Yesterday’s Argus Leader ran a report titled, "Hurricane Katrina might stall Thune’s agenda". Introduction:
Since taking office in January, Sen. John Thune worked almost exclusively on one issue: making sure Ellsworth Air Force Base stayed open.
When the Rapid City base was taken off the Pentagon's closure list last month, the Republican freshman senator from South Dakota was poised to expand his political agenda - moving beyond the single issue that has so far defined his first term in Congress.
But Hurricane Katrina could put some of Thune's plans on hold as Congress focuses its attention on relief efforts along the Gulf Coast.
"It's a question of whether the president's domestic agenda, which Sen. Thune endorsed earlier, is going to go very far this calendar year," said Bob Burns, a political science professor at South Dakota State University. "There's been some changed priorities."
Although Thune acknowledged the nation's political agenda has been altered radically by a hurricane that erased entire communities in the South, he said Congress still must deal with a number of issues that have topped his list of priorities.
Among them: filling the two vacant spots on the Supreme Court and finding a way to alleviate the rising cost of gas prices across the country.
One of those Supreme Court positions will begin discussions in the US Senate…TODAY:
Three days of confirmation hearings for John Roberts get under way in Washington today. He's President Bush's choice for chief justice of the United States.
Stalled?! The Argus Leader no longer has the Ellsworth issue to bash Republican John Thune with, so they have to just make stuff up.
