Daily Democratic Wire 1-3-2010

George Wenschhof

U.S.and Britain close Embassies in Yemen - this action was taken due to security concerns. Reuters.com has more here. Do not be surprised if the U.S. and Britain also take military action in the form of an air strike or special forces action in Yemen directed at al Qaeda strongholds in retaliation for the attempted airline bombing.

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While al Qaeda threats and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq continue, what to do about Iran's defiance to comply with U.N. brokered proposals in regard to their nuclear development program looms on the horizon - President Obama set a year end goal of reaching diplomatic agreement and there is still no agreement. Unrest continues in Iran, so look to see sanctions perhaps delayed. Estimates on the time Iran will need to develop a nuclear weapon range from 18 months to 3 years. The NY Times has more here.

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Speaking of Afghanistan, seems President Hamid Karzai is unable to install his Cabinet due to opposition in Parliament - only 7 of the 24 Cabinet positions were approved in another show of how weak the Karzai government is at this time. You can read more here.

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As year of the important mid term elections begins, Republicans low on cash - an interesting development when one would think the "Party of No" would have been raising money hand over fist. Instead, it was the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) headed by Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who has been pulling in the dough. Politico.com has more here.

The DCCC out raised their Republican counterpart, by 18 million last year. The national Republican Congressional Committee currently has 4.3 million cash on hand with 2 million debt. The DCCC has 15.3 million cash on hand with 2.6 million debt.

Republicans need to pick up 40 seats in the November elections to regain the majority in the House. The 435 member House is now made up of 257 Democrats and 178 Republicans. Van Hollen has proven to be an excellent chair of the DCCC and although he concedes the Democrats will lose seats in November, you can be assured they will be hard fought and a Republican majority to be difficult to obtain.

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