Congress

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today regarding remarks attributed to Rep. Tom Cole (OK-4). According to press reports, Congressman Cole said a vote against President Bush’s re-election is like supporting Adolf Hitler during World War II, and that, “If George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election.”

Fresh off their annual retreat to plot election-year strategy, House Democrats for the first time in recent months believe they have a legitimate shot at narrowing the margin of their minority, sources throughout the Caucus indicate.

Pointing to hoped-for gains in upcoming special elections, renewed vigor in Texas House races and the nation’s evolving political mood, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is painting an ever-rosier political picture for House Democrats heading into the 2004 elections.

In the Feb. 4 Roll Call, Nicole Duran reports that the refusal by Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., to "toe the party line on Medicare does not seem to be hurting his son's campaign to succeed him in Congress."

The flap over whether the House Ethics Committee should investigate statements by Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., about the Medicare prescription drug vote continued to simmer today.

In the 27 months since he lost the popular vote by half a million ballots and won a majority in the Electoral College only by the intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court, George W. Bush has become leader of a uniquely unified government.

If the House ethics committee doesn’t investigate allegations of arm-twisting during voting on a Medicare bill, a House Democratic leader said Tuesday that Democrats will file a formal complaint within a few weeks.

House Democrats may file an ethics complaint if Republican congressional leaders do not open an investigation into whether bribes were offered to win passage of the Medicare prescription drug bill, House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (Md.) said.