Category: Congress

2 articles in this category

• Three Republican congressmen — John Kiriakou's arithmetic for why the shutdown fight was not over when the Senate cut its deal: the Senate produced its own agreement rather than voting on the House bill, so the House has to be recalled to vote on the Senate version. Republicans needed seven Democratic senators; the House needs only three Republican congressmen to kill it — which is why he thought attention should shift to the House.
• Whipping votes — John Kiriakou's explanation of what a party whip does and why Chuck Schumer's failure to do it mattered: a leader who tells his caucus to vote their conscience has not whipped the vote at all. Kiriakou traces the office to a figurative whip used in the 1700s and 1800s, and calls the concession very dangerous — an admission that you have lost.