Of course, there was the initial flurry of floor action on the 100 Hours bills.

In the middle of which Bush made his Iraq surge announcement, which naturally drew attention away from other matters.

Now, it's certainly true that most of the work of the House does not take place in the chamber. And that committees have been holding hearings and marking up bills like nobody's business.

However - I was curious just to see how active the House floor was these days in the production of legislation of substance.

So what I did (no pretensions to statistical relevance, this!) was to scan the Daily Digests for March 1 through March 15 (yesterday) to see what the funk had been going on.

I've seen neither video or transcript of what Uncle Harry said about Iraq in his surge interview on This Week - and I certainly don't want to get into the substantive questions of Iraq policy.

I do wonder, just a little, about the way in which the Dem Congressional leaderships are coordinating the formulation and presentation of that policy.

(I assume they're coordinating all that.)

A Bloomberg piece today has Commerce Committee chairman-to-be Dingell highlighting an ambiguity in the Dem proposals on Medicare reform.

The party's commitment, as stated on page 6 of the long version of New Direction, was stated (in characterstically dismal fashion) thus:

Fix the medicare prescription drug benefit by putting seniors first by negotiating lower drug prices...

The reference in the 100 Hours list is substantially identical.

Now, of course the pledge can't be read literally. Congress (not even a Dem-controlled one) can negotiate Medicare drug prices.

bumped - Matt

Cross-posted at DailyKos

The main event for the 3 day-long DNC Meeting in Chicago was Saturday's General Session.  The General Session brings together the full membership of the DNC to conduct the official business of the Democratic National Committee.

The officers of the Democratic National Committee during the General Session in Chicago.

Below, you'll find the play-by-play, here are the important links:

Here is a nice summary of the 2008 Rules:
http://www.democrats.org/...

Here is information on 13 Resolutions Passed:
http://www.democrats.org/...

Here are the individual videos:

Governor Dean:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/...
Part 2:http://www.youtube.com/...

Darcy Burner's Full Speech:
http://www.youtube.com/...

Jennifer Bruner's Full Speech:
http://www.youtube.com/...

Governor Blagojevich:
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/...
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/...

Jesse Jackson - Clips of Speech:
http://www.youtube.com/...

Mayor Richard Daley
http://www.youtube.com/...

On the 50-State Strategy & The Democratic Reunion:
http://youtube.com/...

A montage of Democratic Ads:
http://youtube.com/...

After drawing friendly fire from democrats in conservative districts (notably, Chet Edwards), the DCCC pulled their "New Direction" video. The reason?  Flag draped coffins.

Give. Me. A Break.

Now, I understand that this is a big deal in America. I understand they had to pull the ad. But why on God's green earth is it okay to let the troops stay and die (because there is no good way out of the mess we've created) but NOT to show the coffins this horrible strategy produces?

If we can't show the coffins "for political gain," how soon before we can't talk about the number of dead american soldiers? Or the war at all? Personally, I find those three things inextricably linked.

Can someone explain this American Phenomenon?