Government Executive - Authors - Erin McPike

Minnesota governor holds fire on war policy

Erin McPike — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Minnesota GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a prospective candidate for his party's 2012 presidential nomination, this morning called for a renewed U.S. commitment to Afghanistan to win the mission, a day after he returned from his fifth trip there.

Pawlenty said President Obama and the rest of the U.S. leadership must do a better job of communicating why the war in Afghanistan remains important and what is happening there. He said he hopes more troops will not be needed than beyond what Obama's surge calls for, but he said the situation might require it.

Rather than bash Obama or his vision as some of his potential primary competitors have done, Pawlenty articulated an agenda for advancing U.S. interests abroad. Asked whether he thinks the military is turning on the administration, he said he has not detected any such sentiment other than what he read in Rolling Stone regarding Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

On immigration, however, Pawlenty took a sharper tack, focusing on the new immigration law in Arizona that the Justice Department is contesting.

"It has been wildly and irresponsibly and recklessly mischaracterized in the press and in the debate -- not by press people, but by people who are quoted by the press, including by the president of the United States, including by high-ranking government officials, who .... admitted that they had never read the law before they spouted off and opened their mouth," Pawlenty said.

Police can stop someone for a violation unrelated to immigration, and if they have a reasonable belief that person is in the country illegally, only then can they ask for documentation, he added.

"And then if you produce a document that is a presumptive legal status, to characterize that as some sort of out-of-bounds approach, is really irresponsible," he said.

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Dems take harder fiscal stand than Obama

Erin McPike — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0500

In a reaction to the emergence of spending as a top campaign issue this year, some Democratic Senate candidates are positioning themselves as more fiscally disciplined than President Obama.

With the majority now facing defending up to 10 seats that have become competitive, several dyed-in-the-wool Democrats like New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes and Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan are showing moderation on spending to keep competitive Republican-held open seats in play.

According to a Bloomberg News poll of 1,000 adults Dec. 3-7, 70 percent called chronically high budget deficits a high threat to U.S. economic performance over the next two years. The poll had a 3.1-point error margin.

After Obama released his fiscal 2011 budget earlier this month, Carnahan said she was "disappointed in the president's budget recommendation. Budgets are about setting priorities, and it's time Washington started making fiscal discipline and tackling the long-term budget deficit higher priorities."

She also whacked her likely general election opponent, GOP Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., for helping to "turn a $128 billion surplus in 2001 into a $1.2 trillion deficit by 2009." Both are seeking the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Kit Bond.

Within the last month, Hodes voted against increasing the federal debt ceiling and came out swinging against earmarks, saying he would no longer request them -- a crucial stance in the conservative Granite State. Hodes is running for the seat held by retiring deficit hawk Senate Budget ranking member Judd Gregg.

Appointed Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, whose Democratic primary challenge from former state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is forcing him to burnish his party credentials ahead of a tough general election challenge likely from GOP former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton, also has taken a hard line on spending.

In January, Bennet knocked the Senate's failure to create a bipartisan debt review commission.

Last year, the freshman senator introduced legislation to limit the deficit with Missouri Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, who last year took the Senate floor to scold her party for some spending initiatives that made their way into the stimulus.

"These candidates are outsiders and they are showing people that they are, with Carnahan being a great example of that," said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokeswoman Deirdre Murphy.

Pushing the Democrats' campaign line this year, Murphy added, "When voters go to the polls in November they are going to have a choice between Democrats who are tackling the tough economic challenges or Republicans who just want to bring us back to the failed economic policies that wrecked our economy in the first place."

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Congress returns to nominations, finance, water bill

Dan Friedman and Erin McPike — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Senators will start next week with nominations before moving on to financial issues while the House will bring up a water research and development bill to capitalize on Earth Day.

The Senate will vote Monday on three Justice Department nominees for assistant Attorney General posts: Tony West, Lanny Breuer and Christine Anne Varney to head the department's civil, criminal and antitrust divisions, respectively.

The Senate is scheduled to hold a cloture vote Monday on the nomination of Christopher Hill as ambassador to Iraq. Hill has drawn some GOP opposition for what lawmakers led by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., consider inadequate attention to human rights concerns while he oversaw talks with North Korea and Hill's lack of experience in the Middle East. Also Monday, the Senate will take up a bill to extend anti-fraud laws to cover mortgage brokers and authorize more money for the Justice Department to attack financial fraud.

Off the floor, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., are hoping to strike a deal to win backing from financial institutions, moderate Democrats and a few Republicans for a bill giving bankruptcy judges greater power to modify home mortgages. Democrats hope to move the measure this month with a deal in place. Also on the agenda is the supplemental defense spending request likely to reach the Senate floor in May and a vote on the fiscal 2010 budget resolution when it emerges from conference negotiations with the House.

The Senate is expected to largely adopt the House's version, which would allow use of budget reconciliation for health care and education reform proposals. A House-passed bill to allow the FDA to regulate tobacco products and a railroad antitrust bill sponsored by Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Herb Kohl, D-Wis., are "both good possibilities" to reach the floor during the upcoming work period, a spokesman for Majority Leader Reid, D-Nev., said.

The House will come back into session Tuesday for three days of work. In addition to suspension bills, the office of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., noted the House will take up the "National Water Research and Development Initiative Act" to mark a spate of Earth Day-related events next week. "The bill coordinates federal water research and development to help communities across the nation facing water shortages and ensure adequate water supplies for the future," according to a spokeswoman. The bulk of the week will again center on the Democratic leadership's push for a conference committee agreement on the fiscal 2010 budget resolution. The House also soon hopes to consider the $83.4 billion fiscal 2009 supplemental appropriations.

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House set to work on budget, supplemental next week

Erin McPike — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0400

When Congress returns from recess on Monday, Democratic leaders will push for conference committee approval of the fiscal 2010 budget resolution, with votes on final passage to follow in both chambers. The House will then turn to an $83.4 billion supplemental spending bill to cover military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., also hopes to bring up the D.C. voting rights bill again next week. The version returning to the House is vastly different than the version the House passed earlier in the year. The Senate version includes an amendment from Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., that would reverse the district's restrictive gun-control laws. Although the gun rider has angered some liberals, House leaders are aiming for the House to pass the bill before the Memorial Day recess.

Also set to come up during the next work period is a bill from Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., to amend the Public Service Act to include embryonic stem-cell research language now that President Obama's executive order last month ended federal restrictions initially imposed by the Bush administration.

Other bills likely to move ahead before the next break are a whistleblower protection measure introduced by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and a regulatory reform bill for the financial sector sponsored by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to hold a hearing on Van Hollen's bill as early as next week. Aides say the bill could be marked up by the end of the month and be on the floor at some point in May.

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Gaining Momentum

Erin McPike and Gwen Glazer — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400

Even more of a head-scratcher? Democrats tend to be far more satisfied, even enthused, about their primary choices compared with Republicans, who may not be content even after former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson formally enters the race.

But in a recent Newsweek survey, the three top Democrats -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama -- led in every combination of matchups against the top four Republicans -- Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson. It is crucial, however, to note that the poll was comprised of 40 percent Democrats, 29 percent Republicans and 27 percent independents.

For Democrats, the most precarious matchup may be Edwards versus Giuliani, as 48 percent said they would vote for the former North Carolina senator if the former New York City mayor was his opponent. Giuliani received 46 percent in that scenario. But Edwards stacked up best against Romney at 57 percent to 36 percent; the 21-point gap was the largest margin of all 12 heats tested.

Clinton was strongest of the three against Giuliani with her 7-point lead, and Obama was the biggest threat to McCain with his 10-point advantage. All three Democrats had double-digit leads over Thompson and Romney.

Newsweek pollsters also threw New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) into matchups including Clinton, Giuliani, McCain, Obama and Thompson. Although there has been much speculation over which party Bloomberg might hurt more should he jump into the race, both Clinton's and Obama's margins of victory increased in their head-to-head matchups against the GOP front-runners with Bloomberg in the field. (His support was just north of 10 percent in all six cases.)

Also of note in the survey were the primary fields, because while Obama trails Clinton by 16 points, 27 percent still supported him -- that's the same percentage of support as the top candidate in the Republican field, Giuliani. Of course, the Republican Party has the disadvantage of an unpopular president in office now. In a new American Research Group poll, President Bush's approval rating rests at a dismal 27 percent.

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