Breaking down the votes against Pelosi

Anti-Pelosi Revolt
In spite of presiding over a smashing defeat for her Caucus in Midterm Elections, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to step aside as leader, laying claim to the Minority Leader position for the 112th Congress.  But in the process, a record number of Democratic defectors expressed dissatisfaction with Pelosi by voting for Democratic moderate Heath Shuler instead. The number of defectors was small, but significant.  What it shows is that Pelosi has work to do in unifying her own caucus....

Democrats Should Stop Talking and Start Listening
As I was watching the festivities on Capitol Hill yesterday, I was thinking about Nancy Pelosi’s request to filmmaker Steven Spielberg for help in rebranding the Democratic party. If Mr. Spielberg reads this post, please ask E.T. to phone House Democrats. God knows we need the help. The best message that Democrats could come up with in 2010 was “vote for us because it’s better than not voting at all.” The transition ceremony yesterday suggests this was not a compelling ...

Heller committee assignments include GOP hotspots, but not Ways and Means
Washington — It looks like Dean Heller won’t be getting a subcommittee chair in Ways and Means, but he will have a foothold in both of the subcommittees that are expected to be prime bill drafting ground for two big GOP agenda items: extending Tax Cuts, and repealing Health Care. Heller was named to the Ways and Means subcommittee on Health today -- a position he picks up in addition to his place on the Select Revenue Measures subcommittee, which is where tax laws get written. While he’...

House Democrats Take It In Stride
"People don't really care how I feel," a discouraged-looking Barney Frank tells me in the ornate lobby outside the House floor, where politicians new and old to this scene are milling about before the 112th Congress officially gets underway. "I wish we were in power. I think the Public Policy goals I like would be better served, but we came in here with the majority, we were in the minority, back to the majority, back again," Frank says. "I'm skeptical now. The Republicans in the House seem to ...

Howard Dean Opines on 2012 Landscape
Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said on Wednesday that the demographics of the 2010 midterm electorate were much "older" and "whiter" than what was seen in 2008 and added that he expected President Obama to benefit from a larger pool of voters in 2012 that would be younger and more diverse. "I think it's likely that the president will win re-election as a result, perhaps not with the same large number of states," Dean said at a breakfast meeting with reporters hosted ...

Democrat to challenge Rep. McIntyre from the left
A North Carolina Democratic Activist is set to challenge Rep. Mike Mcintyre (D-N.C.) from the left in 2012. Citing McIntyre's Centrist voting record and opposition to the healthcare law, Democrat Del Pietro announced the primary challenge Wednesday.  "Democrats are just furious with McIntyre and I really think this is going to be his last term," said Pietro, who accused McIntyre of abandoning the core principles of his party. "A lot of Democrats in this state are furious with the Blue Dogs in...

No decision yet
* 1:20 pm - From the Senate Democrats… Leaders’ Meetings: We continue to see progress in meetings with the Governor and the Speaker but discussions are ongoing. Therefore we do not intend to release details [about] revenue options. The Senate President will be avaliable for availabilities and interviews once a clear and viable proposal emerges. Today’s leaders’ meeting has ended. We haven’t scheduled a follow-up meeting at this time. Schedule: Tomorrow is not a ...

Freshman Senators Have No Worries About Klein Bloc
Four freshman Democratic state senators sat down with reporters this afternoon. Noticeably absent was Sen. David Carlucci, one of four breakaway senators who won’t conference with the Democratic minority. The senators—Tim Kennedy of Buffalo, Michael Gianaris of Queens, Gustavo Rivera of The Bronx and Tony Avella of Queens—said they supported Minority Leader John Sampson. “We are a body of 62 independently elected people and each of them makes their decisions how they wa...

Poll: Washington Insiders Pick RomneyCare for 2012 GOP Nominee
(National Journal)- Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney continues to hold the pole position for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination in the latest National Journal Political Insiders Poll . But the surprise runner-up to Romney was the two-term Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who moved up from fifth place when the last ranking of the potential GOP White House contenders was conducted a year ago. Romney’s assets and liabilities are well known and haven’t changed much since last Ja...

Tonko joins Democrats in fighting health care repeal
Republican leaders’ plan to push Legislation repealing last year’s landmark Health Care overhaul is meeting stiff resistance from Rep. Paul Tonko and other congressional Democrats. Tonko, D-N.Y., is planning to ask members of the House Rules Committee to allow him to offer two amendments during floor debate on the Repeal Legislation that aim to protect the Health Care law. One of Tonko’s proposals would make Repeal contingent on a determination that scrapping the health care...

Boehner Dismisses CBOs Health Repeal Cost
Yahoo! Buzz House Speaker John Boehner is dismissing an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that repealing President Barack Obama ’s health bill would increase the Deficit by $230 billion over 10 years. “The CBO is entitled to their opinion,” the Ohio Republican told reporters in his first Press Conference as speaker. “CBO can only provide a score based on the assumptions that are given to them,” he added. “If you go back and look at the health c...

Filibuster Fears
Reining in the Filibuster would make it easier for Congressional majorities to enact their proposals—and to enact them in sufficiently coherent form that they have a chance of working as planned and being judged accordingly. As I say in the Comment: if it weren’t for the filibuster, the 111th Congress would have yielded a much better health-care program, including a strong Public Option; a larger and more intelligently structured stimulus; a return to Clinton-era Tax Rates for the ri...

Official Change: GOP takes control of House in 112th Congress
Yesterday, shortly after noon, the Republican Party officially swept into power in the House of Representatives, led by 85 incoming GOP freshmen, as part of a net gain of 63 seats in the chamber. The House convened with swearing in of all 435 members, followed by a roll-call vote for Speaker of the House. John Boehner of Ohio was expected to take control of the Speaker's gavel, held by Nancy Pelosi of California for the past four years. Pelosi was still bidding to be the #1 Democrat and Speaker ...

Reid: Dems will push ahead with filibuster reform
The Senate's top Democrat vowed to push ahead with Filibuster reform with or without Republican support. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said it's "very clear" that members of his party want to change Senate rules to weaken the filibuster. "They believe, as I believe, that the rules have been abused," Reid said at the Capitol after a Caucus meeting with Senate Democrats. "We hope that Republicans see the light of day and would work with us," Reid added. "If not, we'll do it on our...

At last, (some of) the Constitution is read
The Historic Incantation of the Constitution was delayed for about a half-hour, as various Democrats attempted to get the Republicans to actually read the whole Constitution, which, in the original text, has some iffy stuff about the enslavement and subjugation of various peoples. Republicans said they'd read the whole text "as amended," which means they're leaving out the stuff that amendments later changed. If we're whitewashing the shameful bits out of our founding document, we're not getting...

Holtz-Eakin sets the record straight on the debt ceiling
The Obama Administration and Democrats are presenting Republicans with their first challenge on reducing the size and scope of government with a vote expected to occur in the first half of the year to raise the Debt ceiling to almost $14.3 Trillion. Democrats and some Republicans are warning of dire economic consequences if the increase isn’t passed. Over at the Daily Caller, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former head of the Congressional Budget Office, takes issue with the view presented by the O...

Rep. Paul Ryan Suggests Repeal Bill Is All About 'Framing' For 2012
Even though Senate Democrats have unequivocally promised that they "will block" the Repeal of Health Care reform, House Republicans are moving forward with the "Repealing The Job-Killing Health Care Law Act," straining to justify what amounts to a partisan stunt. Today, for example, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) insisted that "it's not symbolic," while Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) speculated that Repeal "may very well pass the Senate." But during a discussion with Wall Street Journal editor Paul Gigo...

House Cuts Its Own Spending
Yahoo! Buzz The Republican-controlled House today passed a resolution cutting House office budgets by 5% for the next two years, a move that won’t save a lot of money in the grand scheme of things but is likely to be cited by GOP as proof it moved quickly to cut spending. In 2010, House members’ allowances to pay for staff, office space, supplies and the like totaled between $1.4 and $2 million. Leaders and committees also received separate allowances. Members’ exact allowances...

In picking Daley, Obama edges out of his comfort zone (The Ticket)
Signaling a desire to steer the West Wing in a new direction, President Obama announced today that he's tapped former Commerce Secretary Bill Daley as his next Chief of Staff. News of the move brought instant praise from the business community, which has had a shaky relationship with the White House over the last two years. But it's likely to further inflame tensions between Obama and Liberal Democrats, who aren't fans of Daley's ties to Wall Street or his Centrist political leanings. Speaking...

Constitution read aloud in House despite birther and Democrats objections
As promised, the Constitution of the United States - that really old document some find confusing or Racist - was read aloud on the floor of the House of Representatives, despite interruptions by a Heckler and Democrats trying to score cheap political points. Fox News reports that Washington Congressman Jay Inslee (D), asked if the original Constitution would be read, or the document as it current stands as amended. Showing the rust of Republicans not having presided over the House Chamber for t...

Arkansas Republicans Just Proved They Dont Care About EthicsAgain
The House has voted to seat Representative-elect Fred Smith, the man from Mississippi who apparently stole money from a Public School.  There’s plenty of shame to be heaped on everyone for this vote, including the Democratic majority, but check out the margin: The Arkansas House voted to seat Rep. Elect Fred Smith (D-Mississippi) by a 89 to 1 vote.  Today’s vote basically said they either don’t care that he lives in Mississippi or were not convinced it was proven...

Budget Cop Paul Ryan: No 'Naked' Debt Increase, No Bailouts for States
Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee in the new Republican era, is staking out territory as the tough new cop on the beat. In an hour-long session at the National Press Club, Ryan laid down conditions for raising the Debt Limit. He also said his budget won't include any money for the new Health Care law and he opposes bailing out states in fiscal crisis. The country's Debt is more than $14 Trillion and rising, and is expected to bump up against a borrowing ceiling in early spri...

White House Has Unreasonably High Hopes for Repeal Fight
The New York Times reports that the Obama Administration is pursuing a full-scale effort against the Republican’s planned Repeal vote of the Obama health-care law. As I argue in this month’s Commentary, the Democrats are continuing to operate under the misperception that Health Care is a winning political issue for them, despite considerable and continuing evidence to the contrary. New York Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner recently acknowledged losing “round one” of ...

Promises, Shomises
The paint is still drying in new-members’ offices, but Republicans have already broken promises they made on the Campaign Trail, getting themselves in hot water with the American People and their own supporters. Here’s a look at what the media is saying about the Republicans’ not-so-promising first 24 hours in office: AP “PROMISES, PROMISES: GOP drops some out of the gate”: Republicans have already violated some of the vows they made in taking stewardship of the Hou...

Boehner and Obama: The Task Ahead
In his opening remarks as the 61st Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Boehner did what he had to do. He put the country and the president on notice that he takes his responsibilities seriously, that he wants the House to get down to solving the nation’s financial difficulties, and that he believes that “Elections have consequences.” Having uttered this latter phrase in his much-publicized meeting with Republican legislators last year, Obama should appreciate the poig...