Back in the Saddle, Still on the road

The House is back and the Senate will be meeting pro forma for this first week of the first legislative session of 2008. There is still a bad taste in every one's mouth from the close of the last session and Bush's not-so-surprising veto over the break on the defense spending measure. The administration objected to a provision that might allow for victims of terrorism to bring lawsuits against the government of Iraq, leaving the Democratic House leadership to search for a quick fix and get the bill back to the president's desk before the Pentagon gets antsy about pay raises for service members. 

Two big interrelated E words to be aware of as this session gets rolling: Election and Economy. Members of congress tend to think and act differently in an election year, particularly in one where the economic outlook is "challenging" to say the least. The latest Gallup Poll shows that the economy was an increasingly important issue in the New Hampshire primary and forecasts that it will only continue to grow in importance as the nation marches toward Super Tuesday. The credit crunch, the housing market, the weak dollar, and the rising price of gas will be harder for Congress to ignore in this new session. Other leftovers include tax reform and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is still stuck on immunity for telecoms that helped the administration. FISA is currently running on an extension and the Senate will have about a week to address it after they return to act on the legislation before the law expires. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said that success in this session would depend on whether "Bush Republicans" will choose to work with or against the Democrats. But the Democrats are not sending a warm welcome back to the Bush administration as they are expected to take up contempt-of-congress resolutions against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and White House Counsel Harriet Miers for their failure to appear before hearings in 2007. 

Meanwhile, things on the road are starting to look nastier than Congress, and that is quite a feat. Back and forth over the weekend about an ill-advised statement has led to even higher tensions in the triangular relationship between the Obama campaign, the Clinton campaign and the press. As much as political campaigns have progressed or appeared to progress issues of race and gender are still taking center stage over serious issues, though some sparring over Iraq was evident on the Democrat side. On the Republican side the focus was the economy and the "mini"recession of the state of Michigan. Mitt Romney is hoping to get a first place out of this primary, especially since he is a native son. Most speeches by Republicans in Detroit have focused on the auto industry and the disappearance of jobs from that sector. Romney is promising a roundtable on the auto industry with unions and industry leaders and reexamine jobs that some see as extinct.

And no matter where the U.S. automotive industry is going, it's been a heck of a road trip for us at Talk Radio News Service and it's only just begun.