Good evening and welcome to the Daily Strike. The Big Picture will be doing the heavy lifting tonight with his own entry. I will simply be providing a quick update. Make sure you leave comments on both entries.
THE SENATE: The Senate was in session today to consider the nomination of Andre Davis of Maryland to be a Circuit Court judge. The Senate confirmed Davis, an African American District Judge, by a vote of 72-16, with 12 Senators not voting. Davis had been originally nominated for the post by Bill Clinton in 2000, but his nomination was killed by the then-Republican Congress. All no votes came from Republicans. The Senate also confirmed Charlene Edwards Honeywell to be a District Court Judge in Florida by a vote of 88-0.
The Senate is now moving on to the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill. The Senate will consider several amendments tomorrow, and will vote on final passage hopefully by the end of the day.
As for health care, the Senate is still waiting on a price estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. In the meantime, we keep hearing declarations from moderate Democrats that the House bill is dead on arrival. Senate Democrats will apparently get a pep talk tomorrow from former President Clinton. I hope President Clinton stares down Joe Lieberman with an evil eye. Not only is Lieberman holding up health care legislation for dubious reasons, but he also was the first Democrat to publicly criticize Bill on the Monica scandal!
After the House passed its legislation this weekend, it's become increasingly clear that the abortion fight will be much worse than I expected. The House-passed Stupak amendment, which increases abortion prohibitions beyond the established Hyde-amendment language will most likely be included in the Senate bill to win over Moderates. It also helps pro-lifers that Majority Leader Reid is anti-choice. However, a group of 40 liberals in the House are now threatening to vote against the final health care bill if it includes the Stupak language. It's possible that this threat, like many previous threats from the progressive bloc, will be abandoned when push comes to shove. But the way it stands right now, liberals won't vote for a bill with the Stupak language, and conservatives won't vote for a bill without it. We're gonna need to come up with some sort of compromise language, most likely. I really wish that social issues did not make it into the fight over this important legislation. For his part, President Obama today expressed opposition to the Stupak amendment. Would he veto a bill over that amendment? Probably not.
That's it for today. Make sure you catch The Big Picture's entry and leave some comments!
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