Democratic Chatter 4-8-2009

George Wenschhof Bio

President Barack Obama arrived home at 3:00 AM ET this morning - he arrived a little later than originally planned due to his surprise visit to Iraq. he was greet enthusiastically, when in a speech delivered to the troops, he spoke of the withdraw timetable from Iraq and the time for the Iraq government to take over security of their country. Reuters.com has more on the Iraq visit here.

The whirlwind eight day European trip is now over and all early reports have been that it was a tremendous success. Today, the president has no planned events.

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Fidel Castro meets with Congressional Black Caucus members in Havana yesterday - the ailing Cuban leader has not been seen publicly for some time. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), Barbara Lee (D-Calf.), and Laura Richardson (D-calf.) meet with Castro and will be submitting their report to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi upon their return to the States. They indicated Castro wanted to know how Cuba could help President Obama and the u.S. better relations between the two countries. You can read more here.

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Iranian Leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad welcomes talks with the U.S. and President Obama - In a speech broadcast on state television, he stated Iran welcomed "honest" dialogue with the U.S. Iran has not had diplomatic relations with the U.S. since former president George W. Bush labeled them a terrorist nation and a member of the "axis of evil". You can read more here.

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Franken leads grows by 87 in Minnesota Senate race - good grief! five months later and we are still waiting for a Senator to be certified and seated from Minnesota. As expected, Democrat Al Franken's lead grew to 312 votes from 225 over Republican Norm Coleman after 351 absentee ballots ordered by the court were counted yesterday. The final court ruling is expected by the end of this week on various other issues surrounding the election. The Coleman campaign is expected to appeal the decision to the state supreme court. The Chicago Star Tribune has more here.

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7000 absentee ballots count begins today in NY Special Election - Republican Jim Tedisco has a slim lead of 17 votes over Democrat Scott Murphy. This is the election to replace Kirsten Hillibrand (D) in the 20th district after she was named to replace the vacancy Hillary Clinton U.S. Senate seat. Politico.com has more here.

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As expected, Democrat Mike Quigley easily wins special election in Illinois - the former Cook County Commissioner easily beat Republican Rosanna Pulido with 70% of the vote with 94% of the precincts reporting. Quigley will replace Rahm Emanuel in Congress. Emanuel vacated the position when he became White House Chief of Staff. You can read more here.

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Congressional Ethics office begins preliminary inquiry into actions of Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) - information is being sought pertaining to the filling of the vacant U.S. Senate seat in Illinois by former Governor Rod Blagojevich. TheHill.com has more here.

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