Republican Leaders

WASHINGTON -- House Republican leaders announced their support yesterday for the gun-control measures passed last week in the Senate, boosting chances that the legislation -- once considered a long shot -- will become law.Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, and other GOP leaders embraced the gun-control proposals -- including new background checks for purchases at gun shows and mandatory safety devices for handguns -- and promised they would...

Is it possible that the adults in Congress are finally taking over? That prospect has reared its head in the decision of Republican leaders in both the House and Senate to back away from another threatened government shutdown by swallowing an uncomplicated vote to raise the federal debt ceiling. First, House Speaker John Boehner looked down the black hole of government shutdown, a potential replay of the tea-party engineered kamikaze mission in October, and refused to lead his party into it again.

WASHINGTON -- Lifting a budget threat aimed at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Senate appropriators sidestepped spending limits yesterday to restore almost $300 million cut by the House.Under a plan devised by Senate Republican leaders, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration would receive the full $13.5 billion sought by President Clinton for the agency.Though the issue is still far from final resolution, the Senate action almost certainly protects the Maryland-based space facility from layoffs or canceled contracts, as some had feared.

The Maryland State Department of Education may have to pay back up to $540,000 in federal money intended to help the state's poorest schools after a scathing audit found that Baltimore City was one of two school districts that misspent the funds, using the money for dinner cruises, makeovers and meals. The report, reviewing grant expenses from 2009 and 2010, was conducted by the Office of the Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Education. It found similar misspending in Prince George's County schools.

WASHINGTON -- Desperately trying to restore order to the House, Republican leaders moved yesterday to slow the momentum of a Democratic gun-control drive and to paper over a spending dispute that has prompted rebellion in their own ranks.Speaker Dennis Hastert and his lieutenants announced the moves after a meeting in which Hastert warned his fractious Republican troops, who hold a narrow majority in the House, that they have no choice but to stand together. At stake, Hastert said, are not only their legislative goals but also their control of Congress if voters come to believe that the Republicans are unable to govern.

WASHINGTON -- Republican leaders, unmollified by a new Justice Department inquiry into whether a special prosecutor should probe President Clinton's fund-raising role, sharply turned up the pressure yesterday on Attorney General Janet Reno."

WASHINGTON -- The Republican leaders of both the House and the Senate said yesterday that legislation giving the president renewed authority to negotiate global trade accords has failed to gain enough support in Congress and blamed President Clinton for not doing enough to win over Democrats to the cause.The Senate majority leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, said there was little momentum behind the legislation and "some concern whether it will come to fruition before the end of the year" because the White House was too disengaged.

Maryland doesn't have an official motto, but it may be on the verge of winning an unofficial one -- America's Most Liberal State.That is, of course, a mythical distinction as there is no precise way of measuring such a competition among the 50 states.But there is little doubt that Maryland can be lumped with such liberal bastions as Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Minnesota -- and may well have taken a spot to their left on the overall political spectrum.While all of those states have elected moderate or conservative Republicans to statewide office this decade, Maryland has elected nothing but left-leaning Democrats in statewide balloting.

WASHINGTON -- Chinese dissidents, human rights activists and Christian conservatives will travel to Capitol Hill today to denounce U.S. policies in China, just as they did last month before President Clinton's trip to that country.But this time, the opponents will be lambasting the same Republican leaders they stood shoulder to shoulder with in June, the same leaders who for months have assailed Clinton's China policies but who tomorrow will push to uphold China's most favored nation trade status.

Henry Clay once said he'd rather be right than be president. He got his wish. Sometimes it seems that Alan Keyes, too, would rather be correct in his own eyes than get elected to the U.S. Senate. However admirable this might be in terms of intellectual honesty, it's dumb politics. And politics is the game Mr. Keyes, the Republican nominee for the Senate, is engaged in right now.Perhaps the most basic truth in campaigning for office is that you get elected by making friends, not by alienating people.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, who is facing a competitive election in November, was one of 19 House Republicans on Tuesday to oppose legislation that would ease environmental regulations for border agents working in federal parks. The legislation, which ultimately passed the GOP-led House on a 232-188 vote, would waive certain environmental requirements for U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. Environmentalists have raised concerns about road building and other construction in land otherwise protected from development.

Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander caused a ripple on Capitol Hill last week by announcing he will drop out of his party's Senate leadership to pursue a more independent course, which would seem to be a break from the GOP's my-way-or-the-highway solidarity. The news that in January he will give up his No. 3 position as Republican conference chairman was particularly surprising because the two-time presidential candidate has always been a conspicuous climber. A few years ago he ran for the No. 2 spot as Senate Republican whip and missed by a single vote; he had been expected to try again, with Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the incumbent whip, slated for retirement.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's proposed Plan B for raising the debt ceiling - a classically congressional solution to a problem in that it accomplishes little but to shift accountability away from the legislative branch - is a terrible idea. It is terrible substantively, because it allows Washington to avoid any hard decisions about getting its fiscal situation under control, and it's terrible politically because it is a Trojan horse for President Barack Obama and a poison pill for tea party Republicans.

The Sun's recent editorial regarding the debt ceiling vote ("Debt ceiling: Republicans stand by their ultimatums," June 5) compares Republicans to terrorists, criminals and lunatics for refusing to raise the debt ceiling without spending concessions from the Democrats. I find that humorous. While few people would associate the Democrats or their media minions with an understanding of personal accountability, the fact is that the actions of the Republican leaders are less like those of a terrorist or lunatic and more like a normal parent.

State Sen. Allan H. Kittleman shocked Maryland Republicans by announcing Tuesday that he will step down as Senate minority leader, a decision he said he made after fellow caucus members voiced discomfort with legislation he is pushing to recognize same-sex civil unions. "I'm a social moderate, and I wanted to stand up for what I believe in," the Howard County Republican said in a brief interview Tuesday morning on his way to the Senate chamber. He has held the position for two years.

Voters swept Republicans out of power in 2006 and 2008, and they swept them back into power in 2010. This doesn't mean that the electorate is swinging wildly from left to right but that voters are anxious and unhappy, and they want change they're not getting. Republicans might be tempted to view their victories as a validation of the course they've pursued during the last two years, but they do so at their peril — and to the detriment of the nation. As much as constituencies in the GOP may want to view the election as a repudiation of health care or a validation of the tea party movement, neither appears to be the case.

WASHINGTON - Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, a Democratic presidential candidate, suggested in a speech Wednesday that "we need a regime change in the United States" as well as in Iraq, drawing angry responses from Republican leaders who accused him of ill-timed and inappropriate remarks. Kerry told an audience in Peterborough, N.H., that President Bush had lost the trust of many international leaders with his handling of the Iraq conflict and that those relations could not be restored while Bush remained in office, according to a report in The Boston Globe yesterday.

WASHINGTON - The Senate moved closer yesterday to a constitutional confrontation over how to choose federal judges after a committee approved two of President Bush's controversial judicial nominees and sent them to the floor for confirmation. In the coming days, Republican leaders are expected to decide whether to bring one of those nominees up for a vote. Members of both parties expect such a move would trigger a parliamentary battle so potentially explosive, it has become known as the "nuclear option."

Events over the next six months will determine whether Michael S. Steele gets another term as Republican national chairman, party leaders said after Steele defended his financial stewardship in a private meeting Tuesday. "He addressed what he called the big elephant in the room," said Saul Anuzis, a national committeeman from Michigan, referring to news accounts of lavish Republican National Committee spending. "Nobody wanted to ask the question, and he came out and addressed it," said Anuzis, who lost to Steele in the chairman's race and has become an ally.

U.S. Justice Department officials haven't said where they intend to prosecute Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others suspected in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But Maryland Senate Republicans are eager to make sure the Free State isn't an option. Republican leaders in the Senate delivered a letter this week to Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, urging him to tell federal officials to look elsewhere. "We urge you ... to address this issue by rejecting potential federal incentives and immediately notifying President [Barack]