WASHINGTON - Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in an months-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline prices this summer. ...more

September 23, 2008

Some political pundits have said that if it were not for his last name, he might have been the Republican nominee for president this year. But former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush tells me he is happy to support the McCain-Palin ticket, which he predicts, perhaps predictably, will win. Of Gov. Sarah Palin, he says, "She has generated so much enthusiasm, which was the one element of the campaign that was completely missing." ...more

September 14, 2008

The head of the House tax-writing committee admitted Wednesday that he owes about $5,000 to the Internal Revenue Service for failing to report income on his returns. ...more

September 11, 2008

Congress appeared deadlocked Wednesday on responding to the nation's energy problems amid a bitterly partisan rift over whether to open long-restricted offshore waters to oil and gas drilling. ...more

July 31, 2008

A recent secret survey of the House Republican minority by the party's whip organization showed a two-to-one margin opposed to imposing a moratorium on earmarks. ...more

May 5, 2008

President Bush's chief negotiator on an economic aid deal said Sunday that the Senate should quickly get behind a plan or risk drawing the resentment of a frustrated public. ...more

January 28, 2008

If you get a pay envelope, Uncle Sam's about to put a little something extra in it. Then he wants you to go out and spend, spend, spend. ...more

January 25, 2008

The House of Representatives approved the first increase in federal automobile fuel efficiency requirements in three decades Thursday as part of an energy bill that also repeals billions of dollars in oil company tax breaks and encourages the use of renewable fuels. ...more

December 7, 2007

Joe Nuxhall, the youngest major-leaguer at age 15 and later a beloved broadcaster as "the ol' left-hander" in Cincinnati, has died. He was 79. ...more

November 17, 2007

A House Democrat accused Republicans on Thursday of sending troops to Iraq to 'get their heads blown off for the president's amusement.' ...more

October 19, 2007