Capital Briefs

Human Events, Jul 23, 2007

* CUT-AND-RUN PLAN FOILED: After keeping the Senate in session overnight last week to force a debate on the Iraq War (see cover story), Democrats found that their political stunt failed to persuade Republicans to support the Democratic plan to force a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. On Wednesday, July 18, after the all-night session, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D,-Nev.) saw his cloture motion to end debate and vote on Michigan Democratic Sen. Carl Levin's pullout amendment to the Defense Authorization bill fail, 52 to 47 (60 votes are required to invoke cloture). The Levin amendment would have required the secretary of Defense to begin withdrawing troops within 120 days of the bill's enactment. Four Republicans sided with Reid's Democrats in support of cloture: Susan Collins (Maine), Chuck Hagel (Neb.), Gordon Smith (Ore.) and Olympia S no we (Maine). Connecticut Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman voted against cloture, as did Reid, who did so in order to be able to bring up a motion to reconsider the vote (only a senator on the prevailing side of a vote may move to reconsider).

* FIRST GOPERDOWN: After months of campaigning, former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore last week became the first Republican presidential hopeful to quit the race. Running hard as a strong conservative and decrying the three top Republican candidates as lessthan-conservative ("Rudy McRomney," he called the three front-runners), Gilmore raised just more than $381,000 this year in a contest in which his leading opponents have raised millions (see page 3). Gilmore told HUMAN EVENTS Political Editor John Gizzi that his problem was "a system in which money has taken over the nomination process, when you have people like 'Pioneers' [major Bush fund-raisers] and such who can bring in lots of the $2,300 [maximum legal donation] checks and you have to start years in advance to compete financially. I got in too late." The former governor declined to say which of the remaining candidates he liked but told Gizzi that when he was recently recovering from eye surgery "[former-Tennessee Sen.] Fred Thompson did send me a get-well basket." One source close to Gilmore told us that the Virginian would "prepare for a race for the Senate" in the event incumbent Republican John Warner steps down, which many expect might happen.

* GIULIANI UR MCCAIN HOLDING: Despite dwindling campaign funds and what seems a steady exit of his campaign staffers-two top press spokesmen quit last week (see last week's "Brief of the Week") -Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the latest polls show, is still one of the three Republican presidential hopefuls in double digits. According to a just-completed Gallup/USA Today poll, former NewYork City Mayor Rudy Giuliani remains the favorite of 30% of likely Republican voters, followed by the still-unannounced Fred Thompson with 20% and McCain 16%. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was fourth in the same survey with 8%, followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (who will make a decision in late September about running) at 7%. No other GOP candidate had more than 3%.

* CONGRESS DOWN: An Associated Press/lpsos poll last week showed Congress with its lowest approval ratings this year from the American public. The AP survey found only 24% of American voters give Congress a good rating, down from 35% when the poll was last conducted in May. The dismal approval rating was last that low in June 2006, according to the AP poll. Most of the respondents to the survey told the AP they were tired of Congress's fighting and wanted lawmakers to work together on such issues as education, healthcare and Iraq.

* BORDER AGENT CLEMENCY: Senators Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) and John Comyn (R.-Tex.) have written a letter to the White House urging the President to exercise his power of clemency to reduce the sentences of Border Patrol agents lgnacio Ramos and Jose Compean that have enraged conservatives around the country and that a Senate Judiciary subcommittee has found excessive.

The two agents were both sentenced to more than 10 years for the February 2005 shooting and wounding of a Mexican who was trying to escape after attempting to smuggle 743 pounds of marijuana across the U.S. border. The letter focuses on alleged prosecutorial errors in judgment by U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton. Sutton told his story at a hearing last week, and Feinstein then said, "After the hearing, it became very clear that the sentence does not match the crime."

* 20,000% SIN TAX: The Senate Finance Committee last week was considering the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill, and naturally wanted to spend more tax money but didn't see where it would come from. So members sneaked in a huge tax increase on a small minority of citizens: the cigar smokers of America (a group that includes HE Editor Jed Babbin). Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D.-Mont.) went along with hiking the federal tax on cigars by an astounding 20,000%. What the Baucus cigar tax increase would mean is that if you buy a box of 25 good cigars the price has just gone up by $250, giving the Feds $10 per stogie. As Tampa cigar maker Eric Newman said: "They had the Boston Tea Party for less than this."