February 19, 2008 – Page 2 – Capitol Hill Blue

McCain gets papa Bush’s endorsement

February 19, 2008

John McCain picked up former President George H.W. Bush’s support on Monday, a critical blessing by a pillar of the Republican establishment whose members aren’t completely sold on the party’s next standard-bearer.

“Few men walking among us have sacrificed so much in the cause of human freedom. And I’m happy to help this remarkable patriot carry our party banner forward,” Bush said, standing alongside the GOP’s nominee-in-waiting in an airport hangar.

Obama’s words: Are they real or stolen?

February 19, 2008

Sen. Barack Obama said Monday that he doesn’t think it’s a big deal that he borrowed lines from his friend Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, although he probably should have given him credit.

Patrick said during his gubernatorial campaign a year and a half ago that words matter, like “I have a dream” and “all men are created equal.”

Obama used the same lines Saturday night in Wisconsin. Obama said that Patrick suggested he use the lines to respond to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s suggestion that Obama is more of a talker than a doer.

Amtrak beefs up security

February 19, 2008

Amtrak will start randomly screening passengers’ carry-on bags this week in a new security push that includes officers with automatic weapons and bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling platforms and trains.

The initiative, to be announced by the railroad on Tuesday, is a significant shift for Amtrak. Unlike the airlines, it has had relatively little visible increase in security since the 2001 terrorist attacks, a distinction that has enabled it to attract passengers eager to avoid airport hassles.

Amtrak officials insist their new procedures won’t hold up the flow of passengers.

Mike Huckabee: The clueless conservative

February 19, 2008

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee isn’t likely to capture the Republican presidential nomination, but as a potential vice presidential nominee, his remarks merit scrutiny. Here are a couple that caught my attention recently:

A deadly place called Congress

February 19, 2008

The death of Rep. Tom Lantos this week brought to seven the number of Capitol Hill lawmakers who have died during the 110th Congress, which still has almost another year to go.

Like most of the others, the California Democrat succumbed to cancer.

The current congressional death toll is the highest in at least a decade, but it pales next to the 76th Congress (1939-41), when 29 members passed on.

The illusion of safety

February 19, 2008

The first telephone call came around 4:30 Thursday afternoon as I was about to turn on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” The second came a few minutes later. Within 30 minutes, I had received eight calls about Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, where a lone gunman had killed five students.

The lame duck mess

February 19, 2008

The next 11 months are likely to be the best argument for doing away with the constitutional two-term limit on the presidency and not because anyone would expect the current occupant of the Oval Office to seek a third go round but because he is prohibited from doing so makes him about as important in the scheme of things as the person who sweeps up the place at night.

Leaving town in disgrace

February 19, 2008

Both the White House and the U.S. House ended the week on a mutually sour note.

As he has with all his terrorism legislation, President Bush tried to stampede Congress into passing a wiretap bill, saying the country was “in more danger of an attack” if it didn’t enact the law precisely the way he wanted.

The prior law, a temporary measure smarmily called the Protect America Act, expires this weekend and very little will change. Wiretapping foreign communications will be governed, as it has been for the last 30 years, by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.