Mar
12
BAGHDAD – The Iraqi journalist who threw shoes at then-President George W. Bush was convicted Thursday of assaulting a foreign leader and sentenced to three years in prison, provoking outrage among some Iraqis who consider him a hero.
Muntadhar al-Zeidi’s bold act in December electrified many across the Middle East who hailed his defiant act against a president who was widely reviled for his policies in the region, including the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
The 30-year-old journalist pleaded not guilty to the assault charge, telling the three-judge panel that “what I did was a natural response to the occupation.”
Reporters and family members were then ordered out of the courtroom for the verdict, which was relayed to them by defense attorneys and a court official. Defense lawyers said al-Zeidi shouted “long live Iraq” when the sentence was imposed.
Some of al-Zeidi’s relatives collapsed after the ruling was issued and had to be helped out of the courthouse. Others were forcibly removed by guards after shouting “down with Bush” and “long live Iraq.”
“This judiciary is not just,” al-Zeidi’s brother, Dargham, said tearfully after the verdict was announced.
Court spokesman Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar said al-Zeidi received the minimum sentence for the assault charge but could appeal the conviction. He could have received up to 15 years in prison for hurling his shoes at Bush during a Dec. 14 news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Defense lawyers said the judge showed leniency because of al-Zeidi’s age and clean record. But they had hoped for an even lighter sentence, arguing the journalist’s actions constituted an insult rather than an assault.
“The sentence was unexpectedly harsh,” said Yehya al-Eitabi, one of some two dozen defense lawyers who attended Thursday’s hearing. He said they would appeal the verdict.
Many Iraqis interviewed in Baghdad agreed.
“Al-Zeidi should have been honored and not sent to prison,” said Salam Omar, who owns a mobile phone shop in eastern Baghdad.
Nassir al-Saadi, a Shiite lawmaker loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada all-star, said the verdict was too harsh.
“Al-Zeidi was expressing his point of view about Bush in a democratic way. The court should have adopted a more humane approach and released him,” he said.
But Serwan Gharaib, a 37-year-old journalist in the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, said al-Zeidi had violated journalistic ethics by exploiting his access to Bush.
“I may understand the suffering of the Iraqi people due to the occupation, but I do not understand the bizarre method of protest conducted by al-Zeidi,” he said.
The journalist has been in Iraqi custody since the shoe incident. Bush quickly ducked to avoid being hit and was not injured. Al-Zeidi was quickly wrestled to the ground by guards and dragged away.
During Thursday’s proceedings, al-Zeidi, wearing a beige suit over a brown shirt and brown leather shoes, walked swiftly to the wooden dock where defendants are kept and greeted the panel of three judges with a nod and a wave.
Presiding Judge Abdul-Amir al-Rubaie asked al-Zeidi to enter a plea.
“I am innocent,” he replied.
The proceedings took place under heavy guard with scores of armed policemen inside the courtroom and the Iraqi soldiers who escorted al-Zeidi waiting outside.
The trial began on Feb. 19 but was adjourned until Thursday as the judges weighed a defense argument that the current charge is not applicable because Bush was not in Baghdad on an official visit, having arrived unannounced and without an invitation.
Al-Rubaie read a response from the prime minister’s office insisting it was an official visit.
Chief defense attorney Dhia al-Saadi then demanded that the charge be dismissed, saying his client’s action “was an expression of freedom and does not constitute a crime.”
He echoed al-Zeidi’s testimony at the previous hearing, saying his client had been provoked by anger over Bush’s claims of success in a war that has devastated his country.
“It was an act of throwing a shoe and not a rocket. It was meant as an insult to the occupation,” the lawyer said.
The judge then turned to the defendant and asked whether he had anything to add.
“I have great faith in the Iraqi judiciary. It is a judiciary that is both just and has integrity,” al-Zeidi responded.
Many people in the region – angry over the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq – have embraced al-Zeidi. They have staged large street rallies calling for his release, and one Iraqi man erected a sofa-sized sculpture of a shoe in his honor that the Iraqi government later ordered removed.
When al-Zeidi threw his shoes at Bush, he shouted in Arabic: “This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”
Al-Maliki was deeply embarrassed by the action against an American president who had stood by him when some Arab leaders were quietly urging the U.S. to oust him.
Jan
24
Obama reverses Bush abortion-funds policy
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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration’s ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information – an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century.
Obama’s move, the latest in an aggressive first week reversing contentious Bush policies, was warmly welcomed by liberal groups and denounced by abortion rights foes.
The ban has been a political football between Democratic and Republican administrations since GOP President Ronald Reagan first adopted it 1984. Democrat Bill Clinton ended the ban in 1993, but Republican George W. Bush re-instituted it in 2001 as one of his first acts in office.
“For too long, international family planning assistance has been used as a political wedge issue, the subject of a back and forth debate that has served only to divide us,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House. “I have no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate.”
He said the ban was unnecessarily broad and undermined family planning in developing countries.
“In the coming weeks, my administration will initiate a fresh conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world,” the president said.
Obama issued the presidential memorandum rescinding the Bush policy without coverage by the media, late Friday afternoon. The abortion measure is a highly emotional one for many people, and the quiet signing was in contrast to the televised coverage of Obama’s announcement Wednesday on ethics rules and Thursday’s signing of orders on closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and banning torture in the questioning of terror suspects.
His action came one day after the 36th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion.
The Bush policy had banned U.S. taxpayer money, usually in the form of Agency for International Development funds, from going to international family planning groups that either offer abortions or provide information, counseling or referrals about abortion as a family planning method.
Critics have long held that the rule unfairly discriminates against the world’s poor by denying U.S. aid to groups that may be involved in abortion but also work on other aspects of reproductive health care and HIV/AIDS, leading to the closure of free and low-cost rural clinics.
Supporters of the ban say that the United States still provides millions of dollars in family planning assistance around the world and that the rule prevents anti-abortion taxpayers from backing something they believe is morally wrong.
The ban has been known as the “Mexico City policy” for the city a U.S. delegation first announced it at a U.N. International Conference on Population.
Both Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will oversee foreign aid, had promised to do away with the rule during the presidential campaign.
Clinton said Friday evening that for seven years Bush’s policy made it more difficult for women around the world to gain access to essential information and health care services. “Rather than limiting women’s ability to receive reproductive health services, we should be supporting programs that help women and their partners make decisions to ensure their health and the health of their families,” Clinton said.
In a related move, Obama also said he would restore funding to the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA). Both he and Clinton had pledged to reverse a Bush administration determination that assistance to the organization violated U.S. law known as the Kemp-Kasten amendment.
Obama, in his statement, said he looked forward to working with Congress to fulfill that promise: “By resuming funding to UNFPA, the U.S. will be joining 180 other donor nations working collaboratively to reduce poverty, improve the health of women and children, prevent HIV/AIDS and provide family planning assistance to women in 154 countries.”
Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the U.N. Population Fund, said: “The president’s actions send a strong message about his leadership and his desire to support causes that will promote peace and dignity, equality for women and girls and economic development in the poorest regions of the world.”
“We are confident that under the new president’s direction, the U.S. will resume its leadership in promoting and protecting women’s reproductive health and rights worldwide,” Obaid said in a statement issued at U.N. headquarters in New York.
The Bush administration had barred U.S. money from the fund, contending that its work in China supported a Chinese family planning policy of coercive abortion and involuntary sterilization. UNFPA has vehemently denied that it does.
Congress had appropriated $40 million to the UNFPA in the past budget year, but the administration had withheld the money as it had done every year since 2002.
Organizations and lawmakers that had pressed Obama to rescind the Mexico City policy were jubilant.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the move “will help save lives and empower the poorest women and families to improve their quality of life and their future.”
Jan
21
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s new administration ordered all federal agencies and departments on Tuesday to stop any pending regulations until they can be reviewed by incoming staff, halting last-minute Bush orders in their tracks.
“This afternoon, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel signed a memorandum sent to all agencies and departments to stop all pending regulations until a legal and policy review can be conducted by the Obama administration,” the White House said in a statement issued just hours after Obama took office.
The review is a tool commonly used by a new administration to delay so-called “midnight regulations” put in place by a former president between the election and Inauguration Day.
Midnight regulations have been heavily used by recent former presidents, including the Democrat Bill Clinton, Republican George H. W. Bush, and most recently, the Republican George W. Bush.
Controversial late rules by the outgoing Bush administration include allowing the carrying of concealed weapons in some national parks and prohibiting medical facilities from receiving federal money for discriminating against doctors and nurses who refuse to assist with abortions or dispense contraceptives based on religious grounds.
Federal law requires a 60-day waiting period before any major regulatory changes become law, so some presidents try to publish new major regulations to ensure they go into effect before the new president’s inauguration on January 20
Dec
16
WASHINGTON – The White House gave troubled Detroit automakers public reassurances Monday that short-term government help was in the works as a key senator suggested the aid package could reach $15 billion for two companies.
President George W. Bush said the bankruptcy of a domestic car company would undermine the nation’s economy as it grapples with a financial meltdown. General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC have said they could run out of cash within weeks without support from the government.
“An abrupt bankruptcy for autos could be devastating for the economy,” Bush told reporters aboard Air Force One during a surprise trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. “We’re now in the process of working with the stakeholders on a way forward. We’re not quite ready to announce that yet.”
In Detroit, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said he expects GM to get $8 billion and Chrysler $7 billion under the Bush administration’s plan. He said the Treasury secretary likely would be tapped as a “car czar” to oversee restructuring of the companies.
Bush wouldn’t give a precise timetable but said, “This will not be a long process because of the economic fragility of the autos.”
Vice President Dick Cheney, in an interview with conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh, said the auto industry’s woes came at an “especially bad time” because of the slowdown of the financial markets.
“We’re on the downside of a recession that may be the worst since World War II. And if the automobile industry goes belly up now, there’s a deep concern that that would be a major shock to the system,” Cheney said.
The Treasury Department, which has been in discussions with GM and Chrysler officials and reviewing financial data from the car makers, said Monday that no decisions had been made on what type of support it may provide to the companies.
Automakers said they could not predict the timing or details of any help.
“The nature and the length of the discussions are proportionate to the complexity of our company and our financial structure,” said GM spokesman Greg Martin.
The administration, following the defeat of a $14 billion bailout package in the Senate last week, is considering several options. They include using money from the $700 billion financial bailout fund to provide loans to the carmakers or using money from the fund as collateral for emergency loans the automakers could get from the Federal Reserve. Bush reiterated Monday that tapping the financial bailout fund remains an option.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the bailout funds were “the only recourse that they have” because of the failure to pass legislation in Congress. She said “something will have to happen imminently” but said requirements for restructuring should be attached to the funds.
“Otherwise, we’re just giving life support, rather than a lifeline for viability into the future,” Pelosi said.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the administration was reviewing the automakers’ financial information and would not specify when a decision will be made.
“We’re considering our policy options, and when we have something to announce, we’ll announce it,” he said. “We’ll take the time we have available to get the policy right.”
The White House is keeping President-elect Barack Obama and his advisers informed of the discussions. If administration officials choose not to provide the money now, the Obama team could wait for the new Congress, which will have stronger Democratic majorities. But the delay could risk bankruptcy filings by GM and Chrysler.
The White House previously had insisted on limiting use of the Wall Street rescue plan to helping financial institutions. It changed course after the auto bailout bill failed in Congress, citing the consequences to the overall economy if U.S. carmakers failed.
Not everyone agreed. Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., said in a letter Monday to Bush that using the financial bailout fund to help automakers could “be a very great mistake.”
“It would open the floodgates to federal monies for every distressed industry across this country – and there will be many in this economic slowdown,” said Sanford, whose state hosts a large, nonunion BMW plant that has about 5,400 workers.
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, countered that prompt financial aid was critical because the Detroit-based U.S. auto companies are uniquely connected to other industries, including textiles, glass, plastics and steel.
The auto industry “would take down a huge array of businesses and jobs across the nation if it were allowed to fail. I believe the Bush administration understands that,” Granholm said in Lansing, Mich.
Levin said he expects Bush’s solution to help the Detroit automakers will be similar to the previous deal the White House reached with congressional leaders.
That plan providing loans for GM and Chrysler to help them survive until March 31 was passed by the House last week but blocked by the Senate, mainly by Republican senators, after the United Auto Workers union balked at making upfront wage concessions to take effect sometime next year. Ford Motor Co. has said it has enough cash to survive 2009. Source
Dec
12
Bush Willing to Use TARP for Auto Aid, Perino Says
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Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) — The Bush administration will consider using money from the fund intended to rescue U.S. financial markets to prevent the collapse of the nation’s auto companies, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
“Under normal economic conditions we would prefer that markets determine the ultimate fate of private firms,” Perino told reporters aboard Air Force One the day after the Senate rejected a $14 billion plan for the carmakers. “However given the current weakened state of the U.S. economy we will consider other options if necessary, including use of the TARP program to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers.”
The U.S. Treasury said it is ready to help “until Congress reconvenes.”
The stock market plunged at the opening, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 200 points.
General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC have said they need a total of $14 billion in loans to keep operating.
GM and Ford Motor Co. shares and bonds plunged in early trading. GM fell 85 cents, or 21 percent, to $3.27 at 9:36 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Ford slid 22 cents, or 7.6 percent, to $2.68.
A disorderly bankruptcy by the automakers would be a “body blow” to the U.S. economy, Perino said.
“A precipitous collapse of this industry would have a severe impact on our economy,” she said as President George W. Bush traveled to an event in Texas. “It would be irresponsible to further weaken and destabilize our economy at this time.”
After the failure of the aid plan in Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pressed Bush to tap funds from the Treasury’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.
The Bush administration had warned of a million lost jobs if the industry imploded. The Senate vote was a repudiation of Bush, who personally lobbied for the bill. Only 10 Republicans in the Senate voted to move forward on the auto-rescue plan.
Sep
22
WASHINGTON – Scrambling for a swift deal on the $700 billion bailout for failing financial firms, key Democrats and Bush administration officials agreed Monday to include mortgage help for beleaguered homeowners but wrangled over other issues, including “golden parachutes” for executives who benefit from the unprecedented rescue.
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Democrats demanded that the measure limit pay packages for executives of companies helped by the biggest financial rescue since the Great Depression. The administration was balking at that, and also at a proposal by Democrats to let judges rewrite mortgages to lower bankrupt homeowners’ monthly payments.
President Bush prodded Congress during the day to pass the rescue plan quickly, declaring, “The whole world is watching.”
Rep. Barney Frank, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, said the administration essentially had forced Congress to the negotiating table by creating an expectation in financial markets that a massive bailout was on the way.
“By the declaration that they made, by sending this proposal, I think we have to recognize the reality that we don’t have a choice now of debating whether this is a good or a bad thing,” said Frank, D-Mass, who was leading negotiations with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
“We have gotten closer,” Frank said, but “We’re not there yet.”
Congressional aides said the House could act on a bailout bill as early as Wednesday, but leaders emerged from a closed-door meeting late Monday with no firm timetable for action.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said only that leaders were working to give the markets confidence that “this legislation will pass, and it will pass soon.”
However, Wall Street wasn’t comforted by the progress of the talks. The Dow Jones industrials plummeted 372 points, oil prices soared $25 a barrel at one point and gold prices surged anew as investors searched for a safe place to park their money. And despite encouraging talk on Capitol Hill, lawmakers on both the right and left were already assailing the deal-in-progress.
The emergency legislation would give the government broad power to buy up devalued assets from troubled financial firms in a bid to unlock the flow of credit and stabilize badly shaken markets in the United States and around the globe.
In one expansion of its original proposal, the administration is asking for broad power to buy up virtually any kind of bad asset – including credit card debt or car loans – from any financial institution in the U.S. or abroad in order to stabilize markets.
Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman, has proposed granting that request; Frank said he was working to limit the bailout to mortgage-related investments.
Differences remained with the administration on Democrats’ proposal that the government take an ownership stake in the troubled companies it bails out so that taxpayers could benefit from future profits. Frank said Paulson had accepted the idea in principle, but several staff aides at work on the plan said there was no agreement yet on how the concept would work.
Frank said he and Paulson had agreed to create a congressional oversight board as part of the bailout and to mandate that the government come up with a plan to avoid foreclosures on any mortgages it acquires in the rescue. A government official with knowledge of the talks confirmed the administration backs those provisions.
As for tottering financial firms, there still were divisions on which would be helped and what kind of assets the government could buy as part of the bailout.
And in a fresh sign of a challenging road ahead, Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the top Banking Committee Republican, blasted the emerging plan as “neither workable nor comprehensive.”
“In my judgment, it would be foolish to waste massive sums of taxpayer funds testing an idea that has been hastily crafted and may actually cause the government to revert to an inadequate strategy of ad hoc bailouts,” Shelby said.
Lawmakers on both extremes of the political spectrum assailed the plan as a massive, poorly conceived bailout. Conservative House Republicans and liberal House Democrats both and huddled privately to express their concerns.
A partisan battle was brewing over the bankruptcy provision for homeowners’ mortgage payments, a key Democratic demand.
“We’ll see how hard they fight – it’s something we care about,” Frank said.
Lawmakers in both parties appeared to be coalescing around the idea that executive compensation limits should be part of the bailout, although Paulson is said to be concerned that such curbs would discourage companies from participating.
“Some element of that has to be in this package,” said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla.
Investors were uncertain just how successful the administration’s plan would be in unfreezing credit markets, which many businesses depend on to fund day-to-day operations, and for propping up the still-weak housing market.
Bush said, “Obviously, there will be differences over some details, and we will have to work through them. That is an understandable part of the policymaking process.” But he also said, “It would not be understandable if members of Congress sought to use this emergency legislation to pass unrelated provisions, or to insist on provisions that would undermine the effectiveness of the plan.”
Treasury spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin said, “We are confident that we can get a bill done this week.”
The fast-moving negotiations between the administration and Congress unfolded a day after the government approved a request by investment houses Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to change their status to bank holding companies.
That change will allow the two venerable institutions to set up commercial banks that will be able to take deposits, significantly bolstering the resources of both institutions. It will also grant them permanent access to emergency loans supplied by the Fed rather than the temporary loan status they have had since last March when the Fed moved to prop up investment banks following the forced sale of Bear Stearns.
Aug
22
President Bush has assured that the US administration will continue to support the government and democratic forces in Pakistan.
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In a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani he renewed us firm commitment to economic and anti-terrorism cooperation with Pakistan
White house spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in Washington that the two leaders reaffirmed their mutual support for going after extremists who are a threat to Pakistan, the United States and the entire world. Talking to newsmen in Islamabad, information minister Sherry Rehman said that president bush expressed happiness on successful transition to democracy in Pakistan.
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Aug
6
Bush praises South Korea, rebukes North
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SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) — U.S. President George W. Bush praised the U.S. relationship with South Korea on Wednesday and said the two nations should continue to work together to eliminate threats from North Korea.
President George W. Bush and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak attend a joint press conference in Seoul.
1 of 3 Bush spoke during a news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. The stop in South Korea is part of Bush’s weeklong Asian tour.
“Our relationship is important vital and I believe it is strong,” Bush said.
Bush said he was still concerned about North Korea and said the country has a long way to go before it is taken off his “axis of evil list” as well as removing it from a list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
“I am concerned about North Korea’s human rights record,” Bush said “I am concerned about the uranium enrichment…”
He spoke hours after thousands of protesters packed the streets of the South Korean capital Tuesday.
While some demonstrations were peaceful, violence erupted at other protest sites. In one instance, riot police fired a water cannon to keep the crowds at bay.
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Police said they detained about 80 protesters. They estimated about 2,700 people were participating in the protests, which included a candlelight march and a sit-in. But the organizers said some 10,000 were taking part in the demonstrations.
Bush’s weeklong trip to the region is his ninth visit as president. See a map of Bush’s itinerary »
His stop in Seoul comes just a few months after violent street protests erupted over worries about the safety of U.S. beef imports.
While those tensions seem to have eased, the United States’ nuclear disarmament deal with North Korea is also a concern.
Michael Green, a former Bush adviser on Asian affairs, and now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says Seoul’s proximity to North Korea contributes to an ongoing unease.
“The North Koreans have 11,000 artillery tubes and rockets aimed at the South Korean capital, so any little thing that we do with North Korea makes the South Koreans very jittery,” Green said.
He added, “On the other hand, the U.S. has to worry a great deal about where terrorists might get nuclear weapons or nuclear material.”
Jul
26
WASHINGTON - Congress passed the most significant housing legislation in decades Saturday, offering help to struggling homeowners and seeking to stabilize a troubled housing market that has dragged down the economy.
President Bush will sign it quickly, the White House said, despite reservations over $3.9 billion in the bill that would aid neighborhoods devastated by the housing crisis buy and fix up foreclosed properties.
The bill, approved 72-13 in a rare weekend session in the Senate, would give the government power to throw a financial lifeline to the ailing mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They back or own $5 trillion in mortgages, or nearly half the nation’s total. The rescue plan is intended to prevent the two pillars of the home loan market from failing and causing broader market turmoil, while strengthening oversight of their operations.
An estimated 400,000 homeowners would escape foreclosure by getting the chance to refinance into more affordable loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration. There would be higher limits on loans that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy and the FHA can insure. The loans would be capped at $625,000.
The Senate on Friday removed the last hurdle to passage on a 80-13 test vote that showed broad support for the election-year help. The House passed the bill Wednesday.
Bush initially said the proposal was a burdensome bailout for irresponsible borrowers and lenders. But he dropped a threat to veto it this week after Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson argued that the support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was vital to calming markets in the U.S. and abroad.
The administration also opposed the aid for neighborhoods, arguing that approach would hurt homeowners by giving lenders an incentive to foreclose rather than help people stay in their homes.
“Because of the Democratic Congress’ delays and the need for action now, President Bush will sign this bill when he receives it, despite our concerns with some provisions, including nearly $4 billion to help lenders, not the homeowners this legislation is intended to serve,” White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said.
Supporters said the bill was a long-overdue response to the mortgage meltdown and would help boost the sagging economy. Democrats bashed Republicans for delaying the measure and forcing the Saturday session.
“This is far more than sending a bill to the president’s desk for his signature. It’s sending a message to the American people that the Congress of the United States – despite an alternative reputation – can actually get things done, and can work together to achieve a good result,” said Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
The bill includes several cherished Democratic priorities, including the creation of a permanent affordable housing fund to be financed by Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s profits and the neighborhood grants.
The Bush administration and many congressional Republicans swallowed those items grudgingly in exchange for reining in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a long-held goal of theirs. Paulson said the government backup for the mortgage giants was vital.
“These components are orders of magnitude more important to turning the corner on the housing correction,” he said in a statement.
Paulson’s request for the emergency power to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led to a bipartisan deal on the bill.
“It’s been nearly six years since we called for a strong, independent regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and nearly a year since the president called on Congress to quickly pass legislation to modernize the Federal Housing Administration to keep more deserving Americans in their homes, especially low-income Americans,” Fratto said. “So it’s good that the Democratic Congress has finally acted.”
Many conservative Republicans are opposed to the foreclosure rescue, which they call a bailout of reckless homeowners and unscrupulous lenders. They are equally furious about the help for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, companies they say enjoy lavish profits in good times and wield their outsized political clout to resist regulation while depending on the government to bail them out should they falter.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., slowed the measure’s final passage because Democrats refused to allow a vote on his proposal barring the two mortgage companies from lobbying and making political contributions. He said the legislation was a mammoth bill stuffed with extraneous items, powered by the desire of lawmakers in both parties to act on a pressing issue.
“No matter what’s wrong with it, most of the members of this Senate are going to come in and vote for it, and check the box and go home and say they did something about housing,” DeMint said.
Jul
18
WASHINGTON - President Bush has been a “total failure” in everything from the economy to the war to energy policy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. In an interview on CNN, the California Democrat was asked to respond to video of the president criticizing the Democratic-led Congress for heading into the final 26 days of the legislative session without having passed a single government spending bill.
Pelosi shot back in unusually personal terms.
“You know, God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States, a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject,” Pelosi replied. She then tsk-tsked Bush for “challenging Congress when we are trying to sweep up after his mess over and over and over again.”
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino defended Bush.
“What the president said is a fact – this is the longest a Congress has gone in 20 years without passing a single spending bill, so it’s clear that the speaker is feeling some frustration at their inability to do so.”
Pelosi’s outburst was a departure. Her usual practice in public has been to call Bush’s policies a failure – not his presidency or him, personally. Pelosi’s remarks are the latest evidence of the Democrats’ throw-caution-to-the-wind approach to Bush in the waning days of a presidency weighed down by an unpopular war and soaring gasoline prices.
Election Day, after all, is just over four months away; Bush’s successor takes his seat on Jan. 20.
Pelosi’s counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, long ago took off the rhetorical gloves. Last month, he ridiculed Republicans who sided with Bush on a Medicare bill.
“Who would be afraid of him?” Reid, D-Nev., said as many senators looked on. “He’s got a 29 percent approval rating.”
The public’s view of Congress is even worse. Its approval rating has hit a new low of just 18 percent, down from 23 percent last month, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll. Bush’s approval is at 28 percent, about even with the 29 percent rating last month.
Only 16 percent of those surveyed thought the country was moving in the right direction, a new low as well, although statistically the same as last month’s 17 percent.
Last week Reid and other Democrats dropped any pretense of trying to fight the president on battles they were likely to lose – even on the most important part of their jobs, which is passing spending bills that keep the government running.
Of the 12 annual appropriations bills, Congress is likely to pass one or two and send Bush a temporary spending fix for the rest. That would have to suffice until a new president takes office, Reid told reporters.
Privately, Democrats have said that either candidate for president – Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain – would be easier to make laws with than Bush. But Reid made clear which he’d prefer.
“I would hope that before we would leave here this year that we would do a continuing resolution that would get us (through) until after Senator Obama becomes president,” he said.