Sen. John McCain of Arizona, acknowledging that he's an underdog in the race for president, hopes to put together a more aggressive campaign in the final 22 days to make a comeback nationally and in Florida. ...more

October 13, 2008

After consulting with Barack Obama, Democratic leaders are likely to call Congress back to work after the election in hopes of passing legislation that would include extended jobless benefits, money for food stamps and possibly a tax rebate, officials said Saturday. ...more

October 12, 2008

Connie Perdue of New Port Richey criticizes Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden's "lies" during the debate with Republican Sarah Palin. ...more

October 8, 2008

Freshman Rep. Kathy Castor was among 95 House Democrats to buck Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday by joining with 133 Republicans to defeat a $700 billion financial rescue bill. ...more

September 30, 2008

The Bush administration and congressional negotiators agreed Friday to meet some demands of rebellious House Republicans as they sought to resurrect a $700 billion rescue plan for the nation's financial system that the critics said relied too much on government intervention. ...more

September 27, 2008

Democrats won a key concession from the White House on legislation to bail out the financial industry on Wednesday, then sought to scale back the $700 billion price tag. President Bush readied a prime-time speech to rally public support for his plan to stave off a deepening economic crisis. ...more

September 24, 2008

The House voted late Tuesday to open waters off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling but only 50 or more miles out to sea and only if a state agrees to energy development off its shore. ...more

September 17, 2008

Congress expended a lot of energy debating how to solve the energy crisis before running off for summer recess for five weeks. It ended up accomplishing nothing. Now Congress is back and seemingly ready for more of the same. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will present an energy bill next week that would expand offshore drilling. But Republicans rejected the legislation on the basis of the outlines Pelosi released Tuesday. Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., will hold hearings today with an eye to bringing energy bills to a vote sometime next week. But don't expect anything to happen. ...more

September 15, 2008

Florida Democrats received assurances Wednesday from their leaders in the House that an election-year energy package would not include expansion of oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Florida. ...more

September 11, 2008

Nothing stokes our anger better than a convenient villain who probably drives a cool car. So it was that, through much of this summer's understandable angst over gasoline prices, flailing politicians tried to help the rest of us - hey, it's an election year - point the blame gun. ...more

September 10, 2008