Today in Washington D. C. - Dec 11, 2007

From Senate & News Sources: Democrats appear to be rethinking their approach to an omnibus spending bill that had been proposed over the weekend. President Bush had said he would veto the bill, which was still $11 billion over his spending request, and Republican House and Senate leadership signaled that they were also opposed to such a bill. This Congress needs to complete its basic duties of funding the government and supplying our troops in the field without demanding that both be contingent on excessive government spending.

The consequences of Democrats’ mismanagement are on display again today. The Wall Street Journal takes Democrats to task for “driving the Pentagon to the brink of furloughs by denying money for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Meanwhile, yet another poll shows Americans reacting more positively to progress in Iraq, as the AP reports today. By a 52% to 41%, a majority agrees that “the U.S. is making progress in Iraq.” Further, the percentage who believe the surge “has helped stabilize the situation” in Iraq jumped from 36 in September to 47 in the current poll.

And The Hill reports that Democrat senators’ partisan blocking of FEC nominees could cripple that commission going into an election year. Once again, Democrats are again distorting the record of a Bush appointee, Hans von Spakovsky, because they disagree with his policy positions. Sadly, this follows a long pattern concerning the president’s nominees this year, including Judge Leslie Southwick and Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

On The Floor: Senate reconvened at 10 AM today. Following an hour of morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the farm bill (H.R. 2419). There will then be three hours of debate on the Lugar-Lautenberg amendment (#3711) with a vote on the amendment around 3:45 pm. While Senators work on the farm bill, the chamber is awaiting action from the House on an expected omnibus appropriations bill to fund the government and operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a patch for the alternative minimum tax, and a possible revision to the Democrats’ energy package that failed to get cloture in the Senate on Friday.

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