Category: Fall 2006 Newswire
Murphy Reflects on Election
MURPHY
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
November 15, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15– Connecticut’s competitive House and Senate races made headlines across the nation, and now that the voters have spoken the 33-year-old winner of the 5th District congressional race is reflecting on the results.
Christopher Murphy, one of the youngest members of the 110th Congress, said that the intertwining of special interests and lobbying with policy decisions in Washington sparked the change.
“I think voters made a clear statement in the 5th District Nov. 7 that they wanted things to change in Washington,” he said.
During the campaign the candidates debated key issues, including health care, energy costs and employment.
“[The voters] wanted their issues and their problems to come first,” Murphy said. “The voice of the district won over the special interests in this election.”
He said that going into the election he felt that the conventional wisdom that the challenger is always the underdog and can’t win against a longstanding power was incorrect.
Murphy handily defeated Republican Rep. Nancy Johnson, who after 12 terms raised twice as much money as Murphy did. This is the second time Murphy went up against Johnson. In 1996, he served as campaign manager for Charlotte Koskoff, who came close to defeating the long-standing congresswoman.
“Oftentimes we don’t try to open doors just because we think they’re locked,” he said. “And oftentimes they’re ready to be opened.”
In his victory speech Murphy told supporters, “For the rest of your lives, do not ever, ever, let anyone tell you ever again that a thing cannot be done.”
He reiterates that message as he spends his first week in Washington attending meetings, holding press conferences, picking his office and adjusting to the responsibility he has undertaken.
“I hope that our election was a signal to people in Connecticut and throughout the country that there are no obstacles too great when the stakes are high,” Murphy said.
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Women Senators in 110th Congress Meet for the First Time
WOMEN
Bangor Daily News
Lauren Smith
Boston University Washington News Service
11/15/06
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 – Women senators of the upcoming 110th Congress met for the first time Tuesday to discuss agendas and welcome new members.
They sat in a tight circle in the office of Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), drinking coffee and calling themselves the “Sweet Sixteen.”
“When I was elected back in 1996, I remember this meeting very well,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said. “It was a much smaller group then, but I remember Barbara Mikulski teaching me how to work the appropriations process, and that was so helpful to hear from her.”
The midterm election yielded historic gains for women in Congress, in both the House and the Senate. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is set to become the nation’s first female Speaker of the House as the Democrats gained more than the 15 seats they needed to take the majority, and the number of female senators will increase to 16, with Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) joining the ranks.
The women’s caucus gathered to give its new colleagues some guidance on what they can expect, said Collins. All were in attendance except for Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and McCaskill.
The closed-door “power workshop” helped to “give us a greater focus and strength on some of the issues we all care about—whether it’s on women and work and family issues, but also across the board,” Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) said.
Both senators agreed that one of the best things about the group of female senators is their diversity.
“I think the interesting part of it is that we all represent different committees and we have a chance to share our strengths and build support on different issues,” Snowe said.
Until the new Congress, Snowe chairs the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee and Collins chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, but other senators represent committees ranging from Environment and Public Works to Banking,Housing and Urban Affairs.
“We don’t think alike, and obviously the female senators span the ideological spectrum,” Collins said. “I, for one, always resist being pigeon holed as working on ‘women’s issues.’ That’s one reason why I’m chairman of Homeland Security. Because I think every issue affects women.”
When the Democrats take control of the Senate in January Snowe and Collins will lose their chairmanships and will become the senior Republican members of their committees.
Research shows how women change the agenda, said Barbara Palmer, assistant professor and affiliate faculty with the Women and Politics Institute at American University. “Women don’t vote differently than their male counterparts,” she said. “But different things get talked about.”
For example, in the early 1990s when there was a large influx of women into Congress, they were able to get former President Bush to sign the Family and Medical Leave Act as well as provide more money for breast cancer research, she said.
“Women bring different perspective and life experiences to the job, and I think that’s very valuable,” Collins said.
Maine has long been an example of female leadership.
The late Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine) was the first woman to serve in both the House and the Senate, as well as the first woman elected to the Senate without first having been elected or appointed to fill a vacant Senate seat, according to the Congressional Research Service. Smith’s 24 years of Senate service is still a record for a woman.
“I was inspired by Sen. Margaret Chase Smith when I was growing up,” Collins said. “I think that it’s valuable to have more women in the Senate, and I think it’s important in terms of being role models for girls and young women growing up.”
Palmer agrees. “There is clearly a role model effect here,” she said. “Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker will have a huge impact. That visual is really important.”
Today, Maine is (along with California) one of two states whose senators are both women.
“I want little girls growing up in rural Maine to know that they too could grow up to be a United States senator,” Collins said. “It really matters to me to send that message, just as I think the presence of more women in the Senate is important in terms of raising aspirations of girls who are growing up.”
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Wilderness Protection Bill Passes House
Wilderness
The Eagle-Tribune
Bryan McGonigle
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 15, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15– Reps. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., and Charles Bass, R-N.H., will leave Washington having successfully helped pass a bill in the House that would protect nearly 35,000 acres of wilderness in the Granite State.
The New England Wilderness Act, which would designate land in the Wild River Valley as protected wilderness and expand the existing safe-guarded wilderness area in the Sandwich Range, passed on a voice vote Wednesday. It also would protect more than 46,000 acres in the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont.
“I’ve hiked in those mountains, and I’ll have a lot more time to hike them now,” Bradley, who lost his bid for reelection last week, joked on the House floor. He then said that the positive impact from the bill will be felt in New Hampshire long after he’s left Washington.
Earlier this year, Bass and Bradley pushed for legislation that would protect the land in New Hampshire but did not include Vermont. In September, the legislation was voted down after Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., urged members to oppose it because it didn’t protect Vermont.
The Senate, however, passed legislation that would protect wilderness in both states, and after Bass and Bradley compromised with Sanders, the House passed that bill.
“A wilderness designation adds additional protections to areas of the White Mountain National Forest that are among the most beautiful and unique in the White Mountains,” Bradley said in a statement after the vote. “The passage of this important legislation will help to preserve the areas for future generations to be able to enjoy."
Susan Arnold, director of conservation for the Appalachian Mountain Club, applauded the passage of the bill.
"Protecting wilderness is one of the many valuable uses of our public lands, and the congressmen's work on behalf of wilderness in the White Mountain National Forest is a legacy that will be appreciated by Granite State residents and visitors today, and for generations to come," Arnold said.
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Meehan Honored in Ireland for Peace Efforts
Belfast
The Eagle-Tribune
Bryan McGonigle
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 15, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 – Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., journeyed to Belfast last week and promised to act as Northern Ireland’s peace envoy on Capitol Hill.
Meehan, in turn, was applauded for his commitment to peace in that long-suffering corner of Europe.
Meehan met with several Irish groups to observe and discuss the region’s plan for peace and economic development and was the keynote speaker at the annual Aisling Awards Person of the Year ceremony. The Andersonstown News Group, which organizes the awards ceremony, sponsored his trip.
"The timing of my visit couldn't have been better, coming on the heels of the midterm elections,” Meehan said. “I think having Democrats in control of the House of Representatives and the Senate will bring a renewed sense in Washington that the United States needs to reexamine our foreign policy and become engaged and proactive again."
Meehan is a member of the Congressional Friends of the Irish National Caucus – a congressional organization focusing on Ireland and Northern Ireland – and has been involved with the Northern Ireland peace process since first taking office in 1993, making many trips to the region, including a 2000 visit with President Clinton. Meehan also has pushed for free trade between the United States and Northern Ireland.
The Aisling Awards started 10 years ago as a grassroots effort to bring the feuding communities in Northern Ireland together. Past speakers at the event have included Irish presidents as well as the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
“It was the first major private-sector event that really pulled the people together over there,” said Art McCabe of Andover, a lawyer who joined Meehan on the trip last week and has been involved with the Northern Ireland peace process for nearly a decade.
In 1997, Meehan returned from a fact-finding mission in the region and asked McCabe to help with economic development there because McCabe had implemented some successful economic development programs in Lawrence.
"Economic development and prosperity is one of the keys to achieving a lasting peace,” Meehan said. “I took this trip to meet with and see first-hand the economic and community partnerships that are developing throughout Belfast.”
Northern Ireland has been ripped apart by violence in the past several decades. The Irish Republican Army organized a campaign in the 1960s to drive out the ruling British military and Protestant domination over Catholics. Sectarian violence ensued –with more than 3,100 killed by the mid-1990s – until a ceasefire between the Irish Republican Army and the Protestant Unionist paramilitary groups was declared in 1994.
In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Belfast, marking an unofficial end to Northern Ireland’s civil war. The agreement established the Northern Ireland Assembly, a 108-member legislature, to ensure that all parties participate in government.
“The people over there are so resilient and determined to have a peaceful and stable society that it’s been rewarding for me to be involved in the peace process,” McCabe said. “Its pretty historic stuff over there, and it would be a good model for other parts of the world.”
Organizers of peace efforts in Ireland have used their methods to work for peace in other areas of the world, including Africa and the Middle East, McCabe said.
Meehan said that “while there is no doubt that the North of Ireland has undergone incredible changes since my last visit, it is my hope that the U.S. will work alongside the British and Irish governments to help continue the buildup of Northern Ireland's economy."
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Bradley Says ‘Goodbye’ To Washington
Byebradley
The Eagle-Tribune
Bryan McGonigle
Boston University Washington News Program
Nov. 15
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 – Boxes and large bins covered the floor of Room 1218 in the Longworth House Office Building on Capitol Hill this week as Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., prepared to leave the nation’s capital.
“It’s amazing how much stuff you accumulate over four years,” Stephanie Dubois, Bradley’s press secretary, said, looking around at all the pictures and plaques that still needed to be packed.
After two terms as New Hampshire’s 1st District representative, Bradley was defeated by the under-funded and little-known liberal activist Carol Shea-Porter in the Nov. 7 midterm elections, which brought a wave of new Democrats to Congress and ousted many Republicans.
“I had gone into Election Day feeling pretty good and felt we had run a good campaign,” Bradley said, adding that Shea-Porter had worked very hard as well. “I still felt optimistic, but we came up a little short.”
Bradley said he didn’t think he or his staff could have done any more than they did to win. He said the national disapproval of President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress, combined with the increased statewide popularity of Gov. John Lynch, D-N.H., and party line voting were factors out of his office’s control that had a great impact on the election.
“It was a perfect storm, and I got caught in it,” he said.
In the state’s 2nd District, which includes Concord and western New Hampshire, six-term Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H., was defeated by Democrat Paul W. Hodes.
The midterm elections delivered both of New Hampshire’s House seats to Democrats for the first time since 1912.
Yellow Post-its were stuck on many of the pictures hanging in Bradley’s office, indicating which ones were to go back to New Hampshire with him. Outside his door was a large trash bin filled with discarded items that wouldn’t be making the trip.
“It is what it is,” Bradley said with a shrug. “You can’t win every race, and we didn’t.”
Bradley, 56, hasn’t given up on politics. He said he plans to run for elected office in 2008 but wouldn’t say if he would be running for the 1st District congressional seat again.
“I need to decompress and have a chance to talk to friends and supporters,” Bradley said. “[This election] was a historic change, but I trust that it will be somewhat temporary in nature.”
Bradley added that Republicans should unite and offer a clear contrast to the Democrats on state and federal issues, and he predicted that the contrast will be clear in the months ahead as Democrats take control of both the House and the Senate.
“Well, 2008 is a long way away, and it’s hard to know what the dynamics will be in 2008,” he said. “I don’t believe we’ll have the same dynamics we had in 2006.”
Bradley reflected on accomplishments made during his two terms in Washington, primarily keeping the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard open. In 2005, the Base Realignment and Closure Committee placed the shipyard on a list for base closures, effective by 2008. Employees of the shipyard, along with New Hampshire and Maine members of Congress and state legislators, campaigned to get the decision reversed, and in August 2005, the shipyard was taken off the list.
“That took a lot of people coming together,” Bradley said, adding that the shipyard’s high performance and top-notch workforce made it easier for the New Hampshire and Maine delegations to make a case for the facility to remain open. “Portsmouth was the best at what it did, saving money and getting ships back in the water.”
Bradley highlighted other issues he’s fought for and voted on, such as funding both disability and retirement for veterans, small-business legislation and environmental protection.
Bradley served in the New Hampshire legislature for 12 years before being elected to Congress in 2002. In 2000, he was named Legislator of the Year by Ski New Hampshire. He also was named New Hampshire Leader for the 21st Century by Business New Hampshire Magazine.
Before his life in politics, Bradley owned and operated several small businesses.
Bradley’s immediate priority is to find jobs for his staff – most of whom have been with him since day one.
“The toughest thing for me is the impact it’s had on all my staff,” he said. “I thought that all of them worked exceptionally hard in the campaign office and the congressional office, and the fact that we came up a little bit short, they should not see it as a reflection on them and their abilities.”
Dubois, a Goffstown native who joined Bradley’s staff in Washington right out of college said it will be difficult going to a new job since she enjoyed working for the congressman representing her home district.
Bradley and his staff must vacate their office by Nov. 27.
Bradley said he plans to spend more time with his four children, who live out West. He said he’ll also use his time off to climb mountains in his home state – all 48 of the mountains with elevations of more than 4,000 feet. He’s climbed them all during the summers but said he would like to try it during the winter – something he hasn’t been able to do with his congressional schedule.
“It’s not something I’ll do in one winter, but I will have the opportunity to pick my days better,” he said. “If the weather’s right and I feel like climbing Mt. Washington, I can climb Mt. Washington.”
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Andover Native Becomes ‘Darling’ of Washington Conservatism
Darlingprofile
The Eagle-Tribune
Bryan McGonigle
Boston University Washington News Service
Nov. 15
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15--Conservative activist Brian Darling sat in his Washington office just days before the midterm elections trying to fit in a quick lunch between a barrage of media appearances.
Speaking as director of Senate relations for a heavyweight conservative think tank, he’d been interviewed that morning for the Dave Chadwick Show in North Carolina and
then appeared on CNBC debating about voter issues. He had more interviews to get to before the day was done.
“I’m really busy now, because people want to know what we think of all these issues
coming up with the election,” Darling said, looking for his schedule. “There’s just so much that I can’t even keep track of it.”
Clearly, he’s no longer in Andover.
Darling left the Merrimack Valley years ago and put on his figurative boxing gloves to champion the conservative cause across the nation. He’s also forged a legal and political career entangled in a few of the most pivotal and controversial fights of the new millennium: the Bush-Gore election recount, the Elian Gonzalez asylum dispute and an unfavorable incident during the Terri Schiavo case that would bring him national attention.
Average grades and ‘left-wing crazies’
Darling, 41, grew up in Andover, the middle of five children of Chester and Daphne
Darling. His father was a Boston trial lawyer famous for representing the organizers of the Boston St. Patrick’s Day Parade in their legal battle against gay and lesbian groups who wanted to march in the procession.
Chester Darling said his son was well-behaved and knew the value of a dollar, proudly noting that Brian Darling washed dishes at a restaurant as a kid. He also recalled an incident in which a woman’s car was stuck on train tracks in Andover while a train was arriving, and Brian Darling took action.
“It was like one of those silent movies, and my son jumped in the car and pulled the lady out of the car,” he said.
Darling graduated in 1983 from Andover High School, where he received average grades. He played sports with his friends, but he wasn’t on any school teams. He wasn’t political-minded in high school, either.
But Darling found his calling at UMass Amherst. A student in his dorm was involved with the College Republicans, and when Darling went to a meeting, he realized that this was where he belonged.
“UMass was a very leftist campus,” Darling said. “The feeling was one of being in a very
contentious atmosphere. We had the Young Communists League on campus… left-wing crazies who were all over the place.”
Darling said his newfound love for conservatism and the opposition from such
“left-wing crazies” are what toughened his punches and nurtured his fighting spirit.
“It gave me a lot of training,” Darling said. “I find that I have an easier time arguing with people because of my experience at UMass. It was baptism by fire.”
W. Greg Rothman befriended Darling when they were freshmen together at UMass.
“Brian and I took several classes, or should I say, ‘missed’ several classes,”
said Rothman,. who is the CEO of a Pennsylvania real estate company and was recently named to the board of the National Veterans Business Development Corp. by President Bush.
Although they had active social lives, Rothman said, their lives at school revolved around politics.
Darling started a conservative newspaper at UMass called The Minuteman, which is still in publication, with classmate Tony Rudy – a man who would become a lobbyist and recently pleaded guilty to conspiracy for his involvement in the Jack Abramoff scandal.
David R. Mark, a liberal blogger and managing editor of a national real estate publication, was an editor on UMass’s newspaper, The Daily Collegian, in the mid-1980s. Last January, Mark wrote an article for Blogcritics Magazine about Darling and Rudy, referring to them as “one half of a quartet that led conservatives” at UMass.
“I remember arguing with Tony [Rudy], Brian and their colleagues about all things Reagan,” Mark wrote. “But basically, I remember them as being fun, smart guys who happily wasted time in the campus center arcade and who weren’t against getting a beer.”
A Right Hook, far-right hook
Darling is a conservative, unapologetic and unhindered. His heroes are his father and Ronald Reagan. Pro guns and against abortion, welfare and same-sex marriage, he’s a hard-line right-winger who wears his ideology on his sleeve and does so with a confident smile.
The talking Ann Coulter doll next to his desk can attest to that.
“If I was going to be involved in politics, I had to leave Massachusetts,” Darling said.
“There was no future for a conservative, pro-gun, pro-life Republican in the state of
Massachusetts.”
So he left the Bay State for redder pastures.
Darling’s first political job in Washington was for Sen. Steve Symms, R-Idaho, in the fall of 1992. After Symms retired, Darling worked for Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., in 1993.
Darling left Washington in 1993 to get his law degree at New England School of Law,
and later worked for his father’s law firm in Boston and for the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission.
But in the fall of 1999, Darling stepped back into the ring in Washington as legal counsel for Sen. Robert Smith of New Hampshire. Smith had quit the Republican Party, accusing it of abandoning its core conservative values, and was seeking the presidency as a third-party candidate.
Hanging from the wall in Darling’s office is the speech Smith gave when he left the
Republican ranks.
“I remember watching that [speech] on TV in Andover, and I thought it was really
wonderful that this guy was quitting the Republican Party on principle,” Darling said.
“So when I got a call to go work for him, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
Battles in the Sunshine State
In January 2000, Darling and Smith traveled to Florida to help a child.
Elian Gonzalez was a 6-year-old Cuban who had fled his home country with his mother. She died at sea, and the boy’s father wanted him to return to Cuba. Darling and Smith visited the boy and proposed legislation to grant him permanent residence in Florida. Their battle would eventually be lost when Elian was sent back to Cuba to live with his father.
“We did our best to try to help provide that little guy with some sort of recourse so he
could stay here if he wanted to,” Darling said, still visibly saddened at the outcome.
“It’s sad when you think his mother gave her life to get that boy to freedom and out of a
communist dictatorship, and we just sent the kid back.”
Darling – who believes in tough border security but also wants open borders for those fleeing communism – said he thinks Elian’s family members were being intimidated and threatened by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
Darling’s career would gain further notoriety in Florida in the wake of another
controversy – the contested 2000 presidential election. He headed to Miami-Dade County, expecting the issue to be resolved by the time he got there.
“That ended up being a very important count,” Darling said. “All of those ballots were
counted before the count was stopped in Miami. They all mattered in the final tally.”
They counted for several days. Darling said one man at his counting table became so stressed that he ran out and got sick.
Darling said he found nine extra votes – all for Al Gore – and he objected to the count, forcing another five-hour recount which ended with a correct count.
“It was nice to be a part of it,” Darling said. “That year, 2000, was an interesting year, with Elian Gonzalez and the Florida recount, and I somehow was right in the middle of both.”
Darling spent the next few years as a lobbyist, mostly for gun interests, and worked for the Alexander Strategy Group – the same firm his friend Tony Rudy worked for and that shut down early this year after the Abramoff scandal hit.
After Sept. 11, 2001, Darling was instrumental in helping Smith with legislation allowing airplane pilots to carry firearms.
Misstep in a Memo
Florida beckoned Darling again in January 2005, when he went to work for Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla. – a move that would bring national fame – or infamy – to Darling’s
career.
Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative condition for 15 years, and her husband wanted to take out her feeding tube and let her die. Her family, the Schindlers, wanted to keep her alive. Despite congressional legislation intended to help keep Schiavo alive, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that her husband could remove her feeding tube, allowing her to die. The issue divided America along cultural lines.
In March 2005, as Schiavo lay dying, Darling wrote a memo about how Republicans could use the Schiavo case as a political issue to rally the conservative base against Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., in the 2006 election.
"This is an important moral issue, and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue," the memo said.
The memo found its way into Democratic hands and was made public, causing a media frenzy and nationwide outrage. Darling admitted writing it and resigned from his job immediately.
Nelson, the target of Darling’s strategy, was re-elected to the Senate earlier this month.
“Clearly, it wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve ever done,” Darling said humbly.
Other than the memo, Darling is proud of the role he played in the Schiavo case. He helped draft the legislation passed by Congress to keep Schiavo alive. Even though the Florida courts eventually ruled against keeping her alive, Darling said he didn’t regret his efforts to save the woman.
“The memo controversy is not something I’m proud of,” Darling said. “But the
only persons that I really was concerned about offending were the Schindler family, who I worked very closely with.”
Mark, who had once played video games with Darling in the UMass campus center, has referred to Darling as a “tragic hero” of the conservative movement.
“I don’t think the Terri Schiavo memo was meant for publication, but I still found it in poor taste,” Mark said. “You shouldn’t capitalize on someone’s pain.”
Darling said the Schindler family has never given him any indication that they were
displeased with what he did.
“It was a tough time, when my career was going so well,” Darling said.
But Darling still was not down for the count. Just a few months later, he joined the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank down the street from the Capitol where he’d climbed up the conservative ladder. Darling was named director of the foundation’s Senate relations.
Next Round
“The way Washington works, it’s funny, because if you’re in the right place at the right
time, things will work out for you,” Darling said.
Darling said the Heritage Foundation gives him a sense of freedom that comes with working for a think tank, where he can express himself without the restraint that comes with working for elected officials. He enjoys making media appearances and expressing his own views rather than working in the background for politicians. And his family enjoys watching him spar in the media.
“We love taping him when he’s on TV,” his mother, Daphne, said. “I just want him to be happy.”
Darling plans to marry someday. Although he is dating a conservative, he said he doesn’t have a political litmus test for a wife.
“We do want some grandchildren,” Daphne Darling insisted.
Darling – whose job it is to deliver the Heritage Foundation’s message to the Senate – was disappointed with the midterm elections, in which Democrats took control of Congress. But he said it sent a clear message to Republicans that they need to get back to their conservative roots – back to the 1994 Contract with America that had helped bring them to power in the first place.
“I trust that he will become even more sought-after and prominent now that Republicans have lost the Senate and the conservative movement regroups,” Rothman said. “Brian Darling has stayed the same principled person despite all his years in Washington. Most people, that can't be said about.”
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Wilderness Sidebar
NE Wilderness
New Hampshire Union Leader
Kendra Gilbert
Boston University Washington News Service
11-15-06
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 – Outgoing New Hampshire Reps. Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley praised the collaborative effort behind the passage of the New England Wilderness Act of 2006.
Bass in a statement thanked legislators and environmental groups involved with the bill for “working together to craft this recommended addition to the Granite State’s crown jewel of the outdoors.”
His colleague Bradley said on the floor of the House the compromise reached between the New Hampshire delegation and Independent Vermont Rep. Bernie Sanders was “in true New England fashion” and that the passage of the bill “makes sense for New Hampshire.”
Bradley said in a statement that he had hiked many of the areas that will be protected under the bill and knows “that they are truly deserving of this wilderness designation.”
He joked on the floor that he will now have more time to explore the White Mountain National Forest more thoroughly.
Bass said on the floor the implication of the bill “will be felt forever,” long after he leaves office in January, and said that it was the “most important bill I’ve ever had.”
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Dodd Welcomes Murphy to Congress
FRESHMAN
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
November 14, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – Sen. Christopher Dodd joined fellow Democratic members of the Connecticut delegation on Tuesday to introduce Reps.-elect Christopher Murphy (D-5th) and Joe Courtney (D-2nd) to Washington.
“I want to welcome Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney to Washington,” said Dodd. “Last Tuesday showed us that people want a change in the government, they want to see us do what’s right.”
Dodd, whose mother’s maiden name was Murphy, introduced Murphy as “a man without sin.” He said his mother always told him that all people were originally named Murphy, but their names were changed when they sinned.
Murphy, dressed in a blue shirt and gold tie representing the state’s colors, said that Connecticut’s vote on Nov. 7 was a vote to change the tone in government.
He said he intends to honor the message his constituents sent by working across party lines.
Murphy defeated 12-term Rep. Nancy Johnson in the election.
“I intend to honor the message Connecticut voters sent by working across party lines,” Murphy said.
Dodd said he looks forward to working with Murphy in the 110th Congress and will do what he can to help create the change that Connecticut’s voters desire in the government.
This isn’t the first time Dodd and Murphy have worked together. While in college, Murphy was an intern in the Washington office of the five-term senator.
Murphy said that the last two days have been a “whirlwind” that the experience has been “humbling” and that this is an opportunity for Connecticut to have an unprecedented voice in Congress.
“There is no rest for the weary,” Murphy said.
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Dodd into High-Level Chairmanship
BANKING
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
November 14, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – The incoming Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking, House and Urban Affairs Committee vowed Tuesday to work across party lines to make effective decisions.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-CT, who will chair the Banking Committee next year, had breakfast with the outgoing chairman, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-AL, and discussed the committee’s future.
“We will be working together and we will cooperate when we can and we’ll never let [party lines] separate us,” Dodd said.
Shelby said that he looks forward to working with Dodd to help move the committee’s agenda.
After taking over as chairman, Dodd said, he hopes to use the knowledge he’s gained as a five-term senator to make significant strides in the committee.
“I’d like to clean up where we can clean up,” Dodd said. “I’m prepared to get some things done, and I think the most important issues are security, prosperity and opportunity.”
He also mentioned the he is looking into working on issues related to hedge funds and flood insurance.
After 26 years as a member of the committee, Dodd will become chairman because Paul Sarbanes, the current senior Democrat, is retiring in January.
“I don’t know if anyone has served this long and not been chairman,” Dodd quipped.
He said he is working on building a staff and looks forward to traveling around the country in support of banking issues.
Dodd is also a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and is the senior Democrat on the Rules and Administration Committee, though he is passing up that panel’s gavel in favor of the Banking Committee chairmanship.
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New Bill to Extent Special Inspector General
IRAQ
The New Britain Herald
Tia Albright
Boston University Washington News Service
November 14, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 – The Senate voted Tuesday to continue the work of the agency that acts as watchdog on the billions of dollars being spent for the reconstruction of Iraq.
Sen. Lieberman, I-Conn., co-sponsored the amendment that passed on a voice vote and would extend until the fall of 2008 the work of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Under the previous terms the office would expire Oct. 1, 2007. The measure was attached to a bill authorizing military construction.
“This was a critically necessary office to create,” Lieberman said. “Imagine what would have happened with the expenditure of billions of dollars if the Special Inspector General Stuart Bowen, and his first rate team, had not been at work.”
Bowen’s office oversees approximately $32 billion in contracts and grants for Iraq reconstruction. The organization estimates that the audits, investigations and inspections have saved the government approximately $1.82 billion, according to a press release from Lieberman’s office.
Lieberman said the office determined that Halliburton, a company that provides products and services to oil and gas industry, wasted $75 million on a failed pipeline project, and found that the government lost track of thousands pistols, assault rifles and other weapons distributed to Iraqi authorities.
The office has issued 73 audit reports and 65 product assessments, which has resulted in the arrest of five people, four convictions and the seizure of $17 million in assets, according to the release.
Earlier in the day Lieberman joined three other senators at a press conference promoting the extension for the office. The senators on Monday introduced separate legislation that would do what the amendment does.
The senators said that the office must be continued because it has helped root out millions of dollars in waste, fraud and abuse.
“The special inspector general must be allowed to continue his aggressive work on behalf of our country and our taxpayers as long as their money, our money, is being spent in Iraq,” Lieberman said.
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