Capitol Briefing

By Paul Kane
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told a group of key congressmen Thursday that President Obama was engaged in a "thoughtful process" of deciding on his request for additional troops in the region.

Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), in a telephone interview from Afghanistan, said that McChrystal declined to criticize Obama's nearly three month review of the general's request to send up to 40,000 more troops into the war-torn nation. Instead, McChrystal - whose opinion has been treated as sacrosanct by many Republicans - told the group that the U.S. forces could still achieve the mission of routing the Taliban.

"He believed that the mission was accomplishable," Price said after meeting the general and other top U.S. officials Thursday in Kabul. Some of the lawmakers pressed McChrystal on Obama's lengthy process, but the general described it as a "thoughtful process and wouldn't go any further," Price said. "I was a little surprised he didn't voice frustration with the delay."

Price is with a congressional delegation of Georgians, including Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) and Reps. John Barrow (D) and Lynn Westmoreland (R). The lawmakers also visited U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry.

The visit could serve as an early bellwether of how much support Obama can hope to receive from congressional Republicans when he makes his announcement about the next phase of the war in Afghanistan Tuesday night at West Point.

During the eight years of the Bush administration, GOP support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was nearly universal. Despite their decided minority status in the House and Senate, Republicans could be key to Obama's effort to send what could be an additional 30,000 to 35,000 more U.S. soldiers into the battlefield because of waning support among Democrats.

Price is the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 100 conservatives. No ally of the White House on any key issue so far this year, Price's support of the new effort in Afghanistan would signal that a large number of Republicans would back Obama, but the lawmaker remains undecided until he hears the specifics of the president's plan next week.

Price said he wants the president to voice full-throated support for the effort to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan. "Then he'll have the full backing and support of the Republican conference," Price said.

He said it would be a "disaster" if, in sending more troops there, Obama also sent a signal that they would be coming home shortly if the mission is not successful immediately, because that would let the Taliban think they could wait out Obama and then take up the battle once the U.S. and NATO forces leave.

Price's biggest complaint has been the amount of time that Obama has taken in reaching a decision, beginning when McChrystal submitted his report on Aug. 30. He thinks that the time it has taken to reach the decision has been time that troops could be on the ground already in battle. "The president has taken more time than is necessary. Maybe that will be time well spent," Price said.

By Paul Kane
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that Democrats face "serious unrest" over President Obama's possible expansion of tens of thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan.

Pelosi, in a conference call with economists, said House Democrats were concerned about the "opportunity costs" of steering billions of dollars toward the troop increase as compared to "our ability to invest domestically with an eye to fiscal soundness." The issue of financing new troops in the region has come to a head in advance of Obama's decision, to be announced next week, as a handful of senior Democrats have proposed a "war tax" on the nation's wealthiest wage earners and some corporations to finance the war.

Pelosi deflected questions about her support for such a tax-hike proposal but noted that an expensive new war plan faces very high hurdles in her 258-member Democratic caucus, about two-thirds of whom were largely opposed to the Bush administration's 2007 "surge" of troops into Iraq and have voiced doubts about increased troop levels in Afghanistan.

"Let me say that there is serious unrest in our caucus about, can we afford this war?" Pelosi said in a Tuesday morning call, just hours before she met Obama in a closed-door meeting at the White House.

Senior Democratic aides said no decision would be made on how and when to fund the expected troop request until Obama spells out his plan. One option would a supplemental spending bill that could be considered early next year. Another would be to add the funding into the must-pass omnibus appropriation bill lawmakers are trying to pass by the end of this year to provide funding for most of the federal government for fiscal year 2010, though that would be contingent on the plan being ready soon and Obama believing he has the votes lined up for it.

Republicans pounced on the proposed tax increases, accusing leading Democrats of spending too freely on domestic issues and running up the current $1.4 trillion annual deficit. They questioned the appropriateness of raising taxes during a recession that has been hampered, in part, by a lack of consumer spending. "Our country needs real fiscal discipline, not tax hike schemes in the midst of a recession," said Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).

Politically, raising taxes just months before the 2010 midterm elections would be a very difficult legislative task, particularly with Republicans already criticizing individual Democrats for the mounting national debt. During the health-care debate, one of Pelosi's committee chairmen initially proposed a tax on households earning at least $350,000, but Pelosi faced a rebellion, particularly from freshman and sophomore Democrats representing wealthy suburban districts that had previously been represented by Republicans. She negotiated a compromise in the House-approved legislation to only impose the tax on families earning $1 million.

But the war tax proposals from top Democrats have served as a marker for the difficulty Obama will have in securing support from Democrats for the expected troop expansion.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has suggested a tax on individuals earning more than $200,000. "We've got to find revenues, particularly in the upper brackets that have done so well.... It's important that we pay for [the new troops] if we possibly can," Levin told Albert Hunt, host of Bloomberg News' "Political Capital" TV show.

Reps. David Obey (D-Wisc.) and John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) -- the top lawmakers overseeing the Pentagon's budget -- and other top Democrats have introduced legislation that would issue a tax on almost all income earners, with those in the highest brackets facing the steepest tax hikes.

Pelosi's remarks Tuesday tried to walk the line between dozens of Democrats from moderate-to-conservative districts who would be opposed to such a plan and her closest allies in leadership. "I know that the impact on our investments at home and our fiscal soundness are an important part of his decision," she said.

By Valerie Bauman, Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. -- The Conservative Party candidate conceded a race in upstate New York for a U.S. House of Representatives seat for the second time Tuesday, saying he doesn't have enough votes.

Last week, Doug Hoffman withdrew his election night concession to Democratic Rep. Bill Owens, saying the race was close enough that absentee ballots could change the outcome.

Now Hoffman says he has no hope of winning.

The final ballot count hasn't been tallied and certified, but Owens was leading Hoffman Tuesday by about 3,000 votes out of more than 136,000 cast.

Owens was sworn in Nov. 6.

Hoffman had started the race as a long-shot candidate labeled as a spoiler. With support from big-name Republicans including Sarah Palin, Hoffman built enough support to force the Republican Party's candidate out of the race.

Hoffman sent a letter to supporters last week seeking money for a legal challenge of the outcome. The Federal Election Commission said recount funds are legal, but the contributions would have to meet campaign finance limits, and if the money isn't used for a recount it would have to be refunded.

A spokesman for Hoffman said the campaign didn't know whether it had received any funds or would be returning any money.

The rural upstate region had been represented by Republicans for more than a century.

By Paul Kane
Leaving Democrats one vote short with hours to go, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) declared Saturday she will support a key procedural step to advance President Obama's health-care legislation.

In a Senate floor speech just before 1 p.m., Landrieu said she would support the motion to begin debate on the legislation, ending days of silence on the matter. Landrieu's move leaves just Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) as the only undeclared Democrat, with the other 59 senators in the Democratic caucus backing this early step.

"My vote today to move forward ... should in no way be construed" as signaling what her final vote will be, Landrieu said, indicating that she wants to work on amending the bill on the Senate floor. "Much work needs to be done."

Her remarks came during a rare Saturday session during which the Senate launched the final hours of debate leading up to a nighttime vote that serves as a critical early test for President Obama's health-care proposal.

"Doing nothing is not an option," Landrieu said. Her support was garnered in part by a provision in the bill that would deliver higher Medicaid payments to Louisiana health-care providers.

Shaping up as a cliffhanger, all but one of the 60 senators in the Democratic caucus have indicated their support for this early vote, which, if successful, serves to begin what will likely be several weeks of debate on dozens of amendments before a possible final vote before Christmas.

Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) needs the last holdout, Lincoln, to reach the 60-vote threshold to move forward with the debate. No Republican senator is expected to vote for this initial step.

In line with Lincoln's demand for a 72-hour period to read the legislation, the key vote is expected at 8 p.m. Saturday, exactly 72 hours from the point Reid unveiled his health-care proposal Wednesday night.

Debate began at 10 a.m., with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) - a 35-year veteran of the Senate - discussing the decades-long effort to achieve national health-insurance. Leahy quoted from Obama's address to a joint session of Congress two months ago, just after their close friend, the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), died after a lengthy fight with cancer.

Leahy urged his colleagues to pass the legislation in Kennedy's honor. "What we face above all is a moral issue," Leahy said of Kennedy's wishes.

By Paul Kane
In a rare Saturday session, the Senate launched the final hours of debate leading up to a nighttime vote that serves as a critical early test for President Obama's health-care proposal.

Shaping up as a cliffhanger, all but two of the 60 senators in the Democratic caucus have indicated their support for this early vote, which, if successful, serves to begin what will likely be several weeks of debate on dozens of amendments before a possible final vote before Christmas.

Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) needs the last two holdouts - Sens. Mary Landrieu (La.) and Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) - to reach the 60-vote threshold to move forward with the debate. No Republican senator is expected to vote for this initial step.
In line with Lincoln's demand for a 72-hour period to read the legislation, the key vote is expected at 8 p.m. Saturday, exactly 72 hours from the point Reid unveiled his health-care proposal Wednesday night.

Debate began at 10 a.m., with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) - a 35-year veteran of the Senate - discussing the decades-long effort to achieve national health insurance. Leahy quoted from Obama's address to a joint session of Congress two months ago, just after their close friend, the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), died after a lengthy fight with cancer.

Leahy urged his colleagues to pass the legislation in Kennedy's honor.

"What we face above all is a moral issue," Leahy said of Kennedy's wishes.

By Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery
Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, one of three centrist Democrats who had been undecided on Saturday's motion to debate the Senate health-care bill, has announced he will vote to bring the measure to the floor.

"The Senate should start trying to fix a health care system that costs too much and delivers too little for Nebraskans," Nelson said in a statement.

But Nelson cautioned that he remains unsatisfied with portions of the $848 billion legislation, including language aimed at restricting federal funds from covering abortions.

His vote Saturday "is not for or against the new Senate health care bill released Wednesday," he said. "It is only to begin debate and an opportunity to make improvements. If you don't like a bill, why block your own opportunity to amend it?"

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), another uncommitted moderate, said she would make her decision Saturday morning, hours before the vote, which is scheduled for 8 p.m. Like Nelson, Landrieu has negotiated with Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) to shape the bill more to her liking. She has secured a Medicaid provision that could translate into $300 million in new benefits for her home state. "Yes, I've had to bargain for that," Landrieu said.

But she was still studying other aspects of the bill. Landrieu said she spent two hours on the phone Friday with Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist and health-care consultant Jonathan Gruber.

The third Democratic holdout, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), has remained mostly mum about the bill, other than to express general trepidation about its effect on her low-income home state. Lincoln is a top Republican target in 2010, and her colleagues believe her doubts are rooted in her sense of political vulnerability, rather than specific policy complaints.

Updated 12:33 p.m.
By Paul Kane
Sen. Roland W. Burris (D-Ill.) has been admonished by the Senate ethics committee for his public comments about his appointment last December to the body.

In a three-page "public letter of qualified admonition" issued Friday, the committee formally reprimanded Burris for statements -- some made under oath to an Illinois legislative committee -- in which he denied trying to raise any campaign contributions for indicted former governor Rod Blagojevich for his political committees. (Here is a PDF of the letter.)

Several weeks after making those statements, and after being sworn in to the Senate, Burris amended his testimony to say that he had discussed trying to gather donations for Blagojevich.

Blagojevich appointed Burris to the Senate after being arrested by the FBI for allegedly trying to sell the seat, once held by President Obama, to the highest bidder.

Fearful of seating anyone selected by Blagojevich, Senate leaders had made Burris's truthful testimony about the appointment before the Illinois legislature a contingency for allowing him to join the chamber in January, becoming its only African American senator.

"You should have known that you were providing incorrect, inconsistent, misleading or incomplete information to the public, the Senate, and those conducting legitimate inquiries into your appointment to the Senate," the committee, made up of three Democrats and three Republicans, found in its unanimous opinion.

A letter of admonition is the mildest form of rebuke that the ethics committee can administer.

In a statement, Burris claimed the ethics letter cleared him because the panel noted that its investigation did not find "any actionable violations of law".

Doug Hoffman's campaign site on Nov. 19, 2009. (Screencapture by John Amick/The Washington Post)

Updated 7:14 p.m.
By Garance Franke-Ruta
For the second time this week, Conservative Party congressional candidate Douglas L. Hoffman sought to rescind his concession in the special election in New York's 23rd district, telling supporters that new information showing the results of the election closer than believed on election night made him reevaluate his decision to throw in the towel.

"I am therefore revoking my statement of concession," he wrote in a fundraising letter titled "Stop Another Stolen Election!" and posted on his Web site Wednesday night.

"ACORN and the unions did their best to try and sway the results to Obamacare supporter Bill Owens," he told supporters, naming the Democrat who claimed victory and has been seated in the House of Representatives, though election results will not be certified until next month. "I was forced to concede after receiving two pieces of grim news - - down 5,335 votes with 93 percent of the vote counted on election night -- and barely won my stronghold in Oswego County. On Election Night, the information we received was far different from what we received this week!"

But by Thursday night, Hoffman's hopes appeared dashed. "It's over. Rep. Bill Owens, D-Plattsburgh, leads by 3,105 votes with 3,072 absentee ballots left to be counted," the Watertown Daily Times reported.

That this would be the outcome was widely expected, despite Hoffman's protestations. According to a report last Friday in the Daily Times, "it's mathematically possible" for Hoffman to pass Rep. Owens in the final count in the 11-county district, but "the math is daunting." Most observers saw little chance that the election outcome would change, with a recent unofficial result reported before Thursday evening showing Hoffman trailing Owens by 2,832 votes and 4,262 absentee ballots remaining to be counted, the Watertown paper reported.

Jerry O. Eaton, Jefferson County Republican elections commissioner, told the Times that Hoffman's allegations of ballot-tampering and the election having been manipulated or stolen are "absolutely false."

"No one has touched those ballots or has access to those ballots except board of elections staff -- and in a bipartisan manner," he said.

Brian Kettenring, ACORN's deputy director of national operations, called Hoffman's accusations unworthy of serious response. "We confess we stole the election in the 23rd and our lead staff person for it was Elvis Presley," he said sarcastically. "He ran a first rate organizing effort in the district and we're proud of his work."

In truth, Kettenring said, the group has no office in the district and made no political or volunteer contributions to the race.

Hoffman first walked back his concession on Glenn Beck's radio show Monday, saying, "If I knew this information at the election night, I would not have conceded."

"So are you un-conceding?" asked Beck.

"If that's possible, yes," Hoffman replied.

Hoffman's attack on the community-organizing group ACORN in his fundraising letter continues a theme he hammered home during the election contest. "Bill Owens should request that Justice Department monitors be put in place to insure that ACORN's political arm in New York State, the Working Families Party, does not steal this election," he said in a statement in late October, according to a report in the Washington Independent. That month Republican Party candidate Dede Scozzafava also was cast as "An ACORN-Friendly, Big Labor-Backing, Tax-and-Spend Radical in GOP Clothing" by conservative blogger and Hoffman supporter Michelle Malkin.

The full Hoffman letter follows:

Updated 12:57 p.m.
By Ben Pershing
A Senate committee on Thursday morning launched the first public hearing into the Fort Hood shooting attack with a focus on the perils of homegrown extremism and "political correctness" and with partial cooperation from the Obama administration.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hopes to probe what the government knew about shooting suspect Army Maj. Nidal Hasan and whether federal agencies either missed key warning signs or failed to communicate with each other before the attack. The panel heard from five experts on terrorism and homeland security.

Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) started the hearing by calling the investigation "as serious as any this committee has even undertaken."

"The purpose of our investigation is to determine whether that attack could have been prevented, whether the federal agencies and employees involved missed signals or failed to connect the dots in a way that enabled Hasan to carry out his deadly plan," he said. "If we find such negligence we will make recommendations to guarantee, as best we can, that they never occur again."

Lieberman had hoped to have current administration officials appear, and specifically requested investigators from the FBI and the Department of Defense. But he was rebuffed by the White House, despite having made a direct appeal to FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Lieberman said in his opening statement that he had spoken with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday, and that both said they "wanted to cooperate so long as it did not hamper or compromise the criminal investigation and prosecution of Nidal Hasan."

Lieberman sounded cautiously optimistic that more information would be forthcoming, adding that the committee had received access to important classified documents.

"We're off to a good cooperative start," Lieberman said.

The Senate convenes at 9:30 a.m. ET. Following morning business, the Senate will resume post-cloture debate on the nomination of David Hamilton to be U.S. Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit.

The Senate also reached an agreement to consider S.1963, Veterans Health Care initiatives bill upon disposition of the Hamilton nomination. Under the agreement, the only amendment in order is the Coburn amendment regarding funding priorities. There will be 30 minutes of general debate on the bill and 3 hours for debate on the amendment.

The House meets at 10:00 for legislative business. The House will consider, among other legislation, H.R. 1842, Expanding Entrepreneurship Act of 2009.

For a list of Congressional committee hearings, visit Today in Congress.

Visit our Votes Database for more information on the House and Senate, including vote history and member profiles.