Washington News
100 days into OMB job, Portman eyes 'entitlements'
By MICHAEL COLLINS
Rob Portman steps onto his office balcony overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue and is instantly bathed in streaks of bright yellow sunlight from a hot summer morning.
Off to the right, the Secret Service stands guard over the White House.
Menedez calls for action on 9-11 Commission recommendations
Democratic Sen. Robert Menedez of of New Jersey Aug. 14 sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee asking for immediate action on legislation he recently introduced S.3456 that would fully implement all of the recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission.
Democratic Congress no longer a long shot
By MARC SANDALOW
There are two competing storylines for the 2006 midterm elections.
Nine weeks before election day, Democrats are poised to make their biggest gains since the post-Watergate elections more than three decades ago.
Musical chairs ... West Wings meet ... vanishing nonprofits
By LISA HOFFMAN
As a prime motivator to get out the vote, both the red and blue ends of the political spectrum are pointing to the congressional power shuffle to come if Democrats take back control of Capitol Hill.
The Christian Coalition of America sees peril, and MoveOn.org sees promise, in the fact that some of the more liberal Democratic lawmakers in Washington would ascend to pivotal committee chairmanships if seniority is used to decide such posts.
Among the ascensions in the Senate: Ted Kennedy, of Massachusetts, would lead the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee; Carl Levin, of Michigan, would head Armed Services; Patrick Leahy, of Vermont, would run Judiciary, and John Kerry, of Massachusetts, would lead Small Business.
In the House: George Miller, of California, would be education committee chairman; John Conyers, of Michigan, Judiciary; Charles Rangel, of New York, Ways and Means; David Obey, of Wisconsin, Appropriations; and Barney Frank, of Massachusetts, Financial Services.
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TV's "West Wing" met the real West Wing when former "WW" star Rob Lowe, accompanied by his two kids, happened to be dining at the same New Orleans restaurant as President Bush and N.O.
Bush opens bid to sell Iraq war to midterm voters
By EDWARD EPSTEIN
Democrats _ who came up on the short end of the national security debate in the 2002 and 2004 elections _ reacted quickly and harshly to Bush's speech to the American Legion convention in Salt Lake City.
Bush the invisible man of GOP efforts to keep control of Congress
By EDWARD EPSTEIN
George W. Who?
President Bush has become the invisible man of the Republican Party's effort to keep control of the House and Senate in November's midterm elections.
The Web sites of the party's candidates in the most competitive races across the country either give only a passing nod to the president or don't even mention Bush, whose popularity has been weighed down by the war in Iraq, high gas prices, economic anxieties and lingering memories of last August's Hurricane Katrina.
With about nine weeks to go before the Nov.
Congress poised to cut military funding for brain-injury research
By JAY PRICE
Brain injuries are so common among U.S. troops that they're called the signature injury of the Iraq war, but Congress is poised to cut military spending on researching and treating them.
House and Senate versions of the defense appropriation bill would chop funding for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center from $14 million to $7 million.
