Posts Tagged ‘Denny Hastert’

A Conservative Urban Agenda?

March 22nd, 2010 by John Feehery

The same weekend that the President won his biggest legislative victory, a group of black leaders, including Jesse Jackson and radio talk show host Tavis Smiley, convened a meeting in Chicago to criticize the President for not doing enough for their besieged community.

“It would be fascinating right now to see how Martin Luther King Jr. would navigate and negotiate a dance with Barack Obama, with this president who doesn’t want to focus on a black agenda,” Smiley, a frequent critic of Obama’s policies, told the Sun-Times recently.

I think Smiley has a point.

With unemployment rates for the black community averaging 15% nationally, with certain areas, like Detroit, having unemployment rates hitting 50%, and with the unemployment rates among black males aged 18 to 35 averaging about 35%, there is no doubt that the African-American community is facing a real crisis.

And the President, who is the nation’s first African-American President, hasn’t said much about the community’s plight.

I understand why.  The President wants to be the nation’s first post-racial President.  He doesn’t want to be put into a “black” box, so to speak, where he is seen only as a black President.  He and his advisors believe that this is bad politics and could hurt his chances at re-election.  Read more...

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Can the House trust the Senate? (From CNN)

March 12th, 2010 by John Feehery

Washington (CNN) — When the Founding Fathers decided to create a bicameral legislative branch, they were trying to make things difficult for the federal government to grab power from the people.

What the Founding Fathers may not have foreseen was how much the House and the Senate would grow to dislike and distrust each other. Why is this important now? Democrats in the House may have to take the political risk of voting to pass the health care bill based on assurances from the Senate that the upper chamber will eventually modify the law to change some things House Democrats don’t want.

I live a bipartisan household. I am a creature of the House, having spent 15 years toiling as a Republican staffer in the lower chamber. My wife is a Senate girl, having spent about the same amount of time as a Republican staffer in the upper chamber. Talk about Mars and Venus.

When you are working for the House majority, you worry less about the tactics of the minority and more about the workings of an inscrutable Senate. Former Speaker Tip O’Neill reportedly once said to a Democratic colleague: “Remember, the House Republicans are merely the opposition. The Senate is the enemy.”  Read more...

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“Zest”

March 11th, 2010 by John Feehery

I always liked David Bonior.  Sure, he was a left-wing, pro-labor, hard-core Democrat, who opposed much of what my personal world-view may be.

But he had integrity.  He was pro-life Democrat, which takes a lot of courage.  And you could tell he really cared about people.

My former boss, Speaker Denny Hastert, liked Bonior too.  He was somebody in the opposition’s leadership who would always give the Speaker the straight scoop.

So, when he and his wife invited my wife and I to dinner at their new restaurant on Capitol Hill’s Barrack’s Row, I was happy to accept.  Bonior is the major investor, and his son and daughter-in-law, who have long experience in the restaurant business, actually run it.

Called “Zest”, the restaurant is just about what you would expect from somebody like David Bonior.  It serves good, American food at great American prices.  It’s not particularly flashy, but it is very comfortable, nicely lit, with a good vibe to it.

There is a bar towards the front of the restaurant with a nice-sized big screen television, which I am fairly certain will have ESPN on it all day.  Read more...

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Life is Complicated For Speaker Pelosi

March 6th, 2010 by John Feehery

The resignation of Congressman Eric Massa complicates the life of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  And her life is already pretty complicated.

Of course, it means one less vote for a health care bill that Congressional Democrats are trying to get through a reluctant House.

And one vote is a big deal, because it looks like pro-life Democrats aren’t going to swallow what the Senate passed late last year.

The Democrats have constructed a complicated scheme to pass health care, overly complicated in my view.  The House has to somehow pass a Senate bill that includes a huge new tax increase on labor union health plans and abortion language that is still unacceptable to Bart Stupak.

Then they are going to pass another follow-on bill that will somehow reverse that labor union tax with so-called “reconciliation” instructions that the Senate then will theoretically take up and pass with 51 votes.

But first, the Senate has to hope that the Senate parliamentarian decides that whatever the House passes somehow fits in with the Senate rules, not a certain proposition.

And if the Parliamentarian decides that it is not kosher, well, then, Joe Biden has to step in and create a new precedent that will give the Republicans ample cause to shut the Upper Chamber down for a while.  Read more...

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