Newt Gingrich wants to work with Democrats - San Francisco Gate

As I noted in my Sunday column, the GOP presidential pack has three candidates who haven’t served in office for five to 13 years. Newt Gingrich hasn’t been House Speaker since 1999.

Saturday morning while he was in town for the California GOP convention, comrades Marinucci and Garofoli and I sat down with Gingrich. I asked him if he thought that, having not served in office for more than a decade, he thought he might be “rusty.” Gingrich answered: “No, not particularly.”

And: “There’s a difference between, ‘Am I a little rusty?’ and ‘Do I think I’m dealing with a different world than we had in 1994?’ Sure. Of course we are. One of the things I would want to do shortly after the election is schedule every single Democrat in the House and Senate for one-on-one meetings, to find out whether or not there’s a coalition to be built, which you know you can’t build through the leaders. The leaders are the most partisan partisan part about the system. And yet you know that there are a lot of members, if members are faced with four years of working with you, there are a lot of individual members who would be glad to sit down and say, ‘Gee, this is my pet project. This is what I’m most worried about, this is what I want to get done, and you might be able to build bipartisan coalitions’.”

Does he think Congress is more partisan now or less? Gingrich answered that it’s “much more partisan.”

Indeed, Gingrich told me he thought he could find Democrats who would join his plan to end civil service.

Who knew Newt was so anxious to work with Democrats. But when you think about it, it makes sense. After all, it’s Republicans who forced Gingrich to resign as Speaker. At the time, he denounced their “cannibalism.” Gingrich frequently talks up his cozy relations with Bill Clinton and how he was able to work with Democrats on welfare reform and the budget. Quoth the Newter, “Everything I passed, Bill Clinton signed.” Note Gingrich did not say: Everything we passed.

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House Democrats say GOP wants too many days off (AP)

WASHINGTON – The House will be in session less than one out of every three days next year, a slight decline from past years. House Republicans say they are running the place more efficiently and lawmakers need the time to be with constituents in an election year. Democrats say that's too few days on the job during an economic crisis.

The announcement of the 2012 schedule even led to a Twitter battle between the press offices of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and the No. 2 Democrat, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, over how Congress is being run.

"As with this year, the goal of next year's calendar is to create certainty and productivity in the legislative process, protect committee time and afford members the opportunity to gain valuable input from their constituents at home," Cantor said in a letter to colleagues as he released the calendar scheduling 109 legislative days in 2012.

Under the tentative calendar, the House would have only six voting days in January. There would be three working days in August, when Congress usually takes off, and the House would be off from Oct. 5 until a week after Election Day on Nov. 6. The last scheduled session of the year would be on Dec. 14.

In 2008, the last presidential election year when Democrats controlled the House, the House met for 119 days.

"The American people deserve better," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said at a news conference, referring to congressional inaction on creating jobs and the House's six-day schedule in January. "We have work to do."

Hoyer said the House has had only 111 days of legislative business this year and the floor schedule "has prevented the House from getting anything done to create jobs."

Republicans responded at a news conference where they highlighted what they called the "forgotten 15," bills that the House has passed and Republicans say will lead to job growth but which the Democratic-controlled Senate has ignored.

The 15 bills focus on promoting development of domestic energy and reducing or eliminating regulations imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies.

Differences over the schedule and who's to blame for lack of productivity played out on Twitter. Cantor's office derided the "fake outrage" of Hoyer and Pelosi and claimed that the House will be in session more days than it was under Democratic control.

Hoyer's office shot back, "You mean days like today when last votes started before 11 a.m. and we jetted out of town for the week?"

House Republicans, when they gained the majority in January, put into effect several changes to make the chamber operate more smoothly. They reduced the number of votes on minor legislation such as naming post offices, cut back on morning votes so committee hearings would not be interrupted, and reduced late-night sessions. Cantor said the House has taken 800 roll call votes through Oct. 14 this year, compared to 565 last year.

The Library of Congress says the House has met 139 times through Wednesday. That includes several dozen "pro forma" sessions that last a few minutes and where no business is conducted. This year such sessions have been convened to prevent President Barack Obama from making federal appointments when Congress is away.

The number hasn't varied much in recent years, with legislative sessions generally going down in election years. According to the Library of Congress, the House met 127 times in 2010, 159 times in 2009, 119 times in 2008 and 164 times in 2007.

The Senate has met 136 times so far this year and convened 157 times last year, including pro forma sessions.

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Democratic Rep. John Conyers wants to reclaim ‘ObamaCare,’ make it a compliment (Daily Caller)

Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers hopes to make the word “ObamaCare” a compliment.

“I like the term,” Conyers told The Hill. “I wish I had invented it myself.”

Conyers, who has been a congressman since 1965, said, “The fact that a healthcare bill is named after a first-term president who does what two other presidents before him couldn’t accomplish is really a compliment.”

He suggested that despite the current use of the term, “A few years from now, ObamaCare will be looked upon as a complimentary description, rather than what [critics] are trying to portray it as now.”

In February, Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz , who became the chairperson of the Democratic National Committee in May, said that using the term was “clearly in violation of House rules” that prohibit “disparaging references to the President of the United States.”

Conyers, the ranking member of the House Judiciary committee and an ardent supporter of single-payer health care, told The Hill that he hasn’t discussed his effort with Wasserman Schultz, but that he has worn an “I Heart ObamaCare” button to a committee that they both serve on.

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View the original article here

Democratic Rep. John Conyers wants to reclaim ‘ObamaCare,’ make it a compliment (Daily Caller)

Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers hopes to make the word “ObamaCare” a compliment.

“I like the term,” Conyers told The Hill. “I wish I had invented it myself.”

Conyers, who has been a congressman since 1965, said, “The fact that a healthcare bill is named after a first-term president who does what two other presidents before him couldn’t accomplish is really a compliment.”

He suggested that despite the current use of the term, “A few years from now, ObamaCare will be looked upon as a complimentary description, rather than what [critics] are trying to portray it as now.”

In February, Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz , who became the chairperson of the Democratic National Committee in May, said that using the term was “clearly in violation of House rules” that prohibit “disparaging references to the President of the United States.”

Conyers, the ranking member of the House Judiciary committee and an ardent supporter of single-payer health care, told The Hill that he hasn’t discussed his effort with Wasserman Schultz, but that he has worn an “I Heart ObamaCare” button to a committee that they both serve on.

Read more stories from The Daily Caller
ABC news calls Palin a 'Sideshow Candidate'
Democratic Rep. John Conyers wants to reclaim 'ObamaCare,' make it a compliment
Weiner and the Kiss of Doom
Wild Neoliberal Weekend II
Exclusive ch. 14 excerpt from Coulter's 'Demonic'

View the original article here