House GOP leadership race is on
Monday, January 9, 2006 BENNETT ROTH - - Houston Chronicle
| The contest to replace House Majority Leader Tom DeLay began in earnest Sunday, and the Republican congressional leadership, roiled by the potential fallout from DeLay's troubles, pledged to quickly enact lobbying reforms.
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Spotlight now falls on former DeLay aides
Wednesday, January 4, 2006 BENNETT ROTH - - Houston Chronicle
| Former aides to Rep. Tom DeLay figure significantly in the federal corruption probe involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose guilty plea could spell more trouble for the embattled Republican lawmaker from Sugar Land.
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BUSH VOWS TO HARDEN BORDER POLICY
Thursday, December 1, 2005 JULIE MASON - - Houston Chronicle
| President Bush declared a new, get-tough approach to illegal immigration Monday, vowing a greater federal emphasis on border control and an end to the "catch and release" program that allows many arrivals to go free inside the United States.
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Crucial hearing set for DeLay
Monday, November 21, 2005 R.G. RATCLIFFE - - Houston Chronicle
| U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay returns to court this week for a pivotal hearing that could lead to the dismissal of the case against him on felony charges of violating state election and money-laundering laws.
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When GOP ails, ex-Houstonian has cure
Sunday, November 13, 2005 MICHAEL HEDGES - - Houston Chronicle
| When Republicans face legal or political jeopardy these days, they often turn to former Houstonian Barbara Comstock to manage traffic at the intersection where the law and media coverage converge.
For Comstock, it has been a long road from former Wranglerette for a Houston high school to dispensing legal and communications advice to embattled Republicans from Rep. Tom DeLay to former vice-presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
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Katrina now threatens New Orleans election
Sunday, November 13, 2005 KIM COBB - - Houston Chronicle
| With most of its residents living in storm-imposed exile across the country, hundreds of polling places destroyed and a scarcity of election workers, New Orleans is an election planner's nightmare.
But in three months, the ghostly city is scheduled to elect a mayor, sheriff and the entire City Council.
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Bush may call on Texas pal Evans
Sunday, November 13, 2005 Stewart M. Powell - - Houston Chronicle (Hearst News Service)
| If President Bush shakes up his White House staff to combat second-term setbacks, he may turn to trusted Texas confidante Donald Evans as his new chief of staff.
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Love him or hate him, Bush invokes strong feelings
Monday, November 7, 2005 JULIE MASON - - Houston Chronicle
| The plain-spoken, self-confident, rugged approach to life, with a deep connection to the land and the independent spirit of the common man — these are the perceived traits that many Texans and others have found endearing about President Bush.
But as the president's public approval rating has slid markedly in the polls this year, pollsters and public experts say that for many other Americans, the negatives go beyond issues such as Iraq, Katrina and gasoline prices — to a visceral, second-term voter fatigue about Bush's personality.
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Elections a mix of 'nasty and dull'
Sunday, November 6, 2005
AP's ROBERT TANNER - - Houston Chronicle
| In an off-year election, campaigns for governor in New Jersey and Virginia have turned especially nasty, dragging in Adolf Hitler and an ex-wife's claim of betrayal in negative ads that pollsters say have turned off the public.
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Battle begins over Alito record
Wednesday, November 2, 2005 PATTY REINERT - - Houston Chronicle
| Liberal and conservative groups began the public dissection Tuesday of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's judicial record with an emphasis on his rulings on gun control, abortion and search warrants.
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Key Republican warns against Dem filibuster
Wednesday, November 2, 2005 BENNETT ROTH - - Houston Chronicle
| A key Republican senator warned Tuesday that a Democratic move to filibuster Samuel Alito's U.S. Supreme Court nomination would be unjustified and could result in a vote to abolish such obstacles to judicial selections.
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Now, what about Rove?
Tuesday, November 1, 2005 MICHAEL HEDGES - - Houston Chronicle
| The CIA leak probe by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald remains a threat to top White House political aide Karl Rove, but his legal jeopardy has diminished significantly once he dodged the initial round of indictments, some legal experts said Monday.
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Special counsel enters the line of fire
Sunday, October 30, 2005 MICHAEL HEDGES - - Houston Chronicle
| By obtaining the indictment of a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and keeping his two-year probe alive, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is entering a phase in which past special prosecutions have come under heavy fire, and in which some have lost their way.
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Ball dropped with Miers, conservatives say
Sunday, October 30, 2005 MICHAEL HEDGES and PATTY REINERT - - Houston Chronicle
| Her résumé was thin, her conservative credentials uncertain. The White House was distracted, the president stubborn. And Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers was way too shy to sell herself.
Experts pondering last week's withdrawal of Miers' nomination to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor offered any number of reasons for her downfall. The bottom line: The White House failed to persuade core conservative supporters she had the right stuff.
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Democrats must address tough issues, Clinton says
Sunday, October 30, 2005
AP's LIZ AUSTIN - - Houston Chronicle
| Democrats can't be afraid to talk about hot-button issues like abortion and should fight back against personal attacks from conservatives if they want to regain power in Washington, former President Bill Clinton said Saturday.
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Cheney leads White House fight against torture ban
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
AP's LIZ SIDOTI - - Houston Chronicle
| Congressional negotiators are feeling heat from the White House and constituents as they consider whether to back a Senate-approved ban on torturing detainees in U.S. custody or weaken the prohibition, as the White House prefers.
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Another elevation from Texas Supreme Court?
Sunday, October 23, 2005 KIM COBB - - Houston Chronicle
| Nathan Hecht's unshakable legal conservatism frequently enrages his more liberal critics. But many still call the Texas Supreme Court justice a brilliant man.
Sitting for 17 years on the state's highest civil court, Hecht, 55, has made decisions that have influenced the lives of millions of Texans on everything from the way they finance public schools to the amount of money they can collect after a debilitating auto accident.
Now, after an intense stint as White House defender-in-chief of controversial Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers, his longtime friend, Hecht may have bolstered his own political capital.
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Senator: Hearings are last hope for Miers
Sunday, October 23, 2005
AP's NEDRA PICKLER - - Houston Chronicle
| Harriet Miers does not have the votes now in the GOP-controlled Senate to be confirmed for the Supreme Court and confirmation hearings "will be make or break ... in a way they haven't been for any other nominee," a leading Democratic senator said today.
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An e-mail trail of communication gaps
Thursday, October 20, 2005 MICHAEL HEDGES - - Houston Chronicle
| The day New Orleans flooded, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff spent numerous frustrating hours in a failed attempt to reach FEMA director Michael Brown, a communications breakdown that typified the "dysfunctional" federal response to Hurricane Katrina, lawmakers said Wednesday.
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Roberts-led high court goes under microscope
Monday, October 3, 2005 PATTY REINERT - - Houston Chronicle
| Considering the pending cases and the expected announcement this week of President Bush's pick for another justice, it won't be long before Americans see where the U.S. Supreme Court is headed under new Chief Justice John Roberts Jr.
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DeLay blames 'fanatic' DA for indictment
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 R.G. RATCLIFFE and JANET ELLIOTT - - Houston Chronicle
| A Travis County grand jury today indicted U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Sugar Land on a single count of felony criminal conspiracy involving an exchange of money that made corporate cash available to Republican Texas House candidates in 2002.
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GOP gays oppose plan to ban same-sex marriages
Wednesday, September 28, 2005 CLAY ROBISON - - Houston Chronicle
| Gov. Rick Perry is actively promoting Proposition 2, the proposed constitutional amendment against same-sex marriages, and many other Republicans are supporting it. But at least one GOP group is campaigning against it.
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Nonjudges in the mix to replace O'Connor
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
AP's DEB RIECHMANN - - Houston Chronicle
| President Bush, close to nominating a successor to retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, has narrowed his list to a handful of candidates that outside advisers say includes federal judges and two people who have never banged a gavel — corporate attorney Larry Thompson and White House counsel Harriet Miers.
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Bush looks to Pentagon to take lead in disasters
Monday, September 26, 2005 JULIE MASON - - Houston Chronicle
| President Bush indicated Sunday that he may ask Congress to put the Pentagon in charge of the response to domestic disasters such as the two recent hurricanes — a change that could take authority from the hands of governors and local officials.
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Bush gives praise and advice to Texans
Sunday, September 25, 2005 JULIE MASON - - Houston Chronicle
| Visiting his home state for a firsthand look at the response to Hurricane Rita, President Bush praised emergency operations Saturday and urged Texans, particularly Houstonians, to heed the instructions of state authorities in the aftermath.
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Specter says Pentagon may be obstructing panel
Thursday, September 22, 2005
AP's KIMBERLY HEFLING - - Houston Chronicle
| The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman said Wednesday that he would look into whether the Pentagon obstructed his committee by refusing to allow testimony from five people who had knowledge of a secret military unit named "Able Danger."
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Rehnquist court split on Texas causes
Monday, September 12, 2005 THOMAS KOROSEC - - Houston Chronicle
| Texas policies and political causes popular with Texans had mixed results in the U.S. Supreme Court during its 19 years under Chief Justice William Rehnquist, legal experts in the state say.
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Bush's choice for 2nd vacancy isn't expected soon
Thursday, September 8, 2005
AP's DEB RIECHMANN - - Houston Chronicle
| Senior White House officials do not expect President Bush to make known his choice of a nominee for the second Supreme Court vacancy this week, and possibly not until after the Senate holds a confirmation hearing that begins Monday for John Roberts, Bush's nominee for chief justice.
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Bush leans toward guest visas for workers
Sunday, August 28, 2005
AP's RON FOURNIER - - Houston Chronicle
| Struggling to pacify his party's warring wings, President Bush is moving toward allowing illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. before February 2004 to qualify for guest-worker visas. People smuggled in after then would be deported.
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'Personal betrayal' cited in downfall
Sunday, August 21, 2005
AP's DAVID ESPO - - Houston Chronicle
| Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott blames his fall from power in 2002 on a "personal betrayal" by an ambitious Sen. Bill Frist, his successor, adding in a new book that President Bush, Colin Powell and other GOP associates played roles.
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New DeLay spokesman at ease in a battle zone
Monday, August 8, 2005 SAMANTHA LEVINE - - Houston Chronicle
| Kevin Madden grew up in Yonkers, N.Y., with an auto mechanic father who read three newspapers every Sunday and passed along a powerful addiction to news and politics to his eager oldest son.
Fresh out of college, the young Madden broke into politics working for a Republican mayor in the heavily Democratic city north of New York City. He served as a spokesman for a New York congressman amid the devastation of the Sept. 11 attacks, and then for the Bush-Cheney campaign in some of the fiercest battleground states of the 2004 election.
Now Madden, 33, is in a new war zone: House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's press shop, where, as the recently hired communications director, he will take the flak for the high-profile, polarizing Sugar Land Republican who is nearly always in the crossfire.
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Bush confident NASA will achieve Mars goal
Tuesday, August 2, 2005 JULIE MASON - - Houston Chronicle
| Despite nagging problems with the space shuttle program, President Bush said Monday that he remains optimistic that NASA can fully achieve his ambitious goals for human travel to the moon and Mars.
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Bush's move on Bolton has Democrats seething
Tuesday, August 2, 2005 BENNETT ROTH - - Houston Chronicle
| President Bush installed his nominee, John Bolton, as ambassador to the United Nations on Monday without Senate approval, aggravating some Democrats a month before confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts.
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Bush in midst of a familiar aide problem
Sunday, July 31, 2005 Stewart M. Powell - - Houston Chronicle (Hearst News Service)
| President Bush soon could face a decision over whether to keep his career-long strategist Karl Rove, a revered and reviled political operative credited as "the architect" of victory by the grateful second-term president.
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A long, hard road to CAFTA approval
Saturday, July 30, 2005 SAMANTHA LEVINE - - Houston Chronicle
| It's over, for now, at least.
The House just barely passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement early Thursday, ending several years of work for Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, who helped shepherd the divisive bill through Congress.
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Bush's gala has intimate air
Tuesday, July 19, 2005 JULIE MASON - - Houston Chronicle
| Stodgy Washington loves a little glamour, and President Bush on Monday stayed up past his bedtime to deliver, hosting a glitzy formal dinner at the White House for the visiting prime minister of India.
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Many Bush jurists already on federal benches
Sunday, July 17, 2005
AP's NANCY BENAC - - Houston Chronicle
| No need to wait until President Bush appoints a Supreme Court justice to see how he will make his mark on the federal judiciary.
One level down, dozens of conservative appeals court judges appointed by Bush already are helping to shape the law in ways that ultimately could have as much, and in some ways even more, impact than the nine justices of the nation's highest court.
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Did Rove break the law? Experts far from certain
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 SHANNON MCCAFFREY - - Houston Chronicle (Knight Ridder/Tribune News)
| Karl Rove talked. But did President Bush's deputy chief of staff break the law when he told a reporter that an administration critic's wife worked for the CIA?
Legal experts said the answer to that question is far from clear. It appears to hinge on whether Rove knew that Valerie Plame was a covert officer and blew her cover anyway.
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Pennsylvania district could be bellwether
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 BENNETT ROTH - - Houston Chronicle
| POTTSTOWN, PA. - As Congress returns to Washington this week after a recess, lawmakers will have to contend with declining approval ratings and, if interviews with voters here are any guide, rising public impatience.
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Bush plunges into pollution debate
Thursday, July 7, 2005 JULIE MASON - - Houston Chronicle
| Heading into what promises to be a combative summit of world leaders, President Bush on Wednesday disparaged one of the meeting's key issues, the Kyoto treaty on climate control, saying industrialized nations need to find "a better way forward."
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Both houses, both parties back eminent domain limits
Tuesday, July 5, 2005 POLLY ROSS HUGHES - - Houston Chronicle
| Saying the U.S. Supreme Court erred when it ruled recently that local governments can seize land for private development, Texas lawmakers are rallying around proposed constitutional amendments and other legislation to help prevent such seizures.
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Bush's rift with Blair sets tone for G8 summit
Monday, July 4, 2005 JULIE MASON - - Houston Chronicle
| President Bush's cordial rebuff to British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently on global warming and aid to Africa signaled a new rift in their relationship and set the tone for this week's Group of Eight summit in Scotland.
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Watchdog says government hid border survey
Wednesday, June 29, 2005 EUNICE MOSCOSO - - Houston Chronicle (Cox News Service)
| The U.S. Border Patrol conducted a survey of illegal immigrants at the Mexican border immediately after President Bush announced his temporary worker plan last year but never made the results public, according to federal documents obtained through a Freedom of Information request by the group Judicial Watch.
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Young Republicans 'get party started' at D.C. convention
Saturday, June 25, 2005 SAMANTHA LEVINE - - Houston Chronicle
| They may be done cramming for exams, but the hundreds of College Republicans who gathered in Washington this weekend are hardly done with their assignments.
At a hotel just a few miles from the White House, the College Republican National Committee kicked off its biennial convention with a roster of high-powered GOP speakers meant to rally the fresh-faced troops in advance of the 2006 midterm elections.
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NASA awaits final details on 5-year spending
Friday, June 24, 2005 SAMANTHA LEVINE - - Houston Chronicle
| A Senate committee approved an authorization bill Thursday that would give NASA a blueprint for its projects and its spending for the next five years.
The legislation would carve out nearly $88 billion for NASA between fiscal years 2006 and 2010.
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Battle on the Hill is raised over Iraq
Friday, June 24, 2005 BENNETT ROTH - - Houston Chronicle
| Expressing alarm that Iraq may be turning into a Vietnam-like morass, lawmakers from both parties grilled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday about a strategy that even a top general conceded has not reduced insurgent attacks in recent months.
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Tales of deception and betrayal
Thursday, June 23, 2005 BENNETT ROTH - - Houston Chronicle
| The head of a conservative nonprofit group that sponsored several foreign trips by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay testified Wednesday that she was deceived by lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who funneled funds from his Indian tribe clients through her organization and used it to arrange travel.
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Byrd says year with Klan haunts, embarrasses him
Monday, June 20, 2005
AP's VICKI SMITH - - Houston Chronicle
| The Ku Klux Klan is the central paradox of Robert C. Byrd's life — "an extraordinarily foolish mistake" that has haunted him for 40 years but the very thing that launched one of the longest careers in the U.S. Senate.
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Strayhorn is ready to take on governor
Sunday, June 19, 2005 R.G. RATCLIFFE - - Houston Chronicle
| With the Capitol as a backdrop and a scorching sun beating down, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn turned the political heat up on Gov. Rick Perry on Saturday, formally announcing as a challenger to his re-election.
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Cornyn seeks middle ground on illegal workers
Saturday, June 18, 2005 EDWARD HEGSTROM - - Houston Chronicle
| Seeking to define a middle ground on illegal immigration, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, gave a preview Friday of legislation that would both allow temporary workers into the country and crack down on employers who continue to hire undocumented immigrants.
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GOP has no lock on Texas, Dean says
Saturday, June 18, 2005 KRISTEN MACK - - Houston Chronicle
| Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean, who's taken some heat for his hot rhetoric, kept it cool in a visit to Houston on Friday, quietly pressing the Democratic case to a group of Indian-American physicians.
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Bush's new emphasis: Iraq, economy
Friday, June 17, 2005 JULIE MASON - - Houston Chronicle
| Looking to regain momentum amid disappointing polls and a stalled agenda, President Bush is making Iraq and the economy his top priorities. He also opened a new political offensive against Democrats as the party of "no."
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Record shows Hutchison put $2 million in energy
Wednesday, June 15, 2005 SAMANTHA LEVINE - - Houston Chronicle
| U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has received a comparatively high amount of campaign contributions from the energy sector, owns as much as $2.4 million in stock in a dozen major energy companies and a slew of Fortune 500 companies, according to her personal financial disclosure for 2004.
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Immigration reform at top of many agendas
Tuesday, June 14, 2005 SAMANTHA LEVINE - - Houston Chronicle
| Immigration reform likely will jump to the front burner in July when President Bush unveils plans for border security, enforcement of immigration laws and a guest worker program, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said Monday.
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DeLay, Culberson softening stance on rail, analysts say
Tuesday, June 14, 2005 BENNETT ROTH - - Houston Chronicle
| U.S. Reps. Tom DeLay and John Culberson softened their opposition to federally funded rail projects in Houston in response to growing pressure from their suburban constituents to solve traffic problems and a willingness to work with popular Houston Mayor Bill White, according to political analysts.
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GOP considers raising the age to start getting Social Security
Friday, June 10, 2005
AP's DAVID ESPO - - Houston Chronicle
| Key Senate Republicans privately reviewed suggestions Thursday for raising the Social Security retirement age while limiting future benefits for upper-wage earners, officials said, as they sought momentum for legislation atop President Bush's second-term domestic agenda.
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Race underscores vote on Brown
Thursday, June 9, 2005 BENNETT ROTH - - Houston Chronicle
| The contentious Senate confirmation Wednesday of Janice Rogers Brown, a conservative black jurist, to the federal bench underscored how racial politics has continued to shape the strategies of both parties.
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Ethics panel chair linked to lobby firm
Thursday, June 9, 2005 MICHAEL HEDGES and SAMANTHA LEVINE - - Houston Chronicle
| Revelations that the House ethics committee chairman had contacts with a law firm connected to the ethics controversy about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's overseas trips fueled demands Wednesday for the case to be turned over to an independent investigator.
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