House 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 -- In 2002, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer voted against the majority of his fellow Democrats to give President Bush the authority to attack Iraq. Now the House majority leader, Hoyer is leading the charge against the president. With House Democrats set to begin debate today on a measure challenging Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, the 67-year-old congressman from Southern Maryland has become one of the party's most visible war critics. Witness the blistering speech he gave in Washington last month, when he said "colossal misjudgment" and "gross miscalculations" had led to "the most incompetent implementation of American foreign policy in my lifetime."

WASHINGTON -- A high-ranking Department of Justice official who repeatedly refused to cooperate with congressional Democrats investigating the firings of eight federal prosecutors resigned yesterday, the third close adviser to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales to step down since the furor over the dismissals erupted. Monica M. Goodling, senior counsel to Gonzales and the Justice Department's liaison to the White House, left with words of encouragement to her embattled boss, who many Democrats believe should lose his job. "May God bless you richly as you continue your service to America," she wrote in her resignation letter.

WASHINGTON -- With the 2000 presidential campaigning already under way, the heat is mounting on Congress to reform the campaign finance laws before the next election.Although a majority of both houses were on record for key reforms last year, a GOP filibuster succeeded in derailing the effort in the Senate. So it's still highly questionable whether changes sought can be enacted before the presidential primaries and general elections.Money issuesThe major reform being pursued is a ban on unlimited, unregulated "soft" money usually funneled through state parties ostensibly for party-building activities, but really used to support presidential candidates who are supposed to be supported only by federally regulated or "hard" money.

WASHINGTON -- Forget about Iowa and New Hampshire. Suddenly, the spotlight of national politics is focused not on the fledgling presidential campaigns but on the jockeying for control of Congress next year.Yesterday's announcement by Democratic Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey that he would not seek re-election, Hillary Rodham Clinton's very public musings about a possible Senate run, and President Clinton's reported pledge to help oust House Republicans who sought his impeachment have highlighted early maneuvering in the 2000 congressional races.

WASHINGTON -- Republicans in the newly sworn in House renewed yesterday the authority of 13 lawmakers to prosecute President Clinton in the Senate, turning back the efforts of Democrats to reject the procedural vote and scuttle the trial."

WASHINGTON -- The fight between Rep. Dan Burton and House Democrats is another of those sham battles for which Congress has become famous. Nothing is as it seems.Mr. Burton, the loose-cannon Indiana conservative, seems to be suggesting that if he is allowed to grant immunity to four witnesses before the House Government Reform and OversightCommittee, he will open some rich vein of political gold. Finally, he seems to be suggesting the nation will see how grossly the Democrats violated campaign finance laws in 1996.

WASHINGTON -- The vote of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives launching an open-ended inquiry into possible impeachment of President Clinton was no surprise.The Republicans held a solid front for it, and 31 Democrats joined in, either in a pragmatic effort to protect their chances of re-election on Nov. 3 or because they thought there was no sense lying down in front of a steamroller.Mr. Clinton's pre-vote advice to fellow Democrats to vote "on principle and conscience" was yet another bit of transparent dissembling.

WASHINGTON -- Congressional and White House negotiators moved toward breaking their logjam yesterday, pledging to complete a budget deal by today even as they squabbled over spending priorities with elections three weeks away.Two weeks into the government's new fiscal year, Congress was again forced to pass a short-term funding extension to keep the government running through tomorrow. It was the third such stopgap resolution to be approved since September.House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said that they will have a bill ready for the president's expected signature by tomorrow and that Congress would likely recess on Thursday.

WASHINGTON -- Sharply divided House Democrats last night crafted an alternative proposal for an impeachment inquiry that would establish strict limits on the time and scope of an investigation into President Clinton's actions in the Monica Lewinsky case.But moderate-to-conservative Democrats, with a wary eye on the November elections, appeared to have been rebuffed in their efforts to include some type of stiff presidential punishment that would insulate them from Republican charges that they were protecting Clinton.

House Democrats ought to be embarrassed by the anti-abortion amendment grafted over the weekend to their landmark health care legislation. As ugly as the health care debate has gotten, the last thing the women of this country likely expected was that a Democrat-controlled Congress would want to limit their ability to purchase health insurance plans that cover abortion. But that's exactly what happened when the House adopted the last-minute anti-choice amendment. It goes far beyond the established practice of banning Medicaid funding for abortion and makes it difficult for anyone buying insurance with any form of government assistance to get abortion coverage.

WASHINGTON - - House Democratic leaders, while insisting they have the finish line in sight on their $1 trillion plan to overhaul the nation's health care system, have hit a last-minute snag on perhaps the most divisive issue in domestic politics - abortion. And Senate Democratic leaders' continued problems in winning over moderates in their party is raising the possibility that the votes on health care might be pushed into next year. The delays in both houses reflect the fact that even though Democrats hold solid majorities, significant divisions exist below the surface.

WASHINGTON - -Clearing the way for a critical vote on health care legislation in the next two weeks, House Democratic leaders plan to unveil a bill today that would create a new government insurance plan available in all 50 states but step back from the most robust version of the "public option." According to senior lawmakers and aides familiar with the legislation, it will not dictate what the plan can pay hospitals, doctors and other providers, a goal that many liberal Democrats had hoped for as a means to control costs.

Endangered Democratic Rep. Frank Kratovil increased his campaign funding advantage over state Sen. Andy Harris, his potential Republican opponent, during the past three months. Kratovil's fundraising performance is in line with other potentially vulnerable Democratic incumbents nationwide this year, according to a new study by a nonpartisan watchdog group. The latest Federal Election Commission disclosure reports show that Kratovil, a freshman congressman who represents the Eastern Shore and parts of several Western Shore counties, had $691,000 in the bank as of Sept.

Washington - -A photograph of Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil Jr. being hanged in effigy is prominently featured in a new national Democratic Party Web video that claims that public outbursts over President Barack Obama's health care overhaul plan are being manufactured by opponents. The anti-Kratovil episode, during a small protest outside his Salisbury district office last week, gained notice at the time on the Internet and in the local news media. But the Democratic Party ad, and related comments by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, figure to generate wider, and unwanted, attention on the freshman lawmaker, already one of the most vulnerable House Democrats in the country.

Republicans are finding a lot not to love in the House Democrats' plans for an $825 billion economic stimulus bill -- a package that they claim will actually total more than $1 trillion after adding 10 years' worth of interest required to help pay for it. Among the items that House Republican leaders have called attention to in recent days, using information provided by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office: 2.7 -- Only 2.7 percent, or $22.3 billion...

WASHINGTON - Launching an initiative that could be the cornerstone of Barack Obama's presidency, House Democrats unveiled yesterday an $825 billion spending and tax-cut plan to shore up the crippled economy he inherits on Inauguration Day. The bill, which Democratic leaders hope to enact by mid-February, includes $550 billion for spending on infrastructure, science, energy and education programs over two years, and $275 billion for tax cuts for individuals...

WASHINGTON -- Spurred by the public's deepening fears of deadly imports, Congress is moving to give federal health officials the added money and new police powers they have long wanted to fix a broken drug safety system. After years of criticizing the Food and Drug Administration's failures, Democratic and Republican legislators are coming together on strengthening the embattled agency. "FDA is overstretched in terms of its responsibilities and underfunded," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said at a hearing last week on the agency's troubles.

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats, opposed to the Senate's focus on helping homebuilders, moved yesterday to reshape housing legislation to help more homeowners. "We need to provide relief to the buyers and families themselves, not just the banks and builders," Rep. Charles B. Rangel, a New York Democrat, said in a statement. House Democrats intend to put "families first," he said. Today, Rangel's Ways and Means Committee will vote on his legislation to provide tax breaks to homeowners, first-time homebuyers and developers of low-income housing.

WASHINGTON -- House lawmakers agreed yesterday to spare more than 20 million taxpayers from the alternative minimum tax this year, bowing to Republican demands that the $50 billion in tax relief not be offset with any other tax increases. On the last day of legislative business this year, the House voted 352-64 to "patch" the AMT, ensuring that millions of middle-class households - some with incomes as low as $75,000 - will be sheltered from its bite. The bill, which the Senate has already approved, is expected to be signed by President Bush.