Charles Schumer

“The lantern is lit” is the cryptic message Sen. Ted Kennedy used to summon Sen. Amy Klobuchar to his tiny, memorabilia-bedecked U.S. Capitol office, where the liberal lion held a small salon of senators rapt with Irish yarns, Boston stories and tales from the campaign trail.

As Congress prepares to consider a series of consumer-friendly finance reforms, some minority advocates, researchers and lawmakers are pointing to a trend as another reason the reforms are urgently needed.

“Senate’s ruling on Burris affects seating Franken,” said a Star Tribune headline today. Not so, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told The Politico.
“People have gotten the certificate thing messed up,” Reid said, referring to documents said to be essential to taking office under state laws. “State of Illinois is an appointment. State of Minnesota is [...]

Here are three quotes from the last 24 hours on the Minnesota recount between Al Franken and former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman:
“Everything’s been looked at and looked at carefully,” is how Minnesota Supreme Court Justice and State Canvassing Board Member Eric Magnuson sees it, according to a news report this morning. “If there were any [...]

The assessments of last night’s doomed economic pow-wow have not been kind to John McCain. Setting the table is The New York Times with a damning (and dryly amusing) description of McCain’s performance at the economic summit that was called at his behest. An aide to House Minority Leader John Boehner all but acknowledges that [...]

On Tuesday the Federal Reserve announced that it will spend $85 billion to bailout American International Group, essentially putting taxpayers in the insurance business. Over the last two decades AIG has tossed cash around lavishly in Washington in order to have the ear of lawmakers. Since 1990 the company has spent $9.1 million on political [...]