Roy Blunt

Sen. Roy Blunt, a key Republican political insider, will head Mitt Romney's effort to secure congressional support for the former Massachusetts governor's presidential bid, the latest move by the GOP establishment to close ranks for 2012. The announcement of Blunt's campaign role comes as some Republicans seek to stop Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the leader for the GOP nod, and amid polls that show that Romney may have a slightly better chance to unseat President Obama. There is already talk in some Republican circles that, Perry, who has greater support among staunch conservatives such as those in the “tea party” movement, is unable to appeal to independents needed by the GOP to keep control of the House and to possibly win the Senate.

WASHINGTON -- Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt said on Monday that he is placing a hold on Gina McCarthy, President Obama's pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, which could delay a full Senate vote on the nominee. Blunt said the hold would remain in place until the Obama administration issued a timeline for release of a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the St. Johns Bayou and New Madrid Floodway Project. The project calls for installing pumping stations and closing a 1,500-foot gap in the Mississippi River levee system in southeast Missouri.

WASHINGTON -- Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt said on Monday that he is placing a hold on Gina McCarthy, President Obama's pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency, which could delay a full Senate vote on the nominee. Blunt said the hold would remain in place until the Obama administration issued a timeline for release of a draft Environmental Impact Statement for the St. Johns Bayou and New Madrid Floodway Project. The project calls for installing pumping stations and closing a 1,500-foot gap in the Mississippi River levee system in southeast Missouri.

Sen. Roy Blunt, a key Republican political insider, will head Mitt Romney's effort to secure congressional support for the former Massachusetts governor's presidential bid, the latest move by the GOP establishment to close ranks for 2012. The announcement of Blunt's campaign role comes as some Republicans seek to stop Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the leader for the GOP nod, and amid polls that show that Romney may have a slightly better chance to unseat President Obama. There is already talk in some Republican circles that, Perry, who has greater support among staunch conservatives such as those in the “tea party” movement, is unable to appeal to independents needed by the GOP to keep control of the House and to possibly win the Senate.

In choosing Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio as the new House majority leader Thursday, Republicans sought to put a new face on a party reeling from scandals and worried about maintaining its congressional majority. In an upset, Boehner won a tense closed-door vote that went to a second ballot. Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the acting majority leader, had been favored to win the election.

House Republicans struggled Thursday to regain their political balance, one day after House Majority Leader Tom DeLay relinquished his leadership position after being indicted by a grand jury in his home state of Texas. As he worked to unite the party and turn its attention back to the legislative agenda, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, DeLay's successor as majority leader, faced ethics questions himself.

This was supposed to be the wrong year for Washington insiders. But no point telling that to Republican Senate candidates such as Roy Blunt and Dan Coats. Blunt is a longtime member of Congress from Missouri who led the Republican House shoulder-to-shoulder with the disgraced Tom DeLay, the former Texas lawmaker considered by some to be the very symbol of Republican hubris and overreach. Blunt voted for the massive Medicare expansion plan in 2003 and the Wall Street bailout in 2008.

On a recent rainy summer afternoon, a familiar figure sat in the second row of a musty Manhattan courtroom, his head tilted expectantly as he listened to the judge. It was the latest hearing in the matter of Dan Rather vs. CBS Corp. and the plaintiff, as usual, was monitoring it in person. "Their strategy is to string it out, wear me out, suck the will from me, and make it so painful on the pocketbook that I want to give up," Rather said of the network where he worked for nearly half a century.

President Bush intervened Thursday to defuse an increasingly bitter dispute between congressional leaders and the Justice Department, ordering that documents seized in an unprecedented raid on a congressman's office be sealed for 45 days. Congressional leaders, displaying rare bipartisan unity, had angrily accused the Justice Department of overstepping its authority and demanded the return of the material confiscated in a weekend search of the Capitol Hill office of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.

Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) said he would not seek reelection. Shadegg becomes the 29th House Republican in the last 13 months to opt out. He is best known for his unsuccessful challenge to Republican leader John A. Boehner of Ohio and Minority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri for the top GOP position.

This was supposed to be the wrong year for Washington insiders. But no point telling that to Republican Senate candidates such as Roy Blunt and Dan Coats. Blunt is a longtime member of Congress from Missouri who led the Republican House shoulder-to-shoulder with the disgraced Tom DeLay, the former Texas lawmaker considered by some to be the very symbol of Republican hubris and overreach. Blunt voted for the massive Medicare expansion plan in 2003 and the Wall Street bailout in 2008.

In choosing Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio as the new House majority leader Thursday, Republicans sought to put a new face on a party reeling from scandals and worried about maintaining its congressional majority. In an upset, Boehner won a tense closed-door vote that went to a second ballot. Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the acting majority leader, had been favored to win the election.

House Republicans struggled Thursday to regain their political balance, one day after House Majority Leader Tom DeLay relinquished his leadership position after being indicted by a grand jury in his home state of Texas. As he worked to unite the party and turn its attention back to the legislative agenda, Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, DeLay's successor as majority leader, faced ethics questions himself.

A leading senator, angry that Facebook Inc. failed to stop millions of preteens from using its social networking site, accused co-founder Mark Zuckerberg of lacking "social values" and being more concerned with building the company than with children's privacy. "It's my general feeling that people who are 20, 21, 22 years old really don't have any social values at this point," Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) told another top Facebook executive at a hearing Thursday.

Republican leaders may plan a House vote on whether to raise the $5.15 minimum wage before leaving this weekend for a five-week recess. Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) said the plan was for a vote before week's end. But Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), said that although Republican leaders were working to pass the increase, "no decisions have been made." Rep. Michael N. Castle (R-Del.