Word: capitols
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Even as President Bush celebrated the Iraqi election on Capitol Hill this week, the jockeying among Iraq's contenders for power suggested that new political storms may be fast approaching. Although the arcane process of forming a new government even after the election results are announced means that many weeks may pass before its makeup is known, it will, nonetheless, be the first post-Saddam government not handpicked by the U.S. And early indications are that it may be led by political groups who do not consider the U.S. as natural allies, which could pose complex and unforeseen challenges...
Bill Thomas, 63, has unhorsed more than a few people in his 27 years in Congress. In 1995, Florida Democrat Sam Gibbons, a normally affable septuagenarian, got so angry at Thomas after a contentious Medicare debate that he lunged for the younger man in a Capitol Hill hallway. A year and a half ago, Thomas outraged a group of House Democrats when he tried to get the police to evict them after they walked out of a hearing and occupied an adjacent room. And then there was the irate Capitol Hill staff member who beat up on Thomas' Mercedes...
Thomas is cranky with both those below and above him, famously storming out of a meeting on Medicare when his House leadership bosses took control of negotiations. He's erratic too: he has occasionally broken down in tears, as he did when apologizing for the Capitol police incident, lamenting that his mother would have told him, "When they were passing out moderation, you were hiding behind the door." The son of a plumber, Thomas grew up in Orange County, Calif. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from San Francisco State University and then taught...
...which explains why rank-and-file Republicans on Capitol Hill--who haven't forgotten how they used to get clobbered for entertaining even modest Social Security changes--aren't exactly storming the microphones to pledge their unconditional support for anything that would change the basic outlines of this arrangement. Anxiety is especially high in the House, where all 435 lawmakers have to run for re-election next year. "I've told my staff we are going to keep all options open. I'm not saying yes or no at this point," says Republican Congressman Mike Castle of Delaware, who leads...
Think of them as kids squabbling in the backseat on a long car ride. In the case of Congress, there doesn't seem to be much hope that they'll quiet down and cooperate. Republicans and Democrats can always be expected to bicker, but lately the partisanship on Capitol Hill has become unusually intense. In fact, students of the institution say Congress hasn't been this politically polarized in almost a century...