The Week Ahead: New sense of civility to be tested in House health debate

Hoyer: Democrats didn't "do a good enough job" in selling health care overhaul
House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) acknowledged Tuesday that his party has not succeeded in selling the public on the benefits of the national Health Care overhaul, noting that polls indicate that opinion remains divided on the law. "Apparently, none of us did a good enough job," Hoyer, the number-two House Democrat, said at his weekly pen-and-pad briefing when asked whether the White House had succeeded in selling one of its signature legislative agenda items. Hoyer's remarks came as the H...

House kicks off debate over health-care repeal
The House meets Tuesday for its first day of debate on a measure that would Repeal the national Health Care overhaul, following a week during which legislative action came to a standstill following the Tucson shooting tragedy. Debate on the Health Care Repeal bill is expected to begin after the House reconvenes at 2 p.m. The House has set aside seven hours for debate on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a vote on the measure expected to come Wednesday afternoon. The Repeal measure is expected to pass ...

United We Sit
Colorado Democrat Senator Mark Udall has put forward the oh-so-Boulder idea that politicians of both parties should intermingle for their State of the Union address seating on January 25th. Udall, and his letter's cosigners suggest that "partisan seating arrangements at State of the Union addresses serve to symbolize division instead of the common challenges we face in securing a strong future for the United States" and further that "the choreographed standing and clapping of one side of the roo...

A Kinder, Gentler Republican
Posted by Melissa Clouthier on Jan 18 2011 Filed under News & Opinion, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry Yesterday, I wrote about the silliness of the Democrats and Republicans Holding Hands and sitting together at the President’s State of the Union Address. Today, I’m reversing course, because it seems evident that the Republicans are intent on being public linguine noodles. They don&#...

White House calls health care repeal 'not serious' (AP)
WASHINGTON – The White House is dismissing a vote by House Republicans to Repeal the new Health Care law, saying it's not "a serious legislative effort." Delayed after the Mass Shooting in Tucson, Ariz., the vote is now expected Wednesday. Democrats still have a majority in the Senate and they have promised to block the effort. President Barack Obama would likely Veto the measure if it got as far as the White House. Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday that repealin...

White House calls health care repeal not serious
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is dismissing a vote by House Republicans to Repeal the new Health Care law, saying it’s not “a serious legislative effort.” Delayed after the Mass Shooting in Tucson, Ariz., the vote is now expected Wednesday. Democrats still have a majority in the Senate and they have promised to block the effort. President Barack Obama would likely Veto the measure if it got as far as the White House. Presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters ...

Scott Brown: Forget The 'Itty-Bitty' R After My Name
Speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. memorial breakfast in Boston yesterday, Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) expressed support for Bipartisan seating at the State of the Union. The one-time Tea Party poster boy minimized the importance of political affiliation, saying "people need to forget about the little itty-bitty letter behind my name and other people's names." "I'll sit wherever they put me. I don't care," Brown said, according to The Boston Herald. "That's the type of attitude we need to have ...

Sen. Brown Will Do Bipartisan Seating for SOTU
The Boston Herald reports: U.S. Sen. Scott Brown said this morning he’ll take part in the Bipartisan seating at President Obama’s State of the Union address, urging that people need to move past the “itty-bitty letter” signifying he’s a Republican at the end of his name. “I’ll sit where ever they put me. I don’t care,” Brown said at the Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in Boston. “That’s the type of attitude we need to have not only in Wash

22 Senators, 9 House members sign onto Udalls letter; no love from Colorado
WASHINGTON — Sen. Mark Udall’s idea for Republicans and Democrats to sit in mixed company during next week’s State of the Union address is getting a lot of love and support. Just not from Colorado. As of today, 21 other senators have signed the petition - including Republicans John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Olympia Snowe of Maine. Udall’s office also has signatures from nine House members. But no one from Colorado has signed the letter. In f...

Robert J. Elisberg: I Believe That John McCain is a Patriot
On Saturday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) wrote in the op-ed pages of the Washington Post that President Barack Obama "is a patriot." I'm so relieved to know. To be clear, it's admirable and noteworthy that John McCain among almost all Republicans has been upfront in his comments on civility. A needed oasis in a barren desert. The difficulty I have is that, while being glad to hear his voice on the subject, he has more to be upfront about. Further, since he remains the GOP presidential standard-be...

Sen. Udall: there's a hunger for unity in Congress
Colorado Sen. Mark Udall says a campaign to get Democrats and Republicans to sit together rather than by party during the president's State of the Union address is gaining support. The Democrat said Monday that 22 senators and nine House members have signed a letter endorsing the effort he announced last week to promote unity Congress. Udall's staff says Republican Sens. John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are among those saying they'll mix it up during the Jan. 25 speec...

Revolving door still operating
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- The departure of officials from the Obama Administration is making it difficult for the U.S. president to keep a campaign pledge, political observers say. Running for the White House, Obama promised to halt the revolving door that exists between the government and those seeking to influence it, Politico reported Tuesday. D.C. headhunter Chris Jones said lobbying firms and companies with an interest in what happens in Washington haven't been dissuaded from trying to h...

Steve King: 'Irrational Leftist Lust' Comment Based On Love, Not Violence
Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is further explaining his recent comment, made in a Human Events article, that Democrats passed Health Care reform because of an "irrational Leftist lust for Socialized Medicine." As he explained it in an interview just now on ABC News's Top Line, that's not such an incendiary thing to say. King was asked about the comment, in light of recent commentary over whether heated political Rhetoric contributed to the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). "Well, I'd say fi...

President Obama, Keep your Social Security promises
Bernie Sanders has a message for the President [pdf]: In a letter to the president, Sanders referred to what he called “worrisome reports” that Obama is considering cuts in Social Security. “I hope that information is wrong and that you will stand by your campaign promises to strengthen Social Security,” the senator said. “I urge you once again to make it clear to the American People that under your watch we will not cut Social Security benefits, raise the retireme...

A Kinder, Gentler Republican
Yesterday, I wrote about the <a href=”https://libertypundits.net/article/oooh-sit-by-me-sit-by-me-some-thoughts-about-the-state-of-the-union-seating-situation/”>silliness of the Democrats and Republicans Holding Hands and sitting together at the President’s State of the Union Address</a>. Today, I’m reversing course, because it seems evident that the Republicans are intent on being public linguine noodles. They don’t want to use any stern Rhetoric lest ...

Big-ticket items on tap for 2011 legislative session
The State Legislature and Gov. Susana Martinez will begin the 2011 session today with some big ticket items — including, most notably, a state Budget Deficit that’s estimated to be anywhere from $200 and $400 million. Martinez has vowed to fill the gap without raising taxes or making cuts to either classroom education or Medicaid. Martinez will outline her hopes for the 60-day session in her First State of the State address at 12:30 today. During the gubernatorial campaign, Martinez ...

Dick Cheney says he might seek heart transplant
Reporting from Washington — In an interview Tuesday, former Vice President Dick Cheney said he would consider seeking a heart transplant and maintained that President Obama would be voted out of office next year. Cheney, 69, has suffered from heart trouble for most of his life. His most recent of his five heart attacks was in February 2010. Last summer, he had a heart pump implanted in his chest to keep blood flowing to his vital organs. In an interview with NBC's "Today" show, Cheney, ...

Special Comment on the Nine Days Since Tuscon
To date, only one commentator or politician has expressed the slightest introspection, the slightest self-awareness, the slightest remorse, the slightest ownership, of the existence of the fantasy dream cloud of violent language by which we are now nearly blinded. Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on the nine days since Tucson. That awful night, I said this: We need to put the guns down. Just as importantly we need to put the gun metaphors away and permanently. Left, right, middle ...

State of Play
With his powerful Speech in Tucson, his legislative wins in the lame-duck session, and a modest increase in his poll numbers, President Obama certainly is politically stronger than he was in the immediate aftermath of the 2010 election. The conventional wisdom in D.C. already has begun to shift, and with Republicans toning down their Rhetoric because of the Gabrielle Giffords tragedy, the next couple of months may be a period of relative calm for the President. But there is danger ahead if the...

New York Jets Spoiled Win Over Patriots With Bad Behavior
If the country engaged in any soul-searching, post-Tucson shootings, about how we behave and speak to one another, the message was clearly lost on many in professional football. [Photo Gallery: Gabrielle Giffords Shooting in Arizona.] Sure, it’s a physical game and tensions run high. But that’s an argument for self-control in Speech and post-play behavior. The fact that athletes can get away with knocking someone to the ground and slamming them, face-mask first, into the snow to ga...

Newt Gingrich praises Bill Daley, offers advice to Sarah Palin
WASHINGTON---Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said President Obama got his "mojo back" with the hiring of Bill Daley as White House Chief of Staff to replace Rahm Emanuel and with his Tucson Speech. But Sarah Palin, who Gingrich called a "formidable" force needs to slow down and think things through more before she speaks out. Palin has been on the defensive over the use of the term "blood Libel" in a video she made in the wake of the Tucson Shooting Spree. She explained her use of the phras...

Obamas Death Panels (much like himself) Gaining Popularity
The poll finds that 40 percent of those surveyed said they support the law, while 41 percent oppose it. Just after the November congressional Elections, opposition stood at 47 percent and support was 38 percent. As for Repeal, only about one in four say they want to do away with the law completely. Among Republicans support for repeal has dropped sharply, from 61 percent after the elections to 49 percent now. I wonder if all this “will of the American People” talk from the Repu...

Frist: GOP Should Drop Repeal Effort
Sam Stein at Huffington Post reports: As congressional Republicans ready themselves for a largely symbolic effort to Repeal President Obama’s Health Care reform law, at least one former GOP leader is urging them to drop the charade and build on the Legislation instead. Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who caused a stir during the construction of Health Care reform when he said he’d vote for the bill, said it was important to consider the bill the “law of the landR...

Health care reform's unlikely GOP ally
Health Care REFORM'S UNLIKELY GOP ALLY.... Given the unanimous Republican opposition to health care reform, it continues to surprise me how much support former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has given to the Democratic effort. During a Press Conference hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, for example, Frist said the Affordable Care Act is the "law of the land" -- and Republicans should accept that and, instead of repealing it, they should consider ways to build on it. "It is no...

Obama wants to shed rules that hurt job growth (AP)
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Tuesday ordered a review of federal Regulations with an eye toward getting rid of those that stifle Job Creation and hurt Economic Growth, a move aimed at both soothing anger over the government's reach and mending Obama's relationship with the business community. The president signed an Executive Order telling federal agencies to look for rules that place an unreasonable burden on businesses. Specifically, Obama said any Regulations must reduce unc...