Virginia Elections

Ahead of State and Local Elections in Virginia - these are some of the best news sources relating to the election. I gave a brief overview of the elections on my SpectrumonAir programme PPS.

Washington Post - www.washingtonpost.com

Politico (Virginia news) - https://www.politico.com/news/virginia

Roll Call - https://www.rollcall.com

The Hill - https://thehill.com

NBC 12 (Richmond, VA) - https://www.nbc12.com/news/state/

Virginia Department of Elections - https://www.elections.virginia.gov

My Personal News Sources

I use a number of news websites (or subscriptions) to keep up to date with the news. These are my personal favourites.


Le Monde - France (Newspaper, French)
France 24 - France (24 hr news, available in a number of languages)
RFI - France (Radio, French - website in 16 languages)
Washington Post - USA (Newspaper, English)
The Guardian - UK (Newspaper, English)
Politico (European)
China Daily- China (Newspaper, English)
CGTN - China (News Channel, English, French, Chinese, Russian & Spanish)

For coverage of US Politics

RollCall
The Hill
Politico

















Sadly, I've not been able to include the BBC. I still have a great affection for the Corporation - but in recent years it has succumbed to political pressure - the Government sets the Licence Fee, and Conservatives have used that power to intimidate the BBC - and as a result the BBC has lost his reputation for fairness and balance. In the Last General Election it was little more than a mouthpiece for the (ruling) Conservative Party - and I was distressed by the way it decided to run some stories and ignore others (which were widely reported elsewhere). The BBC still produces some great non-News programmes (and one should never forget the value of BBC local radio) - but again it is not as good as it used to be. I find now that I watch more BBC produced programmes on PBS America - than I do current output.

How the EU ACTUALLY works

I've been a lecturer on EU Law for the last quarter of a century (I've also taught European Politics, been an assistant to a Member of the European Parliament,  and dealt with EU institutions as an assistant in the UK Parliament and in my own political work). There are a lot of misconceptions about what the EU does - and how it does it. It is that widespread lack of knowledge amongst British citizens that was the necessary foundation for the Brexit result. Much misinformation has been spread - and I'm glad to hear that Wikipedia has evaluated thre Daily Mail - and found it to be a wholly unreliable source.

So where does one go to find out accurate information?.

At an academic level - there are some excellent textbooks - these two are my personal favourites.






These can be expensive - and are, by nature, complex. There is a lot of FREE information available.

A free booklet from the European Parliament is well set out & VERY informative. It was produced in 2013, so information about the results of the 2014 election (which led to the current party makeup in the EP) are not included. It is available here.

There is a useful website at https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu_en

Key knowledge about the EU involves

- membership (currently 28 members) - in the media the EU (and its institutions, especially the Court) is often confused with the European Convention on Human Rights. That is part of the Council of Europe - a wholly distinct organisation with almost double the number of members.

- the key institutions. Each have their own role - and personnel. The European Commission is the Executive. Despite false assertions in certain parts of the media - it is not an all-powerful body. It may propose legislation - but the Council of Ministers and European Parliament must pass that legislation. Its members are nominated by the (elected) governments of the member states. Before appointment the European Parliament holds hearings, and individual commissioners regularly appear the Parliament. The Council of Ministers is made of government ministers from each member state.  (When Heads of Government/State meet - it is called the European Council, and together the democratically elected leaders of the 28 states set the agenda for the EU). The European Parliament is directly elected every five years. The Court of Justice of the EU is responsible for upholding the legal rules of the EU (interpreting and applying EU Law - and providing legal review of the acts of the institutions).

I subscribe to daily emails from 'Politico' (an American political-journalism company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and internationally.)
Politico, European Edition
Brexit

Following Congress

For newer readers of Washminster - a short guide to following events in Congress.

The best resources come from the Houses and Senate themselves.

House of Representatives

The website can be found at http://www.house.gov There is lots of background information. Click on the tabs underneath the main header

- Members of the House [Representatives] - the district (UK - constituency); name; party; Office - do see the 'Key to Room Codes' on that page - and in future posts I will give some of the background to each of the Office Buildings); Telephone number; and the Committees that each member sits on. This page can be listed alphabetically either by State or by Members' last name.

- Leadership - Names (with pictures) of the leadership of each of the two parties. Currently the Republicans (also referred to sometimes as the G.O.P.) are the Majority, and the Democrats are the Minority.

- Committees - these are the powerful workhorses of the House. Woodrow Wilson (when writing as a scholar, before he became President) wrote that "The House sits, not for serious discussion, but to sanction the conclusions of its committees as rapidly as possible. It legislates in its committee rooms...". They are much more powerful than Westminster committees - although the power of the Leadership (the Speaker) has greatly increased in recent decades.

- Legislative Activity - This page has key links to resources enabling the House to be followed from off Capitol Hill - and indeed across the world. You can look ahead with the House calendar (the coming year); the more immediate schedule; keep up to date with the day's business as it happens - Floor proceedings.  The live streaming of committee meetings and hearings can be found at https://www.congress.gov/committees/video When the day is over, you can read the Daily Digest of the Congressional Record for the previous day (and other dates).

- The House Explained - is a good resource for learning about the House and how it works.

The Rules Committee has on its website, a 'parliamentary Bootcamp' - which provides an excellent course on House practice and procedure.

Senate

The Senate website is https://www.senate.gov. The red tabs take you to -

- A list of Senators, with key information about each. It also tells you which 'class' they are - this tells you when they are up for re-election. Class 1 Senators are up for re-election in November 2018.

- Committees

- Legislation and Records - allows you to search by bill number and track floor activity; and using the blue sidebar you can follow other Senate activities - such as confirmations and Treaty ratifications. The Senate calendar and Floor Schedule can be accessed at https://www.senate.gov/legislative/calendars.htm 

Other red tabs take you to information about the Seanate's history; the art it contains; advice on visiting the Senate; and other reference material.

The Senate website is compact - so worth exploring the various links on the site - because there is a host of information to be uncovered.

The Media

To watch Congress - C-SPAN is the place to head to. Again it is a website worth exploring. As well as live streams from the House and Senate - there is a vast, searchable, video library. This not only covers proceedings within Congress - but programmes about history, the courts, and political issues. I hope to produce a post shortly just on C-SPAN.

Congress has three main newspapers devoted to it - and they each have websites. You can subscribe to newsletters and alerts from each of them. They are

Politico
The Hill
RollCall

I'm a big fan of (even if President Trump isn't), and a subscriber to

The Washington Post
New York Times

The Passage of Power

Friends of mine know how much I value Robert Caro's work on Lyndon Johnson - if you see my facebook page you'll see I list it as one of my favourite (set of ) book(s). Which is why I was so excited to see this in the daily email sent by Politico.

THE NEW YORKER PREVIEWS CARO'S FOURTH LBJ VOLUME - "[I]n '[Annals of History:] The Transition," the historian Robert A. Caro takes readers through the dramatic events of the day of John F. Kennedy's assassination, from the point of view of the future President Lyndon B. Johnson. In this excerpt from the much anticipated fourth volume in Caro's lauded series about President Johnson, 'The Passage of Power' [out May 1], Caro presents a portrait of a man on the verge of transition ... [T]he day began for Johnson with the belief-the fear-that he might not be on the ticket with J.F.K. in the coming election. That very day, back in Washington, a witness was providing Senate Rules Committee staffers with evidence that he said linked Johnson to Robert G. (Bobby) Baker, the subject of a scandal that had been exploding in the capital, and ... Life magazine was mapping out an investigation into the sources of Johnson's wealth. The Vice-President's trip to Texas wasn't going well: he had failed to heal the bitter rift between two major Texas democrats, Governor John B. Connally and Senator Ralph Yarborough; the previous day, in San Antonio, Yarborough had refused even to ride in the same car with Johnson. 'Given what the President was seeing for himself in Texas-that Johnson was no longer a viable mediator between factions of his party in his home state-and what was happening at that very minute in the Old Senate Office Building, the President's assurances that he would be on the ticket might start to have a hollow ring,' Caro writes.



"Johnson himself, Caro writes, believed that his political career was 'finished.' Caro details the moments after the shots were fired-Johnson being flung to the floor of his car by a Secret Service agent who lay on top of him for protection, the tense moments at the Dallas hospital as Johnson awaited news of Kennedy's condition, and the mad rush to get Johnson aboard Air Force One amid fears that the assassination might be part of a conspiracy-during which an immediate change took place in Johnson. Jack Valenti said that, 'even in that instant, there was a new demeanor' in the new President. 'Whatever emotions or passions he had in him, he had put them under a strict discipline,' Valenti said, so that 'he was very quiet and seemingly very much in command of himself.' There had been, in Valenti's words, 'a transformation.'


"Caro elucidates the thinking behind ... the decision to call Bobby Kennedy about the oath of office, and to take the oath on the plane in Dallas, rather than flying back to D.C. to do so. 'Even in this ?rst hour after John F. Kennedy's death, Lyndon Johnson seems to have had feelings that would torment him for the rest of his life-feelings understandable in any man placed in the Presidency not through an election but through an assassin's bullet, and feelings exacerbated, in his case, by the contrast, and what he felt was the world's view of the contrast, between him and the President he was replacing; by the contempt in which he had been held by the people around the President; and by the stark geographical fact of where the act elevating him to o?ce had taken place,' Caro writes. However, 'through the recollections of people present in the room' when Johnson took the oath, 'there runs a common theme,' Caro writes: 'a sense that, out of aimless confusion, order was quickly emerging' due to Johnson's quick decision-making and leadership. 'You see, it was just that he was coming back to himself,' Horace Busby, a longtime Johnson aide, explains to Caro. 'He was back where he belonged. He was back in command.' Caro writes that, 'for the ?rst time in three years, he looked like the Lyndon Johnson of the Senate ?oor. Now he had suddenly come to the very pinnacle of power. However he had got there, whatever concatenation of circumstance and tragedy-whatever fate-had put him there, he was there, and he knew what to do there.'" Abstract, and link for subscribers http://nyr.kr/GRd8Kt $18.98 Amazon pre-order http://amzn.to/GQ0CgY

The Senate

Roy Blunt was Majority Whip in the House of Representatives the last time the Republicans had control of the House. Last year he was elected to the Senate. During an interview at the conference I attended last week, he spoke of the differences he found in the Senate.

Coming up Shortly

Yesterday I attended an excellent event organised by Politico - called "Mapping out the 112th Congress with Reactions to the State of the Union". The final speaker was conservative Republican Congressman, Mike Pence (Indiana)- who spoke about the key events coming up in the House

Politico Seminar

Videos from the seminar I attended yesterday are available here.

The view from the Library of Congress

I filmed this at about 1pm Washington time (6pm UK time)yesterday. The morning was spent catching up on the news [It is so good to be able to read the physical editions of The Hill, Politico & the Washington Post - I'm grateful for the ability to read them online from 3600 miles away - but it's nicer to read - and mark - the hard copies. I also rang & then emailed a number of Members' offices - to set up interviews in the coming days.

Having made my way to "the Hill" I popped into the Library of Congress Book/Gift shop - before making this video. Then I crossed to the Newspaper and Current Periodicals Reading room, which like the Congressional Research Service, is based in the Madison Building. I spent some wonderful hours reading the Washington Post from November 1974.

I made my way to Politics and Prose - where I picked up a signed copy of President Carter's Diaries. I have quite a bit of reading to do - and I'll be blogging about some of that soon.

Tentative Schedule for Wednesday 5th

Thanks to the Huddle, Politico for this tentative schedule for the first day of the new Congress -

12 p.m. The clerk calls the House to order [5pm UK]
12:05 p.m. Quorum call  [5-05pm UK]

12:40 p.m. Nominations for speaker will be made [5-40pm UK]
12:45 p.m. Members vote for speaker by alphabetical roll call  [5-45 pm UK]

2 p.m. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) presents Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to the House
[7-00 pm UK]


2:25 p.m. Michigan Democrat John Dingell, the dean of the House, administers as Boehner takes the oath of office [7-25 pm UK]


2:40 p.m. The rules of the House for the 112th Congress will be brought to the floor under a privileged resolution [7-40 pm UK]


3:55 p.m. The House votes on the new rules [8-55 pm UK]


4:50 p.m. The House adjourns [9-50 pm UK]


I can send you a pdf of the new rules as they would look if the rule changes proposed by the incoming majority are adopted - email - info@washminster.com

The Week Ahead - From Politico

THE PRESIDENT'S WEEK AHEAD, per the White House: "On Sunday, the President and the First Lady will travel to Cleveland, Ohio. ... In the afternoon, the President and the First Lady will attend an event for Governor Strickland at a private residence in Cleveland, Ohio. The President and the First Lady will then travel to Columbus, Ohio. The President and the First Lady will attend a fundraiser for the DNC at Ohio State University. ... Later, the President and the First Lady will deliver remarks at a rally for the DNC at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. ...

"On Monday, the President will host the White House Science Fair celebrating the winners of a broad range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competitions. In the evening, the President will attend an event for the DSCC in Rockville, Maryland. On Tuesday, the President will sign an Executive Order to renew the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics at the White House. On Wednesday, the President will meet with his national security team for his monthly meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Situation Room. Later, the President will travel to Portland, Oregon to attend a fundraiser and a rally for Gubernatorial candidate John Kitzhaber. The President will then travel to Seattle, where he will spend the night.

"On Thursday, the President will hold an event in Seattle, and will then attend a rally for Senator Murray. Later, the President will travel to San Francisco, California. In the evening, the President will attend a dinner for the DNC. The President will spend the night in San Francisco. On Friday, the President will travel to Los Angeles, California where he will attend events for Senator Barbara Boxer and for the DNC. Later, the President will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada where he will attend an event for the DNC and later an event for Senator Reid and the DSCC. The President will spend the night in Las Vegas. On Saturday, the President will travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota to attend an event for Gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton, and will then attend an event for the DCCC."

THE VICE PRESIDENT'S WEEK AHEAD: "The Vice President will be in Wilmington, Delaware [this weekend]. There are no public events scheduled. On Monday, the Vice President will attend an event for Mayor John Callahan in Allentown, Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, the Vice President will travel to Vancouver, Washington, to deliver remarks at a rally for Senator Patty Murray. Later, the Vice President will attend an event for Senator Barbara Boxer in San Francisco, California. The Vice President will then travel to Reno, Nevada, where he will spend the night. On Wednesday, the Vice President will join the President's meeting with his national security team on Afghanistan and Pakistan via videoconference. Later, the Vice President will deliver remarks at a rally for Senator Harry Reid in Reno. On Thursday, the Vice President will attend an event for Governor Martin O'Malley in Chevy Chase, Maryland."