Obama to take YouTube questions on State of the Union speech
Washington (CNN) - As part of a White House offensive in support of this week's State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama will hold a YouTube interview Thursday to answer questions submitted by viewers.
The interview on YouTube at 2:30 p.m. ET is part of a series of events in which top administration officials are talking directly to Americans about administration policies set out in Tuesday's address to a joint session of Congress. It remains unclear how the submitted questions will be chosen however.
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Mother nature waits for no one, not even the president
Washington (CNN) - President Obama learned that even presidential motorcades can get stuck in snowy Washington, D.C. traffic.
After a day trip to Wisconsin Wednesday following his State of the Union Address, President Obama returned to a sleeting and snowing Washington, D.C. What is usually a 10-minute or less helicopter ride aboard Marine One from Joint Base Andrews, formerly known as Andrews Air Force Base, turned into a nearly one hour motorcade ride from the base where Air Force One landed, to the White House, according to pool reports.
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House Dems' bill would tighten controls on offshore rigs, companies
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Several House Democrats introduced a bill Wednesday that would impose stricter federal controls and oversight on oil companies and owners and operators of offshore oil rigs along the U.S. coastline.
The Democrats, led by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Massachusetts, said the bill takes many of the recommendations from the national oil spill commission, which investigated the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion of the BP rig killed 11 workers, and released millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf.
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Tea Party favorite introduces health care repeal
Washington (CNN) - Republican South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint introduced legislation Wednesday to fully repeal the health care reform legislation passed last year and signed into law by President Obama.
DeMint's action comes on the same day Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, began procedural steps to force a vote on a separate repeal bill in the coming weeks.
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DeMint on prez run: 'No'
(CNN) - Republican South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, a leading force in the Tea Party movement, said Wednesday on CNN's "The Situation Room" that he's not running for president.
CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer asked DeMint, "Are you going to run for the Republican presidential nomination?"
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Senate Tea Party caucus holds first meeting Thursday
(CNN) - Tea Party activists from around the country will gather on Capitol Hill Thursday for a question and answer session with three of their favorite senators at the first official gathering of the Senate Tea Party Caucus.
"What we're trying to do, with Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and I'm sure eventually others, is to make sure all the activists know that we're still listening–we want to get their input, we want to keep them up to date with what we're doing. So it's more a forum than a caucus to keep that interaction going," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, told CNN.
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House passes bill eliminating public financing
Washington (CNN) - The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to eliminate the federal public financing system that helps pay for presidential campaigns and political conventions.
The vote was 239-160. Ten Democrats voted with the Republicans to pass the bill.
The House bill, sponsored by Oklahoma Republican Rep Tom Cole, would eliminate the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. This voluntary public financing system was created in 1976, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, to lessen the influence of corporate money on campaigns. Taxpayers can check off a box on their tax returns directing $3 in federal money to the program. Candidates who apply for public financing must adhere to overall spending limits.
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Podcast: Responding to the State of the Union
Washington (CNN) - Just about every member of Congress and a whole lot of other politicians issued statements Tuesday responding to the State of the Union address.
Listen to CNN Senior Political Editor Mark Preston and CNN's Bob Costantini discuss the dual responses:
That's standard procedure. But for the first time in memory, two responses by the opposition party to the State of the Union generated national attention. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin delivered the official Republican response, while Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann offered her own rebuttal to President Obama's address on behalf of the grassroots tea party movement.
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Kucinich vs. the olive
Washington (CNN) –Dennis Kucinich is no fan of pit-filled olives - and now he's doing something about it: Taking one of Congress' cafeterias to court.
In 2008, the Ohio Democrat purchased a sandwich wrap filled with those olives at the cafeteria inside the Longworth Office Building. After biting into the wrap, he cracked a tooth, according to the legal complaint.
Now he has come forward with a $150,000 lawsuit against the cafeteria - run by Restaurant Associates and other groups - for providing "dangerous" sandwiches.
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Davis says Tea Party's effect on GOP remains unclear
(CNN) – Tom Davis, the former Republican congressman who has become a leading moderate voice within the party, says it remains to be seen if the Tea Party movement will prove to be a positive force within the GOP's fold.
"The courtship between the [Republican] Party and the Tea Party at this point is ongoing," the former seven-term Virginia congressman told a gathering of reporters Wednesday. "It's a trust-but-verify thing. At one point the Tea Party had a higher approval rating than the Republican Party, but of course they've never had to govern anything."
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