Rep. Henry Waxman successfully toppled Rep. John Dingell for a key chairmanship.
WASHINGTON. Congressional Democrats have a bigger
majority than they've enjoyed in decades, but that doesn't necessarily
mean there will be unity on Capitol Hill.
A new battle may be brewing as Democrats fighting Democrats show evidence of a party divide.
The growing Democratic majority could be in deadlock from within on
issues ranging from climate change and energy to health care and social
security.
"We're not just talking ideology here. The broader
your majority, the more you've got different regions of the country
that have different economic and social interests that you have to take
into account," said Norman Ornstein, a scholar with the American
Enterprise Institute.
The clash of the titans was evident just
hours after the election ended as a public fight erupted for the
leadership of a key committee charged with enacting many of
President-elect Barack Obama's agenda items.
House Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman,
D-California, successfully challenged Michigan Rep. John Dingell for
the chairmanship of the powerful Energy and Commerce committee.
Climate change, energy independence, and health-care reform all fall under the purview of the committee.
Sarah Palin hits the campaign trail Sunday and Monday for GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia.
WASHINGTON. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is adding her name
to the list of big-name surrogates who are making campaign cameos in
the last remaining Senate election this year.
Palin teams up with Sen. Saxby Chambliss at a fundraiser Sunday
night and at four campaign stops across Georgia on Monday, the last
full day of campaigning before Tuesday's runoff election.
Chambliss is the freshman Republican senator from Georgia who is
fighting to keep his seat. He's facing Jim Martin -- a former state
lawmaker in Georgia -- in the runoff election.
Chambliss
won a plurality of the vote on Election Day, but Georgia state law
requires 50 percent plus one vote for a victory. Due to the inclusion
of a third party candidate, Chambliss fell just shy of that threshold,
forcing a runoff contest.
Palin is the latest high-profile
surrogate to stump with Chambliss. Sen. John McCain returned to the
trail to campaign with Chambliss just nine days after losing the
presidential election to Sen. Barack Obama.
Two weeks ago,
former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- who ran for the Republican
presidential nomination before dropping out in March and backing McCain
-- campaigned with Chambliss. Former Massachuse
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WASHINGTON President Bush on Friday morning signed a
measure to extend unemployment benefits by at least seven weeks in
every state, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the bill, which also
calls for benefits to be extended by 13 weeks in states with an
unemployment rate of at least 6 percent.
The bill was approved by the House in October.
Perino said in a statement that Bush will sign the legislation "because of the tight job market."
In September, Bush threatened to veto a broader stimulus bill that included the extension of jobless benefits.
In most states, unemployment benefits are paid for a maximum of 26 weeks.
The Senate
vote came on the same day the U.S. Department of Labor reported that
the number of people filing for unemployment insurance had reached a
16-year high.
Initial filings for state jobless benefits increased by 27,000 to
542,000 for the week ended November 15. This marks the third time since
1992 that initial claims have exceeded 500,000.
Claims reached the highest total since the week ending July 25, 1992, when 564,000 initial claims were filed.
Bob Brusca, an economist at FAO Economics, said the week's sharp uptick
in claims an
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President-elect Barack Obama is poised to restore the United States'
image in the international community, but experts say the
president-elect must show the world that his actions will live up to
his rhetoric.
Receiving a warm welcome is not the same as maintaining one, and Obama has a lot of work to do to improve the U.S. brand.
America's image has declined in nearly every region of the world in
recent years, but Obama's victory "enables the United States to start
again with a clean slate," according to John Quelch, the senior
associate dean at Harvard Business School.
"Americans can
actually go to dinner parties and cocktail receptions around the world
today and not have to apologize for the United States the way they have
had to do the last several years," he said. "The election has made life
a little bit easier for Americans living and traveling abroad to hold
their head up high again."
The United States' tarnished
reputation has been fueled by a combination of factors, including
opposition to U.S. policies like the war Iraq and alleged torture and
abuse of prisoners, the perception of hypocrisy, unilateralism, and the
perceived war on Islam, according to a congressional report released in
June.
Obama
represents a "clean break" from the past, and his election is the first
big step toward change, said Dick Martin, a
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Главная 
WASHINGTON President Bush on Friday morning signed a
measure to extend unemployment benefits by at least seven weeks in
every state, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
President-elect Barack Obama is poised to restore the United States'
image in the international community, but experts say the
president-elect must show the world that his actions will live up to
his rhetoric.
