Warner Challenges Frist Over Stalled Bill

[NVMojo]

oday: October 04, 2005 at 12:36:46 PDT

WASHINGTON (AP) - One of the Senate's old bulls is locking horns with Majority Leader Bill Frist over a stalled defense bill, spotlighting how fractious debate over the wartime measure has become.

The challenge by Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., a 27-year Senate veteran, is unusual because Warner is known for quietly seeking consensus rather than waging public battles. It's also rare for a defense bill written during a war to run into problems in Congress.

And the dispute illustrates how some of Frist's GOP colleagues have not hesitated to confront him in a year that has seen the Senate prove difficult to control. The potential 2008 presidential candidate has faced several setbacks, some at the hands of his own rank-and-file, and now federal investigators are examining his sale of stock in a health care chain owned by his family.

At issue is the annual bill that sets Pentagon policy and plans its spending. Though Warner's committee approved the bill in May, the full Senate may not vote on it for the first time in at least in 40 years.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-cong/2005/oct/04/100403085.html

[YDogg]

1. Let them eat their own.

n/t

[rodeodance]

2. real reason is that WH has treatened a veto over a McCain detainee

issue!!!


The stalemate began in July when Frist, R-Tenn., who shepherds President Bush's agenda through the Senate by deciding what bills get a vote, abruptly stopped debate on the bill. That avoided a high-profile fight over amendments, supported by Warner and sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., restricting the Pentagon's handling of detainees in the war on terror.

The White House had threatened to veto the entire measure over the issue and sent Vice President Dick Cheney to Capitol Hill to press the administration's opposition.

[rodeodance]

3. and the WH sic'ed Cheney on Congress--te he.

.....The White House had threatened to veto the entire measure over the issue and sent Vice President Dick Cheney to Capitol Hill to press the administration's opposition.

[NVMojo]

4. that is funny!!!

[Rose Siding]

5. This is very good! It's about McCain's anti-torture amend and veto threat

snip>
The stalemate began in July when Frist, R-Tenn., who shepherds President Bush's agenda through the Senate by deciding what bills get a vote, abruptly stopped debate on the bill. That avoided a high-profile fight over amendments, supported by Warner and sponsored by Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., restricting the Pentagon's handling of detainees in the war on terror.
...
Whatever control Frist does have almost certainly won't be enough to prevent votes on McCain's detainee amendments.