Turkey Vultures Seen Leaving Washington D. C. - Nov 21, 2008

Couldn't resist the title for today's Washington update. When one of the most unpopular Congresses in U.S. history heads home for Thanksgiving, it is hard to wish them well. It seemed more appropriate to send out a warning that the Turkey Vultures, who try to pick our bones clean while they are in Washington D.C., are returning to their nesting grounds.

Congress is in recess but could return for a lame duck session beginning December 8th to consider a rescue package for auto companies. Yesterday, the Senate p by voice vote a bill to extend unemployment insurance (H.R. 6867) which was signed by the president later in the day.

As Congress leaves town for Thanksgiving, The Wall Street Journal has a couple of must-read pieces looking ahead to the 111th Congress:

First, Kimberley Strassel examines the challenges facing Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell in keeping Republicans together when faced with some of the more troubling legislative proposals that are likely to come from an Obama White House.

Next an Editorial discussing yesterday’s overthrow of House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA): “John Dingell’s fall from power yesterday is an important inflection point in the history of the modern Democratic Party. The House purge marks the final triumph of the Congressional generation that came of political age during the 1970s over the last lion of New Deal liberalism, and it is symbolic of the party's change in culture and policy priorities in the Barack Obama era. . . . Mr. Waxman, speaking for the upscale precincts of Beverly Hills, wants to phase out coal and cars that use gasoline. The coastal elites who now dominate Democratic politics will happily trade the blue collar for the green collar.”

Democrats in Washington are clearly energized to make a renewed push on a number of bad bills that Republicans were able to stop over the last two years and are positioning their chess pieces to do so.

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