South Carolina:
Nikki Haley made history in the state by becoming not only the first woman but the first Indian-American woman to run for governor in last night's run off election.

Representative Tim Scott easily won against Strom Thurmond's son in the 1st District and could be come the Republican's first black congress in over a century. The South may indeed rise again, but with a slightly different look

Utah:
Tea Party backed candidate Mike Lee was selected to head up the GOP Senate race. Utah is overwhelming Republican, so no drastic changes there.

Newt Gingrich see's a lot of similarities between this year's mid terms elections and those of 1994, when Republicans swept into Congressional power under a Democratic President. The New York Times notes a few differences, namely the lower number of retirements and some successful legislation (such as health care) for Democrats to run on.

On the House floor right now. CSPAN.

Who wants a jobs bill? Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, that's who! But he's been bad and the Republicans won't let him have it, even though they agree with it. What's the issue? Well, the Senate actually.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (SC) says he could back legislation that doesn't include a public option, further signaling that the final health care bill from both houses will resemble the Senate version.

Newt Gingrich and the Tea Party are pushing for Republicans in the 2010 and 2012 elections to run on a platform of repealing any health care bill that passes.

Congress is currently not in session, the House returns on January 11th, Senate on the 18th. Though loose negotiations are said to be taking place between the chambers, nothing official will happen until the chambers gavel back into session.

Instapundit makes a comment about how Bush was about to pass legislation when majorities in both houses, something current President Obama supposedly can't. Washington Monthly unpacks the remark and examines the two very different atmospheres each President operated in:

When I look back at the Bush/Cheney era, I think of a lot of things -- incompetence, corruption, mismanagement, neglect, spectacular failures on a generational scale in almost every imaginable area of public policy -- but "accomplished legislative record" isn't one of them. He passed huge tax cuts, increased spending, expanded the federal bureaucracy, and expanded Medicare, but most of those accomplishments came in his first three years. In his entire second term, Bush sought very little -- after his Social Security privatization failed, the White House effectively stopped having a domestic agenda -- and got very little in return.

Noting the seeming mandate that the US 2008 elections, a large electoral victory, and majorities in both the House and Senate, yet major legislation remains stalled or is slowly passed, a new term is coined, Californication:

We are living through the Californiafication of America -- a country in which the combination of a determined minority and a procedural supermajority legislative requirement makes it impossible to rationally address public policy challenges. And thus the Democratic president and his allies in Congress are evaluated on the basis of extreme compromise measures -- supplicating to dispassionate Wise Men like Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman, buying Olympia Snowe a vacation home, working bills through 76 committees and countless "procedural" votes -- rather than the substantive, policy achievements of bills that would merely require a simple majority to pass.

Here's to the impossible dream: ending the filibuster and letting a simple majority rule

The US House of Representatives will be taking up the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act of 2009, which is supposed to correct a problem with the sustainable growth rate. See, back in 1997, Congress tied Medicare spending to the economic growth via a formula, with the goal of making Medicare payments to doctors predictable and thus able to budget for. However, changing dynamics in the economy made the formula not work well and rather than risk reducing Medicare payment to doctors, Congress has consistently overrides the law on yearly basis. Since those cuts are never enacted, they keep growing each year and now in 2009, they're slated to be 21.5% and go into effect on January 1st, 2010. So the House bill is supposed to be permanent fix.

Why wasn't the act in the House's health care reform bill? Because it would cost between $210-$300 billion dollars (there's debate about what the final number is) and including that amount in the final health care bill kicks the cost of that bill over a trillion dollars over ten years (i.e. about 100 billion a year, for ten years), which no one wants.

Long story short, Congress is working to pass another piece of health care legislation to that will definitely add to the deficit to the tune of between $200-$300 billion while preventing cuts in Medicare payments to doctors. Since the bill adds to the deficit, it's expected to be a contentious debate.

Elections occuring today:

Virginia Governor's race between Bob McDonnell (R) and Creigh Deeds(D). It doesn't look good for Deeds, which is interesting because Virginia went for Obama in 2008.

New Jersy Governor's race- Three candidates, Jon Corzine (D), Chris Christie (R) and Chris Daggett (I) and it looks to be a nail biter between Corzine and Christie

California congressional race, which looks to stay in Democrat's hand.

New York Congressional race- It was a three way race between Bill Owens (D), Dierdre Scozzafava (R) and Doug Hoffman (Conservative Party). Then Scozafava quit and endorse the Democrat, while her party, the Republicans endorsed Hoffman. It looks like Hoffman will win, but that's not a sure bet at this point.

Finally, both the Democrats and Republicans would love to have these elections be a symbol of their particular parties strength and their rival's weakness. They'd be fools to actually believe that, as off year elections are far from being reliably predictive.

Congressional hearings about repealing the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy are supposedly set to take place this fall, according to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. It'll be interesting to see how President Obama reacts.

An amendment to the 2010 appropriations bill requiring a CBO score and a 72 hour period of reviews has been defeated on procedural grounds. Evidently in this case it's against the rules to attach amendments to general appropriations bills that have nothing to do with the actual bill.

As if you didn't know, the President will be giving a speech about health care reform to both houses of Congress at 8pm EST. Live broadcast available via CNN, CSPAN and MSNBC or most major tv stations. Let's watch and talk about it.

Over the weekend, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus presented his idea for health care reform. It has no public option, would cost about $900 billion, tax insurance companies to pay for the uninsured and would have yearly limits of $11,900 for a family and $5,950 for an individual. Supposedly Baucus designed this to appeal to Republicans, but they don't seem interested.

The big issue is still the "public option" which is either a government take over of health care, or was to force private to be competitive for the greater good. Most conservatives don't want it, most liberals do. Currently, meaning this particular day, a "trigger option" is being floated around for the "public option" which cause the latter to kick in only if some still undefined things didn't happen from the insurance companies. The trigger is seen as a way of appealing to conservatives, both Republican and Democrat, who are wary of the public option. It doesn't seem to be too appealing though.

The President is set to make speech tomorrow before a joint session of Congress, but it's unclear how that will go. The White House still favors a public option, but it hasn't strongly advocated for one. What's next? No one really knows. Some kind of health care reform will pass, but the width and depth of it is still very uncertain.

The U.S. House of Representatives is in recess for August and on Friday the Senate will join them. Lawmakers will be spending the month talking to their constituents about a number of issues, but the main one will be healthcare reform. In the House, the three committees responsible for healthcare have all voted on their individual versions, which will have to reconciled with into one bill. There are two Senate committees dealing with healthcare and only one, HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions), has voted on their version. The other committee, Finance, is working to finish by Friday. Once each chamber works out the differences between the its various committees, which will occur a bit over the recess and then in earnest in September, there will be two separate bills, one by the House and one by the Senate. Each of these bills will then have to be reconciled with each other before being signed off by the President. So with changes still on the table and lawmakers home, August is looking like a busy month for those against and for reform.    Continues...

Despite campaigning on a promise not to use signing statements to "get his way", President Obama has been using them, though the exact purpose is a matter of debate. The House has overwhelmingly rejected use of the statements and warned Obama about continued use of them, despite being of the same party.

According to White House spokesman Ben LaBolt, “The president has also already made it clear that he will not ignore statutory obligations on the basis of policy disagreements and will reserve signing statements for legislation that raises clearly identified constitutional concerns.” Obama has only issued 6 signing statements so far, along the lines mentioned above, but their presence tends to anger Congress, which views them as an end run around their authority.

Signing statements haven't always been so controversial, they were usually political or rhetorical flourishes added by triumphant Presidents and his party. All that changed under President Reagan, where they came to be seen as way to expand and further define executive power. Every President since then, Republican or Democrat, has used them in that way.

President Obama and the Pentagon doesn't want helicopters for the President or more F-22 fighter jets, but Congress seem bent on funding them anyway, despite a veto threat.

"The defense-spending panel not only decided to keep Lockheed Martin's F-22 fighter jet program alive — despite a personal promise by the president to veto any defense bill containing more funds — but went ahead with funding for a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which also provoked an Obama veto threat. They also poured money into the now- defunct presidential helicopter program, which Obama said he doesn’t want."

North Korea is setting off it's own fireworks today, launching numerous missiles into the Sea of Japan.

Online report of expenses from U.S. House of Representative members is, surprise, running behind schedule.

The Washington Post has a book review of "Capture the Flag, A Political History of American Patriotism," which includes several nuggets of history from the book

Happy 4th of July! Eat lots of BBQ!

Now, back to talking about Sarah Palin's resignation...

The U.S. Congress has sent a $106 spending bill to President Obama, designed to provide money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill is about $20 billion more than the President requested, including:...$

4.5 billion, $1.9 billion above what the president requested, for lightweight mine-resistant vehicles, called MRAPs, and $2.7 billion for eight C-17 and seven C-130 cargo planes that the Pentagon did not ask for.

On the nonmilitary front, there's $10.4 billion in development and other aid for Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and numerous other countries;

New York Congressman John McHugh (R) has been selected to be Secretary of the Army, setting off a scramble for replacements in the Armed Services Committee and New York's 23rd Congressional District. Thought it voted for Obama in 2008, the district has been traditionally been Republican, but in recent years that gap has narrowed and Democrats believe they have a chance to pick it up.

Speculation, there and there, about the 2010 elections in the House and Senate and whether the Democrats can keep their majorities.

You can lead a U.S. Congresscritter to earmark transparency, but you can't make'em use it:

Under the new rule, touted by House Democrats and echoed by President Obama as a move toward a more open system of earmarking, members submitting spending requests for 2010 to the Appropriations Committee are required to create an active link on their webpages giving the details.

But the requirement to create a link allows for great disparity, from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) down the line to the most junior member of the minority, in how and where those requests are displayed.

Hurray for the spirit, not the letter, of the law.

Five things to watch in the NY-20 race.

The special specialness of this election.

A doctor's appointment and dilated pupils have rendered reading pretty much impossible for the next few yours, so I'm just listening to CSPAN and commenting on the antics. This also means typos, so bear with me, as the computer screen just a white glowing screen with black blobs at the moment.

There's a special election going on in New York's 20th Congressional District and the parties are watching it closely to see what it says about the Obama administration. Currently, Democrat Scotty Murphy is in the lead against Republican Jim Tedisco, but just barely, so the race could go either way.

Why Obama Can't Satisfy The Left: a look at complaints from the Left about Obama and why they don't matter:

"...there's a structural reason why Obama and Congressional Democrats may not prove as responsive to their demands as they hope. Liberals aren't as big a component of the Democratic coalition as many of the Left's leaders believe. Moderate voters are much more important to Democratic success than liberal voters. And liberals are also less important to Democrats than conservatives are to Republicans. That means liberals generally have less leverage than they recognize in these internal party arguments-and less leverage than conservatives can exert in internal struggles over the GOP's direction.

That contrast is apparent from two different angles: identification and behavior. In cumulative Pew data for 2008, Kohut says, only one-third of self-identified Democrats described themselves as liberals; the rest identified as moderates or conservatives. For Republicans the proportions were reversed: two-thirds of Republicans considered themselves conservatives, while only one-third identified as moderates or liberals. Gallup's findings are similar: in their cumulative 2008 data, just 39% of self-identified Democrats described themselves as liberals, while 70% of Republicans identified as conservatives."

Most Congresscritters agree that something must be done about Healthcare in the US, but differ in the details. That's presents a problem in the Senate, which has 58 Democrats, but needs 60 to prevent the Republicans from filibustering. So the Democrats are weighing using the Reconciliation Process, which would allow a simple majority of 51 votes to pass Healthcare legislation.

Democrats are crowing about a recent Gallup poll that shows approval for Congress is at a high point. Unsurprisingly, the Dems are feeling bold and have been tweaking the Republicans.

The House passed a bill today recognizing the importance of pi. It's HR224 (summary; text; vote). In case you're curious, 10 members, all Republicans, are anti pi. Or rather I suspect they disagree with some of the statements made in the bill about science, education, and our students' underwhelming competitiveness in science and mathematics. As a side note, my House Rep. (Edwards) cosponsored this, which makes her a huge nerd.

Did you know that US Senators submit campaign finance forms by hand, which are then typed into a computer, a process that takes weeks or months? Did you know that the House has been submitting this information electronically for the past 10 years? Sentor Russ Feingold does and wants to get this fixed, via the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act of 2009. You can probably guess that there's another Senator, Pat Roberts, threatening to block it.

Not a problem, says the Sunlight foundation. Just contact your Senator and get them to support the bill.

Obama's halftime score on the first 100 days, according to PolitiFact:" 17 of them Promise Kept and another seven as a Compromise. We've scored two as Promise Broken and two others as Stalled."

5 things to look for in President Obama's speech to a joint session of Congress, scheduled for Tuesday night. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will be giving a GOP response.

Politico has some interesting quotes from the ongoing discussions about the economic stimulus package. Congress moved the legislation forward today despite Republican resistance. Republicans presented their own plan and demanded some things Obama rejected. Bloomberg gets more into the details of the parts the Senate's Finance Committee unveiled today while Reuters provides the Cliff's Notes version of what moved ahead in Congress overall. Right now the end target is a final bill Obama can sign in February before Presidents Day.

TARP oversight? The House says yeah, but the Senate shuffles feet and looks at the ground.

Obama is set to make a speech today at 11am EST, urging support for an economic stimulus package, but at $300 billion to a trillion dollars, the devil will be in the details, be it Congress's tinkering or whether it will even work.

Meet Representative Aaron Schock of Illinois (R), the youngest congressman (27) in the oldest House of Representatives (average age 57). He arrives in Washington with an impressive record, having won by almost 60% and aiming to live up to that vote of confidence.

Not to worry, the U.S. Congress's automatic pay raise is still set to happen in 2009. There is a bill in the House to freeze pay, but it hasn't gotten much support.

OpenCongress is highlighting 5 Bills that didn't become law, but will back in the 111th Congress.

H.R.5843 – Act to Remove Federal Penalties for the Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults is interesting, but has a long shot of passing.

One of the quickest to pass will probably be S.185 – Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007, which was a centerpiece of Obama's campaign.

Louisiana held its Congressional elections today, after a delay due to Hurricane Gustav's interference with the September primary races there. In an unexpected upset, William Jefferson (D-LA) lost his Congressional seat to Republican newcomer Anh (Joseph) Cao. Cao is the first Vietnamese candidate ever elected to Congress and will represent a typically "safe" Democratic 2nd district that includes New Orleans. Jefferson was indicted for bribery in 2007 and is expected to go to trial in 2009. Differing turnout by race, lower turnout overall due to the delayed date, and shifting demographics post-Katrina may also have played a role in Jefferson's loss.

It also looks like the Democrats were unable to flip Louisiana's conservative 4th district. John Fleming is projected to win, but it was a really close race for an open seat, and his lead is less than 1% of the votes cast. Democrat Paul Carmouche has not conceded.

Yesterday the US House and Senate began debate on aid for the American auto industry. Today industry execs will be on Capital Hill, testifying (starting at 3pm EST) as to why they should get that $25 billion.

The US Senate begins its lame duck session today, on a down note:

...the prospects of enacting an auto industry bailout and a broader economic stimulus package have dwindled throughout the week and at this point both are basically being put off until January. Earlier in the week, there was some indication that the unemployment benefits extension, despite last week’s worse-than-expected numbers, was going to be held hostage to the auto industry bailout or the broader stimulus package, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

OpenCongress has released a Head to Head Vote Comparison tool, which lets you compare the voting record of one Congressman to another, or one Senator to Senator. How do McCain and Obama do? Let's find out.

On the same day that Wachovia was sold to Citigroup, the bailout bill failed to pass in the House. Final vote: 205 for, 228 against. House leadership tried to get more votes in its favor by holding the vote open a little while while they looked for more votes from each party. Meanwhile the Dow is reacting badly, down more than 500 points in the past hour.

Yesterday, the U.S. House voted to lift a decades-old ban and allow offshore drilling as part of H.R. 6899, The Comprehensive American Energy and Security, Consumer Protection Act. The Democrats have reconsidered their earlier position on offshore drilling, while Republicans mostly voted against the bill. Roll call record. The Speaker's summary of the plan, which among many other things, restricts leasing to areas between 50 and 100 miles offshore.    Continues...

What Bush Will Surrender in Iraq. "Determined to shape his legacy in Iraq, President Bush has cut Congress out of his negotiations with the al-Maliki government. Despite repeated requests, the Administration has refused to share with congressional committees the text of its negotiating draft, even on a confidential basis. But elements of the proposals under negotiation have steadily leaked out from the Iraqi side, and now an Arabic-language newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, has published what it says is the full draft agreement. The draft agreement published by Asharq Al-Awsat would clearly contravene the U.S. Constitution."