Congressional Democrats

WASHINGTON -- By most measures, congressional Democrats should have the political wind at their backs on the Iraq war. They swept to power in November because of the public's dissatisfaction with the conflict, and poll numbers indicate that most Americans want to bring the troops home. Instead, Democrats are struggling to find the best way to express congressional disapproval of the war and President Bush's troop buildup. They are wary of going too far and of not going far enough as they try to strike a balance that most Democrats, and perhaps some Republicans, can support.

WASHINGTON -- Moving closer to a showdown over funding the war in Iraq, President Bush and congressional Democratic leaders emerged from a much-anticipated White House meeting yesterday without progress toward ending an impasse over an emergency spending bill. Despite Bush's veto threat, the Democrats continued to press ahead with legislation that would force the administration to begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. "We cannot give the president a blank check," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after the meeting, which included House and Senate Republican leaders.

WASHINGTON -- The state's leading congressional Democrats, long celebrated as champions for the Chesapeake Bay, now find themselves the subject of criticism by environmental advocates.Angered activists have singled out Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Southern Maryland as "an attack dog" for his legislative efforts to knock down challenges to the state's decision to dump silt dredged from shipping channels at a site off Kent Island, called Site 104.But conservationists are also becoming increasingly critical of the quiet support given by Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes and Reps.

WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress who may ultimately control President Clinton's political fate expressed caution yesterday as they attempted to keep up with all the news conferences and startling revelations about his personal life.Even Democratic lawmakers who typically defend Clinton from partisan attacks offered only qualified support for the president, saying the accusations of perjury, obstruction of justice and solicitation of perjury were too serious to ignore. And the Republican response was muted because they feared that partisan attacks would give Clinton an opportunity to deflect attention from a deteriorating situation.

WASHINGTON -- White House lawyers will likely get more than one day this week to present a defense of the president, but Judiciary Committee Republicans demanded yesterday that the White House drop its abstract constitutional arguments and attacks on the prosecutor -- and instead present a factual defense of the charges against the president.Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde tried to meet the White House's Friday night request for three to four days to mount its defense while keeping the inquiry from spilling into next year, when Republicans will hold a narrower House majority and political pressure will demand an end to the impeachment inquiry.

WASHINGTON -- In a giant step toward ending three decades of deficits, President Clinton and Republican leaders announced agreement yesterday on a balanced budget plan that would provide tax breaks to investors and middle-class families, more aid to college students and health care to millions of uninsured children.The deal would also increase Medicare premiums for most elderly citizens, squeeze doctors and other health care providers and further restrain spending for non-military government programs.

HERE'S Murray Kempton, writing in The New York Review of Books just before last November's elections:"The Democratic hegemony over both houses of Congress has been broken but twice in the last 42 years and only when a Democrat tenanted the White House. Harry Truman was president when Dwight Eisenhower brought in a Republican Senate in 1952; and Ronald Reagan doubly blessed his party with Jimmy Carter's defeat and a Republican majority of the Senate."The rule thus appears to ordain control of the Congress by the Democrats when the president is a Republican and withdraw it only when the president is a Democrat.

WASHINGTON -- Underlying the tension between the White House and Democrats in Congress on the budget are conflicting agendas for the 1996 election campaign.For President Clinton, the first priority must be broadening his base of 43 percent of the electorate -- his share in 1992 -- to reach a majority. Although there may be a third-party candidate in the end, the White House strategy necessarily must be based on the premise of a head-to-head campaign against a Republican nominee.To reach that 51 percent, Clinton's strategy is to remind voters that he is, as promised in 1992, "a different kind of Democrat" willing to make hard choices on spending programs in the interest of reducing the federal deficit.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton may be learning one of many hard lessons for a new chief executive: he must work quickly to maintain the lead on his legislative agenda.As Mr. Clinton assumed the mantle of power yesterday, congressional Democrats were rushing to submit bills that picked up on his campaign themes of economic renewal and health-care reform. but --ed off in different directions, some where the new president may not care to go.AThe stream of proposals, which could swell into a river in coming days, illustrates both Mr. Clinton's success in marketing his domestic agenda to the nation and the difficulty he will have in controlling it. Transition officials had asked congressional Democrats to hold off on submitting bills of their own until Mr. Clinton had a chance to unveil his plans.

WASHINGTON -- Suddenly, after more than a dozen years of bipartisan, unabashed deficit spending, it has become politically chic to be stingy.Congressional Democrats, who waited all those Republican years for the chance to shape the federal budget to their own tastes, are frantically trying to outdo each other in slashing the Democratic president's budget.On Monday, the House Budget Committee wanted to cut $55 billion over five years; by yesterday, that number had swollen to $63 billion. The Senate Budget Committee is set today to boost the cuts to $90 billion.

WASHINGTON - Democratic lawmakers criticized former vice president Dick Cheney on Sunday for allegedly ordering that a CIA counter-terrorism program be kept secret from congressional leaders, with two senators questioning the legality of such secrecy. A top Democrat called for an investigation. Republicans were far more circumspect, but some acknowledged the White House should have briefed Congress. Exactly what the secret intelligence program was remained a mystery, but sources said the CIA had opened an internal inquiry.

WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats are pushing legislation to send $25 billion in emergency loans to the beleaguered auto industry in exchange for a government ownership stake in the Big Three car companies. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, both Democrats, hope for quick passage of the auto bailout during a post-election session that begins Monday. Legislation being drafted by Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, would dip into the $700 billion Wall Street rescue money, approved by Congress last month, for the auto aid. President George W. Bush is cool to the idea.

Lost amid the turmoil of this year's exciting presidential campaign is what's shaping up to be a potentially fascinating congressional cycle. Here in Maryland, results from the "Potomac primary" provided an early whiff of the changing landscape of congressional elections. Incumbent members of Congress are normally untouchable. But sophisticated challenges mounted by conservative and liberal activists helped unseat, respectively, Eastern Shore Republican Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest and Prince George's County-based Rep. Democrat Albert R. Wynn.

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Democrats moved toward a renewed confrontation with the Bush administration over the war in Iraq as the House voted last night to tie $50 billion in new war funding to a call for most U.S. troops to withdraw by December 2008. Republicans have promised to resist the funding package in the Senate, where GOP lawmakers repeatedly have used procedural maneuvers to block previous attempts to impose limits on President Bush's conduct of the war. The White House has signaled it would veto the legislation if it does pass the Senate.

WASHINGTON -- Sensing their best opportunity yet to overrule a White House that has stymied them on stem cell research and Iraq, congressional Democrats and their supporters have launched a campaign to override President Bush's veto of plans to expand the popular State Children's Health Insurance Program. With polls showing broad support even among Republican voters to expand coverage to 4 million more children nationwide, congressional Democrats are rallying their allies publicly while speaking to their GOP colleagues privately.

WASHINGTON -- Earlier in the week, his younger sister helped congressional Democrats sell expanded funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Yesterday, with the White House threatening again to veto the legislation, it was Graeme Frost's turn to take up the cause. The 12-year-old Baltimore boy, whose family relied on the government-funded insurance program after he and his sister were severely injured in a 2004 car accident, came to Washington yesterday to record the Democrats' weekly radio address.

WASHINGTON -- Seeking to end the partisan standoff over funding the war in Iraq, politically moderate senators from both parties pressed their efforts yesterday to find a compromise that could put new requirements on the Iraqi government without holding up money for U.S. troops. At least seven GOP lawmakers are involved in the talks, which come as congressional Republicans are increasingly looking to distance themselves from the president's unpopular management of the war. Meanwhile, President Bush signaled a new willingness to compromise with Congress over the terms of a war funding bill, saying he would accept benchmarks for the Iraqi government as part of an agreement.

WASHINGTON -- Defiant and unified last night in the face of a promised presidential veto, House Democrats pushed through an emergency war spending bill that orders President Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by this fall. The 218-208 vote, largely along party lines, is expected to be followed today by Senate approval of the same measure. The president has promised to veto the bill early next week. The $124 billion measure funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of the year and provides billions for veterans' health care and other nonmilitary programs.

WASHINGTON -- Moving closer to a showdown over funding the war in Iraq, President Bush and congressional Democratic leaders emerged from a much-anticipated White House meeting yesterday without progress toward ending an impasse over an emergency spending bill. Despite Bush's veto threat, the Democrats continued to press ahead with legislation that would force the administration to begin withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. "We cannot give the president a blank check," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after the meeting, which included House and Senate Republican leaders.

CRAWFORD, Texas -- On its face, President Bush's decision to use the congressional recess to fill three administration posts with appointees Senate Democrats had vowed to block - including a man who helped finance attacks against Sen. John Kerry's war record in the 2004 presidential race - was a puzzler. With Democrats in Congress pressuring him to fire Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and scale back in Iraq, and polls registering continued low approval ratings, Bush seemed to be poking a sharp stick at congressional Democrats from weak ground - in the middle of a major clash over war financing, no less.