From The Hotline Latest Edition for Wednesday, May 21,2008

IRAQ

Nobody's Working For The Weekend

Wed. May 21, 2008


"Final action on an emergency war-spending bill will likely be delayed" until Jun., as several Senate Dems "are expected to be absent this week."

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) was diagnosed 5/20 with a malignant brain tumor and will be off Capitol Hill "for an indefinite period of time." Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) "is getting married" in L.A. on 5/24. "Others have expressed to" Senate Maj. Leader Harry Reid "that they intend to leave before the week ends." And then there are the WH candidates -- Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) -- "who have been keeping fairly busy schedules" outside of DC.

"Sensing a weaker hand, Reid lowered expectations" 5/20 "for finishing the bill before Congress adjourns for its Memorial Day recess." Reid said it is going to be "extremely difficult for us ... to get to complete this bill in a timely fashion." He also said that the prospects for securing the necessary 60 votes to win passage of the $194B measure are murky.

Reid: "In the past, war funding has been [approved] because of a lot of arm-twisting and cajoling. I don't know if the votes are here this time."

Dems "acknowledge they need every vote they can get to push through a complicated package of war funding and domestic priorities in the narrowly divided chamber." Senate Maj. Whip Dick Durbin: "This is a tough week" (Raju, The Hill, 5/21).