Insight in the workings of congress

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/29/intel-gatekeeper-the-case-file-on-senator-dianne-feinstein/

Backlash over security agreement

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/01/inhofe-fires-off-on-obama-over-trip/

Sen Inhofe is not happy about the President's trip to Afghanistan.

House Republicans Do Not Have A Plan To Pay for Bush Tax Cuts

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/domestic-taxes/224677-republicans-no-offsets-for-extending-bush-rates

This article is about the lack of "offset," cuts to spending that Republicans have planned in order to pay for a potential extension of Bush-era tax cuts.  These are a great example of expiring legislation that is put in place to potentially push a third dimension issue into future elections.  This should be a real hot button issue as we approach November and should be a clear contrast issue between Democrats and Republicans across the entire spacial model.

House takes a swing at healthcare law and extends student loan rates"Member of the of Congress took the high road on Friday to extends the low interest rates on subsidized student loans for another year but pays for that extension by killing a piece of the 2010 healthcare law, which prompted a veto threat from President Obama before the vote. Congress approved the Interest Rate Reduction Act in a 215-195 vote, this is one of the few time that a bill pass the House without truly getting a majority vote.
Although many Republicans came under fire by some conservative groups who believes that the government should stay out of the student loan business allowing it to be controlled by private industries, those Republicans and Democrats who voted for the bill had to put more emphasis on the interest of student instead of the status quot who they usually put ahead of everything. I think they did the right thing for millions of students across this great nation who will be owing twice as much in students loans than students in previous decade

Money, Love, and Congress

We’ve talked a bit about and around super PACs a few times this semester, often in reference to the Republican presidential nomination contest. Ezra Klein argues that super PACs might have their biggest influence in congressional elections:

Just as youth is wasted on the young, money is wasted on the rich. Money is least useful in contests where news coverage is most intense and opinions are most entrenched. How many people do you know who still aren’t sure what they think of Obama? Or are undecided about Romney? Probably not many.

But how many people do you know with a strong opinion on their congressman? Or on his or her challenger? Do you even have a strong opinion on your congressman? That’s the kind of “low- information” race where money can have a big impact.

Relationships

How close are Representatives to their constituents? Representative Tim Johnson of Illinois calls his constituents and talks to them personally. Calling one by one he averages about 4,000 a year. Johnson makes his own rules and tries to understand where the people are coming from.  He says, “I came to the conclusion that the problem with government is that they were too out of touch with people and had very little individual relationships.” This brings around to the idea of Fenno’s article “U.S. House Members in Their Constituencies: An Exploration” talks about the constituency, here we see that Johnson has an emotional and personal relationship with some of his constituents and this would help him get re-elected. Although he is retiring this year, he will not give up the relationship he has built until he is out of office.

Hello, Illinois

Student Loans and Attempts to Stop a Rate Increase

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/223757-house-to-vote-on-student-loans

This is an interesting article especially as students.  I know many of us are taking federal loans for our education and if you have been paying attentions rates are set to jump us to 6.8% late this summer.  It looks like an issue that can be workable for the currently split government.  I believe most leaders of either ideology believe that low cost student loans should be available to students so I wonder how quickly this will get resolved and it seems a great chance for credit taking.  Using funds from healthcare reforms "slush fund," may have an impact on future moves with Obamacare perhaps?  Interesting.

On John Edwards

Lawyers for the federal government are then expected to begin their case, arguing that nearly a million dollars that two wealthy donors gave to Mr. Edwards constitute illegal campaign contributions and were not, as he has claimed, aid from friends trying to help him hide an affair from his wife.

and

The government’s case is simple: Mr. Edwards knowingly accepted the money from the two donors and used it to keep information from the public that would have surely torpedoed his presidential campaign. Thus, the money was a campaign contribution and its use a conspiracy.

Edwards has been indicted on 6 felony counts (none of which are perjury):

• a conspiracy to accept and receive illegal payments
• false reports to the Federal Election Commission
• four counts of contributions which were in excess of federal limits

Senate

The struggles and hold-ups that have been keeping lawmakers from coming to agreement with a discretionary budget that would cut domestic and foreign aid by 28 billion. The House's decision to break away from the appropriations target has made things harder but with the support of key Republicans it is allowing the process to drudge on.

Senate gets bi-partisan

$ in politics

article

This article (see above link) is about how lobbying had generally went down this quarter, but 8 of the "biggest of the big lobbying powers"went over what they have ever spent ever. One company mentioned was Google. Google was in the mid 2000s a mid range lobbying power but now are considered "elite."The article also noted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Allen West (FL-22) Web Style

Allen West (FL-22) Web Style

Florida Congressman Allen West Web style      

·          http://west.house.gov/ : A mix of national and local, Blue color scheme

Allen West for U.S. Congress

·         http://www.allenwestforcongress.com/ : Focuses on national issues, Grey/Yellow Color Scheme

Florida Senator Marco Rubio Web Style

·         http://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/ : Some local issues but mostly focuses on national issues, Blue/grey color scheme

Florida Senator Bill Nelson Web Style

·         http://billnelson.senate.gov/ : Almost entirely national focused, with “Florida News” as local, Blue color scheme

Congressman West’s official U.S. House page falls into a mixed category based on the Gulati article. At the tope there is a banner that reads Congressman Allen West Representing the 22^nd District of Florida with himself superimposed over the Florida coastline. This is followed by access of social media such as facebook, youtube, twitter and flicker. His page is then sectioned off into Media, Constituent Services, Committees & Legislation, and Contact Me which includes a map of the Florida district. He links to national issues such as Health Care and the debt as well as local issues and photos from local events and meetings. West does not paint himself as an insider or outsider on this website. Allen West does have a personal website that is being used for campaign for reelection. It focus is mostly on hot button national issues such as the economy and national Health Care. The site also of course focuses on gaining help for the campaign and getting donations.

                Both of West’s web pages stay neutral and even use colors I have never seen before such as grey and yellow. Compared to the Florida Senate websites of Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Nelson (D-FL), West’s also matches those websites in both style and mix of national and local issues. I would say that both Senator Bill Nelson’s and Senator Marco Rubio’s sites focuses on national issues much more on National issues then local issues. Allen West’s pages as well as Marco Rubio’s are definitely more engaging and interactive then Bill Nelson’s as they have slideshows and photo galleries then provide additional information to constituents. It seems that in Florida, despite the typical Red color scheme used by Republicans, blue and grey are standard issue for both Republicans and Democrats.  Both Senate pages have images of the Senators in meetings giving more of an insider feel to them while West’s focuses on local meeting and events.  

This leads me to believe that Florida prefers an image of neutrality on colors, since none really kept with the typical color schemes, and wanted to show some kind of a balance between national and local issues. Allen West’s sites avoided images of him in meeting in Washington and focused more on local and state issues so as to not convey he’s a Washing ton insider. I also find it worth mentioning that Allen West’s web site is similar to Marco Rubio’s in many ways and I feel he covers and appeals to voters on many of the same issues, so perhaps a path to Senate it something West has in mind.

Latham Makes a $1.5 Milliion T.V. Purchase

The Hill says this reserve of air time is a reflection of the power of newly spawned Super Pacs but as we have talked about this could be a reflection that he is running against a strong opponent. The Hill also missed the theory of diminishing returns for an incumbent. It would be interesting to do the same analysis for Latham's new district as I did with the 4th to see if this new district is really a "swing" district. The 4th had been called competetive but my research has found the voting record in house races very partisan.

House clears highway bill with pipeline mandate, thwarts Obama

House Republican defies the White House veto threat and pass a legislation to extend funding for the Keystone XL pipeline until Sept. Although president Obama already Vail to use his veto power, House Republican and some Democrats get together in support of the legislation. Because major bill most be pass with bi-partisan support, House republican see this measure as a winner strategy to present their case to voter. Also member who voted in favor of the bill is on record and if president veto the bill which I think he will, Republican can argue that the president is out of touch with American who are paying high price for gasoline

House Republicans continue to demand greater transparency from the White House even though it has been more than three years into Obama Presidency. To me those demand are all about the
Republican party tying to frame the president in a negative way to score some political point. This is a prime example of how our leaders have become so polarize with party Id instead of trying to make the lives of people who voted them into office better.
 I am very disappointed to that member of Congress spend much of their time trying to win political points instead of working together to solve the country problem, I say this because if member of Congress give the Obama administration C- when it came to providing government documents to the public, what grade would they give to the previous administration D+ or D-? The previous  administration wasn't any better.

Republicans Dangle a Highway Bill to Get Another Shot at the Keystone

The House passed a Highway Bill that will extend funding through September but they have tied it to the Keystone XL pipeline which Pres. Obama has promised to veto. According to the article the bill passed with bi-partisan support therefore House Republicans see this as a 3rd dimension to add to the debate and try to push a wedge issue into the Democratic Party. If House Dems support the bill then the Pres. is just out of touch in theory and if the Pres. were to sign a bill with the Keystone in it this would turn off a lot of the Democratic base which views environmental issues as very meaningful. Interesting move, personally I am almost 100% that Pres. Obama will veto this piece of legislation. It would appear that many Dems in the House got on board because they want to see the bill in a Senate House conference.

Disagreements over future tax bill within Republican Party

Since August, when the budget difficulties really started to hit the fan, I have seen several articles that hint at the possibility that freshman Republican MCs are putting ideology before re-election.  This creates an interesting party dynamic that might cause difficulty in building voting coalitions between moderate and extreme fiscal conservatives.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0412/75275.html

Just Another Political Science Convention

James Warren covered this past weekend's Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting for The Atlantic and summarizes some interesting research.

Redistricted? Yes. Re-Stated? Maybe.

Washington state Democratic Party Chairman Dwight Pelz:

Dennis Kucinich has to decide what his legacy is going to be. Will he be remembered as a principled member of Congress or the narcissist who lost two Congressional races in two states the same year?

Meanwhile, Dennis Kucinich claims that voters are "urging [him] to run."

A great many other members of Congress have simply chosen to retire.

Polarization of Parties

Thought this was an interesting article and similar to what we went over in class covering the political polarization of current politics. Charting data in the computer and then analyzing trends both parties are on two sides of the extremes which makes compromising on important issues harder

Polarization

More Push for the Buffet Rule

In this video, Obama speaks out in support of the Buffet tax rule and urges Congress to as well. He notes it is time for a change away from "trickle" down economics and into something better for the people. I wonder what the outcome will be? Will this be voted in by Congress?