By: Matt Towery
| Posted: December 28, 2010 4:05 AM
Here's both my qualifier and my bona fides for the opinion that follows: I earned my Republican stripes working for a GOP U.S. senator, for Ronald Reagan's first successful presidential campaign and for Newt Gingrich.
The congressional lame-duck session finally ended Christmas week for both the Senate and the House. The 112th Congress will begin at 12 noon on Wednesday, Jan. 5.
This week saw members of Congress riding on a crazy roller coaster that ended when the House voted to pass the “global tax agreement” early Friday morning by a vote of 277 to 148, thereby sending the bill to the president for his signature.
By: George Will
| Posted: December 3, 2010 4:05 AM
WASHINGTON -- The Framers of the Constitution, a nuisance regretted by most modern presidents, gave the legislative branch -- another indignity inflicted on presidents, as they see it -- an important role in making foreign policy. The Framers did so by, among other provisions, requiring the Senate's two-thirds (today, 67 votes) consent to treaties. The Framers' wisdom is confirmed by Barack Obama's impatience with senators reluctant to ratify, during Congress' lame-duck session, the New START treaty pertaining to Russia's nuclear weapons.
