I like to think of it as "America posts wins as Congress nears close".
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. Congress was close to wrapping up its work for the year on Thursday in the wake of an unexpected string of Democratic successes on matters from energy to spending to security.
Senate Democrats thwarted a permanent renewal of the anti-terrorism USA Patriot Act, setting up instead a temporary six-month extension of expiring provisions so changes can be considered to better safeguard civil liberties. It was a defeat for President George W. Bush, who had argued the law was mandatory for safeguarding U.S. citizens.
Well, according to the Bushies, we are going to be < cue scary music > less safe now. *quakes with fear*.
Or not.
Go ahead and veto the extension, George. I dare ya.
Senators also stripped from a $453 billion defense spending bill a provision that would have opened the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, another issue the administration had championed as necessary to ease U.S. dependency on foreign oil.
Eat that, Stevens. I caught a little bit of him last night, ranting and raving about all those poor people who would be hurt...and this was after Ted voted to cut domestic programs that will hurt the poor, the sick, the elderly and the kids, so I'm not sure what the hell he was talking about. It was after ANWR was stripped and the defense bill was passed. (Edit: after reading some live bloggings of the session, I guess this came as they were voting to strip ANWR from the bill. Ted threatened to resign. Ted threatened to expose everyone else's pork. Ted threatened to "visit" every district and tell the people what their representatives did. If I find a transcript, I will pick out the juicy points and post them. I guess it was the rant to end all rants. I don't know, I didn't watch the whole thing. A rerun of "Everybody Loves Raymond" was infinitely more appealing.) Anyway, his Incredible Hulk tie was bouncing up and down as he yelled...literally yelled...on the Senate floor. I thought he would pop an aneurysm.
With Senate approval, the House of Representatives was expected to give final congressional approval on Thursday to both the Patriot Act extension and the defense spending bill.
Despite the last-minute Democratic gains, Republicans still touted what they called a highly successful year. They said it included upgrading roads and mass transit, expanding trade, revamping bankruptcy laws, enacting a comprehensive energy policy and confirming John Roberts to head the U.S. Supreme Court as the 17th chief justice.
However, a nearly yearlong battle to cut spending was further delayed when Democrats forced another vote in the House on a nearly $40 billion reduction package Republicans had hoped would show they were cutting costs at a time of higher budget deficits and proposed tax cuts.
Both the House and Senate had narrowly approved the spending cut measure but Senate Democrats forced small changes that meant the House had to take it up again.
The "spending cuts" only passed by two votes, so Pelosi is making them come back today. Heh heh. It would be funny if the thing failed.
I hope this gives the Democrats a clue that they can stop all this nasty legislation if they just stand up and stick together...and I hope they use this new found spine to stand up and stop Alito. Keep your fingers crossed.