Bailouts, scandals and clashes mark 110th Congress

Democrats started the 110th Congress with high
expectations, most notably to end the war in Iraq.

President Bush won that showdown, as well as a
high-profile battle on appropriations, but Democrats ended 2008 with larger
majorities in both chambers and a president-elect.

In early 2007, many expected that president to be Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). Nearly two years later, if she is confirmed by
the Senate, Clinton will be President-elect Obama’s secretary of State.

{mosads}The 110th Congress was not popular with the public as it
constantly battled Bush and passed bailout measures that were, by and large,
disdained by voters.

In November, most Americans blamed Bush and the GOP for
the economic downturn, leading Democrats to their second straight “wave”
victory.

There were several ethics controversies and scandals over
the last two years, as Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was indicted and later
convicted. Others who were indicted included Reps. William Jefferson (D-La.)
and Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.).

But the most memorable scandal of the 110th Congress will
likely be the bathroom arrest of Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho), who pleaded guilty
to disorderly conduct and then later claimed his innocence.

Eight members died during the Congress, the most in two
decades.

The following is a rundown of the major events of the
110th Congress:

 

January 2007

– House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) open up the 110th Congress

– Pelosi and Reid urge Bush not to add troops in Iraq

– In address to the nation, Bush says he will send 21,500
new troops to Iraq

– House passes minimum wage bill, stem cell measure and
other legislation as part of its “Six in ’06” campaign theme

 

February

– Pelosi military plane controversy escalates; White
House defends her

– Rep. Charles Norwood (R-Ga.) dies

– Reid says Senate will vote on House Iraq measure over
the weekend, sending White House hopefuls scrambling to change their schedules

– House passes resolution disapproving of the troop
surge; only 17 Republicans support measure

– Vice President Cheney and Pelosi exchange salvos on
Rep. John Murtha’s (D-Pa.) Iraq plan

 

March

– Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) survives bid to oust him as
chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus

– Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) apologizes, admits that he
contacted New Mexico U.S. Attorney David Iglesias about probe before Iglesias
was ousted

– Congress investigates healthcare for veterans amid
Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal

– Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter”
Libby, is found guilty

– Amid escalating attorney-firings controversy, pressure
builds on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign

– Democrats want White House aide Karl Rove to testify on
U.S. attorney scandal

– House and Senate pass Iraq supplemental bills with
strings attached; Bush vows to veto

 

April

– GOP criticizes Pelosi for her trip to Syria

– Senate passes stem cell bill; Bush subsequently vetoes
it

– Shooting kills dozens at Virginia Tech; Democrats
carefully draft gun control measure that eventually gets the support of the
National Rifle Association

– Gonzales appears before Senate panel as more Democrats
call for his resignation

– FBI raids house of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) and
business of Renzi

– Reid says Iraq war is “lost”

– Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald (D-Calif.) dies

– Dow hits 13,000; gas hits $3 per gallon

 

May

– Bush vetoes Iraq supplemental bill

– GOP centrists challenge Bush on Iraq at contentious
White House meeting

– Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey testifies
that White House officials — including Gonzales at the time — urged
hospital-bed-ridden Attorney General John Ashcroft in 2004 to certify National
Security Agency’s surveillance program

– Senators strike deal on immigration reform

– Murtha berates Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) over earmark
on the House floor; later apologizes

– House and Senate pass budget package

– Democrats bend, strip timelines on Iraq bill; most
Democrats, including Pelosi, vote no

– House passes lobbying reform bill

 

June

– Jefferson is indicted

– Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) dies

– Libby sentenced to two and a half years in prison

– Immigration bill falters in the Senate

– Senate no-confidence motion on Gonzales falls short

– House grinds to a halt over earmarks dispute

 

July

– Bush commutes Libby’s sentence

– Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Domenici express major
misgivings about the Iraq war

– Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) apologizes after his name
shows up on the phone list of the “D.C. Madam”

– House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) calls
wavering GOP senators on Iraq “wimps”

– Senate Democrats hold all-night debate on Iraq

– Congress passes 9/11 Commission’s recommendations bill

– FBI raids Stevens’s home

– Lobbying reform bill is approved by Congress

 

August

– Congress passes interim bill updating the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) despite lack of support among Democratic
leaders

– After losing contentious vote, GOP cries foul and
investigation is launched into the so-called stolen vote

– Pelosi vows to alter new FISA law

– Rove surprisingly announces he will leave White House

– Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) charged with assault at
Washington’s Dulles airport

– Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) changes his position on
Iraq, says he no longer supports a timetable for troop withdrawal

– Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) bucks Bush on Iraq

– June arrest of Craig in airport bathroom becomes
public; Craig maintains innocence despite guilty plea

– Gonzales announces his resignation

 

September

– Craig says he is not gay and announces imminent
retirement

– Craig reconsiders retirement, but says he will not seek
reelection in 2008

– Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) dies

– Gen. David Petraeus testifies to House and Senate as
MoveOn ad on Iraq commander triggers uproar

– Democrats chastise Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) for his
remarks regarding the American Israel Public Affairs Committee

– National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC)
Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.) and Boehner clash over NRCC’s performance, staffing

– Congress passes State Children’s Health Insurance
Program (SCHIP) bill; Bush threatens veto

 

October

– Bush vetoes SCHIP bill

– Rep. Jo Ann Davis (R-Va.) dies

– Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) apologizes for saying on
House floor that U.S. troops are being sent to Iraq “to get their heads blown
off for the president’s amusement”

– Measure on Armenian genocide splits House Democrats as
floor vote is canceled

 

November

– Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Charles Schumer
(D-N.Y.) keep Michael Mukasey’s nomination for attorney general alive

– Congress overrides Bush veto on Water Resources
Development Act; House passes Peru trade bill

– Senate approves Mukasey nomination, 53-40

– Farm bill stalls in the Senate

– Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) stuns Capitol Hill by
announcing his retirement

– Murtha says troop surge is working

 

December

– Bush administration, Congress scramble to address
sub-prime mortgage crisis

– Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) defeats Sen. Richard
Burr (R-N.C.) for No. 3 Senate GOP leadership post

– House passes energy bill

– Senate Democrats back off on pay-as-you-go budgetary
rules to pass Alternative Minimum Tax patch; House Democrats balk at lack of
offsets

– House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey
(D-Wis.) threatens to pull earmarks in spending legislation in the face of
White House opposition to omnibus’s price tag

– Democrats cave on spending, lose showdown with Bush,
retain earmarks in omnibus package

– Rep. Julia Carson (D-Ind.) dies

– Senate passes farm bill

– Congress passes scaled-back energy bill

– Congress passes AMT patch and omnibus, and adjourns for
the year

 

January 2008

– Democrats, GOP strike deal on economic stimulus as
stock market plunges to around 12,000 points amid fears of recession (It is
later determined that recession started in December 2007)

– NRCC asks FBI to conduct probe of fundraising
irregularities

 

February

– Senate and House pass stimulus package

– Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) dies

– Reps. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) and Al Wynn (D-Md.) lose
their primaries

– Renzi is indicted

– Oil prices soar over $110 a barrel

 

March

– House passes ethics bill after holding vote open for
more than 10 minutes

– Houses goes into secret session amid FISA dispute

 

April

– Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says U.S. may be
in a recession

– Pelosi thwarts Colombian trade deal

– Boehner predicts House Republicans will pick up seats
in 2008, later backtracks

– Parties blame each other for high gas prices

– Ethics panel admonishes Domenici

 

May

– Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) arrested for drunken
driving, subsequently admits to extramarital affair and child out of wedlock

– Democrats win special election in Mississippi, their
third straight win in special elections in conservative-leaning districts

– Speculation on Capitol Hill is that House GOP campaign
head Cole will be ousted

– FEC standoff ends as Hans von Spakovsky withdraws

– Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) diagnosed with brain
tumor

– Clerical error delays enactment of the farm bill

– Senate passes GI bill that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
and Bush opposed

– Gas prices hit $4 a gallon

– Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) admits to defaulting
on home loans

– Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s
book, highly critical of Bush, hits newsstands

 

June

– Global warming bill dies in Senate

– Oil spikes to $139 a gallon, jobless rate soars, market
drops 400 points

– Democrats embrace Obama as presidential nominee as they
pass budget

– NBC newsman Tim Russert dies

– Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.M.)
deny wrongdoing on their “VIP” mortgages

– Congressional ratings dip to all-time low of 13 percent

– Congress strikes deal on FISA, war supplemental

– Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah) loses his primary

 

July

– Stalled Medicare bill passes amid Kennedy’s dramatic
return to the Senate; Congress overrides Bush veto

– Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel
(D-N.Y.) asks ethics committee to investigate him

– Deficit hits record mark of $482 billion

– Stevens is indicted

 

August

– GOP members talk about gas prices, oil drilling, on
House floor even though lower chamber is adjourned

– Rep. David Davis (R-Tenn.) loses in primary

– Russian-Georgia conflict escalates

– Pelosi flips, commits to oil drilling legislation

– Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-Ohio) dies

 

September

– GOP, McCain appear to regain footing after convention;
McCain and Obama basically tied

– Wall Street woes escalate as Lehman Brothers and Merrill
Lynch indicate they are in dire financial straits

– Treasury Department asks Congress to pass $700 billion
rescue plan

– McCain says he will postpone campaign and won’t debate
Obama until Congress passes bailout plan; Obama says he will attend presidential
debate

– McCain shifts, shows up at debate

 

October

– Polls show Obama pulling away

– Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Fla.) sex scandal surfaces

– Murtha suggests some of his constituents are racist;
remark makes his reelection race tighter than expected

– Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) says Obama “may have
anti-American views,” but despite uproar, she wins reelection

– Stevens is convicted

 

November

– Obama wins in a landslide; Democrats significantly
expand their majorities in the House and Senate

– Obama selects Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) as his chief
of staff, later picks Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) to be his secretary
of state.

– Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) steps aside as
Appropriations Committee chairman

– Despite backing McCain for president, Sen. Joe
Lieberman (I-Conn.) keeps his Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee gavel

– Stevens concedes his reelection race

– Auto bailout debate heightens; Dow Jones dips below
9,000 points

– Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) defeats Rep. John Dingell
(D-Mich.) for Energy and Commerce Committee chairman

– New York Times
article on Rangel intensifies spotlight on lawmaker’s ethics; Rangel disputes
aspects of the story

 

December

– Dismal jobs report spurs car bailout deal, but it falls
short in the Senate

– Administration vows to use some of $700 billion bailout
funds to help automakers

– Jefferson loses his reelection race

– Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) scandal erupts; Rep.
Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) denies any wrongdoing; Obama’s Senate seat expected
to be vacant for weeks, if not months