Published by Dave March 27th, 2007
- REMINDER: Yellow Dog University is Saturday, March 31. The day begins at 9 am.
- The Senate could begin voting today on H.R. 1591, which passed the House of Representatives last week. Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), realizing that a filibuster would simply prevent funding for the war, said that the Republicans would not filibuster the bill, meaning a simple majority is required to pass through the Senate. John McCain will finally show up for a vote in an attempt to kill the withdrawal provisions in the bill. Ben Nelson and Chuck Hagel are two key swing votes. Both voted against a withdrawal measure a little over a week ago, but Nelson has pledged support for the Senate bill, and Hagel is teaming with Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) to add troop readiness provisions to the bill.
- UPDATE: The Senate defeated, 50-48, an amendment that would have removed the withdrawal language from their version of the bill. The Senate bill calls for a nonbinding date of March 31, 2008, rather than the hard September 2008 date in the House version. Ben Nelson and Chuck Hagel voted against the amendment, ensuring its defeat.
- An aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Monica Goodling, will invoke the fifth amendment in Senate hearings, citing self-incrimination. Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ fired chief of staff, will testify on Thursday, and his testimony may contradict previous statements made by Gonzales to Congress. Gonzales is scheduled to testify on April 17.
- Glenn Greenwald with a couple of great posts about our media. Hopelessly out of touch with reality. Atrios chimes in with the important distinction between those who report the news (mostly print journalists) and those who report on the news (mostly television pundits).
- UPDATE II: We don’t pay much attention to politics across the river, but Iowa’s 5th Congressional District is represented by a certifiable wingnut named Steve King. It appears that he has his first challenger for 2008 (assuming that he doesn’t decide to challenge Tom Harkin for Senate), a Council Bluffs Democrat named Rob Hubler. I can’t find much on him. Even the prominent Iowa blogs haven’t heard of him. From what I can gather, though, his campaign looks amateur. Joyce Schulte ran against King in 2004 and 2006, losing both times. I’ve got to think that there’s an Iowa Democrat more qualified to face off against King. Mike Gronstal, for example, is the Senate Majority Leader from Council Bluffs. Obviously, he wouldn’t want to face an entrenched incumbent like King, but it suggests to me that there are western Iowa Democrats who could run a credible campaign against King.
- UPDATE III: The death penalty debate in the legislature may get another shot. Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha has proposed an amendment requiring juries to consider aggravating circumstances before imposing the death penalty. There will be a hearing on Friday, and if the proposal comes to the floor, it may have a better chance of passing than Chambers’ original bill, which called for the complete repeal of the death penalty. No telling what Heineman would do if the bill passed, but I’m guessing he’d veto it.
- UPDATE IV: LB 405, to add 2 city council districts to Omaha, advanced to Select File by a vote of 25-16 (6 present and 2 not voting). Debate was heated and contentious. The bill still needs to go through two more rounds of voting in order to pass.
- Don’t forget YDU on Saturday. A couple of other quick reminders:
great update Dave… thanks for the sweet links.
isn’t Glenn Greenwald an amazing writer? if i could force a certain number of my republican and conservative friends to read just one blog for a few months, it would be his with no doubt.