Archive for the ‘National Politics’ Category

After a year of lackluster fundraising, House Republicans are bouncing back, Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions said Wednesday, thanks to several mood-lifting wins for the party. Sessions, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, announced that the committee raised $4.5 million in January and now has $4.1 million in the bank. That's up from $2.6 million at the end of 2009, the committee's worst year in a ... Full story

Was there an underdog on the ballot in Texas who looked at last week's Massachusetts miracle without a thrill? Taxachusetts, of all places – wellspring of Kennedys, Dukakis, Kerry – sending a Republican to the U.S. Senate. What Democrat didn't shudder? What Republican didn't dream of tapping that mojo? From GOP operatives, the talking point was that "every Democrat is vulnerable" in House, Senate and gubernatorial contests ... Full story

Palin Joins The Enemy Camp Sarah Palin has finally made the choice many of us were waiting for, and she made the wrong one. She has decided to come down on the side of open borders and amnesty for illegal aliens. That may be the side where the money is, but it is not where Americans are. Palin has decided to back John McCain in his re ... Full story

Democrats lost their filibuster proof majority in the U.S. Senate Tuesday. Republican Scott Brown won Tuesday in the race to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat that Democrat Edward Kennedy held for nearly a half-century. Texas Gov. Rick Perry congratulated Brown ... Full story

Democrats trying to push President Obama's health care overhaul through the Senate received a sobering economic warning from a new government report Friday that raises troubling questions about the bill's cost. The analysis from nonpartisan economic experts at the Health and Human Services Department concludes that the nation's health care tab will grow more rapidly ... Full story

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has joined twenty other U.S. Senators to call on the Senate's health committee to hold hearings to investigate how the government's advisory panel came to its controversial findings. Last week the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force made a recommendation that women between the ages of 40 and 49 should not receive routine ... Full story

The air war begins this weekend in the fight for the Republican nomination for governor between the incumbent, Rick Perry, and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. They're both starting TV commercial campaigns, but a fact check review shows that neither tells the whole story. In Hutchison's ad, she claims her conviction to stopping the Democratic health care plan demands ... Full story

AUSTIN — If you thought Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Chairman John Carona had simmered down since he blasted his party’s top leaders last legislative session, think again. Carona, a Dallas Republican, is on a mission to avert what he sees as a looming crisis in transportation funding. He's perplexed at those from both parties who ... Full story

SAN ANTONIO—U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, today issued the following statement in honor of Veterans Day: “This Veterans Day, Americans remember the selfless service and countless sacrifices made by our nation’s veterans. Because of their courage and dedication, we are privileged to live in the greatest, most prosperous country on the face of the earth. I join with all Texans in honoring our veterans and thanking ... Full story

WASHINGTON — Texas' two senators and Houston-area members of Congress have traveled to more than three dozen countries on official business at taxpayers' expense over the past 12 months, led by Reps. Ted Poe and Sheila Jackson Lee, according to lawmakers' filings with the Senate and the House. The Texans used commercial airlines at a cost of at least $72,000 as well as Pentagon-provided ... Full story

WASHINGTON – Fort Worth Rep. Kay Granger, part of a congressional group that met with President Barack Obama to discuss Afghanistan, said she was growing impatient as the president weighs whether to send more troops or find an alternative. "When you're faced with a deteriorating situation, and troops on the ground, it's time ... Full story

AUSTIN, Texas — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is criticizing a Senate panel for failing to adopt strict anti-abortion language as part of a federal health care overhaul bill. The Texas Republican, who's running for governor in the 2010 GOP primary, has expressed support for individual abortion rights. She opposes using federal funding for abortion, however. The Senate Finance Committee voted 13-10 Wednesday to reject the ... Full story

ODESSA --- Although she may no longer be in office when it comes time to cast a dissenting vote on the proposed cap and trade legislation, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said Monday she’ll continue working to oppose the bill. “It’s the most flawed piece of policy that I can imagine,” said Hutchison, speaking to local government and ... Full story

Back in 2002, it was up to Republican John Cornyn to keep a Kirk from taking a Senate seat -- Ron Kirk, the Democratic nominee, former Dallas mayor and now, the president's trade ambassador. Cornyn won that election. Fast forward seven years. Cornyn is now the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, and there's another Kirk ... Full story

For all the talk about co-ops, Medicare Advantage and delivery system reform, the Senate Finance Committee markup on health care reform may really be about something else: the 2010 elections. Democrats and Republicans alike see the deliberations as an opportunity to score points for midterms — either broad, global points that may help sway seniors, a critical voting bloc, ... Full story

By Jordan Fabian Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) on Tuesday morning praised the Senate's vote yesterday to strip funding from the community organizing group ACORN, which is embroiled in voter registration fraud scandal. The second-term Republican praised Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), a member of the Housing and Urban Affairs Committee who proposed an amendment blocking grant money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development directed toward ACORN ... Full story

By LISA FALKENBERG To play on a campaign slogan of Republican gubernatorial candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison: Kay, you can do better. Thus far, the U.S. senator has presented herself as the moderate, the voice of reason, in her Republican primary battle against Gov. Rick Perry. While Perry has been flirting with secessionists and thumbing his nose at stimulus funds in the name of political symbolism, Hutchison has called ... Full story

By MICHAEL GRACZYK (AP) HOUSTON — Special teams of Texas Rangers will be deployed to the Texas-Mexico border to deal with increasing violence because the federal government has failed to address growing problems there, Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday. "It is an expansive effort with the Rangers playing a more high-profile role than they've ever played before," ... Full story

By Reid Wilson National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) will inform colleagues on Tuesday that the August recess gave Republicans a new advantage heading into the 2010 elections. In a memo to Republican senators, Cornyn calls the summer break “nothing short of a disaster for our Democrat colleagues” that put momentum behind the ... Full story

By: Cragg Hines Kay Bailey Hutchison had sweet dreams of the governor's mansion. She'll have to play smash-mouth politics to get there. Oh, Kay! What have you gotten yourself into? The simple answer is that Kathryn Ann "Kay" Bailey Hutchison, a Republican and senior U.S. senator from Texas, has entered the race for governor back home, a job she ... Full story