republican house members

Mephistopheles, Are Those Ice Skates on Your Feet?

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

News flash ... Hell has frozen over. Tuesday night, Mississippians elected a Democrat to fill the remainder of Republican Roger Wicker's term. Really ... No joke ... We picked up a House seat deep in the heart of Dixie, in a R +10 district..
 
Democrat Travis Childers defeated Greg Davis 52% -48-%, with 89% reporting.
 
This is the third Republican seat that Democrats have picked up in the past two months. In March, we took Speaker Hastert's former seat. And, last week, we won Louisiana's 6th District.
 
Republican threw their entire arsenal at Childers, spending more than $1.3 million dollars, not including what their 527 allies pumped in, to air a constant stream of ads tying Childers to Obama and Reverend Wright. The result? Mississippi now has three Democratic House members in a delegation of four.
 
There was a lot of GOP hand ringing after the Louisiana loss. I suspect that there will be a very very tense Republican Conference this week and there may well be coups attempts against leadership. Republican House members must be quaking in their boots. If Republicans cannot win in a R+10 seat in Dixie, where are they safe?

There's more...

Hey Laady!!! Jerry Lewis to Retire?

by Kim Stevens [courtesy of Party Line]


From Roger Salazar:

Is California’s Republican Congressional delegation poised to lose yet another member with ethical baggage from its ranks? Columnist Robert Novak is reporting that “Republican sources on Capitol Hill and in California say Rep. Jerry Lewis, ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee who has been criticized on ethical grounds, will not seek a 16th term next year.”

“Lewis came under fire last year for pouring millions of dollars worth of earmarks into his heavily Republican southern California district. He has not apologized and vigorously defended himself behind closed doors in the House Republican Conference.”

Novak reminds us: “Lewis is one of at least six Republican House members from California who have faced ethical scrutiny, beginning when former Rep. Duke Cunningham was sent to prison. Most recently, Rep. Ken Calvert, who was sponsored by Lewis for a coveted Appropriations Committee seat, is under attack. He replaced Rep. John Doolittle, who resigned from the committee because the Justice Department was investigating him.”

Nice to know the GOP promotes their potential indictees, er…excuse me, “persons of interest,” from within.

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Hey Laady!!! Jerry Lewis to Retire?

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Is California’s Republican Congressional delegation poised to lose yet another member with ethical baggage from its ranks? Columnist Robert Novak is reporting that "Republican sources on Capitol Hill and in California say Rep. Jerry Lewis, ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee who has been criticized on ethical grounds, will not seek a 16th term next year."

"Lewis came under fire last year for pouring millions of dollars worth of earmarks into his heavily Republican southern California district. He has not apologized and vigorously defended himself behind closed doors in the House Republican Conference."

Novak reminds us: "Lewis is one of at least six Republican House members from California who have faced ethical scrutiny, beginning when former Rep. Duke Cunningham was sent to prison. Most recently, Rep. Ken Calvert, who was sponsored by Lewis for a coveted Appropriations Committee seat, is under attack. He replaced Rep. John Doolittle, who resigned from the committee because the Justice Department was investigating him."

The Ball is in Dubya's Court

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The Senate just passed the Iraq Supplemental Appropriations bill 51 - 46. Republicans Gordon Smith and Chuck Hagel joined the Democratic majority.
 
Last night, the legislation passed the House 218 to 208. Two Republican House Members voted for the bill and 13 Democrats voted against it, including California's Barbara Lee, Lynn Woolsey and Maxine Waters. Jim Costa did not vote and Pete Stark voted present. All the rest of California's Members of Congress voted on party lines.
 
A few changes were made to the legislation in conference, where the differences between the Senate and House versions are reconciled. Unfortunately, at least one of those changes deleted funding that impacts California -- aid for spinach farmers impacted by last year's E. coli contamination.

Monday News Roundup

by Sheri Divers [courtesy of Blog for America]

GOP Troubles May Hurt Bid To Retake Congress in 2008

The abrupt resignations last week of two Republican House members from their sensitive committee assignments have thrust lingering legal and ethics issues back into the limelight, potentially complicating GOP efforts to retake Congress next year.

On successive days, Wednesday and Thursday, Reps. John T. Doolittle (Calif.) and Rick Renzi (Ariz.) disclosed FBI raids on their wives' businesses. The men proclaimed their innocence, but the raids exposed their legal jeopardy. The announcements were only the most recent in a series of developments that have kept the focus on the old ethical and legal clouds that helped chase the Republican Party from power on Capitol Hill.

Democrats Recruiting Challengers for Growing Target List

When Rep. Sam Graves (R) won Missouri's 6th District in 2000 with 51 percent, it was assumed that he would be a regular Democratic target. His subsequent reelection percentages -- 63 percent in 2002, 64 in 2004, 62 in 2006 -- show how quickly Graves fell off Democrats' radar. No more.

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