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.
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.
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.
