iraq, one of the hallmarks of a new democracy. It's one of the signs that Iraq is building the institutions of a self-sustaining government." So stay tuned for that.

So far, the comments from Republicans have been very much above the political fray. You'd never know there was a mid-term election in two days.

Posted by Frank James at 8:09 am CST

Now that Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to die by hanging for crimes against humanity, the question in Washington is, will the announcement from Baghdad, coming two days before the election, be enough to help Republicans hang onto control of Congress which of course would help President Bush too?

It's difficult to know the answer to that with certainty but the case can be made that it won't have much effect.

Posted by Mark Silva at 1:15 pm CST

GREELEY, Colo. – Here in Colorado, where voters face an amendment banning same-sex marriage on the ballot Tuesday, where Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave campaigns for family values, and where evangelist Ted Haggard has admitted to buying meth from a man who claims that he also had sex with Haggard, the president downplayed his campaign appeal to family values as he stumped today.

"Marilyn Musgrave understands the importance of defending traditional values,'' the president told several thousand assembled inside an exhibition hall here. "In Washington, she's worked to defend the Pledge Allegiance, and to protect the flag from desecration.

"She has worked to prevent the institution of marriage from being redefined by activist judges. She understands your values, and that's another reason to send her back to the United States Congress.''

Posted by Frank James at 6:16 am

No one will ever confuse the Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force Times publications for the Nation or Salon.com. They are not known as redoubts of liberal journalism.

Instead, they are newspapers that provide tremendous amounts of useful information to service members and their families.

Which makes their call for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld more arresting.

Posted by Frank James at 7:30 am CST

Curtis Gans, an expert on voter participation in American elections, predicts that if nothing changes between now and Election Day, Democratic turnout should exceed that of Republicans in a mid-term election for the first time since 1990.

President Bush and the Iraq War get the credit for that, according to Gans.

But the larger picture portrayed by Gans, director of the American University Center for the Study of the American Electorate, in a new report doesn't offer much to cheer about. That's because voters who are turned off by both major parties are leaving them in a significant exodus.

Meanwhile, many other citizens just aren't voting at all, threatening the health of American democracy, Gans says.

Posted by Frank James at 6:48 am CST

Memo to Vice President Cheney. When you jab at someone for botching a joke, don't botch your joke.

Here's the vice president in Hayden, Idaho before a friendly audience yesterday.

CHENEY: And just this week he took another swipe at the U.S. military. Here's what he said, word for word: "You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

AUDIENCE: Booo!

CHENEY: Of course, Senator Kennedy -- Kennedy, I'm sorry -- Senator Kerry -- (laughter and applause) -- come on, now. I've got to get through this speech. (Laughter.) Senator Kerry said he was just making a joke, and he botched it up. I guess we didn't get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it. (Laughter and applause.)

Posted by Jill Zuckman at 3:00 pm CST

Democrats tried everything possible to tamp down the brouhaha sparked by Sen. John Kerry's inept and insulting joke regarding education and the troops in Iraq. First, they put out talking points saying that Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee for president, is irrelevant to the midterm elections. That didn't work.

Then, they badgered Kerry to retreat and admit defeat. He did, apologizing Wednesday and stepping off the campaign trail.

Asked Thursday about the contretemps, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said he spoke to Kerry several times in the last couple of days, leaving the contents of their conversations to reporters' imaginations.

"Look, Sen. Kerry has apologized. He has said he's not going to say anything else and neither am I,'' said Schumer.

Posted by Mark Silva at 2:01 pm CST

BILLINGS, Mont. -- Standing alongside one of the Republican senators whom Democrats hope to topple in a bid for control of the Senate, President Bush implored Montanans today to reelect Sen. Conrad Burns despite a challenge that oppoents have mounted around Burns' ties to the disgraced Washington lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

There is a dusting of snow in the mountains of Montana, but the campaign is red-hot here in this Red State, the westernmost front of the Nov. 7 struggle for partisan control of the Senate.

(President Bush arrives in Billings, Mont. today for a campaign rally for congressional Republican candidates. Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Posted by Frank James at 11:10 am CST

The Democrats haven’t laid a glove on Rep. John Boehner, at least that’s what the congressman himself said this morning on a Fox and Friends appearance this morning.

Senate Democrats thought Boehner, the House Majority Leader and a Ohio Republican, had given them an opening yesterday with remarks on CNN in which, Democrats said, Boehner had shifted blame for what’s gone wrong in Iraq onto the uniformed military and away from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Posted by Frank James at 4:55 pm CST

Now that we have Kerrygaffe behind us, it's back to Iraq.

In an interview today with the Associated Press, President Bush said Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would stay in place until the end of his administration, making them dead-enders, to use a term familiar to the White House.

This isn't exactly major news since the president hasn't ever shown any inclination to drop the men, more than once refusing offers from Rumsfeld to resign.

Indeed, Cheney and Rumsfeld are long-time friends. In the 1970s, Rumsfeld was President Gerald Ford's chief of staff back and Cheney worked for him as deputy chief of staff. Given that, it's always been unlikely that Rumsfeld would be shown the door.

(Donald Rumsfeld, President Gerald Ford and Dick Cheney in an official White House photo from April 1975.)

Posted by Frank James at 3:31 pm CST

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio,) the House Majority Leader, was on the CNN Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer after the CNN anchor read Sen. John Kerry's apology for remarks many people found disparaging about the intellect and work ethics of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Boehner, one of the sharpest partisans in Congress, said he accepted Kerry's apology.

BOEHNER: I think he has apologized... But when you led into this, Wolf, you said the Republicans were attacking John Kerry for his remarks. Nobody attacked John Kerry. We asked him to apologize to the troops that we believe he offended. And I believe that he has.

BOEHNER: It is.

So that's that. The Kerry derailment has been cleaned up. Move along everyone. There's nothing left to see here.

Posted by John Biemer at 3:45 pm CST

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow made an effort yesterday to throw Democratic candidates on the defensive over the controversial comments made by Sen. John Kerry that on their face disparaged U.S. troops in Iraq.

"... It's probably reasonable to ask some of the Democrats -- ask a Jim Webb or a Tammy Duckworth, both of whom are citing their military record -- okay, what do you think about it, what do you think about this quote? Do you agree with him? He was your presidential nominee. And as for the notion that you can say this sort of thing about the troops and say you support them, it's interesting."

Today, Duckworth had her chance, saying she “served with some of the finest people this nation has to offer.” But she stopped short of calling on Kerry to apologize. “He knows what he needs to say to the world, to the American people, and it’s up to him to say that,” she said.

(Photo from the Duckworth for Congress website.)

Posted by Mark Silva at 1:40 pm CST

First John Kerry voted for the war, and then he voted against money for it -- that's the laugh line of the 2004 presidential election that Vice President Dick Cheney is reviving today as he picks up the GOP's assault on Kerry for making a "botched joke'' about Americans getting "stuck in Iraq.''

(Vice President Cheney waves during a rally with troops and their families at Scott Air Base in Illinois in March 2006. White House photo by David Bohrer.)

"He was for the joke before he was against it,'' Cheney says in remarks prepared for a campaign rally in Montana today. President Bush will campaign in Montana on Thursday. Watch for an instant replay.

Posted by Mark Silva at 12:45 pm CDT

Tammy Duckworth, the Democrat campaigning for the congressional seat of retiring Republican Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, has gained a significant lead over Republican Peter Roskam, according to a new poll run by Reuters and Zogby International.

However accurately or inaccurately, this survey has captured the mood of voters in the 6th district of Illinois, Reuters/Zogby has made their work known in New York's Times Square, where a massive electronic bulletin board has broadcast the results of the survey in the Illinois race:

The survey of registered voters found 54 percent supporting Duckworth and 40 percent supporting Roskam. The survey was run Oct. 24-29 and carries a possible margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Posted by Mark Silva at 9:22 am CDT

Sen. John Kerry has cancelled a planned campaign appearance today on behalf of a Democratic candidate in Minnesota, following the political firestorm stirred by his comment about the uneducated ending up "stuck in Iraq.'' But the GOP is not letting go, still demanding an apology from Kerry today as it circulates a videotape of his remark.

The campaign of Democrat Tim Waltz for Congress in Minnesota today made a terse announcement about its planned rally in Mankato: "KERRY UNABLE TO ATTEND MANKATO RALLY.'' Kerry appears unable to apologize, too, the Republican National Committee complains -- though Kerry maintains that it is President Bush who owes an apology to American troops for his conduct of the war in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee has a new web ad whose message can be summed up in a word: Apologize.

Posted by Frank James at 3:18 pm CST

Did John Kerry (D-Mass.) help himself in his Seattle news conference this afternoon to explain his astonishing remarks yesterday which sounded like an elitist shot at the intelligence of members of the U.S. military serving in Iraq? Short answer: no.

An angry Kerry tried to give his supporters and Democrats something to fight back with when he said: “My statement yesterday, and the White House knows this full well, was a botched joke about the president and the president’s people, not about the troops.

Posted by Frank James at 11:00 am CST

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) really has a way with words. Fortunately for Karl Rove, it’s a way that makes keeping a Republican Congress easier.

For Republicans, Kerry is the gift that keeps on giving. For Democrats, he’s turning out to be the October surprise and Halloween all wrapped into one.

The Internet, of course, is abuzz with a comment Kerry made during a Los Angeles campaign event last night.

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Posted by Frank James at 7:00 am CST

President Bush has recently taken to mocking Democrats for allegedly declaring victory before voters cast their votes exactly one day from day. And to a certain extent the minority party appears to be trying to validate the premise behind the president's taunting.

The Washington Post has an article today that reports on a competition between two Democrats for the House Majority Leader's job appears to have reignited between Reps. Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania and Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland.

Posted by Frank James at 11:16 am CST

It’s not often that you hear President Bush called soft on terror by another Republican. But that’s precisely what happened yesterday. Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, appearing on Fox News Sunday, agreed with interviewer Chris Wallace who asked him if he would equate supporting a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants with being weak on terrorism.

The issue came up because Santorum’s campaign is running an TV ad which links support for such immigration reform, his opponent Bob Casey Jr.’s position, with being a wuss on terror.

Posted 9:57 am CST

David Lightman of the Hartford Courant has a story today that captures the ambivalence many voters have about the coming election: they're fed up with the Republican-led Congress but not persuaded that Democrats would do much better.

Tired Of GOP; Wary Of Dems

HARRISONBURG, Va. -- The mood on the streets of this small Virginia town is the same one dominating the political landscape across key states in this last full week before the Nov. 7 election: People are fed up with Republicans, but not sure they want to vote for Democrats.

Posted by Frank James at 7:10 am CST

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio,) the House Majority Leader who looks like he could've belonged to Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack, is a reliable producer of good quotes. And he delivered on ABC News's This Week with George Stephanopoulos yesterday.

Stephanopoulos, very craftily to be sure, asked Boehner a damned-if-you-do-or-don't kind of question. "Your own senator, as I said, Mike DeWine, thinks Rumsfeld has to go. Do you agree?" Sephanopolis asked.

Posted at 7:00 am CDT

Glenn Thrush of Newsday has an interesting piece in his paper today about a person he describes as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's "former right-hand man" who has made sizable financial contributions to Sen. Hillary Clinton's political action committee.

It all seems very strange, given the way the New York senator has taken to beating Rumsfeld like a pinata whenever she gets the chance.

By Glenn Thrush
Newsday Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Stephen Herbits — Donald Rumsfeld’s former right-hand man at the Pentagon and once a trusted Iraq adviser — has allied himself with the defense secretary’s nemesis, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Posted by Frank James at 2:27 pm CDT

Congressional Republicans, especially those in the House, wanted a photo op of President Bush signing the “Secure Fence Act of 2006” and today they got it.

With illegal immigration being a major issue for many voters, and not just conservatives, House Republicans badly wanted the fence legislation heading into the mid-term elections.

Posted by Frank James at 8:45 am CDT

A day after President Bush's news conference in which he said his administration is seeking "benchmarks" from the Iraqi government that mark the progress of Iraqi forces towards effectively combatting the sectarian violence in the country, the Associated Press is reporting that the Iraqi prime minister has said the new U.S. position is just an election ploy.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki said this while apparently rejecting the administration's efforts to put on a clock the U.S. project to wholly turn over the security situation in the Middle Eastern country to the Iraqis.

(President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki at lunch with U.S. military personnel in July 2006 at Fort Belvoir, Va. White House photo by Paul Morse.)

Posted by Frank James at 3:35 pm CDT

President Bush appeared to take a thinly veiled shot at Illinois's junior senator during today's White House news conference.

He didn't mention Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) by name (it wouldn't have been "thinly-veiled" then.) But during a part of the press conference where the president alleged that there were "people" (read Democrats) who were acting as though they had won the election already, he was obviously thinking Obama.

"And we're going to win. Now, I know that defies conventional wisdom here. I'm not suggesting anybody in this august crowd has determined the outcome of the election already, but they're running profiles on who this person is going to be running this office, or this one that's going to be -- magazines have got all kinds of new stars emerging when they haven't won the votes yet."

It seems that Time magazine Obama cover really got under Bush's skin.

Posted by Frank James at 2:45 pm CDT

The Democratic National Committee has a new web ad meant to point out the Bush administration's change of direction in the use of the phrase "stay the course." It's worth a look.

Posted by Mark Silva at 11:45 am CDT

Acknowledging discouraging setbacks in the war in Iraq – including the greatest American death toll in a year of combat there – President Bush today faced the greatest threat to his party's chances on Election Day with a vow that the United States will be undeterred.

The president delivered an unusual report of the casualties that Americans are suffering – voicing a body-count of the 93 Americans who had died in Iraq so far this month – at a press conference in the East Room of the White House.

And with this appearance – the first time that he has staged two formal press conferences in one month – a solemn and resolute president displayed more candor about the difficulty of the struggle in Iraq than he has demonstrated before, while insisting that the U.S. is "winning.''

Posted by Frank James at 8:57 am CDT

Got an e-mail yesterday from Democratic operative David Sirota who is working for Democratic nominee Ned Lamont in the Connecticut Senate race against Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) who is running as an independent.

It contained a Lamont ad that is drawing a lot of attention because it reaches new heights of anti-Liebermanism.

The ad compares Lieberman's Iraq positions to President Richard Nixon's Vietnam position. You may have seen it already but here it is for those who haven't.

Posted by Frank James at 2:26 pm CDT, updated at 3:10 pm CDT

House Speaker Rep. Dennnis Hastert (R-Ill.) is before the House Ethics Committee now. He's been there for more than two hours, presumably explaining his role in the Foley Affair.

His appearance before the panel today followed hard on the heels that of Rep. Tom Reynolds (R-N.Y.,) who has publicly said he told Hastert earlier this year about former Republican congressman Mark Foley's innapropriate communications with House pages.

Hastert has said he doesn't remember Reynolds mentioning this Foley problem to him. There's many a reporter in Washington who would love to be inside the room to see how Hastert's lack of recollection is playing, especially with the Democrats on the panel who are no doubt smelling blood.

Posted by Frank James at 8:06 am CDT, revised at 10:45 am CDT

Is the Republican National Committee's playing the race card in a television ad against Rep. Harold Ford Jr., the African-American who hopes to be the first black elected to the Senate from a southern state since Reconstruction?

It certainly looked like it to William Cohen, the former Clinton administration Defense Secretary and one-time Republican U.S. senator from Maine.

Posted by Frank James at 3:09 pm and updated at 8:10 pm CDT

The Congress and the White House haven’t been on the same wavelength when it comes to how and when President Bush should sign the legislation to authorize the 700-mile fence on the nation’s border with Mexico, a barrier meant to slow down illegal immigration.

Passing the border-fence legislation was one of Congress’s last, much ballyhooed acts before it adjourned to allow members to return to their states and districts to campaign.

Posted by Frank James at 10:47 am CDT

Sometimes a man has to change his mind--for the good of his country, of course.

That seems to be the position Sen. Barack Obama Today on NBC News's "Meet the Press" program, the junior Democratic senator from Illinois pretty much backed off the statement he made earlier this year on the same show that he wouldn't seek the presidency in 2008.

Obama: "That was how I was thinking at that time I don't want to be coy about this. Given the responses that I've been getting over the last several months, I have thought about the possibility. But I have not thought about it with the seriousness and depth that I think is required. My main focus is '06 and making sure we retake the Congress. After Nov. 7 I'll sit down and consider it. If at some point I change my mind I'll make a public announcment and everybody will be able to go at me."

Obama: "A bit."

It sounds like Obama is taking the approach of another politician from Illinois, President Abraham Lincoln who once famously said "... I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views." Obama's new, truer view appears to be that he was wrong to say no to a White House run earlier this year and that if he does decide to run, enough voters won't hold his earlier "no" against him.

Posted at 8:22 am CDT

Seems that courtesy call that Karl Rove made to Connnecticut Democrat Joe Lieberman as he was losing his party's primary for reelection this year has kindled more than good feelings -- the Democrat's campaign treasury is flush with cash from leading Republican supporters of President Bush.

Lieberman's bid for reelection as an independent is going well, according to the latest polls. And the money of Bush stalwarts such as Joe Allbaugh, manager of the president's 2000 campaign, has assisted the senator in his campaign against Ned Lamont, the liberal Democrat who wrested the nomination from Lieberman. Rove's "friendly'' phone call to Lieberman on Aug. 8 was a signal to other Republicans, one strategist says, that the party's smart money is on Lieberman, not his anti-war rival, Lamont. See David Lightman's account of this from the Hartford Courant:

Posted by Frank James at 4:38 pm CDT

Expect to hear a lot from now to Election Day of the Republicans new line of attack against Democrats on the minority party’s national-security credentials.

It’s about the leak of the National Intelligence Estimate or NIE a few weeks ago that said that Iraq had become a “cause celebre” for violent jihadis.

Posted By David Lerman at 4:20 pm CDT

ARLINGTON, Va. --Former President Bill Clinton, the Democratic Party’s fundraiser-in-chief, paid a visit Thursday to a state he had twice written off in his own campaigns: Virginia.

In a measure of the strengthened position Democrats enjoy in the mid-term elections, the national party is now pumping money and star power into a conservative southern state that was supposed to be safe turf for Republicans.

Posted at 1:57 pm CDT

A story by David Lightman from today's Hartford Courant...

Bush, VP Play Up Lieberman's Woes

The Bush routine is the same one he and Cheney have been using on the campaign trail for about a month: List the horrors of a Democratic Party takeover of Congress and then talk about how cruel party officials have ousted Lieberman, now running for re-election as an independent after losing the Aug. 8 Democratic primary.

Posted by Mark Silva at 6:15 am CDT

President Bush, saddled with an unpopular war, is campaigning for Republicans in their bid to maintain control of Congress with a warning that Democrats are ready to "cut and run'' from Iraq. But Democrats are deploying Bush as a weapon against the GOP in their campaign ads.

Former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned last night in Virginia for a Democratic Senate candidate as Bush campaigned cross-state for the Republican incumbent, suggests that Republicans are running a tired old dog -- "a mangy old dog'' -- with the cut-and-run accusation against Democrats. For more on the story, see an expanded version of the article that appeared in today's Tribune below -- plus an additional sampler in The Swamp of the way Democrats are wielding Bush in ads against Republicans.

See some of the ads, too:

(Watch me discuss this story.)

Posted by Frank James at 1:40 pm CDT

The Osama bin Laden card is being played in a big way by the Republican National Committee in a new web ad released today called “The Stakes.”

The ad has appropriately menacing images of bin Laden, his number two, Ayman al Zawahiri, and other nihilistic jihadis. The only sounds--a ticking that sounds like the time on a bomb, then a heartbeat. Superimposed over the photos and video are quotes from the al Qaeda terrorists like “What is yet to come will be even greater,” which bin Laden said in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks.

Posted by Mark Silva at 1:32 pm and updated at 2:27 pm CDT

(President Bush and Rep. Don Sherwood, R-Pa., left, along with Sherwood's wife Carol and their daughter Maria, are seen on the steps of Air Force One. AP Photo/Charles Dharapak.)

RICHMOND, Va. -- President Bush is campaigning today against the head-winds of controversies that have consumed a couple of critical Republican campaigns in Virginia and Pennsylvania. In Virginia this evening, Bush also will campaign in competition with former President Bill Clinton – with Bush standing by Sen. George Allen (R., Va.) at a fundraising reception in Richmond, and Clinton alongside Allen's rival, Democrat Jim Webb, at a fundraiser in McLean.

The president today made only a passing reference to a scandal that Rep. Don Sherwood, (R., Pa.) has confronted in his bid for reelection in Pennsylvania. The congressman has admitted to a five-year extramarital affair after settling a lawsuit with a woman who accused him of physical abuse during the affair, although he denies any abuse. The president commended the congressman's wife for standing by her man.

Posted by Frank James at 7:42 am CDT

Yesterday, I asked what does White House political guru Karl Rove know that we don't know? This morning I refine that question: What does he know that many conservatives don't?

The Washington Times, the same paper that had yesterday's story about a confident Rove telling Times journalists during a visit that Republicans will hold both chambers of Congress, has another story (registration required) this morning that says conservatives are so turned off by Republican leadership, many will skip voting this year.

Posted by John Biemer at 5:39 pm CDT

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama stepped up to help Democratic 6th District Candidate Tammy Duckworth respond to ads from Republican opponent Peter Roskam attacking her position on illegal immigration.

Roskam’s new ad places Duckworth’s face next to U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and footage of people scaling a wall and states that she “supports Ted Kennedy’s plan to give amnesty to illegal aliens.”

Posted by Frank James at 5:09 pm CDT

All day students of politics have been asking the question what does White House advisor Karl Rove know that we don't?

The man credited, after President Bush, with the 2000 and 2004 White House wins and the 2002 success of congressional Republicans told the Washington Times yesterday that he is confident Republicans will hold not just the Senate but the House too.

Posted by Frank James at 4:20 pm CDT

So what are we to make of this news that the Homeland Security Department has shared with National Football League teams information about a web site threat to explode dirty bombs outside seven stadiums this weekend?

Not much, based on how quickly DHS is moving to play down the information.

Posted at 9:59 am CDT

A story by Jill Zuckman in today's Chicago Tribune...

Obama dips toe in 2008 waters
Toll on his family called key concern

"He has gotten the presidential bug bite," said Donna Brazile, campaign manager for Al Gore in 2000. "Barack is constantly calling, he's constantly talking to people. He's not calling me to check on the weather. I'm not saying he's in, but he's checking the water. He's having lots of conversations." Brazile said she is scheduled to talk politics with Obama shortly after Election Day.

Posted by Frank James at 12:45 pm CDT

Today’s signing by President Bush of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 gave Republicans an opportunity to bash congressional Democrats for differing with the majority party on how to fight the War on Terror.

For instance, House Speaker Dennis Hastert issued a statement today in which he lauded the president and congressional Republicans for enacting the legislation.

(President Bush signs the Military Commissions Act of 2006 at the White House. Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images.)

Posted by Frank James at 10:37 am CDT

With the U.S. reaching 300 million in population sometime this morning, you might expect some kind of White House ceremony marking the milestone.

But none is planned, according to Tony Fratto, a White House spokesperson I talked with this morning. He said there’d be a statement later today but that’s about it.

Posted by Frank James at 5:00 pm CDT

Last week, I wrote that all the fuss over a particular real-estate transaction by Sen. Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who is the Senate minority leader, was much ado about nothing.

Reid was accused in an Associated Press story and by his Republican opponents of not properly disclosing on his Senate ethics forms the 2001 “sale” of some property he owned.

Posted by Frank James at 3:00 pm CDT

I came across two pieces of political commentary I highly recommend. Both are very smart discussions of the reasons why, even in an environment highly favorable to Democrats like the current one, Republicans could still hold onto the lower chamber.

The first, by Bruce Reed, a former advisor to President Bill Clinton and head of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, focuses in on how congressional redistricting has seriously locked in the advantages held by incumbents, especially those in the Republican majority. According to Reed in a recent entry to his Slate column "The Has Been":

Posted by Frank James at 5:30 pm CDT

The tempest that’s been created over Sen. Harry Reid’s Las Vegas real-estate transaction puts me in mind of the famous poet’s famous line “There is no there, there.”

In Reid’s case, the line could be adapted to say: There was no sale there.

Posted by Frank James at 1:58 pm CDT

An observation about yesterday’s presidential news conference. Over the years, it has become almost axiomatic that the Washington press corps cares mainly for scandals, especially if sex is involved, while ignoring issues of great moment.

But at yesterday’s White House Rose Garden press conference, the White House reporters' first 13 or so questions to President Bush had to do with important affairs of state – his policy towards North Korea and the continuing difficulties for the U.S. in Iraq dominated the first 13 or so questions.

(Official White House photo by Paul Morse.)

Posted by Frank James at 12:44 pm CDT

President Bush was asked at this morning’s news conference about the new, scientifically done public-health study that estimates that there have been more than 655,000 Iraqi civilian deaths since the U.S. invasion.

CNN reporter Suzanne Malveaux asked Bush if, in light of the study, he cared to amend the 30,000 figure he cited in December and if he considered the report “credible.”

Posted by Frank James at 2:29 pm CDT

Wonkette is making sport of House Speaker Rep. Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) for holding a press availability with an Aurora, Ill. cemetery as his backdrop.

Wonkette accuses Hastert of holding the event in the graveyard. Actually, Hastert’s people deserve more credit than that. The speaker was across the street from the cemetery.

Posted by Frank James at 11:20 am CDT

So are we seeing the beginnings of the Mark Foley-related backlash at the hands of religious and other conservatives against Republican gays with important Capitol Hill staff jobs?

When I tried to gauge that last week by phoning religious-conservative groups like the Alliance for Marriage and Focus on the Family, they demurred. Even the Family Research Council didn’t get back to me with a spokesman.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 11:55 am CDT.

While the Mark Foley scandal, terrorism and the war on Iraq dominate news coverage of the coming mid-term elections, the parties and candidates are engaged in a furious behind-the-secenes struggle to one-up each other in adpating to a new technological playing field. The story below from today's Chicago Tribune offers a glimpse.

Web's role widens in campaigns
From digital video to social networking, tactics get high-tech

Go to MySpace.com and Facebook.com, the hugely popular social-networking sites, and seek out college students in the region whose profiles showed both a political science major and a liberal viewpoint.

Posted by Frank James at 7:04 pm CDT

If you didn't see the press conference House Speaker Dennis Hastert held in Batavia, Ill. outside his district office, it's worth seeing. Or at least reading the transcript which I provide later on in this post.

Is it just me or is Hastert really saying that the investigation is as much intended to discover who had the 2003 instant messages and gave them to ABC News as it is to learn what happened within the offices of the Republican leaders?

Posted by Mark Silva at 6:02 pm CDT

Most Americans aware of the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley and Capitol pages – and who isn't aware of it at this point? – believe Republican leaders attempted to cover it up, according to the results of a Time magazine survey taken this week. That's a problem for the GOP, heading into mid-term elections.

Two-thirds of those surveyed and who said they are aware of the scandal see a cover-up in the House's handling of the matter, and one quarter say it makes them less likely to vote for Republican candidates on Nov. 7. The Time survey of 1,002 voting-age Americans is reported on the magazine's Web-site today.

Posted by Frank James at 3:20 pm CDT

The Foley scandal may have pushed the Iraq War out of the headlines, but not from the minds of voters.

According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, the American people remain focused on the Iraq war, with 51 percent of surveyed voters saying the Iraq war was the most important campaign issue to them.

Posted by Frank James at 10:07 am CDT

Here are some additional quotes from the House Speaker, Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.,) who spoke with Chicago Tribune political reporter Rick Pearson yesterday.

"I've taken responsibility got it, no question about it. There needs to be a comparison in how we dealt with it and how Congresses in the past dealt with it. When we found our about it, he's gone. That was necessarily the case in the past."

This is an allusion to past page sex scandals that occurred in 1983 when Democrats controlled Congress that involved former congressmen Dan Crane, an Illinois Republican and Gerry Studds, a Massachustetts Democrat. Neither man was kicked out of Congress by the leadership, though Crane wound up losing re-election.

At one point in the interview, Hastert referred to the Mike Lux, a former political advisor and a Democratic political consultant who once worked for the liberal People for the American Way.

Posted by Frank James at 6:57 am CDT

Found this in my e-mail inbox this morning. I missed it last night when it originally popped in. It proves people on Capitol Hill are capable of brevity after all, something I've often wondered about.

Speaker's Press Office
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

# # #

Posted at 6:45 am CDT

From today's Chicago Tribune....

Hastert dodges Foley heat, denies report of repeated warnings

By Rick Pearson and Mike Dorning
Tribune staff reporters

"No. Look, I've talked to our members," Hastert said. "Our members are supportive. I think that [resignation] is exactly what our opponents would like to have happen—that I'd fold my tent and others would fold our tent and they would sweep the House."

Posted by Frank James at 12:30 pm CDT

Rep. Ray LaHood is known as a straight-talking House Republican. But he is also a loyalist to his fellow Illinois Republican, Rep. Dennis Hastert, the House Speaker.

Both qualities were on display during LaHood’s appearance on CNN yesterday. LaHood essentially absolved Hastert of blame in the Mark Foley congressional page email scandal.

Posted by David Lightman at 7:20 am CDT

Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., Tuesday night came out with his strongest statement yet regarding the Foley matter, saying he would not back any GOP leader who "knew or should have known about Mark Foley's behavior."

Shays did not single out anyone, and did not call for anyone's resignation. But, he said, "If there is any leader - Republican or Democrat - that knew or should have known about Mark Foley's behavior, he or she should step down from leadership. I will not vote for any leader who knew or should have known about Mark Foley's conduct."

Posted by John Biemer at 7:08 am CDT

Tammy Duckworth, the Democratic 6th Congressional District candidate, blasted opponent Peter Roskam’s reaction to the way Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives are handling the Rep. Mark Foley electronic messaging scandal Tuesday, saying Roskam’s response was “basically to stand by his party and his leadership and not to question them.”

Roskam, a Republican state senator from Wheaton who has been one of the leading conservative voices in the state legislature in Springfield, said he would withhold judgement on any House members until after the FBI completes an investigation, although he said the incident brings “shame on the institution” of Congress.

He also said he takes Speaker Dennis Hastert’s word that he does not recall hearing last spring about an e-mail exchange between Foley and a 16-year-old former page from Louisiana, in which Foley asked the boy to send a photo of himself.

Posted by Mark Silva at 3:32 pm CDT

STOCKTON, Calif. – President Bush, painting Democrats as "the party of cut and run'' and Republicans as the party that will protect the United States from terrorism, has opened a month-long campaign for his party's control of Congress with assurances that the GOP stands "tough'' against terrorism and warnings that opponents are "soft.''

Here in the heart of California's old Gold Rush country, where the president came to raise money for Republican congressional campaigns, and in an intensive month of campaign appearances cross-country, Bush hopes to underscore his party's commitment to a war on terrorism in a fall campaign against Democrats whose credentials the president is challenging.

Posted by Mark Silva at 2:33 pm CDT

STOCKTON, Cal. – President Bush, saying he is "disgusted by the revelations'' of former Rep. Mark Foley's email contacts with teenage pages, also voiced confidence in House Speaker Dennis Hastert's handling of the matter and the speaker's ability to ensure that an investigation is conducted.

"I was dismayed and shocked to learn about Congressman Foley's unacceptable behavior,'' Bush said today, standing outside an elementary school named for him. "I was disgusted by the revelations and disappointed that he would violate the trust of the citizens who placed him in office.''

President Bush, listening to children read in the Laura Bush Library of the George W. Bush Elementary School in Stockton, Cal., where the president stopped today to speak out about the Foley scandal -- and the need to protect children from violence. Photo by Mark Silva.

Posted by Christi Parsons at 1:30 p.m. CDT

David McSweeney, the Republican candidate in Illinois' other hot congressional race, is also standing by Hastert.

McSweeney, an investment banker from Barrington Hills, said he also believes that Hastert didn't know about the messages -- either the strange Katrina email or the explicit instant messages that came out later.

"I believe the speaker is a man of integrity," said McSweeney, who has also been high on Hastert's priority list in recent months. "I've known him for a number of years. If that's what he says, I believe him."

Posted by Frank James at 12:40 pm CDT, second revision 5:48 pm CDT

The office of House Majority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio,) has sent reporters a copy of a letter-to-the-editor the congressman wrote to the Washington Times following that paper's editorial today calling for Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) to step down as House speaker.

Boehner's letter doesn't really offer a full-throated defense of the Speaker and his importance to House Republicans. It doesn't offer reasons why it would be a terrible idea to throw Hastert under the bus, to use a phrase that has been heard a lot in Washington in recent days.

Posted by Christi Parsons at 12:05 p.m. CDT

Angry social conservatives are putting the heat on House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and other House Republicans today for the fact that there was not a more thorough investigation of Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) months ago.

But state Sen. Peter Roskam (R-Wheaton) said he isn't ready yet to blame anyone in particular.

Posted at 11:51 am CDT

The Mark Foley factor is showing up in local races and the Hartford Courant has a story today by Elizabeth Hamilton on how its emerged in some Connecticut contests...

Sex Scandal Gets Into State Races

Voila. Enter the Mark Foley scandal.

Posted by Frank James at 7:27 am CDT

The ice under House Speaker, Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.,) just cracked significantly. The Washington Times, the unabashedly conservative newspaper here in the nation's capital, is calling for Hastert to resign because of his handling of the Mark Foley affair.

This is a significant event. The paper's editorial-page editor, Tony Blankley, is one of the best known and most respected conservative voices in Washington and the nation at large.

Blankley also served as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's press secretary. As such, he's perceived as a fairly keen and articulate political analyst who certainly understands the ins and outs of how the House is managed.

Posted by Frank James at 7:30 pm CDT

Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.,) House Speaker, and fellow Illinois Republican Rep. John Shimkus stood before the cameras to today to address the scandal involving former Congressman Mark Foley and congressional pages.

Hastert and Shimkus, the chair of the House Page Board, read prepared statements at the microphones set up outside the Speaker's ornate offices then disappeared, heads down and straight ahead, through a large wooden door as reporters shouted questions at them.

But Hastert later met with a group of newspaper reporters who got to ask him their questions. His office provided a transcript of the question-and-answer session which you can read below.

Shimkus, on the other hand, didn't answer reporters' questions today. His office said in a statement: "Interview requests are not being taken at this time."

Read the Hastert transcript below:

Transcript of Q&A with Speaker Hastert on the Mark Foley Matter

Mr. Hastert. I learned about that Friday afternoon. Now let me say that my staff had been contacted about it, and we have a report and that report is available to you.

Posted by Frank James at 5:50 pm CDT

Ken Thomas, an Associated Press reporter, searched the Congressional Record for congressional page events that involved the now infamous Mark Foley, the former Republican congressman who quit Congress last week.

Thomas found a few events, including one that occurred on June 7, 2001 which was attended by Foley and Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.,) who chairs the House Page Board.

The event was held on the House floor. Its purpose was to mark the end of the year for the teenaged participants in the page program.

Posted by Mark Silva at 4:55 pm CDT

STOCKTON, Calif. – As President Bush heads for California's old Gold Rush country to raise big money for Republican members of Congress defending their seats against a Democratic attempt at takeover of the House, the president is gladly leaving Washington at a time when what the White House calls a "horrifying'' scandal has erupted within the ranks of Republicans in the House.

"The House has to clean up the mess, to the extent that there's a mess,'' White House spokesman Tony Snow said at a press briefing back in Washington today, asked about reports that former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida had engaged in sexually suggestive emails with teenage pages in the House. "The president is not responsible for going back and conducting his own personal investigation on this. The House has an obligation, and House members, I think, are talking pretty vociferously about this on both sides of the aisle.''

Posted by Frank James at 7:04 am CDT

Sunday was no day of rest for the congressional tempest set off by the emails and instant messages of former Rep. Mark Foley.

The office of Rep. Dennis Hastert, House Speaker, issued copies of letters calling for federal and state probes of former Rep. Mark Foley, who abruptly resigned from Congress Friday after disclosures that he had Internet communications, some quite sordid, with teenage congressional pages and former pages.

Posted at 11:14 am CDT

From today's Chicago Tribune, a story by the Washington bureau's Christi Parsons on attempts at damage control by the House Republican leadership following revelations of former Rep. Mark Foley's scandalous Internet contacts with teenage males and that some Republicans were aware of his activities nearly a year ago.

GOP leaders defend handling of page scandal

Aides to the speaker say he was not aware until last week of inappropriate behavior by Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), who resigned on Friday after portions of racy electronic messages between him and current and former underage congressional pages became public. But the aides conceded they could not be conclusive on the timing.

Posted by Frank James at 2:27 pm CDT

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio,) the House Majority Leader, wasn't aware of any "inappropriate contact" between former Mark Foley, the former Republican congressman who represented Palm Beach, Fla. and a congressional page, according to Kevin Smith, a Boehner spokesman in a phone conversation I had with him today.

My earlier posting said Boehner was made aware of "inappropriate contact" which is language that was used in a Washington Post story.

Posted by Mark Silva at 7:20 pm CDT

Palm Beach County, Florida, is the home of the "butterfly ballot,'' the 2000 ballot that proved so confusing that elderly liberal Democrats most likely to vote for Democrat Al Gore cast their votes for Pat Buchanan in the presidential election that ultimately took courts 36 days to decide.

Now, Palm Beach may be getting ready for another election in which the ballot is equally confusing: Florida elections officials say former Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican from the West Palm Beach area who resigned today after revelations that he had written sexually suggestive emails to a teenage male page at the Capitol, cannot remove his name from the Nov. 7 ballot. The GOP can pick a "replacement'' candidate, the state says, and people can vote for Foley if they want his stand-in.

Posted by Andrew Zajac at 4:45 p.m. CST

The campaign mailing in the accompanying photos says at least three things about the race between central Ohio Congresswoman Deborah Pryce, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, and Democrat challenger Mary Jo Kilroy.

Posted by Mark Silva at 2:45 pm CDT

Rep. Mark Foley, a Florida Republican once seen as a strong candidate for the Senate and virtually assured of reelection this year, resigned his House seat today in the midst of questions about e-mails that Foley wrote to a former male page in Washington.

Campaign aides had acknowledged that the six-term congressman e-mailed the former Capitol page five times, but had insisted there was nothing inappropriate about the exchange. The page was 16 at the time of the correspondence in August 2005.

Foley’s opponent, Democrat Tim Mahoney, a venture capitalist, had called for an investigation. The Republican Party of Florida will have to replace Foley, 52, a former state legislator and member of Congress from the West Palm Beach area since 1995, for the Nov. 7 ballot in a state whose congressional delegation is overwhelmingly Republican and faces little risk in this year’s elections.

"He did the right thing,'' said House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R., Ill.). "He did resign.''

Posted by Frank James at 1:14 pm CDT

Who do you blame, President Bush or former President Clinton for Osama bin Laden not being captured?

It’s a question that’s all of sudden become relevant with the controversy over the recent television docudrama, “The Path to 9/11;” Clinton’s memorable appearance on Fox News Sunday, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s effort earlier in the week to shift the blame on the Clinton administration.

Posted by Frank James at 8:15 am CDT

I spent a good part of Friday at the large conservative Christian gathering put on by the Family Research Council, the Washington Briefing put on by FRC Action, the council's lobbying arm.

There's a lot to discuss, so much so that I'll break up my observations into several postings.

Much of what's said at a conservative gathering like this is every bit as predictable as what's said at similar liberal gatherings. There was the spirited bashing of activist judges, Hollywood, the liberal media and liberals generally.

But that's not to say everything was predictable.

Arkansas's Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee who's exploring the themes he might use if he decides to announce a run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, gave a speech in which he didn't once mention his striking 110-pound weight loss, perhaps the best known part of his personal biography nationally.

(Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks to Family Research Council office on Friday.)

Posted by Frank James at 9:37 am CDT

From David Lightman and Mark Pazniokas of the Hartford Courant...

September 21 2006

"I have long supported the goal of universal health care," Lieberman told reporters. "Ned Lamont can talk about it. I've been doing something about it all the time I've been here."

Posted by Frank James at 8:20 am CDT

The New York Times and CBS News have a new poll out that shows that Congress has a stunningly low 25 percent public approval rating.

As the NY Times noted in its story today, this is the lowest rating Congress has received since 1994, the year voters put Newt Gingrich's House Republicans in control.

As the story also notes, this doesn't mean the Democrats will enjoy the same success as Republicans did then. But these are typically dangerous numbers for the party in control. And it seems to give congressional Republicans less to cheer about than the LA Times poll.

Posted by Frank James at 6:23 am CDT

From Ron Brownstein at the Los Angeles Times.....

THE TIMES/BLOOMBERG POLL

Bush and GOP Making Gains Among Voters
The turnaround is a sign that the election battle in November could be fierce. But history shows Democrats remain poised to claim seats.

By Ronald Brownstein
Times Staff Writer

Democrats hold a lead in the poll, 49% to 39%, when registered voters are asked which party they intend to support for Congress this year. But that advantage may rest on softening ground: On virtually every comparison between the parties measured in the survey, Republicans have improved their position since early summer.

Posted by Frank James at 4:55 pm CDT

The House passed today by a largely partisan vote of 228 to 196 the Federal Election Integrity Act of 2006 which would require anyone wanting to vote in a federal election to present polling place officials with a government-issued photo ID.

But according to the legislation, it can’t be any old government-issued photo ID. It must be one that proves its holder is a U.S. citizen.

Posted by Frank James at 2:55 pm CDT

Today, opponents of the Religious Right made another preemptive step ahead of the conservative Family Research Council’s “Values Voters” conference scheduled to start here in Washington on Friday.

The Center for American Values in Public Life, which identifies itself as a “project” of the liberal People for the American Way organization, released a survey which suggests that for most religious Americans “issues like poverty and health care are more important than hot-button social issues” like gay marriage and abortion.

Posted by Frank James at 1:10 pm CDT

A survey of voters between 18 and 30 years old indicated that they know what issues are important to them--education and college costs being number one--but aren't hearing enough about the issues that matter to them from candidates.

The poll was commissioned by Young Voter Strategies, a project at George Washington University.

Proving that youth will have its way (and that the absence of a military draft does make a difference) younger voters said the Iraq War was ranked number three among the issues they most cared about.

Compare that with another survey out today, one from the Gallup organization in which a more representative group of voters said the Iraq War was the most important issue on which they'd be placing their votes.

Posted by Frank James AT 10:41 am CDT

A Gallup/USA Today poll out today should give encouragement to House Republicans.

It indicates that when a sample of likely voters were asked their preferences on what’s called a generic congressional ballot, 48 percent said they planned on voting for Republicans with an equal percentage preferring Democrats.

Posted by Frank James at 11:31 am CDT

I had a story in Sunday’s Chicago Tribune on the Congressional Black Caucus, the thrust being that if Democrats win the House back, the caucus members stand to pick up several important committee chairmanships. Download black_caucus_story.pdf

For instance, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) would become chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee which makes tax and spending decisions and is usually preceded by the adjective "powerful." Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) would become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) would chair the House Homeland Security Committee.

Posted by Frank James at 2:10 pm CDT

Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) who pleaded guilty in federal court today on public corruption charges related to Jack Abramoff, the disgraced and convicted former lobbyist, was living quite large, according to court documents released by the Justice Department today.

For instance, A foreign businessman who wanted Ney’s help in obtaining U.S. export licenses gave Ney thousands of dollars in gambling chips the congressman could use in a British casino the businessman owned.

(U.S. Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher, center, flanked by Michael A. Mason of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, left, and Earl E. Devaney, of the Interior Department, prepares to speak at the Justice Department on Rep. Bob Ney's, R-Ohio, guilty plea to corruption. AP Photo/Chris Greenberg)

Posted by Mark Silva at 1:17 pm CDT

At the start of a critical fall campaign in which Republicans are running as the party that will protect Americans from terrrorism, President Bush and leaders of his own party are sharply split over the interrogation and trials of detainees accused of attacks against Americans.

The president, calling a Rose Garden press conference today to press his case for legislation enabling his administration to interrogate and try accused terrorists, angrily complained that if the Congress will not give him that authority, the government’s interrogation of prisoners must stop.

(President Bush at White House Rose Garden news conference. Photo by Chuck Kennedy/MCT)

Posted by Frank James at 10:32 am CDT

David Lightman, Washington bureau chief of the Hartford Courant, has a story today about Rep. Chris Shays (R-Conn.) who's facing a difficult re-election, responding to charges that the congressman trimmed his Iraq stance in the hope of gaining politically.

Shays Denies He Played Politics With Iraq Position

"I don't know if I'm going to win this election. I'm not going to argue with people who say it's a tossup, or whatever," he said in an often tense hourlong session with national reporters. "I would just like to have enough credibility with the people I've interacted with for years, because you've taken away the one thing I have, and that's my credibility."

Posted by Mark Silva at 9:17 am CDT

Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, conceded today that Republicans could lose several seats in the House and Senate this fall but maintained that the "tsunami'' that some are predicting with a Democratic takeover of either the House or Senate will not materialize.

Mehlman declined to offer numbers, but then, when asked if a scenario involving a loss of three Republican Senate seats and 12 Republican House seats is feasible, the chairman replied: "I would say those are not outrageous numbers.'' The Democrats must capture six Senate seats or 15 House seats in November to gain control of either chamber – suggesting just how precarious the House balance is.

Posted by Mike Dorning at 9:55 am CDT.

Rahm Emanuel (R-Ill.), the House Democrats' national campaign chairman, joined a pro- and anti-abortion rights Democrats this morning in introducing a campaign-season legislative package that puts the party on record setting a goal of reducing abortions in America.

The Tribune offered a preview this morning.

Democrats to roll out plan to curtail abortions

By Mike Dorning
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Reaching out to more moderate, churchgoing voters with misgivings about abortion, House Democrats plan to unveil legislation on Thursday that sets a public policy goal of reducing abortions in America.

Posted by Frank James at 9:41 am CDT

Ann Richards, the former Texas governor who died of cancer yesterday, will long be known as the woman with the updated, frosted beehive hairdo who landed one of the most devastating rhetorical punches in modern American political history.

“Poor George Bush. He can’t help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth,” she said at the 1988 Democratic National Convention of then-Vice President George H. W. Bush who was prone to mangle the English language.

Posted by Frank James at 1:47 pm CDT

Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio,) the House Majority Leader, angered Democrats’ with his statement yesterday questioning whether Democrats were for protecting Americans or protecting terrorists.

Today, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.,) the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, called from the Senate floor on his Senate Republicans to repudiate Boehner's remarks.

Posted by Frank James at 10:35 am CDT

Republicans are noting with some satisfaction that gas prices are falling. The specter of gas costing significantly more than $3 a gallon this fall had worried Republicans who feared that voters would take it out on their party in November.

But prices are well south of $3 and dropping. The Energy Information Agency indicates that gas prices in the Chicago area are now averaging about $2.86 a gallon, down from $3.27 a gallon a little over a month ago.

Posted by Frank James at 6:11 pm CDT

There was more evidence today that immigration reform is as dead as any legislation can be yet still draw a standing-room-only crowd to a congressional discussion of it.

House Republicans had a “public forum” today to discuss their findings on the Senate’s immigration reform bill, after a series of hearings on illegal immigration Republicans held during the August recess.

Posted by Frank James at 4:36 pm CDT

Just yesterday on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 Republicans and Democrats were singing in bipartisan harmony together on the stairs of the U.S. Capitol. Everyone knew that was temporary.

But things got really nasty today in Washington. At his weekly off-camera meeting with reporters, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) the House Majority Leader said something that Democrats are likely to post on their bulletin boards.

Posted by Mark Silva at 12:02 pm CDT

Public approval for President Bush's job performance has slipped below 40 percent again in the newest Gallup Poll of American attitudes toward the president -- and the last time this happened to a president at this time of year in midterm elections, he lost control of the House.

And, with just 29 percent of Americans surveyed saying they approve of the job that Congress is doing, only 32 percent voice satisfaction with "the way things are going in the country.'' All three of these benchmark measures – job approval for the president and Congress and confidence in the direction of the country – rank "low from a historical perspective,'' Gallup reports, "creating an environment which bodes well for Democrats' chances in the November midterm elections.''

Posted by Mark Silva at 8:05 am, updated at 9:24 am and 1:27 pm CDT

With his prime-time televised address from the Oval Office last night, President Bush used the hijackings of American airliners that became missiles in the hands of terrorists five years ago to make his case for a broad war against terrorism which he maintains is playing out in Iraq.

But the president's critics say the only thing hijacked last night was 16 minutes of prime-time television, taken hostage in a political act. This is what Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D, Mass.) had to say last night about the president's speech: "The president should be ashamed of using a national day of mourning to commandeer the airwaves to give a speech that was designed not to unite the country and commemorate the fallen but to seek support for a war in Iraq that he has admitted had “nothing” to do with 9/11. There will be time to debate this president’s policies in Iraq. September 11th is not that time.”

Posted by Naftali Bendavid at 10:24 a.m. CDT

For months, the message of Republicans, who face a strong Democratic challenge in the November elections, was that Democrats have no shot at retaking Congress. GOP leaders insisted that Republican candidates, organization, message and money would carry the day.

Most still say that publicly, but with polls and pundits increasingly suggesting Democrats could in fact seize the majority, at least in the House, Republicans have taken to warning their supporters about the consequences if that happens. It’s an approach that recognizes the reality of a possible Democratic takeover, and tries to turn that to the GOP’s advantage by painting a picture of how scary that could be.

Posted by Jill Zuckman at 11:15 a.m.

WASHINGTON - Ned Lamont, the Democratic nominee for Senate running against incumbent Joe Lieberman in Connecticut, is quick to say that he’s not an entrenched politician, mired in the ways of the nation’s Capitol.

“I’m not running on my long political resume, that’s for sure,’’ he told reporters over breakfast, before actually proving his point.

When asked whether he would vote to confirm Lieberman as Defense Secretary if he were to win Lieberman’s Senate seat and if President Bush were to nominate Lieberman to the cabinet post, Lamont paused, and chuckled.

Posted by Frank James at 7:00 am CDT

In an earlier post I wondered aloud why House Republican Majority Leader Rep. John Boehner (Ohio) was using the term "Capitol Hill Democrat" to describe his congressional opposition.

Why not House Democrats or congressional Democrats? I wondered. Capitol Hill Democrats really didn't move my needle but I wondered if it would have a bigger impact on people outside the Beltway.

I asked readers of The Swamp why they thought this term was being employed. I also asked Kevin Madden, Boehner's press secretary.

Posted by Jill Zuckman at 5:06 pm CDT

Sticks and stones can break their bones, and sometimes a good political zinger can cause a little damage as well.

On his first day back at work after the August recess, House Majority Leader John Boehner tagged Democrats as “Defeatocrats,’’ excoriating them for a weak will when it comes to staying the course in Iraq.

Posted by Frank James at 2:39 pm CDT

The office of House Majority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) issued a press release today which I share with readers of The Swamp because it perfectly encapsulates the talking points voters will hear Republicans use from now till election day, if all goes according to the plans of Republican strategists.

One thing that jumped out at me was the repeated use of "Capitol Hill Democrats" as opposed to House Democrats or congressional Democrats. I'm not sure what it signifies, if anything, but I've asked Boehner's spokesman if there's any significance to the repeated use of that phrase.

Maybe we can do a little Swamp focus group here. Does Capitol Hill Democrat conjure up any bad vibes for voters outside the Beltway?

No Confidence: Why Americans Don't Trust Dems With Global War on Terror
September 5, 2006

Capitol Hill Democrats often wonder why Americans have no confidence in Democrats' ability to keep America safe in a post-9/11 world. Perhaps Democrats should start by looking at their record.

Posted by Frank James at 11:31 am CDT

With the Labor Day holiday past and a mid-term election looming, the activity level here in Washington will become increasingly frantic over the next month or so.

Congress comes back into session this week and Republicans and Democrats are marking the occasion by holding competing briefings for reporters today to bash each other’s national security stance and argue why their side can do better. In short, summer’s over; back to business as usual.

Posted by Frank James at 4:25 pm CDT

The Pentagon released a sober report today about the security situation in Iraq that will probably figure prominently in the mid-term elections.

Titled "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq," the report to Congress will no doubt be used by Democrats to show that the situation on the ground in Iraq is spiraling out of control, though the document does contain some upbeat elements.

For instance, the report sanguinely says civil war can be avoided in Iraq with enough of the right actions by the Iraqi government and the U.S. military. So there's enough in the report for both war supporters and opponents to seize on.

Posted by Frank James at 10:30 am CDT

Jennifer Skalka of the Baltimore Sun, has a report on the televised debate between Rep. Ben Cardin and Kweisi Mfume, the two top Maryland Democratic candidates according to the polls for their party's nomination to fill the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Paul Sarbanes, a Democrat.

Interestingly, Mfume played the race card by saying if he won the primary, race would be neutralized as an issue since Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele is also black. Clever.

Read Jennifer's story below:

From the Baltimore Sun

Attempting to create distance between their candidacies, Kweisi Mfume criticized rival Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Benjamin L. Cardin last night for voting for the USA Patriot Act, not supporting a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq and taking special interest money, while Cardin insisted that his long record of service and his ability to get laws passed in Washington make him an effective leader.

Posted by Frank James at 3:39 pm CDT

Congress's summer recess is nearly over, in case anyone was wondering. So we were given advance notice today by Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) the House majority leader, of what to expect upon the House's return.

It shouldn't surprise anyone who's followed national politics in recent years to learn that the House will focus on security issues in September. It seems like any phrase with the word "security" in it will be part of the Republican pitch to voters who have in recent history viewed Republicans as better at on national security issues than Democrats.

Posted by Frank James at 3:19 pm CDT

Jennifer Skalka of our sister publication, the Baltimore Sun, had a story in that paper today that examined what’s at stake tonight in the Maryland senate race that could very well put a second African American in the Senate.

Tonight’s Maryland Democratic debate is between Rep. Ben Cardin and Kweisi Mfume, a former congressman and former president of the NAACP. A recent poll shows Cardin, who's white, ahead of Michael Steele, Maryland’s black Republican lieutenant governor, while Mfume, who's also black, lags behind the GOP candidate.

Read Jennifer’s story below.

Challenge moves to TV
Democratic Senate candidates Cardin, Mfume to spar tonight

It's "do or die" time for Mfume, who has trailed Cardin in polls, according to Zach Messitte, assistant professor of political science at St. Mary's College.

Posted by David Lightman at 12:52 pm CDT

Connecticut is one of the key states targeted by organized labor in this fall's election. It's got 3 sizzling races where Democrats are trying to topple incumbent Republicans, or one-fifth of the 15 seats Democrats need to retake control of the House. Here's my story from today's Hartford Courant on organized labor's plans.

$40 Million Plan Targets Races In Connecticut And 20 Other States

AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney and political director Karen Ackerman methodically detailed how unions would blitz the targeted states with phone calls, volunteer recruitment, e-mail pleas and special efforts to talk to union family members about candidates.

Posting by Frank James at 11:57 am CDT

The Gallup Poll organization has a report out today which suggests that a wise strategy for Republicans hoping to keep control of the House would be to encourage regular church goers to go the polls on election day, so long as they’re not black.

Recent Gallup polling indicates that what I’ll call the church gap between Republicans and Democrats hasn’t lessened, with registered voters who describe themselves as regular churchgoers being much more likely to vote Republican than less frequent churchgoers who tend to be Democrats.

Posted by David Lightman at 9:46 am CDT

Sometimes what matters is what a speaker doesn't say. Senate Democratic campaign committee chairman Charles Schumer spoke carefully about the Connecticut race between Democrat Ned Lamont and Independent--but still a Democrat--Joe Lieberman yesterday...

By DAVID LIGHTMAN
Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON -- Senate Democratic Campaign Chairman Charles Schumer on Tuesday ticked off five Senate races in which his party could oust Republicans in November - meaning the Democrats would need only one more to take control.

Posted by Frank James at 7:39 CDT

Glenn Thrush, a reporter in the Washington bureau of Newsday, a Tribune newspaper, has an interesting story in tomorrow's paper about Sen. Hillary Clinton's cash-starved, Democratic primary challenger, Jonathan Tasini. Read it below.

By Glenn Thrush
Newsday Washington Bureau

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s anti-war challenger in the Democratic primary has nearly sapped his $50,000 life savings in a thus-far futile attempt to draw the pro-war senator into a public debate about Iraq.

Posted by Frank James at 4:15 pm CDT

A fundraising pitch put out by the Republican National Congressional Committee caught my attention today. I made it sound like people at the NRCC were running around with their hair on fire.

Here’s an extended excerpt to give you a flavor of it. The email solicitation is from Sally Vastola, the NRCC’s executive director.

Posted by Frank James at 4:40 pm CDT

The Associated Press has a story out of Columbus, Ohio on questions that have arisen about Ohio Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt's finishing time in a marathon in 1993.

Apparently, Schmidt's opponent has accused her campaign of putting a doctored photo on the web site that shows her finishing the race with a time that would have made her one of the top finishers. Schmidt's lawyer contests the allegations.

Here's the AP story:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt is fast, capable of running a marathon in 3 hours, 19 minutes, 6 seconds.

No way, says a rival who contends that the picture from the 1993 Columbus Marathon is doctored and complained to state election officials. A four-member commission panel ruled Thursday that there was enough evidence to look into the complaint.

Posted by Frank James at 1:40 pm CDT

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is still the only African American in the Senate. But if Russell Simmons, the hip hop mogul has anything to say about it, there will be two, Republican Michael Steele being the other.

The Washington Times reported today that Simmons is scheduled to hold a fundraiser in Baltimore tonight for Steele, Maryland’s lieutenant governor who has a virtual lock on the Republican nomination for the open Senate seat.

Simmons, a founder of Def Jam, a major entertainment label, has been active in Democratic and progressive politics, helping to register thousands of new voters from the Hip Hop generation.

(Russell Simmons. McClatchy-Tribune photo by Chuck Fadely)

Posted by Mark Silva at 2:35 pm CDT

Sen. John Kerry, who suffered from some “Swift-boating’’ in the presidential campaign of 2004, has lunged into the great Wal-Mart debate of 2006 with a complaint that working people are getting Swift-boated now.

What got Kerry’s attention was a posting on townhall.com, a wide-ranging Internet-based opinion forum, in which Herman Cain, an Atlanta-based entrepreneur, rallied to Wal-Mart’s defense with a complaint that the Democrats have become “Hezbocrats, a roaming band of militant guerrillas seeking their party’s 2008 nomination for president’’ lobbing “their rhetorical bombs at Wal-Mart, that cruel capitalist occupying corporation.’’

Posted by David Lightman at 8:34 am CDT

President Bush's comments about Joe Lieberman Monday were widely seen in Connecticut as an embrace of the senator. Challenger Ned Lamont quickly fired back, and analysts interpreted Bush's press conference remarks as an "informal endorsement," as one observer put it. The Courant's take on the day....

Bush Boosts Lieberman's Bid
Statement Seen As Signal To GOP Voters

WASHINGTON -- For the past two weeks, top Republican party officials have spread the word that they wouldn't mind seeing Joe Lieberman win re-election.

Posted by David Lightman at 10:43 am CDT

President Bush today said he would not get involved in Connecticut's U. S. Senate campaign, but defended his administration's criticism of Democratic nominee Ned Lamont and praise for independent Joe Lieberman.

Asked at a news conference if he would campaign against Lieberman, who lost the August 8 Democratic primary to Lamont, Bush laughed and said, "I'm going to stay out of Connecticut."

Posted by David Lightman at 9:33 am CDT

Joe Lieberman's trying to show he's not simply buying the Bush administration line on Iraq. The effort to illustrate differences began just before his August 8 Connecticut Senate primary against Ned Lamont and has continued since--most notably Sunday on the nation's talk shows. But as the shows demonstrated, it won't be easy for Lieberman to maintain that distance....

Backing Away From Bush
Lieberman Stresses Differences In Views

But Democratic candidate Ned Lamont - as well as Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass. - said they were not buying it. Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain joined a chorus of Republicans who have been praising the Connecticut senator.

Posted by David Lightman at 9:30 am CDT

Will the Democratic party forgive Joe Lieberman, even if he wins re-election because of an overwhelming Republican vote? Will Senate Democrats allow him to keep his seniority if he comes back? Or will the GOP woo him with promises of top committee posts? We examine the question in today's story…

Would Party Forgive Joe?

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman says he'll stick with the Democrats if he wins his third-party re-election bid - but will the Democrats stick with him?