Senate Democrats

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats permitted a committee yesterday to approve President Bush's nomination of Utah Gov. Michael O. Leavitt to be chief of the Environmental Protection Agency, but several threatened to block the nomination on the Senate floor. The Environment and Public Works Committee voted 16-2 in favor of Leavitt's nomination, though Democrats expressed reservations about his ability to lead the embattled agency on a course independent of what they called the anti-environment policies of the Bush administration.

In response to your editorial vilifying the Paul Ryan vice presidential selection ("The wrong vision," Aug. 12): There you go again. While the White House and the Senate democrats offer no budgets, or in the president's case several budgets that failed to gain even one vote by his own party, any attempt to offer solutions is demonized. The president couldn't even get on board with the Bowles-Simpson plan, crafted by a commission formed by a the president himself. Mr. Obama embraced almost no aspects of the plan, showing a total lack of leadership.

In case anyone has missed the dueling budget proposals out this week from Rep. Paul Ryan on the Republican side and Sen. Patty Murray for the Democrats, don't fret. You could easily have slept through the last four months and missed nothing. They are pretty much where the two sides have been for even longer than that. And that pretty well sums up where Washington stands on the issue of federal spending, taxes and the deficit. Both parties have won approval to some degree from voters for taking these stands, and so the incentive for actually coming up with a compromise is clearly too small for either to go out on a limb — at least for the moment.

WASHINGTON - Adding to Republican pressure on Senate Democrats to speed the confirmation of John D. Negroponte as ambassador to the United Nations, Sen. John McCain said yesterday that the vacancy in the post is "hamstringing American foreign policy." McCain, an Arizona Republican and member of the Armed Services Committee, echoed comments from the White House and Foreign Relations Committee Republicans who have criticized Democrats for delaying confirmation. "Ambassador Negroponte has served Democratic and Republican presidents with distinction over the course of his diplomatic career," McCain said.

WASHINGTON - In an unusual display of election-year harmony, Senate Democrats and Republicans, along with the White House, struck a political compromise yesterday that clears the way for confirmation of a number of President Bush's less controversial judicial nominees. Bush pledged not to bypass the Senate by appointing judicial nominees to the bench while Congress is in recess. In return, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle said the Democrats agreed to allow votes on 25 judicial nominees.

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats threatened yesterday to block nearly all business in the chamber if the Republican majority carries out a plan to unilaterally impose rule changes that ensure confirmation of President Bush's controversial judicial nominees. The threat, issued by Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, sharply escalated a partisan controversy that now could put the brakes on an array of legislative business in the Senate, where Democrats used the threat of a filibuster to block votes on 10 appellate court nominees last year.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration said for the first time yesterday that it would not accept a compromise $500 billion tax-cut plan proposed by a group of Senate Democrats, virtually ensuring that the debate over how to spend the projected budget surplus would not be settled quickly or easily. "The president will veto a $500 billion tax cut because it doesn't leave room for what's necessary," said Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers. Echoing that statement, Gene Sperling, the White House economic adviser, said the president would veto a tax cut of $800 billion or $500 billion because it threatened the country's ability to secure Medicare and Social Security and pay down the national debt.

WASHINGTON - As Senate Democrats await President Bush's first Supreme Court nomination, they have reason to question their earlier judgment that they scored a victory in the deal that sidestepped Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's scheme to outlaw the filibuster on judicial choices. Having given up their option of opposing three conservative appointments to federal appellate courts that were distasteful to them in exchange for reserving the filibuster in "extraordinary circumstances," the Democrats can wonder what they have really gained.

WASHINGTON -- Unwilling to compromise with Republicans on a two-year, $204 billion economic stimulus package, Senate Democrats failed last night to add aid for millions of senior citizens, disabled veterans and out-of-work Americans. Democrats might have to settle for only some of the spending if they want to augment a smaller stimulus package that easily cleared the House last month. That measure is a combination of tax rebates for the middle class and incentives for business investment.

WASHINGTON -- Backed solidly by the Bush administration, Senate Republicans said yesterday that they would block a $157 billion economic stimulus package championed by Senate Democrats, who said they would have no choice but to quickly adopt a cheaper, more streamlined plan approved this week by the House. Democratic Senate leaders said they still hoped to secure changes to the House plan when they voted on it next week. They said they remained on track to get the plan, a portfolio of tax rebates and business tax breaks aimed at jolting the economy, to President Bush for his signature by Feb. 15. The Democrats also said the efforts over the past two days to shape the stimulus package to reflect their economic priorities had allowed them to lay out an agenda that they would pursue in the months ahead and use to bolster the case for electing a Democrat as president and widening their majorities in Congress.