Word: reformer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Congressmen don't usually hang around on the House floor any longer than they have to. But for Gary Condit, it may be the only sanctuary left. On Thursday afternoon, as the campaign-reform bill was crashing to earth, so did the rest of his life. At the back of the chamber, the California Congressman leaned on the rail, chatting and joking with the men and women who still treat him as a colleague. As the others wandered away one by one, Condit lingered for a while, all alone...
DENNIS HASTERT Speaker, formerly Mr. Nice Guy, mugs campaign-finance-reform vote. Even Newt never did this...
...unlikely alliance of two presidential aspirants is plotting to get campaign-finance reform back on the agenda, after a procedural wrangle last week prevented a House vote on a bill barring unregulated soft-money contributions. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who controls what bills come to the floor, says he has "no plan to bring up this bill now." But House minority leader Dick Gephardt and Senator John McCain will ask the 19 G.O.P. Congressmen who defected in last week's fight to pressure Hastert to change his mind. If that fails, they'll try to get signatures from a majority...
Breaux: I'd change the whole thing. The whole program is a 1965 model that was good in 1965. But it's outdated, and it's micromanaged by Congress. You have to reform it fundamentally with a program that combines the best of what government can do with the best of what the private sector can do. I would allow people who want to stay right where they are in the current fee-for-service program to stay there, but create a new entity. It would be private insurance that would compete...
...change his mind. If Hastert doesn't, Gephardt will try to get a majority of House members to sign a "discharge petition," which can force a vote on a bill the leadership refuses to bring to the floor. Gephardt used discharge petitions to force the House to pass campaign reform in 1998 and 1999. The pressure on him to deliver again now increases - as it does for McCain. If both decide to run for president, they'll need the bragging rights...