McCain Blames Earmarks for Bridge Disaster

He now seems more comfortable cracking jokes

(NEWSER) - Senate colleagues expecting humor from funnyman and freshman lawmaker Al Franken have gotten just the opposite, though insiders say the Minnesota senator is getting into the groove and loosening up a bit. Since taking office last year, Franken has snapped at administration officials , Joe Lieberman , and Republican legislators. Now, he’s the model of bipartisanship with numerous across-the-aisle bills, and he’s even making jokes. More»

(NEWSER) - Reasoned debate is all well and good, but the more than 300 amendments offered to the health care reform bill by finance committee Republicans are “dangerously close to a parody,” Dana Milbank writes. Or maybe they’re already there. Take Orrin Hatch’s request for “transition relief for the excise tax on high-cost insurance plans for any state with a name that begins with the letter 'U.'” There’s only one state that starts with ‘U:’ Hatch’s Utah. More»

(NEWSER) - Well, this should zip right along: Members of both parties on the Senate Finance Committee have drafted no fewer than 564 amendments to be considered when the panel takes up chairman Max Baucus' health care bill next week, reports Bloomberg. Expect to hear the phrases "public option"—Democrat Jay Rockefeller is still pushing for it—and "Cadillac plans" a lot. More»

(NEWSER) - The sheer number of tax-related problems that have slowed confirmation of Obama nominees has some insisting the process has become tougher, Time reports. Not so, says Sen. Charles Grassley. “We are vetting nominees for the current administration the same way we vetted nominees for the previous administration,” said the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee. More»

(NEWSER) - Most also-ran candidates slip off quietly once the presidential campaign is over, and yet the media is still interested in what John McCain has to say. The attention is undeserved, Paul Waldman writes in the American Prospect. McCain’s signature issue, earmarks, is “as substantively empty as could be,” and represents his “larger modus operandi” of cultivating journalists as a way to power. More»