by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Republican contenders for John Doolittle's seat exchanged barbs at an Auburn forum yesterday."McClintock accused Ose of being a champion of pork-barrel 'earmarks'during three terms in Congress representing Sacramento's neighboring3rd District. Ose depicted McClintock as a career politician helpinghimself to regular pay raises and legislative financial perks."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is sparring with the Pentagon to allow domestic partners of members of Congress to travel on military flights. Pelosi intervenedwith Defense Secretary Robert Gates to allow Rep. Tammy Baldwin'sdomestic partner (D-WI) to travel on a congressional fact-finding tripto Europe.

The Speaker has also taken a stand in advising President Bush to consider boycotting the opening of the Beijing Olympics. "[Pelosi] said she regrets that China ishosting the Olympics but she is not advocating a U.S. boycott of thegames."

There's more...

 Image courtesy Sacbee.com

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By David Dayen
d-day

Congressional Democrats are now trying to move legislation that would overturn the EPA's anti-scientific decision which denied California a waiver to regulate their own tailpipe emissions. Arnold Schwarzenegger is suing the EPA. It seems that the only group of people who aren't on board with this policy are Republican members of Congress:

“Most GOP members of the state's congressional delegation are siding with the Bush administration in trying to keep states from imposing stricter regulations on greenhouse gas emissions than the federal government. Without bipartisan support from the state's representatives, the bill's proponents say, the measure's prospects are dim.

"I don't support California thinking that it can act alone effectively," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), noting that climate change is a problem that extends beyond state lines.

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The signing today of the bipartisan economic stimulus bill spearheaded by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi means that 14,700,000 families in California will receive tax rebates of up to $1,200 per couple, plus $300 per child as early as mid-May. While most of Washington, D.C. came together to provide much needed assistance to the many California families struggling to cope with higher cost of living expenses, stagnating wages, job losses and a mortgage crisis that threatens the economic security of countless Californians, one Republican in Washington was too worried about his presidential campaign to show up for a crucial vote.
 
Last week Republican frontrunner John McCain -- who recently told reporters he "doesn't really understand economics" -- was too busy campaigning and too afraid to alienate the right wing of his party to vote on a key element of the stimulus package. Despite being just miles from the capitol building, and despite the fact that fellow senators who traveled with him on the campaign trail made it back to the Senate in time to vote, McCain was the only senator to miss a vote on whether to improve the economic stimulus package by adding assistance for 20 million seniors and 250,000 disabled veterans to the package. Because of McCain's absence, the measure fell one vote short.
 

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

CMR is saddened to learn that Bay Area Rep. Tom Lantos, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the only Holocaust survivor in Congress, passed away today. He was 80 years old. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. 

AP:

"Flags were lowered to half-staff at the White House and U.S. Capitol.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "Tom Lantos was a true American hero. He was the embodiment of what it meant to have one's freedom denied and then to find it and to insist that America stand for spreading freedom and prosperity to others."

Speaking to reporters at the State Department, she said, "He was also a dear, dear friend and I am personally quite devastated by his loss."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that Lantos "used his chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs Committee to empower the powerless and give voice to the voiceless throughout the world."

The timing of Lantos' diagnosis was a particular blow because he had assumed his committee chairmanship just a year earlier, when Democrats retook control of Congress. He said then that in a sense his whole life had been a preparation for the job -- and it was. ..."

Image courtesy AP.