Democrats favored in electoral map

April 26, 2008
Democrats favored in electoral map

WASHINGTON - The electoral road to the White House favors Democrats this fall — either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton — and has Republican John McCain playing defense to thwart a presidential power shift.

A downtrodden economy, the war in Iraq and a public call for change have created an Electoral College outlook and a political environment filled with extraordinary opportunity for the Democrats and enormous challenge for the GOP nominee-in-waiting.

Democrats to Bush: You're no longer solely in charge

January 23, 2007
Democrats to Bush: You're no longer solely in charge

WASHINGTON -- Democrats blistered President Bush's war policy Tuesday night, challenging him to redeem the nation's credibility -- and his own -- with an immediate shift toward a diplomatic end to the bloody conflict in Iraq.

"The president took us into this war recklessly," the Democrats' chosen messenger, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, said in response to Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday evening. "We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable -- and predicted -- disarray that has followed."

House Dems adopt limits on 'earmarks,' deficit spending

January 6, 2007
House Dems adopt limits on 'earmarks,' deficit spending

The so-called pay-as-you-go budget rules were passed with broad support as part of a package that
also requires lawmakers to disclose which "earmarks," or spending items, they have added to bills.
The explosion of earmarks in recent years -- including the infamous "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska
-- fueled voters' anger and contributed to Republicans' election losses last fall.

Democrats drying up oil industry tax breaks

January 17, 2007
Democrats drying up oil industry tax breaks

WASHINGTON — When oil company executives came before the Republican-controlled Congress in 2005 to defend their record profits amid high gasoline prices, they were spared the indignity of being sworn in under bright TV lights, as the tobacco chiefs had been a decade earlier.

But with Democrats in charge, perhaps no industry will find the new Congress less hospitable
than the oil industry.

That will be underscored Thursday when the House is expected to approve a bill that would
repeal billions of dollars in oil industry tax breaks passed by the GOP-controlled Congress.

House Democrats pass 6-bill agenda in first 100 hours

January 19, 2007
House Democrats pass 6-bill agenda in first 100 hours

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats crossed the finish line yesterday in their race to pass a six-bill agenda in the first 100 hours of the new Congress -- getting there 13 hours ahead of schedule.

From noon, Jan. 4, when the 110th Congress opened, the House had been in session 87 hours when, shortly after 6 p.m. yesterday, it passed the last of the "Six for '06" bills that Democrats
promised to deliver within 100 hours of assuming power.

Senate passes Democrats' ethics bill

January 18, 2007
Senate passes Democrats' ethics bill

WASHINGTON — The Senate, responding to voter frustration with corruption and special
interest influence in Washington, on Thursday overwhelmingly approved far-reaching ethics and
lobbying reform legislation.

Under the bill, passed 96-2, senators will give up gifts and free travel from
lobbyists, pay more for travel on corporate jets and make themselves more accountable for the pet
projects they insert into bills.

January 20, 2007
Poll: Americans Trust Democrats in Iraq

Bush's Iraq plan isn't doing anything for his personal approval rating either; it's again stuck at
its lowest point in the history of the poll (31 percent). Meanwhile, the new Democratic-controlled
Congress is getting relatively high marks. And 55 percent actually trust Congressional Dems on
U.S. policy in Iraq, far more than the 32 percent who trust their commander in chief.

While Democrats and Republicans have roundly criticized Bush's proposal, the
president—who received his lowest ratings so far for his handling of the war (24 percent)
and terrorism (41 percent)—told a group of U.S. television stations this week that "I
believe it will work." He is in the minority. Nearly half of all respondents to the NEWSWEEK poll
(45 percent) say they "strongly oppose" the plan. Nine in 10 Democrats (92 percent), 70 percent of
independents and close to a third (31 percent) of Republicans disapprove.