(CNN) - Democrats scored a major upset in the Indiana race for U.S. Senate Tuesday, scooping up a seat in the deeply red state Republicans had expected to hold. The campaign appeared to turn for the Democrats after the GOP candidate made controversial comments about rape during a televised debate.
CNN projected Democratic Rep. Joe Donnelly would beat Republican Richard Mourdock, boosting the Democrats' chances of maintaining control of the Senate. Donnelly led 48 percent to 46 percent with 70 percent of the estimated vote counted at the time of the projection.
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(CNN) - Some Senate Democrats were concerned and frustrated last year about outgoing White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley's handling of the high-stakes negotiations with Republicans over government funding, the debt ceiling and job creation, according to a senior Democratic aide on Capitol Hill.
Relations got so bad that after the White House got into a scheduling dispute with House Republicans over the president's jobs speech to a joint session of Congress in September, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, complained directly to President Barack Obama about Daley's performance.
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Washington (CNN) - It was tea party vs. the establishment in a closely-watched race for an obscure Senate Republican leadership post - and the establishment won.
Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, a former top leader in the House and long time presence on Capitol Hill, defeated tea party-backed Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin for the fifth-ranking Republican leadership position in the Senate Tuesday.
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Washington (CNN) - House and Senate negotiators Monday announced an agreement on a giant $662 billion defense authorization bill, including modifications to its detainee language they hope will address White House concerns about that section and avoid a possible veto by President Barack Obama.
In particular, the lawmakers added language to make clear that nothing in the bill requiring military custody of al Qaeda suspects would interfere with the ability of civilian law enforcement to carry out terrorism investigations and interrogations in the United States.
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(CNN) - Senate Republicans on Monday blocked President Obama's choice to be ambassador to El Salvador after raising questions about whether her former boyfriend was a spy for Cuba. Republicans also were concerned that Mari Carmen Aponte wrote a commentary about gay pride that offended some citizens in the conservative Catholic country.
Aponte is serving in the post temporarily as a recess appointment that expires at the end of the year. Efforts by the White House and congressional Democrats to defend and promote Aponte to a permanent position fell short when the Senate voted along party lines against her.
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Washington (CNN) – Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to filibuster President Barack Obama's nominee to fill a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, because they complained she is too liberal and would be an activist on the bench.
The largely party-line vote was 54 to 45, falling shy of the required 60-vote threshold to end the cloture stalemate and allow a final vote on the nomination itself.
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Washington (CNN) - The Senate on Thursday passed a giant defense bill that includes a new policy for detaining and trying suspected al Qaeda terrorists - a policy that attracted controversy during the debate and may draw a presidential veto.
The defense authorization bill passed by a vote of 93-7.
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Washington (CNN) – A year after Congress voluntarily agreed to give up earmarks - pork barrel spending projects critics say cost too much and may have an outsized influence on some lawmakers - the special-interest provisions have crept slowly back into legislation, two senators warned on Wednesday.
"There is an effort under way to go back to earmarking as usual, as it used to be," said Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pennsylvania. "I think that would be a disaster for our country and our congress and we intend to do our very best to prevent that."
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Washington (CNN) - The Senate Tuesday easily defeated an amendment that would have removed from a defense policy bill new rules for the detention and due process of suspected terrorists.
The bipartisan 61-37 vote was a defeat for the Obama administration, which opposes the proposed changes and has suggested the president would veto the bill unless they are removed.
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(CNN) - Senate Republicans for the first time Tuesday indicated they would back an extension of the payroll tax cut, which some in the party argued had failed to provide enough economic bang for the buck as the Obama administration and congressional Democrats had promised.
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the GOP would offer a bill this week to extend the payroll tax cut for one year and offset its costs in a way that is more agreeable to Republicans than a surtax on incomes over $1 million, which Democrats had proposed.
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