Majority Leader

Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, threw his support behind Mitt Romney just days before the marquee day of the GOP presidential nominating race -- Super Tuesday. The House majority leader and Virginia congressman said Romney was the party's best candidate on what is likely the central 2012 campaign issue: the economy. "Mitt Romney is the only candidate in the race who's put forward a bold, pro-growth, pro-jobs plan for the future," Cantor said in an interview on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday.

WASHINGTON - To advance a cause that has defined her political career, Sen. Dianne Feinstein brought the father of a child killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School to Capitol Hill, where he talked about the last time he saw his first-grader alive. She brought in police officers to press her case against her law-and-order opponents. She made it personal, evoking the time she had sought a pulse on the wrist of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, shot seconds before, and found her fingers "in a bullet hole.

Hamas made its first parliamentary appointments since winning the Jan. 25 Palestinian legislative elections. The militant group named Mahmoud Zahar from the Gaza Strip as majority leader in the legislature, which convenes Saturday. Aziz Dweik from the West Bank was chosen as speaker. Dweik would become interim president, pending an election within 60 days, in the event of the death, resignation or incapacitation of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas of the Fatah faction.

WASHINGTON - The Democratic-led Senate, in a bid to win support from Republicans, plans a full-fledged debate on immigration reform, a decision that means it could be most of the year before any bill reaches President Obama, who has urged Congress to act in a "timely fashion. " Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Thursday the bill would go through the traditional committee process and told senators he would schedule "whatever time you need" on the floor. The move is in stark contrast to how the Senate handled the failed 2007 immigration bill, which was written behind closed doors, circumvented the Judiciary Committee and was rushed to a vote.

Assembly Republicans have chosen Assemblyman James E. Rogan of Glendale as the new majority leader. Rogan will be the No. 2 Republican in the Assembly, after Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove). Pringle was the majority leader before he was elected speaker on Jan. 4. Rogan was elected to the Assembly in a special election in May 1994 and was reelected in November 1994. He served on the Glendale Municipal Court bench from 1990 until his election.

Sen. Jim Sasser (D-Tenn.) on Thursday entered the race to succeed Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) as majority leader. Sasser, 57, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, is competing against Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) for the leadership post. Democratic senators will choose their new leader at the end of the year. Mitchell will retire from the Senate in January. Several other Democrats have recently declared that they would not seek Mitchell's job, including Sens. Wendell H.

Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) announced Friday that he will not seek reelection this year, a surprise move by a staunch ally of President Clinton that may affect prospects for Administration programs in Congress. Mitchell's decision will remove a respected leader whose influence and negotiating skills helped get Clinton's legislative proposals through Congress. It also may add to Democratic difficulties as they try to retain their 56-44 edge over Republicans in the Senate.

Leading the majority party in the Senate, a job that has been likened to herding cats, is tough enough in ordinary times. For Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), last week's Republican election triumphs paradoxically made the job tougher yet. Conservatives describe themselves as "downright giddy" that the elections expanded the Senate GOP majority by four seats to 55 and cost Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota his seat.

George J. Mitchell of Maine was elected Senate majority leader today by Democrats seeking a forceful new spokesman during yet another Republican reign at the White House, and he quickly promised George Bush that his initiatives will be met with "interest and enthusiasm." Mitchell, a 55-year-old former federal judge, easily defeated Sens. J. Bennett Johnston of Louisiana and Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii. He succeeds Robert C.

Soon after Rep. Tom DeLay was forced to temporarily resign his position as the No. 2 leader in the House on Wednesday, Republicans announced that it would take three men to do the work he had done alone. The process of dividing up the Texas Republican's job as majority leader became a confusing matter, ensnared in personal loyalties, grass-roots demands and the traditional Republican respect for the established chain of command.

WASHINGTON - Republicans chose Rep. John A. Boehner for another term as House Speaker on Wednesday as lawmakers of both parties all but ensured the new Congress will have very similar leadership to this one, the most polarized and unpopular in history. Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco is expected to remain as the Democratic minority leader, and senators returned Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada as the Democratic majority leader and Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as the Republican minority leader.

WASHINGTON - The independent senator-elect from Maine, Angus King, announced Wednesday he would join the Democratic caucus , saying the decision became “easy” once Democrats retained majority control after the election. His decision boosts the Democratic tilt in the Senate to 55-45. The popular former governor campaigned as a moderate voice who would try to bridge the deep partisanship in the Senate . He arrived at his choice of party affiliation after consultations with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada - but not with Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Senate Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Thursday that he would chair a hearing of the Judiciary Committee on bounties in sports to determine whether federal bribery laws should be expanded to include such activities. Durbin made the announcement a day after the NFL suspended New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton for one year and imposed other suspensions and fines on Saints personnel for their involvement in a bounty program. “ Many sports involve human contact and the chance of serious injury.

Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House, threw his support behind Mitt Romney just days before the marquee day of the GOP presidential nominating race -- Super Tuesday. The House majority leader and Virginia congressman said Romney was the party's best candidate on what is likely the central 2012 campaign issue: the economy. "Mitt Romney is the only candidate in the race who's put forward a bold, pro-growth, pro-jobs plan for the future," Cantor said in an interview on NBC's "Meet The Press" on Sunday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell operates with a steely resolve, a political discipline that leaves nothing to chance. A childhood bout with polio instilled in him an enormous capacity for patience. And for 25 years in Congress, the Kentucky Republican has waited for the moment now before him: the chance to become Senate majority leader. With four seats needed to flip the chamber, or three if a Republican is elected president (because the vice president could break a tie)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will unveil a proposal Monday to extend a payroll tax cut for 160 million American workers, a Democratic ally said. Interviewed on "Fox News Sunday," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Reid would announce the details of a plan that would extend a cut in the payroll taxes used to pay for Social Security. Conrad would not reveal the specifics but said "it will be paid for" and represent a compromise between the dueling plans the Senate rejected last week.

Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd announced today he will not run for the leadership post next year and will, instead, seek the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee if he is reelected to a sixth term and the Democrats retain control of the Senate. Sens. George Mitchell of Maine, Bennett Johnston of Louisiana and Daniel Inouye of Hawaii immediately said they would run to succeed Byrd at a party election usually held in late November. Byrd (D-W.Va.

In an era when young, untested men of privilege such as Dan Quayle and Albert Gore Jr. appear to be on a political fast track, Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) is an anomaly--self-taught, relentlessly methodical and perhaps the only man in Washington who has memorized the names of the English kings and the dates they reigned.

The federal government's approach to emergency relief has long been to open its checkbook and pay whatever it took to get communities back on their feet. Agencies had budgets for disaster response, but nature defied prediction; overruns were the rule, not the exception. After Hurricane Irene flooded large swathes of the Northeast, however, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) declared that the era of the open checkbook was over. Instead of borrowing from the future to pay for repairs, Cantor said, Congress must offset any new relief spending with cuts in other programs.

Efforts to reach a last-minute deal to stave off a potentially disastrous federal default appeared to make progress late Saturday as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called off a scheduled 1 a.m. Sunday test vote and declared himself newly "optimistic. " Reid (D-Nev.) scheduled a new vote for noon Sunday, saying he wanted to give the parties more time to negotiate. Talks were underway at the White House, he said, and progress was being made toward the Democratic demand for a long-term debt limit increase that would carry the government through the end of 2012.