Kevin I thought you might get something from the following on McCain
Republican senators are seething at being forced to spend two weeks on Sen. John McCain's campaign finance bill while the new Republican president is forced to wait in line for Senate attention to his agenda.
But when the Arizonan demanded that a "patients' bill of rights" come up for Senate action by Memorial Day, that is when more than one McCain colleague decided it was time to put an end to the tail wagging the dog, so to speak. GOP senators are telling McCain, in effect and as bluntly as the unwritten rules of senatorial courtesy and good fellowship allow, to sit down and shut up.
"We are going to move ahead on the president's agenda of energy and tax cuts," McCain was told. "And by the way, President Bush came in first in last year's primaries."
Loyal Republican senators have been steaming at the specter of the loser in a primary race marching up to the White House to tell the winner, the president of the United States, that the loser has "a mandate" to pursue and enact his pet campaign finance bill.
The "mandate," registering nowhere in the polls, eludes most lawmakers who believe said mandate resides solely in the mind of McCain, a politician with a reputation for a quick temper and an inability to take criticism with good grace.
That he should dictate the agenda so early in a new administration for the campaign bill was bad enough. To gild the lily and demand quick attention also to the so-called patients' bill of rights was just too much. GOP senators are saying, in so many words, "Enough already!"
The Special Interests Behind the 'Reform'
McCain's standing with his Senate colleagues, never exactly in the stratosphere, was knocked down a couple of notches when it was revealed that his drive for the campaign bill had put him in cahoots with some of the most obnoxious left-wingers in the country. Significant, considering that this senator has boasted of being a "Goldwater conservative."
This issue was spotlighted this week when the American Conservative Union (ACU) released a report showing there is big leftist money funding the propaganda effort aimed at rallying public opinion behind this legislation, which some consider an unconstitutional assault on free speech.
The drive, according to ACU, "is controlled by liberal Democrats: wealthy soft money donors to the Democratic Party and candidates, liberal foundations and Democratic operatives."
As for the campaign bill itself, whatever version arrives in the House will face a tough uphill battle.
"Nobody gives a damn about this thing except the New York Times editorial page," a top House leader told NewsMax.com, citing the irony that many, if not most, of the lawmakers know it's unconstitutional. But some of them are waiting for the Supreme Court to do their job for them and strike it down.
The House leadership, however, is not willing to bet on the courts. The hope is that the measure can be substantially altered in that chamber, then again in the conference committee that attempts to reconcile the two versions.
The Maverick Traficant
Rep. Jim Traficant, the maverick Ohio DINO (Democrat in name only), is praising the Republicans for "getting rid of a lot of bureaucrats" and boasting that he voted for "more of the GOP Contract with America than 90 percent of the Republicans."
The House Republicans liked Jim Traficant (Rush Limbaugh’s favorite Democrat) even before the House Democratic Caucus blackballed him for voting against Richard Gephardt as speaker. And the feeling seems to be mutual.
But he is warning the GOP to beware of China. Janet Reno "is guilty of treason," he tells them. "Clinton sold us out to the Chinese."
Then, noting the huge trade deficit with China, he warns them that "China has missiles pointed at us. I just hope to God" that China "doesn't start a war with Taiwan and confront the U.S." Traficant fears the Republicans "backed off" because of China's "aggressive trade" policies.
Traficant is talking up his consumption tax bill that would "abolish the income tax and the IRS and force them to go out and get a job."
Those Clinton Holdovers
Congressman Traficant is one of many voices urging the Republicans, in his words, to "get the Clintonistas" out of government. The new Bush administration has had to keep several Clinton holdovers in place while the process of background checks, etc., goes forward on its own appointees. Finding people willing to give up lucrative private lives to take those jobs also is no day at the beach.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reportedly is amazed that it now takes about four times as long to get prospective sub-Cabinet appointees checked out and confirmed as it took the last time he was defense secretary 25 years ago in the Ford administration.
This problem, which is governmentwide, is slowing down or putting sand in the gears of the administration's ability to move forward with its policies. One Republican senator says EPA Administrator Christie Whitman's missteps on the "global warming" issue can be attributed to the influence of holdovers who had worked for her predecessor, Carol Browner, a Clinton appointee and radical environmentalist protégé of Al Gore.
Armey on Medical Privacy
As Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson ponders the 1,500-page last-minute Clinton anti-privacy medical regulation, he should expect to get a call soon from House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas.
Armey reportedly wants to talk to Thompson after feedback from those who sense that HHS has been getting high-powered input from those who think there is no real problem with the regulation. As reported by NewsMax.com, Armey earlier this month wrote a letter to Thompson urging that he reject the Clinton proposal on the grounds that it invades the privacy of patients. |
