Nation Topics - Senate | The Nation

This article reflects on the withdrawal of Paul Hackett, an Iraq War veteran, from a race for an Ohio Senate seat the Democrats desperately want to win. Hackett insists he was pressured to quit the race by members of his own party. The article suggests that his challenger, Sherrod Brown, is a favorite of grassroots labor, civil rights and antiwar voters and is a better candidate who will bring more energy than Hackett, who had failed to make many inroads among Democrats outside of Ohio.

The article presents Representative John Tierney's views on American intelligence and national security. The scandals of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay are reviewed. According to the author, House and Senate intelligence committees must better exercise their oversight responsibilities if the U.S. wants to better protect its intelligence personnel and the civil liberties of Americans.

The article presents an obituary for Jack Gordon, a member of the Florida State Senate.

The editorial discusses the importance of supporting antiwar candidates for national office in 2006. The editors believe that with the national mood in favor of a withdrawal from Iraq, antiwar Democrats have the power to reestablish themselves as a viable political force, especially in the House. The Senate is less promising. Senate races to watch include Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Maryland and Ohio.

The article reports that U.S. Democrats rose up as an opposition party in the Senate after the indictment of Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Democrats called for an investigation into the President George W. Bush Administration's misuse of intelligence before the Iraq War. Republicans in the Senate have not been used to facing a minority opposition leader. The Senate has established a committee to examine charges that Intelligence Committee chair Pat Roberts stalled the investigation.

Presents an editorial discussing recent events involving U.S. President George W. Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the United States Supreme Court as of November 7, 2005. Suggestion that the Miers nomination gives the Senate Judiciary Committee a chance to redeem itself following its nomination of John Roberts as Supreme Court Chief Justice; View that the best evidence of how Miers would handle issues as a Supreme Court judge resides in her advice given to the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush as White House counsel.

Focuses on the growing consensus among Democrats that the U.S. should withdraw troops from Iraq. Demonstrations held in support of Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a killed soldier who has urged U.S. President George W. Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq; Candidacy of former NAACP president Kweisi Mfume, an outspoken supporter of the movement to withdraw troops, for an open Senate seat in Maryland; View that Democratic Senators including Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Harry Reid simply echo the Bush Administration's insistence that the U.S. "stay the course."

Focuses on C-SPAN's coverage of the Senate and House of Representatives, and its coverage of Britain's House of Commons. Claim that C-SPAN is the only media outlet that unconsciously gives Americans an uncensored view of what our leaders are up to; Description of Question Time, a session where members of parliament and subjects of the crown alike ask tough questions of their leaders; Observation that BBC live audiences ask far more informed and informative questions than the U.S. press corps was allowed to ask U.S. President George W. Bush in the 2004 election.

Focuses on the discord caused amid the Republican Party over the stem cell research debate. Assistance in passing legislation to remove restrictions placed on stem cell research by U.S. President George W. Bush given to Democrats by fifty Republicans; Vow of Republicans Orrin Hatch and Gordon Smith to pass similar legislation in the Senate should Bush veto the House legislation; Observation that the stem cell debate pits Republicans against Republicans, and distances them from popular sentiment, which overwhelmingly supports stem cell research.

Presents an editorial regarding the resolution in the United States Senate between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of filibusters and judicial nominees. Report that Democrats agreed to permit three of President George W. Bush's judicial nominees to receive votes that will most likely be approved; List of the judges, including Priscilla Owen, William Pryor Junior and Janice Rogers Brown.