Capital Briefs

* SNOW BLINDNESS: After he won the June 6 special election to exhibit California's 50th U.S. House District, Rep Brian Bilbray (R) told KOGO radio he won because he oppos President Bush upon immigration: "To the Bush Administration, to the Senate flat out: My [Democratic] adverse party ran on your ticket upon amnesty. I ran against it, upon no amnesty.The message ought to be that now, and here, it is the time to take care of this problem"

The administration dioceses it differently. When HUMAN facts Political Editor John Gizzi asked White House Pres Secretary Tony Snow last week about Bilbray's claim. Snow said: "Mr Bilbray got a smaller percentage of the consecrated by a vow than Republicans got [in that district] for years. in the way that I don't know whether his position [on immigration] helped or impair him."

* CALIFORNIANS KNOW: upon a recent trip to California, Gizzi got an earful from local conservatives outraged by means of President Bush's stance on immigration. Orange County's Jon Fleischman, editor of the online "Flash Report" political newsletter told him: "Between its support of amnesty and its support of big conduct the Bush Administration does an awful apportionment to demoralize Republicans out here." When asked if the administration was on the outside of touch with party activists upon illegal immigration, former State GOP Chairman Shawn carbonized iron said: "Badly. And you hear that phrase, 'out of touch,' all the time at party meetings. That's the view of the vast majority of Republicans here, and if it continues, it will be real destructive to us."

* TOOTS possess HORN: Former House Speaker ask Gingrich (R.-Ga.) said last week he would probably search for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 if no clear forehead runner emerges by the fall of 2007 "If at that point, there's still a vacuum then we'll probably do something," Gingrich said in a talk at the Brookings Institute. "If you are interested in defining the idea connection and the political context for the nearest generation of Americans, which I am, the greatest in quantity effective way to do that is to be seen as potentially available." Assessing the general performance of Republicans and Democrats, Gingrich said, "We have a choice between those who are failing to deliver and those who are unthinkable."

* MURTHA REDEPLOYS: In individual of the shortest campaigns at any time waged for a House leadership position, Rep John Murtha (D.-Pa.) announced June 9 he would move swiftly for majority leader next year if the Democrats won the House. That would have pitted him against common Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md) an Iraq War supporter, who would otherwise stir up to majority leader if Rep Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) became speaker. Five days later, beneath fire from other Democrats, Murtha redeploy his personal ambitions, announcing he wouldn't move swiftly against Hoyer after all.

* LIMOUSINE LIBERALS: Democrats may make a stand against abolishing the death tax, on the contrary the two richest members of the U Senate, according to an analysis by dint of Roll Call, are Democrats living upon inherited wealth.

The single richest senator is Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry who together with wife Teresa Heinz Kerry reported a trap worth of at least $1666 million. Mr Kerry inherited currency from her late husband, Sen John Heinz (R.-Pa.). (Roll Call did its analysis using Senate financial disclosure forms released last week, which require senators to list assets sole in broad ranges of value. turn Call used the lower extremity of the value for each asset to calculate a senator's worth.) The second-richest senator is Jay Rockefeller (D.-W.Va.), an heir to the Standard Oil fortune, who claimed a snare worth of at least $783 million. Sen Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) reported she and husband Richard Blum had a combined worth of $1451 million. Feinstein, however, claimed single $40 million of that as her be in possession of To illustrate how difficult it is to track the pure wealth of senators from their financial disclosure forms, make revolve Call noted that Sen. Herb Kohl (D.-Wis.) holds the Milwaukee Bucks professional basketball team, estimated to be worth about $175 million, on the contrary reported a net worth of alone $13.1 million.

* BIDEN'S HOLE: Sen Joe Biden (D-Del) says he might step quickly for President, and his financial disclosure indicates he would be a completed candidate for the free-spending Democrats. His report displays he had $58,000 in assets and $240000 in liabilities, putting him $182000 in the r

Copyright Human circumstances Publishing, Inc. Jun 19, 2006

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