Hastert to Seek Funds For Cut Road Projects

[quaoar]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59792-2004Dec12.html

House Members Vent Anger at Istook

By Dan Morgan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 13, 2004; Page A06

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), moving to placate 21 angry House Republicans, has promised to seek funds next year for several dozen highway projects that were left out of a recently passed spending bill on orders of a Republican subcommittee chairman.

Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.), who chairs the Appropriations Committee panel that oversees spending on roads, rejected the projects sought by the mainly northeastern and midwestern lawmakers after they defied him by signing a letter calling for a doubling of Amtrak funding in 2005.

Istook's action infuriated the affected lawmakers, many of whom learned that their projects had been left out of the government-wide spending bill passed Nov. 20 only after it was too late to make changes in it. GOP leaders are also unhappy with Istook, sources said, because many of those affected were from congressional swing districts where the ability to bring home federal road projects can tip the balance to the incumbent in a close election.

Istook's action was first disclosed by the Hill newspaper.

"The Amtrak 21, " as the group is now called, vented its grievances at a meeting with Hastert last Tuesday. Sources said the speaker asked the members to submit one or two projects that had been rejected so that he could find a way to include them in legislation next year.




The Amtrak 21 are:
Reps. Rob Simmons (R-Conn.), Jim Gerlach (R-Pa.), John McHugh (R-N.Y.), Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), Mike Castle (Del.), Phil English (Pa.), Mike Ferguson (N.J.), Scott Garrett (N.J.), Melissa Hart (Pa.), Amo Houghton (N.Y.), Tim Johnson (Ill.), Steve LaTourette (Ohio), Jim Leach (Iowa), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), Bob Ney (Ohio), Charlie Norwood (Ga.), Jack Quinn (N.Y.), Jim Saxton (N.J.), Chris Smith (N.J.), Curt Weldon (Pa.) and Jerry Weller (Ill.).

[salin]

1. When you lay down with vipers... expect to get some

injected venom...

[GeorgeGist]

2. No sympathy for those angry republicans...

who voted for the spending bill without reading it first.

[UpInArms]

3. well, isn't that too clever by half!

Hastert and Istook are just doing their master's bidding - sneaking little things in and out of a massive 1,000 page omnibus spending bill - wanting to look at tax returns, cutting road projects as punishment for anyone who supports mass transit -

Won't it be fun to wake up in 2008 and see what is not left of our country? /sarcasm

Have I said how much I hate all of the people lately?

[FreeStateDemocrat]

4. GOP May Target Use of Filibuster

Senate Democrats Want To Retain the Right to Block Judicial Nominees
By Helen Dewar and Mike AllenWashington Post Staff Writers
Monday, December 13, 2004; Page A01
As speculation mounts that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist will step down from the Supreme Court soon because of thyroid cancer, Senate Republican leaders are preparing for a showdown to keep Democrats from blocking President Bush's judicial nominations, including a replacement for Rehnquist.
Republicans say that Democrats have abused the filibuster by blocking 10 of the president's 229 judicial nominees in his first term -- although confirmation of Bush nominees exceeds in most cases the first-term experience of presidents dating to Ronald Reagan. Describing the filibusters as intolerable, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has hinted he may resort to an unusual parliamentary maneuver, dubbed the "nuclear option," to thwart such filibusters.
"One way or another, the filibuster of judicial nominees must end," he said in a speech to the Federalist Society last month, labeling the use of filibusters against judicial nominees a "formula for tyranny by the minority."
So far, at least, Democrats are refusing to forgo filibusters and say they will fight any effort by Frist to act unilaterally to end them for judicial nominations. They warn that it could poison the well for bipartisan cooperation on other issues in the upcoming Congress.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59877-2004Dec12.html

I do not know the procedure to post stories here, someone else might want to introduce this as a topic. Is this another sign that we are headed towards a totalitarian form of government?

[LiberalFighter]

5. Filibuster only used on 10 nominees? The way Repugs talk...

ALL nominees were blocked/filibustered.